Determining Your Fellowship Styles (Styles Series 5 of 6)

Acts 2:42—They were “Devoted to Fellowship”

We come now to the concept of determining your fellowship styles. Building authentic Christian community depends significantly on the Fellowship Styles and structures you utilize in the new church.
Whether you realize it or not you actually have a structure for fellowship in your church.
Let me tell you that the more traditional ones just to get you thinking.

First is model proposed by Peter Wagner with three concentric circles. Wagner would say the big circle, that’s unlimited in size, is Celebration. That's the worship, that's when people gather together for worship.

The next circle down is Congregation.

Sociologists, studying human beings, have learned that there are only so many people that you actually have the human capacity to significantly know and have a relationship with. Meaning, to know their name, to know their children's names, to know anything about their lives. You have a capacity. You actually maxed out at a certain level of people. Normally it's around 60 to 80 some people. This concept of congregation maxes out at that level.

Finally, we have the Cell, usually, sociologically, we learned that the minimum is about six and the maximum is about 16. So you can see when you define cell as 6 to 16 then you define a congregation as 20 to 80. Then celebration is unlimited.

A lot of congregations for an extended period of time have seen their worship service and then they have the congregation- all types of different forms. And they have their cell, which of their small group, like a small group ministry.

Now if you if you look at the next circle. The next circle removes the cell and all it is celebration and congregation. No cell. Now this is the model that has actually developed the largest Protestant, actually the second largest in the world, the largest in North America, denomination. They've use this structure to actually build the largest denomination in North America - the Southern Baptist.

But notice the structure. What was this structure? Some of you may have Southern Baptist background and you may know it. What was the congregation? The congregation was the Sunday school class. And the secret was to actually form the congregations or the Sunday school classes like little mini churches around the age of the wife, if they're married. That's a very interesting dynamic.

And so if they’re couples, it’s the wife's age that would determine the homogeneity of the group. And what happened was each Sunday school class had its officers and there was a president of the class and there was a person in charge of meals if you got sick or someone died. And there was a person in charge of social time, and there’s someone whose going to help with the visitation of the hospital. These were like many in mini churches within the church. This was one of the secrets to the growth of the Southern Baptist church. Little tiny churches called Sunday school.

Now our third model is used by the largest church in the world, in Seoul Korea. And this model said, “We’re not going to mess with the congregation circle. We’re going to have the celebration, and it's unlimited, hundreds of thousands, millions can come, and the cell. Celebration, in other words, massive worship service. And then the other thing we do, in terms of meeting needs, we meet in cells.

A fourth model would be the congregation cell. These are called “cell churches” where it’s just a congregation and there are small groups within that. Those are small, healthy, growing reproducing churches.

And then some would advocate a fifth model—the Cell church. Actually just the cell called the house church. And that’s just 6 to 16 people. I actually don't think that meets the biblical definition of a church. I think in terms of this concept, I promote the concept of cell churches but not house churches. Because a cell church can have all the dynamic of the house church but it is a cluster of churches that are in a congregation that actually have elders that are overseeing that movement. So it looks a lot like house churches but it's a congregation, it's a cluster of cells overseen by elders and deacons. I think it's a revolutionary model and it's one that God has used a whole lot all over the world.

Determining Your Outreach Styles (Styles Series 6 of 6)

For the sake of illustration, the styles of Evangelism and Mercy are being combined here into one topic category called Outreach Styles. We can think of it in terms of Word and Deed, Evangelism and Mercy.

There are two major dimensions when considering Outreach Styles that are sometimes seen in opposition to one another, but can really be complementary and have a part to play in Outreach efforts across cultures.
The first is the Gathering or Attactional outreach styles, which are focused on drawing people in.

The other is Scattering outreach styles, which are focused on going out to where people are.

Outreach styles of a church in a particular community are normally more effective with one than the other.

Some communities are more receptive to an attractional or a drawing in kind of dynamic, like a worship service that attracts people as a way of reaching out.

Other contexts and cultures are more receptive to Christians initiating and moving toward them in purposeful acts of evangelism and mercy.

Most often, a healthy church needs to have both of these styles or dynamic in play. Which one is more dominant is actually determined by the context, by the culture, even by the generation.

So what are some examples of each? First let’s look at the Attractional model:

GATHERING OUTREACH STYLES

1.     The Front Door Attraction Worship Service. 

Having an Attractional Worship Services means that you’ll have to work through these dynamics;

• Culturally relevant, meaning that it communicates to the ministry focus group clearly and powerfully

• Seeker sensitive, meaning that it is uniquely tuned to communicate to unbelievers

• Homogeneous in purpose and style, meaning that it is focused on one dominant expression from that culture

• Yet, also receptive to various groups and individuals in your Ministry Focus Group—meaning that it is not so focused on one dominant culture expression that others feel unnecessarily like outsiders.
  
  This Attraction Worship Service goes hand in hand with Attractional Outreach Methods.

2.     The Front Door Outreach Methods. 

There’s usually some variety in this, but it will largely include

• Word-of-mouth referrals by members and people who have come to the church to others, sparking and interest

• Personal invitations by members to neighbors, friends, and family to join them for worship

• High visibility events that enable you to address needs and interest inside the church walls

• And advertising that will reach the receptive – e.g., direct mail, the Internet, telemarketing, visitation, newspaper, radio, yellow pages, etc.

  
  We need to also consider the other Outreach dimension,

Scattering Outreach Styles

1.     The Side Door Attractions (NOT a Worship Service). 

Where the attractional worship model was geared toward bringing people to the worship service, which was uniquely tuned to communicate to them as unbelievers, the missional styles, while not overlooking being culturally relevant and welcoming, will be more gearing toward

• Personal relationships (one-on-one evangelism)

• Open small groups – empty chair approach

• Nurture/Growth/Discipleship Groups (cell groups)

• Task/Ministry Groups – Evangelistic Bible studies, felt-need ministries, clubs, training classes, etc.

• Support/Recovery Groups – chemical dependency, divorce, grief, etc.

2.     Community Outreach Events. 

The Missional dimension could also include other aspects more explicitly geared toward the needs of those outside of the church, such as

• Outreach breakfasts, luncheons, dinners with special speakers

• Felt-need seminars – parenting, divorce, finances, etc.

• Feeding the poor

• Job training programs

• Health clinics

• Other
  
  
  Whichever dimension more effectively reaches your ministry focus group will vary, though church leaders should thoughtfully consider a mixed approach that will both attract and seek out.

Developing ministry styles for your church is a process that should never end. The battle cry of the Protestant Reformers was “Semper Reformanda!”, which means “Always Reforming”.

If a church stops regularly examining its culture and properly adapting ministry styles and methods accordingly, it will inevitably become a culture unto itself.

Soon the church will only be relevant to a culture that doesn’t exist anymore. Instead the church must be regularly asking the question we used at the beginning of this session, “How does the church do ministry in this culture?”

Core Beliefs (Values Series 1 of 6)

We've looked at worldview. Now we're going to take a look at beliefs. What the church planter believes, what the church planter requires church members to believe, what the church planter requires church leaders to believe. It matters. What are their beliefs now in terms of issues of orthodoxy, or non-orthodoxy, and then we'll go from beliefs shifting over values all the way to behaviors, and ask and answer the question, what behaviors are expected of members of this body called the church? You are inevitably going to be faced. It's not whether, it's just when. What is acceptable belief, and what is not? What is acceptable behavior, and what is not?

Church leaders, whether you call them elders, whether you call them deacons, whether you call them ministry leaders, or group leaders, they all have certain things that they are expected to believe, and the sooner that you are crystal clear on what are the requirements, and what aren't the requirements, the better the church planter is. One of the biggest mistakes that church planters make is not being clear on who must believe what, and only dealing with that in a reactive sort of sense when problems arise. Normal adherence to a belief statement is required in church planting, whether it's formalized, whether it's written, or whether it's not.

What must the church planter believe theologically, or doctrinally? In my tradition, as a Presbyterian, anyone who is going to plant a church in the Presbyterian tradition is required to actually take a vow before God and others that they believe in the system of doctrine taught in a certain confession of faith called the Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms. In certain Baptist traditions, it's a very similar practice. A lot of people don't realize this, that there is a Philadelphia confession of the 1680s that a lot of Baptists require that their church planters adhere to a certain confessional document. There is this declaration that we, as a church, have this confession of faith, this doctrinal statement, that if you are going to be a leader here, you must affirm before God and before us, normally actually seen as vows, or ordination vows, that you believe these things. Whether you are Baptistic, whether you are Presbyterian, whether you are Anglican and using the prayer book in this way, whatever tradition, what is your answer to that question? Is it the Westminster Confession? Is it unique elder affirmation? Is it a Philadelphia Confession? Is it a simple one or two page doctrinal statement? What must you believe? What must your elders believe for them to be ordained?

An emerging leader must have personal piety, 1st Timothy 3, Titus 1; sound theology that would be in adherence to whatever your doctrinal standards are; ministry, and a philosophy of ministry that matches yours. Those four criteria. When you get to sound theology, the question is, how do you define sound theology?

There are also a set of beliefs that members must adhere to. I'm not talking about above and beyond the gospel. I'll give you an example. In my tradition, in the Presbyterian church, there are five questions that the elders have to ask you, and you have to answer in the affirmative. Normally in private, and also in corporate worship. These are the first two regarding expected beliefs. Then questions three, four, and five are expected behaviors if you become a member of this church.

Question number one: "Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure, and without hope except in his sovereign mercy?"

Number two: "Do you believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ, as the son of God, the savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel?"

Why have a set of agreed upon beliefs? Normally the push back I head at this point is no creed but Christ. Then all you have to do is sit down with somebody that says no creed but Christ and ask them what they believe about Christ, and what they believe about the Bible, and what they believe about the nature of God, and then write those things down, and say everybody has a creed. You have a creed. You may just not have written it.

This is why maintaining orthodoxy within the history of the church, and maintaining unity in the body, is often at stake. The church declines in influence on people and culture when doctrine is compromised. Your task is a very solemn task as a minister of the gospel. To maintain purity of doctrine, and unity in that church around theology. What this will involve will be you taking the third mark of the church, given to us through the tradition of the Protestant Reformation, seriously and that is spiritual discipline as you explore the concept of the keys of the kingdom that Jesus spoke of. This means that you are actually given a very holy task of maintaining the purity of the gospel in doctrine and in life.

I will never forget Francis Schaeffer, before his death, he said, "As I look out, especially at the Western world, I am very fearful for the evangelical church, because I see almost no biblical sense of discipline." What he meant by that was not church leaders getting involved in all the specifics of individual people's lives. What he meant was the concept of church leaders, or spiritual authorities, elders seeing themselves as responsible for maintaining purity of doctrine, and purity of life. I'll never forget him saying, "When the church, historically, loses the concept of church discipline, and if you plant a church where the elders do not have a deep sense that God has called them and set them apart to maintain the purity of doctrine and life in that covenant community," Schaeffer said, "The next thing to go, historically, after church discipline, is purity. Purity of theology, purity of life," and then he said, "Always, inevitable when purity of doctrine and purity of life is lost, the next thing always to go is power. Power for transforming lives, power for changing cultures, and power for discipling nations."

Core Behaviors (Values Series 2 of 6)

Church planters need to be very clear not only on what are their beliefs, and what are the required beliefs of members and church leaders, but there are certain behaviors that church planters and pastors require, whether written or not written.

You don't have to be there very long before you find out these are the behaviors that are expected. The more clear you can be on the front end in terms of what behaviors are expected and what are not, the better it is for everybody. Let me give you some examples of behaviors that are sometimes written, sometimes not written, but they're clearly expected.

Number one: members are expected to be in regular attendance in worship on the Lord's Day. The idea of showing up once a month is not acceptable to the leaders unless that person is worshiping in another Bible-centered church, but if that's a long-term pattern something's wrong somewhere. How far are you planning to go in upholding that expected behavior? Will you put it in writing? Will it be one time a month? Will it be that the elders of your church never say anything to anyone? What will the expectations be of your elders, of your deacons, of your group leaders, of your members? You will have to make this decision, it's just good to make it on the front end.

Another real common one: financial giving. Will you be someone who says that when we take this membership vow before God and others to support the church, will you be the kind of church planter who before giving that vow, just like a good pastor before leading somebody to take a wedding vow, a marriage vow will say let me tell you what this means, will you say that to support this church means that you give financially to this church? In two decades I never knew what one member gave to the church but I had other people who took the offerings, who collected it, who tracked it. I didn't want to show favoritism or prejudice, and so I didn't know.

On all of these, like breeds like, and what you start with is what will continue. You don't have very long to set in motion the corporate culture of your church. Is this a church that values the Lord's Day and Lord's Day worship? Is this a church that values regular sacrificial, generous giving to the church? Will there be an expectation of your elders or deacons that will be higher than your members? Some do that. You won't be an elder or deacon in this church if you are not a model before the members, and that means the model starts with you.

It never in Scripture is the amount of money anybody gives. That's the widow's might. It's irrelevant. It's whether or not you're giving proportionately, sacrificially, and cheerfully. You can surely expect a team of leaders to rally around you and they'll join right in with you with your story of why you're not giving sacrificially, generously, and proportionately.

Attendance, finances, serving. Can a member come to the church and basically be a seat warmer or just a check writer? Is serving a part of what's expected? Is that not part of the membership vow? What about being in a community group? A lot of church plants I know say if you're a member of our church body that means you're in regular attendance of the community group, because becoming a member of this church is joining one of our community groups. You're under the care of an elder. You're under the care of deacons. You’re under the care of people who love you and to nurture you, and yeah, our community groups get together on the Lord's day and worship, but this is expected behavior here.

How about ethical standards? If a member of your church is in blatant, outward, known, public relationship with another man or another woman, do you just quietly at an elder meeting takes that eraser out and take him off the roll? This is what Schaeffer meant, purity of life, purity of doctrine, or does the church mobilize, and we're not talking about shunning. In Matthew18, God condescended to inscripturate literal steps to take in situations like that when brothers or sisters in Christ are an heinous sin.

Jesus literally said, step one: go to that person in private. The concept is over and over, go to them in private. Plead with them to come home and if they don't go get one or two other people. The implication is that they deeply respect, that they know what they're good, and go to make sure you're not wrong, and go to them repeatedly and plead with them. The whole goal of what you're doing is not to chastise them but to restore them. If that doesn't happen Jesus said tell it to the church. That doesn't mean get up on Sunday morning. It means tell it to the church elders.

The problem is Schaeffer said most church elders would say, "Oh, well we just erased him," but what's supposed to happen is you tell it to the elders and then Jesus said if they don't listen to the elders, if this man does not listen to the elders, if they don't listen to the church, be to him as tax gatherer and a sinner. Now, what that did not mean is shun him. Jesus was a friend of tax gatherers and sinners. Be his friend. Seek restoration but take him off the rolls of being numbered among the visible body of Christ. The final stage never ends because the final stage is the entire church mobilizes to win the tax gatherer and the sinner by being a friend and seeking to restore them, and love them well.

Is that the kind of church you're going to have? Well, that's the behavior. How do you plan to respond to behaviors? Are you willing to risk losses, defamation of character? Most, Schaeffer said, weeping, just turn the other way. Listen to these last three in my tradition, the Presbyterian tradition. We've asked you the two about what you believe. These are the three things we ask you to affirm in terms of behaviors. Listen to these.

"Do you now resolve and do you promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes a follower of Jesus Christ?"

Next question, "do you promise to support this church in its worship and work to the very best of your ability?" It's like an “I do.” I do.

"Do you submit yourself to the government and to the discipline of this church and promise to further this church's purity and this church's peace?": You know what that means? I take a solemn vow before God that if the elders come to me I will submit to them.

Those are holy vows. We are talking about the purity of the bride in terms of doctrine and life. What kind of church are you going to plant? What beliefs will you require? What behaviors will you require?

People are leaving mainline denominations in droves. There was a book written called Why Conservative Churches Are Growing. Basically this was the one take away. Conservative churches are growing more than liberal churches because conservative churches counterintuitively require more of their members than mainline churches. For some sociological reason the conservative churches are very clearly requiring certain beliefs and certain behaviors whereas the mainline churches are not. The main reason why conservative churches are growing is because they require more. They place higher demands on their members.

Human beings created in the image of God and re-created by God's Holy Spirit in Christ have been designed to give their lives away to something grand and cosmic. They have been designed as image bearers to give themselves to something greater than themselves, and that would be the purposes of God. They have been designed to be willing to die for something, and to live with dying in mind because the cause is greater. The real deal is the Jesus that said, "Come, take up your cross and follow me." The real deal are the Bonhoeffer's of the world. You want to follow Jesus? Come. Come and die, and then you'll live.

What kind of behaviors are you going to expect? Is this going to be a nice little country club to help people minimize pain and maximize pleasure? Are you going to be that little quadrant of their life that's just kind of missing the spiritual dimension, to help them move up Maslow’s Hierarchy to greater senses of fulfillment? Are you calling people to come and die that they might live?

Core Values Defined (Values Series 3 of 6)

Having looked at beliefs and having looked at behaviors, we're going to narrow in the rest of our time on the concept of values. Church planters often fail to understand the true underlying values of the church. Which as we'll see in this session, are often not the same as the churches stated articulated values. Church values normally take a long time to be developed and truly owned, and an even longer time to change once they have been adopted. That's a hard lesson learned.

Another common mistake church planters make is to focus solely on developing external activities, or what we call behaviors, instead of also focusing on ministry value that empower and sustain the ministry activities. In other words, you can reward and punish people to try to get them to do certain things in your church, and they'll sometimes perform for a while. But it won't last long until they actually have this core worldview that fuels this belief that is actually manifests themselves in things that they deeply value and that's why they do what they do

You're not just telling them what to do, you're helping cultivate their heart to understand why they do it. You're helping them to value something and then it's just natural to let them go.

Core values are the underlying convictions that reflect the biblical purposes for the church and drive its ministry activities. I have tried to place here, in this definition, values, beliefs and behaviors. Core values are the underlying convictions. Those are the core values that reflect the biblical purposes or beliefs that drive its behaviors or ministry activities.

Every one of you have had certain ministries that have formed you, that have shaped you. Maybe have influenced you more than you're aware of. Or the flip side I find is also real common. That is, you have nightmares because you want others to have what you didn't have. Or to put it another way, you don't want others to experience what you experienced. Even as you hear these words normally, there are images that come to your mind. There are these underlying convictions, there are these dreams of what you aspire this church to be and what you don't want it to be. That'd be the underlying convictions 

Biblical purposes, and make sure you put this together with the last module on purposes, core values must be shaped by the biblical purposes we looked at last time. Worship and prayer, learning and discipleship, fellowship in groups, evangelism, witnessing, acts of mercy, social concern, those five areas.

This is one of the common mistakes that church planters make, and it's been very interesting in studying church planting literature, that it took about a decade or so for church planter trainers to look back on this concept of the importance of a self-conscious awareness of values that are driving the church planter and congregation.

Then all of a sudden recognizing, sometimes 10 years later, that those driving values, lets say 5 or 6 values that were driving them, 2 or 3 of the biblical purposes were there, but 2 or 3 of the biblical purposes were not shown in the values. It was only until about 10 years later when the church had it's health and vitality evaluated, that the church leaders looked back and said "we diagnosed our core values and we said we don't want there to ever be a ministry that we don't ask and can get a good answer to the question 'how does this ministry reflect our core values? Which core value is underneath this ministry?' And we've been guided by that and our church has been blessed by that, but only recently have we looked back and actually evaluated these core values and seen how there are 2 of the biblical purposes that aren't even represented in our 5 or 6 core values."

It used to be almost following the business model, helping entrepreneurs start new businesses "What drives you? What excites you? Just pick out things in the air that are your core values, then put them down on paper, and if this excites you, it will excite the people you gather around you."

All of a sudden church planter trainers and church leaders began to recognize that we don't just pick out of the air the core values that we make central to everyone. We let the biblical purposes inform those values. So, we have a core value that reflects worship. We have a core value that reflects discipleship. We have a core value that reflects fellowship. We have a core value that reflects outreach. We have a core value that reflects acts of mercy. Those core values might be extremely diverse from one church to another, but notice they're all driven by the biblical purposes. The way they flesh them out will often look dramatically different in terms of how worship ministry, or what aspect of worship ministry is valued.

You see some examples there of evangelism and missions values. Church multiplication, lets say this is a value. Extending the kingdom of God to all nations through starting and multiplying gospels in our churches. There's one of my core values. Even from the very beginning. Our church is actually planning on being a church planting church. The DNA is here. That's why we exist. That's one of the things that drives us to start this church. That's why we do what we do.

Then the last one, ministry activities. If people don't share values, they need to sustain a ministry activity, it will inevitably just wither. It will be a perfunctory, dutiful, manner and it will almost never thrive.

Core Values Stated (Values Series 4 of 6)

Make a bold, new, creative mistake, don't make this mistake. Don't make the mistake of not understanding the difference between a stated value, a core value. 

There's a huge difference between a stated value and a core value. It's very common for church planters and churches to have a great set of core values that they've developed when they take a course like this. You visit the church and they've got the core values in the worship bulletin. They got the core values framed, but how do you know whether it really is a core value or a stated value? The obvious: by their behaviors.

You've got the one circle over here, your stated values. That's your statement that you're about to write. You've got your ministry behaviors over here. That's what you do. When I look at what you do, I can find out whether or not it reflects what you say you value by how much intersection there is.

Here's a real common one. For us, a core value is lost people matter to God. You visit the church, you just start asking around, nobody has a friend who's just not another church member in the same spiritual ghetto. They're not praying for these friends they don't have to come to Christ because they don't have friends to pray for. They're not praying even for courage to do this. Look at this statement, lost people matter to God. Our driving value.

The other one, the hard driving value is a heart for missions to unreached people. You look at their budget, no money goes to anything related to unreached peoples. You listen to their prayers week in and week out, nobody's praying for unreached peoples. Heads up, you're about to write a statement, make sure that you understand the statement you're writing is stated values. You'll find out when you're on the field whether or not your stated values are your core values by the behaviors of your people.

True story. Core value, diversity and worship, and on the basis of that core value this couple accepted a call. Follow with me as I read it.

"Fresh out of seminary, my husband and I began ministry at an established 850-member church in a large city. During the interview process we were impressed by the church's forward thinking missions and values. We were excited to join such an apparently dynamic ministry. As time passed however it became clear that there was far more bark than bite at the church. While the church on the surface said they valued outreach, character, and innovation, the no rocking ethos meant that it's actual directive was don't offend anyone. Don't take risks, and don't deal with hidden sense. It took more than three years for us to figure that out. We also learned from experience that simply changing a church's statement of core values does not automatically change its culture. One of our churches stated core values was diversity and worship styles. Apparently the music director never got that memo as he vehemently fought any efforts to introduce contemporary elements into the worship service."

He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the aspiring church planter.