Tithing in the Old Testament: Getting our facts straight.

One of my favourite things about church planting is that it gives you the opportunity to look at the Bible with fresh eyes. You don’t have to try and fit texts into the system of church that you are used too and therefore can be more open to what the scriptures actually teach. As such I have been looking at the topic of giving over the last couple of weeks and specifically whether the Bible teaches that Christians should tithe (i.e. give 10% of their income).  Matt Destry and I spoke about this very topic on Sunday and so I thought it might be helpful to share what we explored with my blogging friends too. Since financial independence and stability are pretty key to developing a healthy church plant, teaching on the area of giving is pretty important.

So I am going to look at tithing in the OT in a bit more detail and see whether what we find matches up with what we think. I should probably clarify that this is not through some ulterior motive of getting away with less giving (in fact it probably calls for more giving), I just want to genuinely take the Bible for what it teaches. We’re going to explore three surprising things that I found from my research.

1. Tithing was about food, not money.

• Farming was not the only job in OT Israel. There were plenty of professions which rewarded people with wages. However the only requirements for tithing in the Old Testament were for food production and not money. Hence it was farmers, not wage earners that were required to tithe.

Le 27:30–32: “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord… And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord.”

2. The tithing requirements added up to much more that 10%.

• While the word tithe literally means to give 10%, if you look closely at the OT it is likely that farmers were to give 10% to the Levites,

Nu 18:21: “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting,

• 10% was to be eaten in the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem at the major festivals

Dt 14:22–23: “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. ²³ And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.

• And finally, every three years 10% was to be given and stored locally so that anyone in need could access it.

Dt 14:28–29: “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. ²⁹ And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

• It is possible to see these as a development in the system of tithing but in Jewish writings at the time of Jesus it was generally acknowledged that there were in fact three tithes, two annual and one every third year. Thus if Jesus did advocate tithing he most likely would have had three tithes in mind. That totals nearly a quarter of the food that farmers produced but nothing from the wages of people who earned cash.

3. Tithing was just part of a holistic system of caring for the poor. Therefore is it faithful to the text to extract one part of the OT system without all the others? Here are just a few examples of compassionate requirements in addition to tithing:

• Farmers are told not to harvest right to the edges of their fields or go over them a second time so that the poor can what they need.
• If one of their neighbours becomes poor, Israelites are told to lend money without interest to help them get back on their feet. They are even to let the poor live with them, without making a profit from them.
• Every 7^th year all debts are to be cancelled and all slaves released from their slavery with what seems to be almost a redundancy package of food and animals.
• Every 50^th year is to be declared the year of Jubilee, where all slaves are to be released and any land that has been sold is to be returned to the family that originally owned it.

Clearly then tithing is a Biblical idea, but does our modern concept of giving 10% of our financial income match what the Old Testament teaches? That’s a question each of will have to explore ourselves.

February’s Top Ten Church Planting Posts

I’ve had a bit of a break from blogging over the past couple of months but the prodigal son has returned with a whole month worth of quality posts about church planting. So here are my top ten favourite posts of the last month (chronologically).

• Tim over at the Nomad blog talks about how they are using their small group to make an impact in their community by visiting an aged care home. Such a simple thing seems to make such a difference for people and I had a meeting with an aged care facility in Paddington about Vox volunteers after reading it.

It seemed like such a small thing we were offering them. However, after we’d finished, the staff and residents couldn’t thank us enough. One of the nurses was teary eyed as she thanked us for making the commitment to come in every month.

• Ed Stetzer answers the question “What is a missional church?” on his blog with two helpful videos. Definitely worth seeing.

• More from Stetzer, Kent Shaffer at Church Relevance posted his notes from the Verge conference where Ed Stetzer talked about empowering disciples. A big part of the emerging church has to do with mobilising the priesthood of all believers and this is a good place to start.

The greatest sin in most churches is that we have made it okay to sit in church week-after-week and do nothing and call ourselves Christ followers.

• Not specifically about Church Planting but definitely relevant to the topic of holistic mission is Ben Witherington III’s post on Stewardship.  Its a long post but a helpful one, showing that engagement with the environment is not a cop-out to culture but rather a responsibility deeply rooted in the teachings of scripture. I would have liked some discussion on how eschatology has shaped Christian responses to the environment (i.e. the idea of the a new heaven and earth as presented in Revelation and elsewhere compared to the pop-culture eschatology of souls escaping from bodies into heaven while the earth is destroyed). Perhaps I’ll have to reflect on that in my own post in the future.

This is what stewardship really is.  God owns the vineyard:  the earth, all the stuff you come into contact with, your money, house, talents, time.  You exist to prosper, not yourself, but God, and those who need what’s in the vineyard God owns in order to survive.

• Matt Destry at New Frontier has a post about slowing down enough to do community properly.

To think that in our lives community can be created by ‘just adding water’ is a mistake. People are not objects, or resources, or assets. They’re people, with enthusiasms, energies, fears, and failings. It’s going to take time.

• Toby Neal, a local church planter who I met with last year gives a bit of an update of his plans for the year and a call for a Phillipians-style partnership.

So far we have gathered a team of roughly 6 marrieds, 6 singles and 6 children who are excited to be on mission between the city and Bondi. Our plan for this year is to begin by planning, praying and studying culture and scripture. We will meet monthly until July, fortnightly until October, weekly until December, and then biweekly in 2011.

• Joel Kurz, one of my favourite bloggers, has a post about the difference between having a ‘cool church’ or a genuine faith community. Its definitely something we have been conscious of as we continue with Vox.

As I’ve alluded to in the past, we’re not concerned with creating a “cool church” in The Garden.  To some degree we don’t want a “cool church” – whatever that may mean.  What we long for and the reason we have been starting this new church is out of a deep desire for true spiritual community.

• Jared at the Gospel Driven Church discusses the dangers of pride in his post Take Your Ego to the Woodshed.

This is why he uses sinners. Not so that they will realize their potential. Not so that they will finally see how inherently awesome they are. Not so they can live their best life now or become a better you (a better them?). Not so, as a church radio ad I heard this morning promised, God can bring out the best in them. Nope. God uses sinners so that he will get the glory and so that he will get the glory in the vivid, repeating imagery of turning ashes to beauty.

• Perhaps my favourite post this month, Jonathon Dodson lists 8 Ways to be Missional (without overloading your schedule). Its just simple practical and easy to apply advice about how to be missional. Read it.

Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places. Get to know the staff. Go to the same places at the same times. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular.

• Last but not least, Adam McHugh has a great post about whether introverts can be church planters. I certainly hope he is right because I am an introverted church planter.

Sometimes I wonder whether any committee would choose someone like Moses or Timothy to plant a church. Moses claimed he was inarticulate and uncomfortable in the spotlight; Timothy was young and struggled with timidity. There is a disturbingly consistent trend in the scriptures that God chooses unlikely people to carry out his mission and lead his people. And it is clear that God’s call is not contingent on personality type.

So there you go, one whole month worth of church planting thoughts jam packed into a single post. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I did.

The workers are few…

In our quest to be missional in our own context, let us not forget that approximately 6000 of the 16000 people groups in this world are yet to hear the gospel in any significant way.

via tangible thoughts

Introducing Vox.org.au

In the grand scheme of things a website isn’t really a big deal. Just a way for guests to get a feel for your church before attending, but today we have launched the online presence of our little community and it feels like a pretty big step. We’ve been praying and thinking and experimenting with the vision of the church plant for a long time and this website is the first opportunity we have to articulate at least a snap shot of it in writing for all to see. It’s also the first money we’ve spent as a church and the first really concrete thing that puts us in the public sphere. We feel like God has given us a pretty clear direction to head in and we’re grateful to be able to share that with you all. We’re also really happy with how it looks, we went with a cloversites.com format and kept it really simple and clean. It would be great for you to check it out and give some feedback about what you think. Here is a little preview:

Welcome to Vox, the church you don’t go to.

In fact, no one goes to this church, because that’s not who we are. At Vox, we believe a church should be defined by the people it sends out, not just by who comes in.

The Story begins with a God who speaks. His voice of love goes out and creates a world of life, light and goodness. Now, while still strikingly beautiful, our world is in a mess. But God has sent His Son, whom the Bible calls ‘the Word’ to make things right again. At Vox we exist to Go.Speak that is, to go into the messy world that God loves and express His life and love in Jesus.

We’re not a church you can just go to. We are a church that you leave off from. Because we believe voices can change the world.
That voice is yours.

On more of a house keeping note, if you were wondering where the Posts of the Week have gone i’ve decided to do a monthly wrap up rather than a weekly one. I’ll share my favourite posts and articles of January at the end of the month. I think that will work as a better balance between quality and quantity. Hope you are all having a good week and don’t forget to check out our site!

The Freedom of the Narrow

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. –Matthew 7:13-14 ESV

I would like to remind you of an important but often forgotten key in our modern discussions of mission…

The gate is narrow.

Did you find that liberating? Are you breathing a sigh of relief? This isn’t a politically correct assertion on the part of Jesus but it should be a freeing one for his people. Why you ask? Because for too long the Church has been operating like every last member of society needs to be totally Christianised, even if it was in appearance only. We have tried everything we can to shuffle people into single file on the wide path so that if stand far enough away and we squint at them, we can convince ourselves that they are all on the right track.  But in the words of Douglas John Hall;

If we stop straining every nerve to get everybody baptised, to get everybody married in church and onto our registers (even when success means only, at bottom, a victory for tradition, custom and ancestry not for true faith and interior conviction); if, by letting go, we visibly relieve Christianity of the burdensome impression… that Christianity is a sort of Everyman’s Religious Varnish, a folk religion (at the same level as that of folk-costumes)- then we can be free for real missionary adventure and apostolic self-confidence.

It’s one thing to be ambitious, but surely the words of Jesus should set some limits on our human targets. We need to accept the fact that we can’t save everybody. We can’t even save most. But this also means that we don’t need to force people to look like it either. Let’s be willing to share the gospel and have people reject it. We don’t need to use underhanded, ‘bait and switch’ tactics or rely on scaring people into the kingdom. We don’t need to lower the bar so that  anyone can step over. We don’t need mindless imitation Christians that dress up on Sundays to fill our empty pews. We don’t need to legislate the Christian life so that people have to live it out whether they believe it or not. Heck, if we struggle to live it out with the Holy Spirit, how can we expect people to do it ‘cause the nice policeman told them to?’

Real mission isn’t going to happen by gluing cotton wool balls on the wolves so they feel included with the sheep. Real mission will only happen when we align our goals with Jesus’ teaching. Let’s lower our plans for meaningless quantities and be confident enough to make a few passionate disciples of Jesus that can last the long hard walk through the narrow gate.

Posts of the Week 3

Its getting very close to Christmas and my present to you all is another week of interesting Church Planting related posty goodness! Its seems people are still a little shy to comment, but I am still keen to get more interaction with the wider planting blogging community. Could you be the brave soul who steps out in faith and leads the masses in linking to another church planting blog? Shameless self promotion will be accepted on a case by case basis .

• Matt Destry, who is heading up our church plant, discusses the vision of the Vox Community.

I think that this is the Good News we’re talking about, not only that God loves someone, accepts them in Christ, but also wants to use them for his purposes in the world. It’s one thing to be loved, but it’s another thing to be empowered to serve. That’s the message of Vox… We only have 1 story – the story of bringing a word of hope to a desperate world, whether that be inside or outside the cocoon of faith. The mission cannot be divorced from the message. Jesus’ mission is the message.

• The Resurgence have finished their series on Five Hard truths for Church Planters.

For example, my own church planting method has been influenced by everyone from Mark Driscoll to John MacArthur to Andy Stanley to Mark Dever to Neil Cole. These are names that you typically do not hear in the same sentence, unless it includes “in a steel-cage death match,” but all of these brothers have something to teach us and we would be wise to consider and heed their counsel.

• Students on Mission have a discussion of the interaction between mission and the local church. I think church planting is a place where these two proverbial planets align pretty well but its interesting to note the tension that often exists between them.

Another way to put this same truth: one of the basic purposes of any missionary endeavor is to establish local, indigenous congregations of believers. These new congregations like the ones out of which we come may also suffer from self-centeredness, erroneous priorities, or a fortress mentality for although the cultural forms may differ, people are sinners in every culture!

• Church Relevance has a really interesting post on how John Wesley and the Methodists ran and trained their lay-person led small groups. A lot of wisdom from 1874, worth a read.

Every Leader is in some degree a Gospel minister… The Leader, then, is to care not simply for his class collectively, but for all members separately. If he simply hold class-meeting once a week, and look no further after his members, his knowledge of them will be very imperfect. He should know them, not simply in the class room, but in their daily life, their company, diversions, business; in their besetments, perplexities, discouragements; their temptations, falls, and uprisings. He should know their peculiarities of character, temperament, and condition, and so be able to rightly admonish, advise, and encourage them, and communicate to the pastor what it is needful for him to know concerning each.

• In the continuing importance of putting family before job, C Michael Patton has a confessional; How My Passion for Ministry Almost Ended My Marriage.

“Michael, God is not going to call you into something that he does not also call your wife into.” You can add about a hundred exclamation points after that and you will catch my drift. I would not even be surprised if there was not a curse word thrown in here or there. I can’t remember. “If God sovereignly calls you into something, do you think he is going to forget about your wife?” she continued. “If she is against it, it is not his will. Period!”

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good week.

Is Jesus sovereign over your address?

Its funny how God speaks to different people in different ways. For me, the most common way that I feel God speak to me is through a sort of conspiracy of ideas. It’s like when the government wants to make an announcement and they broadcast it on all the channels at once. This week has been one of those weeks for me where every channel has been saying the same thing. A divine conspiracy, if you will. God has been challenging me to live out his love in community and service in some sort of more radical, counter-cultural way. It is though he is asking me; “Is Jesus sovereign over your address?”

^{Mark 10:21} And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

I guess the back story to this is where we live now. Sydney is a pretty big place and my wife Amelia and I were doing something in just about every corner of it when we decided to move to Newtown in July. I was studying at Macquarie Park and working in St Peters, Amelia was studying in Kensington, working in Caringbah and doing a six month volunteer placement as part of her degree in Dee Why. On top of that we had a preliminary core team meeting for Vox in Cronulla with the view of planting in Paddington. If you don’t live in Sydney, here is a map of all that craziness (its 45km from Dee Why in the north to Cronulla in the south).

As you can see, moving to Newtown (the big ‘A’) wasn’t so much a decision as much as a coping strategy. We wanted to be in Paddington, but as broke students we couldn’t really afford to at the time and Newtown gave us a lot more for our money. We were fine with that though because Newtown is great fun. Fast forward six months (phew!) to now and things are starting to look a little more centralised. Amelia just finished her placement, her degree and will be finishing up her Caringbah job early next year to get a graduate job. Vox has officially moved from Cronulla to Paddington and is starting to form a sense of community there.

^{Acts 17:23} For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

I had heard church planters say that they regretted not having everyone move into the suburb they were serving, even if they already lived pretty close  but now we are feeling it. It’s so hard to get to know an area and its people when you have to drive to get there. We are growing a heart for Paddington but we can’t bump into people at the supermarket or meet our neighbours. We don’t have a favourite cafe or restaurant yet. We can’t feel the heartbeat of Paddington from Newtown, even though it’s only 15 minutes away. We’ve always intended to move at the end of our lease but part of me doesn’t want to wait that long.

But more than just where we live, God has been challenging us on how we live and with whom we live. Not long ago I read in the Shaping of Things to Come (Frost and Hirsch) about two nuns I think it was, that completely gained people’s acceptance just by choosing to move into their large public housing apartment block. Even more recently I was listening to a church planting podcast about another couple Graham and Tracey who moved into a disadvantaged inner city area to love and pray for their neighbours. On ABC the other night I saw a program about the housing commission areas of Woolloomooloo, just a suburb or two across from Paddington and the way in which kids are growing up there in pretty crazy circumstances. Amelia met another couple at a CareWorks (Churches of Christ social justice arm) dinner that moved into housing commission area in western Sydney to do the same thing. Vox on Sunday was all about community and ‘not playing church’. Then another podcast hits me with stuff about the radical nature of the New Testament church and how living in close proximity to others is almost essential.

^{Acts 4:32} Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

I haven’t decided exactly what to do yet but Amelia and I have been talking about different ways to express the love of Jesus in community on a more daily basis. We’ve been thinking about moving in with someone else from Vox, both to be in relationship and to get a bigger place that we can have people over in to entertain (rather than our tiny studio apartment). We’re tossing up ringing the department of housing to see whether it is possible to move into or near the housing commision areas in Woolloomooloo or Darlinghurst to reach out to more disadvantaged families, maybe with another couple. It could just mean spending a greater portion of our limited cash on housing so that people feel comfortable in our new home and we can use it as a place to serve and love rather than just live. We’ve got six months left on our lease, so a lot of things could change between now and then, but we’re trying to make sure that every part of our lives is under the Lordship of Christ. Even our address.

Posts of the Week 2

Its been a busy week this week as we approach Christmas and I haven’t got the chance to blog my thoughts. That shouldn’t stop you from getting another week’s worth of linking love here at Plant Water Grow though so here it is. I’m always looking for more interesting church planting blogs so if you have another favourite post you’ve read or one you wrote one yourself, hit me up with a comment at the end.

• Alan Hirsch reminds us that in the rediscovery of the importance of mission we can’t neglect the essential task of radical discipleship; the two are inextricably linked.

Our lives, individual and corporate, play a vital role in the unfolding of the grand purposes of God. The gospel cannot be limited to being about my personal healing and wholeness, but rather extends in and through my salvation to the salvation of the world. To fail in discipleship and disciple-making is therefore to fail in the primary mission (or “sentness”) of the church.

• Steve Addison has a post that outlines the statistics about Australian church plants from the National Church Life Survey. It’s definitely not a new post (it’s from 2006) but it is helpful nonetheless even just as a reminder of part of why we do church planting.

church plants have greater average levels of vitality than other churches

church plants have greater average levels of newcomers to church life than other churches

church plants have greater average levels of newcomers than churches undertaking other mission strategies

• Jared Wilson quotes a beautiful passage about Jesus’ substitution for us by John Bunyan. Not explicitly church planting material but worth meditating over.

One day as I was passing into the field, this sentence fell upon my soul: “Thy righteousness is in heaven.” And with the eyes of my soul I saw Jesus at the Father’s right hand. “There,” I said, “is my righteousness!” So that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could not say to me, “Where is your righteousness?” For it is always right before him.

• Toby Neil has a great post on his intention to use pub and comedy venues to plant a church. Something we’re thinking through especially as we continue to look for venues for Vox. Interestingly Toby has a heart for a similar area to us to plant in 2011 so we’ll be meeting up soon to pick each other’s brains.

Last year, while watching stand-up comedy at a pub in Glebe, I couldn’t help noticing that stand-up venues would make a great venue for church. They are a comfortable and relaxed, have good facilities (food, drink and amenities) and are natural meeting places for people in our city. They are  setup so that all the chairs, couches, stools and tables face a small stage from which a person speaks for 30 minutes. Perfect!

• Mike and Nikki Lynch have a whole series of reflections about church planting, especially in relation to the Geneva Push (reformed church planting) conference that just took place in Sydney. Lots of interesting stuff if you have time to scroll through their blog.

Planting that reflects deeply and continually on the cultural context in which churches are planted.

Planting that pays attention to the criticisms of those for whom present forms of church are not working.

Planting that attempts to incarnate the gospel into areas and people groups beyond the reach of existing churches.

Planting that refuses unthinkingly to replicate models of church or imperialistically to impose models on communities.

Planting that encourages creative engagement with diverse communities and allows this to inspire theological and ecclesiological developments.

• Joel Kirz has a helpful reminder (something helpfully played up amongst church planters recently) that family-always-comes-before-work even when that job is something as amazing as planting a church.

And so I publicly announce that:

1. I love my wife more than my church
2. I will give my wife my best (not my leftovers)
3. and I will be thankful for her and listen to her even when she tells me I’m working too much

• Last but not least, Matt Anslow, the young adults pastor from our sending church, has a great post about the relationship between ecclesiology, missiology and Christology. This idea has been one of the key foundations to my thinking at Vox over the past year as we work out how to shape every aspect of our community to be like Christ.

Indeed, if the book of Hebrews is correct, Jesus is the clearest, most accurate picture of God there is. If we want to know what God’s mission is in the world, and thus what our mission is in the world, we must look at Christ. If we want to know what our churches should look like, we must understand our mission, and to understand our mission we must understand Christ.

Posts of the Week

I thought I might do a quick review of what I’ve been reading in the church planting blogosphere this past week or so. I’ve searched far and wide for good ideas, passed them through my patented filtering system, bottled them up with a fancy label and delivered them straight to your door! I’m still looking for good blogs so let me know if you read some nuggets that I missed. If it goes well I’m thinking this could be a regular feature.

• Nomad this week has an interesting post this week about Network Church. Tim helpfully talks about how diverse expressions of church all have their place and notes that building a relational network between the various churches in his area has been much more helpful than picking one model and thinking everyone else are wrong.

God isn’t waiting for us to discover his divinely approved ecclesiology and missiology; he’s just waiting for us to get stuck in as best we can.

• Eugene Hor over at Reformission has a pretty crazy post about George Whitfield’s daily criteria for self reflection. I though I was a self critical person, but I almost got knocked off my chair when I saw this list. This was a guy that took faithfulness seriously. That seems to be off the back of John Piper’s recent mini-biography on Whitfield which is also a good read:

He was a phenomenon not just of his age, but in the entire 2000-year history of Christian preaching. There has been nothing like the combination of his preaching pace and geographic extent and auditory scope and attention-holding effect and converting power.

• John Piper linked on his twitter to the 100 biggest unreached people groups in the world. Lets make sure being missional locally doesn’t mean we neglect going overseas. We’re praying especially for the Khmer people of Cambodia.
• Jared over at The Gospel-Driven Church has an interesting reflection on his own upbringing and the dangers of having fear centered evangelism/dicipleship. A very honest post and a good example of how to be critical without being unloving.

I know all the fear-spirit peddlers usually mean well. But an imperfect love, even though love, is not the perfect love of Christ which drives out fear. If God is for me in Christ, who can be against me? What shall I fear?

Nobody. Nothing.

• Matt’s post is more than a week old but I’ll let him scrape in to this list because it’s solid (and he’s a fellow Voxian). He has a really interesting reflection on how we reflect the image of God most when we participate in his mission.

Perhaps the imago Dei is most poignantly and beautifully seen in us when we stretch out in love, go into the world and speak about a Kingdom of faith and hope. Perhaps the image is reflected best through a life of tension, uncertainty, discomfort and maybe even suffering.

• I’m not sure if you need to be a member to read it, but the Geneva Push guys have a good post about starting small with church plants. All seven of Mikey’s points are helpful and particularly relevant to our situation with Vox.

6. Make the most of small
Figure out what things work best when you are small and major on these strengths. Make the most of shared meals, nicknames, Facebook, interactive services and other things that build camaraderie.

• Finally in the humorous warning category, there are several ways to have accountability for the leaders of your church plant but I highly recommend not relying on Fail Blog.

Healthy Christians in Hospital Beds

I’ve been thinking over this weekend about a class I did last year with Mike Frost. In that class he brought up the idea of ‘the third place’. The basic concept is that each of us have our first place which is our home, a second place where we do our work and usually a third place. A third place is your social hub; it could be a cafe, restaurant or a pub . Its where you spend your free time and can be spontaneous. Wikipedia suggests these hallmarks for a good third place:

free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.

Third places are the places where we form our deep relationships and have our deep conversations. Think of “Central Perk” in Friends. Not everyone has just one place (your group might drift between a few locations) but sociologists note them as really important in building friendships and feeling a sense of place in the community. How is this relevant to church planting? Well for many Christians, including probably me, their third place has actually been the church. This is often a really healthy way to experience community and to grow quickly and a whole host of other positive things. On a practical level it is very helpful. But there is a part of me that wonders whether Jesus would be satisfied with that sort of ‘righteous’ community alone? Take a look at this story in Mark 2:13-17:

¹³ He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. ¹⁴ And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁵ And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In some respects, as wonderful as Christian community is, it should also be deeply unsatisfying on its own. Yes, a church gathering is a very important thing for our spiritual nourishment, but it cannot be the only place where our needs for relationship are fulfilled. Without pushing the metaphor too far, some churches seem to be made up of a lot of healthy people sitting comfortably on their hospital beds while the ‘sick’ remain outside its walls. At some point we have to say to ourselves that as comfortable and nice as this is, maybe God is calling us to use the beds for what they were made for.

What would happen if instead of church being the social hub we empowered Christians to commit to the third places and the people within them that are already in their communities? What if we, like Jesus, shared food and wine with those who would be outcasts in traditional ‘religious’ contexts? What if Christians spent their time building deep relationships and having meaningful conversations with the people that Jesus came for? What existing place or group could you give your free time to in order to be Christ to them? We might actually be able to use these hospital beds we’ve been lying on to have those most needy be healed by the ultimate physician…