Interest and Intent

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Underground Seminary: Journey Through the Old Testament, Session 2
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November 28 - Detroit Villages Community Gathering!

Perhaps my favorite moment in the past month was my visit to the United Methodist New Church Start Committee. These are people gathering around the idea that our church institutions should be putting some effort behind starting new communities through which to gather people into Christian discipleship and mission.

I had come to share a little about what emergedetroit and the Detroit Villages were up to. How had we been accomplishing that mission of creating new spaces for new faces. I had also come with an interesting message from the young people living in intentional Christian communities in Detroit and covenanting together through our emerging network.

The message was about money. (Insert dramatic interstitial music here...Duh, duh, duuuuuuuuh!)

The night before I had gathered together in a Covenant Conversation among the Detroit Villages and had asked them what they thought God would want them to do with some of the grant money the New Church committee had made available to them. And a silence swept over the room.

Now, usually in a group of ministry people, when free money is put on the table, there are LOTS of good ideas about how to spend it. This or that program, this or that ministry partner, this or that mission focus, you name it. But this crew of urban gardeners, city missioners, and hospitality house providers reacted cooly when reminded of the presence of the funds.

They said this: "It's not that we don't want people to give us resources or support us - it's just that we've seen how often the presence of institutional money changes the intent of communities." Too often they've seen real relational mission work supplanted by the supposed efficiency of dollars and budgets. Too often money either keeps the rich away from the poor or brings them together in unhealthy co-dependent ways. Too often a particular ministry interest of those with resources becomes a quick flash of cash and subsequent retreat when those dollars don't fix the system.

For many, this is exactly the kind of relationship to mission and money that these communities were set up to avoid. They are, in the spirit of the New Monasticism, relocating to abandoned places of empire, not to conquer them or cleanse them with non-profit agency work - but to participate in their healing along with the residents there. They don't want to make a difference, they want to live a difference for Jesus and in communion with others.

Back at the committee meeting I assured the earnest church people that the Detroit Villagers hadn't instructed me to return any of the funds for now, but that they at least wanted to share their witness as they discern how to go forward. I passed along the message that these communities are calling people to move from interest and arms-length ministry into the life-transforming intentional living that has rescued Christianity from it's excesses so many times in the past.

Consider joining up with some of these Detroit Villagers at our upcoming Community Celebration. You can find information on this event on the emergedetroit calendar. There we welcome all those who ARE interested in what these folks are doing in Detroit and invite people to consider moving from interest to intent.

Carl
carl(at)emergedetroit.org

Visit the emergedetroit.org calendar, subscribe to the emergedetroit podcast, follow "emergedetroit" on Twitter, or join the emergedetroit facebook group for updates on upcoming emergedetroit.org gatherings, events and conversations.