Exegeting a City, Discipling a Community by Commissioning

Exegeting a City, Discipling a Community by Commissioning

I think this may be useful in exegeting a city, though I've missed the talk so far.

1--This takes off from the position that the pastor (church rulers) have as much authority to commission (in the 5 Cs of JBJ) as they do to cleanse.

Yea, even more, for worship is transformational, and we should be more adult now that we have gone through the process of being Called, Cleansed, Consecrated, Communed...

2--The second thing is rhyming covenants. Here we rhyme the covenantal history of a community with the covenant of the worship service. Lay them side by side, or one atop the other.

3--What then? We find that we are in a commissioning stage with the community. And we commission.

4--Give an example or two? OK, Pella. Called to Iowa by the situation in Holland. Cleansed by getting here. Consecrated by a sacrificial life (cut apart from the home country, worship, etc.). After 1922, when a Sourvenir History of Pella was written, Communed, in that people were invited into the history via community celebration of Tulip Time. And now, 2011, Pella will be commissioned, that is sent out, for Pella has been given much, and should then give to others.

5--Of course, with all this there are deaths and resurrections, as technology destroys the old group, while allowing action over more space and in less time (ERH).

6--In what ways, commission. Well, Pella is easier, since the name means refuge. How give refuge? In 4 aspects: Community (tribal), Business (empires), Religion (Israel), Education (Greece).

7--I have imperatives, but I'm thinking it more important to do it with many members of the community participating, so that it can be owned by them.

6'--One could share this method of community renewal with the tourists. The businesses could be revitalized, but even more one could work on sources of new income from working from home, or a web business, like unto earlier Pella with tradesmen. In Religion, if we take the 26 churches we pray for and multiply by 200 in attendance regularly, we find that 5200 is about half of Pella. Thus, revival, or something? Missions with our money--or bring in an African (!) to show us how Africa went from 10% Christian in 1900 to 46% today? Education--Well, there is much home schooling, the college has gone liberal, the internet beckons, etc.

5'--Were we to put this history around the town square, we could put types of technology on each side, and someones could explore changes in community. The pioneers came by sailing ship and covered wagon, from 1847-1922 it was railroads and telegraph and telephone. 1922-2011, big technology with movies, radio, TV, internet. What's after 1922, and how to keep community amidst the big changes?

4'--We should also go backward from either/or the future and the present. A Looking Backward. Greater Things Multi-Generational Family Projects would help here, but basically we travel the memory palace of the town square backward. Finding roots for our fruits, we find new roots.

3'--The commisioning could be done by one pastor or church (Gregory VII), or by agreement beforehand and a meeting in the football stadium (Uganda after Amin) and maybe a real covenanting with signatures on a new document. Whoever covenants IS the community. That's how whoever articulates the imperative makes the revolution. Gardner's Beyond Belief, Chapter 5, has great summaries of the national revolutions in the West. Imperative, Subjective, Narrative, Objective. Law, Lyric, Evaluation, Fact.

2'--This would reinvigorate worship, for we would be commanded as we went out, specifically. ERH says history moves from plural to individual. And these commanded things are worked out in advance. We are a team, even better, we are militarily organized as in a war, a Holy War, unto maturity, within redemptive history, psalmodically responding. The orchestra and chorus, the baseball team, needs all player, each is important.

1'--What WAS the process by which Domine Scholte (pastor who led emigration) did it? What documents are there as to covenants? How can we do analogously, but with greater maturity, given our greater great Providential gifts?

I pray this makes some sense.

As usual, this is off the top of my head, after much digestion, and I realize that I am not an administrator, but I believe this could be a local local local way to build up to larger units of covenant, and I think it is entirely possible that we may be forced to more local local local actions by the destruction of idols that is coming, with debts and deficits, etc.

Love in King Jesus,

Chuck
PS: Boulder is ripe for commissioning in a way because the rock of the federal government on which the governors relied had turned into sand in the gears of good governing.
PPS: St. Louis could recover what it is to be a 'saint,' and a Crusader, after the 12th C. fellow it was named after.
PPPS: PROPR--Participatory Recovenanting Of Pella Refuge. Names are important. We are commanded to be what we are, made in the image of God. (Several memes/themes here from Pastor Nolder's sermons, nuancedly applied)