Click play below to hear the teaching from our first public gathering on April 19 titled “The End of Religion.”

Yesterday was a meaningful day with the Renew launch team as we spent time processing our first public gathering, which was held last week. Here were some of the questions we asked during our time of reflection:

-Who were some of the people you met? What were some of their stories? What were the

follow-up interactions like with who came who were skeptics?

-The way we as The Church love those unacquainted with Jesus is a litmus test of our spiritual

health. How were we practicing hospitality (i.e. making the ‘other’ feel safe, welcome and comfortable)?

-What were your expectations for last week?

-Where did you see Jesus show up?

-How is our faith being stretched? How can we grow in the importance of prayer?

-The world doesn’t care what we say about the love of God if we don’t allow for opportunities for people to experience it. Did we love well? How do we know?

-What do we need to know about or be aware of?

-If we have concluded that our gatherings are for “formation for mission” then how can we ensure that will happen again in our next gathering?

-How do we keep our eye on the ball and make sure our focus is on living out the gospel message in our contexts through the week ahead?

As we’ve said before, our gatherings are not the main event. Our gatherings are just the pep rally. We’re much more interested in getting people to check into the game and experience the Jesus life with us. And it was exciting to see people begin to see that vision fleshed out in reality.

We haven’t “arrived” (never will) and we have a long way to go, but it was a encouraging – and refreshing – to see how everything felt so natural in our gathering. Much of the feedback from people experiencing Renew for the first time mentioned that it was environment of hospitality, genuine care and concern – a warm atmosphere where people could be themselves. Our team stepped up and served, officially and unofficially, formally and informally, big and small, up front and behind the scenes.

Our next gathering is May 24, but there are plenty of ways to be involved in the rhythms of Renew.

Just let us know if you are interested in participating with us.

The unique vision of Renew is to see fresh expressions and fresh extensions of God’s kingdom actively at work in Lansdale & the North Penn region.

 

Part of that unique vision means de-emphasizing (though certainly not un-emphasizing) Sunday in order to re-emphasize living out the gospel rhythms Monday through Saturday. Simply put, we’re more concerned about embracing the life of Jesus as a way of life rather than simply a church service to go to once a week. This translates into a conviction that we want to train, equip and launch people before we launch programs (most specifically our Sunday gatherings).

 

Practically, this translates into a few unique ways:

 

(1) We’ve placed a great deal of time and energy into developing our house churches.

 

These smaller Jesus communities meet throughout the region on different nights of the week and help us to live out the ways of Jesus through exploring the Scriptures, serving in mission and celebrating and partying together. People are being formed and shaped and are catching the more holistic vision of Renew as a movement, not just a Sunday service.

 

(2) We’ve placed a great deal of time and energy in serving and engaging Lansdale and the surrounding communities in official and unofficial ways.

 

We’ve made an intentional effort develop our oikos (a Greek word that means ’sphere of influence’). Specifically, we’ve been involved in opportunities to serve at Manna on Main, the Boys and Girls Club, develop a team of volunteers to start the Lansdale Farmers Market, host a few doubt :: nights, participate in area food drives benefitting the poor, host prayer walks around our communities, plan a Forum on Suburban Poverty and host clean up days the park around the Kugel Ball and Main Street on a regular and ongoing basis.

 

(3) We have held off on holding public community gatherings for the past several months.  

 

We believe that regular public community gatherings are important, but we want to make sure we keep these gatherings in proper perspective.

 We’ve decided to take a slow, intentional approach.

 We’ve been listening to God, discerning His vision for this faith community, been involved in each other’s lives and strategically focusing on ways to be a blessing to the community.

 We want our regular public gatherings to be an extension of our already existing Monday-through-Saturday mission, birthed naturally out of what God is already doing.

We want to do this rather than start with a weekly event that everything in our church orbits around.

By doing this we’re trying to plant the flag outside of the four walls of the church. We want to plant it out in the world and rally around it there.

 

A Dual Expression of Church

 

We believe that we grow, mature and live in community best in what we call a ‘dual expression of church’: smaller Jesus communities (house churches) and large public gatherings (all of our house churches and others interested in being a part of Renew).

 

Our house churches have been up and running for about six months now. It’s been exciting to see all that God has done in these smaller Jesus communities.

 

Now we sense it is appropriate for us to move forward with a regularly held public community gathering. But instead of starting out by holding these gatherings on a weekly basis we will be hosting public community gathering once a month for the next six months.

 

Our house churches will continue to meet weekly while our public gatherings will meet monthly. After six months we anticipate that we will begin to have weekly public gatherings.

 

Our first public gathering will be on Sunday morning April 19 at 10 am at Marjeane’s Catering (320 S Broad Street in Lansdale) on the corner of Broad and Hancock near Saxbys Coffee.  And parents: we’ve got stuff planned for the kids, too.

 

Our first public gathering does not signal the “launch” of Renew (we’ve already been up and running for a while now with our launch team meetings, house churches and community events) but a natural progression of our vision.

 

Who is invited to come to this gathering?

 

Our gatherings are open to the public – anyone who is interested in being a part of our faith community is welcome to come.

 

We have one rule at Renew though: no perfect people are allowed.  If you’re looking to find out more about the intriguing person of Jesus and how he matters in our everyday lives while meeting other people who desire to do the same, we’d love to have you join us.

 

You won’t see ads in the newspaper about our gatherings nor will we be mailing out thousands of slick fliers to neighborhoods inviting people to attend our church. We’ll post it here (and maybe on Facebook and Twitter) and, most importantly, through word of mouth. (So if you know of anyone who might be interested in checking out what we’re doing on the 19th feel free to invite them as well).

 

If you’re interested in attending, there are a few things we’d like you to know about us first:

 

[-] We’re a faith community for skeptics + dreamers. If you’re skeptical of organized religion or aren’t sure what to think of the person of Jesus, we think this might be a place of belonging for you. And/or if you’re a dreamer (you dream of a world where God loves, cares for and is actively involved in renewing His world) we’d love for you to come join us, too.

 

[-] If you’re currently a part of another faith community we strongly encourage you to stay right where you are. We don’t desire to see ‘church transplants’ at Renew. Our vision is unique; we realize we’re a different kind of faith community than what people have come to expect of “church.” We would much rather grow slowly with people who are not currently connected anywhere than to grow rapidly because people left other churches to be a part of ours.

 

If you’re longing to be a part of a group of less-than-perfect people who desire to experience grace, be ourselves, pay attention to God and who are in the process of learning to respond appropriately, we’d love to have you join us – regardless of where you are in your faith journey.

 

If you have questions don’t hesitate to contact us at info@renewcommunity.org

 

Come join us on April 19.

Back in February, 40 people attended an event hosted by Renew called doubt :: night.  doubt :: night was formed on the basis of a few what ifs: 

 

[-] What if there was a safe place to ask dangerous but important questions about life, faith, God, Jesus, the church?

[-] What if we could air out + openly talk about our questions, concerns, and doubts with others who are searching and seeking on this journey of life and faith?

 

It was a laid-back yet intentional conversation where we talked about our questions + doubts about Jesus, God, faith, the Church.

Those in attendance enjoyed it so much they suggested that we do it again soon.

So, we’re hosting our second doubt :: night this coming Monday night April 6 at 7:30 pm at Third & Walnut Bar and Grille (corner of Third and Walnut near the Lansdale Train Station).

 

This is open to anyone + everyone (18 and over) regardless of your religious background and no RSVP is needed.  Just show up and bring others who might be interested in discussing the tough questions of life.

 

Still have questions?  Contact us at info@renewcommunity.org

 

We hope to see you there.

Sunday was an especially encouraging day with our Renew launch team. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been meeting weekly for the past eight months to plan, pray, process, discuss, learn/unlearn/relearn what it means to be the people of God guided by God’s Spirit.

 

During these eight months we’ve prayerfullly asked God two questions: “What kind of faith community do you want us to be?” and “What kind of people do you want us to become?”

 

We’ve discussed a lot of things.

Taught on many different ideas.

Planned events.

Spent time getting to know each other.

Communicated clearly our philosophy of ministry.

Unpacked the missional concept.

Delved into the understanding of what church really is.

And we still have a long way to go…

 

But during Sunday’s meeting we didn’t add more information to the mix.

We simply took a deep breath, stepped back and spent time reflecting on where we’ve come from and how we’ve grown over the past eight months. We spent a significant amount of time in silence pondering and reflecting on all the things that God has done among us.

 

During our time of silence and reflection we answered four questions.

(1) What are the top 2 or 3 things you have learned during your time on the launch team?

(2) What have you needed to unlearn?

(3) How have you been changed and formed?

(4) How have you seen Jesus show up in our church?

 

We’re far from perfect.

We haven’t “arrived.”

We’re full of sin and brokenness and insecurities and fears.

There’s plenty of room for us to change and mature and grow.

Yet despite that fact, here are the encouraging responses that members of our launch team gave regarding their own experience over the past eight months.

 

(1) What are the top 2 or 3 things you have learned during your time on the launch team?

-that there is plenty of room for people to use their gifts

-that church isn’t something to be consumed

-that ‘where there is mission there is mess’

-it’s okay to be broken with others

-Tim Keller’s quote (”Don’t try to build a great church; try to build a great city. Because when you have a great city you will have a great church.”) has been influential in helping me understand a more holistic approach to church and our role in it. 

-the more I’ve served the more I’ve realized my needs are being met.

-that vision and execution are very different in nature.

 

(2) What have you needed to unlearn?

-my laziness (in order to learn to ask the tough questions about faith and church)

-an incomplete understanding of salvation (in order to learn that its not just about eternity, but that it starts right now)

-success is different than what I’ve been told in church all my life

-’church’ doesn’t have to be in a building

-the pastor doesn’t have to do it all by himself

-church is about a show (in order to learn that the messiness and the chaos is not only okay, but it may be more natural than eliminating the distraction)

-that a corporate approach to doing church is unnatural – and not as meaningful.

-”excellence” is not the end all – availability and faithfulness to God is.

-to be distrusting of church leadership (i.e. that I truly can trust leaders in the Church again)

 

(3) How have you been changed and formed?

-the Jesus-ish concept has helped me understand spiritual formation better

-its allowed a time of great healing in the midst of a lot of hurt and betrayal

-the four personal daily rhythms of (Scripture // prayer // blessing // seeing our work as being sacred) have been helpful for my growth and maturity.

-I’ve become more disciplined in my time in the Word and my time in prayer

-I’m conscious of opportunities for ministry around me… sensitivity to the Spirit and praying for my oikos

-I’ve learned to listen more

-I’ve become more relational – sensitive to the way people think and why they think that way.

 

(4) How have you seen Jesus show up in our church? 

-the open vulnerability and our responses with compassion and grace – love has been poured out

-the stories people have shared about their lives each week – full of laughter and tears

-the flexibility and scheduling of our launch team meetings – we have put personal needs above tasks (Christ has been King, not the clock)

-the open doors with the Farmers Market

-helping and loving on two young siblings who are in a difficult home life situation

-showing and sharing love with each other evidenced in our launch team interactions

-our children – they’ve taught us a lot about Jesus.

-grace extended to one another and in the community…and to me!

-friendships that have developed

-our house church shepherds

-we’re embracing and living out the Father’s heart within Renew.