Global City Mission Initiative
  • Home
  • What We Do
  • About Us
    • Strategic Overview
    • New York City
    • Los Angeles
    • Tampa Bay
    • Orlando
  • People
    • Mission Catalysts
    • Organizational Leadership
  • Mission Training
    • Church Equipping
    • Equip: 1 Year in NYC
    • Engage: Orlando
  • Get Involved
    • Help Wanted
    • Financial Giving
    • Prayer in the City
    • Contact Us
  • Media & Resources
    • Articles & Books
    • GCMI Podcast
    • Recent Newsletter >
      • Newsletter Archive
    • Multimedia Archive
  • Team Blog

Simple Churches: Too Ephemeral?

7/19/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
By:  Dr. Kent Smith
       GCMI Advisory Team

A friend of mine recently asked, “Can something as ephemeral as the house church be a reliable means of carrying on God’s mission over time?”

It’s an interesting question, isn’t it?  Should people invest themselves in something as vulnerable and transitory as simple, family-based communities?  Are such communities durable and substantial enough to carry the fullness of God’s life to succeeding generations?

The word ephemeral my friend chose actually has something important to say on this question.  It turns out that a whole group of creatures carry this designation in their name: the Ephemeroptera, or mayflies.

Mayfly adults live only a few hours or days at most.  They are soft-bodied with lacy wings.  Scientists tell us they first appear in the fossil record 300 million years ago.  Today over 500 species of mayflies thrive worldwide.

Bear with me while I mention a few more impressive creatures.  Tyrannosaurus shows up in the fossil record about 65 million years ago.  It was a massive carnivore 45 feet long, weighing six tons, with twelve-inch teeth.  It lasted three million years.

The wooly mammoth, another substantial creature, arrived on the scene about one hundred and fifty thousand years ago.  Mammoths stood up to 13 ft high and weighed up to 8 tons. The last of these animals apparently died off 10,000 years ago.

Picture
It would be easy to assume that what is ephemeral—like mayflies—is weak, insubstantial, not durable.  

In fact, history relentlessly shows the opposite to be true.  Those things that seem most substantial, impressive and powerful in their time prove the most vulnerable and certain of extinction, the least able to adapt to changing realities. 

This may explain in part the stunning lack of deference Jesus pays to Herod’s magnificent temple and all the power trappings of the religious/political establishment of his time. He’s not impressed or deluded by their apparent substance. He knows they are destined for the dustbins of history.

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to call attention to its buildings. “Do you see all  these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”   --Matt. 24:1

Maybe we need a different way to measure what is reliable, what is substantial. Perhaps instead of looking for some variation of impressive we should be looking for qualities like: transformative, reproducible and adaptable. 

By these measures, simple faith communities gathered around Jesus have proven substantial and reliable enough now for a very long time.  

2 Comments
Jordan Bunch link
7/23/2013 06:58:49 am

"He who humbles himself will be exalted and he who exalts himself will be humbled." Looks like Jesus knew what He was talking about. Thanks for sharing Kent.

Reply
Stephen Wolf
7/5/2014 08:36:01 am

As an entomologist, I find this analogy fascinating. Insects can hover below the radar and then explode onto the scene...If you've ever seen a mayfly hatch you'd understand. Small-sized organisms can certainly play a significant role in their ecological community. I see the simple church doing this same thing!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Mission catalysts, interns, & friends of Global City Mission Initiative reflecting on experiences & ideas based on making disciples at global crossroads.  

    Archives

    June 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

✕