Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City
“What if we saw the places and people in our lives not as existing for our sake, but places and people to which God has called us for their sake?”
-Matt Owens
This week, we have Pastor Matt Owens as our guest blogger on UniteBoston. Matt has been involved in starting churches for the last nine years. He’s a native of Illinois, and has served in church plants in Ireland and Birmingham, AL, prior to coming to Boston. In the Boston area, he has interned with the Christ the King Presbyterian church plant in Jamaica Plain / Roxbury, served as Assistant Pastor at a church plant in Somerville, MA, and is now planting a new congregation in Quincy. In his blog, Pastor Matt shares some valuable insights about how all Christians can be intentional about seeing their neighborhood as their parish.
Spirited Contextualization
“Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.” (Acts 17:16-17)
As Paul observes the idols in Athens, his spirit is provoked by the Holy Spirit for two reasons. First, because he loved the Lord, he long to see Jesus (not idols) worshipped and glorified. Second, out of a deep love for the people of the city, he wants them to worship only God who can give life.
Yet, this provocation doesn’t cause him to yell at the people of Athens (though he might take this approach elsewhere). Rather, he reasons…He knows the people of Athens are a reasoning people. So he reasons with them, and is then taken to the Areopagus to explain Jesus and the Resurrection (Acts 17:19).
He then preaches a beautifully compelling and contextualized sermon, beginning by noting the various idols of Athens and introducing the people to the unknown God, who has now made himself known in Jesus Christ. He uses a different starting point, different themes and different arguments than he would with a predominately Jewish audience, but proclaims the same gospel.
This passage is a good example of spirited contextualization. Tim Keller defines contextualization as, “giving the Bible’s answers…to questions about life that people in their particular time and place are asking, in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.”
The task of every Christian is to be a spirited contextualizer, contextualizing not as an intellectual exercise, but out of love for God and our city, provoked by the Spirit of God.
Theology of Place and Developing a Parish Mindset
A theology of place begins with the question, “What if we saw the places and people in our lives not as existing for our sake, but places and people to which God has called us for their sake?”
Our model in this mindset, of course, is Jesus, who “came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life” (Mark 10:44). We must also be certain that our sovereign God knows the name of the street you live on, and the park nearby, in all of the beauty and brokenness that it may represent to you. He knows the names of all your neighbors, whether you do or not. When we begin to see the people and places God has called us to as God sees them, then we realize that we don’t live on our particular street coincidentally or arbitrarily, but for such a time as this.
This is how I would define a parish: the people and places to which God has called you. I imagine a parish in concentric circles with one’s family (if applicable) at the center of the parish. (Pastoral ministry is perhaps the only job in which one’s responsibilities include caring well for their family. After all, your spouse and children are presumably members of your church.) The next circle out is one’s congregation, then one’s neighborhood, city, and finally the surrounding geographical region. Every Christian must love his/her parish, take pride in it, and hate (that is, be provoked by) the idols that harm it.
An example of a parish mindset is David Ortiz’s famous (short) speech at Fenway Park after the Boston Marathon Bombing. As a relative outsider to Boston, he revealed a deep sense of belonging and ownership when he passionately proclaimed, “This is our f@#*’in city!”
More recently, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in the wake of the mosque attack in Christchurch, “Many of those who will have been directly affected by this shooting may be migrants to New Zealand; they may even be refugees here. They have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home. They are us.”
Four characteristics of neighborhood-focused church planting:
1. Presumes a post-Christendom culture
Churches who operate with a “Christendom” mindset are assuming that unchurched people are going to come walking through their front doors. A post-Christendom approach assumes that people will not come unless they’re engaged in some way (through relationships, service, etc.). Neighborhood-focused plants are incarnational. I recall one young man who had become a Christian at one of the CTK church plants reflect, “Can you believe God cared for me so much that he planted a church in my neighborhood?”
2. Equips Christians to be missional, not consumeristic
Neighborhood church planting steers existing Christians away from choosing a church based on whose product they like best, and directs them to live on mission in their parish.
3. Encourages multi-culturalism
If a church planter’s neighborhood is multi-cultural, that diversity should be reflected in the church. When an outsider looks in, he/she should see a group of people that don’t belong together on the surface, and may have nothing in common but a shared identity in Christ. When this is the case, the makeup of the congregation is a compelling apologetic of the gospel.
4. Requires Kingdom unity
If someone cares about their neighborhood, he/she should be happy to see other churches joining Jesus on his mission. We need many different kinds of churches to reach many different kinds of people. We are working together with a Brazilian congregation in Quincy, as we believe that we can reach a greater scope of the city together than either of us can on our own. We are collaborating with them in teaching in ESL at the Brazilian church each Wednesday evening. The Lord’s Kingdom will come through a movement of the Holy Spirit in and through a unified body of Christ.
Matt and his wife Naomi have an almost-2 year old son, Liam. The Owens family moved to Quincy in June to plant a new congregation. You can track their progress or sign up to receive updates here: http://thequincyproject.com
Last, here is another great resource: check out David Leong’s article: “What is the Theological Meaning of the City?”
This year, as Christians throughout Boston draw deeper in our understanding of the cross, may God also fill this city with His resurrection life.
Palm Sunday Procession and Mass in Extraordinary Form
10:00am, Cathedral of the Holy Cross, 1400 Washington Street, Boston
Foot Washing Service
7:00pm, Union Baptist Church, 874 Main Street, Cambridge
This service incorporates a foot washing to remember the posture of humble servanthood that Christ demonstrated to us. Bishop Brian Greene will be the speaker.
For the past five months, the UniteBoston Reps have been engaging in various activities to listen and learn from their communities. These past four weeks, each rep will be writing a brief blog to share their findings with the Greater Boston Christian community. This week, Andrew Walker, UB Rep in the Back Bay, shares his insights.
We dream of having every community in Boston connected with a UB Rep! UB Rep Cohorts begin in October and finish in May. If you’re interested in being a UB Rep in your community, email Kelly Steinhaus, kelly@uniteboston.com
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When I think of Back Bay, two symbols come to mind that help me capture the character of this neighborhood: a pen and a wagon wheel. The pen represents learning and the pursuits that require a high level of literacy. Most of the activities that are evident in the Back Bay, from commerce to the various trades and occupations require learning and literacy as basic preconditions.
The wagon wheel brings to mind travel; and the Back Bay is certainly a hub of travel with Back Bay Station serving as a major gateway bringing people into the city and sending them to destinations within the region and beyond. Numerous hotels and restaurants provide hospitality for these travelers as well as those calling this home. And a healthy selection of shops along Boylston and Newbury Street attract shoppers from near and far.
For the most part, the resident population in Back Bay are those who can afford the high real estate prices, which consists of people with professional or highly technical training who hold jobs in the near vicinity. Among them are many families, as well as many with no close family ties.
The churches in the Back Bay are mostly examples of “traditional mainstream” denominations. Their congregations draw from the immediate neighborhoods, but also among them are some who come from surrounding schools as well some who commute to church, just as they commute to work sites in the Back Bay. But there are also a few more recent church planting efforts. The CityLife Presbyterian Church and Renewal Church are two examples of growing fellowships whose leaders speak with great excitement about praying and working for renewal in the city guided by the Spirit of Christ. They seem to be reaching mostly students and young working folks.
So one might gain an impression of the Back Bay being a crossroads offering comfortable domesticity as well as lively commercial and entertainment activity. But there is also in the Back Bay a confrontation with a less comfortable contrast: In 2013 the celebration of cosmopolitan expansiveness that is so much a part of the Boston Marathon and so appropriate to the character of the Back Bay was shattered by the explosion of two bombs. We witnessed and marveled at heroic interventions by so many first responders. In the following weeks admirable efforts were launched in aid of the casualties and their families. All of Boston’s citizens rightly drew encouragement from these acts and efforts. And then, four months later a young man was shot to death on Boylston Str., just across from Trinity Church. This event was not completely over looked by local media, but it got nowhere near the attention of the Marathon Bombing. That young man’s mother has asked us to consider, was the loss of her son any less tragic? Similarly, leaders in other Boston neighborhoods have asked us to consider, of the more than 300 shootings in other parts of the city, over the past ten years, are they any less tragic that they are deserving of so much less attention?
As I consider the question that we are all addressing, what’s God doing among us, this contrast weighs heavily on my heart. But I am not without encouragement.
At First Lutheran Church in Boston, my home congregation on Berkeley Street, I was invited this spring to present 3 sessions of instruction in Biblical Peacemaking during Sunday Morning Adult Bible study. I was pleasantly surprised at how well received it was. Three sessions grew into five sessions and there were more participants at the last session than at the first. I was especially delighted to observe that the sessions included allot of discussion and many thoughtful and penetrative questions were raised and debated. Perhaps most encouraging was the readiness of participants to consider the consequences of avoidance of difficult questions; how the patterns of avoidance hinder discussion when important issues like budget need to be addressed.
Participants in the congregation at First Lutheran are in many ways similar to the folks in the immediate neighborhood. Some are families, some are single, many are students. And we are blessed by much cultural diversity. Career interests are similar. Economic goals are similar. So I don’t consider it too much of a stretch of imagination to suppose that the thoughtful interest in Biblical Peacemaking I was surprised by at First Lutheran might imply that a similar interest exists in the larger community.
God is working among us and we’ll see the benefits when we listen to Him and to one another.