Our Baby Church
Oasis Madrid is having a baby! That’s right. We’re starting a baby church, which will be a neighborhood-based Spanish-speaking missional community located in the Malasaña area in the city center of Madrid. We are currently in the process of gathering a team to begin this new project, so if you are interested, feel free to click “Read More” for some answers to some frequently asked questions about this new initiative. If you’re still crazy enough to want to join our new adventure, email Kelly and April at crulls@caimail.net or give them a call at 647 976 806.
What made you decide to start this new project?
Well, we prayed with some friends over the summer because we had a sense God was tugging us in a new direction, although it seemed very unclear at the time. Eventually in our prayer times we came to the point where we were asking a very simple, but important question:
What would it take for us to build significant relationships with non-Christians in Madrid?
We talked about this extensively in the group and came up with some ideas, which I’ll list here:
- orar por ellos
- pedirles orientación a su cultura
- descubrir sus necesidades
- estar con ellos en cafes, bares o plazas con un ritmo de frecuencia
- ofrecerles cursos y actividades
- empezar una celula con un material bastante básico para nuevos creyentes
- ser un equipo
- discipularles
As we began to build a faith community, we kept returning to this question to help guide us. The heartbeat for this new project really is outreach, building meaningful relationships with non-Christians in Madrid. This passion is what unites us and brings us together.
What do you have in mind for next year?
What we know right now is that we will be phasing out of our jobs with Oasis Madrid later this summer to focus on starting a Spanish-speaking intentional community in our neighborhood. We are currently looking for team members to work with us. Two women from Oasis, Adriana (from Colombia) and Christine (from England) are also discerning with us right now if they would like to be involved.
We feel like focusing our efforts on a neighborhood is one good way to reach the city. People often comment on how Madrid is less like a capital city, and more like a bunch of pueblos or barrios all bunched together. People here obviously get around the city, but they also spend a lot of time in their neighborhoods. Much of life is lived at a walking pace and in the bar just around the corner. We’ve had the opportunity to make good friends with those who work in the fruit shop and the bakery and who bring their kids down to the playground, and even the homeless who sleep in the streets. These experiences have inspired us to think about how we can take advantage of this natural way of building relationships to further the Kingdom.
We’re asking our team to all live in the same neighborhood, within a 5-min. walk of each other, so we can frequent the same places and take advantage of being able to pray regularly with each other, share meals together with neighbors, etc. Really, this ministry is an answer to the question, “What would it take to build significant and meaningful relationships with non-Christians in Madrid?”
It’s also a way of making discipleship an everyday experience. Cities can be impersonal, and people can feel disconnected or distant from each other. By living in proximity and seeing each other every day we can be more intentional about discipleship and accountability, which most young Christian Europeans are longing for.
Since our ministry is neighborhood-based, it would be helpful to tell you a little bit about our neighborhood. It has a couple different names if you go searching on Google. It’s Malasaña, Universidad, Maravillas, Tribunal, Conde Duque, the list goes on. It’s known historically for being the place where the townspeople of Madrid rose up against Napoleon when he took over Spain, and since then, has a reputation for being the more subversive neighborhood where anyone with an agenda comes to “stick it to the man.” After Franco died and Spain became a republic, this particular neighborhood started La Movida, a movement that called into question all the traditional ideals of Spain and pushed the country towards all kinds of changes or “freedoms,” much like the 60’s in the States. Today these ideas are still celebrated in the square, Dos de Mayo, on the 2nd of May, and the neighborhood is home to all kinds of subcultures at the fringes of society like the goths, punks, homeless, prostitutes, homosexuals, artists, musicians, etc.
We absolutely love our neighborhood and have a real heart for subversive subcultures. But, I completely understand others who think we’re crazy too.
This gives you a general idea of the “vision” of our new project.
You mentioned that your ministry will be neighborhood-based. What is your neighborhood like? How do you build relationships there?
We do live in Malasaña, and we’ve lived in the neighborhood for four years. We spend most of our time in the neighborhood, so I’m sure you will have plenty of opportunity to get to know it for yourselves. In answer to your question, I’m sure there are as many ways of getting to know the people in the neighborhood as there are people, but some of the lessons we’ve learned are…
• don’t get too comfortable at home—challenge yourself to make your neighborhood your living room
• frequent the same places in the neighborhood—if you get to know the owners, you’ll most likely get to know the local clientele as well. We go to the same fruit vendor at our market, the same bakery for our baguettes, the same grocery store, the same playground for Alleke to play, and April wrote her Masters thesis in the same café, so she got to know the people there. It can be difficult at first, but once you’ve proven your loyalty, you get treated like a regular and a friend (it’s very different kind of “customer service” model than we’re used to—I talk to you more about this later if you’re interested).
• serving —when our goal is to make the neighborhood a better place, and people see that, they are more than willing to welcome us, even if we are foreigners learning the language, etc.
• futbol clubs, gym memberships, writers groups, language exchanges, community centers, dance studios—joining groups that meet up weekly for some kind of activity also creates the frequency needed to make friendships. These kinds of “leisure activities” can be the first ones to go when prioritizing, but they’re actually one of the easiest ways to get to know others in the neighborhood.
• proximity—in a city Madrid’s size, we’ve discovered that we always end up being friends with people in Oasis who live within walking distance of our apartment. I don’t know if it’s cultural or simply practical, but somehow those in our church seem to cluster around others who live nearby. We figure that if we are intentional about making relationships in our neighborhood and living with our team in our neighborhood, we can take advantage of this natural way of building friendships.
I’m sure most of these seem obvious. Maybe you do them yourselves. But, I find that it’s hard to make outreach a priority. One of the main thrusts of this new initiative is “doing whatever it takes to build meaningful and significant relationships with non-Christians in Madrid” and this is where that question has taken us so far.
What do you find most important when it comes to ministry?
Our values serve two purposes. First, they tell you some things about our personality and what we find most important as a faith community. Secondly, our values guide our practice, helping us choose how to spend our time based on what we find most important.
We value…
Knowing God: We believe all of creation is in relationship to God, our Creator. As such, we value relating to God personally and communally. We hope in everything we do we are seeking to know God better.
Kingdom Living: We trust and proclaim that Jesus is Lord. All of life belongs to the one true God, who invites us to participate in His Kingdom, bringing all aspects of our lives and our worlds under His Lordship and embodying the way of life expressed in Jesus. To be absolutely clear, the reason we do what we do and the authority we have to do so lies in the simple confession that Jesus is Lord.
Relationships: Life is about relationships. We try to emulate the perfect unity and community represented in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Created in the image of God, it is our conviction that kingdom living is most possible in and through relationship. Our task is to create, restore and nurture healthy relationships. We value community in which people are loved and accepted for who they are, celebrating our differences. We commit in very practical ways to helping each other know God and follow Jesus both personally and communally. We value conflict transformation as a means of growth. We are grace-oriented, loving each other as Christ loved us.
Mission: Relationships are the way to carry out the mission of bringing all things under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Mission brings adventure and growth, and we want nothing to hold us back from radically following the living and active person of Jesus Christ. We are willing to experiment and discover how we are to live out His mission, aware of the cost and yet, living with open hands.
Learning: We want to approach everything we do from a learning posture, always believing there are ways to grow and change. Intentional discipleship is basic to learning how to follow Jesus into His kingdom. We believe that playfulness, experimentation, grief and celebration are all part of the process of life-long learning.
Generosity: Generosity is not an action, but an attitude. Out of gratitude for God’s abundant provision in our lives, we are compelled to be agents of blessing to our friends, neighbors and all of Creation. As we have freely received, we freely share all that we have, whether it’s vision, hope, leadership, friendship, grace, money, homes, or anything else we can think of to give away.
Intentionality: Believing that means are as important as ends, we want to be intentional in all things. Holding in tension that 1) we are human, and our tendency is only to do things we need to do, not things we want to do; and that 2) we want our structures to be born from love not a desire for programs, we create structures that are organic and simple and help us to live consistently with our mission. We want to be intentional in small and great ways.
Rhythm: We value the rhythms of life and seek to honor and recognize rhythms of work and rest, joy and sorrow, planting and harvesting, life and death, dancing and mourning. Rhythms provide the place for learning to trust God.
Incarnation: Following the example of Jesus, we believe in humbling ourselves and “taking the very nature of the servant” in the contexts we find ourselves. As such, we value:
Presence: Jesus was God in the flesh. He moved into the neighborhood and became one of us. Not only that, he loved being with people. The Gospel happens in our relationships, which simply means it’s important to us to be directly present to the people and places in our context. This assumes not only proximity but also availability—regularity as well as spontaneity in the friendships and neighborhoods we belong to.
Powerlessness: We willingly choose to be the stranger and foreigner. Both giving and receiving. Both leading and following, allowing those most affected by problems to lead the struggle for solutions. We start from a position of listening and humility—to always raise the other above ourselves.
Others: We recognize in all situations there is “the other.” We seek to value, learn from, and love each other in our “otherness.” We seek to build bridges and make peace, not making “the other” our enemy.
How can I get involved in what you’re doing?
We imagine people participating in this mission in four distinct ways. Our participation will not be limited to these words and our relationships will not be bound by them, but instead, these words will give us a starting place, a way to give our community a vocabulary that allows us to be intentional about doing the things we think are important to become the people God has created us to be in carrying out our unique mission.
Vecinos - Welcome to our home. Let me show you around a little bit. Here we are in the salon. This is where our vecinos come to participate in our lives, our ideas, our visions, our mission. We hang out, we pray, we talk about the important things in life, we care for each other. Anyone who is interested can come and be in the salon, participating in the things we do.
Invitados - The dining room is right this way. As an invitado at our table you’ll have a great chance to influence our lives and us yours. Over meals and late night sobremesas you not only affect our lives, but you help us make decisions. Invitad@s are in the process of discerning if our way of life and our call to mission in Malasaña will be theirs as well.
Novicios - And now, to the cocina. Here you will find the novicios hard at work. At a deeper level of discernment, novicios are practicing our way of life and service for a minimum of six months while they are deciding where God is calling them to make a longer term commitment to our community and mission in Malasaña. They have committed to the community values, rules, and rhythms. While participating, they are also innovating, creating, and mentoring. Novicios confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and are seeking to put this confession into practice in this place and at this time.
Socios - Finally, las habitaciones. Here you will find the socios. Socios have decided that God is calling them to Malasaña and to impacting their neighborhood through this mission. They commit to the values, the rules and rhythms. They dream dreams as well as cast and protect our vision. Discerning God’s voice for the themselves, the community, and the barrio they make decisions together. While committed to the mission, ultimately to be a socio means committing to each other and renewing our yearly vow to live in community.
As a result of the meeting on Sunday, three (possibly four) people are entering a discernment process with us to decide if they would like to be apprentices in the coming year (starting this fall). The discernment process will consist of three parts:
Mission: a few readings to make sure we’re on the same page (pardon the pun, if you like)
Calling: praying individually and together to discern if this is what God is calling you to for now.
Friendship: being more intentional about hanging out and sharing meals to find out if we want to commit to each other in this way.
Of course we would also like to invite you to be a part of this discernment process if are interested.
The only other thing I can think of to tell you for now is that we are planning on launching the new initiative at the end of the summer (probably August). At that point our team will finish our leadership responsibilities at Oasis (if we have them) and focus on the new initiative.
Do you know of any other faith communities that are similar to the one you are starting, so I can see some examples?
Yep. Here are some links that should keep you busy:
The Simple Way (Philadelphia, EEUU)
Página Principal: http://www.thesimpleway.org/PSC/community/commitments.html
Compromisos: http://www.thesimpleway.org/PSC/community/commitments.html
Funciones: http://www.thesimpleway.org/PSC/community/commitments.html
Estructura de la Comunidad: http://www.thesimpleway.org/micro/theonion.html
Hospitalidad: http://www.thesimpleway.org/groups/visitors.html
Vídeo de YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY0k5kQ7hkM
24-7 Oración (España, México, Alemania)
Triburbana, SEVILLA, ESPAÑA: http://triburbana.org/
Boystown, México: http://www.24-7shorts.com/?invitationcode=050819
Punkmonks, Alemania: http://jonah.bailey.es/etc/punkmonks/punkmonks.mov
Urban Neighbours of Hope (UNOH) (Melbourne, Australia)
Página Principal: http://unoh.org/
Presentación: http://unoh.org/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=121&nav_cat_id=141&nav_top_id=56
Visión: http://unoh.org/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=122&nav_cat_id=142&nav_top_id=56
Valores: http://unoh.org/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=124&nav_cat_id=144&nav_top_id=56
Constitución: http://unoh.org/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=146&nav_cat_id=151&nav_top_id=56
Compromisos: http://unoh.org/html/s02_article/default.asp?nav_top_id=56&nav_cat_id=143
El Projeto Edén (Manchester, RU)
Página Principal: http://www.eden-network.org/
Vídeo de YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p679sQONKxA
Presentación: http://www.eden-network.org/Groups/68139/Eden_Network/The_concept/The_story_so.aspx
Compromisos: http://www.eden-network.org/Groups/67404/Eden_Network/The_concept/5_Cornerstones.aspx
Características Distintivas: http://www.eden-network.org/Groups/67405/Eden_Network/The_concept/5_Distinctives.aspx
InnerChange (Venezuela, Camboya, Rumania, RU, etc.)
Página Principal: http://www.crmleaders.org/ministries/innerchange
Vídeo de YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBT2VYIOo4E
Presentación: http://www.crmleaders.org/ministries/innerchange/inside-innerchange
Valores: http://www.crmleaders.org/ministries/innerchange/inside-innerchange/values
Compromisos: http://www.crmleaders.org/ministries/innerchange/inside-innerchange/commitments
Más Información en Español: http://www.crmleaders.org/ministries/innerchange/espanol
If you still want more examples, check out: http://www.communityofcommunities.info/
