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This evening we’re having a Fourth of July Hullabaloo. When I sent out the e-mail invitations, I said that it would be “at the building where we meet.” We meet get together as a church family every Sunday morning and we call it “Gathered Worship.” Though we catch ourselves slipping back into old ways of talking, we intentionally try to steer clear of saying things like we are “going to church.” Church is not something we do, it is not somewhere we go, it is our family.

Because Jesus reconciles us to the Father, we are no longer God’s enemies but heirs and believers are our brothers and sisters. This isn’t an ideal to be aimed for (though we do often fall short of living this way), it is a truth about who we already are because of Jesus. When we invite people to our home, we don’t say “would you like to come to family.” Those words just don’t work together in that way.

But we have come to view “church” simply as what happens in a specific building during a specified time. It is removed from daily life and as long as we can check it off our list of things to do for the week, we feel like our contract with God is OK.

But God says that the world will know that we are disciples of Jesus because of our love for one another (John 13:35), Paul says that we are supposed to think of others as more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3) and that we are to bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:1-2). This type of life won’t be possible until we stop thinking of church simply as something we do but as who we are as the children of God. We are called to share life with fellow believers, opening our homes and resources so that others might know the love of God that has reconciled us, not only to God but to others.

Sometimes it seems awkward to try and change the way we talk about church, but that’s not nearly as awkward as trying to change the way we live it. We at Church of the Cross are no longer content with superficial, once-a-week relationships. Yes, life together can be messy, but, as Bonhoeffer says in Life Together: “how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship with other Christians.”

When was the last time you thought of the presence of other Christians as a privilege? Why don’t we think/live that way? What would have to change for our perspective to change?

Though we are still a very young church, we’ve gone far enough in the journey to have some hindsight. Looking back at how we planted Church of the Cross, I think I would have done it differently. By no means am I complaining about where we’re at as a church family. I’m just saying that I think I would now do things differently. In fact, when we plant a church, we will do things differently.

We started with a corporate, gathered worship very early on in our growth process. To put it in different terms, we “led” with a Sunday morning gathering. From this, we developed Missional Communities, which we later renamed Community Groups. If we could put it into a picture, it might look something like this:

In many ways, in hindsight, I feel like we put up a church “structure” (not necessarily a building) and then felt like we had to “fill it,” to keep it going because that is what “churches” are supposed to do. I am by no means downplaying gathered worship, but after learning and preaching through the book of Acts, I’m not so sure I would do it the same way again.

Tim Keller has said that we should “plant the Gospel” and let church grow out of that. As we have moved to a more missional community structure (even though we no longer call them that,) I wish we had begun with our Community Groups, focused on getting ourselves to live in community on Mission and then let a corporate, gathered worship flower out of that. If the church’s primary task is making disciples,then I think we must ask where that happens best. I’m not saying that discipleship cannot or does not happen in Gathered Worship settings, but, when you’re together for an hour-and-a-half a week versus living life in community on mission throughout the week, which do you think will have more influence?

All of that to say that, if we had it to do over again, I think we would have “led” with our Community Groups. We define our Community Groups this way:

A Community Group is a family of learning, serving missionaries striving to live ordinary life together with Gospel intentionality.

Each Community Group is centered around a tangible, clearly-communicated mission with the end-goal of making disciples and we strive for them to be the heart of everything we do at Church of the Cross. In other words, they are the context in which we live together as community on mission. If we had it to do over, we would have led with these, flowing into a corporate worship, instead of the other way around. It might look something like this:

This diagram might require a little more explanation. Notice that in the first image, each of the circles is marked with a solid line. In most churches that adopt this approach, both Gathered Worship and Small Groups are specifically for believers. They are somewhat closed. But in the second diagram, our Community Groups and Gathered Worship are delineated by dashes. Those who do not yet believe in Jesus are welcome. Somewhere within, there is the “closed” circle of disciples, because, let’s be honest, some people are Christians and some are not.

In the second diagram, it is quite possible, and perhaps even expected that the Community Groups will grow faster than the Gathered Worship. Instead of inviting someone “to church,” we invite them into a communal life. This is not the same as “lifestyle evangelism” in which we simply hope that people will ask why we live differently, because we are intentionally turning everything back to Jesus, but the point of “success” or “failure” is not butts in the seats on a Sunday morning, but disciples.

I have come to wonder why it is that many of our church plant models “lead” with Sunday morning instead of with life on mission together. I wonder if it’s because life on mission together is not really all that natural to us. Sunday morning is easier to quantify, easier to track, but shouldn’t Sunday morning be a “gathering,” a celebration of what Jesus has been doing in and through us throughout the week?

There is certainly much more to be said on this, but I just wanted to share some of the things I’ve been thinking through.

Community Groups are the heart of who we are and what we do at Church of the Cross. We gather on Sunday mornings to worship, to be refreshed, reminded, edified, built up and then we scatter throughout the week to live in community on mission. We have said it before, but, even though on paper we only “do” two things: Sunday morning Gathered Worship and Community Groups, we actually ask much more of you than some churches who might fill your schedule with something every day of the week. We ask our family members to re0rient their entire lives around the Gospel; to begin living everyday life with gospel intentionality and Community Groups are the primary context for this to happen.

The Community Groups are made up of three spheres, “Communion,” “Community” and “Mission.” We first say this diagram in Hugh Halter and Matt Smay’s book The Tangible Kingdom, and it made a lot of sense to us. Halter and Smay define “communion” as our connection with God; worship, both personal and corporate. Community is life together and mission is being focused outward, on others. Our Community Groups aim to be the intersection of all three, the “sweet spot.” It is when all three of these spheres intersect, that Halter and Smay say the kingdom becomes “tangible” for people.

Many Christians groups seem to do well in two of the three, but, neglect any third sphere and you have something entirely different. For example, neglect “communion” leaving “mission and “community, and you have a social-service project. You might be doing “good,” but it is not Gopsel-good. Leave out “mission” for “communion” and “community” and you might have a good worship service. Forget “community” from “mission” and “community” and you might have a short-term missions trip, but you don’t hit the sweet spot, it’s not everyday life with Gospel intentionality.

Community Groups are meant to be a context in which we can aim for the intersection of each sphere, where communion, community and mission so inform our lives that the kingdom becomes tangible. This means that they are not just small-group bible studies. They are that, but they are more. They are not just social gatherings. They are that, but they are more. They are not just service projects. They are that, but they are more. Community Groups at Church of the Cross are small families of learning, serving missionaries where we learn to live everyday life with Gospel intentionality.

We don’t always succeed at this, but then again, life together is often messy. We’ve become convinced that when we look at community life in Scripture, there is more there than many of us have experienced. We want the kingdom to be tangible. We want you to learn to live in the sweet spot.

This past Sunday, during Gathered Worship, we had a bit of a mishap and it was entirely my fault. Right before the sermon, I muted the musicians on the soundboard. I was preoccupied when it was time to un-mute said musicians, so no one else knew to do so. Because of this, Shawn had to put his guitar down, run to the soundboard from the stage, unmute everyone, run back up, pick up his guitar and then resume the closing songs.

I know that we had at least one visitor who was a bit troubled by this. I know because he let us know. But we were not troubled by this and, if you are a part of Church of the Cross, you shouldn’t be either. You see, Sunday morning is not a performance. It is not a production. It is worship. That’s why we call it Gathered Worship.

I am aware that many people stress the idea of “undistracting excellence” and, behind the scenes, it’s even a phrase that we use from time to time. This is the idea that you do everything so well that people don’t notice. They just take it for granted that everything runs smoothly. It is thought that this helps facilitate people’s encounter with God because you’re getting out of the way as much as possible. But everything doesn’t always run smoothly, and, if you’re dependent on some musicians on Sunday morning to facilitate your encounter with God, you’re probably not really worshiping in the first place.

While the notion behind this notion is well-intended, it can border on legalism and cause much unnecessary stress. When it’s up to us to make sure everything runs smoothly to make sure people “encounter God;” to make sure the transitions are right and the lights are on cue and there are no awkward silences; that’s a lot of pressure and somewhere in there is a line between facilitating worship and performance. Wanting everything to run smoothly is not in and of itself a bad thing.

But sometimes life is messy. But as family united by the Blood of Christ, we work through it, in His strength, together. And sometimes, things go wrong during Gathered Worship and that’s OK. If our largest corporate gathering is always slick and smooth, does it really reflect our life together? Is it possible that allowing room for mishaps might remind us that we are real people living real lives before a real God.

We have tried very hard to remind ourselves that we are family and that Gathered Worship is a family gathering. I know some families that get quite upset when family gatherings don’t “run smoothly” and I know others that are OK with some flexibility and work through it together when mishaps happen.

By no means does this mean that we don’t take worship seriously. We do. It is a weighty thing to come before the Living God. But it is not a production. Nor should it be a performance. We do not gather to entertain you or even to make sure that everything runs smoothly, according to schedule and without hitch. We gather to worship.

We even take subtle but intentional steps to weekly remind ourselves of this. For example, we do not use prayer as a “staging” time to get the musicians on or off the stage. If prayer is really approaching God, then it’s OK to allow a few seconds of awkward silence before or after prayer. It’s when you’re worried about performance or timing that those awkward silences are not acceptable. And we’re not worried about those things.

We have worked hard to begin creating a family environment. Far from distracting from that, I wonder if it’s possible that something like me forgetting to unmute the musicians might, in some small way, remind us of that? Family worshiping together is certainly not dependent on everything going smoothly.

In this short video, Daniel Montgomery, pastor of our fellow Acts 29 church Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY discusses what the Gospel is and what it means for a local church to be shaped by it:

Over the course of the last year or so, I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with several people new to Church of the Cross or interested in Church of the Cross. Invariably, for those new to any local church, one of the first questions is: “What is the vision of this church?” Usually, what that means is something along the lines of: “Alright, we both know that this is another church, but what’s the big picture here?”

As I’ve had several of these conversations, I’ve had the chance to refine my wording a bit, but my answer has not changed: we want to change the Northwest Valley of Phoenix with the Gospel.

This, of course, can take on many different levels. It means that we want to break the isolation of suburbia by being the best neighbors possible (Leviticus 19:9, Matthew 5:43, etc.). It means that we want to break the spell of suburbia’s privacy by learning to truly live as God’s family, bearing one anothers’ burdens (Galatians 6:1). It means we want to become a people who break the spell of idolatry in our hearts (Ezekiel 14:3) by loving God more than status, position and toys.

But it also means more implicit things. For example, the Glendale/Peoria/Surprise area have never been known for live music, the arts or, for that matter, culture in general. We want Church of the Cross to be an agent of change in this regard. We want to be a center of culture, flowing from the Gospel of Jesus.

At first glance, this might seem to a grand vision for a young church. But then again, we love and serve the God of the impossible (Genesis 18:14). So if you’re wondering what Church of the Cross is all about, I hope that you’ll see: it’s about a vision as big as the Gospel itself.

Real community is important to us all but hard to find. As Church of the Cross grows, we are continually looking for ways to help strong community take root. The City is an innovative, member-driven, online Church community. In The City, you learn about all kinds of events, announcements, and resources from your Church of the Cross family. You can stay connected.

• Get connected with your Church of the Cross family on The City.

Still have questions? Watch this informational video from the makers of The City.

I’ve been thinking today about a quote from Stephen Altrogge:

Trying to stop the gospel is like pouring water on a grease fire. The gospel explodes in the face of opposition.

As I have been preaching through the book of Acts at our Sunday morning Gathered Worship, I have been thinking a lot about the pattern that followed Paul and the development of the Church. Paul would go into an area, go to the synagogue (the “religious” people), expound Jesus, find rejection, go to the Gentiles (the “irreligious” people), find general acceptance, then stir up opposition. It nearly always seems that as the opposition increases, Luke inserts one of his summary statements like Acts 19:20: “So the word of the Lord t continued to increase and prevail mightily.”

Why doesn’t the church in America find opposition like this anymore? In Acts 19:21-41, Paul finds himself in the midst of a riot because the spread of the Gospel meant that people were no longer buying idols and the idol-makers (no, not Simon Cowell), were losing money and became infuriated. Why don’t the modern-day “idol-makers” lose money with the spread of the Gospel? Why does pornography still flourish? Why is there still poverty and injustice? Why don’t we find opposition?

We live neutered lives and we preach a powerless message. Yes, the Gospel is about personal salvation, but it is also much more than that. It is about being with Jesus when we die, but it is also about living with and for Him now. It is the proclamation of Jesus as Lord and King, it is the news of a new Kingdom growing out of the thorns and thistles of this fallen world, disarming the rulers and authorities, creating a new people from all peoples unlike the old peoples. The Gospel should be dangerous. When it is, it fuels opposition. When it isn’t, we are simply viewed as another voting block or another consumer group.

Could it be that the Gospel in America rarely spurs opposition because we don’t preach the full Gospel? We love the individual, “that’s fine for you” elements, but we don’t like the part where it says that we are made different people with different affections and allegiances. After all, we don’t want people to think we’re weird and we certainly don’t want to offend people.

It is my heart that we at Church of the Cross would make a real difference in our city, that the “idol-makers” would be infuriated because we are changing the Northwest Phoenix Valley with, by and for the Gospel.

I want us to be a people with a deep-rooted Gospel that affects every area of life, not just ensuring that we’ll “go to heaven when we die,” but that calls, enables, empowers and indeed, demands that we live different lives here and now.

Wouldn’t you like to be part of a movement instead of just “going to church?”

On paper, Church of the Cross does two things: Sunday morning and Community Groups. This has been a conscious decision, but don’t let it fool you. Though we don’t have much on your schedule, we actually expect quite a bit from our members. In fact, we are striving to re-orient our entire lives around God’s mission. In John 20:21, Jesus said that just as the Father sent Him, Jesus is sending His people. God is a sending God and the Church is a sent people.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says that His people are to be about the business of making disciples and in Philippians 2, Paul makes the audacious claim that we are to consider others as more significant than ourselves because that is what Jesus has done for us. Jesus goes so far as to say that whoever follows Him must take up their own cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). Jesus says that he wants and demands and deserves our entire lives.

And yet, the way that we often approach church does not require our lives, it just takes up our time. Instead of equipping us, it leaves many of us drained. Instead of making disciples, it focuses much time and energy inward. I don’t by no means pretend that we have it all figured out or that we are somehow better than other churches, just that we’re trying another way. A harder way. It means that we seek out ways to serve rather than be served (Mark 10:45). It means that we don’t expect the church to do the work of ministry for us (Ephesians 4:11-16) but instead equip us to do the work of ministry.

Re-orienting your whole life around God’s mission is much more difficult than keeping some programs running. It means understanding yourself to be a missionary and all of life as the mission field. And this is best accomplished when we our time is freed up to connect with our family, friends and neighbors, serving them as ambassadors of the risen King. Though our calendar may not be all that full, it’s not because we don’t have lots to do, it’s because we want to be able to do it.

On January 12, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, the worst earthquake to hit the poverty-enslaved country in hundreds of years. Estimates of those killed range from 50,000-200,000 but only time will tell. The devastation is so severe that, as of now, there’s really no way to know the exact details. Travel into the country is severely limited, which means that much-needed supplies are coming in slowly at best. People are still being rescued from the wreckage. Our friend Mark Driscoll has flown to Haiti to help spearhead relief work on the part of churches in the U.S. Driscoll’s first reaction: “Landed in hell.”

The churches in the United States are left wanting to help but without clear direction. Sending people may not be the best immediate solution and there are so many charities that it’s difficult to know who to trust.

We have decided to partner with Churches Helping Churches, an effort led by Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald. This organization will allow our resources to aid those who can most quickly put them to immediate use: the churches on the ground in Haiti. It frees us from wondering how our money will be spent and assures us that the name of Christ will go forth, even in the midst of great tragedy.

We ask that you prayerfully consider how God is leading you to help those suffering in Haiti. If you wish to partner with us in this effort, check can be made out to Church of the Cross and must be designated “Haiti” and we will direct the resources accordingly.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Wade Myers and Brent Thomas

• Visit the Churches Helping Churches website

Our small groups will no longer be called Missional Communities. Instead, they will be called Community Groups. We originally used the term “Missional” to reinforce the idea of continually living on God’s mission of restoring all things to Himself through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. We have spent a lot of time understanding that the Bible presents all of God’s people as missionaries. Your current context is a mission-field. Our Missional Communities were designed to ad us in living this way, but somewhere along the way, our groups lost the practice of mission as a core.

Wade and I have spent a lot of prayer and time trying to best encourage and equip the Church of the Cross family to first understand all of life this way and then actually live that way. In the pursuit of this, there are currently no more groups. Please know that we did not make this decision lightly. We have seen some truly Gospel-centered relationships develop and we know that many of you are sad to see your current groups dissolve. But that doesn’t mean your relationships dissolve. Instead, it provides opportunity for you to continue them in a number of ways.

Beginning the week of January 10, we will re-launch with three Community Groups. Please understand that very little changes. We will go from 2 groups to 3, each group will still meet weekly for a meal, to encourage and equip each other for mission. What will change is that each new group will be centered around a tangible mission. Many of us simply stand like deer in the headlights when we consider that Church of the Cross’ mission is to see the West Valley transformed by the Gospel. Where do we even begin?! However, when we live together on a specific mission, things are much more manageable.

Community Groups are the heart of Church of the Cross. This is where we seek to build Gospel-centered relationships, where we learn to bear one another’s burdens, where we are accountable, where we are equipped and where we live on mission together. Each group will focus around a specific and tangible mission with the end-goal of making disciples of Jesus.

In addition to the weekly gatherings for equipping, at least once/month, each group will have some activity that seeks to further this mission. Instead of looking for a group that meets your needs, we encourage you to prayerfully consider which group might best give you opportunities to serve. With that in mind, our new groups will be (leader and mission):

Robert and Oksana Gilliland will be targeting local college students. Robert will be enrolling in at least one class at Glendale Community College and if possible, we would love to see others follow his lead. However, you don’t need to be a student to be part of this group. Other ways to help are by opening your home for meals to local college students as others build those relationships. There are many other ways we are considering this opportunity. Please be a part of this exciting chance to see the Gospel flourish on our local college campuses.

Wade and Tanya Myers will be targeting their neighborhood. Again, you don’t need to live there to help. Wade and Tanya have done a great job building relationships with many of their neighbors and finding opportunities to tangibly show God’s love. Their group will help them further the Gospel through these relationships by helping them serve their neighborhood in a variety of ways.

Brent and Kristi Thomas will be ministering to the many families involved Adams Traditional Academy, where Miles and Owen attend school (as well as the Ruwald children). We will seek ways to help the school and build relationships with the families of faculty, staff and students.

There will sign-up sheets tomorrow at Gathered Worship. We encourage you to prayerfully consider which opportunity provides the best way for you to grow and serve. We are so excited about where God has led us so far and where He continues to lead. We are excited to see these groups live on mission and multiply. We are excited to see these groups become Jesus, hands and feet to a hurting world, transforming culture for His glory. Please contact Wade or me with any questions.

— Brent Thomas
Church of the Cross
623.203.6509
www.churchofthecrossaz.com