manna?

Question: 

So, this is manna? What is it?

Answer: 

Our point exactly.

(Manna is the Hebrew word for “what is it?”  When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for forty years, God fed them with a strange bread-like substance that fell from the sky.  They walked out of their tents in the morning and said, “Manna?”  We call ourselves manna? because we’re not sure if this is like a “regular church”, and we have to remind ourselves to live each day depending on God.)

Question: 

No, I mean, what is this?

Answer: 

A vintage faith community.  Which means we believe in the historic Christian faith.  And that we’re a community of folks from a lot of backgrounds working to live that out.

Question: 

Uh, don't you have something more churchy written up?

Answer: 

Sure - here you go!

Our Hearts Desire:
To build a community of disciples that passionately pursues God as the all-satisfying end of every search.

A Picture of Our Future:
To create a faith community that teaches and models vintage expressions of devotion to Jesus Christ—where people of all backgrounds and life paths are invited to come and experience the presence of God at the deepest and most profound level—To train, equip and release those same people to do the work of the Church; “to make known the manifold wisdom of God, so that everyone, through Jesus Christ, might approach God with freedom and confidence.”
Ephesians 3:10-13

Things We Hold Dear:

JESUS:
We believe that life remains maddeningly incoherent apart from Jesus Christ. We believe that “all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe…get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross” For this reason, we will focus on the teachings of Jesus and His best students, found in the words of the Old and New Testament.
Colossians 1:17-18

ANCIENT:
We believe that the history of the Church is rich—that the confessions and creeds, as well as many of the traditions of the Church are valuable for us today. We must fight our tendency to underestimate the contributions of the past and exaggerate the wisdom of the present. We will incorporate many of those ancient traditions into the life of Manna, and we will rely heavily upon the liturgical calendar that the Church has observed for centuries.

PUBLIC:
We believe that life of the Church must not be confined to the walls of a building. For that reasons, as often as possible, we will conduct services and hold gatherings in public places—worshipping God and serving our community in ways that are visible and that take the gospel to the culture, rather than always waiting for people to come to us.
Acts 2:46

PRAYER:
Praying, not as a prelude to ministry, but as the ministry itself. We believe that prayer is what drives the church—it changes us as it opens us up to the power of God and a greater sense of His presence. We will incorporate prayer into every aspect of the life of the ministry.
Acts 4:31

POPULAR:
Embracing Popular Culture and the Arts as Allies, not Enemies. We believe that all truth is God’s truth. Popular culture includes many offerings that are profoundly spiritual or that point to the truth of who God is. We will, through a variety of activities, use those offerings as a way to “plunder” our culture to the glory of God.

PEOPLE:
Spreading God’s Fame to Every People Group on Earth. We believe that God delights in His own glory above all things—that he desires to spread his fame throughout the earth. We believe that missions is, at its heart, about sharing Christ with every people group on earth. We will devote our resources, our energy, and our time to that end.
Psalm 115:1-3
Revelation 15:1-4

UNITY:
Promoting the health and vitality of the one Church in West Michigan. We believe that there is only one Church, and that as one part of the Body suffers, so do all the parts, just as surely as we glory in the health of each other. We will strive, through a variety of creative and intentional ways, to promote the unity of the Church.
John 17:20-23
Romans 15:5-6

Question: 

Why not call it Manna Community Church, or something catchy like that?

Answer: 

Well, we called it manna? because as it began and “grew,” we weren’t sure what it was. It began five years ago with three friends meeting once a week at J.P.‘s coffee-house to hang out, share a Bible passage and pray.  After about a year other people started showing up and they couldn’t all fit in the booth. So they started meeting other places, like taking turns at each other’s house. It was mostly just some friends that wanted to share a little, study a little, pray a little and take communion. No one was sure if that made it a church or not. Plus, there never has been a Master Plan or Growth Strategy or Organizational Structure or anything… just folks depending on God’s grace one day at a time. So they just called it manna?

Question: 

So how did manna? end up in this building?

Answer: 

About two years ago the group was getting too big to fit into anyone’s house. We found out that the Park Theater was available Sunday morning. Most of us were attending other churches at the time, but felt that manna? had become our primary faith community. So without a lot of planning, one week we just decided to start meeting there. A few months ago we found out that the building at 9th and Central was available and it seemed like it offered a lot more possibilities, so… well, here we are.

Question: 

Where's the nursery or children's ministry of Sunday school?

Answer: 

We don’t have those.

Question: 

Why isn't there a children's program? Do you hate children? Are you anti-family?

Answer: 

No, of course not. But as manna? started and grew there was never any physical space for any of that. So we developed the habit of having our children in the room with us. We know that that doesn’t work for everyone, and we understand anyone who needs a church with nurseries and children’s ministries. There are lots of churches like that in town, and we support and respect anybody who needs to go to one of them. It just isn’t what God has grown us to be or become.

Question: 

What's the theology here? Are you Reformed? Baptist? Episcopalian? Catholic? Greek Orthodox?

Answer: 

We call ourselves a “vintage faith community.” By that we mean we stand on the timeless, historic, mainstream Christian faith, based on the Old and New Testaments and the traditional expressions of that faith in the Apostles, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. What C.S. Lewis famously called “Mere Christianity.”

Question: 

Is manna? weird or flaky?

Answer: 

No (at least we don’t think so).  All of our teaching pastors have solid theological educations from mainstream seminaries and decades of pastoral ministry experience. No one’s going to handle snakes or anything, if you’re worried about that.

Question: 

Who are the pastors? Do you have staff? Funding? A Board or Denominational Council?

Answer: 

Our teaching pastors are the three friends whose small group grew into manna?. They are Dave Guerrin, Barbara Yandell and Greg Smith. None of them are full time. Even though they all have master of divinity degrees from well-respected theological seminaries and decades of professional ministry experience, manna? is their calling, not their job, and they all have other careers. They are our board. And no, we don’t have any funding other than what we collect on Sunday.

Question: 

So who preaches and are there sermon series or points or whatever?

Answer: 

The teaching pastors take turns according to a complex and closely held secret schedule that is rumored to be based on an equation that factors the ancient Hebrew numerical value of certain Bible passages and coded messages hidden in the public notices section of the Holland Sentinel. :)  But what they preach on is consistent: they teach through books of the Bible, verse by verse. It took fourteen months to get through the Book of Acts, and last September (2005) they started the Book of Matthew.  Not sure when we’ll finish. When we get to the end of chapter 28, I suppose.

Question: 

What's the long-term plan?

Answer: 

Plan? We’re making this up as we go along…