After less than 3 years our local gathering of followers and seekers of Christ has decided to "scatter" into the community and into other congregations. We did this at a time when our gathering was not "dying" off but at a time that seemed to be right. Due to our mix of gifts in the leadership that prevented us from accomplishing some things we deemed essential for our style of church and the fact that many of our people were moving from the area and traveling long distances to remain involved, we knew the time was now to change focus.
From the beginning our desire was to engage in scriptures in a way that was challenging and life changing. We wanted to hear the call of discipleship and to never be a gathering of people who became ingrown and useless. As Francis Chan puts it, "Christians are like manure. [When they scatter and bless others they are useful, when they all pile together they just stink]".
We never want to be people who "stink" so we worked to engage in our community and to be an organization that benefited our neighborhoods. We hoped that we would one day "multiply" into new local gatherings but this year we decided that our best plan was simply to scatter into already established places. We want to take what we have learned and the new habits we developed and influence others in the ways of Jesus.
Some would look at our church and say that we failed. We did fail at establishing a large, well funded organization but we did not fail at being a church for nearly 3 years. We worshipped our creator, we engaged in each others lives and walked beside each other when needed, and we blessed others locally and throughout the globe.
As a seed must die in order to "scatter" and bring new life to infinitely more plants, our small local gather had to "die" in order to spread life. We are launching online teachings and discussions next month and will continue to encourage the body (Soma) of Christ to live out the ways of Jesus everywhere, all of the time and we will stand beside other local gatherings in the process.
