A Vision Statement for Trinity Chapel Neil Silverberg Dear Trinity Chapel family, It is with great humility and thankfulness to God that I have this opportunity to write to you and begin to share the vision and values that I believe will guide my role as pastor of Trinity Chapel. I am greatly humbled and appreciative to Steve for his confidence and trust in me to lead Trinity in the future. In this entire process he has gone out of his way to ensure that it is smooth transition, always putting the needs of the church above that of his own. We have a proven friendship that has lasted over thirty years, and I know that it will continue to serve us well as we walk together into the future. I intend to honor Steve and Sandi for their years of service and labor to Trinity Chapel. Along with you, I am excited about the new ministry opportunities that await them in the future. And the best part of all is that they will continue to be part of Trinity Chapel. I believe that Steve will have a continued role in the future as an important prophetic voice into the leadership as well as ministering frequently to the church. I believe that his continued ministry to the church as well as his crusade ministry and travel to other churches is an important part of fulfilling the prophetic destiny God has given Trinity. Actually, this is not the first time that Steve and I have switched roles in ministry. We did it at Calvary in Alabama in 1984. Later, Shelly and I joined Steve and Sandi at Trinity Chapel in 1992 and worked alongside Steve and Sandi for 15 years. So both our proven friendship as well as proven ministry relationship together has been tested over 25 years. Luke speaks of both prophets and teachers guiding the church at Antioch (Acts 13). I believe that this will be fully realized in the future by my leading the pastoral team and Steve s continued input. I know this is not easy transition for many of you. After all, Steve has been pastoring Trinity Chapel for 27 years. Yet Steve and I are firmly persuaded that this is God s leading and therefore have great faith that it is best for Trinity Chapel at this time. I have spent much time in prayer and fasting, asking God to give us much grace so that the entire transition would go smoothly and that God would be glorified in all of us. In this posting, I want to give an overview of the vision and values that I believe I will bring to Trinity Chapel as pastoral leader. Let me first give you a little background as to how Shelly and I came to make the decision to accept the pastoral role at Trinity. Over the years that I have served as team leader of Masterbuilders, I have traveled to many churches as well as worked closely with many pastors in the network. In that process, I have received much vision for the local church. In recent years, I have had a growing desire for an opportunity to build these things in a local setting. My twenty years working in pastoral ministry alongside Steve and David Comer in Florida have taught me much about leading in God s house. Entering 2010, Shelly and I had a sense that our time in 1
Florida was coming to an end and that God was going to put us in a pastoral role. Little did we know that it would be Trinity Chapel! When Steve called in early fall and asked me to pray about coming back to Knoxville and leading Trinity, Shelly and I spent four months fasting and praying before discerning God s mind. Needless to say, we sought God more diligently in this decision than any decision we have ever made in over 30 years of ministry. So it is with great joy that I accept the call to lead Trinity Chapel. I am fully persuaded that in doing so, I am responding to a call from God. We bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus for his faithfulness to us throughout this entire process. Probably the most important question many of you will have is where do I intend to take the church in the future? The following is a small sampling of the vision, values, and the vehicle (structures) that will guide my leadership of Trinity. I have not included a lot of details for each one, having purposed simply to provide an overview in this posting. In the future, I plan on writing more specifically in each of these areas. Our Vision to be a community of fully devoted followers of Jesus, radically committed to glorifying God and extending his kingdom through loving Him, faithfulness to the Gospel, and making disciples in our city, region, and throughout the world This vision statement is not yet complete, but expresses at this time what is in my heart as the emerging pastor of Trinity Chapel. I believe that Trinity Chapel is called to be a dynamic missional church, growing continually through a fresh influx of souls added from the kingdom of darkness, not only in Knoxville and Knox county, but throughout the world. Mission must cease to be something only a few do, but the lifeblood and passion of every member of our church. By the phrase missional church I am referring to the fact that we are called not to live for ourselves, but to live for others especially those who do not yet know Him. While accomplishing this requires that we use all resources available including evangelistic giftings and outreach events, we will focus primarily on creating a discipleship culture so that each believer is being equipped to reproduce himself or herself in others. By discipleship culture I mean that Trinity Chapel must be a place that is focused primarily on developing believers through discipling relationships in the community. The goal of these relationships is that believers are being equipped to engage the lost by spending time with them so as to win them to Christ and disciple them to maturity. Our vision at Trinity is not to develop programs, but people who are confident about winning the lost and walking with them until they are mature in Christ. We must be passionate about extending the kingdom in our community and develop every believer in the church to participate in the harvest. We must continually evaluate our church not just in terms of our meetings and in-house structures, but by the effect we are having in the world. This is main reason the Church exists. Other institutions such as hospitals, colleges, political entities all have their place, but only the Church can 2
do the most important work on earth faithfully proclaim a message by which people pass from death to life. While we do believe that there is a valid place for believers to transfer membership from one church to another (provided it is done right), it is our desire that our church grow largely through a fresh influx of souls from the kingdom of darkness. Our Values Values express how we are prepared to live to fully live out our vision. Many churches have biblical vision, but fail to live it because they fail to adopt biblical values. Values deals with biblical truth that affects the way we live. Over the years, Trinity Chapel has had several biblical values which need to be carefully preserved such as passion for mission, importance of the prophetic, dynamic worship, and a great standing in the community. I intend to preserve these values and build upon them. Here are some of the biblical values that I believe should guide us into the future. They are not in order of importance, nor are they comprehensive. They simply represent the main biblical values that I believe should guide the church. Word and Spirit church Some churches focus exclusively on the Word while neglecting the Spirit, while others are Spirit-centered yet remain biblically illiterate. I believe that we do not have to choose between these two, but that both constitute our heritage. It is interesting that it took both Nehemiah (whose name in Hebrew is comforter and therefore typifies the Spirit) and Ezra (whose ministry was centered on God s Word) to restore the temple. Even so, it takes both the Word and the Spirit to bring renewal and restoration to the local church. Having said that, I believe that establishing a teaching culture in the local church is vital to making disciples (see Matthew 28:19 where Jesus says it takes both baptism and teaching to make disciples). While it is important that people learn how to hear God for themselves, we must always take care to ensure that they are first learning to hear God s voice in Scripture (see II Timothy 3:16-17). I plan on placing a high value on learning the Scriptures in Trinity Chapel. Gospel-Centered Ministry This is a value centered in the fact that the Gospel is not just the message that initially gets us into the kingdom, but that which keeps us, equips us, and perfects us as well. The believer can only grow through a continual receiving of God s grace which only comes through a greater understanding the Gospel (see Colossians 1:6). One of the most fatal assumptions a church can make is that people already understand the Gospel. Every advance believers make in this life has at its core a growing understanding of the Gospel (see Matthew 13:23 where Jesus says that the one who bears fruit is the one who continually hears and understands the Gospel). This conviction will guide all of my teaching and preaching at Trinity. Mission 3
We are not here for ourselves, but to serve the world. The church is the only organization in the world that should live for those who are not yet members. Everything we do should be related to our ultimate goal of winning those who are not yet believers. While our public meetings are certainly opportunities for people to hear and respond to the Gospel, we cannot put all of our missional eggs in that basket. We must encourage people to begin to really follow Jesus and live like He did by spending time with sinners so as to win them to Christ and disciple them. Jesus calls us to follow Him (really surrender fully to Him) so that He might change our hearts by putting in our hearts the same passion for mission which He had ( and I will make you fishers of men ). Trinity Chapel must be a place where people in community are on mission together. World Mission Along with our local responsibility, we also have a responsibility to preach the Gospel in all the world. Trinity Chapel has a proven record in this regard through its support of Steve s ministry to the nations. We will continue to support it in every way possible, encouraging people to support it financially as well as encouraging members of Trinity to accompany Steve on crusades. We will also continue to send people on short-term mission trips as well as raise up those who are called to serve in other nations. We will also be disciplined in the way we care for those we send. Integrity Integrity and godly character must be the foundation of everything we do. God is not first and foremost concerned with our success as he is that we glorify Him by living lives that please him. A wise man once said What a man builds with his gift he destroys with his character. We will seek to do all that we do and say with the utmost character and with complete candor. Our word must be our bond. This must especially characterize all of our financial dealings. Discipleship Discipleship is not first a method or a means of accomplishing our mission, but a value that must be embraced by every believer. It is the conviction that every church must have a definitive way of winning the lost, bringing believers to maturity, and teaching them to pour themselves into others. It is the belief that people don t learn the Christian life primarily through classroom instruction or public preaching (though these are certainly part of it), but by being personally discipled. Discipleship must become incarnated into everything we do as a church. Community Believers do not grow in isolation from others. God has called every believer into community an experience of the church whereby we are building solid relationships with others for encouragement, accountability, and mission. Church must move from being the place I attend to being the people God has joined me to. Community is God s provision to every believer so that we might achieve sanctification. Living a holy life is not achieved in isolation from other believers. By building community, people are less likely to leave a church since they are enjoying committed, loving relationships. Pastoral Care (Shepherding) The local church is to be governed by a group of elders led by a lead elder (pastor) who is one of the elders. These elders are the pastors of the church and are committed to caring for all the sheep. Elders must be given to caring for God s people on the macro level (elders meetings, public meetings) and the micro level (personal care for every sheep committed to their care). Our intention is to continually train new elders so that as the church grows, Trinity Chapel always has good care. Through small groups in sections throughout the city, we will develop a 4
system whereby every member of Trinity Chapel is cared for by an elder. We will also seek to train and release biblical deacons. Equipping We must learn that the body of Christ is not one member but many (I Corinthians 12:14). Leadership is not called to do the work of the ministry but to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12). The Church should not be viewed as a theater where people come to watch a show, but an orchestra where everyone plays a vital part. Leaders must spend the majority of their time discipling others so that they begin to function in their God-called spheres of service. God has gifted every member of his body so that there are no spectators. The church grows as more and more people exercise their gifts so that the body of Christ is built up. We need all of the gifts in Scripture to be exercised so that we can do the work that God has called us to. As more and more people discover their gifts and learn to exercise them, more and more people are built up and the kingdom of God is advanced. Church Planting Dogs beget dogs and people beget people; so churches should beget churches. Church planting is a value that we must hold to carefully. As God raises up more leaders in our midst, we must not think that all of them are called to serve at Trinity. Some are called to be sent out to form new church plants. We must look for and carefully train those who are called to be church planters. Not everyone can plant a church. We must learn how to spot, call aside, and train those who are gifted to be church planters. When the mother church is strong (Trinity) she can give birth to many children (church plants). Prayer We recognize our utter dependence on God in everything. Prayer is not a religious activity, but the very lifeblood of heaven. The Church does nothing effective on earth apart from prayer. We must value prayer as the most essential aspect of God s work Unity God places great value on believers maintaining the unity of the Spirit. God is grieved when believers allow divisions, slanders, and other things to keep them divided. We must do all in our power to ensure that there is no disunity among us. It begins with making sure that each believer is allowing biblical attitudes such as love, forgiveness, patience, gentleness, and kindness to characterize all of their relationships. A church simply cannot be effective in God s work if believers are not careful to maintain the unity which is the Spirit s gift. Team Ministry God values believers working together in teams. The Godhead itself is the ultimate example of team ministry. All ministry in the local church, from the eldership to service ministries, must exhibit this value of team ministry. Each team must have a head, but it is the team working together that accomplishes God s work. Vehicle (our structures) Corporate Meetings We believe that a weekly time of gathering for celebration and Gospel preaching and teaching is an important means of accomplishing our vision and living out our values. But we also 5
realize the limitations of equipping God s people through this means alone. Jesus did gather people together in large groups to teach them as did the early church in Jerusalem (they met in the temple). So we are committed to having a healthy, corporate gathering. In the future, we would hope that our corporate meeting becomes more of a gathering of small groups for celebration and instruction rather than a large group of consumers, each looking to get their needs met. Small Groups (House churches) It is clear from Scripture that the early church met in homes of believers. We do not believe that this was merely cultural but in keeping with the nature of the church as community. Fellowship is severely restricted in large, impersonal gatherings. Small groups is the best way to really connect people to those loving and accountable relationships by which they grow. These small groups must have as their ultimate goal the advancement of God s kingdom wherever they meet. We will put much of our time and effort in raising up small group leaders to serve our growth needs. Elders will work closely with small groups in regions to shepherd people. In the future, rather than being a large-based church that happens to have small groups, we hope to be a small-group based church that happens to meet corporately. Discipleship Units We will strongly encourage every small group to form smaller discipling units for accountability and encouragement. Discipling units are small groups of believers who meet together to study the Scriptures, pray, and hold each other accountable. The best discipling units are triads three people with one discipling the others. Ministry Teams Various ministry teams will be launched to serve the needs of the body. Ministry teams consist of those with a heart to a certain realm of service (like healing) or those who are gifted a certain way. 6