Structure and Paradigm Issues. What should the church look like? How should it be organized?

Transcription

1 Intro to Church Planting, Teacher Notes Basic Model: Church Planting Structures and Paradigms Pre-class Preparation: Akins, Pioneer Evangelism, Chaney, Church Planting at the End of the Twentieth Century, Conn, Planting and Growing Urban Churches, , Francis, Church Planting in the African American Context, Hodges, The Indigenous Church, Maulphers, Planting Growing Churches, ; Multihousing 1-28, 58-70, Perry, Models of Multi-family Housing Ministry, 9-56 Ratliff & Cox, Reddin, Planting Churches that Grow, Romo, American Mosaic, , , Schaller, Forty-four Questions for Church Planters, 46-58, Shenk & Stutzman, Creating Communities, , Stetzer, Planting New Churches, 49-63, Tidsworth, Life Cycle of a New Congregation, 51-63, Timmis, Multiplying Churches, Towns, Getting a Church Started, cassette tape #3 & tape #4, side 1 Wagner, Church Planting for a Greater Harvest, Structure and Paradigm Issues. What should the church look like? How should it be organized? Session 9 What model or paradigm should be followed in order for it to succeed? Is there "a" model, or are there many models of church organization? We begin with the understanding that what is presented in these lectures from this point forward will be dealing with the basic model that is most frequently used. Is it best for your situation? I don t

2 know; it depends on your situation. Elmer Towns wrote: Neighborhoods are different (inner city, rural, racially mixed, upper class, etc.), people are different (spiritually mature, uneducated, rebellious, etc.), and the church planter has different strengths (evangelistic, Bible teacher, counselor, musical). Hence, there seem to be different strategies to start a church. Today we are simply looking at the most frequently used model or the basic model. We re going to look at some practical applications of this model and then ask you to apply the biblical, theological, and missiological principles that we ve laid out thus far to a context that will be different from the basic model. The basic model is just that, basic. Your task is to apply it to your context. Take a look at this clip as we think about the basic model in differing contexts. Video: David Lema Churches in Miami As you can see, in the Miami area the opportunity to plant churches is great. And different paradigms require different approaches. This course will not give you all of the information you need to plant a church. When you leave here with this knowledge, you will need to research the model that interests you. It may be planting churches in homes. First, you must do the research. Reading books such as Houses that Changed the World or Dick Scoggins book on house church planting will be interesting and helpful. Prayerfully reflect how you will raise up leaders to fill the offices of pastors and deacons. You may use different semantics, but everyone must understand the role and responsibilities of these leaders. Interesting information is available through There are many resources available to you. If you want to plant a Purpose-Driven church you ll want to read Rick Warren s book The Purpose-Driven Church. Take a look at Dave Page s book or John Wooster s book on purpose-driven church planting. If your heart lies in planting a seeker-focused church you ll want Bill Hybel s book Rediscovering Church and the resources offered by Willow Creek Church. If you want to plant a more traditional programmatic church then get the books like Floyd Tidsworth book The Life-Cycle of a New Congregation or Charles Chaney s book Church Planting at the End of the 20 st Century. The idea is that you should research these resources according to the model you sense God wants you to use in your context. And again, the model will vary according to the context. First, it might be helpful to look at a "basic" model or paradigm for church organization and structure. Then we will go on to models of how this basic structure might be set into place in various contexts. Page 123

3 Leadership Structure. Elder / Pastor led. These are in churches that believe in empowering their leadership. Deacon guided. Where deacons are performing ministry. We understand in the New Testament the word diakonos simply means servant. In this model the deacon/servant is recognized. Empowered Structure. That enables people to live out their spiritual gifts in ministry and service. This biblical ecclesiology is the starting point for a church plant. But then the structure flows from your ecclesiology. You can have biblical ecclesiology but so weigh it down with by-laws and structures that it becomes unmanageable. Mission determines structure or structure will eventually stifle mission. When you are dealing with issues of who is going to be elected to the various boards, instead of asking who may be gifted to serve in various roles, then you ve missed the larger issues. You have started focusing on maintenance rather than ministry. In North American church planting today, that is the natural tendency. It is familiar to us because we ve seen it both in the corporate world and the governmental world. In addition, we re nervous about giving people the freedom to operate in the church according to their spiritual gifts because they might make mistakes. We think we need controls. Certainly, some accountability controls are needed to protect the church, but the key is not to weigh the church down with rules and regulations. Instead, good godly people, seeking the Lord s leadership, growing in their faith, who are communicative and transparent with their people--are the best control. It s about learning to trust people. Some of them will fail, but failure is also a wonderful instructor. Remember that a church is a family and it operates best on the basis of relationships rather Page 124

4 Structure Paradigms. than rules. If you try to address every contingency in your by-laws and rules, you burden the people down with unnecessary legalism. The result is that structure stifles mission. So let s look at... Paradigm: an example; a model; a pattern (Webster s). A good paradigm creates an organizational culture in which people know what is expected of them. They can identify classes, ministries, and activities that are appropriate for them. In the typical dying church in North America today, people come and literally do nothing except occupy a pew for an hour a week. New members are very quickly influenced by others in that paradigm and they become like the culture of the church rather than discovering God s calling and the joy of serving Him. On the other hand, churches that have raised the bar, having higher expectations of the congregation, tend to attract people and build maturity in the process. Wagner wrote in Church Growth: State of the Art, The church establishing backbone The end result is that people flock to these type of churches because they are sickened by spineless Christianity. They are appreciative of the love and integrity that parallels the ministry of Jesus Christ. (pp ) Good paradigms. Are easily understood. Provide clear expectations. Promote organizational culture. Examples. First Baptist of Atlanta Heart and Cross In the middle of this example you see a heart and a cross. Both of which are surrounded by prayer. FBC Atlanta is saying, We want to be a church that is bathed and surrounded in prayer. Surrounding the heart are words beginning with the letter M... Membership is critical. Then as you work your way around the heart you get involved in Maturity, Ministry, and Missions. At each of these points there is a class or a study group that brings people through that process. So someone coming to FBC Atlanta can look at this structural paradigm and understand in a simple, straightforward, organized manner what is expected of Page 125

5 them. It is very linear and many people can relate to it. In some post-modern contexts it may be too linear, but in most areas it works well to see it presented this way. FBC based their model on the... Saddleback Church Baseball Diamond In this model, people are encouraged to work around the bases. Home plate is a beginning point where the people are taught to Magnify God through a life of worship from which flows everything else we do. The next base is Membership where people attend the 101 Membership Class. This required course explains what they can expect from participating in the life of the church and what is expected of them as members of Saddleback. They discuss denominational issues, vision, and church structure, etc. In addition they present an evangelistic time to insure that people coming are indeed true believers. It is very common to have people make commitments to Christ during this class. From there they go to Maturity and attend the 201 Maturity Class. In this class they learn about the quiet time, tithing, small groups, etc. When Rick Warren developed this model he knew that simply because people went through this class they would not necessarily become mature Christians. Rather, the class is the first of multiple venues within which people receive materials they can implement over the years as they move to becoming mature believers. At Saddleback, moving around the bases is greatly encouraged. It is their organizational paradigm. After Maturity comes Ministry. The 301 Ministry Class is about training in spiritual gifts followed up by a placement process that leads to a place of service. The final purpose is that of Mission. This instructs the individual in personal evangelism and missions as they discover a life-calling from the Lord. Saddleback s model is very simple and linear. New Horizons Fellowship Atom They have laid out their structure under six purposes: Worship, Evangelism, Missions, Ministry, Fellowship, and Education. With the atom paradigm, which differs from the heart or the diamond, you don t work your way around it as in the others. New Horizons is more nonlinear. People are encouraged to enter the church at any point in the atom. The desire is that each electron surrounding the atom will be developed in the individual s spiritual life. They encourage people who may not be Christians to get involved in ministry through programs such as Habitat for Humanity. A program like Habitat becomes a ministry and also an evangelistic forum for their church. Lost men will come and swing a hammer and also discover a point of entrance into the church where they can then come to Christ. From there they may move into worship and eventually they become a part of the church as a whole. An educational class dealing with Bible issues in our modern culture may become an entry point. Page 126

6 The model of New Horizons is much less linear than the Saddleback model and yet it still covers each of the purposes. North Point Community Church: Foyer Living Room - Kitchen MCC s three C s and three E s. Millcreek Community Church has three purposes and three methods, derived from Daryl Robinson s book Total Church Life. Purposes: Exalt. Equip. Evangelize. These are the biblical purposes seen in the Millcreek Model. They exalt God, equip believers, and evangelize their world. Again, it is very memorable and understandable. Then the three C s refer to their... Methods: Celebration. Care. Content. They use a celebrative style in worship, care for people in home care groups/cell groups, and offer deep biblical content as they lead their people into maturity. So the model that you select as the organizational basis for your church is critical. And as you seek God and do the research you ll discover that the model should be based on the... Where does this sentence go??? The most common list of purposes come from The Purpose Driven Church. Page 127

7 Purposes of the Church. Worship. Fellowship. Missions. Ministry. Education. Evangelism. These purposes become entry points with the ultimate objective of producing well-rounded, holistic believers. That means the people in these churches are involved in more than simply one aspect of church life such as weekly worship attendance. We said earlier... Mission Determines Structure or structure will eventually stifle mission (in case you missed it the first time). The key element here is that the model or paradigm used be both. biblical and contextual. Using a baseball diamond to plant a church in Southeast Asia makes no sense. Furthermore, using a more linear model may not make sense in an emerging post-modern era. So your model for church planting must be both biblical and contextual in the process. Furthermore It needs to function like the early church -- that is, as a unified body on Page 128

8 mission with God -- while meeting the organizational needs of the context. As a church planter you must take care not to allow the expectations of people in the church or some denominational leaning to determine your structure. Let the Bible and the context determine structure. Take the various models and format them to the needs of your situation. Tailor these diagrams and the wording to reflect the needs as you see them and as God s Word leads you. This discussion of the basic model or paradigm leads to a wider discussion of how this new church may be brought into being. The use of the term "model" is frequent in church planting literature, and many effective models of church planting have been instituted by effective church planters. We re going to look at the... Sponsor Models: Five categories (Sanchez, Watke, and Smith (Starting Reproducing Congregations). But first, watch this clip... Video: Years started churches - examples from several pastors The one thing these pastors have in common is that they re all involved in the planting of new work. Both in large churches and small, these pastors are leading their churches to expand their impact through church planting. So just how do they do it. Sponsor Models: 5 Categories. Parenting Models. Mother Church -Daughter Congregation This is the most frequently used pattern Colonizing. This is when a church sends a core group to another community to plant a new church there. There are advantages in this model in that the group has leaders, a central core, a financial base and a unified doctrine to begin with. Its disadvantages might be too much longing to "clone" the mother church, a "clique" mentality, and too much potential control from the mother church to allow the new church to become contextualized. Page 129

9 Task Force. Much like the colony approach, but with the difference that the "task force" does not intend to stay with the church. This can be effective as long as there is an "exit strategy for the departure of the task force, so that the new church is not suddenly depleted of all resources. James Emory White came up with the idea of S.W.A.T. teams Special Willing And Temporary. They would come to be a part of the church for a short amount of time, helping to start and train leaders to take their places. And then they come back to the mother church. Mother Church-Satellite Congregations. This model provides "extensions" of the mother congregation in various contexts. This model is used extensively in multi-housing congregations where they are actually satellite congregations. Sometimes they may be in the form of a house church connected to and under the authority of a larger church. Its advantages include: The identification with the mother church, The financial support of the mother church, A minimizing of the need for buildings since these can be sponsored anywhere, and the possibility of targeting various socio-economic groups and differing worship tastes. Disadvantages include: Too much dependency on the mother church, and a potential unwillingness of the mother church to let go and allow a new church to take shape. Sponsoring Church - Revitalization. A dying church becomes "daughter" to a stronger church, allowing that church to plan, lead, and finance the rebuilding of a congregation in the area. Page 130

10 This is essentially the equivalent of a new church plant. Generally the members of the dying church must give up complete control over the church and revert to a mission status. There is a reason the church is dying. If the answer is to simply send more people into it they will tend to repeat the unhealthy patterns that got them into the situation. Unhealthy patterns don t go away; there must be a release of control. Sponsoring Church - Reclamation. Much like the above, the difference is that in this case the dying church shuts down, allowing the new "mother" church to start over with the property and assets of the former congregation. In addition, most of the time the former members leave the church and they begin with a completely new core group. This can enable the new church to reach a different population. The ethnic and demographic make-up of the community has changed to such a point that the existing congregation is unable or unwilling to reach them. A mission-minded church will come into the area, shutting down the former church and starting a new one designed to reach the new ethnic population in the area. However, it can be a disadvantage if the community relates the old church too much to the new church, because it usually does requires that the old church shut its doors for a time. These are all parenting models where existing churches develop a plan to reach an area to which they feel called. Another type of model to consider is the... Pioneering Models. This is a new plant where no core exists and a church planter is committed to building a core from the ground up. A leadership team must be developed. A financial base of some kind must be established. These apparent disadvantages may in fact be advantages, for the new plant is just that, and it will be contextual from the beginning. This model has unlimited potential for the self-starting church planter. Basically in this model you build from the God-given image up. These are your people. You Page 131

11 train them. Many of them you will have led to Christ. Consequently they are much more likely to get on board to go in the direction you believe God is calling you to go. Church Starter Developer. This is the "pastor-type" church planter, who intends from the beginning to build the church and remain with it as it grows to maturity and begins to reproduce itself in planting other churches. The church planter comes in to stay. Church Starter Initiator. The "missionary-type" church planter, who intends to plant the church as Paul did in Corinth and turn it over to others to develop, while moving on to plant others. In North America today, there tends to be a higher value placed on the developer over the initiator. He comes in to stay and work with the people long-term. Others see the initiator as someone lacking the skills to take a growing congregation above a certain level. Yet, Paul was the initiator type of church planter. The initiator is a legitimate type of church planter that is necessary as a part in the overall task of church planting. Both the initiator and the developer are critical to the task. Partnering Models. These are models in which churches work together to plant new churches. First there is the Multiple Sponsorship Model. The Frontier Baptist Association in western New York has a model they call It refers to nine churches from across the country they try to enlist to help start a new church. The three refers to three local churches that sponsor the new church plant. And the one refers a mother church through which resources and accountability are funneled as churches plant churches. The Model is a Multiple Sponsorship Model. This model is characterized by... Pooling the resources of existing churches to start new congregations. Page 132

12 Its disadvantages come if the church planter has too many bosses, if the coalition cannot agree on what they want to accomplish, or if the coalition churches do not take real responsibility for the new plant. One church should probably become the sponsoring church -- and it might be better to encourage a mother-daughter relationship from the first. Multi-Congregational Model. This is when various congregations, especially ethnically diverse in nature, share resources in one building to minimize costs while contextualizing the gospel in several directions. One church in California has seven services on the weekends with different ethnic groups. They use different languages and worship styles. The facility is large enough that they have two services going on at the same time. A Hmong worship service may be taking place in one part of the building while a Hispanic worship service is going on in another part of the building. Generally both the facility and the leadership are shared in the church. Disadvantages come if the congregations disagree, compete, or one congregation views itself as "the" church. Adoption Model. When a new congregation seeks affiliation with a particular denomination. There needs to be agreement from the first that the affiliation is not just a means of receiving help, but there is genuine unity in thought and practice for Kingdom expansion. Key Church Model. Proposed by J. Timothy Allen and J.V. Thomas, this model establishes a partnership between a key church and the sponsoring denomination to share in the planting of a daughter congregation. This model places a high expectation upon the key church to sponsor multiple daughter congregations over a period of time, and is designed to enable large churches to grow in missionary focus. This church becomes a church planting hub much like the church at Antioch was in the days of the New Testament. Propagating Models Multiplication through Leadership Training. Page 133

13 Through setting up theological education by extension, this model seeks to propagate multiple new congregations by training local Christians to start new congregations. Pioneered in foreign mission fields, it sees every new Christian as a potential church starter and focuses on expansion through discipleship training. It has proven to be effective in North America in lower socio-economic and ethnic settings. In this model they may set up a local training group designed to train associate ministers to become church planters. They create leaders and then the leaders are sent out to plant new churches. Multiplication through Church Planting Movements. In Church Planting Movements by David Garrison (Office of Overseas Operations, IMB) CPMs are described as "a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment." It is a spontaneous expansion of the church through church planting. This is equivalent to Donald McGavran's "people movement" strategy, and it has become the basic approach of many mission agencies. People Group Models A variety of congregational models, paradigms and approaches are needed if we are to effectively reach the world for Christ. Perhaps the basic reason for this rests in the diversity of God. He made people different from one another -- we need to cooperate with His creativity! Used to denote the planting of ethnic or people group churches within a larger majority context, this model relates to the HUP, or Homogeneous Unit Principle of the Church Growth Movement. It basically says that people are more likely to attend a service and hear the Gospel if it is presented in a manner with which they are familiar. People like to become Christians without crossing social, economic, or racial barriers. Many have been critical of this model, thinking it is against the mingling of racial groups in churches. But the point is that people are more likely to come to Christ when the people speak their language, either literally or in their social context. This principle acknowledges that people like to be with people they are like -- with whom they Page 134

14 feel homogeneous. While this principle has raised much heat among Christians who believe it to have a racist base, the fact is -- it s just simply how life works. People Group Models are more descriptive than prescriptive. They simply inform us of what generally happens among people groups. People are like that, and churches are like that, and the principle was active in the first church problem in Acts chapter 6. A variety of congregational models, paradigms and approaches are needed if we are to effectively reach the world for Christ. Perhaps the basic reason for this rests in the diversity of God. He made people different from one another -- we need to cooperate with His creativity! In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded us to declare the Gospel to all nations. The nations have come to North America, and as the nations have come we have the opportunity right here on our doorstep to see a people group church planting movement take place. If under the leadership of the Holy Spirit we are bold enough to step out and try to plant churches among these ethnic groups, we may see a movement of God. The challenge is whether or not we will be the people to take up some of these models, using them to clearly present the Gospel in their social/ethnic context and win souls to the kingdom. Page 135

15 notes - Page 136