My head is spinning with dates, deadlines and assignments! The block of time here is really the 'calm before the storm' - now comes the hard work! These two whiteboards are my cryptic reminder of all the work to 2008!!!
The stream of study here is called 'Missional Leadership' - what does it mean to take a different approach to being church... Here's an extract from an article by a guy called Ken, who works with a mob called ' Church Resource Ministries'. I thought it was a nice snapshot...
Every Sunday morning about sixty or seventy people take over the ‘Green McCaw’ café located in a suburban shopping strip. The small space is packed to the door and people sit around tables to enjoy the music, listen to a brief and punchy message, hear stories and generally celebrate the good things that God is doing in their community.
It’s a pretty unlikely crew – a millionaire businessman sits at the same table as a recovering heroin addict. The head bouncer from the local pub is there, along with IT professionals, welfare dependent single mums and an array of others. The young pastors are desperately seeking a larger space to meet. About half the people attending that morning have come to faith among this group. The rest were either part of the original planting team or have re-connected with church after a break.
Sunday afternoons, in another city meets another church, which looks virtually the same. The look and feel is café casual, although they meet in a school hall. The music is not too different, the message just as relevant and punchy. The crowd lacks some of the diversity, but numbers about eighty or so. All in all, you’d struggle to see from the outside how very, very different these two churches are.
What’s the difference?
Our first example began six years ago as a team of about ten people. For the first two years they had no public worship service, committing most of their time to building relationships with unchurched people, doing simple acts of service, making disciples one by one and gathering them into small groups. When the people they were reaching kept asking to ‘start church’, they commenced a monthly service. They moved to a fortnightly service only when they had enough people involved to sustain both grass-roots mission activity and the public service. They’ve only recently increased the frequency to weekly.
Because a favorite pastime in their area is relaxing in a café, they chose a one as a meeting place. Founded and formed by mission, this is a mission-shaped church.
Although a little bigger, the second example church is only eighteen months old. The origins of the church are found in a small group of young adults, frustrated by the rigidity of the traditional church they attended. They wanted something fresh, contemporary and informal - something they could invite their friends to.
The group worked hard to bring their dream to reality. They put together a detailed strategic plan, pulled together ideas, people and resources and even gained the blessing of their home church. Local government demographics told them that middle class 18-40 year-olds abounded in their suburb, so everything about the service - from funky music to plunger coffee – was chosen with these in mind. Their first service was everything they had hoped, and since then a steady flow of new faces has delighted the leadership group. While the new church appears to be a resounding success, a few nagging doubts rattle about in the minds of the leaders. Firstly, almost all the newcomers are from other churches. Some stay, some attend for a few weeks and move on. Everyone is encouraged to invite their friends, but all their friends are Christians.
Secondly, the church’s efforts at outreach don’t seem to be effective in bringing people into the church. They’ve done everything from a ’battle of the bands’ to offering free marriage counseling (stat’s showed a high marriage breakdown rate in the area), but there’s been no ‘flow on’ from these to the worship service. Thirdly, the core team is growing tired of the effort required to maintain the current standard in the weekly service, plus the outreach activities. Because successful, large churches emphasize excellence, the leaders have drummed into the worship team to give their all. But now the team is starting to lose their energy and creative edge. Contemporary and cool as it may be, the second example is mission-flavored.
Ken Morgan trained at Tabor College, Melbourne.
