Kingdom Slacklining

By Jonathan Kindberg

With the weather finally getting warmer in Chicago, the children are out in mass again in our neighborhood at Briar Street. After being cooped up inside for the long winter months, they are now able to run outside in the sun, play soccer in the company of their friends…and scream their heads off.

This last Sunday was a beautiful day and so our team decided to put up the slack line and grill outside. Quickly we were mobbed by a very excited group of screaming kids who wanted to join in on this strange new sport. For those of you uninitiated folks,  slacklining is: “a balance sport that uses nylon webbing tensioned between two anchor points. Slacklining is distinct from tightrope walking in that the line is not held rigidly taut (although it is still under some tension); it is instead dynamic, stretching and bouncing like a long and narrow trampoline” (thank you, Wikipedia).  It’s great fun and a great way to get to know a lot of our neighbors.

As we seek to get to know our neighbors who don’t yet know Jesus, we seek ways to build authentic, reciprocal relationships with them. One question we have found it helpful to ask (and one that I heard first from Bill Hybels in his book on evangelism), is: what do you enjoy doing that you can involve others in? This activity, whether it’s a specific sport or hobby, is meaningful in and of itself, but can take on a greater degree of kingdom significance when done in this purposeful way.

So if anyone is wondering what our model for church planting is, you now know the answer: kingdom slacklining.

Youth Retreat - Spring 2011

by Jonathan Kindberg

This last weekend I led a youth retreat with the youth from Santa Maria (that I lead on Sunday mornings in Franklin Park) and from Iglesia. The Spirit’s presence was powerfully at work softening the hearts of the youth and the Lord answered many prayers for our time together. Thank you all of you who were praying! The main scripture for the weekend was Psalm 95 with an emphasis on invitation (“come”) and on the one who is giving the invitation, the Good Shepherd.

For many of these youth, this was their first time away from home for a night and for most the first time at a retreat. There were a lot of nervous parents and students Friday night as we left, but this soon melted in the excitement of a weekend away. Most of these students are still considering whether to fully commit to following Jesus as this is a very new concept for them.

God is raising up the second generation of Hispanics in Chicagoland and it is exciting to see! Praise the Lord!

Of Spanish and the Spirit

By Jonathan Kindberg

Our usual Sunday community dinners at Briar Street have been anything but usual. Each week we are excited to see what surprises the Lord will bring through our neighbors. This last week found us after dinner sitting in a circle in our living room with notebooks and pens in hand learning Spanish from Gerardo. We should have seen it coming when Gerardo, one of our Mexican neighbors, walked in for dinner carrying two plastic bags full of classroom supplies. He had markers (which later turned our living room windows into art canvasses thanks to one of the kids), notebooks, pencils and a large piece of foam board which he converted into a make-shift white board. It was quite amazing to see how much ingenuity and planning he had put into this.

At Briar Street as we prepare to launch weekly services hopefully by the end of the summer we have begun to study together the book of Acts with some of our neighbors. One of the first things we realized is that it is the Holy Spirit who really plants a church. In one sense, for any of us to call ourselves “church planters” is a bit presumptuous. It’s kind of like someone claiming they can make babies all on their own. We were also surprised to see that one of the first ways the Holy Spirit reveals his power is by giving the disciples the ability to speak in other languages. The book of Acts begins with this statement in 1:8:  “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses.” This power is then demonstrated through the reversal of the tower of Babel and the ability the disciples have to be witnesses in many different languages. It seems, then, that learning another language (such as Spanish) is an activity very in step with the workings of the Spirit.
Many churches in an attempt to reach out to their diverse community begin ESL (english as a second language ) classes. We are talking about eventually doing so ourselves as well at Briar Street Anglican Church. But I think it is worth noting that we began our ministry at Briar Street not by teaching English, but rather by putting ourselves under Gerardo’s teaching and learning Spanish. I think this makes the Holy Spirit smile.

“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.