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The Church as a Subversive Community
How to overthrow the status quo.
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Mary, Mary, quite contrary For the past generation, one of the hottest topics among pastors and church leaders has been church growth. "Pastor, Pastor, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" Theories abound and models for 'doing church' come and go like teenage fashion fads. But in the middle of all this discussion and strategy a few very practical questions remain: "How does God intend his church to grow? What are the means by which the gospel of Jesus is spread? What is the job of the average Christian? How should pastors lead in this endeavor?" One attempt to answer these questions should be very familiar. For lack of a better name, I will call it the 'Church Growth' paradigm. Here are a few of this paradigm's basic assumptions: A simple vision—bring the gospel of salvation in Jesus to the entire world by any means necessary. Ethnic groups, generational groups, special needs groups, etc. are identified, studied, targeted, and advanced upon with this gospel in hopes that they will be assimilated into the Kingdom and a church. Massive amounts of funding, personnel, strategy, planning, and leadership are necessary to pull off this enormous undertaking. One of Church Growth's primary tools is to coax people into a special place once a week where God is the focus of the entire event (traditionally, a service on Sunday morning). The idea is that if people will think about God for a few hours on Sunday, maybe they'll also consider him the other 166 hours during the week. All manner of resources are expended to make those few precious hours as efficient and relevant as possible. Countless programs are concocted to try and connect people with God at other times. The amount of blood, sweat, prayer, and tears expended in this paradigm is extraordinary. As a reward for all that effort, Church Growth has been extremely successful. The gospel has reached more corners of the world than ever thought possible in the last 100 years. But without going into the problems associated with Church Growth, let me propose another way to answer those fundamental questions. Let's assume that you've tried Church Growth and found it wanting. Or, you've simply run out of silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. This next paradigm I would like to describe is much less popular and remains largely untried in North America. Again, for lack of a better name, I will call it the 'Subversive Community'. 'Subversive' is an odd word to associate with Christian ministry, but that is only because of its uses in recent world history. Webster's defines 'subvert', "to overturn or overthrow from the foundation." It's origin is Latin, "subvertere, literally, to turn from beneath." Eugene Peterson has a great description of this paradigm's assumptions: |             |
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