Jerusalem vs the Diaspora
Last Sunday, for the first time in my lifetime, churches across the country shuttered the doors of their buildings because of the risk of spreading COVID-19. In reflecting on this unique moment, I shared some of these thoughts with our church.
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In John 4, Jesus is interacting with a Samaritan woman. And through the course of conversation, the woman brings up some practical and theological differences between Samaritans and Jews.
She says, “You Jews say we’re supposed to worship on THAT mountain; but we believe you should worship on THIS mountain…” Jesus responds: “The time is now coming and has now come, when true worshippers will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth…”
The woman’s mindset reflected the posture of many American Christians toward worship: proper worship takes place in a centralized location—a church building. I mean, it’s God’s house for crying out loud!
But Jesus says: God’s presence is not limited to one geographical location—a mountain or a building. The time is now coming—then he says—and HAS NOW COME when true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth.
We could call the first approach the Jerusalem Model. You know Jerusalem, it has the temple. Everyone is invited to come to the central location to worship.
The other approach we could call the diaspora model. Diaspora means spread out.
When the church in Jerusalem began to be persecuted, they decentralized and worshipped throughout the Mediterranean. God leveraged this persecution to spread the gospel .
Truth be told, I LOVE the Jerusalem model. I love getting the whole church together. But the church throughout the ages has flourished in seasons when this wasn’t possible, when everyone was spread out.
With the Jerusalem model, when you habitually go to BIG GATHERINGS, you tend to think with a majority culture mindset. I mean, everyone is a Christian, right?
With the diaspora model, when everything is decentralized, you take on a minority mindset. There are few of us.
With the Jerusalem model, you tend to be lax about mission. If everyone is a Christian, so the thinking goes, it doesn’t really matter much to share the gospel with others, or reach out to hurting neighbors, everyone’s kinda good.
With the diaspora model, you tend to stay on your toes and stay hungry. Your eyes are open to who God may be leading you to reach out to. You’re looking for ways to reach people and affect people for the kingdom.
While I love the Jerusalem model and centralized worship gatherings, I also love the scrappiness and hunger of the diaspora model. It empowers the church to be the church, rather than deferring to the staff.
It puts responsibility on PEOPLE to do the work of God, not on CHURCH PROGRAMS to take care of everything for us.
It reminds us that God doesn’t just show up in buildings with steeples but simply in gatherings of people who love him and bear his name.
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What would happen if American churches could never gather in public spaces for worship again?
I think we’d see the stock of the celebrity pastor or celebrity worship leader go down.
I think a bunch of people who “go to church” would probably start to flake out.
I think we’d see a whole bunch of real estate currently owned by churches turn into daycare centers and restaurants and coworking spaces.
I think it might FEEL in places like Tulsa as if the world is becoming more anarchic, a little crazier, less safe.
But what good stuff might happen?
I think we’d see Christians get really creative about how push each other to grow as disciples.
I think we’d see more deliberate, passionate and powerful prayer gatherings in people’s homes.
I think in the absence of regional megachurches where people drive 20 min to get to a building, people would start to gather in neighborhood clusters.
I think we’d see folks taking the call to love your neighbor much more seriously.
I think we’d see people who care about the next generation upping their investment in training kids in the way of Jesus.
I think the role of pastor would transition from being primarily preacher to being equipper/encourager.
I think we’d see the number of authentic leaders and disciple-makers skyrocket.
I think we’d see a greater separation between Christian identity and political affiliation.
I think we’d get more imaginative about how to practice our faith in our vocations.
I think we’d be more in-tune with the pain points in our city and more likely to hop in and help.
I think we’d see more demonstrations of the power of the Spirit.
I think we’d see more genuine conversions to Christianity as a result of Christian hospitality.
I think we’d see more genuine love between Christians and gratitude for gatherings of believers.
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I hope that we’re able to gather back together in our building next week, but I also hope that in the coming years God will give us the gift of spiritual scrappiness, toughness and endurance we see in churches with a forced-diaspora mindset.
So, how can we leverage the time we have now to be the church?
1) Make YOUR house a house of prayer.
Crank up worship.
Pray for your neighbors by name.
Pray for everyone you know in our church by name.
Pray for every elected official by name.
Pray for doctors/nurses/scientists affected by Covid.
Be imaginative, be broad, pray pray pray.
2) Make YOUR house a mission outpost.
Check in with your older neighbors
Invite ppl over and study the Bible
Have a kid play date & teach kids stuff about God
Brainstorm ways you can serve, bless, add fun & reduce anxiety
Thank and bless your mailman, Amazon driver, pizza guy.
Make your house the epicenter of neighborhood blessing.
Help w/other people’s kids as childcare opportunities fall off
3) Make YOUR HOUSE a discipleship center.
Instead of binging Netflix… read the Bible, read great books, catch up on sermons, journal.
FaceTime friends & do digital bible study.
Ask each other to share what you’re learning.
4) Make YOUR HOUSE a place of healing.
Clean, declutter, make healthy foods, exercise. Garden
Pull weeds, rake leaves. Beautify/take a nap.
And when all this is over, keep doing this stuff anyway.
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JFO