Blue Ocean

Alan Hirsch talks about how over the years a ‘red ocean’ has opened up where larger churches copy other larger churches and in making disciples we only reach one sector of the market. This is not wrong but it will only reach a small percentage of the nation. The gospel is for everyone.  ‘One size fits all’ does not work anymore.  This is clear to see.  The ecclesia (church) was a dynamic and fluid movement in Scripture.  It was highly adaptive seeping into the nooks and crannies of culture and grow the Kingdom of God.  They met on river banks, temple courts and houses.  

St Augustine used to say “Ecclesia semper reformanda est” - The church must always be reformed and reforming itself.  As context changes so does our mission and so does the church. We look at the word and the church and the word and the church and arrive at an expression.  But even when we arrive that expression we send out explorative missionaries to look at the land and culture that lies ahead.  We never arrive.  The Kingdom is always advancing.   It is not about holding on to the codes of the past or believing that these always produced beauty and truth.  There is always space and time to reform and there is always space to improve!  Large churches can always do it better.  Small churches can always reach new people.  There is a large ‘blue ocean’ out there in this nation for us to explore. To look at new ways of doing things. 

Einstein said “The problems of the world cannot be resolved by the same type of thinking that created those problems in the first place’.  The definition of organisational insanity is trying to do the same things and achieve significantly different results.  Now is a great time to be looking at our context, our lockdown and lock in, our garden and outdoor spaces, our patterns of discipleship and to walk in new ways in the river banks, houses and temple courts.