A Church with No Name

Written by Spencer Burke

Tuesday September 23, 2003



For years, I’ve tried to put my finger on it—the reasons why I left the professional pastorate. And you know, more than anything, I think it’s this: I lost my first love.

The reality is that much of what we call ministry today is really administration. It’s about adding things—programs and strategies and rules. In my 22 years as a pastor, I often administered more than I ministered, if that makes sense. I’ve come to see that I was an add-minister more than a minister.

Even worse, I now recognize much of what I did in those years was actually about me—what I needed to do to feel safe and secure. It was about my needs more than the needs of the community.

Nevertheless, it seems I’m a pastor again. My friend Matt, and his wife, Krista are pastors as well. And so is my wife and my five-year-old son, Alden. Yup, we’re all pastors at Church.

No, really. That’s what it’s called: Church. Not First Presbyterian. Not Solomon’s Porch or Scum of the Earth or some other cool postmodern name. It’s just called Church—and it meets well, whenever and wherever we decide to meet. Last week it was the park; next week, it might be the beach.

It’s pretty wild, isn’t it? I mean, who would have thought I’d be starting a church with just one other couple and no budget? Who does that? Who says, “Hey, wanna start a church on Thursday?” and believes God could be in it?

Former add-ministers trying to unpackage ministry, I guess. I really don’t know how else to explain it. All I can say is that Lisa and I feel like it’s time. Time to try again. Time to start living out some of the ideas we’ve been talking about for years. Time to move away from the institutional church and toward a new kind of kingdom community—one where the voice of a homeless man is just as valid as the guy with the seminary degree.

As far as program goes, we don’t have one and you know what? I’m okay with that—well, not really, but I’m trying. Although some would say we’re taking the easy way out—planting a church overnight with no set plan—I’m actually finding it extremely difficult. I mean, where I come from, planting a church means months—if not years—of planning, 50 families and at least $25,000 in start-up money. At the very least, it means filing a 501C3 and declaring yourself an official religious organization. And yet, we have none of those things. In fact, we’re breaking pretty much every conventional church-planting rule I know. Why? Because we want to be ministers of the gospel, not “add-ministers.” We want to be of service, not just a service (i.e. Sunday event). But I’d be lying if I said it was easy to let go of the program; it’s not.

It’s funny, the other night we talked about giving. Would we take up an offering? Would we have a church bank account? In the end, we decided against these things and instead, determined that we would all just give to people when we saw needs. So a few days ago my son was out playing and decided to give away the five coins that were rattling around in his pocket. He saw a need, I guess. He literally gave his offering to another kid. He didn’t make stewardship the responsibility of the church administrator or some committee; he just did it.

A week ago we got some food and headed over to a nearby park where a lot of homeless people hang out. Over the next few hours we just talked with people. It was an amazing time. We got to meet Joe, a 50-year-old man who is a jewelry designer by trade. He showed us a beautiful Celtic design he’d done using the letters of the word “Jesus.”

Did I know Joe was going to be there? Nope. Did I ask him to “give the sermon”? Nope. That’s what was so wonderful about it. We just enjoyed being with each other in this organic, earthy way.

Ironically, even though I love this new idea of church, there’s a part of me that still wants to reign it in and box it up in a manageable form. It’s really weird being a no-name church. “But how will people find us?” I asked. “Well, they’ll find us as God leads, I guess,” came the reply. Hmmm. You mean we don’t need a marketing plan? We don’t need a vision statement and a mission statement and a formal discipleship program? What about an events calendar and a regular day to meet—surely we need those things?

It’s funny the stuff I’ve worried about in making this switch. What, for instance, will my biography say when I do speaking engagements? Spencer Burke, Creator of TheOoze and co-founder of Church? No, wait, not Church Inc., just church—with a small c.

I’ve worried about my children. What will happen to them without the safety of an administered Sunday School program. And yet, time and again, they’re wowing me with their grasp of the gospel and their ability to understand the heart and soul of Jesus. Will they miss flannelgraphs? Maybe. Only time will tell I guess.

You know, I’m not sure where this is all leading. All I know is that my story has taken a new turn. I’ve joined the 90% of the church around the world that doesn’t have a paid pastor or a building, but instead, meets in homes, under trees and yes, on California’s beaches.

I’ll keep you posted,

Spencer

Spencer has also written a book, Making Sense of Church, which is now shipping. Get your limited edition, signed copy sent to you today, and help support theOOZE. FIND OUT MORE

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soulhouse..i've given up on programs and all this "stuff" i've tried to do for so long,
i'm praying we can just be Jesus to the world...i don't have all the answers yet..
but something in this article frees my spirit... :OD the beauty of simplicity..i truly
believe God is going to change what we think is "church" in the next few decades
in north america..i'm just praying hard for the revolution...set your church free
here Lord in America..oh God set us free...although I'm not advocating everything
in the above article, I do believe the concept of "simplicity" needs to be restored
to the church, but we must never compromise in our vision to bring the multitudes
into a relationship with Christ....

today i am at the end of myself. I tried an ALPHA "program" at the university i'm
ministering at and yeah..it didnt work. It's almost hilarious when I think about
all the "good ideas" we christians seem to have the Lord. We pray, fast, plan,
work hard to do something great for God and realize God was never in it from
the first place. God is pounding into my thick skull for the one millionth time, "Jaeson
all i want you to do is sit at my feet and listen to my words" but my flesh is always
telling me, "no no ..jaeson you gotta do something..you can't just sit on your butt
all day long and spend time in God's presence!" so i listen to my flesh and get
a grand idea for God and venture out to conquer the world for Jesus. When it
doesn't go as expected I come back to God complaining.."why didn't you bless
what I did for you?" God responds with something like.."Jaeson I never told you
to do that in the first place." Oh!

So what am i learning today? I'm learning church is more than a program, church
is more than me coming up w/ a grand vision and mission statement, church is
more than something i can get my identity from, where i can tell others "praise
the Lord 1000 new members were added to "my" church this month..good God
that is sick! Church is not some kind of platform for my success, for me to write a
best selling Christian book on my "method" of church, church is not about postmodernism,
modernism or any other isms...church is an organism, church is Jesus Christ, church
is people loving one another and loving God and loving people who need love, its not
a service, its not an alpha program, its not a model, its not a philosophy, its something
i don't know yet, but geez wiz..all i know is that the way i've been trying to do church
isn't quite "church" and frankly it gets frustrating. So guess what? Today Jaeson ma
gives up on his way of doing church. and i'm pretty much planning on planning to do
nothing but worshp Jesus today, maybe hang out w/ some other friends who love
Jesus and ask them, hrm..what do you think God might want us to do today? maybe
we should go hang out at the local high school and chill w/ those vietnamese gangs,
shoot some pool with them, hang out in their hood, love on em, befriend them, and
if Jesus comes up in our conversations then woohooooo! if He doesn't we'll just keep
loving on em anyways..or maybe God will tell me to get up on a soap box and preach
my little heart out on the corner by san jose state university, I don't know. That's pretty
much where I am at right now. I don't know. I just know church is made to be alot more simpler
and not as complex as we westerners make it out to be. But what about programs,
what about seminary, what about discipleship training, what about what about? geez..
can't we trust Jesus and don't we realize "discipleship happens in the most natural
of circumstances?" hehe..i know maybe i'll just drop the program were doing at the
university and tell my 15 guys and gals..lets just "hang" n' maybe God will show up
and teach us how to "love" ...i know i probably sound heretical our out of my mind,
but darn it this is truly how i feel right now. Jesus teach me and show me what is
the true meaning of church and teach me to follow You because i really do love You!

posted by Jaeson Ma @ 9/29/2003 11:46:00 AM