The Gospel on mission in Micro Communities
KEY WORDS WHICH DESCIBE US
WE
God is relational in nature. God exists in three persons, father, son and spirit. The eternal God is effortlessly in relationship with himself as each person of the Godhead serves and uplifts the other in picture perfect harmony. The triune God has always existed in unity together and in creation, designed mankind to live compatibly in relationship with himself. The redemptive motive of God is connected to His inherent love for His creation and desire to live in relationship with those He fashioned in His image. WE were originally designed and wired to live in relationship with God and one another. Despite a great disconnect because of sin, God has sought to restore what was broken in Christ and create one new humanity of which Christ is the head. WE is another way and perhaps necessary way to describe the church of Jesus Christ. The scriptures describe the church as the manifold wisdom of God, once hidden in the Old testament and now revealed in the latter days to express the glory of God in the collective, His body. What makes one a Christian, is the spirit of God which gives him new birth. To be born of God is to be in union with God by His spirit so when a believer comes into Christ by faith, he becomes a partaker of the divine nature of God. But not only does He become connected to God, He becomes connected to the family of God, the new humanity recreated in Christ, the church. To become a new creation, as Paul describes being Christian, is to become a part of something bigger than yourself. The Gospel of God’s grace finds it’s full expression in the collective, WE. Since church has become to mean something it was never intended to mean, we must find fresh ways to describe the community of Christ and live it out the true definition. WE, the body of Christ is the expression of God in the world, both preview and foretaste of an ultimate restoration to come. They will know we are Christians by our love.
Movement
The church was never meant to be static or exclusive in nature but ever increasing and invitational. People not buildings make the church and influence comes as the church moves within culture as the tangible expression of God’s inclusive love. We are not separate from culture, nor against culture. We are within culture bringing the influence of God’s kingdom to bear upon it. More than railing against, we promote what God is for. He did not come into the world to condemn us but to bring us into relationship with himself and one another. Only as a movement, ever reaching to gather and bless, can the church bear the fruit of God’s likeness in lasting ways.
Mission Focused
We movement Communities are mission focused in that they gather to fulfill their calling to bless the world. Rather than a Sunday centric structure of gathering or church programs, WE empower individuals and small groups to respond to God's call to ministry and mission, especially to the poor and disadvantaged in our midst. These mission based communities take on specific challenges believing that where both the joy of serving and social need meet, there is the calling of God to action. For some this might mean developing a work bible study over lunch or breakfast. For others this might mean leading a group of coaches who have a burden to reach the kids they serve. These micro church gatherings take on the discipleship process in both organic and scheduled spaces. As mentors take mentees under their wing to guide and encourage in the faith while on task in mission, we create a conducive environment for discipleship to take place while making in difference in the world around us. We encourage people to pursue their callings and to enter partnerships with others who can journey together to fulfill their mission and grow in maturity as believers together. Mission is at the heart of the WE movement micro church.
Network
While the body of Christ is one community scattered across the world, it also has a local context. Since community involves sharing life in some form of proximity, we use the word community to describe small circles of neighborhood communities or groups connected by a common interest/concern through which life is shared and interaction is common. These groups are committed to meeting together and functioning as the body of Christ in life together, thinking not only of themselves but of the needs of one another. While communities form organically, they are maintained through intentionality to help everyone grow and prosper together. And as they grow and disciples mature, new communities are born and supported. The We Movement will have a central hub for information sharing, resourcing, training, inspiration and large group gatherings via technology. This hub will serve to help communities grow roots and facilitate growth through spiritual, educational, leadership training and financial support.
Gospel Shaped
To be Gospel shaped is to be established in God’s grace. Only through grace as given to us through Christ’s finished work can we know complete forgiveness, receive His perfect righteousness and become the dwelling place of God’s spirit. Nothing is achieved here. All of life is a response to what God has already done. This is the essence of faith. Maturity is learning to live accordingly to who God has already made us to be. WE do not “do” to become. We “are” because of Christ, therefore we do. Together, we help one another live according to our new reality in Christ. A Gospel shaped community has no super Christians or additional level to attain other than learning to fully rely on the finished work of the cross and the indwelling spirit of God, whose character is love and guides us into all truth. Because the Gospel means all is finished, we are free to stop striving and start living lives of love, bearing the fruit of God’s likeness everywhere we go. All growth has its genesis in the cross. Over time we renew our minds to the truth about ourselves as His beloved, His workmanship, fashioned for his pleasure and to do good works prepared long ago. We read the bible through the lens of the finished work of Christ and understand that the written word is meant to point us and move us toward relationship with the living word. The overarching message within the bible and meta narrative of the Gospel is paramount and always before us when applying text to everyday life and therefore we allow a more generous orthodoxy on issues beyond the centrality of Christ and His law of love.
Divine Dignity
We communities sees the divine dignity of every human being regardless of lifestyle, background, social status or creed. Because we are all sourced in God, we find solidarity with humanity, especially in the suffering of others. We are inclusive in attitude and live as welcome signs to others, excelling in hospitality whenever and wherever we can. We esteem the divine dignity conferred by God upon all people and therefore see them in connection to ourselves. Our arms are open to include others on the margins of faith into our communities, and treat them as we would Jesus himself. WE give permission for people to be who they are and invite them to explore the teachings and the ways of Jesus within the group over the breaking of bread, social sharing and service together. By finding common ground and coming alongside our neighbors as equals, not authorities, we make a value judgment freeing others to consider who Jesus is and who they are in relationship to Him. We believe God is always at work and present in the midst of such inclusive love and that conversion is more often a process than a moment. Just as Jesus called His disciples before they understood who He was, we get to do the same and see everyone in the light of God’s image. We nudge others forward to encounter the Jesus who is already there, active and present, seeking to redeem.
Social Equity
While we uphold the equality of all people, we recognize that the world system is not equitable toward all people at all times and therefore we strive together to achieve equity in relationship to one another. This means we must consider the circumstances of one another, listen well, resist quick judgements and seek to do what we can to level the field when systems are failing or temporary conditions are not conducive. We recognize that all are gifted in different ways and endowed at various levels to give, so we always look to do what we can, with what we have, when it is in our power to act. We believe that 2 fish and five loaves are multiplied when given to the whole. We are exhorted by scripture to honor one another above ourselves and to give added honor to any member of the body overlooked or marginalized in any way by society. Therefore, we think WE, looking not only toward our own interests, but toward the interests of others. We prioritize our own community but with an inclusive eye toward humanity at large. In this way we invite those still estranged from their creator to experience his presence within our inclusive family in hopes they remember the rock from which they were hewn and come to believe in the provision of Christ for new life in fellowship with God and His extended family.
Collective Identity
In our baptism into Christ, we have resigned to individualism as our defining reference point and have embraced our collective identify as a new creation family of God under the headship of Christ. This of course is a counter cultural reality and therefore to live in community embracing our collective identity together will serve as both preview and foretaste to the ultimate goal of God to unite all of his created ones. When we live in community as a people who embrace their collective identity in Christ, we become the expression and invitation of the Gospel to others. By identifying as the body of Christ in a collective sense, under the headship of Christ, we lay down every earthly definition that may rival our true status as the sons and daughters of God. We have many earthly labels and diverse markings but we count supreme our One baptism into Christ as the supreme, authoritative definition of ourselves. “In Christ there is no Jew, nor Greek, nor male nor female, nor slave not free.” “We regard no one from a mere human perspective” because we are now born of the same spirit albeit with many differing talents, experiences and gifts by which we can serve one another and add to the fullness and healthy function of the body. Apart from the tangible reality of our love for one another, we have no witness. This priority serves as answer to the individualistic bent of society which creates tribes and polarizes us from the original intention of God, for one people living together under His name. The Gospel fills the void of the orphan spirit which is the force behind our propensity to seek earthly definitions of ourselves, inferior to our calling and purpose as the family of God.
Making Disciples
In keeping with the mandate of Jesus to make disciples, the WE Community is committed to helping one another reach maturity in Christ through mentoring one another according to the way of Christ and by the spirit who leads us. Discipleship is not a program but a real time unfolding process of journeying with others in everyday life. Through reinforcing the overarching Gospel narrative, reflective discussions, teaching moments and experiential practice, we aim to present all participants mature followers of Christ and ready “disciplers” of future willing followers. Rather than emphasizing evangelism as a prerequisite to discipleship, we believe that just as Jesus called unbelievers curious enough to follow, that as we allow people into the discipleship process, they will be able to encounter God in community and find the faith of God that leads to new birth in Christ. In this way, discipleship and evangelism are intertwined but the emphasis is always on the mandate to raise up willing followers to become active disciples who perpetuate the disciple making process unto the salvation of many and the saturation of the world with the love of Christ. In this way, church is a movement, not a stagnant institution dependent on a consumer model to survive. Discipleship, while an investment of time ensures the church is ever increasing, reaching outsiders because it is not bound by walls or restricted by financial commitments or manmade obligations.
Ultimate Vision
The ultimate vision of God has always been the unification of everything in heaven and on earth. Jesus, who was and is and always will be is the source and sustainer of life. In Him we find our life and have our being. His work of reconciliation and the gift of his spirit lead us forward to be first fruits of an ultimate triumph when all will be made right and there is perfect unity between heaven and earth and all of creation. This is a winning vision for it rests on the success of the cross and the promise of God to return and establish His kingdom forever. While all of us have various vocations, we all share the same calling to bring the influence of God’s kingdom to bear on earth in preparation for the culmination of the ages when every tongue tribe and nation will worship together as one people under the same father. God’s vision is for one family under His name living together in a harmonious just society, the final display of glory in a kingdom that is forever.