The Well and The Circle Of Hope: A Reflection Paper
A Paper
Presented to
Dr. Randy Walls, D. Min.
In partial fulfillment of the requirements of
PTHB 620 Church in Emerging Culture
Benjamin E. Rainey, Jr.
June 12, 2006
INTRODUCTION
The off-campus studies of The Well and The Circle of Hope was an enlightening foray into styles of churches with which I had little experience. It was a lot of fun and very informative. This paper will seek to compile reflections on what I heard and saw, and explore ongoing feelings I’ve had since.
THE WELL
The first visit we made was to The Well. After exiting the interstate and meandering through neighborhoods, we came to a small piece of commercial property in Feasterville, Pa. The warehouse, a former machine shop, had been converted into the gathering place for this community of faith.
They are reaching out to the sub-urban, artist culture in their community. Art has been incorporated in a significant way as part of the vision. Even from their website you get the feeling that this is not a typical church. In some ways the majority of Christians may wonder if this is indeed a church at all. Its décor elucidates a minimal reference to God, Christ, or any of the other iconographic expression of Christianity, instead the paucity of religious memorabilia creates an environment in which artists throughout the community can come feeling comfortable to express themselves. The Well often hosts art shows so you enter feeling like you’ve walked into a gallery rather than feeling as though they were going to church.
Personally I found the location hard to find. That may be attributable to my being from out of town. I didn’t think the building was very clearly marked, but that may have been because of the lack of “churchiness”. The Well is certainly not “churchy”, in fact they refer to themselves as a “community” and not a church.
Our interview with one of the pastors was a great glimpse into the real life of a pastor trying to help people find Jesus. Brad Jackson introduced himself and the building; allowing us to look around at the unique set-up. The back was set very much like a trendy meeting place for the coffee-addicted and art savvy, with couches, end tables, lamps and comfortable chairs. We were surrounded with art of all kinds. A personal signature of this church was found around the top of the walls. Square paintings, produced during the sermon as part of the worship, we secured side by side to create a border.
The front of the building was set up as a meeting auditorium including instruments and a chair on a stage, surrounded with chairs on three sides. This area was all very dark; the stage was lit by theatrical lighting.
Our interview was very helpful in understanding what this community was about. In a very unassuming way (though at times it seemed he feigned ignorance) our host shared about his life and journey of the community at The Well. He was open with sharing his mistakes and those of the community. Originally started in a more traditional style, they found themselves not fulfilling the mission that they were called to, so they started over.
There were things that he indicated were still problems for them as a community. Their vision brought its unique problems. He talked about the problems of youth. As a community that mainly reaches 18-30 year olds, he lamented that he wished for more, older adults for lending wisdom and maturity. He shared that there were leadership issues. He has a church governance set up that allowed leadership for life, and had an issue with an elder who caused a lot of problems for both pastor and community. He also seemed to express that there were problems in the area of leadership succession. He had just announced his resignation, and seemed uncertain about the long-term future of The Well.
I was impressed with their missional stance of trying to reach artists. There seemed to be no road blocks or half measures in pursuit of that end. I was also struck by the concern for social justice issues. This was demonstrated by their movie night dedicated to the needs of children in Africa and major emphasis on their website.
I liked the feeling of the space. I liked the relaxed atmosphere, and 100% intentional pursuit of the mission.
I didn’t feel they had good answers for everything. They struggled with what to do with children and teens. They also left me wondering if the emerging church was just a glorified youth group, a bunch of whiny white kids who wanted to have a “cool” church.
THE CIRCLE OF HOPE
The Circle of Hope was considerably different. Their pastor, Rod White, was more pretentious in a passive aggressive way. We met with him in his Philadelphia home. His home was beautiful. Sitting in his living room we were told the story of how the Circle of Hope began.
He and his wife had been pastoring a church of the Brethren in Christ. They were in small town Pennsylvania when they attended a conference promoting urban ministry. They both felt called to minister in an urban setting, and they thought they would head to Africa or Southeast Asia, but God had other plans.
Their denomination sent them to see Washington, D.C. and New York City. (The denomination had property in New York, and would have preferred them to go there.) But neither place felt right to them. So they checked out Philadelphia, in their own state, and knew that was where God wanted them.
Their denomination had a plan to form a ring of churches around the outskirts of the city, but Rod felt strongly they should move right into the heart of the city. He said they, “parachuted in”. They had no core of people, just themselves and their children. He called it their “family business”.
His story went on to describe his experience in church planting. It was more than just a discussion on the emergence of the church. He was really inspirational to me. I’ll be planting a church this fall.
He started by walking the streets. He believed that God was doing something and he just needed to figure out what it is and get on it. He believed that God already had the people there that He wanted to start the church with. So each day he would walk up and talk to people essentially saying, “Hey, I’m trying to start a church. Do you know anyone who could help me?”
He spent time in coffee shops, schools, and gave himself assignments each day to find people. He knew they were out there; he just had to go find them.
One of his approaches was simply to act helpless. He would ask for directions and then pop the question looking for someone to help him start the church. He started this in October and by January had put together a launch team. It was at this point in the conversation that he shared an important principle that guides their church. He said that he was really interested in the church, not the individual. He felt that the church together could accomplish the mission much more than individuals. This influenced decisions like the lack of mass mailings. He didn’t want people to come to his church that would come because of a mass mailing. It was a principle emphasized in their cell groups. Building the church on cell groups puts the mission on the group rather than an individual.
It is not a clean system. Multiple twenty-somethings in leadership, “Excelling at doing it badly”, always makes things messy, but it is better to do things as the Church. Though he downplayed their organizational structure, they seemed very organized, requiring that cells divide every year and that leaders function in very specific ways. They also celebrate their unity and diversity. Their church has multiple locations now, and functions individually except for a regular love feast where they come together to worship and celebrate what God is doing.
His story was quite inspirational. Though they are not the typical emerging church, like you read about in Christianity Today, there was something happening. There was definitely something emerging among the transgenders, prostitutes, and others in the Center City of Philadelphia. There was the sensation of excitement that in places and ways that the modern American church had moved away from, there was still a missional church pursuing the mission fully focused on that goal.
CONCLUSION
Both of these trips were beneficial and enlightening. I preferred the trip to The Circle, but learned a lot at both. It challenged me, in light of church planting to put a lot of thought into the mission of our church and how we’ll affect our target area, completely committed to the mission. (Matt. 28:18-20)
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