by Kathy Escobar

one of the things that i love about the evolving, emerging, missional, creative, passionate conversation around hope for the church is  that so many are ready for new wine.  the kingdom continues to spring up in all kinds of ways, God's people infused with the desire to live out the ways of the kingdom now, to sacrifice their comfort and lean into what they know deep in their hearts aligns with Jesus' teachings.  i think the thirst for new wine is stronger than ever.

we long for the taste of justice & equality & compassion with the poor and marginalized  the taste of freedom and hope.  the taste of creativity and passion.  the taste of mercy and grace.

and i see people creating it, safe and challenging spaces where these kingdom values are lived out in a tangible way.  but one of the things that  sometimes seems to be missing from the wider conversation is how to practically create structures & containers that will hold this new wine.  and unless we infuse some of these ideas into the conversation, i think we will continue to see a lot of  "pouring new wine into old wineskins" causing all the good stuff to eventually get ruined. 

to me, some of the elements of the wineskins are related to infrastructure--leadership, finances, core actions that reflect the values of justice, equality & compassion.   i am sure there are many others, but for the sake of conversation & setting the stage for the "evolving church" conference, i'll just touch on these three.

old wineskins include a hierarchical, patriarchical structure.  power gets held in the hands of the men, the educated, those who are somehow overtly or covertly set apart from others.  even though many of us cringe at this idea now, the truth is that when i see many church plants starting up they tend to still utilize the same old models of a "lead pastor" with a group or team of elders/leaders who tend to be fairly homogeneous.    once in a while there's a woman popped in there, but for the most part the power is held in those with margin and power.  

to  me, new wineskins look like flat leadership, men and women side-by-side serving together, and a wide range of diversity across age, experiences, education, socio-economics, etc.  the early church modeled this so well--the one thing they had in common was a desire for Christ.  credentials weren't the idea.  i feel strongly that if every faith community had a chunk of poor and marginalized folks on their guiding teams--with equal and valued voices--the landscape of "church" would look so different.  we must  boldly press against our tendency to default toward the old structures and experiment with these new models.  sometimes i am jealous of the old model; there's speed and efficiency & a lot greater focus in one direction than is found in my wacky and diverse faith community, the refuge.  but i wouldn't trade this new wineskin for anything.  the diverse ideas, the practice of submitting to each other, the lack of business-like-behavior is the best model of the kingdom i have ever personally experienced in leadership.

old wineskins include a focus on "viability" that usually is related to money.  how do we pay our leaders?  our rent?  our operating expenses?  so communities default to what works--get people with margin to be part and then we can sustain ourselves.  but then those with margin and power and prior church experience tend to shape the course of things based on their perspective.  the heart of the community becomes about somehow taking care of them instead of the least and the last.  i don't think this is intentional; many leader's hearts are are so dedicated to missio, and they see the money as a way to do it so it's worth the work. 

but creating new wineskins means we figure out ways to take money off the table.  to not make ministry our full-time jobs.  to go lean on expenses.  to find ways to gather and live out our mission without the burden of high rent & too many bills.  to ask ourselves "if money was off the table completely would we still be doing this??  to me, this is new wineskins--financially free communities who can freely live out mission without the trappings of marketing & money 

old wineskins tend to create an "us and them" mentality (often unintentionally).  mission becomes about "helping those poor people" instead of a recognition that "we are those poor people."  the values of the beatitudes cannot be underestimated when it comes to new wineskins.  are we humble, needy, able to mourn & feel, merciful, hungry, and desperate?  or do we rely on our strategic plans and visions for the direction of our mission?

new wineskins requires getting radically in touch with our own brokenness, our need for God, and a humility that brings equality into the community. the playing field needs to be leveled relationally, and this comes from a place of humility, confession, honesty & authenticity that isn't often taught in typical church planting models. we have a lot to learn from the rich tradition of alcoholics anonymous & the 12 steps.  leaders there are in the trenches, working their journey alongside everyone else--rich & poor, black & white, men & women, educated & uneducated, young & old. gay & straight. the one thing we all have in common is our spiritual poverty & need for God & others. 

i know there are many other potential elements for "new wineskins", but i really do think these 3 are critical & challenging ones to at least consider as we seek God's direction as participants in the wild & beautiful & continual evolution of the church.