Renov8_09 First evening..
I arrived Monday, but Tuesday morning still seemed to come early in Calgary. But who ordered this warm weather? I was a little shocked to find it warmer than Kelowna.
My first time in Calgary in almost two years. My first time ever at Center Street. This cavernous building is fairly recent, if I heard right, and seems counter-intuitive as the site for a missional training initiative.
But.. I think the Lord appreciates irony.
So after being led in worship by a group that is a home church, Cam Roxburgh took stock of the crowd. It seemed like nearly half the seven hundred people present were at their first Congress. That kind of freshness can only be generated if God is up to something. There is a stir in Canada and God’s people are responding by following him on mission.
Then it was Mike Frost’s turn. Mike offered us about forty minutes of stories as a frame for what God is all about in this world: redemption. Mike storied the missio Dei with force and passion, taking us from Cambodia to Australia and then ending in Texas. These were great stories, and hopefully the irony of the first was not missed by those who train and resource young church planters. The young man in the leather jacket and dark glasses who stood out to Mike at the pastors conference in Cambodia was the one who was not adopted by church planting or mission agencies. He didn’t fit the profile. But he was the unlikely “David” that God was using dramatically among the poorest of the poor.
Mike’s stories of neighborhood transformation are a strong reframe for what has traditionally been considered church planting, but is often merely the extension of an existing congregation, too often lacking context and a sensitivity to place. But God is endlessly creative, and is more interested in our faithfully following him into new territory than in simply cloning what already exists. Mike closed by asking this question: “If your church disappeared tomorrow, would the neighbors notice?” What impact are we making on the places where we dwell? Are we “good neighbors,” bringing peace and healing to the neglected places in our cities? Do we “add value” where we live?