Synergy of Small and Large Missional Groups

Multi-Site Session 3

Can you we have our cake and eat it too?

Dave Ferguson speaks of the “genius of the and,” the ability to pursue and achieve two things which are opposed to each other.

• Brand-new and yet trusted.
• Staff with generalists and specialists.
• Less cost and greater impact
• New-church vibe and big church punch
• Move there and stay here
• More need and more support
• More outreach and more maturity.
• Simultaneously Growing Larger and Smaller

Why would Ferguson want to grow smaller?

Churches that are Large in Size tend to be Small in Discipleship, and therefore Small in Impact.

Christian Schwarz,in his bookNatural Church Development, concludes that smaller churches are actually healthier than the mega churches:

“The evangelistic effectiveness of mini-churches is statistically 1,600 percent greater that that of the mega-churches.”

He looked at 170 variables and identified which factors were most negative. The third was size. Size was damaging to effectiveness.

Willow Creek: Reveal Study

“We were wrong.” They’ve poured millions of dollars into programs which they thought would move people to FD, but hasn’t worked.

“Spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.”

It seems to me the larger you get, the less you can monitor spiritual development, and the more you must depend on structures and programs to gain traction with your people.

Why is Bigger is a challenge for discipleship?

•Community is stronger in smaller communities and weaker…
• Relational investment is deeper
• Accountability is stronger…
• Flexibility is stronger…
• Communication is stronger…
• Direction is stronger…
• Leadership is stronger…

In bigger environments, unless you have a genius who can both create structures for discipleship on a micro level, and an intense leadership to monitor and maintain those structures, people will fall through the cracks. The amount of energy and brain power needed for this more than most of us have. The Bigger you get, the Smaller you have to get. The Bigger you get, the more difficult it is to get smaller. People tend to hire CEOs, and not pastors to run their church-city.

• Willow Creeks Passion for Discipleship is stellar.
• Willow Creeks Infrastructure is second to none.
• Willow Creeks boasts of a 80% involvement in Small Groups, but small group involvement isn’t enough.

Because of the enormity of the church, it’s taken 30 years to discover the ineffectiveness of how they cultivate discipleship. That’s the challenge of Big.

Why Small isn’t enough?

Let’s take Schwarz findings and add them to the discovery of Ronald J. Sider.

In Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, compares the moral condition of the average church attender with the average non-believer. He discovered, citing several national pollsters, that in America there is virtually no moral difference between church attenders and non-church attenders.

This is significant because over 90% are smaller churches. It’s not necessarily the size either.

House Church Model?

Some would say that the church isn’t small enough. They would argue for a House Church model where no more than 15 or 20 people join. When they grow beyond that, they split off and form another house movement.

Though I think this is a legitimate model, I don’t think it’s the only model. Nor do I think that it’s the most effective model.

• It’s not the only legitimate model. The response to ineffective gatherings of 80 to 100 people within the context of a Sunday Morning service isn’t disbanding the group into 10 groups of 10 who form independent clusters. That may help. It simple installing and promoting a rich and intentional small group structure. It appears that this solution is too much, like given morphine for a mild headache.

Disciples met in the Temple Courts and from house to house.

• It’s not the most effective model: Unknowingly, they’ve limited their missional velocity: The mistake they’ve made is kind of like a person driving a Chevy Corvette taking mountain corners no faster than 30 mph because everytime he’s seen Chevy Geo Metros taking corners faster than 30 they flip and the driver dies. He concludes that all Chevy’s flip at 35mph and faster.

o He’s responded to the limitations of a bad chevy by concluding that all chevys are bad. Limited the potential of his good Chevy because of the limitations of a bad Chevy.

o Like wise, many within the house church movement, they’ve responded to the limitations of bad large gatherings by concluding that all large gatherings are bad –limit the potential of good larger gatherings for their movement.

Solution

I think that the best model would marry Missionally Driven Large Gathering, with a rich and robust Missionally Driven Small Gathering. This combines both the Incarnational and Attractional elements vital for maximal impact. Consider this diagram. Here

Site-Planting Continuum

Session 2 (notes) - Multi-Site Planting Workshop

Notes from February 17, 2008
Jake Magee

Why Are We Doing Multi-Site Planting?

1.The Where of Church is Critical: The placement of the people of God is crucial to the fulfillment of the great commission.

o Military Example: It’s not enough that you have a great military; it is equally vital where you position your military. To unleash the full might of the U.S. military on Canada is a misplacement of the military.

o Surgeon Example: For a surgeon, it’s not enough that he cuts, but where he cuts.

o Application: For the church, it’s not about occupying space, but what space are we occupying.

ESV Matthew 13:33 He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."

NAU Matthew 13:47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind;

2.The How of Church is Critical: How the people of God relate to each environment is critical to the fulfillment of the great commission.

o Military Example: It’s not enough that the U.S. military has big guns and can travel any where at a moments notice. It’s also how they utilize their power given each conflict. To nuke hostiles riding mules and brandishing shotguns is a bit too much. To send the coastguard to check an aggressive Russia isn’t doing enough.

o Surgeon Example: It’s not enough that he cuts and where he cuts, but also how he cuts. Previously scheduled minor surgery – precision; emergency room….

o Application: For the church, it’s about positioning and contextualization – Where we land, and how we land. Unleashing the people of God to wield the word of God in the right way.

o The Fears and Extremes of Contextualization

What is Multi-Site Ministry? - One Church, Many Locations.

Technically, the church has always been multi-site; one church. There’s always been one church of God, in many locations.

Ephesians 4:4-6 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

NAU 1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

The Issue has always been how each site/congregation relates to one another. Between sites, there can be a Relationship of...

o Hatred – Rival Churches

o Indifference – Unacquainted Churches

o Affinity – Networking/Non-Denominational Churches

o Affection - Denominational Churches

o Adoration (Intimacy) - Multi-Site at Oasis

o Divorced – Church Splits

Oasis Model(Cell): Slide

inaugural session

It was a pleasure to have all of you join us this Sunday. I'm looking foward to our discussion next week. I'll post the audio in the next few days. You'll find it on the left column.

Jake

A29 2008 Bootcamp in Chicago

Here's the audio from the A29 Bootcamp in Chicago.

Church Planting Evangelism by Mark Dever
Kingdom-Focused Church Planting by Ed Stetzer
Leading the Mission in Church Planting by Darrin Patrick
Preaching the Mission by Mark Driscoll
Missional and Biblical Church Planting by Ed Stetzer

Leadership Network

http://www.leadnet.org/

"Leadership Network fosters church innovation and growth through strategies, programs, tools and resources consistent with our far-reaching mission: to identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact.

Leadership Network’s “DNA” is to work directly with pioneer churches who are testing and implementing the new ideas that will drive the Church in the future.

Many churches that participate in Leadership Communities become teachers themselves, taking what they have learned to a broader and larger audience. As innovation spreads, the Church better fulfills its mission to expand the Kingdom of God."

Acts 29 Network

http://www.acts29network.org/

Acts 29 Network exists to start churches that plant churches. God is significantly using our network to influence and shape the church planting culture through both rock-solid theology and contextualizing the gospel. We will not waver on either of these commitments. We won’t water down our theology to reach more people and we won’t attack the culture in the name of Christianity. We are planting churches that are missionaries in their respective communities sent by Christ with the gospel (John 20:21). It is our desire to plant 1,000 new churches in the next 20 years. We desire to make your dream of planting a gospel-driven church come true. We count it an honor to partner with you and to serve you.

Scott Thomas

Acts 29 Network Director

The Leavell Center Mission

http://www.leavellcenter.com/

The Leavell Center Mission

"We exist to assist Southern Baptist churches and entities in developing and implementing strategies for effective evangelism and measurable church growth."

www.newchurches.com

http://www.newchurches.com/

"New Churches has compiled an extensive list of tools and resources that have proven to be extremely beneficial to church planters."

Church-Marketing.com

http://www.church-marketing.com/

Church of the Nazarene Research Center

http://www.nazarene.org/ministries/administration/researchcenter/display.aspx

"Nazarenes want to be effective in their ministries. To be effective, we follow God’s directions and use the tools He’s given us. One of these tools is good research."

City-Data.com

http://www.city-data.com/

"We've collected and analyzed data from numerous sources to create as complete and interesting profiles of all U.S. cities as we could. We have over 49,000 city photos not found anywhere else, hundreds of thousands of maps, satellite photos, stats about residents (race, income, ancestries, education, employment...), geographical data, state profiles, crime data, sex offenders, housing, businesses, local news links based on our exclusive technology, birthplaces of famous people, political contributions, city government finances and employment, weather, hospitals, schools, libraries, houses, airports, radio and TV stations, zip codes, area codes, air pollution, latest unemployment data, time zones, water systems and their health and monitoring violations, comparisons to averages, professionally written city guides, a forum with over 240,000 registered members and 2,500,000 posts, 5000+ user-submitted facts, 8000+ exclusive local business profiles with photos, and more. If you ever need to research any city for any reason, from considering a move there to just checking where somebody you know is staying, this is the site for you."

Timothy Workshop - Multi-Site Ministry

Timothy Workshop
Course: Multi-Site Ministry
Length of Class: (1.5 to 2 hours)

Goals: To come away with both the broad philosophy of site-planting, as well as the particular brand that Oasis has adopted.

Reading Assignments

Wk 1. - Multi-Site Manifesto
Wk.2 - Multi-Site Revolution (chapters 1 & 2)
Wk.3 - Multi-Site Revolution (chapters 3 & 4)
Wk.4 - Church Planter Manuel (chapters 1 & 3)

Presentation: Each candidate will be expected to give a 15 minute presentation for each work over viewing the reading material.

Missional vs. Evangelistic

Characteristics of a Missional Church - Tim Keller

A Good Soldier

What is Church Planting

North Coast Church Model

Mission Frontier Congregations - Texas

Jim Tomberlin on Multi-Site Church Ministry