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Sean
Benesh, Lead Pastor
The
Crossing
www.crossingchurch.net
1.
Planting a church in an emerging/postmodern culture, what do you
think are the key elements of a community of faith in an
emerging/postmodern culture?
I think we’re all tired of
straight-jacketed evangelicalism that more resembles a
behavior-modifying religion rather than a life-changing encounter
with the Living God. I
think we need to drop our guards and say more things like, “You
know, we’ve screwed up. Non-Christians,
I’m sorry we’ve hurt you, I’m sorry we’ve been so
judgmental. We
don’t have all the answers.”
Honesty is sorely needed.
Intellectual honesty is sorely needed.
Also, I believe the emerging culture is the true seekers.
The seeker definition of yesterday had in mind lots of
entertainment, light teaching, and slick marketing / programming. Today’s culture is truly seeking, but they don’t want a
cool light show or anything slick.
They want the real deal.
They are seeking the “divine.”
Their seeking isn’t always neat and tidy, but we can
capitalize on this seeking and allow them in our communities to
ask all of the questions most of us are afraid to ask.
2.
What do you see as the four (because three is too traditional)
differences between the community of faith you are serving, and
those churches in your area?
(1) You don’t have to be a
Republican to be apart of The Crossing.
(2) Two of the pastors have tattoos.
(3) We like to have our staff meetings at the Fox &
Hound Smokehouse. (4)
I hate golf.
3.
Is the community you serve connected with a denomination?
If “yes” what do you see as the benefits and problems
with that relationship, and if “no,” what do you believe are
the benefits and problems without being connected?
We are connected with a denomination
and to be honest, for the most part, it has been an incredible
experience. Church
planting is incredibly lonely, painful, and difficult.
To be connected with a denomination that provides support,
encouragement, coaching, resourcing, and even financial help has
seen me through many dark nights.
I feel like I have a team that is with me through the thick
and the thin. They’re
very supportive of planters.
Also, they’ve given us the green light as to what kind of
church we are and want to be.
They just told us to run with the vision that God has given
us. On the other side
though, sometimes denominations can be blinded to some of the
realities of church planting.
I’ve had to live with that constant tension of knowing
there comes a day soon where I’ll have no more funding and
I’ll be on my own. Boomer
churches still grow fast and can be financially independent much
sooner, whereas when the average age in your church is 25 and for
them to tithe $20 might mean 50% of their income you know it’ll
take a while.
4.
What would you say are the two hardest things connected to
planting an emerging/postmodern community of faith? (1) No roadmap.
I feel like those of us in this new church movement have
run to all of the blank spaces on the map.
We’re heading into terrain that honestly not too many
have gone before and it is scary at times.
As a result I’ve had to live without a lot of
personal/internal tension. There’s
no 1-2-3 easy step-by-step process of planting an emerging church.
You learn to feel your way around.
You learn to live with organizational ambiguity and to plan
things in pencil. (2)
Growth is slow. Much
of the training and conference of today and yesteryear say that
all you need is 40,000 slick mailers, sprinkle in a good band in
here, a dash of some “bridge-events,” and go door to door and
presto! 200 people
will show up for your opening launch.
I would tell you to save your money or put it to a better
cause. You need to embrace and become comfortable with slow growth.
Slow growth doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong
but if you’re reaching true postmods it’s going to take a
while. I have 15
close friends who are not Christ-followers and after 2 years I
haven’t seen any of them come to Christ.
We’ve had many incredible conversations about Christ and
spiritual things but they’re so skeptical of institutionalized
Christianity (and rightly so!).
Part of it is to model and live out the kind of
Christianity that is infectious, real, and honest.
Remember, who grows the church?
You? I don’t think so. It’s
our job to prepare the soil and let God do the rest.
5.
How does your community of faith develop connections with those
outside the community?
This may sound so oversimplified and
overused, but it’s through natural bridges of normal
relationships. It is
throwing away the whole sacred/secular paradigm and learning to
see everything as sacred. If
in your worldview God is the ultimate reality then He’s with you
everywhere you go, in your job, in your neighborhood, and in your
relationships. It is
taking God into all of the major spheres of life: work, church,
family, Sabbath, and the world.
If the Gospel spread through the Roman roads in the 1st
century that means that today the Gospel is still going forth as
we live our lives as authentic followers of Christ wherever we go.
This means I strive to love and be caring, courteous, and
interested in all whom I cross paths with … just like Jesus.
6.
What do you believe are the key elements in an emerging/postmodern
worship service? It’s
hard to talk about this because already I‘m fighting off the
temptation to reduce this kind of worship to “things.”
We in the emerging church think we’ve run from the way
modern churches do things in worship.
Yet the reality is that we’re no different.
We’re all conference junkies just like Saddleback or
Willow Creek wannabes. We’ve
reduced “postmodern worship” to candles, darkness,
contemplation, and other “experiential” elements.
However, if we strip all of that away we must ask ourselves
the question, “How do we encounter God as a community?”
The answer to that question will be much different if
you’re in urban Tucson, suburban Tucson, L.A., Denver, Chicago,
Portland (OR), or Portland (ME).
Answer the question and then run with it.
If you worship with lights (or darkness), contemplation (or
ADHD), experiential (or more reflection), then it really doesn’t
matter. We cannot “baptize” a style with a movement.
It’s like if we have to try hard to be “emerging”
then are we really?
7.
What two key area of advice would you give to a person looking to
plant a community of faith in your area, or in any area?
(1) Get a job. Unless you have strong denominational support, or if you’re
single, or a young married couple without kids and have two
incomes, or can live off of beans and PBJ’s then a job is a
must. In general, church growth is slow in this movement.
Obviously that depends on what type of “soil” you’re
planting in (Tucson is rocky, hard, and dry).
(2) Go with the flow.
I walked into this church plant with a 12 page master plan,
but within a year it was in the trash and God clearly led us in a
different direction altogether.
Be open and flexible, be sensitive to the Spirit leading,
guiding, and prodding.
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