Enough!

For the first time since we moved into our flat, we're lighting the No Vacancy sign. Upon reflection, we have either hosted or been hosts in other homes every month since last September, barely getting three or four nights strung together in row to have with just our family. We're resilient, but not seven-straight-months-resilient.

When we moved into our flat we offered it to the Lord to use as He saw fit. And we committed to be generous and hospitable with it. What followed was the installation of the proverbial revolving door. From people 'coincidentally' popping in around meal-time, to folks camping out in our lounge for free wireless internet, to people crashing in the guest room because it's either too late or too cold (or both) to go home, our flat has become a safe-haven, home-away-from-home for many... and we're happy to provide that. The Lord has blessed us to be a blessing.

Jasheen and I love having people in our home. It gives it flavor and texture and life. But we also understand that it comes at a cost... especially to our still relatively young marriage.

We are thrilled to have Jasheen's dad coming to visit next month... and hopefully my brother (Patch) the following month. That leaves one month before those arrivals to hang the No Vacancy sign and gather in close together to recover and recharge. Our marriage and our kids need this time and we are grateful to God for it.

As Rudyard Kipling said, "Now I lay me down to bleed a while, only to get up later and fight again."

every city should have one

So what are we doing now?

We left CRM more than seven months ago to join staff with Christian Associates International (CAI). Technically, that means that we transitioned out of a role in leadership development, and into the role of church-planters.

...but what does that really mean?

A trip back to California this past Christmas season helped me realize something... and may explain why we've had such a difficult time recuperating monthly donations to our ministry that were lost in the transition... people aren't really sure what we're doing.

I'm hoping to share a bit about CAI and Mosaic and perhaps enlighten you as to what it is that the McKenzies are currently up to.

Christian Associates is an organization committed to the movement of establishing communities of Christ-followers all across Europe, who seek authentic relationships with God and with each other.  By extending Christ's love, grace and truth, combined with the deep desire to impact our cities by generating hope, serving needs and seeking justice, we believe that the multiplication of similar missional communities can spread throughout Europe in a grassroots movement.

Jasheen and I are now a part of one such community of faith.  Mosaic is the developing church-plant that we have joined.  Mosaic is an international group that gathers regularly and informally.  As a community, we are committed primarily to engaging the unchurched people of our city.  Our desire is to provide the opportunity for every man, woman and child in the west end of Glasgow to hear the gospel message clearly communicated and to see it dynamically expressed through loving, missional, reproducing bodies of believers.

We share an appreciation for festal and celebratory gatherings in harmony with times of quiet reflection.  One of our core values is learning and exploring ways to live out our faith and express Christian community in ways relevant and practical to the 21st century.  We do this through our Sunday expressions of worship, as well as in the ways we seek to missionally serve those in our surrounding neighborhoods.

As with many young churches, we strive to establish our identity as a community of Jesus Christ.  And as many young churches, we are almost in a constant state of flux - be it growth, mission, or shared, sacrificial roles of responsibility and service to the community.  Jasheen and I are entering Mosaic at a time that seems primed for the gifts and contributions that we have to offer.

  

Jasheen is a natural evangelist, and she thrives in roles of relationship-building with people in our neighborhood.  God has used her personal experience of coming to Christ in a dynamic way to connect with people who have the same questions and skepticism that she once had toward the Bible and 'organized religion.'

My passions also lie in building relationships with those outside the church, as well as in the areas of spiritual formation, discipleship and spiritual growth.  As our roles develop and solidify with Mosaic, we are seeing opportunities to exercise these gifts and passions in several ways that will supplement the work already begun through Mosaic in these areas.  We are wading in to help in areas of discipleship groups, home groups and coaching/mentoring relationships.

As a couple, we seek to strike a healthy balance between body life and missional life in our community - both bringing people to a safe place to explore who Jesus is and what it means to enter into relationship with him, as well as helping those already in relationship with Him discover a deeper, more intimate knowledge of a life in Him.

Growth in the size of Mosaic is not a primary concern for us, as much as growth in depth of relationship with Christ for those already a part of our community of faith.  We know that numbers will increase if we simply endeavor to bring people to Christ in the same way we see people do that throughout the Gospels.  When people encountered Jesus, their first response was almost always to go and tell people who they saw and bring them to see for themselves. We have no overly developed strategy of reaching the world beyond living out God's truth and love and giving people the opportunity to discover Jesus in the same way we have.

One of my favorite expressions in scripture is, "Come and see."  It's the simplest, most basic approach to evangelism.  When Jesus encountered the woman at the well (John 4), she left what she was doing and went to tell those in her town about the man who knew everything about her.  She simply invited people to come and see this man who could be the Messiah.

As Jasheen and I grow into our roles at Mosaic, we continue our ministry of inviting people to come and see Jesus.  And now, as a part of a Christian community, we're also able to take part in helping others discover the depths of joy that can be found in authentic intimacy with our Savior. 

I hope this clears up any questions that may have been out there about our new organization and new roles in ministry.  As always, we appreciate your prayers and support, and we are so very grateful for those of you that have partnered and will partner with us in these areas.

Book Review: Community 101

"Whether community happens or not may not be left to chance. Christians are under obligation to make it happen, and to make it happen as God intends it to be, not according to their own traditions and preferences, and certainly not according to alien patterns of non-community imported into the church from a world that is itself bereft of the joy of authentic community and yearning for it." -- Community 101 (p.44)

com-mu-ni-ty [kuh-myoo-ni-tee] - noun

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
2. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.
3. Ecclesiastical. a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.

Community 101, by Gilbert Bilezikian, is one of those books that if you'd asked me if I've read, I would reply, "Parts of it." It's been on my shelf for years and I have regularly referenced it during my experience(s) with community life, but I figured it was time to read it in its entirety.

In essence, Bilezikian is making a rational and passionate cry for the church to fulfill its essential nature and calling. A backwards way of saying that would be, the church is not fulfilling its essential nature and calling in the current conventional model that most of us are accustomed to.

In the past I've groaned a bit about how the word community has become one of those overused (and misused) Christian buzzwords.  Like any word in the English language, it is nothing more than a principal carrier of meaning that we use to communicate or express sentiment and emotion.

Bilezikian states that authentic community is absolutely critical if the church is to fulfill the mission that God intended for it.  The first third of the book focuses on the commutual interrelationship between oneness and community, resting firmly on the concept that the Trinity (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) is the original community of oneness.

Bilezikian does a wonderfully thorough job of laying a biblical foundation to all of his talk on the importance of community.  As stated before, he draws on the centrality of community, as well as siting the story of the Fall when community was lost, how community was once again reclaimed through Jesus Christ, and ultimately the community of oneness created by God - the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2).

In addition to the extensive commentary on the community of oneness, Bilezikian goes on to address how community can be expressed within the ministry and leadership of the church.

If you have never given serious thought to what it means to be a member of the bride of Christ; to belong to the body of believers... not just by way of salvation, but by way of obedient, submissive, sacrificial living, I urge you to pick up this book and read it now.  You'll discover that living in community cannot be a side issue or optional for Christians.  It is as important to God as one's salvation.  Without community, there is no Christianity.  Community is central to God's purposes for humankind - not manufactured community; not selective community; not exclusive community; not mandatory community - biblical community, as described, defined and demonstrated in scripture, found at the intersection of the two segments of the cross, where those who are reconciled with God can be reconciled together.

There is a rebellious nature in all of us.  There is no place for lone rangers in the fellowship of the unashamed.  I know this firsthand.  When I have been a lone ranger in my own ministry life, I have found myself apart from the community, isolated and separated from the oneness that God intends for all of us to have.  No one has the right to claim exemption from community for being different (I Corinthians 12:14-16). Nor does the body consist of only one kind of element or one kind of member - sameness is not a prerequisite for membership in the fellowship.

There are myriad examples of unhealthy, imbalanced communities all over the place. Nevertheless, as stated earlier, without community there is no Christianity.  I encourage you to discover the importance of life in community as stated in Bilezikian's Community 101.