[I originally shared this as part of a City Collectives Retreat with leaders from Wellington, Tauranga, Invercargill and Auckland. It is a letter that draws from snippets of 1st century church history, and seeks to imagine what the Apostle Paul might say to modern Christian leaders seeking to pursue unified mission at a city level.]
Letter from the ‘Corinth Church Network’
Paul, a fellow slave in the Gospel, by the hand of Tertius my faithful collaborator and scribe, To those called to serve church networks in the cities of Aotearoa New Zealand.
I pray, as you partner together for the Father’s purpose, that the Gospel may continue to bear fruit in Invercargill & Tauranga, Wellington & Auckland; just as it has in our City Gospel Networks in Jerusalem & Antioch, Thessalonica & Rome, Ephesus & Phillipi, and Corinth where I am currently writing from.
Our labour here as the ‘Corinth Church Network’ has not been without diƯiculty. You’ll find this anywhere you have many gatherings of believers in a single city. I do not want you to be unaware of both the blessings and the challenges you are likely to face as you collaborate for His glory in your cities. So yes, I will dare to boast to you of our experiences of God’s power, which are always found in the midst of weakness, not strength.
I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Deeper than the gospel of Caesar in my time, or the gospel of consumption or the myth of progress in your time. The gospel is the gospel of Jesus. The good news that Jesus is Lord. This news has profound implications both for humanity and the whole creation. Yes, the whole gospel has holistic implications. Not simply for the afterlife, as even Greeks believe, but for a New Life that transforms minds, hearts, spirits, souls… and raises bodies, marriages, families, communities, cities and ultimately heaven and earth.
You have a few really useful creeds that express the dramatic, transcultural, trans-historic scope of this gospel – from the Apostles, Nicea, Athanasius and more. I myself tucked a very short, very early, and very resurrection-focused creed in the fifteenth chapter of my letter to the Corinth Church Network. Resurrection is everything – without it we should all go do something else. The whole gospel hinges on resurrection. But as I said in the ending of that chapter, the truth of resurrection must lead to the ‘therefore’ of abounding in the work of the Lord.
There are so many ways to abound in Resurrection work in a city. Collaborative evangelism campaigns. Local food drives. Christmas floats. Partnership with social service orgs specialising in wrap around care. The whole spectrum. Timeless hope for eternity… and timely help for the poor.
This is the whole gospel. Sure, the Lord can use dreams and visions to directly implant this gospel in people’s imaginations. But his usual way of propagating it is through ordinary human messengers – the Church. The whole Church, in united and reconciled diversity is God’s ongoing evidence of resurrection. A beaming miracle of grace. The whole Gospel, displayed in the whole Church.
This gorgeous full display of the whole Gospel is wrecked by all forms of disunity – competition, comparison and division. Think of Peter’s mealtime hypocrisy at Antioch, or Euodia and Syntyche’s incessant bickering at Phillipi. These all had to be dealt with – directly and even publicly – no matter how awkward. Unity is that precious.
I’m not saying you can’t disagree or debate. Actually, that can be healthy. Don’t imagine, as so many do, that unity is some kind of effortless ‘good vibes only’ zone where there is no disagreement. Welcome – even invite disagreement within your teams and networks – that’s how you build trust, make people feel that they are not just serving your thing, and that’s how you begin to build unity that is truly collaborative and missional. Don’t assume you know what needs to be done all the time.
That sounds counter-intuitive to your ears, doesn’t it? It’s because your culture has a particular aversion to anything that stands in the way your own personal sovereign will and imagination. But proper debate and dialogue must be normal in the kingdom. Great things are on the other side of patient listening. One of our famous early disagreements about Gentiles, circumcision and law observance was worth having slowly. At this assembly in Jerusalem, Barnabas and I patiently worked through “much discussion” with the church, the apostles, and elders. We came out with an outstanding letter because we had the courage and patience for a full conversation. So then, as you plan, build, strategize, form, storm and norm, don’t rush. Hear people out. Move at Godspeed.
Not everyone that disagrees with you is being divisive or argumentative. Know the difference. Sure, sometimes we choose to work separately, like me and Barnabas or John Mark. But don’t permanently write one another off. Make every effort to unify.
There’s another huge mistake to stay aware of, made famous by some here at Corinth. They obsessed over Apollos, Peter, super apostles, and anyone with the prized abilities of knowledge and speaking. Their choices of who got to speak, and who was important sent a clear message of “I don’t need you” which – surprise, surprise, always leaves many feeling “I am not a part of the body.” This is travesty. I love to praise people, but I cannot praise this. In my letters to the Corinth and Rome Church Network, I went out of my way to name many members of the body. High and low. Male and female. Jew and Gentile. Servants and free-persons. Low-sounding names like Fortunatus (‘Lucky’), or simple servant names like Tertius and Quartus (‘third’ and ‘fourth’), deserve to be named alongside Erastus, the city’s director of public works. Name orators next to slaves. Speakers next to scribes. Hosts with guests. That’s the whole church.
Your city gospel movements must stretch and reach to the whole church in each city. Strive to acknowledge and associate with the names of churches and leaders that are less acknowledged. Don’t only associate with people from ‘thriving’ churches. Build teams where ‘average’ lead alongside ‘inspiring’ people. Don’t just tell success stories. City Church Networks, like individual Christians and Churches, rarely grow from strength to strength, but frequently through the usual mix of good bursts, small fizzles, pivots and improvements. It’s not about being amazing all the time.
Host prayer gatherings with all kinds of prayer styles, not just the ones that look great on Instagram. Take, for example, one of your recent moments of revival at Asbury. The gathering it started with was not glitzy. Jon Tyson called it a “badly run prayer meeting”; but… it had humility… sincerity… confession. Utter disregard for brand, logos, or celebrity. More of that please. I’m not saying we should worship with half-hearted complacency. Go hard. Spend money. Practice. Break your jars of precious ointment. But just beware the obsession with awesome people doing awesome things. It’s more Corinthian than Christian.
Most of your cities will have many kinds of believers. The things churches pride themselves on are often the very things that separate. Expertise in end time predictive prophecy. Obsession with spirit gifts and miracles. Exacting explanations of precisely how the Spirit is – or isn’t – present in bread and wine. Making a competition out of worship, preaching or social justice…
Why does all this matter? Because the how and who of our city church networking says something about the God we believe in. God is not only the God of Big bible names like Moses, Isaiah and David, but also Miriam, Amos and Nathan. Not only prophets, priests and kings, but also slaves, widows, orphans, strangers, farmers, rubbish collectors, waitresses, Uber drivers, tradies and truck drivers.
I’m not saying anyone can do anything. I’m just saying work hard at unity that is shocking, surprising and unexpected. That Aussie bloke Stuart Piggin is onto something. It’s never been about platforms, personalities or performers. Find ways to weave the tribes, the worship styles, and levels of cool. Catholics and charismatics. Robes and jandals. Affluent and awkward. Perfect haircuts and bad teeth. Why? Because it takes the whole Church to display the whole Gospel.
And finally, the whole Gospel summons the whole Church to and through the whole City. Churches and church networks should match the demographics of the context God has placed them in. Christians are drawn from the whole city… and sent back into the whole city.
I’ve already mentioned how diƯicult this was in the Corinth Church Network. The elite leaders didn’t like this. They loved high lofty leaders and super apostles who postured themselves like Greek sophists. They were addicted to gathering around big names from overseas. They wanted their gatherings to flow with the finest wine, food and philosophy as if church was a Symposium. They were happy to get gorged and drunk while others starved – some literally to death. I think I said it best when I wrote to the Rome Church Network to “associate with people of low status.”
Don’t get me wrong. We need generous hosts like Gaius. And yes, the gospel is advanced through strategic connections with civic leaders like Erastus. Yes, we can and should network with people outside our immediate spheres. But bi-vocational tradies and tent-makers like Aquila and Priscilla, young people like Timothy, people with past mistakes like Peter, Onesimus and John Mark – they are crucial to God’s work. Don’t overlook quiet, local and un-amazing wisdom.
Your cities, especially you, Auckland, are dripping with diversity of culture, income levels, language, interests and lots of struggle, isolation, pain and privilege. Be people of the whole city. Work hard at it. Go past the performative levels of diversity and compassion. Oh yes, learn Te Reo Māori by all means. God is delighted that this language renewal movement has become popular in your time. But also make the effort to learn a few greetings in NZ Sign Language, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Fijian, Samoan and all you can. Don’t just occasionally enjoy their foods but get to know their histories. All the people… in all of the City. That’s how we begin on the long journey of living out the meaning of
Pentecost and the multi-cultural, multi-lingual reality of kingdom life the Spirit.
That, my dear friends, is my appeal to you. That is the pain, the challenge, the vision and the blessing of being City Gospel Movements.
Witnessing to the Whole Gospel.
Joining together with the Whole Church.
Reaching in blessing to the Whole City.
The Grace and Shalom of God be ever with you. Amen.
Recovering the Kingdom 