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Matthew Hudson | May 24, 2010

Church Planting. There are actually two considerations here. The first is this – we do not plant churches, we plant Villages. Paul went from city to city and house to house gathering people into community and putting them on mission for their neighborhood. He did not order a demographic study of the town, find an abandoned Wal-Mart building, put up banners, pass out flyers, and go on TV and radio announcing the new church. He stayed in homes, ate meals together, lived in community with them and preached and lived the Gospel.

We do the same. Our focus is on one person or family at a time –one block at a time. Your mission field is your neighborhood (more on that later.) It starts by planting a Village of people who live out our identities (God, Family, Mission) together. And from those people, a group being “sent” out to plant another Village. If we follow this, eventually, we have Villages all over the city. Villages full of people and people = Kingdom.

The second part is that we never stop planting. During our core group sessions before the launch, the question was asked, “When do we stop being a church plant and become a true church?” What a great question. It’s one of those planning questions we all are thinking, but not everyone asks. It was a watershed moment for us as a small group. It was the moment when we got to say this – we never stop planting.

Too many churches today get “planted” and then the team moves on to the next town to “plant” another church. We mark our scorecards and pat ourselves on the back and take pride in the advancement of the Kingdom we have caused. It’s similar to the many mission trips around the world where a team comes back with a number of people they have “saved” for the Kingdom. The fact is if you add up all the counts from all the teams, we have saved the world over a few times already.

The biggest mistake a church can make is to make itself so planned and programmed that it no longer needs Jesus! Look around. It’s happening all the time!

To be part of City Church means you are part of a plant – not just today or for the first year, but for all time. (Or at least until His return.)

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Matthew Hudson | May 21, 2010

Family First. For most of us, we start our week making a to-do list or at the very least planning the “big” stuff we need to get done each day. In City Church, one of our 3 identities is family. The people you are connected to in a Village are your family. The people in the City Church are your family. As the early apostles lived their lives (Acts 2:45) the possessions of one belonged to all in the family. If anyone had needs, they looked to their church family to resolve them.

For most of us, when we have needs we look to our earthly family whether it be relatives or close friends. We never stop to consider our Kingdom family. Family first means that when you sit down to plan your week, the first question you ask is “What does my family need from me this week?” This is a paradigm shift in the way we plan. Normally we plan by saying “what do I need to get done at work this week?” or “what does the house need this week?” etc. To shift your thinking to a place where your Kingdom family comes first is a big step. It is why we say that City Church is a lifestyle. This shift is one of the hardest ones to make. And for some, it seems a bit out there. But not to God and not to the early apostles. We are called to make disciples and we do this by putting those disciples at the top of our list versus at the bottom. It also means these people need to be cared for and in your life more than the once a week Sunday event that you are used too. It means being willing to open your home and your heart to others – to care for the widows and orphans in the world. No one should ever need a place to stay or food or clothes or a ride. The family should always provide.

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Matthew Hudson | May 18, 2010

Belonging enables believing. This one is straight out of the book Tangible Kingdom (a good read for everyone.) I first read this book in the summer while we were planning City Church. Ben had been researching other churches around the world and trying to learn from their practice. He assigned me this book to read as part of our planning. (We even met with one of the authors, Hugh Halter, which was a big plus.) The principle is that traditionally in order to feel comfortable at church, you must first believe. I spent my whole life in traditional forms of church. The ones where we made all the guests stand during the service and applaud them. The ones where we did nothing except say welcome at the beginning of the service (my seeker church experience.) And the ones where we got all your info and showed up at your house during the week for a “visit.” I myself had tried other churches through the years searching for a deeper place with Christ. In all those situations and in all those experiences, it never occurred to me that in order to “fit in” or be accepted by the church, you first had to become a believer. It’s no wonder people do not want to visit a church. The whole experience is one big “there is something wrong with you” event. Guests feel judged and uncomfortable more often than welcome. (That is the surveys talking not us.)

The simple fact is that Jesus lived among the people – believers and non-believers. He made them all feel welcome. For many, it was this simple fact – that Jesus met you where you were in life – that made the difference between their believing or not. We have to shift this paradigm. We need to be an environment where people feel comfortable and like they belong – even if they do not believe. The Holy Spirit will move when it is time for them to believe. In the meantime, Scripture is a story of people (us) being sent into the world. And the only way we can do that is to meet people where they are and allow them to belong first and then believe. We have to love people in a “belonging way” and not conditional to believing. This also explains why we throw so many parties to get to know our neighbors. It gives them a way to connect to our church without feeling the uncomfortable feeling that normally accompanies visiting church.

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Matthew Hudson | May 15, 2010

(Or put another way, the lessons we’ve learned along the way.)

Before you dive in, I should mention that you will find many references to “we” in this series. The other part of we is my friend, pastor and fellow visonary Ben Connelly. He has his own blog you can check out as well. In many ways, he is smarter than me and more gifted than me and I am blessed to have been on this journey with him.

Now, let’s set the stage, shall we…

In thinking about church, have you ever stopped to consider these two things:

1. Jesus was on the planet 30 years before he began His ministry.

2. What verses did Jesus give us on how to do church? Wasn’t there a sermon on the church like there was a sermon on the mount?

On the first question, my guess is building relationships, engaging the culture and praying for his mission. On the second, the answer is nada. Or is it? If He taught us that we are His kingdom and that we are His church, then when He taught us how to love and how to live and how to serve, He was speaking on how to do church. Somewhere through time, we have gotten caught up in doing of church and forgot about living the church. Somewhere we said to God, “I got this” and then went about creating our version of church. How disappointed in us must He be at times?

The largest lesson for me in this City Church journey has been the shift in my paradigms. A paradigm is a set system or model that forms the basis of something – in our case belief. I listened to the teachings in my church and accepted them as true and correct, but never looked for God’s truth in Scripture. I left the labor of obedience to Scripture to other people – mainly pastors or “holier” people than me whom I trusted and then followed what they said. I, like many, have spent countless hours debating “once saved always saved,” hymns versus contemporary worship, announcements then message then offering or message then offering then announcements. Time well spent for the Kingdom for sure.

Like most of you, I have spent a lifetime of following my paradigms. And when I ask myself “what is keeping me from living in incarnational, missional community?” the answer is simple – ME!

My City Church journey has been one of deconstruction as much as construction. Of breaking down my paradigms of old and replacing them with Biblical truth. The following is a list of some of the top paradigm shifts we have been through on this journey. These are ones that you may have to go through yourself or at the very least accept to be living on mission. These “nuggets” came through self evaluation, prayer, debates with God (guess who won) and living life with others as incarnational family.

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Matthew Hudson | May 11, 2010

If you have been following me for long, you know that I firmly believe 2 things. 1. That all truth is God’s truth. and 2. That corporate culture is alive and present in every organization - not just companies - but any organization such as a volunteer group or a church. Over the years, I have studied carefully these patterns of how a company or organization evolves and how its culture determines its success or failure in the cause.

For the next couple of weeks, I am going to share some insight I have gathered while being involved with a church plant in Fort Worth over the last year. While it (like everything) has been a study in culture for me, it has also shaken some of my paradigms and belief systems in regards to church in America and I want to share some of those thoughts with you.

I will call this my “Paradigm Shifts” series. It is a lists of beliefs that I had held for many years that I have had to shift or alter in my year of study. The interesting thing about these paradigms is the way they have influenced my life and shaped my spiritual journey. Now, I am not going to turn this blog into a sermon, there are plenty of those available.

But for many of you reading, you do so because you enjoy the variety of content and they way it challenges you to look at your own lives everyday to see corporate culture in action. I have come to realize that the “culture” of the churches I grew up in have shaped my beliefs (as they should.) And that I never challenged these thoughts - just accepted them because the culture told me to.  (A typical corporate culture story, no?)

What is most fascinating about this journey is that I trusted the “culture” of the church to set my values and beliefs rather than studying and searching on my own. I trusted the leaders of the church that what they were saying and teaching was correct. In short, I was an “employee” of the church, not a member of a spiritual formation. I was a consumer, not a builder. I did what I was told and never asked why. (sound familiar?) The culture of the church does not reward challenging the belief system - in fact, most times, it punishes it. But we have to seek answers from the one place that provides it and we have to work to understand. We cannot let others do the work for us.

If you are not a spiritual person or member of a church, then I hope you do not mind the next series. My intention, as I said earlier, is not to preach, but share. This is not about religion. It is about my shift in paradigms. I will deal with each one separately. And if I sound “preachy”, then I apologize. I hope I sound humbled and convicted.

This story is about my journey as part of the leadership planting The City Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

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