Jesus-Looking Community: The Goal of Every Church and Small Group
“Just as Jesus led his followers down an alternative path that no one expected, the Spirit of Jesus wants to do the same today.”
When
Jesus came 2,000 years ago, he did not just offer a message of
salvation that resulted in a different belief structure. He offered a
different way of life—called the kingdom of God—that included a
different kind of vision for community. The Jesus-looking kingdom was
not something anyone would have expected. No one—this cannot be
reiterated enough—no one could have predicted that God’s way would look
like self-sacrificial love hanging on a cross. The king the nation of
Israel expected was not supposed to die.
The Israelites of the first century expected a normal king—their word
for this was “Messiah,” which is christos in the Greek New
Testament—but that’s not what they got. And most did not see what was
going on. John put it this way: “The true light that gives light to
everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the
world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to
that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:9-11).
They did not have ears to hear Jesus and his way.
The people of Israel had a different imagination for the kind of
kingdom God would bring and this included a specific vision for
community. Four popular versions of community of the time illustrate
this point:
A realistic vision for the kingdom: This was the strategy of the
Sadducees and the Herodians. These two groups, each in their own way,
asked, “What is possible within the circumstances at hand?” Since the
Romans were in charge, they tried to make the best of things and work
within the rules of the power brokers.
A radical vision for the kingdom: The Zealots took this approach.
They sought to establish Israel by meeting the violence of the Romans
with equivalent violence. They were training to drive out the Romans
with power.
An exclusive vision for the kingdom: A group called the Essenses
adopted this strategy. They withdrew to the desert to escape the
pollution of the culture so they could set up the new kingdom of God in
pure form.
An ideal vision for the kingdom: The Pharisees followed this pattern.
While they lived among the populace, they established an ideal way of
doing “church” that separated themselves from the culture at large.
Their goal was to find the right way to serve God so that others would
join them and thereby usher in the kingdom of God.
Jesus vision did not fit any of these paradigms and, as a result,
most people did not see or hear what Jesus was up to. He created a
kingdom of God movement by establishing a Jesus-looking community that
stood in contrast to the popular versions of community at the time.
Often our small group visions fall short of Jesus-looking community in similar ways.
Realistic community: Instead of starting with God’s dream to redeem
all things, we start with the realities we face in life. Since we are
busy, overwhelmed and underresourced, we look at how we can lead groups
in a way that does not infringe too much on group members. We lower
expectations to something like “attend the meeting.”
Radical community: With these group leaders, there is no room for
compromise. They call Christians to step out and go above and beyond, to
sacrifice to extremes. Activism, mission and outreach consume small
groups that take this approach. Zealous progress toward passionate
Christianity and getting something done for the kingdom is the focus.
The focus too often lies so much on the action or the mission that these
groups end up doing violence to others and themselves. They rally
around the cause, but in doing so they miss the way of Jesus.
Exclusive community: The most common form this takes is called “Bible
study.” We get together to talk about the information of the Bible and
learn some very good facts about the Bible. Insider information shaped
by insider language creates a group that has little to do with normal
life outside the group, and new people are welcome only if they speak
our language.
Idealistic community: Idealism causes us to find the “right” way of
doing church and small groups. We assume that if we unlock this right
way, we will unlock the life of God in our midst. Usually this involves
arguments about the way the early church operated and how to follow that
biblical approach. Here’s the problem: Through the years there have
been so many “right” interpretations of the way New Testament house
churches operated that any claim to rightness can be countered
endlessly. We just don’t have enough detailed explanation about
first-century house churches to define an ideal New Testament model.
Jesus offers us something that we all want, but we cannot produce. We
can produce the four visions of community listed above. But only the
life of Christ through the power of the Spirit can generate
Jesus-looking community.
We enter into this life by embracing the three rhythms of Jesus-looking life together.
- Communion with God.
- Relating well to one another.
- Engagement with our world.
Discipleship or spiritual information is simply learning to do these three things with one another.
The truth of the matter is that this is really not that complex.
There is no secret path to lead your group into Jesus-looking community.
It’s really about making the space in our life together so that the
Spirit can teach us an alternative pattern of Jesus-looking spiritual
formation. We want some kind of plan or program that will produce this
kind of life. But it just does not exist. The Spirit does not work that
way.
However there are some things we can do in order to make this kind of
space for the Spirit to work in our groups or in our relationships:
1. Work with people who are expressing a desire for more than just
attending a small group meeting. A sign that the Spirit is working in
people is found when people are stirred up and dissatisfied with
mediocrity. You cannot force this or will your group into this kind of
life. Pray for the Spirit to raise up a hunger.
2. Enter into conversations over meals—food really helps create an
environment to talk about what the Spirit is doing—with those who want
more. Ask questions of one another and see where the conversations lead.
I offer some questions around Jesus-looking community in my book
Leading Small Groups in the Way of Jesus (pages 56-62).
3. Experiment with some communal spiritual practices that will shape a
different way of being in community with one another. I offer some
examples in my book
Missional Small Groups. You cannot program Jesus-looking community. You discover it.
Just as Jesus led his followers down an alternative path that no one
expected, the Spirit of Jesus wants to do the same today. In fact, this
is already happening. The question for us is: Are we making space in our
personal lives and in our life together—whether in our groups, with our
families or in our friendships—to hear what the Spirit is saying.
M. Scott Boren is a
Teaching Pastor at Woodland Hills Church in Saint Paul, MN and
consultant who partners with The Missional Network
(www.themissionalnetwork.com). He has written and co-written eight
books, including Introducing the Missional Church, Missional Small
Groups and MissioRelate. He share life with his bride, Shawna, and their
four children, all under the age of eight. He can be reached at his
website: www.mscottboren.com.
More from Scott Boren or visit Scott at
http://www.mscottboren.com
Allen White consults and
speaks in the areas of small group strategy, staffing structure,
volunteer mobilization, and spiritual formation. He blogs at
http://allenwhite.org. 
