I begin this series on the intersection of the Emerging Church conversation and Capitol Hill with a look at one of the foundational concepts to ministry on Capitol Hill and the EC conversation: community. If we American Christians desire to impact the Hill community for Jesus Christ, we must begin by establishing and nurturing community. But what does that look like and why is it needed?
First, nurturing community will provide a sacred space in which the lost may experience and encounter the Living God, outside of the institution of the church. The objective of such communities isn’t to replace what a local body of believers provides, but rather the EC recognizes that people “belong before they believe.” In his book “The Out of Bounds Church”, Steve Taylor relates providing these safe places to the art of tourism. He writes, “Tourism can serve as a redemptive framework for postmodern mission, in which people are ‘tourists’ on spiritual journeys and the Church operates as ‘tour guides,’ stimulating forward movement and nourishing the quest.” In light of the free-fall attendance and association with churches and the reported increase of the spiritual experience of people in a “do-it-yourself” quest that Taylor exposes, American Christians should encourage establishing communities as a point of contact between the lost and the Truth of Jesus.
As I have said before, the Hill is filled with nearly 18,000 lost and broken individuals who desperately need to be restored to relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. What better way to begin accomplishing the restoration of individuals within the halls of Congress than by developing tens and hundreds of “tourist agencies”? Of this need for tour guides Steve writes, “It is the role of those on the journey now to create signposts that allow the traveler to get oriented. The signposts we create are not meant to exclude some from the journey but to guide all who wish to walk.” So in an effort to transform the life of the policy writer, and thus the policy itself, we Christians need to take on the role of tour guide to lead people to liberation in Christ. Steve gives some great advice on what this might look like:
The mission of the Church is to act as a resource for spiritual tourists and must search for ways to move people from recreation to experimentation to existential relocation into the kingdom of God. The tour guide can deepen knowledge, explain local customs, and ensure a safe space in which to explore and experience. The tour guide can create an invitation for continuing the journey or shut down the desire to return. An effective guide has an intuitive sense of what the tourist needs and is ready for. This tour guide provides opportunities for exploration beyond what is expected and offers resources for deepening the impact of the journey.
In addition to providing a place for missing persons to find relationship with Jesus, community is also a venue through which disciples of Christ can grow spiritually and find support in their important roles. Through community, followers of Jesus can do life together, explore and apply Truth, encounter God through group prayer and communion, and refocus their Hill-lives around their calling as agents of restoration by actively and deliberately being Jesus to the world around them. One of the strongest assets of the EC is their emphasis on missional communities, groups of disciples of Christ supporting one another and encouraging each other to live out their faith locally. Given the incredible physical and spiritual demands of these very young unelected leaders, the American Church must promote, encourage, and nurture communities like those of the early Church. In fact, the book of Acts paints the best picture of what this would look like for Capitol Hill Christians.
Without going into an in-depth explanation of the passage, take a look at Acts 2:42-47:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
This is such a beautiful expression of what it means to establish community among the Church as it exists on Capitol Hill. As Luke recounts, the early assembly of believers centered around some core concepts: they devoted themselves to the exploration and understanding of the Word of God; encouragement, support, accountability, and regular connection were hallmarks of these early communities of believers, including the physical care and provision of their brothers and sisters; they regularly encountered God by observing and reflecting upon the Lord’s Supper; and we can see they devoted themselves to living incarnationally within their world–many people who previously were not disciples of Jesus were added to their numbers as a direct result of expressing their faith. This sort of original concept of community–not to mention the definition and expression of the Ecclesia–is what the Emerging Church rests heavily, and it’s a concept that Americans should nurture on the Hill, too.
But beyond providing a group through which staffers can do life together and encounter God, this communion of saints must exist for the good of the Hill community, for the good of the world. Ultimately, I see community on Capitol Hill reflecting two historical communities: Iona and the Clapham Circle. For Hill Christians to reflect these historic Christocentric communities, however, they will have to reunderstand their role and identity as not simply individual Christians working a job, but a collection of disciples of Jesus that form the Ecclesia within this community of lost and broken individuals.
Inevitably, these reflections on community will have a dramatic affect on our view of the Ecclesia. Many theologians have commented that no evangelical group has a higher view of the Church (Ecclesis) than the Emerging Church, and that is the topic I wish to discuss in my next post. If American Christians outside of Capitol Hill desire to be effective in missionally reaching that community for the Kingdom of Heaven, it will have to encourage Christians within to be the Body of Christ and get serious about it’s role as the Church as it exists on Capitol Hill.
