Here’s a little story about man and a tree, and why that story makes all the difference to me…Zacchaeus was a man who no one liked and that did lots of things that were harmful to others. So when Jesus came into town and sought out Zacchaeus, instead of the other more suitable candidates, it was shocking and unexpected. It wasn’t showy or miraculous, but it was a simple invitation to dinner that made the difference for Zacchaeus. The invitation to relationship with Jesus started to transform this man from the person no one cared for, into a person that cared for everyone. It is that transformation that I invite people to experience when they participate in the life of Zacchaeus’ Tree Congregation (formerly New Hope Community Church in Indianapolis, IN).
As a community we are called to seek out those people who don’t believe they are included in what God is up to or who have been excluded by stereotypes, negative experiences in churches, or media distortions of “who” Christians are. We work together to live more like Jesus, and to follow in his footsteps, by making our faith an intentional journey towards building the kin(g)dom of God on earth. Our congregation is shaped by many of the ideals shared by leaders of intentional communities. Responding to their call to live in community and discover how God can use those relationships and complexities to shape the Christian witness, these leaders have many thoughts and challenges to offer to the established church and its developing congregations.
Our church plant does not currently have in its development plan the creation of a live-in community, but it is not divergent or impossible that the future may bring such a witness to our congregation. For now we are studying, praying, serving, worshiping, and following the call to be a congregation of people whom God seeks out to invite into relationship. The conversations that help build our vision for the community of faith are inspired, in part, by the lives of those people in the early church, early Moravian History, and current leaders in intentional communities. They help us challenge the assumptions that church is a place to go rather than an invitation to be the Body of Christ in the world; that church must look like it always has in order to be the church; or that church is a place where we come when we know things rather than a place we come to ask questions and learn.
I have met many people in my 18 months in Indianapolis who are looking for community. People who are dying for a place to ask questions, to find hope, and I believe to be told how much God loves them and wants to know them! I am heart broken when I hear stories filled with hate, hostility and mistrust connected with their experience of the church, which often translates into their experience of God. I grew up in the church and have known such great and amazing love, forgiveness and hope—it is this church I hope to share with others. I hope to be unexpected in the same way that Jesus speaking to Zacchaeus was unexpected. I hope that our congregational life will live out Jesus’ hospitality and presence in the lives of those most unexpected people.
There seem to be lots of people hanging around in trees in every community in the world, wanting to see Jesus. I believe that it is our invitation as believers to call out to them and invite them to the table for the bread of life and the blood of grace. So at Zacchaeus’ Tree we intentionally seek to be a community that embraces the call to find those people who seem to be furthest from Christ and invite them to learn with us what Jesus meant when he came to give life and to give it abundantly—right now and forever more.
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