Yesterday I went for coffee with Andrew Wallis. It was a good time to hang out, catch up and talk about church. Some things we talked about…

The Poor: I’ve been really trying to work through the conception of followership that says that to follow Jesus you must have a significant relationship with the poor. As the church we are certainly called to the poor, but sometimes this can lead to a ‘social justice gospel,’ which is really only a partial gospel. Ministering to the poor may be the primary calling of some individuals, but may only be a small part of other peoples’ walk. This is ok, God calls us to different things. First and foremost we are called to make disciples.

The Church gathered: a lot of people have been toying with the question of what should stay and what we should say goodbye to. Many have seen off the weekly Sunday meeting in an attempt to flee consumerism and to focus more on real community. While small groups can be and are great for growth, if this is your only context your group may become very insular and unaware of the wider picture. Sundays, in the early church, were a statement of defiance, of saying “we’re different, we’re not Jewish etc.” (see NT Wright on the resurrection)

Control: this came up in relation to a few things. Firstly when talking about giving – there have been conversations recently about, rather than giving financially to a central fund, keeping the money and giving it to needs as you see fit. Part of giving is giving up control. In the scenario of giving as you see fit, this isn’t the case.

The other notable point at which the topic of control came up was to do with the question of how to build/encourage a church that “fires on all six cylinders” (Rich Nathan)? It is important to make room for people to find their calling. If we’re not careful we can end up with a partial gospel (like the ‘social justice gospel’ mentioned above) and therefore with a church that only fires on 1 or 2 cylinders (a bumpy ride). Allow the Holy Spirit to lead. This conversation echoed what I read on Eric Keck’s site after his visit with Eugene Peterson.