A few weeks ago we had a short meeting in the space between the 8 am service that I attend and the 9.45 am service that follows. Our churchwarden challenged us to think about how our 8 am congregation can fit into the diocesan mission. We were challenged to think how our church might grow from its current size (45?) to 80.

I commented that this was a difficult challenge. Many of us feel (some positively and some negatively) that we belong to a church in a diocese that favours top-down organization. Suddenly we were asked to act in a bottom-up way. This is hard to do without greater preparation.

Since then I have been thinking What Kind of a Church Would I Like? And how does bottom-up organization fit?

There are many ways to describe the church I’d like but a simple and accessible start is an article called Integral Mission by Richard Schwarz in the Interserve Australia magazine, Go, (No 3, 2004, pp.4-5). I found this magazine on the magazine rack at our church. There are many ways of looking at integral mission but Richard’s 2-page article is a good start.

I would like church to be characterised by integral mission. I would like an integral church. To paraphrase Richard, an integral church is all about effecting total transformation in people’s lives, the kind of radical change that Jesus and his followers brought about in the New Testament. It is concerned with total development: of the people who attend the church and of the neighbourhood. An integral church brings about radical transformation in people’s lives (both in the church and in the neighbourhood) that makes others sit up and take notice.

This kind of church takes Jesus as its model. Luke 2:52 says “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men”. Richard expands on this verse: “Jesus grew – in wisdom, physically (stature), spiritually (favour with God) and socially (favour with men)”. An integral church focuses on the development of members and neighbours. It assists development in wisdom. It promotes physical development, spiritual development and social development.

To develop members and neighbours, this church starts where the people are. It releases members to engage with each other and neighbours so that mutual development takes place across all four elements of development.

This church emphasises the way we worship and the way we live. The living comes out of the worship. The worship is not an evangelistic rally, it is not a seekers’ meeting. The worship is a deeply focussed expression of our love for God, when we recognise God’s “worth-ship”, and we recognise that God is worthy of being worshipped and praised. It is not about feeling good, happy, or welcoming to strangers. It is about loving God and expressing that love to God.

It is about hearing of the shalom-ful creation that God has made, of the freedom God has given us, of the peace that God has given us, of the relationships that God has created us to enjoy (with him and each other). It is about recognising that God has made us as co-creators, collaborators in this world. It is about recognising that God loves us and he wants us to love those around us, to bring healing where they hurt, to scratch where they itch, to be company when they are lonely. It is about doing these things together and as we do them, we recognise that God is already doing them first. In this way, we see God. We see what he is already doing in the world and is inviting us to join him. It is about recognising that God is in the business of bringing shalom – reconciliation, peace, healing and hope – to the entire creation – and he has invited us to join him and each other in doing so.

This church is not about building itself up (at least numerically). By its life and words, it bears witness, bears testimony, to who God is and what God has done. It is about building itself up in the sense of building each other, encouraging each other, being concerned about our struggles and how we are managing to live shalom-ful lives.

The integral church is about helping members to be odd. Worship in the integral church helps members to be odd in the sense of having different values to those around, living different and interesting lives that contrast with the lives of others in society. We live lives that people are curious about, lives that people gossip about. We should be known as generous people, loving people, courageous people, peacemakers, confronters, people with mud on their hands, argumentative people, consoling people. The Sermon on the Mount is central to all that this church does.

The integral church is about living the Kingdom of God today rather than hastening the Kingdom of God by frenetic evangelism. The integral church asks God to create a people and a church that others want to join because it makes a difference in terms of development in wisdom, well-being, spirit, and in society.

The task of the integral church is so complex that it can’t start with a top-down approach. It needs a bottom-up approach. It needs mutuality among members. It needs members to connect with each other and to help each other along their rocky road. It needs the inexperienced to imitate the experienced. Bottom-up is not about getting the people in the pews to preach, lead the singing, or do the flowers. It is about allowing people in the pews to engage with each other, to understand each other’s journey, and to help each other to go forward living the Kingdom today. It is about asking each other: how’s your peacemaking going? Where’s it happening? What opposition do you have? How’s your generosity? How’s your hospitality? Would you help me . . . ? How’s your reconciliation? What are you doing to promote hope? I’m having trouble with . . . .

Worship in the integral church recognises that God is in the business of bringing shalom – reconciliation, peace, healing and hope – to the entire creation – and he has invited us to join him and each other in doing so. In this church, we ensure that we are reconciled with each other before we progress too far. We create opportunities not only to share the peace with each other but also to be reconciled with each other. We sings songs, not necessarily the “old” hymns nor the “new”. Our songs focus on God’s business: bringing shalom – reconciliation, peace, healing and hope – to the entire creation – and he has invited us to join him and each other in doing so. As we choose our songs, we should ask: is this simply a “feel good” song or does it focus on God’s business? The sermons give examples of and the Biblical foundations for God’s business, of how shalom – reconciliation, peace, healing and hope – is being extended to the entire creation – and how we are responding to God’s invitation to join him and each other in doing so.

Our worship expresses our mutual equality and dependence. It recognises the gifts and fruit of the Spirit among us. There will be times of testimony when members report on what has happened as they’ve responded to God’s invitation to join him in bringing shalom. They report the heartaches, the pain, the joy, the failure, the triumph, the puzzles and frustrations.

Margaret and I may be the only ones in our church for whom this vision of church is attractive and meaningful. It probably runs counter to Diocesan views on church. However, I suspect that given enough time, members of the 8 am service would come up with many versions of the church they would like. I suspect that for many the emphasis on growing our church from 45 to 80 as a goal in itself is too limited a vision of the nature of church. I think that many in the 8 am service may have a more encompassing vision for church.

(I acknowledge the stimulation by Alan Kreider, his book Journey towards Holiness (Herald Press, 1987), and his presentations at the July 2005, Macquarie Christian Studies Institute workshop and Annual Address.)