Over the past two weeks we've been "Defining Church" and communicating what this means for us moving forward. You can catch up by...
Watching the last two messages
Downloading the audio
Reading the blog post, "This Changes Everything."
In this post, I want to describe a few things specifically related to these changes. First, I'll define a few terms from a biblical perspective, and then I'll answer some questions from a practical perspective.
(This will be a VERY long post because I assumed putting everything in one post would be easier than making multiple posts. So maybe read a little bit over the course of several days. At the same time, I'd encourage you to read the entire post before making assumptions about what I'm saying.)
Church: Jesus, guiding His people called out as a spiritual family, to pursue His mission on the planet.
Before I say anything else, please notice the first word in the definition. It's Jesus. Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus existed before the church. Jesus determines the mission, and He's invited the church to join Him in His mission. There is no other mission than the mission He's called us to pursue. When you misplace Jesus in your understanding of church, you'll misplace Him in your expression of church.
Okay, yes, the definition of church above is a somewhat vague definition of church. Yes, I believe the church should have pastors and leaders. Yes, I believe the church should gather on Sunday. However, when you get down to it, we must understand that church is not a weekly service or a building. When Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He would build His church, He wasn't thinking buildings or worship services. Take some time to study the original meaning of the Greek word behind "church" and what the early church (the people) did. They fully submitted to Christ and sought to follow Him in all areas of their life as a collective family. Yes, they gathered together, but the gathering didn't define them. Their identity was following Jesus as Lord on a daily basis and joining in His mission.
I fully realize we are living about 2000 years after Christ and "church" today in the Southeastern US looks a lot different than it did then. Honestly, everything about life looks different than it did then. However, just because everything has changed, doesn't mean the main thing of the gospel has changed. The goal has never been to "get people to church." The mission has always been to make disciples. Therefore, whatever method of "church" we use is only effective if we make disciples.
On a side note, as you read through this, if you haven't taken time to do the study and research, then you can't really agree or disagree with what I've said already or will say below. Believe me, everything God has taught me about church and being a disciple has radically changed over the last two years. It's been a process. I've tried to ignore it, but His Spirit and His Word don't change just because I've become conditioned to see something (church) from a certain way.
This has all been hard for me to come to grips with. It's been hard to accept that my way of doing church looks radically different from His way and that I hadn't made His mission my mission. I've had to die to my flesh, which I must continue to do, repent of my impure motives, and start becoming a disciple myself. I've repented of my failure to make disciples within my own rhythms of life. I've confessed to our church my struggle with this and how I felt that at times we've been casting one vision of church with our lips yet doing something different in our actions. At the same time, I've challenged our church to take this next step forward and become who we've talked about being all along.
The problem with much of what we do as "church" in our culture is that it doesn't teach people how to follow Jesus 7 days a week within the rhythms of life (be a disciple). We've made a church-culture that basically says, some people preach, some people sing, and others attend. Therefore, let's gather together on Sunday, let the preachers preach, the singers sing, the attenders attend, and then we'll all be doing our part for God. The issue is that disciples aren't made in non-relational settings like church services. Jesus, our original example, made disciples through relationships. Worship services aren't wrong, but they can't be what "steers the church" because they don't make disciples. Unfortunately, a vast majority of most church's plans, leadership, and resources go into organizing worship services and ministries that simply aren't making disciples.
(Okay, perhaps at this point you should take a break, process through this, study the Bible, talk with God, maybe even research how the gospel is actually spreading in other places, and then come back later to read more.)
The mission: Make disciples. What's a disciple...
Disciple: Follower of Jesus, who listens to God and does what He says. (See Matthew 28:19-20 and take some time to study how the early Christians understood "Jesus as Lord.")
Disciples are not the "elite" or most visible Christians in the church as many people in our culture think. The Bible doesn't separate Christians from disciples. If Jesus is your Lord, you are to be a disciple... someone who listens to God and does what He says. As a disciple, you are to then join Jesus in HIS mission... making disciples/bringing people to accept and follow Him as Lord. The disciples are to do this together, collectively, as the called out ones of Jesus, as the church!
Therefore, we're changing what we care about as a church. Everything we do must be fueled by the desire to join God in His mission of making disciples. There's no way to paint this picture fully through a blog, so I'll just invite you to listen to the messages or better yet, start connecting with us and experience it for yourself.
So what does this mean practically for us....
Are we stopping Sunday services?
NO. However, what we do on Sundays and the way we view Sundays is changing. We've asked people to stop seeing Sunday as the main thing that defines them as a follower of Jesus. Instead, we want them to see Sunday as a gathering of the church... the people who are living for Jesus 7 days each week.
Practically speaking, beginning June 3rd, our start time is moving back to 10:30. We'll still have a gathering time where the band plays and teaching takes place. This will be basically identical to what we've always done with the addition of more testimonies and stories from the people who are following Jesus throughout the rhythms of their life.
The big change is that this time will only last about 45-50minutes instead of 75-90minutes. Then, the remainder of the time (30-45minutes) will be used to group people together for a time of connection, care, prayer, and celebration. This means we'll be fading out "small groups" as we have them right now even though those same people may still be gathering only now it will take place on Sundays as part of our gathering time.
Doesn't this approach exclude people who don't yet follow Jesus?
I've learned that people will ultimately become what you want them to become within the church. If you want new Christians to be attendees at a service, then you focus on your service. If you want them to be volunteers, you'll focus on your volunteer ministries, etc, etc.
We want people to become disciples and follow Jesus as Lord throughout their rhythms of life because this is what Jesus wants. Therefore, we think the best way for them to get a picture of being a disciple is to do life with those who are already following Jesus. This includes inviting them to gather with the church on Sundays! So no, it doesn't exclude them. This will actually create an authentic gathering where people can ask questions and seek Christ without being judged or condemned, which is an environment we already have in place to some degree. I talk more about how we'll reach the unbelievers in the message from Sunday, May 13th if you want to hear more.
How are we making disciples?
These adjustments will help change the way we view church, but this time on Sunday alone will not make disciples. Our time on Sunday will help people better understand how to be a disciple and how others are doing that, but our intentional way of making disciples is this...
For the past 2 months or so, I've been developing a team of people to lead in the disciple-making process. This group of people will soon begin meeting in small hubs of 3-5 people (Discipleship Connections) during the week about 2-3 times each month. These hubs will be focused on helping people grow in Christ and stay accountable to a vision of...
UP (what is God saying to me)
IN (how do I need to be encouraged by other believers or what struggles do I need to confess to them)
OUT (who can I/am I sharing my faith with).
As necessary or once a hub reaches 6 people, the group will then become 2 hubs. People will be added to these hubs as disciples make disciples through the everyday rhythms of life and/or through our Sunday gatherings.
What's the big picture goal?
More than anything else, we desire to help people become the disciple of Jesus they were meant to be. Therefore, we want to begin thinking of ourselves as a COMMUNITY of disciples on mission (like a small church of 50-100 people). Eventually, as we're making disciples and developing leaders, we'll launch new communities. This one community will become 2, 3, 4, potentially dozens, or 100s of communities all across the area in the years to come. Each community will function within the social space of approximately 30-100 people. They'll be small enough to care for one-another, but big enough to make an impact. These communities will live as disciples throughout the week, gather together on Sundays, and connect in Discipleship Connections as mentioned above. They will have biblical leaders/elders and function as a small church whose primary focus is making disciples. Just as each disciple needs to make disciples, each community should launch new communities.
So, once our current community/church becomes multiple communities (2 or 3), these communities will meet individually on Sunday as small churches. However, one Sunday each month we'll bring all of the communities back together for a large celebration to share stories of how God is moving within each community. By doing this, our focus is obviously no longer to build a large weekly service where 100s or 1,000s may attend each week. Instead, we want to make disciples who make disciples who gather together as a community (50-100 people) that seeks to launch new communities within the larger picture of what we're calling Overflow Knoxville! (NOTICE THE NAME CHANGE)
Are we against mega-churches and other expressions of the church?
I can't believe I even have to answer this, but I know someone is thinking we are... We are absolutely not against either. While I believe we must be willing to wrestle with what is truly happening when large crowds gather weekly to merely "attend a service," it doesn't really matter what a church does in terms of worship services if it's intentional about making disciples. My only question to anyone would be, what's "steering the church?" Is it the service on Sunday? Dozens of ministries? or Making disciples?
I'm friends with pastors and church planters who do "church" a lot different than we will, but they are truly making disciples.This is not a big-church vs small-church debate. We are for the church (the people of God) in every expression in every location!!!!! At the end of the day, making disciples is all that matters, so let's allow that to unite us!
No comments:
Post a Comment