Special night tonight. Sorry to all the regular readers (I know there are several). I'm quite sound of mind and body tonight . . but given that the Elders are meeting at Sanctuary to discuss purpose tomorrow evening, I felt that rather than writing another chapter tonight I would re-read the material on that topic. Please pray for us that we make good decisions.
Johno
31 January 2012
30 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch14 - Designing a Seeker Sensitive Service
This is a long chapter. What I have written is, I believe, the briefest possible summary of it. If I've left stuff out that I shouldn't have, I apologize!
Warren has a problem when it comes to reaching unchurched people - Like many of us growing up in a Christian home, he had trouble with inviting his friends to church if they were non-believers. It seemed that whenever he invited people, there would be something completely inappropriate to their needs; however when the sermon was just right, he'd not have invited anyone. It led to him giving up on inviting unbelievers.
Similarly, few of us ever bring friends to church. When we do, they're usually already Christians.
Why is this? Warren gives three reasons.
1) The target of the sermon is unpredictable.
2) Services are not designed to be accessible to unbelievers.
3) Members are embarrassed about the quality of the service.
Many Christians feel that their unchurched friends wouldn't get their church (though they still feel guilty about not inviting them!).
No one becomes a church member without first being a visitor. If you only have a few visitors each year, you'll have even fewer new members. A crowd is not a church, but to grow a larger church, you must first attract a crowd.
According to Warren, the easiest way to increase the number of visitors to church is by creating a service that is intentionally designed for our members to bring their friends to. If it is attractive, appealing and relevant to the unchurched, members will be eager to share it with the lost people they care about.
Remember that this is "purpose-driven", and since you should already know what the local people are like (think of "Saddleback Sam and Samantha"), this dictates many of the aspects you will need to consider. The entire service needs to be designed with the unchurched in mind.
Make it as easy as possible to attend.
There are a few recommendations Warren makes in this area:
* Offer multiple service times. This would be challenging in the Sanctuary situation, but maybe in the future this could be practical.
* Offer Surplus parking. No problem there!
* Offer childrens' Sunday School simultaneously with the service. Again, we do that already.
* Put a map to your church on all advertising. We don't yet do this with ALL our advertising, but it'd be easy - Google Maps!
Improve the pace and flow of the service.
Churches are often loaded with "dead air". A lot of this could be eliminated.
Keeping prayer times short in seeker services is good - other times can be offered for intercessory prayer.
Speed things up and improve the flow.
Acronym for designing flow of the music: IMPACT.
* Inspire Movement (Bright, up-beat song to start).
* Praise (Joyful songs about God)
* Adoration (Meditative, intimate songs TO God)
* Commitment (Giving people an opportunity to affirm or reaffirm commitment to God). "I want to be more like You."
* Tie it together - another short, upbeat song.
Make visitors feel comfortable.
First impressions last. Visitors ' first emotional response is often one of fear. Imagine your feelings as you attend a mosque for the first time! Reducing fear makes them more responsive to the Gospel.
Reserve the best parking spots for visitors. At Saddleback, visitors switch on headlights to be directed! Pastors and staff park on the dirt.
Station greeters outside the building. Ensure these are people who project warmth and smile easily.
Set up information tables outside the building.
Place directional signs everywhere.
Have recorded music playing when people enter your building. Silence is scary to unchurched visitors. Play it reasonably loud so that people talk animatedly.
Allow visitors to remain anonymous in the service. Don't bother them or single them out. (Oops!). They should be called "Guests" rather than "visitors" ("visitor" implies "not here to stay". "Guest" means someone you do everything you can to make feel comfortable).
If you use a registration card, have everyone fill one out.
Offer a public welcome that relaxes people. Let people know they can expect to enjoy the service. Tell them they won't have to say anything and nobody's going to embarrass them. Give a disclaimer in the offering.
Begin and end the service with people greeting each other. Saddleback has the "Three minute rule" - for the first three minutes after the service was over, members would only talk to people they'd never met.
If you use name tags, make sure everybody gets one. Nah. No name tags. :)
Offer a refreshment table at each service. Visitors hang around longer if you can get a coffee and a donut into their hands.
Brighten up the environment.
The mood should be one of celebration. You want a light, bright, cheerful environment. Do an environmental impact report on your church!
Lighting - most churches are too dark. Church buildings should be bright and full of light. Open curtains, windows and doors.
Sound - invest in the best system you can afford.
Seating - uncomfortable seating is a distraction the Devil can use! If you're using movable chairs, always set up fewer chairs than you need, especially in a small church.
Space - Don't have too much or too little. Either extreme limits your growth. If the building is too small, growth is strangled. If the building is too large, it's hard to create a feeling of warmth. Small crowds need to be close to the front.
Temperature - Make sure it's about right.
Plants - plants say "At least something is alive in this place!" Even haul small trees, ferns and plants into and out of your rented place!
Clean, safe nurseries.
Clean toilets.
Create an attractive atmosphere.
The mood or tone of the service.
Expectation. "Something good is about to happen." Members praying every week, praying during service, enthusiastic members bringing friends to church, history of life changing services, celebratory music, faith of the team leading the service. The opening prayer should express the expectation that God will be in the service and that peoples' needs will be met.
Celebration. Should resemble a festival, not a funeral!
Affirmation. Services should be an encouragement.
Incorporation. The way we greet each other, the way people interact with each other, and the way we speak to the crowd should say "We are a family".
Restoration. The service should recharge you after a tough week.
Liberation. Where the Spirit is, there is freedom. Informal services help with this.
Print a simple order of service
If people don't know what to expect they can get anxious. Print an order of service that says "there are no surprises here." Describe the service in completely non-technical terms.
Minimize internal announcements.
Train members to read the bulletin and announce only events that apply to everyone.
DO NOT CONDUCT INTERNAL CHURCH BUSINESS DURING A SEEKER SERVICE!
Continually evaluate and improve.
Remember Whom you are serving!
This is, after all, for the Lord, not for the seekers and not for the church members!
Warren has a problem when it comes to reaching unchurched people - Like many of us growing up in a Christian home, he had trouble with inviting his friends to church if they were non-believers. It seemed that whenever he invited people, there would be something completely inappropriate to their needs; however when the sermon was just right, he'd not have invited anyone. It led to him giving up on inviting unbelievers.
Similarly, few of us ever bring friends to church. When we do, they're usually already Christians.
Why is this? Warren gives three reasons.
1) The target of the sermon is unpredictable.
2) Services are not designed to be accessible to unbelievers.
3) Members are embarrassed about the quality of the service.
Many Christians feel that their unchurched friends wouldn't get their church (though they still feel guilty about not inviting them!).
No one becomes a church member without first being a visitor. If you only have a few visitors each year, you'll have even fewer new members. A crowd is not a church, but to grow a larger church, you must first attract a crowd.
According to Warren, the easiest way to increase the number of visitors to church is by creating a service that is intentionally designed for our members to bring their friends to. If it is attractive, appealing and relevant to the unchurched, members will be eager to share it with the lost people they care about.
Remember that this is "purpose-driven", and since you should already know what the local people are like (think of "Saddleback Sam and Samantha"), this dictates many of the aspects you will need to consider. The entire service needs to be designed with the unchurched in mind.
Make it as easy as possible to attend.
There are a few recommendations Warren makes in this area:
* Offer multiple service times. This would be challenging in the Sanctuary situation, but maybe in the future this could be practical.
* Offer Surplus parking. No problem there!
* Offer childrens' Sunday School simultaneously with the service. Again, we do that already.
* Put a map to your church on all advertising. We don't yet do this with ALL our advertising, but it'd be easy - Google Maps!
Improve the pace and flow of the service.
Churches are often loaded with "dead air". A lot of this could be eliminated.
Keeping prayer times short in seeker services is good - other times can be offered for intercessory prayer.
Speed things up and improve the flow.
Acronym for designing flow of the music: IMPACT.
* Inspire Movement (Bright, up-beat song to start).
* Praise (Joyful songs about God)
* Adoration (Meditative, intimate songs TO God)
* Commitment (Giving people an opportunity to affirm or reaffirm commitment to God). "I want to be more like You."
* Tie it together - another short, upbeat song.
Make visitors feel comfortable.
First impressions last. Visitors ' first emotional response is often one of fear. Imagine your feelings as you attend a mosque for the first time! Reducing fear makes them more responsive to the Gospel.
Reserve the best parking spots for visitors. At Saddleback, visitors switch on headlights to be directed! Pastors and staff park on the dirt.
Station greeters outside the building. Ensure these are people who project warmth and smile easily.
Set up information tables outside the building.
Place directional signs everywhere.
Have recorded music playing when people enter your building. Silence is scary to unchurched visitors. Play it reasonably loud so that people talk animatedly.
Allow visitors to remain anonymous in the service. Don't bother them or single them out. (Oops!). They should be called "Guests" rather than "visitors" ("visitor" implies "not here to stay". "Guest" means someone you do everything you can to make feel comfortable).
If you use a registration card, have everyone fill one out.
Offer a public welcome that relaxes people. Let people know they can expect to enjoy the service. Tell them they won't have to say anything and nobody's going to embarrass them. Give a disclaimer in the offering.
Begin and end the service with people greeting each other. Saddleback has the "Three minute rule" - for the first three minutes after the service was over, members would only talk to people they'd never met.
If you use name tags, make sure everybody gets one. Nah. No name tags. :)
Offer a refreshment table at each service. Visitors hang around longer if you can get a coffee and a donut into their hands.
Brighten up the environment.
The mood should be one of celebration. You want a light, bright, cheerful environment. Do an environmental impact report on your church!
Lighting - most churches are too dark. Church buildings should be bright and full of light. Open curtains, windows and doors.
Sound - invest in the best system you can afford.
Seating - uncomfortable seating is a distraction the Devil can use! If you're using movable chairs, always set up fewer chairs than you need, especially in a small church.
Space - Don't have too much or too little. Either extreme limits your growth. If the building is too small, growth is strangled. If the building is too large, it's hard to create a feeling of warmth. Small crowds need to be close to the front.
Temperature - Make sure it's about right.
Plants - plants say "At least something is alive in this place!" Even haul small trees, ferns and plants into and out of your rented place!
Clean, safe nurseries.
Clean toilets.
Create an attractive atmosphere.
The mood or tone of the service.
Expectation. "Something good is about to happen." Members praying every week, praying during service, enthusiastic members bringing friends to church, history of life changing services, celebratory music, faith of the team leading the service. The opening prayer should express the expectation that God will be in the service and that peoples' needs will be met.
Celebration. Should resemble a festival, not a funeral!
Affirmation. Services should be an encouragement.
Incorporation. The way we greet each other, the way people interact with each other, and the way we speak to the crowd should say "We are a family".
Restoration. The service should recharge you after a tough week.
Liberation. Where the Spirit is, there is freedom. Informal services help with this.
Print a simple order of service
If people don't know what to expect they can get anxious. Print an order of service that says "there are no surprises here." Describe the service in completely non-technical terms.
Minimize internal announcements.
Train members to read the bulletin and announce only events that apply to everyone.
DO NOT CONDUCT INTERNAL CHURCH BUSINESS DURING A SEEKER SERVICE!
Continually evaluate and improve.
Remember Whom you are serving!
This is, after all, for the Lord, not for the seekers and not for the church members!
27 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch 13 - Worship Can be a Witness
Good evening all! I was quite sick last night (the night before that, I was out extremely late), but no matter - now I'm back on deck, and so we'll have a look at chapter 13.
This chapter is a shortish one, but it's also an important concept (and a little controversial).
Many times when we run events designed to attract the unbeliever (remembering from the last chapter that attractional concepts of evangelism aren't necessarily wrong), we don't include worship. The rationale is that worship is primarily aimed at people who are already Christians. But Warren here introduces the radical idea that worship can actually be a witness.
He lists 12 convictions about worship.
1) Only believers can truly worship God. No problem there so far. After all, it's impossible to tell someone what they're worth if you don't believe they exist, and that's essentially what worship is.
2) You don't need a building to worship God. Again, no questions so far. If you needed a special building, the church I have really been involved in since 1982 would be problematic!
3) There is no "correct" style of worship. No hassles here. The last 20 years has shown me so much in the way of variation of worship style that I'd accept this one as axiomatic[1].
4) Unbelievers can watch believers worship. Well, yes. They can see us, how we value God, how we respond to God's word, how the Bible answers the problems and questions of life. Interesting - a difficult question would be "What would people see if they watched us when we didn't realise they were there?
5) Worship is a powerful witness to unbelievers if God's presence is felt and the message is understandable. I wrestle with this concept - thinking of the day of Pentecost, for example! - but I can see the truth in it. If someone came to church and saw God doing God's thing, unbelief would become problematic. Warren goes on to point out that at Pentecost, one of the key things that made the difference was people hearing the Gospel in their own language; we must communicate in the normal ways people communicate truth to reach them.
6) God expects us to be sensitive to the fears, hang-ups and needs of unbelievers when they are present in our worship services. That makes sense too. Warren talks about the concept of "Seeker sensitive" services.
7) A worship service doesn't have to be shallow to be seeker-sensitive. The message doesn't have to be compromised to be understandable. I think I have always seen the truth in this intellectually; however, I realise that at some level I don't believe it. I keep thinking that when we do things to be seeker sensitive we have to "dumb it down" so to speak. This is easily seen to be a bad idea.
8) The needs of believers and unbelievers often overlap. They are very different in some areas but very similar in many areas. I guess this makes sense, but it goes against my gut feelings. Here's where some humility is necessary - it's important that I don't give gut feeling more importance than someone who has demonstrated that he understands how to build a church! In any case, he's right - everyone needs to know what God is like, to understand the purpose of life, to know how and why to forgive others and [especially] everyone needs help in strengthening marriage and family.
9) It is best to specialize your services according to their purpose. I guess this is fairly self-evident too. Here's where the difference between a "seeker sensitive" service and a "seeker service" comes in - not all services should be seeker services, but all services should be seeker-sensitive.
10) A service geared towards seekers is meant to supplement personal evangelism, not replace it. A hearty AMEN! to this one. Remember that the amazing movement of God we experienced at the Billy Graham Crusades was actually the result of years of work before Billy Graham came to Australia, not just something that happened there and then.
11) There is no standard way to design a seeker service. Unbelievers are not all alike! Added to that, We're not all alike either. The non-negotiables are: 1) Treat unbelievers with love and respect; 2) Relate the service to their needs, and 3) Share the message in a practical, understandable manner. Remember that what really attracts large numbers of unchurched to a church is changed lives!
12) It takes unselfish, mature believers to offer a seeker-sensitive service. That's another axiom, right there. Remember, our attitude should be the same as Christ's!
[1] Science language, sorry - but this is a great word. It just means "Self-evident truth."
This chapter is a shortish one, but it's also an important concept (and a little controversial).
Many times when we run events designed to attract the unbeliever (remembering from the last chapter that attractional concepts of evangelism aren't necessarily wrong), we don't include worship. The rationale is that worship is primarily aimed at people who are already Christians. But Warren here introduces the radical idea that worship can actually be a witness.
He lists 12 convictions about worship.
1) Only believers can truly worship God. No problem there so far. After all, it's impossible to tell someone what they're worth if you don't believe they exist, and that's essentially what worship is.
2) You don't need a building to worship God. Again, no questions so far. If you needed a special building, the church I have really been involved in since 1982 would be problematic!
3) There is no "correct" style of worship. No hassles here. The last 20 years has shown me so much in the way of variation of worship style that I'd accept this one as axiomatic[1].
4) Unbelievers can watch believers worship. Well, yes. They can see us, how we value God, how we respond to God's word, how the Bible answers the problems and questions of life. Interesting - a difficult question would be "What would people see if they watched us when we didn't realise they were there?
5) Worship is a powerful witness to unbelievers if God's presence is felt and the message is understandable. I wrestle with this concept - thinking of the day of Pentecost, for example! - but I can see the truth in it. If someone came to church and saw God doing God's thing, unbelief would become problematic. Warren goes on to point out that at Pentecost, one of the key things that made the difference was people hearing the Gospel in their own language; we must communicate in the normal ways people communicate truth to reach them.
6) God expects us to be sensitive to the fears, hang-ups and needs of unbelievers when they are present in our worship services. That makes sense too. Warren talks about the concept of "Seeker sensitive" services.
7) A worship service doesn't have to be shallow to be seeker-sensitive. The message doesn't have to be compromised to be understandable. I think I have always seen the truth in this intellectually; however, I realise that at some level I don't believe it. I keep thinking that when we do things to be seeker sensitive we have to "dumb it down" so to speak. This is easily seen to be a bad idea.
8) The needs of believers and unbelievers often overlap. They are very different in some areas but very similar in many areas. I guess this makes sense, but it goes against my gut feelings. Here's where some humility is necessary - it's important that I don't give gut feeling more importance than someone who has demonstrated that he understands how to build a church! In any case, he's right - everyone needs to know what God is like, to understand the purpose of life, to know how and why to forgive others and [especially] everyone needs help in strengthening marriage and family.
9) It is best to specialize your services according to their purpose. I guess this is fairly self-evident too. Here's where the difference between a "seeker sensitive" service and a "seeker service" comes in - not all services should be seeker services, but all services should be seeker-sensitive.
10) A service geared towards seekers is meant to supplement personal evangelism, not replace it. A hearty AMEN! to this one. Remember that the amazing movement of God we experienced at the Billy Graham Crusades was actually the result of years of work before Billy Graham came to Australia, not just something that happened there and then.
11) There is no standard way to design a seeker service. Unbelievers are not all alike! Added to that, We're not all alike either. The non-negotiables are: 1) Treat unbelievers with love and respect; 2) Relate the service to their needs, and 3) Share the message in a practical, understandable manner. Remember that what really attracts large numbers of unchurched to a church is changed lives!
12) It takes unselfish, mature believers to offer a seeker-sensitive service. That's another axiom, right there. Remember, our attitude should be the same as Christ's!
[1] Science language, sorry - but this is a great word. It just means "Self-evident truth."
26 January 2012
24 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch12 - How Jesus attracted crowds.
More housekeeping: A few people have (kindly!) pointed out to me that in order to be truly useful, the summary must take less time to read than the book. Point taken! Okay, so today I'll try and be brief. Promise! (It's a long chapter, too . . . )
Jesus attracted crowds. I'm not going to go into this in too much detail because it's obvious. Warren believes a Christlike ministry STILL attracts crowds.
I have a feeling this may be uncomfortable. In fact, it probably is for anyone whose passion is a small church at which the word "Crowd" can seldom be used . . .
So how did Jesus attract crowds?
1) Jesus was loving to unbelievers.
This is a really important one. People called Him the "Friend of Sinners."
At first glance, my reaction was "Well, we do that." But the reality is that sometimes we don't. Oh, we love each other just fine. But does that love translate to those who come from outside? That's more difficult to judge. But sadly, the fact that many people have come for a while but not stuck around would seem to indicate that if we do love them, we're not communicating it.
Loving others like Jesus did
The command to love is the most repeated command in the New Testament - "Whoever does not love does not know God." It's key to our existence as Christians. To love each other but fail to love unbelievers is a terrible form of selfishness.
Creating an atmosphere of acceptance
Growing churches love, and loving churches grow. You need to be nice to people when they show up! To make an impact on a visitor, love must be expressed in a practical way. It means being sensitive to someone's needs and putting them ahead of your own.
The pastor must be loving
Church leaders set the tone of the congregation. Many pastors love preaching but don't love people. If people like you, they'll listen to you.
Ways to communicate love:
- Memorise names
- Personally greet people before and after services (Pray for people at some other time - they need you there now!)
- Touch people (This may be more appropriate in the USA than Australia).
- Use a warm, personal style when writing to people (many churches are excessively formal, especially Brethren churches!).
Accepting without approving
There is a difference between acceptance and approval. We are called to love people without approving of sinful lifestyles. We cannot expect unbelievers to act like believers until they believe! Jesus didn't say "Clean up your act and then I'll save you." He loved you before you changed. He expects you to do the same.
2) Jesus attracted crowds by meeting peoples' needs.
Jesus frequently asked "What do you want me to do for you?"
Getting peoples' attention
If you want to reach people you must first get their attention. That is what ministry is about -meeting needs in Jesus' name! God cares about every part of peoples' lives, and we must need all of them (not just the "Spiritual" needs). A church will never grow beyond its capacity to meet peoples' needs. Whilst there are many specific needs you'll find when you survey people in your area, there are some universal needs: love, acceptance, forgivness, meaning, self-expression and purpose. Also freedom from fear, guilt, worry, resentment, discouragement and loneliness. If you are meeting these needs, growth will not be a problem.
3) Jesus attracted crowds by teaching in a practical, interesting way.
The crowds were spellbound by Jesus' teaching.
Jesus began with peoples' needs, hurts and interests
Jesus usually taught in response to a question or problem from someone in the crowd. We do not have to make the Bible relevant - it already is - but we have to show the Bible's relevance by applying its message personally to peoples' lives, just as Jesus did. The Gospel is both "good" and "news". It offers people answers to their needs (listed before). When you preach, if you begin with peoples' needs, you immediately get their attention. Proclaimers of truth don't get much attention, but whilst people aren't looking for truth, they are looking for relief. If you teach a truth that relieves pains or sloves problems, unbelievers say "Thanks! What else is true in that book?" Most people who followed Jesus were similarly seeking relief from pain, leprosy, blindness etc. After their felt needs were met, they were anxious to know more. Instead of asking "What shall I preach on Sunday?" ask "To whom will I be preaching?" God knows who are there, and in His forknowledge he has ordained messages that will meet their needs.
Jesus related truth to life
Jesus' goal when teaching was to transform lives. Much preaching today is long on diagnosis, short on treatment. We need fewer "ought to" sermons and more "how to" sermons. The deepest preaching is that which makes a difference. Key words: "Go and do likewise". Your goal is to teach theology to the unchurched without telling them it is theology. You do not have to transform the message, but you will need to translate it.
Jesus spoke to the crowd with an interesting style
Crowds listened to Jesus with pleasure. Preachers should capture attention! To the unchurched, dull preaching is unforgivable. On the other hand, they will listen to foolishness if it is interesting! Watch late-night TV for a while . . . Jesus' stories were key. They hold attention, stir emotions and help us remember. He also used simple language. He didn't use the Greek or Hebrew of the scholars; He used common aramaic. Keep it simple! But not simplistic.
Ministry to crowds is controversial.
The controversy is based on two real questions:
"Go and tell" or "Come and see?"
* The Bible commands both. We do not need to choose between the two. Some will be reached by either.
Responding to culture - imitation, isolation or infiltration?
Some churches become like the world. Some isolate themselves from it. A third option is better - infiltrating the world! Jesus walked among people, in their world.
Jesus attracted crowds. I'm not going to go into this in too much detail because it's obvious. Warren believes a Christlike ministry STILL attracts crowds.
I have a feeling this may be uncomfortable. In fact, it probably is for anyone whose passion is a small church at which the word "Crowd" can seldom be used . . .
So how did Jesus attract crowds?
1) Jesus was loving to unbelievers.
This is a really important one. People called Him the "Friend of Sinners."
At first glance, my reaction was "Well, we do that." But the reality is that sometimes we don't. Oh, we love each other just fine. But does that love translate to those who come from outside? That's more difficult to judge. But sadly, the fact that many people have come for a while but not stuck around would seem to indicate that if we do love them, we're not communicating it.
Loving others like Jesus did
The command to love is the most repeated command in the New Testament - "Whoever does not love does not know God." It's key to our existence as Christians. To love each other but fail to love unbelievers is a terrible form of selfishness.
Creating an atmosphere of acceptance
Growing churches love, and loving churches grow. You need to be nice to people when they show up! To make an impact on a visitor, love must be expressed in a practical way. It means being sensitive to someone's needs and putting them ahead of your own.
The pastor must be loving
Church leaders set the tone of the congregation. Many pastors love preaching but don't love people. If people like you, they'll listen to you.
Ways to communicate love:
- Memorise names
- Personally greet people before and after services (Pray for people at some other time - they need you there now!)
- Touch people (This may be more appropriate in the USA than Australia).
- Use a warm, personal style when writing to people (many churches are excessively formal, especially Brethren churches!).
Accepting without approving
There is a difference between acceptance and approval. We are called to love people without approving of sinful lifestyles. We cannot expect unbelievers to act like believers until they believe! Jesus didn't say "Clean up your act and then I'll save you." He loved you before you changed. He expects you to do the same.
2) Jesus attracted crowds by meeting peoples' needs.
Jesus frequently asked "What do you want me to do for you?"
Getting peoples' attention
If you want to reach people you must first get their attention. That is what ministry is about -meeting needs in Jesus' name! God cares about every part of peoples' lives, and we must need all of them (not just the "Spiritual" needs). A church will never grow beyond its capacity to meet peoples' needs. Whilst there are many specific needs you'll find when you survey people in your area, there are some universal needs: love, acceptance, forgivness, meaning, self-expression and purpose. Also freedom from fear, guilt, worry, resentment, discouragement and loneliness. If you are meeting these needs, growth will not be a problem.
3) Jesus attracted crowds by teaching in a practical, interesting way.
The crowds were spellbound by Jesus' teaching.
Jesus began with peoples' needs, hurts and interests
Jesus usually taught in response to a question or problem from someone in the crowd. We do not have to make the Bible relevant - it already is - but we have to show the Bible's relevance by applying its message personally to peoples' lives, just as Jesus did. The Gospel is both "good" and "news". It offers people answers to their needs (listed before). When you preach, if you begin with peoples' needs, you immediately get their attention. Proclaimers of truth don't get much attention, but whilst people aren't looking for truth, they are looking for relief. If you teach a truth that relieves pains or sloves problems, unbelievers say "Thanks! What else is true in that book?" Most people who followed Jesus were similarly seeking relief from pain, leprosy, blindness etc. After their felt needs were met, they were anxious to know more. Instead of asking "What shall I preach on Sunday?" ask "To whom will I be preaching?" God knows who are there, and in His forknowledge he has ordained messages that will meet their needs.
Jesus related truth to life
Jesus' goal when teaching was to transform lives. Much preaching today is long on diagnosis, short on treatment. We need fewer "ought to" sermons and more "how to" sermons. The deepest preaching is that which makes a difference. Key words: "Go and do likewise". Your goal is to teach theology to the unchurched without telling them it is theology. You do not have to transform the message, but you will need to translate it.
Jesus spoke to the crowd with an interesting style
Crowds listened to Jesus with pleasure. Preachers should capture attention! To the unchurched, dull preaching is unforgivable. On the other hand, they will listen to foolishness if it is interesting! Watch late-night TV for a while . . . Jesus' stories were key. They hold attention, stir emotions and help us remember. He also used simple language. He didn't use the Greek or Hebrew of the scholars; He used common aramaic. Keep it simple! But not simplistic.
Ministry to crowds is controversial.
The controversy is based on two real questions:
"Go and tell" or "Come and see?"
* The Bible commands both. We do not need to choose between the two. Some will be reached by either.
Responding to culture - imitation, isolation or infiltration?
Some churches become like the world. Some isolate themselves from it. A third option is better - infiltrating the world! Jesus walked among people, in their world.
21 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch11 - Developing your strategy
Before I start, some housekeeping:
1) Thanks to those who have commented on my last two chapters! I wonder if you wouldn't mind doing me a favour, however - "Unknown," who commented yesterday, I'd love it if you could either email me at hughestech1@optusnet.com.au or FB inbox me to let me know who you are; and Richard, please also email/inbox to let me know WHICH Richard you are (I have some more questions for you!).
2) Normally I wouldn't be commenting on a weekend, but I really want to get through this book in January, and also I am likely to be out on Monday night given that it's the last night of the School Holidays and also that we have the kids being minded! :)
Anyway, let's get into it.
"Many churches lack a strategy for reaching people for Christ, and it shows in their results." I think that line, at least, is fairly self-evident, so let's keep moving.
Warren finds five guidelines for evangelism in Jesus' instructions to his disciples (Matthew 10 and Luke 10).
1) Know what you are fishing for.
This, as far as I can see, is broadly targeted in the previous two chapters. As one person commenting on yesterday's chapter has said, there is a question as to whether a homogenous congregation is ideal or not - just because it seems to make sense to reach those who are like ourselves, does that make it what God wants? However, it remains that in these chapters Jesus did send the disciples after those like themselves.
2) Go where the fish are biting.
In this context Warren is saying that we should spend most of our time working on leading those who are responsive to Christ rather than on those who resist. I would point out here that there is some value to ensuring that even the "hard cases" know that the church cares about them, but Warren has a point - do you really think that another session with someone who has rejected Christ repeatedly is going to make a difference? However, in God's time even the hardest case might thaw.
3) Learn to think like a fish.
This is hard for me - I came to Christ when I was four years old (even though I went through my questioning times at various points of childhood and adulthood). It is often challenging for me to understand how someone with a different experience of God might think. Warren gives the example of church advertising about how they are "Preaching the inerrant word of God!". Similarly, I can see parallels in some of the songs we sing at church (one from a few years back says "I've been forgiven; I've been set free; Restored and sanctified, in Christ I've been released!" Quite apart from words like "sanctified", which don't get used outside of religious contexts, even the normal words like "Forgiven," "Restored" and "Free" have particular meaning to Christians which they don't normally have [i.e. they're part of our jargon]). It is important that we remove barriers between the Gospel and people by at least TRYING to express it in the language of those we're preaching to!
How does one learn to think like an unchurched person? By talking to them. Warren discusses his experiences in doorknocking, and lists five questions which were helpful to him in that task. they are:
* What do you think is the greatest need in this area?
* Are you actively attending a church? (If the answer was "yes", Warren finished the survey there!)
* Why do you think most people don't attend church?
* If you were to look for a church to attend, what kind of things would you look for?
* What could I do for you? What advice can you give a minister who really wants to be helpful to people?
Warren describes the complaints he found. Whilst they are interesting, I'm going to leave them for now - the Australian context will have some similarities, but it will also be different; and rather than focus on what he found, it will be more useful to us to focus on our own findings.
However, his next point is valid - successful evangelism requires one to understand and anticipate objections people may have before they voice them.
Also, because of the difference in contexts, Warren's letter to the local area won't be directly applicable. However, a letter to our area should address any common objections people voice.
4) Catch fish on their terms.
We need to be willing to be uncomfortable to reach people for Christ - and if anything is important enough to be worth a bit of discomfort, it's that!
Catching fish on their terms means:
- Understanding and adapting to the culture of unbelievers. This is fairly straightforward, but in Australia it's very important (especially in Sanctuary's area).
- Letting your target determine your approach. Start wherever people are, and move on from there.
- Beginning with the felt needs of the unchurched. We know that everyone needs to be forgiven, but often that's not what they FEEL. The psychologist Maslow created the hierarchy of needs (diagram right) - his concept was that people aren't interested in needs higher up on the hierarchy until the needs further down are satisfied. Similarly, people probably won't recognise or prioritise real needs until felt needs are taken care of.
-Understanding and responding to the hang-ups of the unchurched. A lot of people will have hang-ups about church; they may be uncomfortable with the church asking them for money, or with being asked to sing, or whatever else. If we want to reach them, we need to be ready to deal with those hang-ups, even when they are based on ignorance.
-Changing methods whenever necessary. If methods aren't working, it's time to try something different. Don't keep doing the same thing hoping it'll start working.
5) Use more than one hook.
Warren says that we need to offer people choices (for example, in worship styles, in service times, etc). Given the size and resources of our church, it's probably better for the moment that we focus our efforts, running one service well. However, that's not to say that we can't try to incorporate a variety of methods into each one.
6) It costs to reach your community
Don't cut advertising and evangelism programs when budgets get tight. They are the source of new blood for your church.
7) Fishing is serious business.
Evangelism isn't a hobby for Christians; it should be our lifestyle.
20 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch10 - Knowing whom you can best reach
The other side of defining your target is knowing what you can hit. There's no point in taking on tanks with a BB gun, and in the same way there are people we can reach and people we can't reach[1].
The bottom line is that the most effective evangelism comes when we have something in common with the person we're sharing the Gospel with.
If we want to understand who we can reach, we need to ask a few questions.
1) Who already attends our church?
Whatever type of people you have in your congregation is the same type you are likely to attract more of. Peoples' first question in a church is "Is there anyone like me here?" We should be warm and welcoming to everyone, but people like ourselves are more likely to be interested in being a part of our church.
2) What kind of leaders do we have?
Whilst the leaders aren't the attraction for first time visitors, chances are that if they identify with the leaders, people will be more likely to return. You'll best reach those you relate to. As a leader you will attract who you are, not who you want! The exception to this is if you have the "Missionary gift", the ability to minister cross-culturally.
"Explosive growth occurs when the type of people in the community match the type of people that are already in the church, and both match the type of person the leader is. If they don't match, there will probably be an explosion without the growth!"
But communities change. What if we don't match the community?
* Build on your strengths. Strengthen what you are already doing, and don't worry about what you can't do. Chances are there are a pocket of people in your community that only your church can reach.
* Reinvent your congregation. Warren doesn't advise this. It may be viable in small churches, which can be completely transformed by having a few families leave and a few new families join.
* Start new congregations. Commence a new service, or begin a mission. The mark of a new church is the ability to reproduce - it has babies!
Be ready to recognise spiritual receptivity. The most receptive people are:
- People in transition; those experiencing a major change.
- People under tension; those enduring emotional pain.
If you want to grow, focus on reaching receptive people (don't try to reactivate old members who have stopped coming!).
[1] I say "can't." Obviously, nothing is impossible for God. But He did make us in certain ways, and he gifted us to be able to reach certain people. So whilst He CAN help us reach people who aren't naturally a part of our target, chances are He won't under most conditions.
The bottom line is that the most effective evangelism comes when we have something in common with the person we're sharing the Gospel with.
If we want to understand who we can reach, we need to ask a few questions.
1) Who already attends our church?
Whatever type of people you have in your congregation is the same type you are likely to attract more of. Peoples' first question in a church is "Is there anyone like me here?" We should be warm and welcoming to everyone, but people like ourselves are more likely to be interested in being a part of our church.
2) What kind of leaders do we have?
Whilst the leaders aren't the attraction for first time visitors, chances are that if they identify with the leaders, people will be more likely to return. You'll best reach those you relate to. As a leader you will attract who you are, not who you want! The exception to this is if you have the "Missionary gift", the ability to minister cross-culturally.
"Explosive growth occurs when the type of people in the community match the type of people that are already in the church, and both match the type of person the leader is. If they don't match, there will probably be an explosion without the growth!"
But communities change. What if we don't match the community?
* Build on your strengths. Strengthen what you are already doing, and don't worry about what you can't do. Chances are there are a pocket of people in your community that only your church can reach.
* Reinvent your congregation. Warren doesn't advise this. It may be viable in small churches, which can be completely transformed by having a few families leave and a few new families join.
* Start new congregations. Commence a new service, or begin a mission. The mark of a new church is the ability to reproduce - it has babies!
Be ready to recognise spiritual receptivity. The most receptive people are:
- People in transition; those experiencing a major change.
- People under tension; those enduring emotional pain.
If you want to grow, focus on reaching receptive people (don't try to reactivate old members who have stopped coming!).
[1] I say "can't." Obviously, nothing is impossible for God. But He did make us in certain ways, and he gifted us to be able to reach certain people. So whilst He CAN help us reach people who aren't naturally a part of our target, chances are He won't under most conditions.
19 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch9 - WHo is your target?
A long-ish chapter again, tonight, but it is rather important - Who is your target?
Now, I tend to be rather skeptical of marketing-type things applied to churches, and let's face it; talking about your "target" is definitely marketing language. I mean, we're aiming to reach EVERYONE, right?
Actually, Warren goes to town on churches who DON'T define their target. He describes an untargeted approach as "callous", because the task of bringing people to Christ is too important to have such a casual attitude about it.
Wow, I never thought of it that way before.
The Church should be reaching everybody - the Church worldwide, the complete Church. But each individual church (note the small c) is responsible for a particular subset of the world's people. And different churches are needed for different people. This gives me hope - God needs Sanctuary just as much as He needs Hillsong.
Defining the evangelistic target group is therefore important, and I have to confess that looking at it that way, I can see his point. I have to accept that he's right.
It would be really easy to leap into this, but Warren gives one more warning before we head into discussing this important topic - the Biblical foundation must be laid first. We need to clarify the purpose of the Church first! Rick says that failure to do this leads to a market-driven church with a compromised message.
Interestingly, Warren points out that targeting for Evangelism is Biblical. Let's see - we have Jesus' statement that "I was sent to the Lost Sheep of Israel" (Matt 15:22-28)[1]. Similarly Jesus commands the disciples in Matt 10:5-6 to go to the Jews, not Samaritans or Gentiles. Paul targeted his message to Gentiles (Romans 11:13), Peter to Jews (Gal 2:7). It is even built into the Great Commission - we are to make disciples of all Nations. Literally, in Greek, "All Nations" is rendered as "Ta ethne" - all people groups!
Really, we know this in one respect - our music and communication methods are tailored to people like ourselves. But I don't believe we are as targeted as we should be.
Warren says that this is really important for small churches with limited resources (check!). It's critical to focus those limited resources on the people the church can best reach.
There are several ways we can define our target. Warren says you need to define your target in four ways - geographically, demographically, culturally and spiritually.
Geographically: Identify where the people live that you want to reach. Using terms like "reasonable driving distance" can be a problem because it varies depending on where you are (For Sanctuary, I suggest that the Astoria Park area gives us a nice natural boundary, at least for the moment). Remember also that people choose churches primarily on the basis of relationships and programs, not location. Just because your church is the closest doesn't mean it can automatically reach someone (Therefore working with other churches could be beneficial - if someone doesn't fit with Sanctuary, they might find Norwest Anglicans or Baulko Baps more their style). Finally, remember that as the church grows its reach will extend farther.
Demographically: What type of people live in your area? It's possible to overdo this, collecting all kinds of facts and figures. In fact, a handful of facts are needed:
* Age - how many in each age group?
* Marital status - how many are single adults? How many are married couples?
* Income - what is the median and average household income?
* Education - What is the education level of the community?
* Occupation - what types of work are predominant?
If we're serious about reaching them, we need to become experts on the community.
Don't re-invent the wheel - get stats from Council, local papers, real estate agents etc.
Culturally: What are their lifestyle and mindset like? What are peoples' values, interests, hurts and fears? What subcultures exist in the area? The more you know about them, the easier it is to reach them. Churches are sometimes "people blind" - they are unaware of socio-cultural differences between people. This is where a church survey can be useful - ask them what they FEEL are their greatest needs. Listen for their hurts, interest and fears. No book can replace talking to them.
Spiritually: What do they already know about the Gospel? This is an area where Australia is different to America - they have a predominantly Christian-based culture. Other church leaders can be a good resource here. Remember that "Unchurched" can mean more than just "not religious" - it can refer to "Christian, but doesn't have a personal faith". Again, there is no substitute for talking to local people personally. It can help you direct your evangelism methods.
Once all this data is collected, it can be helpful to "personalise" the target - that is, create a composite profile of the typical unchurched person in the local area. Saddleback has "Saddleback Sam". They have gone to a lot of trouble to do this because the more you understand someone, the easier it is to communicate with him. What would "Astoria Park Alan and Amanda" look like?
[1] I like Warren's explanation of this (something that has often bothered me in the past) - He says "Jesus targeted His ministry in order to be effective, not to be exclusive."
Now, I tend to be rather skeptical of marketing-type things applied to churches, and let's face it; talking about your "target" is definitely marketing language. I mean, we're aiming to reach EVERYONE, right?
Actually, Warren goes to town on churches who DON'T define their target. He describes an untargeted approach as "callous", because the task of bringing people to Christ is too important to have such a casual attitude about it.
Wow, I never thought of it that way before.
The Church should be reaching everybody - the Church worldwide, the complete Church. But each individual church (note the small c) is responsible for a particular subset of the world's people. And different churches are needed for different people. This gives me hope - God needs Sanctuary just as much as He needs Hillsong.
Defining the evangelistic target group is therefore important, and I have to confess that looking at it that way, I can see his point. I have to accept that he's right.
It would be really easy to leap into this, but Warren gives one more warning before we head into discussing this important topic - the Biblical foundation must be laid first. We need to clarify the purpose of the Church first! Rick says that failure to do this leads to a market-driven church with a compromised message.
Interestingly, Warren points out that targeting for Evangelism is Biblical. Let's see - we have Jesus' statement that "I was sent to the Lost Sheep of Israel" (Matt 15:22-28)[1]. Similarly Jesus commands the disciples in Matt 10:5-6 to go to the Jews, not Samaritans or Gentiles. Paul targeted his message to Gentiles (Romans 11:13), Peter to Jews (Gal 2:7). It is even built into the Great Commission - we are to make disciples of all Nations. Literally, in Greek, "All Nations" is rendered as "Ta ethne" - all people groups!
Really, we know this in one respect - our music and communication methods are tailored to people like ourselves. But I don't believe we are as targeted as we should be.
Warren says that this is really important for small churches with limited resources (check!). It's critical to focus those limited resources on the people the church can best reach.
There are several ways we can define our target. Warren says you need to define your target in four ways - geographically, demographically, culturally and spiritually.
Geographically: Identify where the people live that you want to reach. Using terms like "reasonable driving distance" can be a problem because it varies depending on where you are (For Sanctuary, I suggest that the Astoria Park area gives us a nice natural boundary, at least for the moment). Remember also that people choose churches primarily on the basis of relationships and programs, not location. Just because your church is the closest doesn't mean it can automatically reach someone (Therefore working with other churches could be beneficial - if someone doesn't fit with Sanctuary, they might find Norwest Anglicans or Baulko Baps more their style). Finally, remember that as the church grows its reach will extend farther.
Demographically: What type of people live in your area? It's possible to overdo this, collecting all kinds of facts and figures. In fact, a handful of facts are needed:
* Age - how many in each age group?
* Marital status - how many are single adults? How many are married couples?
* Income - what is the median and average household income?
* Education - What is the education level of the community?
* Occupation - what types of work are predominant?
If we're serious about reaching them, we need to become experts on the community.
Don't re-invent the wheel - get stats from Council, local papers, real estate agents etc.
Culturally: What are their lifestyle and mindset like? What are peoples' values, interests, hurts and fears? What subcultures exist in the area? The more you know about them, the easier it is to reach them. Churches are sometimes "people blind" - they are unaware of socio-cultural differences between people. This is where a church survey can be useful - ask them what they FEEL are their greatest needs. Listen for their hurts, interest and fears. No book can replace talking to them.
Spiritually: What do they already know about the Gospel? This is an area where Australia is different to America - they have a predominantly Christian-based culture. Other church leaders can be a good resource here. Remember that "Unchurched" can mean more than just "not religious" - it can refer to "Christian, but doesn't have a personal faith". Again, there is no substitute for talking to local people personally. It can help you direct your evangelism methods.
Once all this data is collected, it can be helpful to "personalise" the target - that is, create a composite profile of the typical unchurched person in the local area. Saddleback has "Saddleback Sam". They have gone to a lot of trouble to do this because the more you understand someone, the easier it is to communicate with him. What would "Astoria Park Alan and Amanda" look like?
[1] I like Warren's explanation of this (something that has often bothered me in the past) - He says "Jesus targeted His ministry in order to be effective, not to be exclusive."
17 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch8b - Applying your Purposes
And on we go. Hopefully the next few points won't be marathons like the first two. But let's see.
3) Educate your people on purpose.
This is thought provoking for me. Often I tend to see the teaching of the Bible as an end unto itself - that people should come out of the Sunday service with a better academic understanding of the part of scripture that was preached on.
This, however, is challenging - "You only believe the part of the Bible that you DO."
t work here. He uses a baseball metaphor, unfortunately, but it is in a fairly simple diagram, which I reproduce here:
People are consciously moved from "1st base" to "3rd base", and then to "home", which is repeating the process and helping to reach others for Christ.
What this demonstrates is a really clear understanding of how training in Spiritual things actually works - and although I know my Bible backwards, I wonder if this just shows how little I really know. This really is about "turning an audience into an army".
4) Start small groups on purpose.
Since there are people at different points in the circles, it makes sense to specialise. Small groups are set up for seekers, for team members, for specific needs and for growth.
In our situation, we currently have growth groups operational, which is appropriate for our people. But if (as I hope!) that we really get into a serious effort to reach our local area, one of the first things we'll need to set up is a small group specifically aimed at helping people become Christians and developing good habits of maturity.
5) Add staff on purpose.
This is something we've actually been doing in our search for a staff member for the church. It's not enough to find someone who has a good personality and competence; it's important that their passion is about one of the purposes of the church (and clearly, it needs to be a purpose that your church is actually working on!).
One interesting thought - if he were starting a new church today, Rick Warren would recruit five volunteers for unpaid staff positions - a music/magnification director (worship), a membership director (fellowship), a maturity director (discipleship), a ministry director (ministry) and a missions director (evangelism). He would aim to eventually make these people part time and then full time.
6) Structure on purpose.
Once again, Warren talks about putting people into teams based around the purposes of the church rather than traditional departments. This is interesting precisely because it is both so counter-cultural and yet so logical. The reason I say this is logical is because each team will know exactly what it is aiming to accomplish, its boundaries and its goals.
7) Preach on purpose.
Here's a point on which I disagree a little with Warren. He says that a church needs to ensure that preaching focuses on each of the five purposes during the year. I can see the benefits of this, but my own opinion and training is that the preaching should be more based on the Word of God itself than on categories we place it into. That said, maybe it is worth asking the question every time one preaches - "What purposes does this passage impact?"
That said, Rick suggests that this shouldn't take up the entire year. He says "A four week series on each of the five purposes need only take up 20 weeks a year". So maybe there's something to this.
Maybe we could do both. Perhaps we should ensure that during a typical year we got some stuff from the psalms (on worship), some material from Paul (discipleship), some stuff on the Great Commission (evangelism), A pastoral epistle (fellowship) and some teaching on spiritural gifts (ministry).
8) Budget on purpose.
I have never really had too much interest in budgets, but it is interesting to ask what a church's budget says about its priorities. Simply put, you should be spending the majority of money on what you think is most important.
9) Calendar on purpose.
Again, interesting - Warren says you should calendar 2 months of each year to give special emphasis to each purpose. This would be linked to the teams discussed in structure - each team would be given the task of emphasising that purpose church wide during their months. He gives the warning "Don't fool yourself- if you don't schedule your purposes on your calendar, they won't get emphasized".
10) Evaluate on purpose.
This, at least, is simple and understandable. If you wish to remain effective as a church, you HAVE to ask yourself "how are we doing?" every so often. Again, a metaphor I like - Imagine NASA doing a moon shot with no tracking! And evaluation must be involving each of the purposes.
Whew! Made it through all of them. Once again, this is good stuff. Next time we'll be reaching out to the community . . . .
Oh, and just in case stuff happens - I'm taking the kids to the SCG tomorrow night, so there is a distinct chance that we might not make it back till very late. This could mean we don't get to blog then. I'll try, though, because I'm starting to get excited about all this . . . .
3) Educate your people on purpose.
This is thought provoking for me. Often I tend to see the teaching of the Bible as an end unto itself - that people should come out of the Sunday service with a better academic understanding of the part of scripture that was preached on.
This, however, is challenging - "You only believe the part of the Bible that you DO."
The key point here - the objective of Bible teaching (and other Spiritual education) is to influence peoples' behaviour, making them better at the five purposes of the church (which, in case you haven't read any other posts, are Evangelism, Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship and Ministry).
What Warren is saying is that there's a really important process a
t work here. He uses a baseball metaphor, unfortunately, but it is in a fairly simple diagram, which I reproduce here:People are consciously moved from "1st base" to "3rd base", and then to "home", which is repeating the process and helping to reach others for Christ.
What this demonstrates is a really clear understanding of how training in Spiritual things actually works - and although I know my Bible backwards, I wonder if this just shows how little I really know. This really is about "turning an audience into an army".
4) Start small groups on purpose.
Since there are people at different points in the circles, it makes sense to specialise. Small groups are set up for seekers, for team members, for specific needs and for growth.
In our situation, we currently have growth groups operational, which is appropriate for our people. But if (as I hope!) that we really get into a serious effort to reach our local area, one of the first things we'll need to set up is a small group specifically aimed at helping people become Christians and developing good habits of maturity.
5) Add staff on purpose.
This is something we've actually been doing in our search for a staff member for the church. It's not enough to find someone who has a good personality and competence; it's important that their passion is about one of the purposes of the church (and clearly, it needs to be a purpose that your church is actually working on!).
One interesting thought - if he were starting a new church today, Rick Warren would recruit five volunteers for unpaid staff positions - a music/magnification director (worship), a membership director (fellowship), a maturity director (discipleship), a ministry director (ministry) and a missions director (evangelism). He would aim to eventually make these people part time and then full time.
6) Structure on purpose.
Once again, Warren talks about putting people into teams based around the purposes of the church rather than traditional departments. This is interesting precisely because it is both so counter-cultural and yet so logical. The reason I say this is logical is because each team will know exactly what it is aiming to accomplish, its boundaries and its goals.
7) Preach on purpose.
Here's a point on which I disagree a little with Warren. He says that a church needs to ensure that preaching focuses on each of the five purposes during the year. I can see the benefits of this, but my own opinion and training is that the preaching should be more based on the Word of God itself than on categories we place it into. That said, maybe it is worth asking the question every time one preaches - "What purposes does this passage impact?"
That said, Rick suggests that this shouldn't take up the entire year. He says "A four week series on each of the five purposes need only take up 20 weeks a year". So maybe there's something to this.
Maybe we could do both. Perhaps we should ensure that during a typical year we got some stuff from the psalms (on worship), some material from Paul (discipleship), some stuff on the Great Commission (evangelism), A pastoral epistle (fellowship) and some teaching on spiritural gifts (ministry).
8) Budget on purpose.
I have never really had too much interest in budgets, but it is interesting to ask what a church's budget says about its priorities. Simply put, you should be spending the majority of money on what you think is most important.
9) Calendar on purpose.
Again, interesting - Warren says you should calendar 2 months of each year to give special emphasis to each purpose. This would be linked to the teams discussed in structure - each team would be given the task of emphasising that purpose church wide during their months. He gives the warning "Don't fool yourself- if you don't schedule your purposes on your calendar, they won't get emphasized".
10) Evaluate on purpose.
This, at least, is simple and understandable. If you wish to remain effective as a church, you HAVE to ask yourself "how are we doing?" every so often. Again, a metaphor I like - Imagine NASA doing a moon shot with no tracking! And evaluation must be involving each of the purposes.
Whew! Made it through all of them. Once again, this is good stuff. Next time we'll be reaching out to the community . . . .
Oh, and just in case stuff happens - I'm taking the kids to the SCG tomorrow night, so there is a distinct chance that we might not make it back till very late. This could mean we don't get to blog then. I'll try, though, because I'm starting to get excited about all this . . . .
16 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch8a - Applying your purposes
Sorry about the delays! Let's get into it.
Chapter 8 is long - very long. It's a chapter with 10 points. Fortunately, we can break them down into small groups of points. Tonight we'll check out the first two.
The overarching idea of the chapter is this - how does the purpose of the church affect the way it does things? The point in business and in other organisational structures where plans tend to go to weeds is in the APPLICATION (or lack thereof). My friends will know that I am fond of the joke "What is the difference between theory and practice?" (the answer being "In theory there IS no difference . . . ").
The ten points of this chapter are 10 areas of application.
10 Ways to be Purpose Driven:
1) Assimilate new members on purpose.
The strategy used by Warren at Saddleback involves the Circles of Commitment diagram (as seen in my last posting). The idea is a continual process of moving unchurched people from community to crowd (for worship), then moving crowd to congregation (for fellowship), then from congregation to committed (for discipleship), then from committed to core (for ministry), then moving the core back out to the community (for evangelism).
Warren suggests growing the church from the outside in. This challenges what I learned at Student Life, though only in order rather than in substance. Tradtionally, you start with a core group, and grow a ministry team, followed by a larger group, yada yada yada.
The problem with this approach? By the time the core has become discipled enough to be of any use, they have often lost contact with the community and may well be afraid of interacting with those outside. He quotes Peter Wagner in calling this condition "Koinonitis". I like that. But I don't actually like the concept, because I recognise it all too well - it's Church as I have experienced it much of my life! Whilst we do have a desire for mission, it is comfortable as we are, and it's hard to stoke the fire. We are very much in a condition where we are all core and nothing else. Everything the church does is done by the same people. Most of us have few unsaved friends, at least that we talk to in an average day.
It's bad fitting so neatly into an illustration, when that illustration is a "do not do" rather than a "do"!
Fortunately, Warren has a potential remedy. "A church with this problem needs to learn how to develop the other four circles."
He discusses the start of Saddleback. I have to admire his chutzpah. They focussed entirely on the community, specifically the unchurched. This involved meeting hundreds of people door to door. He deliberately sought out people who didn't go to church and surveyed their needs. He developed relationships.
The next step was a letter to the community announcing the beginning of the church, sent to 15,000 homes (wow!), and this letter was based carefully on the results of the survey. Advertising was key because they didn't actually know enough people to rely on word of mouth.
Pause here - we could do this! This is where the profile we've built from Carols could come in handy - we could go around to people saying "the people that run Carols at MPPS", and discussing the relaunch of Sanctuary.
Resuming, the next task was to take that crowd and introduce them to Christ. He uses the image of a rocket launching off the pad, and recognises that this took a lot of energy. In the first year of the church proper, most of the sermons were simply "God's plan for your life" and similar gospel messages.
Then in the second year of the church's existence, Warren worked on turning the crowd into a congregation. This year the sermons were on "Why do we have Church anyway?" and similar.
The third year was all about raising the commitment level. Series on growth were the order of the day. Now, this was still present previously; but now it was the focus.
From here on the idea was to give people the opportunity to get involved in ministry. The idea was communicated that a non-ministering Christian was a contradiction in terms.
It was at this stage that there formed a recognisable core, and staff were added to assist him in the other processes needed.
The starting point is ASSIMILATING NEW MEMBERS.
Warren defends the slow speed of growth. I say I'd LOVE to have growth like he had, even at the start! Given that I have laboured for years with little or no obvious growth, I'd be delighted to move slowly but surely and obviously!
2) Program around your purposes.
Choosing or designing programs should reflect each of your purposes. Remember that each circle corresponds to a particular purpose of the church. So far, so good. But here's the scary bit - "Kill any program that doesn't fulfil a purpose. Repace a program when you find one that does a better job than the one you're using."
This is a hard lesson for me because I dislike change. For example, to me it would be natural to have a youth group come hell or high water, regardless. If I were told "Youth group isn't doing anything, kill it," I'd struggle!
But if this is correct, then there's no point in having a program unless it is fulfilling a purpose!
An interesting concept he has here is "bridge events". Our carols would fit this description - community wide events that make the unchurched in the community aware of the existence of the church. These are for the Community.
For the crowd, he has Seeker services.
For the Congregation, it's small groups.
For the Committed he has the Life Development Institute, which is an intensive Bible study program.
For Core is the SALT meeting.
NO SINGLE PROGRAM, no matter how great it is or how well it has worked in the past, can adequately fulfil all the purposes of the church.
Chapter 8 is long - very long. It's a chapter with 10 points. Fortunately, we can break them down into small groups of points. Tonight we'll check out the first two.
The overarching idea of the chapter is this - how does the purpose of the church affect the way it does things? The point in business and in other organisational structures where plans tend to go to weeds is in the APPLICATION (or lack thereof). My friends will know that I am fond of the joke "What is the difference between theory and practice?" (the answer being "In theory there IS no difference . . . ").
The ten points of this chapter are 10 areas of application.
10 Ways to be Purpose Driven:
1) Assimilate new members on purpose.
The strategy used by Warren at Saddleback involves the Circles of Commitment diagram (as seen in my last posting). The idea is a continual process of moving unchurched people from community to crowd (for worship), then moving crowd to congregation (for fellowship), then from congregation to committed (for discipleship), then from committed to core (for ministry), then moving the core back out to the community (for evangelism).
Warren suggests growing the church from the outside in. This challenges what I learned at Student Life, though only in order rather than in substance. Tradtionally, you start with a core group, and grow a ministry team, followed by a larger group, yada yada yada.
The problem with this approach? By the time the core has become discipled enough to be of any use, they have often lost contact with the community and may well be afraid of interacting with those outside. He quotes Peter Wagner in calling this condition "Koinonitis". I like that. But I don't actually like the concept, because I recognise it all too well - it's Church as I have experienced it much of my life! Whilst we do have a desire for mission, it is comfortable as we are, and it's hard to stoke the fire. We are very much in a condition where we are all core and nothing else. Everything the church does is done by the same people. Most of us have few unsaved friends, at least that we talk to in an average day.
It's bad fitting so neatly into an illustration, when that illustration is a "do not do" rather than a "do"!
Fortunately, Warren has a potential remedy. "A church with this problem needs to learn how to develop the other four circles."
He discusses the start of Saddleback. I have to admire his chutzpah. They focussed entirely on the community, specifically the unchurched. This involved meeting hundreds of people door to door. He deliberately sought out people who didn't go to church and surveyed their needs. He developed relationships.
The next step was a letter to the community announcing the beginning of the church, sent to 15,000 homes (wow!), and this letter was based carefully on the results of the survey. Advertising was key because they didn't actually know enough people to rely on word of mouth.
Pause here - we could do this! This is where the profile we've built from Carols could come in handy - we could go around to people saying "the people that run Carols at MPPS", and discussing the relaunch of Sanctuary.
Resuming, the next task was to take that crowd and introduce them to Christ. He uses the image of a rocket launching off the pad, and recognises that this took a lot of energy. In the first year of the church proper, most of the sermons were simply "God's plan for your life" and similar gospel messages.
Then in the second year of the church's existence, Warren worked on turning the crowd into a congregation. This year the sermons were on "Why do we have Church anyway?" and similar.
The third year was all about raising the commitment level. Series on growth were the order of the day. Now, this was still present previously; but now it was the focus.
From here on the idea was to give people the opportunity to get involved in ministry. The idea was communicated that a non-ministering Christian was a contradiction in terms.
It was at this stage that there formed a recognisable core, and staff were added to assist him in the other processes needed.
The starting point is ASSIMILATING NEW MEMBERS.
Warren defends the slow speed of growth. I say I'd LOVE to have growth like he had, even at the start! Given that I have laboured for years with little or no obvious growth, I'd be delighted to move slowly but surely and obviously!
2) Program around your purposes.
Choosing or designing programs should reflect each of your purposes. Remember that each circle corresponds to a particular purpose of the church. So far, so good. But here's the scary bit - "Kill any program that doesn't fulfil a purpose. Repace a program when you find one that does a better job than the one you're using."
This is a hard lesson for me because I dislike change. For example, to me it would be natural to have a youth group come hell or high water, regardless. If I were told "Youth group isn't doing anything, kill it," I'd struggle!
But if this is correct, then there's no point in having a program unless it is fulfilling a purpose!
An interesting concept he has here is "bridge events". Our carols would fit this description - community wide events that make the unchurched in the community aware of the existence of the church. These are for the Community.
For the crowd, he has Seeker services.
For the Congregation, it's small groups.
For the Committed he has the Life Development Institute, which is an intensive Bible study program.
For Core is the SALT meeting.
NO SINGLE PROGRAM, no matter how great it is or how well it has worked in the past, can adequately fulfil all the purposes of the church.
12 January 2012
Long Chapter . . . .
Chapter 8 is long. I need some more time to process this (it appears to be really at the heart of the entire book). I could do a dodgy version now, but I won't; I'll do a better job tomorrow. Today I had Grace's birthday, and I'm flat exhausted. Good night! :)
11 January 2012
10 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch7 - Organizing Around Your Purposes
This chapter is seriously going to give me the irrits.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that the word "organizing", along with many other words ending in "izing" or "ize" is something that just doesn't look right to me. I grew up thinking that Australians use "ise" and Americans use "ize". However, I know now that there's serious debate all over the world about which is correct and why. The result of this, therefore, is that these wretched words look wrong no matter HOW they are spelt. Grrrr.
More seriously, though, I am not an organiser[1]. I don't like being organised. I prefer to just let stuff happened. Now, don't try to explain the benefits to me. I understand them, and even submit to organising when I have to. I just don't like it. And I don't think I ever will.
So this chapter is going to be a difficult one for me. Well, it won't get easier if I don't start, so let's go.
The starting point is personally interesting to me because George Whitefield is an ancestor of mine. Warren compares Whitefield and Wesley, noting that Wesley was an organiser as well as a preacher, and noting that his influence has gone on for longer than Whitefield.
Structures must exist if a church is to complete its mission.
Warren notes that there are five kinds of churches, which tend to reflect the gifts of their leaders:
1) Soul winning churches - the leader focuses on evangelism. Such churches are always reaching out to the lost.
2) Experiencing God churches - the leader focuses on worship. Such churches tend to be built around their worship service.
3) Family Reunion churches - the leader focuses on fellowship. These churches are typically small, but almost indestructible. (Sanctuary is easily seen as one of these. . . )
4) Classroom churches - the leader focuses on teaching. Most of the emphasis is on Biblical truth.
5) Social Conscience churches - the leader focuses on ministry. The church organises around injustice and/or moral decline.
The point of recognising all of this is to note that a church needs to be doing ALL FIVE of these things to be a truly effective church. There needs to be a balance.
Similarly parachurch organisations tend to reflect individual purposes. I'm not going to go into as much detail here, because Warren refers to the American context; still, the key movements seen are the Lay Renewal movement (Ministry), the Discipleship movement (Discipleship), the Worship/Renewal movement (Worship), the Church Growth movement (Evangelism) and the Small Groups movement (Fellowship). All of these are useful and have played a role in giving the church a wake-up call.
Church leaders tend to see that the area in which they feel the most gifted is "The KEY" to church growth. The truth is that each of these areas are important, but there is no one key. A balanced church will be a healthy church. This is the image projected by Paul's "body" analogy in 1 Cor 12 - like a body needs ALL its parts working, so too a church needs to be meeting all of the purposes God set out to be healthy.
The key is recognising that people are at different levels of commitment - all of us are unique - and the purposes correspond to where we are in that process. Warren uses a diagram (reproduced roughly here) of five concentric circles. As we mature as Christians, we move from the rim through to the hub.
The community is the starting point. It's the pool of lost people living in the church's area. The focus for these people is on EVANGELISM.
The next circle, the crowd, is the people who show up on Sunday. They are regular attenders and may be Christians or non-Christians (most likely Christians in the Australian context). The focus is on WORSHIP.
The next circle are the congregation, baptised church members. The focus is on FELLOWSHIP.
The next circle in is the committed circle, maturing members. Their focus is DISCIPLESHIP.
Finally we have the core group, whose focus is MINISTRY.
[1] I'm using ise. I hope you don't mind. If you do mind, deal with it. :)
09 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch6 - Communicating Your Purpose
So I start this week a little discouraged - reading this book over the last week has told me that putting its lessons into practice will be much more difficult than I have imagined.
But we press on. Time for chapter 6.
Blow me down if Warren doesn't START the chapter addressing just the feelings I am experiencing!
He brings in the Nehemiah principle - that every 26 days a church needs its vision recast.
Now, this is interesting, because I can think of many times when we have created a vision or mission statement. There's been excitement at first; but eventually the excitement has tailed off, and we've ended up just where we were before. So this is definitely a point we need to understand and apply carefully.
This is a short chapter, but it's also important. I wonder if this is the area where churches, schools, businesses and all sorts of other organisations collapse. Certainly, I can see this principle as being something I will need to apply in various aspects of my life this year!
So how do we communicate purpose?
We could just restate it every month. However, if we simply do that, we end up immunizing people against it. For an example of this, remember the last election? How quickly "Moving forward" and "Stop the boats" turned from being serious slogans to targets of ridicule. This wasn't because either of them were bad statements[1]. It was because of the way they were parroted again and again and again by the two leaders, without any attempt to apply or show understanding of them. This is clearly something we wish to avoid!
Warren gives five suggested ways to communicate the purpose. It should be noted that these aren't (nor are they intended to be) exhaustive, but they are a good collection.
1) Scripture.
If you can't communicate your purpose through scripture, it probably shouldn't be your purpose, so this one is fairly logical. Warren says that you should repeatedly show how every part of your church's mission is found in scripture; preach it frequently and passionately. Personally I can remember the "Care, Reach, Worship, Teach" slogan and its scriptures from nearly 20 years ago, so I can attest to its effectiveness. It should also be noted that this is a broad area - Scripture can be used to communicate the mission in lots of ways, such as memorisation, meditation on the Bible, sermons, Bible Studies and more.
2) Symbols.
A teacher understands this one implicitly. Some people are verbal, while others are visual; and visual people will grasp the concept more clearly through images. Hence the use of symbols. This has been done successfully in many places; corporate logos are pervasive, and such political symbols as the Hammer and Sickle (as Rick points out) have affected the very world. So a symbol is a great way to communicate your purpose. It can also be useful in other ways to communicate complicated ideas.
3) Slogans.
I have just slammed political slogans, but that doesn't mean that no slogans are any good. As I previously mentioned, "Care, Reach, Worship, Teach" was effective for many years. A good and carefully thought out slogan can be a way to ensure that the purpose is pervasive. As a little demonstration of this, think about the following slogans - who are they associated with?
"Such is life"[2]; "Well may we say 'God say the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor General!"[3]; "Go for Growth!"[4] Similarly, it is useful to have a particular slogan associated with the church, especially if it is one that encourages action.
4) Stories.
Stories are an oft neglected medium for communication, but let's not forget that they are the traditional way of transferring information from generation to generation! The stories of the Bible are well known to all of us Christians. Rick Warren lists some stories that have become popular in his church. Similarly we should all be able to tell a story or two of how we've involved ourselves in the church's mission and purpose during the week. If not, we're kidding ourselves if we think we're involved.
5) Specifics.
A church needs to have a specific, clear and coordinated plan for achieving its purposes. All its activities must be in line with that purpose. "The more specific your purpose is, the more it will grab attention and attract commitment."
For a purpose to be fully communicated, it needs to be PERSONALISED - that is, it should be a part of everyone's thinking about the church, membership AND leadership.
Warren splits the personal aspect of the church's purpose into two parts - the responsibilities and privileges of being a believer. The responsibilities are to be a member of God's family, to be a model of God's character, to be a minister of God's grace, to be a messenger of God's love and a magnifier of God's name. The privileges of being a believer are found ONLY in the church - worship helps people focus on God, fellowship helps them to face life's problems, discipleship helps them fortify their faith, ministry helps them find their talents and evangelism helps them fulfil their mission.
As can already be seen from ths chapter, the purpose needs to be stated over and over (in different ways). Whilst it must be communicated in different ways, the message itself must never vary (unless for whatever reason you believe it to be necessary to reset your purpose). The ultimate goal is for every member of the church to not only be able to STATE the purpose (we've been able to do that previously), but also to EXPLAIN that purpose.
[1] In my opinion, both were ABYSMAL statements. The first was a hopeless generalization, the second was capitalising on the general ignorance of the Australian populace. But that wasn't the MAIN reason for either statement's failure . . .
[2] Ned Kelly.
[3] Gough Whitlam.
[4] John Howard.
But we press on. Time for chapter 6.
Blow me down if Warren doesn't START the chapter addressing just the feelings I am experiencing!
He brings in the Nehemiah principle - that every 26 days a church needs its vision recast.
Now, this is interesting, because I can think of many times when we have created a vision or mission statement. There's been excitement at first; but eventually the excitement has tailed off, and we've ended up just where we were before. So this is definitely a point we need to understand and apply carefully.
This is a short chapter, but it's also important. I wonder if this is the area where churches, schools, businesses and all sorts of other organisations collapse. Certainly, I can see this principle as being something I will need to apply in various aspects of my life this year!
So how do we communicate purpose?
We could just restate it every month. However, if we simply do that, we end up immunizing people against it. For an example of this, remember the last election? How quickly "Moving forward" and "Stop the boats" turned from being serious slogans to targets of ridicule. This wasn't because either of them were bad statements[1]. It was because of the way they were parroted again and again and again by the two leaders, without any attempt to apply or show understanding of them. This is clearly something we wish to avoid!
Warren gives five suggested ways to communicate the purpose. It should be noted that these aren't (nor are they intended to be) exhaustive, but they are a good collection.
1) Scripture.
If you can't communicate your purpose through scripture, it probably shouldn't be your purpose, so this one is fairly logical. Warren says that you should repeatedly show how every part of your church's mission is found in scripture; preach it frequently and passionately. Personally I can remember the "Care, Reach, Worship, Teach" slogan and its scriptures from nearly 20 years ago, so I can attest to its effectiveness. It should also be noted that this is a broad area - Scripture can be used to communicate the mission in lots of ways, such as memorisation, meditation on the Bible, sermons, Bible Studies and more.
2) Symbols.
A teacher understands this one implicitly. Some people are verbal, while others are visual; and visual people will grasp the concept more clearly through images. Hence the use of symbols. This has been done successfully in many places; corporate logos are pervasive, and such political symbols as the Hammer and Sickle (as Rick points out) have affected the very world. So a symbol is a great way to communicate your purpose. It can also be useful in other ways to communicate complicated ideas.
3) Slogans.
I have just slammed political slogans, but that doesn't mean that no slogans are any good. As I previously mentioned, "Care, Reach, Worship, Teach" was effective for many years. A good and carefully thought out slogan can be a way to ensure that the purpose is pervasive. As a little demonstration of this, think about the following slogans - who are they associated with?
"Such is life"[2]; "Well may we say 'God say the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor General!"[3]; "Go for Growth!"[4] Similarly, it is useful to have a particular slogan associated with the church, especially if it is one that encourages action.
4) Stories.
Stories are an oft neglected medium for communication, but let's not forget that they are the traditional way of transferring information from generation to generation! The stories of the Bible are well known to all of us Christians. Rick Warren lists some stories that have become popular in his church. Similarly we should all be able to tell a story or two of how we've involved ourselves in the church's mission and purpose during the week. If not, we're kidding ourselves if we think we're involved.
5) Specifics.
A church needs to have a specific, clear and coordinated plan for achieving its purposes. All its activities must be in line with that purpose. "The more specific your purpose is, the more it will grab attention and attract commitment."
For a purpose to be fully communicated, it needs to be PERSONALISED - that is, it should be a part of everyone's thinking about the church, membership AND leadership.
Warren splits the personal aspect of the church's purpose into two parts - the responsibilities and privileges of being a believer. The responsibilities are to be a member of God's family, to be a model of God's character, to be a minister of God's grace, to be a messenger of God's love and a magnifier of God's name. The privileges of being a believer are found ONLY in the church - worship helps people focus on God, fellowship helps them to face life's problems, discipleship helps them fortify their faith, ministry helps them find their talents and evangelism helps them fulfil their mission.
As can already be seen from ths chapter, the purpose needs to be stated over and over (in different ways). Whilst it must be communicated in different ways, the message itself must never vary (unless for whatever reason you believe it to be necessary to reset your purpose). The ultimate goal is for every member of the church to not only be able to STATE the purpose (we've been able to do that previously), but also to EXPLAIN that purpose.
[1] In my opinion, both were ABYSMAL statements. The first was a hopeless generalization, the second was capitalising on the general ignorance of the Australian populace. But that wasn't the MAIN reason for either statement's failure . . .
[2] Ned Kelly.
[3] Gough Whitlam.
[4] John Howard.
06 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch5 - Defining Your Purposes
Okay, so we need to be clear on the purpose. That's fine. But how do we go about that?
Rick Warren says not to rush it. The first step is to STUDY WHAT IT SAYS IN SCRIPTURE. In Saddleback, the process took six months. Warren suggests that we look through a bunch of scriptures on the topic of the Church; he has a long list on pp96 - 97. This would be a really good starting point to get the church excited about its purpose again - to give people the task of reading through these passages and seeing what God says to us!
A few pointers:
- Look at Christ's ministry on Earth (i.e. what did Jesus do while He was here, and what can we emulate?).
- Look at the images and names of the Church (e.g. the bride, a body, an army . . .).
- Look at the example of New Testament Churches (What happened in Jerusalem, Samaria, Antioch?).
The next step is to LOOK FOR ANSWERS TO THE FOUR KEY QUESTIONS. These are:
- Why does the Church exist?
- Who are we to be as a church?
- What are we to do as a church?
- How are we to do it?
Then we need to PUT YOUR FINDINGS IN WRITING. At this stage we aren't trying to be concise; we're not making the statement (that's the next step). This is just collecting information.
Finally, we SUMMARISE THE FINDINGS IN A SENTENCE. Remember it will have limited value if people can't remember it, so a 1-sentence statement is best. This will necessarily involve condensing the findings down to paragraphs, then those paragraphs down to sentences, then all of those into ONE sentence.
An effective church purpose statement must be:
* Biblical - it must express the NT doctrine of the church. We didn't invent this, we discovered it.
* Specific - A narrow mission is a clear mission. Don't cram too much into it.
* Transferrable - short enough to be remembered and passed on by everyone in the church.
* Measurable - You need to be able to evaluate whether the church is doing it or not.
Saddleback worked their purpose back to two statements by Jesus - the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission. "A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a Great Church!"
Ultimately a purpose-driven church has to be committed to fulfilling all five tasks of the church:
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart - worship.
2) Love your neighbour as yourself - ministry
3) Go and make disciples - evangelism
4) Baptising them - fellowship
5) Teaching them to obey - discipleship.
An ideal purpose statement should include all of these in some way, but also:
- be stated in terms of results; e.g. "We communicate God's word through evangelism."
- encourage participation by every member
- be in a sequential process.
This is great. All of it is great. But it's also a bit daunting in its scope. This is going to take time to work through.
Rick Warren says not to rush it. The first step is to STUDY WHAT IT SAYS IN SCRIPTURE. In Saddleback, the process took six months. Warren suggests that we look through a bunch of scriptures on the topic of the Church; he has a long list on pp96 - 97. This would be a really good starting point to get the church excited about its purpose again - to give people the task of reading through these passages and seeing what God says to us!
A few pointers:
- Look at Christ's ministry on Earth (i.e. what did Jesus do while He was here, and what can we emulate?).
- Look at the images and names of the Church (e.g. the bride, a body, an army . . .).
- Look at the example of New Testament Churches (What happened in Jerusalem, Samaria, Antioch?).
The next step is to LOOK FOR ANSWERS TO THE FOUR KEY QUESTIONS. These are:
- Why does the Church exist?
- Who are we to be as a church?
- What are we to do as a church?
- How are we to do it?
Then we need to PUT YOUR FINDINGS IN WRITING. At this stage we aren't trying to be concise; we're not making the statement (that's the next step). This is just collecting information.
Finally, we SUMMARISE THE FINDINGS IN A SENTENCE. Remember it will have limited value if people can't remember it, so a 1-sentence statement is best. This will necessarily involve condensing the findings down to paragraphs, then those paragraphs down to sentences, then all of those into ONE sentence.
An effective church purpose statement must be:
* Biblical - it must express the NT doctrine of the church. We didn't invent this, we discovered it.
* Specific - A narrow mission is a clear mission. Don't cram too much into it.
* Transferrable - short enough to be remembered and passed on by everyone in the church.
* Measurable - You need to be able to evaluate whether the church is doing it or not.
Saddleback worked their purpose back to two statements by Jesus - the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission. "A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a Great Church!"
Ultimately a purpose-driven church has to be committed to fulfilling all five tasks of the church:
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart - worship.
2) Love your neighbour as yourself - ministry
3) Go and make disciples - evangelism
4) Baptising them - fellowship
5) Teaching them to obey - discipleship.
An ideal purpose statement should include all of these in some way, but also:
- be stated in terms of results; e.g. "We communicate God's word through evangelism."
- encourage participation by every member
- be in a sequential process.
This is great. All of it is great. But it's also a bit daunting in its scope. This is going to take time to work through.
05 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch4 - The Foundation of a Healthy Church
There is a temptation in my mind to be very pious, and repeat the oft-sung lines from an old hymn, "the Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord!" I'm going to refrain from this, however, it being entirely self-evident that this will not come as any surprise to Rick Warren. He has absolutely no pretensions otherwise, and it's easy to see that his view of a church is entirely based on a relationship with Christ, and if I were to make that kind of a comment I'd be doing nothing more valuable than being smart. So let's get on with the chapter!
In a personal anecdote Warren discusses the importance of a foundation in a building. In this he doesn't have to convince me at all, because I grew up in a home in which the foundations had not been correctly laid. I can remember vividly one rainy night in which my father had to divert the streams of runoff water away from a couple of piers, and several months of mucking around with rolled steel joists were necessary to rectify the problem. So I understand (as few do) how important it is to have a good foundation on a building.
The size and strength of a building are entirely dependent on the foundation. And Warren holds that the way to build a church's foundation is to spend some time "clarifying in the minds of everyone involved exactly why the church exists and what it is supposed to do."
I can remember a few times in the history of Sanctuary (and BHCF before that) when we all knew its purpose statement off by heart, and I can attest to at least some of the benefit this offers. Warren quantifies this by pointing to five specific benefits of a clear purpose:
1) It builds morale.
1 Cor 1:10 shows a link between purpose and harmony. Warren suggests that a clear purpose is really good for ensuring people work in harmony. This actually links really nicely with a story told by Max Lucado, when he and his family were on a fishing trip. The weather was unsuitable for fishing, and after a while the family began to squabble. From this experience Lucado gleans the neat little gem: "When those who are called to fish don't fish, they fight. But when those who are called to fish fish, they flourish!" And if people are to "fish", they need to be certain about what they are doing. "A church without a purpose and a mission eventually becomes a museum piece of yesterday's traditions."
2) It reduces frustration.
A clear purpose both helps you to know what you do and what you don't do. "The secret of effectiveness is to know what really counts, then to do what really counts, then forget the rest." Wow! What a great call! It fits with an americanism I like - "Don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff!" In yesterday's chapter, we began with a nightmare church meeting, in which everyone has their own idea about what the church should do. A clear purpose would really sort that meeting out - every idea is simply compared against the purpose. If it fits, we do it, and if it doesn't we don't! Decision making is easier.
3) It allows concentration.
A science example here - laser light is actually no different to regular light. It's the same photons, the same wave/particle duality. Same everything. But whereas a 10-Watt light bulb is barely enough to read a book, a 10-Watt laser could burn clean through a book! The difference is concentration - in the light bulb, we have light of all wavelengths travelling in all directions; but in the laser, it's light of a single frequency, all travelling the same way! Similarly, a small church can have an impact beyond its size when it's concentrated. Sanctuary has experienced this many times - when we've run Carols, for example. What if we were to clarify our purpose to the point where everything we did was done with concentration and focus? Warren says most churches do too much, and it's certainly true of Sanctuary. A good phrase which we all say is "Do a few things well". Programs are not intended to last forever, and churches should periodically clean house.
4) It attracts cooperation.
People WANT to join a church that knows where it's going. If a church has a clear understanding of what it's about, this allows people who also believe this purpose to be important to join, knowing exactly what will happen. Equally, it allows you to ensure that negative people don't impact what you're doing; whiners cannot set the agenda. It is important to ensure people know what the purpose of the church is BEFORE they join.
5) It assists evaluation.
If your purpose is clear it becomes much easier (or perhaps even simply becomes POSSIBLE!) to determine how the church is going. One encouraging remark for Sanctuary: A bigger church is not a better church. A church can be big and strong, or it can be big and flabby. A church can be small and strong, or it can be small and wimpy. Bigger is not better. BETTER is better.
Okay, so if we want to be a purpose-driven church, there are four steps to the transition:
* Define your purpose.
* Communicate your purpose.
* Organise your church around your purpose.
* Apply your purpose to everything the church does.
One thing - we're talking about a process that may take months or even years. Don't be discouraged!
In a personal anecdote Warren discusses the importance of a foundation in a building. In this he doesn't have to convince me at all, because I grew up in a home in which the foundations had not been correctly laid. I can remember vividly one rainy night in which my father had to divert the streams of runoff water away from a couple of piers, and several months of mucking around with rolled steel joists were necessary to rectify the problem. So I understand (as few do) how important it is to have a good foundation on a building.
The size and strength of a building are entirely dependent on the foundation. And Warren holds that the way to build a church's foundation is to spend some time "clarifying in the minds of everyone involved exactly why the church exists and what it is supposed to do."
I can remember a few times in the history of Sanctuary (and BHCF before that) when we all knew its purpose statement off by heart, and I can attest to at least some of the benefit this offers. Warren quantifies this by pointing to five specific benefits of a clear purpose:
1) It builds morale.
1 Cor 1:10 shows a link between purpose and harmony. Warren suggests that a clear purpose is really good for ensuring people work in harmony. This actually links really nicely with a story told by Max Lucado, when he and his family were on a fishing trip. The weather was unsuitable for fishing, and after a while the family began to squabble. From this experience Lucado gleans the neat little gem: "When those who are called to fish don't fish, they fight. But when those who are called to fish fish, they flourish!" And if people are to "fish", they need to be certain about what they are doing. "A church without a purpose and a mission eventually becomes a museum piece of yesterday's traditions."
2) It reduces frustration.
A clear purpose both helps you to know what you do and what you don't do. "The secret of effectiveness is to know what really counts, then to do what really counts, then forget the rest." Wow! What a great call! It fits with an americanism I like - "Don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff!" In yesterday's chapter, we began with a nightmare church meeting, in which everyone has their own idea about what the church should do. A clear purpose would really sort that meeting out - every idea is simply compared against the purpose. If it fits, we do it, and if it doesn't we don't! Decision making is easier.
3) It allows concentration.
A science example here - laser light is actually no different to regular light. It's the same photons, the same wave/particle duality. Same everything. But whereas a 10-Watt light bulb is barely enough to read a book, a 10-Watt laser could burn clean through a book! The difference is concentration - in the light bulb, we have light of all wavelengths travelling in all directions; but in the laser, it's light of a single frequency, all travelling the same way! Similarly, a small church can have an impact beyond its size when it's concentrated. Sanctuary has experienced this many times - when we've run Carols, for example. What if we were to clarify our purpose to the point where everything we did was done with concentration and focus? Warren says most churches do too much, and it's certainly true of Sanctuary. A good phrase which we all say is "Do a few things well". Programs are not intended to last forever, and churches should periodically clean house.
4) It attracts cooperation.
People WANT to join a church that knows where it's going. If a church has a clear understanding of what it's about, this allows people who also believe this purpose to be important to join, knowing exactly what will happen. Equally, it allows you to ensure that negative people don't impact what you're doing; whiners cannot set the agenda. It is important to ensure people know what the purpose of the church is BEFORE they join.
5) It assists evaluation.
If your purpose is clear it becomes much easier (or perhaps even simply becomes POSSIBLE!) to determine how the church is going. One encouraging remark for Sanctuary: A bigger church is not a better church. A church can be big and strong, or it can be big and flabby. A church can be small and strong, or it can be small and wimpy. Bigger is not better. BETTER is better.
Okay, so if we want to be a purpose-driven church, there are four steps to the transition:
* Define your purpose.
* Communicate your purpose.
* Organise your church around your purpose.
* Apply your purpose to everything the church does.
One thing - we're talking about a process that may take months or even years. Don't be discouraged!
04 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch3 - What Drives your Church?
The church that Warren describes at the beginning of this chapter is all too believable. Whilst I don't think it's necessarily descriptive of our church all the time, it's certainly how we have been at times. Conflicting interests, with different ideas of how things should go - and only limited resources, so you simply can't follow through with every idea that gets presented, no matter how worthy it may be.
This is a fairly short chapter, so what we'll do is go through the different drives that Warren sees in various churches.
* Tradition: "We've always done it this way." Change is a negative, and the church seeks stability.
* Personality: "What does the leader want?" The church tends to follow the agenda of a particular person rather than necessarily what God wants, and if that person leaves or dies it may come to a screeching halt.
* Finances: "How much will it cost?" Most heated debate is over the budget. Needs to be reminded that the church doesn't exist to turn a profit.
* Programs: All the church's energy is put into sustaining programs, and there is a temptation to shift from developing people to just filling positions.
* Buildings (This one isn't us, anyway!): A congregation is so anxious to have a nice building that they spend more than they can afford, and resources have to go into paying for/maintaining the building. Tail wagging the dog.
* Events: As soon as one big event is completed, work begins on the next one. Lots of activity, but not necessarily productivity. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE BEHIND OUR EVENTS?
* Seekers: "What do the unchurched want?" Needs of unbelievers are paramount. This is tricky because God's purposes include evangelism - but not to the exclusion of all else! A church should be seeker sensitive rather than seeker driven.
(If pushed to describe where Sanctuary would fall here, I'd say somewhere between program driven and event driven. However, there is some awareness of a need for an overarching purpose).
Warren then goes on to describe what he sees as the Biblical paradigm - Purpose-driven churches (not surprisingly, given that that's the title of his book!).
He says that strong churches are built on purpose. This requires two things:
1) A new perspective. Everything the church does should be looked at through the lens of the five New Testament purposes for churches, which should be in balance with each other.
2) A new process. A process is needed for fulfilling each of these purposes.
The starting point for every church should be the question "Why do we exist?" This is the foundation for your ministry.
Warren adds a paragraph that is relevant to us, and I shall reproduce it verbatim: "If you serve in an existing church that has plateaued, is declining or is simply discouraged, your most important task is to redefine your purpose. Forget everything else until you have established it in the minds of your members. Recapture a clear vision of what God wants you to do in and through your church family. Absolutely nothing will revitalize a discouraged church faster than rediscovering its purpose."
I have a good idea of the purpose for our church. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's a vague idea, and one which I am not sure represents what we're doing. So maybe we need to spend some time on that very issue - deciding does the old statement of purpose still represent us? If not, then what should change; should we realign to that old purpose, or should we construct a new one?
This is a fairly short chapter, so what we'll do is go through the different drives that Warren sees in various churches.
* Tradition: "We've always done it this way." Change is a negative, and the church seeks stability.
* Personality: "What does the leader want?" The church tends to follow the agenda of a particular person rather than necessarily what God wants, and if that person leaves or dies it may come to a screeching halt.
* Finances: "How much will it cost?" Most heated debate is over the budget. Needs to be reminded that the church doesn't exist to turn a profit.
* Programs: All the church's energy is put into sustaining programs, and there is a temptation to shift from developing people to just filling positions.
* Buildings (This one isn't us, anyway!): A congregation is so anxious to have a nice building that they spend more than they can afford, and resources have to go into paying for/maintaining the building. Tail wagging the dog.
* Events: As soon as one big event is completed, work begins on the next one. Lots of activity, but not necessarily productivity. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE BEHIND OUR EVENTS?
* Seekers: "What do the unchurched want?" Needs of unbelievers are paramount. This is tricky because God's purposes include evangelism - but not to the exclusion of all else! A church should be seeker sensitive rather than seeker driven.
(If pushed to describe where Sanctuary would fall here, I'd say somewhere between program driven and event driven. However, there is some awareness of a need for an overarching purpose).
Warren then goes on to describe what he sees as the Biblical paradigm - Purpose-driven churches (not surprisingly, given that that's the title of his book!).
He says that strong churches are built on purpose. This requires two things:
1) A new perspective. Everything the church does should be looked at through the lens of the five New Testament purposes for churches, which should be in balance with each other.
2) A new process. A process is needed for fulfilling each of these purposes.
The starting point for every church should be the question "Why do we exist?" This is the foundation for your ministry.
Warren adds a paragraph that is relevant to us, and I shall reproduce it verbatim: "If you serve in an existing church that has plateaued, is declining or is simply discouraged, your most important task is to redefine your purpose. Forget everything else until you have established it in the minds of your members. Recapture a clear vision of what God wants you to do in and through your church family. Absolutely nothing will revitalize a discouraged church faster than rediscovering its purpose."
I have a good idea of the purpose for our church. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's a vague idea, and one which I am not sure represents what we're doing. So maybe we need to spend some time on that very issue - deciding does the old statement of purpose still represent us? If not, then what should change; should we realign to that old purpose, or should we construct a new one?
03 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch2 - Myths about growing churches
As I read this chapter, I have a feeling it's going to hurt. I have been a leader in a church that has struggled to grow for years[1], and although I haven't read it yet, I'll bet some of these myths are things I have thought myself. Oh well, let's get into it.
I think what I'll do here is to list and briefly describe the myths. I'll comment on them and see if they describe something I believe. After that, I'll put in a few notes incidental to the chapter as with yesterday.
Before we start, though: a harsh reality that Warren describes is that the myths about "megachurches" (a term he dislikes) are circulated "Sometimes out of envy, sometimes out of fear and sometimes out of ignorance". Guilty as charged, your honour, on all three counts. I'm afraid that my feelings towards "megachurches" (including one down the road whose name you may know if you live in Sydney!) are often motivated by all three of these. I tend to be the sort of person who is an instant expert on just about anything, despite not necessarily knowing anything definite (ignorance); I am often afraid that one day God will say "Why didn't you do X, Y or Z? The church down the road did it, and it worked wonders!" (fear), and I so wish my church would grow (envy - note the positioning of the word "my" in a sentence about a church that in fact belongs not to me but to God!).
Myth 1: The only thing that large churches care about is Attendance.
Ouch. Right off the bat, something I have believed. Warren explodes this immediately - a church WON'T grow large if that's all they care about. Growth is multidimensional, and if you preach the Good News, if your people are excited about what God is doing in their lives, if you are providing a service where people can bring unsaved friends without embarassment and if you have a plan to build, train and send out those won to Christ[2], then "attendance will be the least of your problems". Warren further quotes Acts 2:42-47 to back up his concept that a church must grow "Warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry and larger through evangelism."
Myth 2: Large churches grow at the expense of smaller churches.
This is one I have believed in the past, but it's pretty much by the wayside now. Some misguided members may THINK this is how it works, but no large church mainly seeks to "sheep steal" (it's a limited possibility anyway!). Warren says 80% of his congregation found Christ at Saddleback!
Myth 3: You must choose between quality and quantity at your church.
I have always believed this one, though I dressed it up in different words - anyone remember my "special forces vs regular divisions" analogy? But quality and quantity are not in opposition to each other. The trick is to define what we mean. When fishing, we want both quantity (number of fish) AND quality (size of fish!). In the same way every church should desire both to reach people for Christ AND to bring them to maturity in Him. When God finds a church that is doing a quality job of winning, nurturing, equipping and sending out believers, he sends that church plenty of raw material! Scary question: If most of our members never invite people to come to church, what are they saying about what we offer? Bottom line: as long as there are lost people in the world we MUST care about quantity.
Myth 4: You must compromise the message and the mission of the church in order to grow.
This one hasn't been a big idea of mine. In fact, I tend to think rather the reverse - it's the churches that have compromised their message (especially in liberal directions) that have had the biggest difficulty growing, at least in the Australian context. At any rate, we DO often assume big churches have compromised. But this often comes from jealousy. Now, what is expected of believers is (and should be!) different from what is expected of those who just come along; at Saddleback they distinguish the two by the terms "the crowd" and "the congregation". However, people are (and should be!) challenged deeply when they want to JOIN the church. Challenging people attracts rather than repels people. We should, however, be genuine and contemporary.
Myth 5: If you are dedicated enough, your church will grow.
I WANT to believe this. Oh, how I want it to be true. But my experience blows this one out the window. Dedication DOESN'T make a church grow. It takes more than dedication - it takes SKILL. This is an area of major weakness in our church - we frequently fail to provide opportunities for people to "sharpen the axe". Prayer is essential, but it doesn't do the job alone. Two extreme positions: Practical humanism (We're entirely responsible for the growth of the church) and Pious irresponsibility (God will grow the church no matter what we do). Both are fatal. The first idea is that organisation, management and marketing will grow the church (they won't). The second is that prayer will grow the church (it won't). We cannot do it without God, but God has chosen not to do it without us.
Myth 6: There is one secret key to church growth.
I have never believed this, but it sells a lot of books! In any case, Warren identifies "Ricks rules for growth":
1) There is more than one way to grow a church.
2) It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.
3) Never criticize what God is blessing[3].
All these bust that myth wide open.
Myth 7: All God expects of us is faithfulness.
This one is something built deep into me; it's almost a credo of the Brethren. But now that I think about it, Warren is right - it's not true. God expects faithfulness AND fruitfulness. Warren says that in the light of the great commission, any definition of fruitfulness MUST include numerical growth. In the parable of the Talents, the servant who failed to produce a return on the money isn't described as faithful, but "Wicked and lazy". Often people who describe themselves as faithful are only being orthodox!
Myth 8: You can't learn from the big churches.
I have never really considered this one; I guess that means I implicitly believed it. However, whilst slavishly copying a big church won't help (every church's story is unique), there are ideas that are transferrable; and we should be learning those lessons!
You CAN'T transfer context, staff and individual people.
You CAN transfer principles, processes and methods.
Primary issues of church growth: "Who is our master, what is our message, and what is our motive?"
Secondary issues of church growth: "Who is our market, what are our models, what are our methods?"
Whew, that was a big chapter. And fairly chastening. The good news is that now we're done dealing with myths, we're onto BECOMING A PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH.
Notes:
* The church described in Acts 2:42-47 was described as having conversions DAILY. That's a minimum of 365 new Christians a year. Imagine if that was the standard a church had to meet to call itself a New Testament Church!
* Church growth is the natural result of church health.
* Transfer growth is not healthy.
* Quality produces quantity; quantity helps to produce quality!
* Prayer alone does not grow a church. Many great prayer warriors are pastors and members of dying churches.
* Christ doesn't expect us to produce more than we can, but He does expect us to produce ALL that we can.
[1] I heard a term a couple of years back that describes our situation perfectly - "Lateral growth". A church or organisation that is in a period of lateral growth is one that is getting new members just fast enough to offset those who leave. So the group doesn't get smaller, but it gets no bigger either.
[2] This should be familiar to any Student Life/Campus Crusade trained Christians reading!
[3] I'm really not sure if I agree with this idea. God works by grace, and just because He is doing something in a particular group doesn't put their work beyond reproach or analysis.
I think what I'll do here is to list and briefly describe the myths. I'll comment on them and see if they describe something I believe. After that, I'll put in a few notes incidental to the chapter as with yesterday.
Before we start, though: a harsh reality that Warren describes is that the myths about "megachurches" (a term he dislikes) are circulated "Sometimes out of envy, sometimes out of fear and sometimes out of ignorance". Guilty as charged, your honour, on all three counts. I'm afraid that my feelings towards "megachurches" (including one down the road whose name you may know if you live in Sydney!) are often motivated by all three of these. I tend to be the sort of person who is an instant expert on just about anything, despite not necessarily knowing anything definite (ignorance); I am often afraid that one day God will say "Why didn't you do X, Y or Z? The church down the road did it, and it worked wonders!" (fear), and I so wish my church would grow (envy - note the positioning of the word "my" in a sentence about a church that in fact belongs not to me but to God!).
Myth 1: The only thing that large churches care about is Attendance.
Ouch. Right off the bat, something I have believed. Warren explodes this immediately - a church WON'T grow large if that's all they care about. Growth is multidimensional, and if you preach the Good News, if your people are excited about what God is doing in their lives, if you are providing a service where people can bring unsaved friends without embarassment and if you have a plan to build, train and send out those won to Christ[2], then "attendance will be the least of your problems". Warren further quotes Acts 2:42-47 to back up his concept that a church must grow "Warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry and larger through evangelism."
Myth 2: Large churches grow at the expense of smaller churches.
This is one I have believed in the past, but it's pretty much by the wayside now. Some misguided members may THINK this is how it works, but no large church mainly seeks to "sheep steal" (it's a limited possibility anyway!). Warren says 80% of his congregation found Christ at Saddleback!
Myth 3: You must choose between quality and quantity at your church.
I have always believed this one, though I dressed it up in different words - anyone remember my "special forces vs regular divisions" analogy? But quality and quantity are not in opposition to each other. The trick is to define what we mean. When fishing, we want both quantity (number of fish) AND quality (size of fish!). In the same way every church should desire both to reach people for Christ AND to bring them to maturity in Him. When God finds a church that is doing a quality job of winning, nurturing, equipping and sending out believers, he sends that church plenty of raw material! Scary question: If most of our members never invite people to come to church, what are they saying about what we offer? Bottom line: as long as there are lost people in the world we MUST care about quantity.
Myth 4: You must compromise the message and the mission of the church in order to grow.
This one hasn't been a big idea of mine. In fact, I tend to think rather the reverse - it's the churches that have compromised their message (especially in liberal directions) that have had the biggest difficulty growing, at least in the Australian context. At any rate, we DO often assume big churches have compromised. But this often comes from jealousy. Now, what is expected of believers is (and should be!) different from what is expected of those who just come along; at Saddleback they distinguish the two by the terms "the crowd" and "the congregation". However, people are (and should be!) challenged deeply when they want to JOIN the church. Challenging people attracts rather than repels people. We should, however, be genuine and contemporary.
Myth 5: If you are dedicated enough, your church will grow.
I WANT to believe this. Oh, how I want it to be true. But my experience blows this one out the window. Dedication DOESN'T make a church grow. It takes more than dedication - it takes SKILL. This is an area of major weakness in our church - we frequently fail to provide opportunities for people to "sharpen the axe". Prayer is essential, but it doesn't do the job alone. Two extreme positions: Practical humanism (We're entirely responsible for the growth of the church) and Pious irresponsibility (God will grow the church no matter what we do). Both are fatal. The first idea is that organisation, management and marketing will grow the church (they won't). The second is that prayer will grow the church (it won't). We cannot do it without God, but God has chosen not to do it without us.
Myth 6: There is one secret key to church growth.
I have never believed this, but it sells a lot of books! In any case, Warren identifies "Ricks rules for growth":
1) There is more than one way to grow a church.
2) It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.
3) Never criticize what God is blessing[3].
All these bust that myth wide open.
Myth 7: All God expects of us is faithfulness.
This one is something built deep into me; it's almost a credo of the Brethren. But now that I think about it, Warren is right - it's not true. God expects faithfulness AND fruitfulness. Warren says that in the light of the great commission, any definition of fruitfulness MUST include numerical growth. In the parable of the Talents, the servant who failed to produce a return on the money isn't described as faithful, but "Wicked and lazy". Often people who describe themselves as faithful are only being orthodox!
Myth 8: You can't learn from the big churches.
I have never really considered this one; I guess that means I implicitly believed it. However, whilst slavishly copying a big church won't help (every church's story is unique), there are ideas that are transferrable; and we should be learning those lessons!
You CAN'T transfer context, staff and individual people.
You CAN transfer principles, processes and methods.
Primary issues of church growth: "Who is our master, what is our message, and what is our motive?"
Secondary issues of church growth: "Who is our market, what are our models, what are our methods?"
Whew, that was a big chapter. And fairly chastening. The good news is that now we're done dealing with myths, we're onto BECOMING A PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH.
Notes:
* The church described in Acts 2:42-47 was described as having conversions DAILY. That's a minimum of 365 new Christians a year. Imagine if that was the standard a church had to meet to call itself a New Testament Church!
* Church growth is the natural result of church health.
* Transfer growth is not healthy.
* Quality produces quantity; quantity helps to produce quality!
* Prayer alone does not grow a church. Many great prayer warriors are pastors and members of dying churches.
* Christ doesn't expect us to produce more than we can, but He does expect us to produce ALL that we can.
[1] I heard a term a couple of years back that describes our situation perfectly - "Lateral growth". A church or organisation that is in a period of lateral growth is one that is getting new members just fast enough to offset those who leave. So the group doesn't get smaller, but it gets no bigger either.
[2] This should be familiar to any Student Life/Campus Crusade trained Christians reading!
[3] I'm really not sure if I agree with this idea. God works by grace, and just because He is doing something in a particular group doesn't put their work beyond reproach or analysis.
02 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church Ch 1 - The Saddleback Story
The story of Saddleback is remarkable. So remarkable, in fact, that at several points along the way I have had to perform a quick reality check - "No way, did that really happen?"
But the reality is that Saddleback really exists, and as of the most recent figures it's a church of about 20,000 people (which makes it the eighth largest church in the USA!). And let's face it, churches have to start somewhere. Perhaps a remarkable story is what you would expect of such a group.
Here's a potted summary of what happened.
But the reality is that Saddleback really exists, and as of the most recent figures it's a church of about 20,000 people (which makes it the eighth largest church in the USA!). And let's face it, churches have to start somewhere. Perhaps a remarkable story is what you would expect of such a group.
Here's a potted summary of what happened.
- Rick was prayed for by Dr Criswell in a way that seems to indicate forknowledge of the significant force that he was to become - yet the thing that Rick was challenged to do was to become the pastor of a local church!
- He became a reader of Don McGavran, who asked a very cogent series of questions which are worth considering in any church[1].
- He researched - he wrote to a number of large, growing churches and asked them what they were doing (to try to spot the common features).
- He did more research, looking for the place where he should found the church.
- He wrote to the relevant Baptist Churches Director of Missions, asking if he should consider Saddleback. At the same time that very person wrote to him asking if he'd consider founding a church in Saddleback!
- All kinds of "God-incidences" happened to ensure that the Warrens' bills were paid and that the church could start.
- He set up a Bible Study group, and told them of his plan to start a church. They were going to advertise the big start for Easter Sunday, but the leaflets went out a week early, so over 200 people came to their "dress rehearsal"!
It's worth mentioning that Rick describes much of what happened in the lead up to the building of the church at saddleback by comparing it with Indiana Jones' infamous "I'm making it up as we go along!" It's natural to think of it in terms of a big master plan, but that doesn't seem to fit what actually happened.
That's bad in one respect - if it wasn't the plan, the program, the technique, we can't copy it. But it's also good. It's fantastic to know that the big church at Saddleback was trying things and figuring out by trial and error what worked and what didn't - just like we do!
A few important notes, in no particular order:
* God wants His church to grow and His sheep to be found!
* Healthy, large churches are led by pastors who have been there a long time.
* Ecclesiastes 11:4 - "If you wait for the perfect conditions you will never get anything done."
* Rick was excited and audacious. When riding in a taxi, he told the driver he was going to start a church. When told the taxi driver didn't go to church, he said "Great! You can be my first member!"
* Saddleback did not want transfer growth.
* The fastest way to build a bridge with the unchurched is to express interest in them and show that you understand the problems they are facing.
* Saddleback met for fifteen years and grew to 10,000 people without a building of their own!!!!!!!!
[1] The eight questions are:
- How much of what churches do is really biblical?
- How much of what we do is just cultural?
- Why do some churches grow and some die on the vine?
- What causes a growing church to stop growing, plateau and decline?
- Are there common features found in every growing church?
- Are there principles that will work in every culture?
- What are the barriers to growth?
- What are the conventional myths about growing churches that aren't true any more (or never were)?
01 January 2012
Purpose Driven Church - Intro
One thing that gets me interested in this book right from the start is the concept of "Spiritual Waves". Author Rick Warren compares church builders to swimmers - a swimmer does not make the wave, he simply rides it! And similarly, the Church builder won't be able to PRODUCE a wave of God's Spirit, no matter how hard he or she may try. Catchy programs and great techniques are all very well, but in order to be truly effective, church growth has to come from God. A church leader isn't trying to build waves; rather, he or she is an experienced surfer, surfing God's waves and teaching others to do the same.
Before we go any further into the book, let's tease this wave metaphor out a little more deeply.
Before we go any further into the book, let's tease this wave metaphor out a little more deeply.
- Waves happen all the time. There's never a time when waves aren't happening. So too, God never stops working. This is important, because whilst we may miss an individual opportunity - just like a surfer sometimes fails to catch a particularly big wave - we can never get to a point where there ARE no waves, unless we get out of the water!
- Some waves are larger than others. Similarly, there are moments when a church has an opportunity to do something which will make a particularly large impact for God if they are ready in the right time, in the right place, with the right attitude.
- A wave can be ridden in many ways. A person can ride a wave with nothing more than their body (body surfing), or they can use a purpose-designed board. So too, we can approach waves of God's Spirit in many ways. We can work simply or we can use more complicated programs. Either can be appropriate; either way, if we catch God's wave, it will be effective. So whilst a church can (and should!) use whatever programs and resources it has at its disposal, it matters little whether the church has a membership of thousands or a few individuals, and it doesn't matter whether the church meets in the local community hall or has its own building.
- Some methods of surfing are good for a particular kind of wave. In the same way, certain methods will fit a particular wave of God's spirit better than others.
It's rather good as metaphors go - there's a lot of depth there (hur hur)!
Anyway, let's move along.
The problem is not that God isn't moving. In fact, Warren says, "Due to a plethora of problems in our world, more people seem to be open to the Good News of Christ than at any time this century[1]." I believe my own experience confirms Warren's statement here - there is no shortage of people who want to hear the Good News, who NEED to hear it.
The problem is that for whatever reason, we're not CATCHING the waves. I like what Warren says here - "Church leaders need to stop praying 'Lord, please bless what I'm doing,' and instead pray 'Lord, help me to do what you're blessing!'"
Something concerning follows - that a church, being an organism (rather than an organisation!), should naturally grow; and if it's not growing, there is a disease within it. And therefore, the role of the church leader is to discover and treat the diseases that are preventing the "spontaneous expansion of the Church".
One thing Rick Warren writes which I find very encouraging is this: he takes time to recognise the work done by "Bivocational pastors" - people who don't get paid to work in their church, but support themselves by working in some other ways. People who are (say) teachers, salesmen, uni students or lecturers, Aircon fitters, doctors, practise managers, psychologists, full-time parents (Sanctuarians, have I left anyone out? :) ). I love hearing that. It reminds me that somewhere in this world God still has a role for me, for my small but caring church. And most importantly, he comments that there will be wipeouts along the way; but a church leader needs to be PERSISTENT.
That's good, then. We've had our share of wipeouts, but we're still surfing. So we're where we should be.
[1] Noting, of course, that this book was written last century; but the relevance of this statement has changed little.
Announcement
Hello all!
It's been a while since Johno's Commentary has been operational. But it's a new year, so it seemed a good time.
Let's review last year - there were 214 entries to the Blog. Given that there were 365 days in 2011, that means we have an approximate percentage of 58% of days when I wrote something.
Well, that's better than nothing. But this year's resolution is to do better than that.
There will be a change for 2012. For this year, I will be writing blogs Monday to Friday, and resting Saturday and Sunday. Therefore we will have a possible 261 blogs. We'll see how we go!
However, before we get right into the year, I'm planning to do something a little different. For the first 20 days, I'll be reviewing a chapter each day of Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Church". This is something I'm doing as a member of my Church's leadership. My hope is that other church members will also contribute their insights in the comments (and, of course, if you're not a member of Sanctuary Church, you're still welcome to do the same - just read the book, and contribute!). After that, we'll continue in Luke where we left off.
Okay, let's get going!
First up: Chapter 1 of the Purpose Driven Church.
It's been a while since Johno's Commentary has been operational. But it's a new year, so it seemed a good time.
Let's review last year - there were 214 entries to the Blog. Given that there were 365 days in 2011, that means we have an approximate percentage of 58% of days when I wrote something.
Well, that's better than nothing. But this year's resolution is to do better than that.
There will be a change for 2012. For this year, I will be writing blogs Monday to Friday, and resting Saturday and Sunday. Therefore we will have a possible 261 blogs. We'll see how we go!
However, before we get right into the year, I'm planning to do something a little different. For the first 20 days, I'll be reviewing a chapter each day of Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Church". This is something I'm doing as a member of my Church's leadership. My hope is that other church members will also contribute their insights in the comments (and, of course, if you're not a member of Sanctuary Church, you're still welcome to do the same - just read the book, and contribute!). After that, we'll continue in Luke where we left off.
Okay, let's get going!
First up: Chapter 1 of the Purpose Driven Church.
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