So, what is the Church 2012?

One City      ~      One Body      ~      One Vision

The Church 2012 is a gathering of the generation that believes Jesus will transform Oklahoma City forever.  We are made up of various people from Oklahoma City and surrounding area unified through Jesus all desiring to recenter on Jesus and what He wants to do in on our city together as one. Throughout Scripture we see where ordinary people of God coming together doing extraordinary things. We are not excited about events or programs, but we are excited about gatherings where people of God come together to engage in the things of God.

It is interesting here that it says

• share your bread
• bring to your house
• you cover the naked

As servants of God, we must find rest in our roles. There is no need to try to garner or guard our own kingdoms. We must let all of that die.  When you find rest in the fact that you don’t have to do everything, but just be a good steward of what He has given to us, then you will find out that you don’t have to save the world, you just have to be obedient to the task that the LORD has given you.

Your calling in this world:  to be obedient…by faith

http://www.urbanchristiannews.com/ucn/2010/04/francis-chan-erwin-mcmanus-mark-batterson-and-other-christian-leaders-give-7-passions-of-the-next-ge.html

feel free to add your thoughts to what you get when you read this

• Wheels (bicycle or car hub),
• Computing (Ethernet hub, computer networking device),
• Transport (Airline hub, an airport used as transfer point)

I love what Wikipedia describes an airport hub:

An airline hub is an airport that an airline uses as a transfer point to get passengers to their intended destination. It is part of a hub and spoke model, where travelers moving between airports not served by direct flights change planes en route to their destinations. Many hubs of the airlines are also situated at airports in the cities of the respective head offices.

I love it because the hub is not an intended destination or a final destination, but a place where travelers are passing through.  So, instead of creating a “center” (and I know that we are being a little critical of words) where we try to gather people, we want to create a culture that sees it as a resource for the intended destination.  Instead of being the center or focus, a distribution or conduit.

I know that many people would say, well, technically, what is the difference.  The difference is that we don’t want to communicate that we are gathers, without setting the tone that we are also scatterers.  We don’t want to be a center for a community, but a resource.  The center for community should be the family and the neighbors next door.  The center of values should be in the family and in the living room or on the front porch.  The center for streets should be a park, or a river, or a lake, or a garden, or a neighbors yard or driveway, or a garage ( a place where life takes place)

We want equipping centers with the added ingredient of releasing centers.  That is why a hub…

So what goes on in community hubs…whatever the community wants, but a major ingredient should be based around kingdom values which could be spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual, and financial.  So in other words, may be a place to worship or to talk about the Bible, a place to discuss community gatherings among neighbors, physically work the body, bring education back into neighborhoods, and financial accountability either in lending or in savings, balance budgets, etc.