hi andrew,

karen ward here from apostles, seattle (an art collective church) we have been using this analogy for awhile, alongside our ‘monastic’ term, as we ‘dance in this overlap’ of ‘being and expression.’

our church also started a true type art collective that is a parallel ‘expression’ and identity called ‘artwerks’ which has djs, poets, painters… as part of this 501c3 non-profit art collective for four years now.

so it is VERY intersting having the church and artwerks both be ‘collectives,’ the only difference is the church expression ‘preachers’ / uses the name of christ, overtly, and the non-profit is a mixed group of church and non church artists dedicated to a common, local artistic cause, but the structure, ethos and methods are the same… for example, the church views each worship service as an ‘art pieces,’ or public ‘worship installation event’ and we call our leaders ‘curates’ and our three different services ‘expressions’ (rather than styles of worship (mass gathering, sanctorum and taize). we do ‘openings’ with atendant media/postcards… for various services (like our upcoming ‘stations of the resurrection’ (which many alt worship groups in the u.k also do).

also the term ‘christ collective’ is one we picked up from dr. dwight friesen who teaches at mars hill graduate school. dwight has talked about his own community as a ‘christ collective’ for years, but now they are using a more public term, a ‘christ commons’ see his church website

also a must read is his essay on dwight’s article church as a ‘scale free network’ as here he has much to say about ‘collectives’ and commons in christ.

also at apostles we use the phrase that we are ‘artisans of a new humanity’ — the tag line for an amazing book called ‘doing local theology’

cheers!