So what the heck is Soma School anyway? This is a legitimate question, considering I just started posting quotes without giving the context for what Soma School is. Sorry about that. Here’s the skinny: Soma is a body of believers in Tacoma, WA that has been influential for Sojourn as we seek to be the church in Louisville. The Lord is doing great things through them in the Northwest, as they seek to be the church in a more “organic” (for lack of a better term) way. I’m not sure I can put their whole philosophy of ministry into a nutshell, though it is quite simple to hear them explain it. They are a church of small “missional communities”, on mission together to love and serve their neighbors (and one another) as they preach the gospel through word and deed; a very “grassroots” understanding of the mission of God (which I’m stoked about!). I could say so much more about them, but I’ll stop there (hopefully more can be drawn out of what I write below).
Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski, two elders from Soma, have devoted time to our body of believers down here in Louisville, dialoguing with our pastors and our people to help everyone understand what the church is and how that plays out in the world. Soma School is a week-long immersion into Soma Communities, and below are my top five experiences from that.
1) Biblical Theology – Caesar and Abe (another elder) walked through the “Story of God” with us over the course of three days. It is a condensed history of redemption, told in dialogical narrative. The elders of Soma labor to see that their people are on the same page concerning God’s big picture of history. I find this invaluable — invaluable. Having a cohesive, unified understanding of God’s story plays directly into how we form a Christian worldview. I think that many most churches are lacking this, as their members know bits and pieces of Scripture, but don’t know what it has to do with their place in history or their understanding of the entire world around them. Everything (and everyone) at Soma is grounded in God’s overarching history of redemption.
2) Family – Five of the church planting residents were graciously hosted by several people in the church. My own hosts were Lloyd and Stephanie Brown, who immediately accepted both myself and Dave Richards as family. I felt as though I left my family in Louisville only to be welcomed by my family in Washington — what a great feeling! I didn’t have to earn their love; they gave it freely. The same can be said for their missional community. We were able to talk and relax as though we’d known these people for years. I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced such an immediate attachment, all of it rooted in the love of Christ.
3) Make Disciples – You won’t hear typical “church growth” language from these folks. They seem to be utterly unconcerned with their church being large, but wholly concerned with making true disciples. This was a breath of fresh air. I heard someone comment, “This church has the highest amount of trained individuals I’ve ever seen.” They truly believe that the job of the pastors is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Their sights are set on a person’s long-term devotion to Christ, his church, and his mission, not just the “initial” step of conversion. At a couple points I was able to hear Jeff’s heart on this matter in a more conversational atmosphere, and I was stunned at the amount of energy he pours into proactively training up other men to be humble ministers of the gospel. I ate it up.
4) Pastoral Care – The way Soma is structured allows for more intimate pastoral care. They try to stay geographically specific with their missional communities and larger gatherings called “expressions”. Therefore, there is not a lot of commuting. If they get a lot of people commuting from one area, they merely start a new expression in that location. The crowds stay smaller and the ratio of pastors to people is more manageable. They also train their people to be equipped to help one another understand how the gospel intersects in every area of life. Shepherding happens at multiple levels.
5) Mission – Soma’s understanding of mission permeates everything. In fact, instead of “core values”, they have “identities and practices”, and one of those identities is “missionaries”. By making “missionary” part of their identity, it cuts the legs out from under the idea that missions is something you go and do, and then return to normal life. For them, mission happens all the time. When they hang out with their lost friends, they don’t go into “missionary mode”, because they are always missionaries. From what I witnessed, this made evangelism much more natural, an overflow of who they always are as opposed to something they tack onto their life when they see opportunities to share the gospel.
To be sure, the elders of Soma would tell you they have their own problems as a church, so I don’t want to make them seem as though they have it all figured out (they’ll repeatedly tell you they don’t). However, I took great joy in being with them up in Tacoma, and they have changed the way I understand the church (for the better). I came home greatly encouraged in the gospel and more excited than ever about church planting. I love these people.
Posted by Brandon 
Posted by Brandon 
Posted by Brandon 
