“Just a Shmo"

By Jonathan Kindberg

Recently I was talking with a friend of mine who has just come on staff part time with a new church plant as their worship leader. He was talking about the new church and then began talking about how unprepared he felt to begin his new role, it being the first time he has worked at a church. “I’m just a shmo,” he said. “I don’t have much formal training.”

“I’m just a shmo.” That comment hit me. Here was a well educated (he has an undergrad and masters degree), gifted musician who is just finishing a year of a fairly intensive church internship and has a decent amount of experience leading worship. Why did he feel like “just a shmo”? I don’t think it’s his fault. I think it’s the Church’s (at large) fault. It is one more example of the professionalism of the church. We have said that you can’t do “ministry” unless you have a seminary degree, are of middle age, and have a decent resume. If my friend feels unprepared as a well educated, paid staff member how do you think those in the pews of our churches feel? No wonder they leave all the heavy lifting to the paid professionals.

The truth is, there is no such thing as a “joe shmo” in the church. There are ears, eyes, noses, legs, hands, hearts, and lungs. There are baptized Christians who, in their baptism and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, have been given the necessary resources (and mandate) to minister.

By no means do I mean to deny the importance of discipleship and training, but such training isn’t a prerequisite for ministry. Every believer is a minister from the day of their spiritual birth. We could call this “the ministerhood of all believers.”

Contrast my friend with one of my neighbors who is a self-taught keyboard player, has a beautiful voice, but has no formal training. He could easily feel like a “shmo” with nothing to contribute. However, I am hoping that when we begin regular services at Briar Street Anglican Church he will be one of our worship leaders. Naming a gift and encouraging the person to use it, is a start in this direction. If he decides to go forward, he won’t be paid, it won’t be professional, but it will be one part of the body ministering in their giftedness for the good of the whole. And it will be easily reproducible (those in the pews: “If he can do it, then so can I!”).

It is my prayer that he nor anyone else in the church ever feel like “just a shmo.”

Greenhouse in the Desert

By Jonathan Kindberg, Rev. William Beasley & Deacon Anne Beasley of the Greenhouse Movement

This year’s Anglican 1000 Church Planting Summit in Plano, Texas, linked Chicago to El Paso.  After attending William Beasley’s workshop, Bill Cobb, rector of the Church of St. Clement in El Paso, Texas, invited him to speak in El Paso.  William called together a team from the Greenhouse Regional Church Movement: his wife, Anne Beasley, and Lay Catechist Jonathan Kindberg, leader of a Spanish-speaking congregation and a bilingual outreach to Chicago area youth (among other occupations).  Less than a month later, the Chicagoans found themselves in the border town of El Paso to present a workshop on the Greenhouse model for the spontaneous expansion of the Church and how it might impact the El Paso/Juarez region.

As one of the largest bi-national metropolises in the world, El Paso/Juarez is a region of contrasts and contradictions. While El Paso is the safest city of its size in the United States, a mere stone’s throw across the dried-up Rio Grande border lay the most dangerous city on earth, Juarez. Last weekend alone, the Associated Press reported 53 murders in 72 hours in Juarez. Furthermore, while El Paso is a modern city of considerable wealth, many areas of Juarez remain without running water or waste collection.  How can the Church mobilize to bring the hope of the Gospel to Juarez?
Contrasted with traditional models of church planting that require large amounts of resources, the Greenhouse model mobilizes catechists (lay pastors), lay evangelists, and the resources in the people to initiate new works while emphasizing that “the whole church raises up the whole church,” as everyone uses their Spirit-given gifts and talents.
El Paso/Juarez is a region ripe for such spontaneous expansion of the church.  El Paso is approximately 80% Hispanic and a thoroughly bicultural and bilingual city. Spanglish is the lingua franca. This border city is a living example of what some sociologists see as the future of the United States. “We’re seeing the development of two populations groups in Texas: aging Anglos and young minorities. We’re seeing Hispanic growth not just deepen but become pervasive throughout the state. The Texas of today is the U.S. of tomorrow,” says Steve Murdock, Rice University sociology professor and former Census Bureau director (USA Today).

While St. Clement’s may be considered a wealthy congregation, some of the neighborhoods around the church and its school are not so prosperous.  Eight years ago, responding to the difficulties facing people from these impoverished neighborhoods, St. Clement’s started Ciudad Nueva (New City), a community development corporation directed by St. Clement’s member, Sami DiPasquale.  Ciudad Nueva currently serves over 200 at-risk children and youth through after school programs and community outreach.  It is a beautiful picture of the church at work in the “transformation of society,” one of the accountabilities that Archbishop Bob Duncan constantly reminds us of.

We North American Anglicans need to grapple with this demographic shift and the reality of poverty in our church planting efforts.  As a North American movement we can move into all types of socio-economic and ethnic communities.

Please pray with us that the love of Jesus will transform our movement with Jesus’ heart for all people.  May we as Anglicans learn to reach people and plant churches that reflect our changing society.  And may these churches deeply impact our communities and neighborhoods, following the example of St. Clement’s and Ciudad Nueva.  May God use the Anglican Church to unleash his Kingdom in El Paso/Juarez, for the conversion of souls as more and more congregations are planted that Jesus’ love would fill hearts and his peace would quell violence.

On Mission in El Paso/Juarez

by Jonathan Kindberg

As one of the largest Bi-national metropolises in the world, El Paso/Juarez is a region of contrasts and contradictions. While El Paso is the safest city of its size in the United States, Juarez, a mere stone’s throw across the dried up Rio Grande, is the most dangerous city on earth. This last weekend 37 people were murdered, the bloodiest three days in the city’s history. Furthermore, while El Paso is a modern city of considerable wealth, many areas in Juarez do not even have running water.
This last weekend myself and William and Anne Beasley of the  Greenhouse Regional Church Movement spent four days in El Paso/Juarez at the invitation of St. Clement’s Anglican Church presenting the Greenhouse model for the spontaneous expansion of the church.

Contrasted with traditional models of church planting that require ordained clergy and large amounts of planning and resources, the Greenhouse model uses lay pastors (known as Catechists), little to no resources and emphasizes that it is “the whole church raising up the whole church,” everyone using their Spirit given gifts and talents.

El Paso/Juarez is a region ripe for such spontaneous expansion.  El Paso is approximately 90% Hispanic and a thoroughly bicultural and bilingual city. Espanglish is the lingua franca. The city is a living example of what many think is the future of the United States. “We’re seeing the development of two populations groups in Texas: aging Anglos and young minorities. We’re seeing Hispanic growth not just deepen but become pervasive throughout the state. The Texas of today is the U.S. of tomorrow,” says Steve Murdock, former Census Bureau director and now a Rice University sociology professor, on the Latino population growth in Texas (quoted in USA Today).

While St. Clement’s is a generally wealthy congregation, the neighborhood surrounding their building is an economically depressed area.  Eight year ago, responding to the difficulties facing those living in the surrounding neighborhood, St. Clement’s started Ciudad Nueva, a community development corporation currently serving over 200 at risk children and youth in the surrounding community through after school programs and community outreach. It is a beautiful picture of the church at work in the “transformation of society,” one of the accountabilities that Archbishop Bob Duncan constantly reminds us of.

This demographic shift and the reality of injustice and poverty are realities that we as Anglicans have yet to grapple with in our church planting efforts. As a movement we are still primarily Anglo (as our name also seems to communicate) and primarily middle to upper class. I pray that as a movement we begin to plant churches that reflect our changing society: multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and messy. Churches of the kind we have never seen before. I pray that we not only plant many, many churches, but that we plant churches that have a deep impact on communities and neighborhoods, following in the example of Ciudad Nueva. I pray that we plant churches that welcome the stranger and that attack the root causes of poverty and injustice, churches that bring the good news of the Gospel. Let us all pray that this be the case in El Paso/Juarez.

Immigration as a Mission on Our Doorstep

by Jonathan Kindberg

The United States is changing at an unprecedented pace. According to current predictions by the US Census Bureau, by 2050 the United States will have a majority of ethnic minorities, and as soon as 2031 white, non-Hispanic children will become a minority.

These changes aren’t just impacting urban areas. With the increasing suburbanization of poverty and a growing percentage of immigrants moving directly to the suburbs, bypassing the urban areas all together, the suburbs are changing as well.

One example of this is DuPage County, Illinois, a county in the western suburbs of Chicago. According to the Billy Graham Center’s research, DuPage County will become a majority minority county by 2030, 20 years ahead of the national trend. Currently, nearly two out of every five residents are foreign born with the most common nationalities being Mexican and then Asian Indian.
Recognizing God’s hand in these changes in bringing the world to our doorstep, Mosaic DuPage is a movement of local churches, both immigrant and non-immigrant, working together for the sake of mission in our changing community. Each year, in partnership with World Relief, Mosaic hosts the Mission On Your Doorstep/La Mision En Tu Comunidad conference to equip and prepare the local church to reach its changing community.
The video below is preview of the longer video Mosaic is releasing at this year’s conference, which will take place March 4 and 5 in West Chicago, Illinois and which is focused on how to live as part of “God’s Kingdom without Borders.” This year, the conference will have a particular focus on undocumented immigrants and include talks by Dr. Daniel Carroll R., Stephan Bauman, Juan Ortiz, Matthew Soerens, Wayne “Coach” Gordon, and many others.  Please consider joining us!



The Mission On Your Doorstep Video Teaser from Mosaic DuPage on Vimeo.

Apprenticeship

by Jonathan Kindberg

This last week I went with several of my leaders to the Anglican 1000 conference in Plano, Texas (http://anglican1000.org/). This conference was birthed out of Archbishop Duncan’s call just over a year ago to plant 1000 new Anglican churches in the next 5 years. So far, we have planted 100. This is a great start, but much work remains.

This year my leaders and I assisted Fr. William in a workshop he gave on the topic of a “Lay church planting movement.” In essence he said that a movement starts with one on one apprenticeship: Jesus and Peter, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Timothy. Apprenticeship, rather than a curriculum or a program, is organic; it’s life on life. It can be boiled down to 5 steps (as taught by the Furgeson brothers): 1) I do, you watch, we talk. 2) I do, you help, we talk.  3) You do, I help, we talk. 4) You do, I watch, we talk. 5) You do, third person watches, you talk….and so on. Pretty simple, hu?
It’s been my aim, and I’ve challenged all my leaders to do so as well, to always be doing this with someone else in every aspect of my ministry. Apprenticeship….a key ingredient in starting a movement.