Invitation to Missional Community
Rethinking church, community and mission
By Rev. Matthew Mirabile
“If the world has not reached its end, it has reached a major watershed in history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle ages to the Renaissance. It will demand from us a spiritual blaze, we shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life where our physical nature will not be cursed as in the Middle ages, but even more importantly, our spiritual being will not be trampled upon as in the Modern Era. This ascension will be similar to climbing onto the next anthropological stage. No one on earth has any other way left – but upwards.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
In this paper we invite you to consider the paradigm essential to attracting postmodern worshipers in ways that are authentic and that lead to “extreme” community. We consider radical discipleship as the key to raising up from a decimated youth culture an army of witnesses in the best of the Christian tradition.
This is not merely a position paper; it is a call especially to those under 40 to become part of a community committed to acts of radical witness to the love of Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel in our postmodern culture. It is a call to join us in establishing such a community and an outline of our community follows this apologetic. We ask you to join your heart to ours that together we may burn with such a spiritual blaze that the world will not be the same.
Doing Church Backwards?
When a mission church is planned its aim is the establishment of the common parish. It is envisioned as a worshiping community for the everyday person with the everyday vocation and the everyday level of commitment. The mission church is not typically envisioned as a place of mission, it is the mission. It is not expected to be a place of radical commitment but often of minimal commitment. In this age churchgoing can easily become a mere personal option rather than the center and locus of ones life.
But what if we started the community backwards? Instead of starting with a minimum set of expectations, what if we started with a radical set of expectations? Why not start with mission as the mission rather than parish life as the mission? Would it make the establishment of such a church out of reach? What if we provided a cost-driven level to initial membership in an intentional community rather than the “opt-in” standard of everyday church? Can we provide a model for establishing a parish that is radically missional, offering high cost discipleship, while also being accessible to those with everyday expectations and capacities? I think we can do this by building a missional community patterned from the intentional “monastic” community model whose mission is to the life of the common person.
Intentional Community is EXTREME
Our Postmodern culture is desperately seeking authenticity and relationship. Authenticity is derived from what is manifestly “itself” without any hype. But there is another side to authenticity. This other aspect has to do with what validates truth. It is my contention that costliness validates truth. What does this mean for the truth claims the church makes? What does this mean for our model of church and intentional community? Simply this; If the hope held out for us in Jesus is true then it is costly. If the church really is the repository of the faith, if it really is the body of Christ on earth and the single exclusive context within which one is saved then it demands from us something great. If, as St. Cyprian says, “He cannot have God for his father, who has not the Church for his mother” (De Unit., c. vi) then this claim can only be validated, at least in great measure, by the seriousness and sacrifice by which one adheres oneself into the community. If there is no price to pay then the eternal goal has no real value. It is for this reason, if we are going to be a church with a truly discerning pastoral response to the postmodern culture, then we must make exclusive claims backed up by costly discipleship. It is only in this way that we can be an “emergent” church in an authentic way without being enamored with culturally conditioned postmodern trendiness.
Intentional community models extreme discipleship. Many have noted the extreme nature of post-modernism but have placed the emphasis of the extreme on the wrong points, like worship and fluidity. Extreme “worship” wrongly places the emphasis on subjective experience by doing so and therefore undermines authenticity and truth. This is why the Emergent movement finds itself struggling with trendiness rather than authentic spiritual formation and mission.. We can only have “extreme worship” and “extreme church” within the context of radical discipleship. And the greatest model of radical discipleship is intentional community ordered around the sacraments, prayer and mission.
A Martyrs Army
The early Christians held in the highest regard those who had given their blood in witness for Christ. In order to emulate their courage and faith they began to organize themselves into intentional communities. Many of these early communities developed into the monastic communities we now know. As “White Martyrs” they would deny themselves and give themselves to prayer to radically pursue Christ. Today we live in a time when “White martyrs” must again answer the call. By lives given to prayer, Eucharist, and service we can rekindle a new flame of intentional community. It is only by such a spiritual blaze that we can redeem our lives, our friends and families.
I believe that God is calling us to raise up from those destroyed by addiction, nihilism, consumerism and rage an army of young people who will give their lives in witness of the mighty love of Jesus Christ. Giving their lives does not mean intentionally seeking out a martyrs death. We reject such an idea! What it does mean is that we must call and raise up a generation that is radically committed to the eternal and objective truth of the gospel and are ready to respectfully but boldly express that message in word and deed. It means engaging the culture of death; it means opposing abortion, it means showing unconditional love to all people, it means speaking out against the current of popular culture where such currents are unjust and destroy the soul.
In our “value-free” society it is an offense to decry social and personal sins. It contradicts the popular notions of tolerance and respect for diversity to claim that any one truth is THE TRUTH. But this is the claim we must begin to boldly make. While some postmodern apologists suggest that the church needs to back away from exclusive truth statements and become inclusive and broad I believe that we must do exactly the opposite. While they are telling us to make unbelievers comfortable and the gospel palatable I believe that we need to recover the stigma, the offense of the gospel. It is not the time to conform to the culture, it is time to reform the culture! We cannot do this by the same anemic spirituality and faith we have been living. Worship trends cannot accomplish this, only lives radically committed to the truth of the gospel! Yet we cannot accomplish this in the right spirit if we are self-righteous, or if our goal is to “convert” people, or if we are driven by anything other than a desperate love of Christ and a deep knowledge of our own depravity. It is only out of a sacramental life that we can begin to become a sacrament to the world. To some we are the aroma of life, to others that of death. As we begin to understand more deeply a theology of the cross, of God’s self-giving to those who would reject him, we are made into the image of the Son who freely gives himself to the world. Our spirituality must be grounded in the cross, from it we can sustain such a movement.
Vision
It is our vision to establish at least four houses for the purpose of intentional community ordered around Daily Eucharist, a minimum of three of the seven of the Daily Offices of Prayer, intentional service, spiritual direction, sacramental confession (penance), and work. Persons may join a house for no less than three months initially with the possibility of making two-year, five-year and permanent commitments. Each house is intimately connected to the worshiping community and as such are not isolated and hidden communities but are instead “lights on a hill” available to both the church and the community. In this way those who regularly attend church have consistent contact with those who are radically given to prayer and service, thus energizing and encouraging the saint in his “common life” with humanity. At the same time those who live in community are saved from isolation from the “common life” and are the arms of the parish reaching out in love to the community. We seek to create a synergistic relationship between the community and the parish so that each benefit and grow by contact with the other.
The Focus
· Pascha House – with the purpose of inner healing and restoring the soul. Ministry to the addicted, the depressed, or the emotionally wounded is intended.
· Mission –evangelism, apologetics and mercy ministry. A coffee bar may be run, an evangelistic band could be formed, street ministry, bar ministry, and engaging cultural issues in print would be possibilities. This could include a soup kitchen and taking in a small number of homeless persons or providing temporary shelter.
· Discipleship – Intentional discipleship in the tradition of Youth With a Mission, with classes on learning to hear God’s voice, walking by faith, miracles and healing, sharing your faith, worship, spirituality and more all in preparation for mission.
· Worship – Daily prayer, Eucharist, and Praise.
A Sacramental life
One of the aspects essential today is the recovery of a sacramental life within the context of mission. Mission that is not anchored in a sacramental life becomes warped. Eventually everything begins to exist for the sake of mission rather than for the sake of Christ. The greatest pity is when a noble mission becomes a machine and the people for whom the mission is intended become product and the missionary becomes a cog in the wheel. I experienced this as a missionary and have come to understand that the sacraments and the daily office of prayer help keep the focus where it needs to be, on Jesus. The sacraments anchor our mission in devotion to Christ first, not to mission first.
A Rule of Life
Monastic communities are written around a rule of life. As the neo-monastic movement continues to grow many are experimenting with such Rules. We want to provide exposure so that people can try on this calling. Having been a staff worker with Youth With a Mission, some of this vision for community comes from the experiences gained in having lived in that sort of missional community. Here is a brief Rule for the vision described above: Initially all persons are expected to work a secular vocation and pay for their room and board to a common purse. They are expected to attend the Principle Sunday Service of the parish and serve the vision of the pastor. By so doing they remain connected to the life and work of the parish and directed ministry can flow as in a well ordered household. All persons will be given a spiritual director, will make a commitment to receive Eucharist daily, will observe at least three and as many more of the Daily offices of Prayer as their work schedule permits, and shall commit their other energies to serve the church and the ministry focus of that house. Training and study would be made available to anchor the service within the context of a sound theological and spiritual formation. If and when vows are made, they shall be vows of stability, simplicity, a common purse, obedience, chastity until marriage and celibacy for those so called, daily Eucharist, a life of prayer, daily meditation on the scriptures, and mission empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Invitation
We are currently looking to buy a three/four family house to accommodate the vision. We would like to invite you to prayerfully consider this call to radical discipleship. It will be a test of faith. In these early stages of the community there will be obstacles, inconveniences, and hard work. But there will also be the joy of becoming a part of a real community, a place where real people will laugh and cry together and where real relationships will develop that will last for years. Where real issues will be addressed in an atmosphere of love and trust, and where you’ll find that neither Christ nor the church will give up on you.
If you feel that this sort of community tugs at your heart take time out and wait on God. Lay aside fears about the future for a moment and pray, take the time to listen. When you are ready contact me and discuss a visit and we will pray together to see if this is God’s path for you.
We can only be perfected in obedience to Christ with each one fulfilling his calling and destiny. Let us walk together and make an impact on the world! Our eternal reward is not far away.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Matthew Mirabile
