When asking us this you should expect the answer 'Yes and No'!..............you see what we are doing is a privilege, but it's risky, creative and times making it up on the spot and at times well plan. Were often trying to think about how and what the gospel looks, sounds and lives like when it's set free from the constants of what people conducer normal for the church. However in all this wrestling, stretching, twisting and moulding we still need to be Orthodox to the core values and theologies of our faith.
If what we plant is a nice humanitarian community/ project which is not distinctive as a church of Jesus Christ then we have drifted from what we said we were going to do. So the first time you answer the question- are you being Orthodox you should hear the answer Yes, but don't stop there, ask it again and this time we should say 'No' NO we are not being Orthodox. The baptist union, our friends and family and amazing God has not planted us on Harold Hill to be Orthodox with 'Church', our faith, maybe, but church NO. Give two builders the same set of materials and your still unlikely to get the sam sort of building. PLant a seed and watch a tree grow and you'll unlikely have two tree looking the same. The 'materials' and 'seeds' which when in to growing and building the church are very different from the 'materials and seeds' we are using. Culture is very different and context is very different so it not going to look like an orthodox church of 20, 30, 50, 200 years ago. What frightens me is that with all the church plants going on, they might be a bit trendier, but under the surface they have the same orthodoxy of churches planted 50/100 before them.
We are so so grateful to be given a blank sheet of paper, some fresh materials and seeds. We struggle to not return to the orthodoxy of our youth. But we are commitment to being honourable to this call and opportunity.
So please ask and probe until you are satisfied we are being both orthodox and unorthodox is healthily ways.
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