Their parents assumed that the teachings of the church would be well received via religious osmosis. But the Great Commission explicitly commands us to teach and disciple. Neglecting this element of the gospel imperative creates an atmosphere of spiritual and doctrinal atrophy resulting in a nonessential church.

The passage about the assumption made by parents and leaders that their kids would “just get it” by coming to church stuck out at me.  I was struck that training people to follow Jesus needs to be central to the purpose of any church.  This made me think of Matthew 28:18-20.  I am seeing a framework for a vision coming out of that verse.

“(18b) All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I see in this passage bookends of worship: looking to God for our authority “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and his promise to be present with us “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”.  Worshipping God for who he is and seeking his presence is the first and last thing a church stands for.

Then we have the mission of the church – to make disciples and baptize “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”.  We are here to bring lost souls to Jesus.

Then we have a mandate to train up the disciples we have been entrusted with.  “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,”.

So a suggested mission statement of our future church plant could be, “To worship God, first and last, and guide his followers to him.”

A suggested vision:

Using Matthew 28 as our guide, we desire to pursue the mission that Jesus entrusts us with:

• To acknowledge our Lord Jesus as King, and worship him together;
• To guide our neighbours to be baptized as followers of Jesus;
• To teach and encourage each other in the love that Jesus has for us and the world;
• To raise up new leaders to pursue this mission everywhere;

What excites me about this is that it is short and sweet. It is not overly complicated with layers of process and form. It feels clean and simple, and that is what church should be, it seems to me. You look at any great movement, and it had a distilled message that was simple to grasp and follow. Like our faith. All God really asks of us is to love God and love our neighbour. That’s it. And the structure we are to use to accomplish this is the church.

After a time of testing, I arrived at my destination, UBC Campus.  The University of British Columbia had changed a lot since the last time I was there – I was surprised a the profusion of condos all over the place.  I had to meet someone for my paper there, and I hadn’t been there since the Carey Institute was connected to Regent College, so I assumed that was still the case.

Instead I discovered this stunning building.  It’s the new Vancouver School of Theology.   Turns out it is about 2 blocks away from Regent College, so I hiked on over there, a little late.

But this isn’t about the UBC campus.  It’s about a great pastor and a great vision in a church in Whistler.

What a wealth of information.  I almost regretted having questions to ask, because he more than indulged my flights of fancy and gave me a great picture of the challenge and the blessing of working for the Lord in that town.

Whistler is an extraordinary town.  It is a resort town in the truest sense – it has no reason for existence except to indulge people in highs of adrenaline, if it is not from skiing or snowboarding, it is from mountain biking, hiking, or other extreme sports.  And those who are too old for such excitement are sitting in their million dollar log cabin retreats surrounded by some of the most pristine mountains and bluest lakes on the continent.

Enter into this God’s Kingdom.  Imagine the task of bringing the good news of salvation to people whose main reason for being in town is pleasure.  They are there seeking something – a thrill, or a break, a respite, or fulfilment, in something the world offers.  In Whistler, that is provided by creation.  But Jesus offers fulfilment provided by the creator.

These people think they have what they want, but the job of the church in Whistler is to demonstrate what is missing.  The driven individual seeking a high of achievement lacks the joy of life itself and the fellowship of community.  The pastor and his church are living a life dedicated to reflecting God’s joy and life in community.

I found his story and his vision to be quite inspiring, and commented as we spoke that really, the only difference between Whistler and Surrey (or the Greater Vancouver area in general) is that there are less poor people in Whistler.  Whistler represents a distilled, idealized Vancouver without the problems caused by those who have fallen to life’s vices.  Oh, I am sure that there are drug users in Whistler, alcoholics, and people suffering from all kinds of abuse.  It is as they succumb to the consequences of those issues that they leave Whistler though.  They gravitate back to the big city.

My point is that their approach makes a lot of sense.  As Christians, we know that hedonism does not fill the hole that is inside us – though so many people insist on wasting their lives proving this to be true.  It is Jesus that fills that hole.  The first five minutes of my morning walk with my dog, as I just thank God for another day and for his love and mercy as I look upon the first glimmerings of light along the silhouette of the mountains to the west are the most soul-satisfying of my day.  But conveying this in tangible ways is something that he is working hard at through his community of believers.    It is definitely making me think about what kind of community I want to try and build when we head out on our endeavour.

The Open House is advertised as “A missional community walking in a Jesus direction”.  From everything I have read about missional churches and the theology behind them, I am totally in agreement with much of their understanding of the purpose of a church body.  The flavour of missional churches that leans in an emergent direction becomes dischordant in my mind though, because it seems to lean too heavily on a concept of postmodernism that doesn’t really exist much.

I read the other day an author that claims that postmodernism doesn’t really exist.  That the classic anarchic view of young people or whoever, the rejection of absolutes does not exist.  That if you drill down any postmodern, you will find someone who is modern, and recognizes the necessity of modernity.  I think that could be true.  The stereotypical community of emergents as a fellowship body, meeting casually in bars or coffeeshops, talking about God and ancient forms of devotion doesn’t go anywhere.  It relies on the personality of the leader to hold it together because there is no call for loyalty or commitment from its constituent members.  Each member is ultimately self-directed in their own personal quest for deity, and only incidentally fellowships.

What this results in is a community that is temporary and transient.  It comes and goes in wisps.  It relies on flighty noncommital people to dedicate themselves to themselves and in so doing, a community.  Except, I have to think that the Bible teaches the opposite.  It teaches commitment to the body of Christ first, and your person second.  “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your stength, and love your neighbour as yourself.“  Where does the self come?  Last.

So when I see an emerging church with suspended services, I am not surprised.  I wish human nature wasn’t what it is, but that and a dollar will buy you a can of Coke.  I am convinced that one of the factors of a successful church is eliciting real concrete commitment – to doctrine, to fellowship, to service, to God, and to one another.  What comes of that commitment is growth in yourself.  Personal growth is the result of commitment – it can’t be sought for its own sake, and it should never come before anything else.

Now, to figure out how to communicate that to people who disagree.

Heh.  Still working on that.