3rdplace 2nd edition

Hi guys, from the beginning of 3rdplace we aimed to remain as liquid as possible. Always flowing with Jesus. This is the draft for the 3rdplace second edition booklet. It contains some old things and some new things.. Things we as a community discovered together. You might recognise your own words in here!

Please have a read through and leave a comment.

3rdplace

The modern world was black and white. Right and wrong was easy and clearly defined. Then we were shot into a postmodern world where suddenly everything became 32 shades of grey; no longer is any one group or person's view absolute.

Everybody is right. Everything is relative

Culture however still has the nerve to keep shifting and today we live in an undefined new world and new culture where we exist no longer in black or white, no longer in a grey abstract without any absolutes. We exist in a place of extremes where our thoughts, lives and beliefs are black and white

at the same time.

3rdplace is not a church.

It is an expression of the church.

It is a catalyst for the church.

It is a place where the church gathers.

Most importantly it is a group of people that simply want to love Jesus and love others within this strange new world.

Everyone frequents a place that exists somewhere between where they live and where they work. It can be a place or a community that each person has in their life that defines them a lot more than their home or office. It could be a bar, a coffee shop, a book club or anything thing really...

We aim to be such a third community, a place where you can come and just be. A place where you can find shelter and maybe relax for a while. It is a place where you can learn, find healing and reconnect. It is place where people group together to help one another and to share each other's lives. Where we journey together to figure out whom Jesus is and who we are in Him.

A place where we can fully engage life.

We have become missionaries to today’s cultures, we live to tell the story of Jesus.

Stories.

Our lives are filled with stories. We live within the beautiful story of South Africa and in this we each have our own story and when we walk together we reshape one another’s stories. As friends of Jesus we let his story rewrite our stories. We are bound together not only because we believe the same things but because we know the same person.

Jesus’ story and so the story of scripture changed us and keeps on changing us. It inspires us to continue God’s mission (his story) to draw the world to himself through Jesus and renew and remake and redeem all of creation. His story incarnates into each of ours and reshapes with us and remoulds our culture or subculture. And so our gathering space we call the Story Space, where we can tell stories of healing, of hurt, of forgiveness, of death and of life.

As the story of South Africa grows and changes so we change and grow. We want to be flexible, to be liquid and continually reshaping ourselves to better engage our culture, our city.

Character traits

In essence this is about 'how' we are. How we operate, how we live our faith as individuals and as a community. This is how we engage life.

Authenticity

To live authentic lives means in part to be real and true in our relationship with Jesus and others. Christianity for us is about having our hope in Christ’ resurrection so that we can make it through the difficult times, knowing that in him we too will be raised and in him we are already part God’s new world and his great story. It is about being truthful, real about your situation and finding true joy in your relationship with God often in spite of the suffering.

Like the Psalms we want to engage God and life fully.

‘Is it truly from the Master craftsman? Is it authentic?’ Living an authentic life also means a return to your true creator and living in the way that he meant for us to live. It is about rediscovering your gifts, strengths, purpose and yourself. We want to be true to our original design and God’s original intent.

Building authentic relationships with others is important to us. Besides love, authentic relationships should have no other agenda.

Creativity

We want to live a life where we take action in loving Jesus and loving others. We want to take action in joining God in re-storing and re-creating this broken world.

We are independent beings that can create and should create. When we partner with God, he redeems our creativity so that with him we can continue the story of scripture.

We want to use this gift to remain liquid and to keep moving with contemporary culture, so within the 3rdplace community we intentionally create space for new ideas and new unexpected incarnations of the gospel story.

We also like to have fun.

Simplicity

‘Simplicity is not always the best, but the best is always simple.’ – anonymous

As an organism we aim to remain a simple structure as possible. So that we can change quickly as the world around us changes.

We aim to live lives as simple as possible so that most of our energy goes into seeking and loving God and loving others.

Simplicity also has to do with becoming more silent. In a world that is filled with so much man-made noise it is difficult (and even irritating) for us to be silent. But we are in desperate need of silence, we need to simply sit down each day and remain quiet so we can reconnect with God in us. Not searching for a result or answer, but merely just resting in the simple silence of his presence. God is a mystery that is to be engaged, not to be conquered.

Love Jesus, Love others

This lies at the very heart of 3rdplace. When you boil everything right down this is what we believe is left. And that if you get this statement, you get everything.

At its centre it has to do with living a connected life. Connected to God, to all those around you and to his creation. Just being true humans.

We believe that Jesus' death and resurrection did not only restore us in right relationship with God but also in right relationship with others (inside and outside the faith) and with creation itself.

Love Jesus: We live in a world drenched in God. He is everywhere. His divine image rests in every person. We are the ones that need to become aware of his ways and presence.

We want to life a contemplative life. To always be searching for the silence inside ourselves so that we can get in touch with God in us. To find our original image-of-God-selves and so learn to love Jesus even more.

We want to allow the story of Scripture to become part of who we are, to influence us, to change us so we can walk with Jesus and get to know him better.

Love others: As a church we do not want to separate ourselves from the world and from culture. We want to be in the midst of it and built our dwellings in the world, as Jesus did.

We want to smell of the world.

We want to love and walk with people, especially those that have been rejected and are often hard to love. For us it takes a village to raise a child, to love people and introduce them to Jesus.

We want to be people that bring justice to the broken, poor and helpless through and with Jesus.

We wrestle with what it means to be in the world but not of it. We want to live in the tension when heaven is brought to earth until Jesus returns and we are raised from the dead to live him forever on the new recreated earth.

Creed

At the end of it all being a Christian is just about a journey of getting to know God through the resurrected Jesus Christ. He loved you first and so you begin to love him.

The creed below is what we as Christians, and those before us, have learned in this relationship with God. They serve the relationship.

We have a relationship with truth, of course, truth is a person.

We believe in one God the Father, the Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being, substance, with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified; who spoke through the prophets.

In one holy universal and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Spirituality

At 3rdplace we have a "melk en brood" spirituality. It is something that's familiar, which happens every single day, like going to buy milk and bread. It’s physical, human and connected. We practice daily spiritual disciplines (and practice some of them together at our gatherings) to help us draw close to God so we can be changed by him and his image restored in us. His love in us then draws us toward one another and flows out of us towards those outside our community. We have a vow which can be taken which helps us express these three movements and make them more tangible.

Our goal is always complete union with God, his ways should become our ways, his thoughts our thoughts and his love for the broken world should become ours.

vow

The vow fuses together our understanding of the way of Jesus (loving God and loving others) with our ‘melk & brood’ spirituality, whilst joining us together as a specific community in a specific context and then pushing us towards holiness and union with God.

"Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do"
(St Thomas Aquinas)

Christianity is firstly a way of life, not a system of belief. A system of belief alone will not change you.

Christian life is a life of relationships, so we do not say: I am, rather we are Christians.

Our agenda should always be only faith expressing itself in love

Incarnations

The dream, the beauty that is stirring in your heart is the same that is missing from this world.

When Jesus enters our lives and our communities he plants the seeds of his story. The gospel then begins to take a new shape from deep inside of us. Something new is born, a new expression of The Way, from within our culture and ourselves.

These incarnations are things that have sprouted from the 3rdplace community.

What do you have to bring? What do you need to add?

croissants and ravens

Once when I was watching Oprah, it was only once, she was reviewing a book. It had a very interesting title,

‘French Women Don’t Get Fat’[i]

Seriously.

The very stylish (can they be otherwise?) French author on the show made the basic claim that French women do not get fat. And if you’ve been to France and especially to Paris you would agree, mostly. The reasons she pointed out in her book was, one that French women walk everywhere and usually in high heels (this is true, traffic in Paris is a nightmare). The second reason however is the big secret; French women stop to eat.

Yes you heard correctly, they stop to eat. When it is time for lunch they literally stop to eat. They sit down at a cafe or at their desk, switch off their phones etc and eat their lunch and this usually with a glass of wine which any experienced dieter will tell is definitely not done.

They take small bites.

They actually taste the food.

They tend to eat smaller portions of good food instead of buckets of cheap food. The food is more satisfying and ‘filling’ since they don’t just inhale but actually chew and taste. Hence, they don’t get fat.

When last did you stop to eat? For most of us food is a by the by kind of thing. You know, the-cheap-burger-on-the-lap-while-talking-on-the-phone-in-the-car-on-the-way-to-the-next-meeting-dodging-the-beggars-and-cell-phone-charger-sales-men kind of lunch or the dinner-on-your-lap-in-front-of-the-tube-checking-one-last-email kind of thing. Food for us, in the words of Reme’s dad in the movie Ratatouille, is fuel.

God created a world filled with beauty and wonder and we rocket past like maniacs skidding sideways into our graves, one hand still trying to send a last tweet. Scripture however in its upside down kingdom of God way hints at another type of life,

A taste and see that the Lord is good life.[ii]

Let me introduce you to spiritual practice known as pausing. It’s simple really, it means just that. To pause.

Look at the ravens.[iii]

How many times did Jesus use words like, ‘Look at...’ or ‘do you see the...’? Ironically we must be the most unaware generation in the history of mankind, if something is not on a screen it’s not even on our radar. But if we want to get closer to God, we need to become more aware, we need to open our eyes, to stop and let the Spirit catch up with us. Give him a chance to teach us, to show us the wonder in a mouthful, the beauty in a sip.

So from now on try to stop and taste and see and hear and feel. For instance wherever you are right now just sit quietly, just pause and actually become aware of where your body is in time and space and then take a look around you...

What do you see?

Now close your eyes.

What do you hear?

What do you smell?

And next time when you have lunch. Turn off your phone, stop tweeting about your lunch and actually taste it (even if it is just a cheap burger).

And see that the Lord is good.

---

[i] French Women Don't Get Fat, Mireille Guiliano, 2007

[ii] Ps 34:8

[iii] Luk 12:24

Once when Martin Luther was asked what he would do today if he knew the resurrection would happen tomorrow.. He said he would plant a tree.

The jewish people have this saying that when youd do good things you are plating the trees of paradise today. Rob Bell talks about it in his dvd 'trees'

In Gladiator Maximus tells his soldiers before battle, 'What we do in life, echoes in eternity'

At the end of his longest argument in scripture, the resurrection chapter 1 Cor 15, Paul says that what we do for Jesus we do not do in vain.

We are not just waiting around to go to heaven, there is a strange mysterious continuity between what we do here and what happens after the resurrection. What we do today as the people of God, the children of God. Mattters. A lot.

So grab a spade.

gifts

Mat 10:7-8 And as you go, proclaim, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. You have received freely, freely give. We always read the last bit and get excited. But he context for the last bit is the first bit. ..as you go.. How often to you wait for the last bit (the gifts) before you do the first bit (the going)? seems to me maybe we should do it the other way around? First go then get. grace & peace. pierre

silence

‘Silence is the first language of God.’

This is really simple (you can feel the but coming), but simple does mean easy and it definitely does not mean shallow. Actually simple can be really hard to keep simple, because before you know it a very simple thing can become a complex and intricate thing (like this sentence). Simplicity is a constant effort, like pruning a topiary. It’s a simple lollipop tree, but to keep it like that takes constant effort.

And that is precisely what the core is of all spiritual disciplines. Effort. Now just to make it clear effort is rather different from works, works expect a reward or compensation but effort implies a deliberate striving towards God, a conscious seeking or an intended action.

Silence is the King of all spiritual practices. And the one we need most. Deepak Chopra once said that if you chose only one thing to do to live a long and healthy life, then chose to spend time regularly in silence.

When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Lam 3:28,29 msg

Yet silence is the furthest thing from us. At any given time most of us, have a cell phone, an mp3 player or radio either on us or around us. We race so quickly that we leave our selves behind. Jesus walked at around 3km an hour someone once told me, but how we love to outrun him.

‘Hurry is not of the Devil, it is the Devil’ – CG Jung

Spending time in silence (simply) says:

Here I am God.

Change me as you will.

Form me.

I can’t. You can.

Silence show our dependence on God, our submission to his will and purposes. It shows physically the intention of our hearts.

Silence is praise to you, Zion-dwelling God, And also obedience. Ps 65:1 msg

After a while you will begin to develop a lifestyle of silence, a constant awareness of the still peace of God that fills the spaces around you and inside you. It is a quiet waiting for God, waiting to see what he is up to, so that you can join him.

...In returning and rest you shall be saved; and in quietness and hope shall be your strength... Isa 30:15 mkjv

So how do I do this simple yet complex but very necessary thing? Here is one way, a very old way, which I happen to like.

1. Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.

2. Sit comfortably on a chair, feet on the ground, back straight.

3. Let all thoughts flow through you letting them go as soon as they pop up. Don’t try and block them. This is impossible.

4. Then return your heart gently to God. Use a word such as ‘holy, welcome, peace etc’ as a kind of a bookmark to guide you back to God. Gently say the word in your mind when you catch yourself in a thought and return to the silence. You can also use a mental image, or some movement in your body (such as your breathing or heartbeat) to guide you back.

5. Try and do this for 20min or build up to 20min a day. Use a cell phone alarm or some soft timer.

6. It doesn’t matter how many thoughts you have, or many times you need to ‘refocus’. There is no such thing as a good or bad time in silence. Because it is God that is the one touching your heart, seeing your intention. The power is never in the practice, it is in God’s hands.

7. Take note of how your life and your reactions to others change over the next few months.

len on arts in the church

check out this short clip:

http://vimeo.com/5740404

hmmm.

reflect.

What is our purpose? I suppose that is the question. What am I suppose to do with my life... I think we all have gone through this frustrating and extremely annoying stage and if you haven’t you soon will (especially in your twenties). And if you think it’s over and you have arrived. Just wait. It’ll hit you again like a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick*.

Stupid jokes and silly quotes aside what are we suppose to do with our short lives? As a follower of Jesus this becomes an even more interesting and hotly debated question.

Are we trying to earn our way to heaven? Which can quickly be shot down as that dreaded word in evangelical Christianity often said as if you are holding something back in your throat; works.
Then we need not do anything! Obviously we can’t earn our place in heaven, you can feel the but coming, but what about James? A friend of mine said the other day that before you get to Peter at the pearly gates, you’ll have to deal with James first. Especially that annoying thing he wrote about faith being useless without works. So what to do?

Maybe we should do good things because we are so thankful that we have been saved. Sounds good right? So if you don’t help smelly old ladies, you are not thankful and will lose your savedness. Hmm, it’s like works but backwards and that still doesn’t work.

So let’s just do what Jesus did (you know WJJD), because well we like him a lot and would like to be more like him. That sounds perfect. Right? Only one snag, you are not Jesus. It’s like asking me to sit down at a piano and play like Beethoven. Not going to happen. But what if I could be possessed by Beethoven and he could play through me? That could work, right?

Len Sweet says something like, ‘don’t try and be like Jesus, just let Jesus be himself in you’. Now that sounds a way to go.

In Exodus, Moses goes up a mountain and comes down with two stone tablets. He does this twice actually since he has a bit of an incident with Israel involving a golden calf and smashing of tablets the first time.

Can you remember what the third thing on the tablets say? In other words what is the third commandment?

‘You shall not take the name of the LORD in vain.’

Now we often interpret this as meaning not to swear using Jesus or God’s name. And that’s right, you shouldn’t, so don’t start. But like most things in scripture it goes deeper than you stubbing your toe and losing control of your tongue. The word ‘take’ also means ‘carry’; do not carry the name of the Lord in vain. It implies your whole life that you shouldn’t say that you follow Jesus and not really mean it. Don’t stick that name on your back if you are not going to walk the walk. In short when you say you follow Jesus or are a Christian, you become a name bearer of God. You represent him, when you do something it’s like him doing it.

This leads me to another scripture, which you may have guessed by now, in Genesis it is written that we are created in the image of God. Now this means a lot of things and can be understood in twice as many ways. But one of those is that we represent God on earth. We have to take care of this creation for him. Like an ambassador. An ambassador has one purpose to represent his King or country. Paul even calls us ambassadors for Christ 2 Cor 5:20.

Another image Paul uses is that of a mirror, in 2 Cor 3:18 he says:

‘But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord Spirit’ MKJV

Or in the Message translation:

‘All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him’

He says this happens because of Christ, he fuses metaphors (again). When Moses came down the mountain after meeting with God, he face shone with God’s glory. He hid his face, since the people were afraid to look at him, but in Christ this veil is taken away. It refers to the veil covering the most holy place that was torn when Jesus died and also the veil that covered Moses’ face. So now two things can happen, we can see God clearly and reflect him clearly.
The word he uses in the scripture goes both ways. It means reflect but also behold.

It’s simple really, if you want to reflect God, you have to be turned towards him as a mirror is to the sun in order to reflect the light.

So the first step to finding out what you are suppose to do with your life is not praying for a roadmap, rather it’s adoring God, turning your heart towards him.

We are very keen to reflect God, but not so good at beholding. So for a moment leave all the questions that you might have about God, the bible, why good people maybe go to hell and just turn your heart towards God. Take just a few minutes a day and turn your heart with no questions or requests. Just adoration and see how your day changes,
how your life changes.

The more time we spend in God’s light, the more we become like him. Like a poker left in a hot fire. At the start you can see the poker clearly but after a while it becomes like the fire (this process is part of the threefold way, ancient understanding of spiritual growth, but more about that in another issue).

So then, we do good things, because God does good things.

We love the world, because God loves the world.

We comfort, because God comforts.

We are on mission, because God is on mission.

We are gracious and compassionate, because God is gracious and compassionate.

We are merciful, because God is merciful.

________________________________________________
*The same effect the best drink in the universe has, a pan galactic gargle blaster, according the The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.