Getting Connected with Dwell

About a month ago, our elders, staff, and deacons meet to pray and plan through things our church should focus on in the coming year. The main theme that drove our retreat was rhythms. Paul says in Ephesians 5:15-16, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” There is a single verb for the phrase "making the best use of the time" that means redeem or buy up. We must actively resist the pull of sin and evil in the world and take advantage of opportunities to do good and grow in holiness.

After reflecting on the last year, who we are, and what kind of people live in San Jose we needed a way to get build stronger community in our church and with our friends and neighbors. This led to us doing some more detailed research on who lives in our city. San Jose is extremely diverse and also younger than most cities. Its primary demographic however is affluent families and this is especially true in our immediate neighborhood. One of the more notable pieces of information we gathered was the value of recreation in comparison to the general US population. Whether due to the riches of outdoor activities and favorable climate in the Bay Area or seeking a release from the pressures of work, people seek things to do for fun.

Therefore, we identified simple and consistent ways we can connect with people, especially families and working professionals. Things that most of us do frequently anyway. The other value is to have something you would feel comfortable inviting someone to. You can see the various things we have planned on our church calendar on our website. They are as follows:

1) Every 2nd and 4th Saturday morning at 10am several of us will be at a local park. Our kids can play together and maybe a few of us adults can have a conversation! This is a good opportunity for parents of young children to connect.

2) Thursday nights at San Pedro Market at 7pm. If you haven't checked out the cool San Pedro Market downtown you should. There are numerous great places to eat, desert, live music, and plenty of places to hang out. Anyone can come but this is geared towards those who don't have to worry about "bedtime."

3) Every 4th Friday we will have a movie night. This last week we showed Big Hero 6 and had more 40 people come and half were friends of people in our church. Sometimes the movie will be family oriented and sometimes it will not be. Stay tuned for what comes next!

4) "Adventure Saturday." This last month we had the Dwell Golf Tournament which was a great success. The idea here is that people in the Bay Area, and our international students in particular, like to go and do new things. I once read the quickest way to make friends in the Bay Area is to try new stuff. Well, thats the premise here.

How does this connect with our overall ministry? Our largest gathering is for Worship on Sunday morning. Our Gospel Groups meet during the week for fellowship, Bible Study, and prayer. But we have lacked more casual and inviting spaces to build relationships with people and share the love of Christ. We call these "Affinity Groups" that we believe will fuel mission and community both for our groups and for us individually. If Sunday morning worship is our "front door" and individual relationships and groups are a "back door," we hope these opportunities will provide a natural "side door" into the ministry of our church.

Are there other fun get-togethers or activities you want to see happen? You are more than welcome to get something going. These are ones that we thought we should not neglect and we hope it fosters deeper relationships both with each other and with Christ through our love for people.

Remember to keep checking out our calendar at http://www.dwellsj.com/#!calendar/c1jx9

In Christ,

Pastor Chris

From Pastor Chris - Everyday Missiology

Yesterday I attempted to lay some groundwork for what "missional church" means for us. This has been a popular and trendy subject among leaders and scholars within Christianity for more than a decade. Only recently has it become a more popular conversation among evangelicals.

I offered my reflections out of Ephesians 3:1-13, paying particular attention to verses 6 and 10. The mystery of God, his promises to redeem his people, has been made available to all people through faith in Christ (v.6). It is the work of the church to make this mystery known, especially through the uniting of Jew and Gentile to the one body of Christ (v.13). There is a lot more that could be said but simply speaking, the gospel is what God has done in Christ and the result is peace with God and peace with one another. It is the mission of the church to declare the peace made possible with Christ and to demonstrate in our lives.

In the past, churches in the west existed in a culture where Christianity was the default religion of most people. Ministry then was designed to wake up nominal believers and this is expressed in ministry styles that assume people will show up. Today the default worldview is secularism and being a part of a church is no longer considered a necessary part of life. Therefore, the church must take on a missionary posture to the culture and adopt forms of ministry that go to people instead of assuming they will come to the church.

But the primary concern is how do we do this? This is where the "missional church" discussion gets very confusing very fast and means drastically different things to different churches. Some of it at least means speaking to idols of the culture, yet also affirming good things about the culture.

In Everyday Church, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis offer some good basic questions to begin to think about what mission looks like in everyday life (pp. 42-43). These are worth reflecting on in your own life and in your small group. These are basic questions a missionary would ask in a new culture.

Where?
Where are the places and activities we can meet people?
Where do people experience community?
Are there existing social networks with which we can engage, or do we need to find ways of creating community within a neighborhood?
Where should we be to have missional opportunities?

When?
What are the patterns and timescales of our neighborhood?
When are the times we can connect with people?
How do people organize their time?
What cultural experiences and celebrations do people value? How might these be used as bridges to the gospel?
When should we be available to have missional opportunities?

What?
What are people's fears, hopes, and hurts?
What gospel stories are told in the neighborhood? What gives people identity? How do they account for wrong in the world? What is their solution? What are their hopes?
What are the barrier beliefs or assumptions that cause people to dismiss the gospel?
What sins will the gospel first confront and heal?
In what ways are people self-righteous?
What is the good news for people in this neighborhood?
What will church look like for people in this neighborhood?

This week I am meeting with fellow pastors to discuss some of these ideas in their own neighborhoods following a similar list of questions. I encourage you to begin asking some of these questions about your own neighbors and neighborhoods!

From Pastor Jason: Ten Interesting Facts About San Jose and Becoming What Our City Needs

The past few months our elder team has been reading through Pastor Timothy Keller’s book, “Center Church.” His emphasis is not only focused on developing healthy and gospel-centered churches, but more precisely on how church ought to be developed with respect to cities. After all, the story of Christianity begins in a garden (Genesis 2:8) but will end, in a manner of speaking, in a city (Revelation 21:10). Keller writes, “every church can and must become a church for its particular city–whether that city is a great metropolis, a university town, or a village.” Over the past few years many people have asked, what is the direction of Dwell? Or what is our mission as a church? These are really good questions. And aside from the fundamental aspects of worshiping Jesus and preaching the gospel–from the pulpit, the dinner table, and the cubicle–I think Keller has nailed our direction and mission on the head. We need to become a church for the people of San Jose. That’s what we’ve been up to. That’s what we are doing now. That’s what we will keep doing.

San Jose is diverse, innovative, creative, and beautiful … in my mind, unlike any other city on the planet. And so it seems fitting that an important step toward becoming a church for our city is actually knowing the city. Two key reports are helpful when attempting to gain a firm grasp on the demographics of this the capital of Silicon Valley. First is a 2010 presentation done by the city of San Jose. (You can view and download a pdf version of that presentation here.) And second is the Association of Religious Data Archives’ (or ARDA) latest report on religious life in Santa Clara County. (Their 2010 findings can be viewed here.) Having viewed each of these reports I thought it would be helpful to highlight ten interesting facts about our city.

1. There are 1.8 million people in Santa Clara County.
2. More than half of the folks in San Jose speak a language other than English at home.
3. 39% of San Joseans were born in another country.
4. San Jose is “a city of thirds” … roughly 30% Asian, 30% Hispanic, and 30% White.
5. Half of the housing units in San Jose cost at least half a million dollars.
6. Households without children in San Jose are the majority.
7. We are getting older, but we’re still pretty young (35.2 median age).
8. 150,000 people in Santa Clara County identify with Evangelicalism.
9. Nearly half a million people are Catholic in the county.
10. Over half the population in Santa Clara County do not claim any of the 236 religious groups in the Arda assessment.

This is my city. This is your city. This is the city God has called us to love, enjoy, dwell in, and with whom to share his good news. It can be a bit overwhelming to take this on as a whole. That’s a lot of people to think about. That’s a lot of information to consider. How can we possibly become a church for 1.8 million people from countless different countries and whose spiritual condition is incredibly tricky to calculate? The answer is simple: one person at a time. To be sure neither you nor I know all of these people. But we work with a few of them. We say hi to a couple of them when they’re walking into their apartment. That one guy exchanges a pleasantry or two with you every morning at the coffee shop. You sit together on the PTA board with that couple. All of these are good places to begin. Because after all the church is not a building, a service, an event, nor even a gospel group … it’s God’s people awake to his direction and mission in this world. Therefore everyday, individually and collectively, we have the thrilling privilege and responsibility to become the church our city needs, to the glory of God.

 

Peace …

Pastor Jason