Treasure in Clay Jars

Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness
Chapter Summaries
By Laura Funk


This book was written as a second in a series as a response to the readers of the first book, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (1998). Treasure in Clay Jars was written as case studies on nine missional congregations from across North America. The book explores eight patterns observed in each of these churches. There is a chapter devoted to each of these patterns, which are:
1. Discerning Missional Vocation
2. Biblical Formation and Discipleship
3. Taking Risks as a Contrast Community
4. Practices that Demonstrate God’s Intent for the World
5. The Public Witness of Worship
6. Dependence on the Holy Spirit
7. Pointing Towards the Reign of God
8. Missional Authority

In the opening of the book, the authors outline their purpose under the heading, “So we do not lose heart” quoting from 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16. They write about the changing dynamics of our current cultural realities, including the idea that Christendom is dying and, therefore, we need a new view of what constitutes mission – that it is no longer perceived that mission is merely for reaching out beyond dominant cultural context but that “the mission field is right around us” (x) and that “missional churches see themselves not so much as sending, as being sent” (x).

The authors continue by introducing us to the congregations that make up the study. These include:
1. a Mennonite church in Boulder, CO, of about 75 people, located near a university. This congregation is known for its Peace Center and Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program. Many groups use the church’s space and it has a vibrant small group support network.

2. a non-denominational church in Milwaukee, WI, which began in 1980 and eventually took over Roman Catholic buildings to run a resource center, library and school. They have extensive children’s and youth programs and have about 1100 adults in attendance in two Sunday worship services.

3. a Presbyterian church in Bellevue, WA, which has highly organized programs and ministries, situated in a highly materialistic and un-churched context of a large city. They have a charismatic pastor, who is head of a 40+ member staff.

4. a Full Gospel Church in Detroit, MI founded in 1941, located in a run-down part of town, currently under the leadership of the founder’s daughter, Bishop Corletta Vaughn. Through her ministry, over 30 churches have been founded worldwide. Twenty of the 60 families involved in the church have decided to relocate to the derelict area of town where the church is located and run a vibrant ministry to the people in the area. Their motto is, “love everybody.”

5. the IMPACT cluster of seven Reformed churches who have undertaken the Intentional Mission Process for Church Transformation process “because, ‘nothing we learned in seminary prepared us for the kind of change we’re experiencing in the church and the world today’” (13). They are committed to a process of renewal. The participating churches vary in size and location.

6. a United Methodist church in Oakland, CA, that was re-invigorated by the dream of one eighty year old woman who refused to let the declining church die. When a new pastor came to help the congregation close its doors, she spoke of her dream that would focus on telling the Good News of Christ to the community around them. They practice a revitalized form of Wesleyan spirituality and have developed a six-phase covenantal commitment, divided into concentric rings, each with differing levels of commitment. Those in the centre ring each participate in one of six Mission Covenant Groups. These MCGs are focused on children’s ministry, health, affordable housing, youth and the arts.

7. a Baptist church in Toronto, ON, where the pastor, while on sabbatical, was inspired to move his church to become more missional rather than a mission church. This congregation “is marked by a collective creativity and entrepreneurial spirit where the human and material assets of the congregation… are all viewed as assets to be invested without fear for the reign of God” (25).

8. a Roman Catholic church in Brooklyn, NY, with about 1000 mostly Hispanic members. About 300 of them are grouped into fraternities of sharing, reflection and accountability. They focus on the teachings of St. Charles de Foucauld with a “commitment to be present to Christ in the Eucharist and present with the poorest of the poor” (26).

9. a Presbyterian church in West Yellowstone, MO, faced with widely ranging seasonal attendance due the tourist industry in the area. They view these seasonal attendees as their mission field, offering programs suitable to this group.

And so we turn to the patterns themselves:
1. Discerning Missional Vocation
The congregation discovers together the missional vocation of their community (33). They answer four questions: where, when, who and why are we? The topics of geographical location, place in time, historical connection to denominational ties and congregational history, as well as specific calling, and reminding themselves again and again about their purpose, their “raison d’etre”, help them in their challenging journey. They work hard in their congregational contexts to discern their calling from God, a God who not only calls, but sends people out into the world to be a light to all people.
I was challenged and inspired by Paul Steven’s interaction with the concept of vocation. He states that “’vocation is experiencing and living by a calling’ in such a way that it ‘provides a fundamental orientation to everyday life’” (37) and “Father Bryan says, ‘when you concentrate on being contemplative and with the poor, you really do change – your interests, your lifestyle are radically different.’” These churches work at discerning a clear vision for their own congregations that are in line with the call that God has for their giftedness and position in time and space. This work is often not left up to the leaders alone, but members also have a strong commitment to this vision.

2. Biblical Formation and Discipleship
All members study the Word of God together. This is seen as a fundamental discipline so that people can continue to learn what it means to be Christ’s disciples in this world. For me, this seems to be about the priority we place on the missional message of Jesus. The chapter is full of references to the shortcomings of many of today’s churches that “are full of converts who do not intend to become disciples” (60), where discipling is merely a process of personal spiritual growth (61), and “there is great resistance to the missional transformation of the church, particularly among the self-confident heirs of mainline traditions (63), and church is viewed as “a free-time activity” (63), where optional programs are designed to meet the needs of people who are already members of the congregations (63).
Missional churches seek to be different. In the Catholic parish where many members “demonstrate all the aspects of Christendom mentality we expect” (67), there are about 300 of them who are engaged in a much deeper level of commitment within their fraternities of accountability and service. “They have discovered again and again that the biblical word has directed them to concrete actions with regard to money, property, sharing resources and reaching out into the need of their neighborhood” (68).

3. Taking Risks as a Contrast Community
In this chapter we discover that the missional congregations live by a different set of rules and priorities. They are willing to do things that would seem risky by the world’s standards for the sake of furthering the Gospel. Sometimes when people take risks, plans fail and there is danger. This doesn’t stop people within these groups from letting strangers live with them in their homes and in the church’s storage garage or moving their church building location to an area of town notorious for its high crime rate and moving into this neighbourhood themselves. They also take financial risks for programs and conferences, witnessing against materialism and putting trust in their young people.
This chapter puts individualism and a commitment to community at opposite ends of a spectrum from each other, seeing the current culture serving the god of self, and the missional congregations as striving against this intense cultural pull, working instead towards a theology and practice of dependency on the Holy Spirit and interdependence with other congregations (79).
Sometimes taking risks means non-conformity and sometimes that non-conformity puts strains on relationships and denominational ties. In all of this, the congregations strive to be true to Christ and his vision for the church. They seek reconciliation wherever possible.

4. Practices that Demonstrate God’s Intent for the World
“One of the greatest obstacles to truly listening to one another in our contemporary world is the stricture of heavily scheduled lives” (86). Busy-ness is seen as a badge of honour in our culture rather than the sin that it is. Members in these churches seek to practice the gift of “’one-anothering’ – ministering to and with one another in a way that often is time intensive” (87). They quote Bonhoeffer, who says, “’we listen with the ears of God so that we may speak the Word of God’” (88). They spend time with each other and in service to others, they share radically in financial ways, they confess to and forgive each other, they become intimately involved in other’s suffering (91), they practice radical hospitality, confronting differences and allowing transformation to occur.
The world does watch, sometimes when we least expect it. In these churches we see people who are living out what they claim to believe, even when it is difficult. Conflict is not always easy, but they seek to live reconciled relationships, even when the road is long and hard, even when it includes getting involved in each other’s difficulties in marriage. They seek to live in ways which God intends all people to live, so that, in seeing this way demonstrated, more may come to know the life-giving way of Christ,
This way of living seems hard to me – there are sacrifices involved. However, it also seems very attractive. It demonstrates an authentic way of living out the teachings of Christ.

5. The Public Witness of Worship
This is a chapter on missional worship. This kind of worship is not focused on being seeker friendly, neither does it try to meet the needs of the worshiper. It is directed to God. As created beings, they look towards God as the focus of their services. “Worship publicly reveals the hidden foundations of cultures and subcultures” (104). Not only do these churches do what most do in a Christian worship service, but the authors observed that “these churches were attentive to the seriousness of such a declaration” (107) of God’s reign. “These acts of worship are at once prophetic protests of the status quo, and learning opportunities of the participants to see the effects of sin within the flawed social structures of which they are a part” (108).
There is also a social activist part to many of these worship services. People are attracted to the worship services because they see members active within their own communities. They are not attracted by a particular style but because they see members living out what they talk about. The chapter mentions the focus these groups have on prayer as well. Many of their actions come out of their prayers as “lived prayers” (114) and illustrated by the temporary school sponsored by a teachers’ strike and by a Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program.
It has been quoted often that we should preach the gospel always and if necessary, use words. I wonder if that structure could be borrowed for a proverb about prayer, that we should pray always and if necessary, use words. When the people live out their convictions, they are embodying their prayers, a powerful, world-changing activity.


6. Dependence on the Holy Spirit
This chapter speaks more to the missional churches’ practices of praying together. The members come together to corporately seek the will and movement of God in their midst, acknowledging that without the Holy Spirit, they can do nothing. “A people sent on mission dei (the mission of God) who do not constantly pray are bound to lurch along in confusion and pain. Trouble will surely batter them; indecision will plague them; evil will terrorize them” (119). The people also talk about truly trusting God. They offer up their future into the hands of God and they see what comes of it. One groups says of their financial risks, “the money is always there” (120) and another group walks safely through the streets during a riot, bringing peace and reason (120).
Many people would see prayer as a burdensome task, one they seldom have time for. For Jesus, “prayer was not an onerous duty, not even a useful discipline to be observed. It was his lifeline in a world flooded with death” (124). This is a radically different approach, one that missional churches have taken seriously. Once they experience this lifestyle, they begin to look different to all of the world around them and their churches and communities are transformed. I wonder what it would look like if we practiced this kind of prayerful dependency?

7. Pointing Towards the Reign of God
Evidence that missional transformation is happening would be: awareness of church’s flaws, openness to its own reformation, more faithfulness in witness, critique its vision based on scripture and discipling, measured against Biblical definitions of God’s reign, wary of cultural standards of success, be open to its continuing conversion, willing to change as it sensed God’s call (128). “We are all more shaped by our Christendom legacy than we are prepared to admit” (128). This chapter speaks to the reality that missional churches admit to being on the road, not having arrived. That is, they have not got all the answers and are living perfectly, but seek together in constant discernment and transformation towards living more faithfully into the reign of God, profoundly aware of their frailties (131) but earnestly committed to the journey (132). “They have a vibrant sense of the connected, global church… as a dynamic work of the Spirit” (137).
This attitude illustrates for me the commission of Micah 6:8, the list of what God requires: to do justice – they are working with the poor and disenfranchised, love mercy – they are open to finding new ways to doing things, and to walk humbly with God – they readily admit failures and shortcomings. This is so challenging!

8. Missional Authority
This chapter reminds me of the story where the leaders of Jesus’ day challenge him by asking, ‘by whose authority do you do these things?’ (Mt 21:23) The people know that Jesus worked under a different authority system. They were awed by his powerful sense of this authority (Mt 7:29, Mk 1:22).
In this chapter we see that kind of authority being transferred to these churches. They do not operate by the world’s standards, indeed the author observes, “the chasm between the church’s understanding of authority and that of the dominant culture is much wider than we realized” (139). Those in leadership are vulnerable with each other (143), often have multiple people in leadership (142), foster spontaneity in their structures to reflect the wildness of the Holy Spirit (144), they take risks to avoid getting sucked into the busy-ness scene (147), and they confront the missional challenges affluence brings to their own hearts (148).

Conclusion: Embodying and Proclaiming the Gospel
“All the patterns are summed up in this phrase” (150). The conclusion speaks of an unhelpful division I have been wondering about for some time: should church be focused on congregational care or on outreach? The response to this is that it is about embodying and proclaiming the gospel. Within the church, the message of Christ is embodied so that it is proclaimed by lives observed (151).

Emerging Churches - Chapter Summary

Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs & Ryan K. Bolger:
Summary of first eight chapters

by Laura Funk

Chapter 1: A brief look at Culture

The first chapter dealt with two issues: Why the Western Church must study culture and cultural differences between the U.K. and the U.S.A.

The reasons to study culture vary from the Biblical example of Jesus to a need to be applicable to current, rapidly changing society. There are so many changes in society today that they seem to have almost completely left behind the church our parents and grandparents knew. We need to understand the culture if we are to serve it. Our current culture is dynamic – it is in the midst of a revolution. This revolution includes a major shift of Christianity from a position of privilege to the margins of society. There is a cultural shift from order, tradition and separation of spheres of reality, away from a Western focus towards globalization, from print based communication to electronic based. There are shifts occurring in the economy, in human biology, in the convergence of science and religion.

There is a rapid decline in church attendance since the needs of the people are not being met. GenXers are disillusioned with institutionalism and want mystery, visual, ritual, touch and beauty. They do not automatically inherit the religion of their parents, but seek to challenge current structures that seem dehumanizing and disempowering. Current church practices often accommodate a society that no longer exists. It has become an image-based era of communication where there is a convergence of sound, sight and touch through activities, ritual and stories.

With these global influences come more exposure to other religions and there is appeal there. People are interested in self-realization versus self-discipline, they are looking for immediate access to transcendental reality rather than finding the place of legitimate suffering. Religious beliefs are becoming rooted in personal experiences rather than community identity. There is an authority shift from external sources to internal, and there is no “carte blanc” for institutions, they must be seen to support the individual.

The authors go on to discuss the cultural differences between their own cultures of the U.K. and the USA, basically highlighting the club culture with a preference for DJs who mix recorded music in the U.K. and the American’s affinity for live guitar music. This leads me to ponder how Canadian culture might be different from both these others. I have worked in the music industry with a Christian artist and my experience was that people liked the live concerts and preferred the CD that sounded most like a live solo concert. I couldn’t really identify with club culture, but know that there is a popular trend for some in Winnipeg to hang out in bars.

Chapter 2: What is Emerging Church?

It seems to me, in reading this chapter that the emerging Church movement is still a fledgling one. Just as it is difficult to see a lot of an infant’s personality, it is difficult to define all aspects of this movement. It has different manifestations in different regions, yet there are core practices that seem to characterize the groups. These characteristics emerge out of an urgency to find new ways to make the way of Jesus relevant to current, postmodern culture. They identify with Jesus and seek ways to connect his life and teachings to every day life in the 21st century. They seek ways to transform secular spaces, erasing the neat categorizations of generations past, and there is a strong emphasis on living in community.

I find this last point interesting - that a movement of increased communal focus would evolve out of our highly individualized culture. We are talking about the continuum of individual sovereignty and community primacy in our members meetings this fall at my church, struggling with that very issue.

Chapter 3: Identifying with Jesus
This chapter speaks about the change in the focus on Paul and his epistles that many of the mainline churches seem to have, to a focus on the life and teachings of Jesus – from the Epistles to the Gospel. (pg. 47) They claim that non-churched people dislike the church “because they do not readily see the church as living out Christ’s teachings” (pg. 48). They seek to discern what to copy from Jesus’ life and teachings. They change their focus to God’s mission – not taking God to the world, but finding God already at work and “watering it” – helping people discover where God is already at work (pg. 52) thus changing their emphasis from attracting crowds to equipping Christ’s followers (pg. 51).

Page 55 speaks of a quest: “to form communities of people that produce apprentices of Jesus, who live in the gospel and communicate and draw others in a matter of course to the way they live.” I found this an intriguing way of looking at discipleship. The term “apprentices” has connections to our own culture which makes it more accessible than the term, “discipleship.”

I was also challenged by the Landing Place story on page 57 where they want to make it as difficult as possible to follow Jesus, resulting in a deep level of discipleship for a few. This is quite different from the mega-churches bragging about how big their membership is, yet may not have a clear idea of the intensity of commitment to actually integrating the teachings of Christ into their lives at any significant level.
The authors write that this movement is about social transformation (pg. 63). I find it challenging that these folks have put a priority on transforming culture rather than acculturating people into a sub-culture of Christendom.

Chapter 4: Transforming Secular space
At the heart of this chapter is the Emerging Churches’ desire to reclaim every aspect of life as a place to encounter God. They boldly declare that God can be found in every heart and every space on Earth. They question the legitimacy of the dualisms of faith versus reason, body versus mind and spirit, power versus love (pg. 67).

They seek to re-invigorate the reading of the Bible, moving away from a linear, literalistic approach to seeing it as a story unfolding and that unfolding extends to our own lives (pg. 70).
A significant portion of the chapter was dedicated to elucidating the example of the Nine O’clock Service (NOS). This was an intriguing illustration of how one emerging church operated for a period of time. The fact that they had a stylist in their church that would help non-clubbing new-comers assimilate into the club-culture brought up a number of issues for me. I wonder about the tension between being true to who you are versus becoming totally immersed in a certain sub-culture. I wonder how the clubbers saw this assimilation. Was it embraced and celebrated as a validation of who they are, or was it seen as a mock-imitation that was rather insulting?

Chapter 5: Living in Community

I was eagerly anticipating this chapter about community since it is a topic of hot debate in my own church-community. In this chapter the authors explore with Emerging Churches the question of “what kind of community life must exist so that the church has the ability to practice the way of Jesus in every sphere of society?” (pg. 89) There are creative responses. They discover that “the church is primarily a people, not simply a place to meet.” (pg. 90) They drop cherished church forms that hinder creating space for God (pg.91), they seek to end “all forms of nationalism and violence” (pg. 92) and challenge individual sovereignty (pg. 93). They seek to redefine the very meaning of “church,” seeing it much more in terms of familial relationships (pgs. 97, 98, 100, 102). They place a high value on accountability, discipleship and commitment (pg.105).

I appreciate that they acknowledge that “any attempt to join people in a community presents a challenge for individuals who have been nurtured in the culture of modernity, in which independence, individual rights, and privileges are the norm” and that “…people are largely unaware of the extent to which they have become individualized and privatized “(pg.92).

This chapter also dealt with the issue of size. The amount of intimacy this kind of communal accountability demands requires quite a small size of group. Intimacy becomes diluted rather quickly in larger numbers, so what happens when people are attracted to this kind of group and want to join? There are several different responses. One group builds it into their infrastructure to limit their numbers to 40 (pg. 110). Another group changed their format to serve their members rather than accommodate visitors (pg. 111). Yet another group started developing a network of smaller groups, house churches or mid-week home communities. Then the whole network would meet on Sundays in a large worship gathering (pg. 112).

Chapter 6: Welcoming the stranger
This chapter highlights another difference in moderns and post-moderns: “moderns felt the need to control every aspect of reality. In their relentless pursuit of order, Western cultures sought to assimilate people by making everyone the same.” (pg. 118) Post moderns “accept a time when plurality is accepted and order and control are relinquished” (pg. 119). When assimilation is abandoned, hospitality takes on vast possibilities. Welcome happens for the sake of welcome, without hidden agenda. People are freed to “discover who they are… in authentic relationships with other people.” (pg. 122)

This hospitality takes on many practical aspects. One group offers “lots of therapeutic counseling” and a sanctuary “where healing and reconnecting can take place.” (pg. 121) Another place actually trains its members in hospitality (pg. 120). There are “verbal acts of kindness and sacrificial service” (pg. 119).
Hospitality means including those who are different. This has a number of challenges. There is a tension between wanting to remain a small, intimate community and showing welcome hospitality to outsiders. Inevitably, when one is welcomed, one may want to join the welcoming group. Also, there is the possibility of the differences of the new-comers overpowering the core group and taking it in a new direction far different from the original vision. It is important to be clear on who you are before engaging the stranger.

Chapter 7: Serving with Generosity
“…the very essence of the kingdom is generosity.” (pg. 135) This philosophy characterizes the fifth attribute of the Emergent Church groups. By joining God in this work, “they confront the practices of consumer churches” (pg. 136) as well as the consumer culture. In this way they attract attention from people around them and arouse their curiosity. These interactions are not anonymous but invite others to become active participants (pg. 138). This enables collective ownership (pg. 139). We see the EC philosophy of coming alongside others and living parallel and intersecting lives of faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus, deeply imbedded in the culture that surrounds them.

These churches strive to be engaged in powerful social action. For some, that means highly organized outreach (pg. 141). For others it means they “should serve the world through their vocations rather than through church-administered programs.” (pg. 142) In any case, “they do not see their service as a means to a disguised end, but rather as an expression of the love of Christ” (pg.145), “by their very lives they embody the good news.” (pg. 153)

Chapter 8: Participating as Producers
This somewhat obscurely named chapter speaks by examples, more about actual Emerging church worship than any other chapter, so far. In it we get glimpses of what participatory worship might begin to look like, depending on the context and the people involved. This is worship planning by committee and impromptu worship services. It gets messy and uncontrolled, it gets mysterious and moving, in ways that can not happen in other forms offered by modern churches. They offer us a contrast to a mass audience watching principal performers that perhaps get in the way of the worshiper connecting with God with their example of an “entire congregation [that] is actively and creatively engaged in offering worship” (pg. 172). From this vantage point, they call us by example into the deep, muddy waters, acknowledging the risks of failure and death, being destroyed by “viruses” or being threatened by crazy people (pg. 168) yet confident that they can absorb these problems (pg. 169).

This chapter also briefly touches on the issue of size. This is the kind of model that works best in small numbers, so what happens when they attract new members? Axxess, a group from Texas, had a dialogical approach to corporate worship (pg. 167), yet as their numbers grew, “this became untenable.” So, they “adopted a more decentralized approach, creating smaller gatherings (house churches).” (pg. 168)
Grain of Wheat Church-Community faces a similar challenge in growth issues. A consensus model of decision making looks very different to a group of about eight households (the original founders) than it does to approximately 40 (our current membership). In the past, there have been two groups to split off and form new groups, but in both cases, it didn’t work out very well. Many new-comers to GoWC-C like the larger group for things it can do that a smaller one can not, but then membership expectations need to change. This is the challenge we face currently.

On the whole, I am impressed and intrigued by this movement. Though it seems somewhat fragmented by the vast difference in practice amongst the different groups, I see this movement as a challenge to the Church to the ways that we have become legalistic and exclusivist. Clearly, it is young and there are issues to be worked out, there are experiments that fail, as in the example of NOS in chapter four, but I believe they have much to teach the Church in similar ways that the reformers Menno Simons and Margaretha Sattler had good words to the Church of their day.