As elders, we're working through some next steps for our community, preparing to bring some ideas to the community for what we think is coming this next year and what we think we'll need to do to become not just a church that occasionally is able to plant another community, but a church-planting movement here in the city of Portland that consistently and sustainably replicates smaller communities of 40 or so people that grow and plant other communities by splitting or, as Evergreen is currently on track to do, replicating gatherings to get slightly larger so as to become a hub community that is able to train, resource, and send church planters and plants.
But as excited as I am about that, what has really got my gears going right now are some things we are doing/thinking/dreaming about missional leadership and some ways I'm trying to move behind the scenes to help prepare and challenge our folks to impact the city and love the people of Portland.
Over the last four years we've done a good job at being a church community that's made a real difference for many "formerly churched"- mainly because that part of our philosophy and vision was pretty well-defined in the heads of those of us who started Evergreen.
And while I think that if we had never done anything more than be a place of healing and reconnection for those who had walked away from God and community it would probably be worth doing, we don't want to stop there. Our original vision was to be a community for the "unchurched and the formerly churched."
To be a community that makes more of a difference for the unchurched, I think we're going to need to press forward and outward in relationship and missional living here in the city (as opposed to tweaking what we do on Sundays in the hopes of possibly luring the unchurched in to a worship gathering).
An observation: I've never been a part of a church with
1. So many energetic, forward-thinking entrepreneurial types
2. So many folks who have real, significant relationships with people so different from themselves in terms of faith
To me, this suggests two slightly different but very intertwined initiatives I want to begin leaning into over the next couple of years...
One is some Missional Leadership material we're working through with Dan Steigerwald and Casey Cerretani. I'm especially excited about this and bringing some formation and energy to unlocking some entrepreneurial/missional energy that is, I think, all around and in the Evergreen Community.
Some of the stuff we're talking through:
Stirring a passion to join God on mission by encouraging sound missional theology, a God-surrendered heart, and a sense of communitas with other leaders (i.e. a heart-uniting bond from sharing in various faith-stretching endeavors for God)
Saturation listening- with Gospel-tuned ears, learning to listen and hear the resonant and discordant beats and rhythms of our city/neighborhoods.
Missionary training and role-modeling by those with influence to enable Christ-followers to meaningfully engage culture, to consistently sow shalom in our neighborhoods/cities and by God's grace see new disciples made.
Commitment to deep discipleship via a practice-centered missional way of life
My dream would be to come out of this process with some concrete challenges, materials and channels to encourage evergreen people not only to live an intentional, Christ and others-focused lifestyle for the sake of those around them, but to be challenged, encouraged and resourced to begin new or partner with various existing initiatives here in PDX that are making a difference for its people and demonstrating the Gospel in real, tangible ways.
The other piece is encouraging those among us with a genuine passion for and gift for conversing their faith with people who don't follow Jesus to begin to share not only that passion but ways it can be expressed. One of the challenges of being a community like Evergreen is that we know exactly how we don't want to do so many things... things like evangelism. The easy part is walking away from the coercive and emotionally manipulative "If you were to die tonight" kinds of methodologies we were guilted into practicing in our past. The hard part is replacing that with positive ways of conversing our faith with folks that don't come across as an intellectual wrestling match where we're just trying to pin someone down and get them to say "Jesus!" but rather respects the individual, their journey, and the working of the Holy Spirit in their life up to this point and yet clearly and appealingly presents both the person of Jesus and an invitation to come along with us and explore who He is in the context of first relationship with individuals and eventually with the community as a whole.
I'm excited about what is happening at Evergreen right now. I'm even more excited about the future, and what God can and wants to do in our community.
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