SOJOS’ 1ST SUNDAY HOUSE CHURCH CO-OP

Sunday September 3 Sojos’ will be meeting at the Sojos’ south, right in front of Grace. We will begin singing at 10:30 and will close our worship time around 11:30. We will then share a meal (potluck).

Presently, our plan is as follows. Sojos (Kirk and Russell as elders) is a small house church that wants to stay small most Sundays so we can focus on a dialogue environment for equipping teens. So what do we do if we meet people who are looking for a church? We try and help them find one that fits. We have had times in our church where so many people have come that it becomes really difficult to equip through dialogue. So, if there is not healthy room in our house church, we either connect them with a house church that has more room, or we look to start a new house church. We want to keep our vision for ministry in our group but also help others form up groups. That is where the “co-op” comes in.

The first Sunday of each month will be set aside for a gathering of Christians, mainly from other small house churches. Just like home-schoolers who value a house sized school, we do not want to directly grow into a bigger single church. What we would like to do is help others experience what we experience by doing some of the things we have been doing. The co-op is intended to be a place to be connected with friends in other house churches and a way to naturally share ideas, resources and opportunities for new people and new groups to form.

We would love to try and answer any questions or comments.

Sojos House Church Co-op meeting notes Monday August 28

September 2006 Sojos-church network

The CHURCH (i.e. universal) is everyone who is IN CHRIST
local churches are specific assemblies of members of The CHURCH
local churches include the requirements to be in The CHURCH
local churches also have specific requirements not included in The CHURCH
location
time
language
and various other factors for various reasons
small local churches (like house churches) may form with intentionally specific elements
in this house and that house
a certain time (Saturday night meetings, or Sunday morning for a short time, or for a long time…
in English, Thai, Spanish, Mandarin
focused on families, singles, etc.
small churches who are focused on specifics may need to include a time of meeting with others who have a different focus

So, this is what we at Sojos Church are trying to do.

We proclaim that Jesus is the Way to be in His CHURCH
We take the time and effort to be a local church assembly with specific limitations
We believe that to be a member at the Sojos Church you must be a member of The CHURCH (saved, born again, in Christ, etc.)
We believe that local churches should form with considerations of
A place
A time
A language
A focus, etc
Our church answers these questions more or less this way
We mainly meet at the homes of 4 families in our church
We mainly meet on Sunday mornings for 2-3 hours
We speak English, and specifically, we speak to the understanding level of teens
We aim to equip teenagers to take ownership of their faith by having involved expositional teaching with lots of dialogue
i. This means we need a place where we can interact
ii. This means we need time to interact
iii. This means we need to speak in a way that is understandable but challenging to teens
iv. This means we are not also “focused” on non-teens.
Since we are a small church which is focused on a primary concern, we also need to connect with other Christians in real and meaningful ways because, although our focus is rightly important to our local church, it is not the only important thing in The CHURCH (of which we too are a part).

So, what we would like is to grow our local church with a specific focus, but also with connection to others. Here is how it could work:

Several different churches with specific elements

A local church focused on a few teen families and some folks who connect with that vision

A local church focused on elementary aged kids in a relaxed dynamic that is very open to going with the flow as the Spirit leads

A local church focused on families focused on elementary aged kids in an intentional concise and organized church experience that starts and ends briefly enough for younger kids.

A local church that is intentionally open to a wide mix of singles, married with kids, no kids, senior adult.. whatever.

Alocal church… etc. etc.

Each of these particular churches might agree to an occasional gathering (monthly?) where a concise worship service and an extended fellowship time provides a way to be connected in meaningful ways to other Christians.

The occasional event would not be a church, but a network of churches celebrating that we are part of the CHURCH

The event would be less focused on teaching, more focused on connecting (good music, simple short message, good fellowship time)

Why would this be helpful?

Most of us are very busy and not wanting to spend unnecessary time trying to work through problems that don’t need fixing. Everyone who values a particular form of church should get with those who also value that form. Getting together helps us guard from being sectarian and elitist. It helps us to realize (intentionally) that we can value our local form of church and value other Christians who value a different form of local church.

Why not just be one big church?

We want to use our gifts.
We want to use our time most effectively for specific needs.
We like the tabernacling idea: we are sojourners, pilgrims, strangers.
We learn better when dialogue is included.
And more.

Sojos' Church Fall 2006

This Sunday we will be asking the 4 questions about how to do church again. Here is a recap:

I am suggesting that there are four main issues that we want to care for. Though we may have ideas about each individual issue, the challenge is in dealing with all four issues together.

TEACHING / INVOLVEMENT / BELONGING / OPENENESS

TEACHING: Sojos’ will continue to be a place where the Bible is taught reliably. We will continue to do responsible exposition of passages of Scripture, in context, with competent facilitation. We want to learn about what is true so we can best know what to do as we live out our lives.

We are planning on teaching through HEBREWS. Everyone will be encouraged to study the upcoming passages ahead of time. Each Sunday will begin with a recap of the Sunday before. We will work through this book together, working to see it shape our view of life and subsequently our way of life.

INVOLVEMENT: As Sojourners, a core value is that we each are on a journey that we need to actively pursue. To do this we need to be a group that mainly learns face to face. This means that our groups must be small enough and focused enough for everyone in a group to be able to open up and process with others. Too many people or too many different people, makes it difficult to do this.

Our involvement will work outward from the members who are rapidly approaching the end of their time at home and launching out on their own. This may frustrate some people who do not want to give up their time of interaction for the teenagers to have as much as we are planning to give them. Essentially, the elders have to say that is what we have to offer based on our attempts to listen to and obey God for the direction of this little church. Our suggestion at that point is to go start another church that is more fitting for the aspects you would like to include. We are limited people forming a limited church. We do not claim to be equipped to minister to every stage of life situation, in fact, we try to be clear that we are not equipped to do much more than work outward from the teen challenges at this phase in our life. If this is wrong, we will be held accountable for it, but that is what the elders are committed to and willing to be judged by God for pursuing. It is important that we each take ownership over this emphasis and work to make it effective and positive to the degree that God so leads.

BELONGING: As we have been involved with one another around reliable teaching, we have come to belong to one another in meaningful ways. As we adapt to fit the various needs of the growing church we want to make sure that everyone remains actually connected to one another in a way that helps us to experience that we continue to belong to one another.

We will be re-declaring covenant commitments to one another. "Belonging" in our church should be explicit first, implicit second. What that means is that we do not assume anyone is a member. We will discuss our goals and then give each person an opportunity to commit to our church pursuing those goals and values. Some may graciously decline to be in a specific local church due to the specific focus/dynamic at a given time. That is not a rejection of THE CHURCH or necessarily of the people in that particular church. It is merely an effort at apporpriately grouping in a particular church as an expression of being part of THE CHURCH.

OPENNESS: We are grateful for our church and we want to be open to sharing our blessings with others. We do not want to have to be hesitant about reaching out to people who are looking for a healthy church community. Whatever our changes, they need to be able to include others even if we include them in joining what we are doing by starting their own church like ours.

The question of adding more of anything to a limited container should be obvious to anyone. Unfortunately it is not. Traditionally, most friends of ours have been told that every church always has room for anyone who wants to come (except for racism issues that have sadly been too present in too many churches).

How can churches say anyone can come?
1) they have more building than people
2) more people means they can start a building program
3) along with a building program, they can hire more staff and grow the church

Why can't Sojos church do the same?

1) We have more people than building because our builiding is a living room
2) Our living rooms that cannot be expanded indefinitely.
There is an actual physical limitation. This should be obvious to people who stop and think, but sometimes people are intent on being offended and perceive hesitation to fit more people a living room sized church as some weird form of elitism, exclusivity etc.
3) We cannot hire more staff, since we do not hire staff.

Again, some unfortunate attitudes and comments have come from people not thinking through the uniqueness of a house church. How do we have a church? Two men, with no shortage of commitments in other spheres, agreed to serve as elders. Baptized believers agreed to be church and more or less live out the principles from Acts 2:42ff of praying together, following apostolic teaching, fellowshipping and breaking bread together. Almost any group of Christians can do the same thing! We cannot exclude people from the CHURCH, nor do we try to. We do not try to exclude people from our little church, we just ask a couple of obvious questions:

How can we physically fit more people in one room?

At what point does the number of people make it too hard to know and care for one another?

Why don't more people just do what we did and start a church in their living room with a focus that fits their concerns?

(It isn't easy, but you get out of it what you put into it. If you care enough about having a good church, do what it takes to form a good church. That is how THE CHURCH grows)

I have been thinking a great deal about how to balance all four issues. I am quite certain that it is not helpful to isolate any one issue and offer a solution that does not deal with how that issue affects and is affected by the other issues. The challenge of wisdom is not in imagining an ideal in one area, wisdom is in seeing the best integration in spite of sacrifice in individual areas.

Please come prepared to share your willingness to commit to and further shape the ideas shared in this short note. Our goal is to be faithful to DT 6 (love God and teach your own kids how to do the same) and to its New Testament expressions as in MT 28 and Acts 2 etc. We plead with mature Christians who are in Chiang Mai to understand that though we are not planning to expand beyond our living room size church, we are more than willing to share our insights on forming such a church so you can do what we have done. Nothing would please us more than to be surrounded by a community of committed little churches where sacrificially finding a way to do church well leads to an ever increasingly joyful, God-glorifying Chiang Mai.

Shalom,

Russell Minick and Kirk Harbison
Elders of Sojos Church