The Monkey and the Fish

The following are a few of my favorite excerpts from Dave Gibbon’s book The Monkey and the Fish. My own commentary follows.

And one of the biggest issues we’ve come to recognize is similar to what Luther found – there’s a structure, organization, and philosophy that discourages and hinders, if not prevents, the involvement and collaboration of everyday people in the most important parts of church and ministry.

Too often it seems like church ends up being all about place and not enough about people. – Page 127

At Bloom’s first soft launch service I took pictures. That was it. I sat in the middle of the crowd and watched as everyday people led a gathering that I will never forget. I find one of the most beautiful things about church to be the moments when unlikely people have so identified themselves with the church – not institutional, but church spiritual – that they allow what God has put in them to bloom.

The blurring of lines and the upending of traditional walls has happened in each generation and will only increase in this one. It’s really about learning to flow. Following the Jesus way of doing things. Just as in John 1, when we see the Son of God becoming man, the God of the universe allowing us to touch, smell, and see him, the living God. The work isn’t the key thing as much as who we are. The work changes depending on the situation. Our calling remains the same: to glorify God by learning to flow with him. Our forms and styles will be varied and beautifully diverse. – Page 146

I’m glad we are opening up to more varied forms and styles that are “beautifully diverse.” One size will not fit all. One church cannot reach everybody in a city. With Bloom, who we are has become far more important to me than what we do. We’re all about creating opportunities for people the experience the grace of God. For that to be a reality, we have to be graceful. And where sin abounds, grace abounds even more.

Collaboration regurlarly takes place in the business world like it never has before…The level, the degree, and the nature of collaboration are changing so rapidly. For us in the church, this is yet another major concern, because collaboration is something we’ve never really understood or done well. – Page 150

I find great encouragement in the fact that we have experienced an enormous amount of collaboration during this church planting season. From Jeremiah Curran at Westbridge, to Jeremy Scheller at Sanctuary, to Peter Haas from Substance, Scott Hodge from The Orchard, Buddy Winn and others from Living Word, Daniel Konold from Solomon’s Porch, the ARC, the guys from Mission St Paul - the four other church planters we’ve met going into St Paul – the open handedness has been over the top. Our hope now is for this collaboration to translate into our community. Can we be this open handed with local non-profits and community organizations that are not Christian and who are doing remarkable things? Can the collaboration extend into networks formed outside of the church? I’m hopeful it can.

When we were launching NewSong, I’d heard about all these burned-out church-planters. They’re entrepreneurs, right? They’re starting new churches, they’re working like dogs, and they’re killing their families. I just went to the Lord and said, “God, I can’t do that. I don’t know if you want that of me – to burn out for you. But that just doesn’t make sense to me.” I struggled with that whole thing. It’s about burning on, not burning out. – Page 160

I resonate. The “doer” in me is bent on burning out. The “just be” in me beckons a healthy life rhythm. I’m not quite there yet, but I am determined to rest and be in peace throughout this season and all seasons of my life. I am not God’s gift to the earth – Jesus was and is. I take myself entirely too seriously when I take on the burden of having to change the world. I get to be part of the process, in which millions of outstanding people are engaged.

Great book. I highly recommend it.