Letting the scales fall off

OK, so I'm not much of a blogger. I think the idea is that you do this more than once every other month. Sorry.

I did actually wake up this morning with a thought. We spent the day yesterday with some co-workers. One couple, B & R, are extra sharp. They've got a tremendous heart for one of the least evangelical people groups in France, and I can't wait to see what God does through them. After lunch, we went riding and talking. As we talked about everything from the joys of language learning to the intricacies of driving in France, I mentioned that if I ever got fired or otherwise, I at least had figured out how I would plant a church in the US. B sounded a little surprised. I have to confess that we were in the middle of a Parisian traffic jam (literally called a "cork") and I don't remember exactly what he said, but it got me thinking nonetheless.

At first, I felt a little guilty, though I'm sure it wasn't his intention. What was I doing thinking about planting a church in the USA when God has called me to do that in France? After I thought about it a little while, something struck me: my thoughts on planting a church in France are not that different from my thoughts on planting a church in the States.

I came to France full of grand ideas about planting churches. I had books on house churches, indigenous churches, incarnational ministry churches, missional churches, and cell churches. The more I got to know my new culture, though, the less sure I was about how to plant a church. As I looked around me, it didn't really seem like many other people had it figured out either. It was a little frustrating.

Now, almost three years later, God has done something in me. He's taken me and forced me to really (I mean really) think about what "church" is. As He has pared away much of the cultural baggage from my "ideas," He has replaced that by a more biblical (though still far from complete) idea of what church is. Many of the things I wanted church to be were only the latest, coolest, most "strategic" thing. I thought they were my interpretations of this culture, but were really a reflection of, or reaction to, my own.

Over my next few posts, which I hope will come more frequently than this one, I want to expand a little on this. I want to think "out loud" about planting a church.

But back to my original "issue." How can I think about planting a church in the US and in France? Because I want to plant a biblical church that is light in darkness. A church that goes beyond culture because the Gospel goes beyond culture. Contextualization of our message is vital. We have to communicate the truth to a world that doesn't think like we do. But the heart of church is the same in first century Jerusalem and in postmodern France.

Let's start church.