Viral Discipleship

A while ago, I read an article from a leader of the "House Church" movement in the USA - he cautioned that before we get to the point as ministry leaders and visionaries where we begin to "baptize" one particular methodology of ministry as the "it", we should pause and listen to the Spirit for there is more than meets the eye. You see, there are some misconceptions in this missional/faith communities discussion - people say, "well, you just want to put down the traditional church"...or "you are just pushing a home church/organic/small community/emergent/leader-less/you fill in the blank praxis". Like I said, it is time to step back for a minute - this "conversation" isn't about what many think it is about. See what you think about the following:

“I no longer try to start simple/house churches. I think house churches are great. They provide a place for people to experience participatory, everyone-matters church life. They provide a way for people to really connect into authentic, one-another community. They often provide a place for people to recover from some of the pains caused by institutional church life. But house churches are no longer the end game for me.”

Jesus invited us to join him, organically, in the reproduction of life. His Body is a living, thriving, reproducing organism (Mark 4) that allows life-in-the-Spirit to spread virally from one disciple to the next. His church is alive as illustrated by a seed (Mark 4) that brings forth 30, 60, or 100-fold reproduction. That is the life of the kingdom. His life in me is passed on to the life of another (2-fold) which is passed to the life of another (4-fold) which is passed to the life of another (8-fold), etc. That is the way of organic/viral life and this is what the kingdom IS. This is ultimately what Jesus invited us to become part of: discipling viral disciplers.

Kingdom life is viral, organic, and, by nature, a movement.

When we make any one particular model, even if it is house churches, the end game, we will quickly that they too can fall into the same "traps" as the institutional paradigm. As you most likely know from experience, small groups do not naturally reproduce nor become movements. In fact, some people who study these things believe that "house churches" or "home groups" or even "faith communities" have a shelf life. They may serve a purpose for a season, but when that season ends (and it will) the “movement” is over.

This explains why Jesus did not ask us to go and “make gatherings or churches.” He did not ask us to go and “make house churches.” He said, “go and make disciples.” This shift from starting gatherings to making disciples (who go and make disciples) goes to the very heart of the matter. Discipling viral disciplers is the end game. This places us squarely in the midst of reproductive life that the kingdom is intrinsically about. We become movement-starters not church-starters. We release disciples who will influence the world throughout their lifetime and beyond as those they disciple disciple still others.

Now...follow me here - when we reach and disciple a viral discipler, that person is going to gather with other viral disciplers for encouragement, and then, as each of them reaches others, still more gatherings will take place. So, along the way, small gatherings will be started. But, but rather than being the end game (where we all gather around and say "yeah, we did it"), they become a means to support the life that is being reproduced from one disciple to the next. Sustainable kingdom-life does not take place just because of the way we gather. But it does take place when we step into the role Jesus called us to: making disciples who know how to make disciples.

As Roger Thomsen wrote in the article I read, "starting house churches and discipling viral disciplers (who gather in house churches) might look very similar on the outside. But the process is very different! When we start house churches, our focus tends to be on the gathering—what to do, how to do it, what it looks like, etc. We say to ourselves that we are learning to “be” the church 24/7 (and we may even go do missional things), but often our priority remains on developing the structure/form of simple house church gatherings."

In other words, the "group" is not "it". When following Jesus and inviting others to follow him becomes our focus (discipling viral disciples), we will have to shift from the “gathering” mentality to the “lifestyle-going” mentality. This shift, Lord willing, will propel us from being church-starters to movement starters (where churches spring up along the way).

What do you think? More to come!