Since I asked, I figure I should answer myself. What is church in 2020? The past four years has revealed a lot about this institution in the USA, and for many it was always more apparent than for others. To top it off, a global pandemic comes along and changes what generations have considered church, an in house gathering of many people (often shoulder to shoulder).
I’ll save my personal spiritual practices (like prayer and reading) for another post. In this one, I’m taking a (current) snapshot of my regular corporate, “when two or more are gathered,” Christian gatherings. For me, this breaks down into three categories, Fellowship, Mission, and Initiative, none of which are in-person meetings.
Fellowship. These are gatherings where the benefits are primarily for building individuals in the group through connection and understanding.
Misfits Church - A weekly meeting of about 6-8 friends via Zoom, on Sunday mornings. It includes prayer, worship, sharing, a study of the book of Acts, and communion. We don’t always make it every week.
Global Forerunners Prayer Call - This is a group of 7 bold and courageous leaders from the tech industry (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc). It was originally formed for the founding of PrayForTech.com in April of 2020 (which started in October of 2019), meeting every other week.
Kingdom on Earth - This is an “Alpha Group” like training for “Priests in Tech,” founded by a former IBM Research Director. 5-6 of us meet about monthly.
Christians in AI - This is a monthly lunch call with Christians working in Artificial Intelligence. About 5-7 people attend regularly. We are taking a break for the holidays, but had been meeting for a year.
Mission. These are causes and movements that I help out with and advise for.
FaithAndWorkMovement.org - With a focus on the Forbes Global 2000, this movement aims to positively impact companies that impact the world. The advisory board meets quarterly.
Google Christian Fellowship - In the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of being on the inaugural 8-10 person steering committee for this 10+ year global cohort of Christians working at Google. We meet about once a month and are implementing our first organizational constitution.
Lausanne Movement - I was a Global Workplace delegate for this massive global movement (started by Billy Graham) last year, and since, I am now part of their Young Leaders cohort, Global Workplace Forum Advisory Board, and, more regularly, a Silicon Valley advisory group that meets monthly.
Iris University - This has been something I’d been waiting for since 2012! It’s exciting to see this university take off. Thus far I’ve mostly been helping with networking and advisement as I figure out what to focus on in 2021. We meet every other week.
Initiative. These are initiatives that are more grassroots.
Spiritual Intelligence Series - The timing of this initiative seemed right, and there’s a mature group of leaders that work really well together. I try to be present to help and advise when I can, about every other week.
PhD Friends - I’m not in an entrepreneurial spirit lately, but I had it on my heart to bring together my grad school colleagues for a monthly meeting. When we were students, I told everyone that we would be all over the world stewarding all sorts of influence in 10 years; that was about 10 years ago. 10 of us met last month, and funny enough, our PhD’s covered: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, BioTechnology, Neuroscience, Environmental Science, Physics, Math, Economics, English — I didn’t plan that, but it turned out that we all studied something different. The 10th person is a humanitarian/minister, sort of a pastor to our little PhD church.
Academic Bridges - Last year, we brought 11 African students to Silicon Valley. This year we couldn’t do that, and instead had 7 penpal exchanges between Mozambicans and Stanford students (which was far less exciting than the year before). I do feel God cooking something up in the horizon, but for now just in waiting.
Passion Talks - It was back in 2010, when I was trying to stir up interest in this concept, “Passion Talks.” I had a vision for giving a platform for passions in an academic setting, for which momentum has driven in the last 10 years. I know I need to shift my focus towards a more active leadership role here, but it’s been so good as a grassroots, community led forum thus far.
That’s a quick rundown for what “church” is for me. If I’ve seemed exceptionally angsty about the institution of the church, I think I’d always been this way. This post is already too long to go into all of that, but you could glean from an old blog: intellectualfaith.com.
I know this is an old post, but I just happened upon it now. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I didn't vote for Biden (or the other guy), but these past four + years definitely have impacted how I feel about the American church. It has been and continues to be a sad journey. It would be a better conversation to have in person (or virtually), though.