During our Leadership Community this past Saturday, we talked about our Vision for the church. A couple of things that I communicated to our leaders about the Vision included...
- We are a simple church with a strategic vision. We intentionally keep things pretty simple so that we can focus all of our time and attention and resources on the few things we feel called to do. Less is more...
- If we are to make our vision stick in the minds and hearts of our people then we have to say "No" more often than we say "Yes". There are a lot of great ideas out there, but we have to run them through the filter of who Great Oaks is and what God is calling us to accomplish. This means that we have to protect the Vision and the focus of the church by being ruthless in our simplicity.
Did you read those other posts? If you attend Great Oaks or are a church leader somewhere around the world, you seriously need to take the time to read those two posts. Don't worry...they aren't links that are going to take you somewhere weird. Trust me...just read them.
7 comments:
Chris,
Don't you think there are extremes on both sides? I've seen and been a part of over - programmed churches and it isn't healthy. On the other hand, being too simple has its issues too. My wife and I have found it difficult to meet and connect with anybody outside of our small group at Great Oaks. In addition, the only portal for the unchurched to come into Great Oaks is Sunday Morning. Sunday morning church symbolizes so much for the unchurched, often unpleasant, that it is often difficult to get them there. I've seen unchurched that wouldn't dream of stepping foot in church on Sunday that were willing to go play paint ball or dodge ball with a men's ministry. They got to know some more Christians, heard a testimony and then coming on Sunday and eventually joining a small group was so much easier.
Pastors are usually the ones promoting simplicity. It certainly makes their life easier. I wonder, though, if a healthy church has sufficient quantities of leaders developed and empowered to do more without burning out the pastors and volunteers.
Blake,
Thanks for posting your comment! One of my goals for this blog is to create dialogue with people. Thanks for contributing to that goal. Here are some thoughts in response to your post.
(1) I agree that there are extremes on both sides. What we are seeing at Great Oaks, though, is not the extreme of simplicity but rather the unfulfilled Vision & strategy of the church. (See #2 below)
(2) We do have limited opportunities to connect relationally with people. This is why in the coming year, we will see an increase in the number and variety of Living Room events. We will also hopefully see an intentional & active long-term relationship established with a local social-justice organization as well as an international church. I think we will soon have more on our plates than we realize.
(3) I think there are connection points for the unchurched beyond Sunday morning services. Our Living Room events, our small groups, and our community service projects can all serve as portals for connection. I also think a meal and some honest conversation in our homes are connection points for the unchurched.
(4) Being a Simple Church not only benefits the pastors but also the people of the church. As you indicated, it is possible to over-program our people's lives to the point where all they are doing is church stuff. We need to keep it simple so that we can be salt & light in the community and so that we can connect deeply with our fellow believers through small groups, meals, service projects, etc together. I am thankful for being a Simple Church so that I can volunteer in the Cub Scouts when Ethan joins without putting a huge burden on my family with another night out. My hope is that I can reach out to Scouting volunteers and parents who are far from God. I couldn't do this if we had more programs happening at the church.
(5) I completely agree that a healthy church must have sufficient quantities of leaders developed and empowered. The pastors cannot and should not be doing all of the ministry. The role of the pastors is to equip people for works of service. (Eph 4:11-12) If the pastors are doing all of the work, we have failed as the leaders.
Again, thanks for the post and the opportunity to dialogue. I would love to hear your thoughts in response...
Chris,
I'll throw out some other thoughts to keep the discussion going.
I know it's almost heresy to say within the emerging church movement, but I do believe that the emerging church view of small groups is becoming a bit distorted (and I'm a big supporter of them). We tend view small groups as a panacea when they are not. For example, authentic community might be best experienced in a small group, but isn't only experienced there. Not everybody can do small groups, not every small group experiences authentic community, and not every need for authentic community can be met in our couples driven same demographic small group structure. Huge chunks of the church don't get to experience authentic community because that is the only avenue offered. I believe the church is well served to create other opportunities to foster that community. You of all people seem to recognize that people connect with God (and each other)in different settings, yet we somehow beleive small groups transcend that. Community is one example, but service, worship, prayer, teaching and evanglesim all have contexts where they can be done better in settings other than in small groups. If you can only do one thing, then small groups are it, but I think big and growing churches can do more than one thing.
I appreciate your boy scout example and I agree that you should have time to do those things. I just don't believe that I need the church to protect me from myself. I can decide if I should do a men's ministry event or boy scouts on my own based on my needs and life circumstance. I don't need my church to make that choice for me.
One last little example in terms of the simplicity culture: My wife is going to Hearts at Home in Bloomington. The other gals in small group can't make it. She would love to go with a group from church and establish some relationships, dialogue about what they are learning, etc. I'm guessing that there are a dozen or more women from GOCC going, yet many like my wife will remain unconnected and go alone because the culture of GOCC is such that one wouldn't be allowed to formally organize a group to go.
Blake,
I like where you are coming from on these things. Even as the official Small Groups Pastor, I recognize that authentic community can occur outside of the official small group environment and that not everyone will be able to be in a small group. This is why I have the question - "How do we shepherd people who are not in small groups?" - written on my dry-erase board in my office.
I do, however, believe that a small relational environment - whether a small group or one-on-one mentoring/accountability - is the most conducive environment for spiritual growth. We need that community with a person or persons where we are known and know others, where we are loved and love others, where we are served and serve others, etc. We need people in our lives who have the right to challenge us when they see an area that needs addressed.
My heart breaks for your wife and all of the other women who are going to Hearts at Home this weekend without an organized group from the church. This is one example of a potential Living Room event that the church could grab hold of and offer. As I said before, we recognize as a leadership that this is an area of weakness and have committed to improving it dramatically this year.
Lastly, I agree that people should be able to protect their schedule from overcommitment. Unfortunately, many churched people I interact with cannot do that for some reason. If the church offers something... they will be there.
And by offering a multitude of programs, we implicitly teach the unchurched and new Christians that Christianity is all about being involved in the programs of the church. We run the risk of creating a holy huddle within the walls of the church.
Thoughts?
Chris,
I don't think we're terribly far apart in your thinking. .
I'm curious for your thoughts on what criteria you would use when deciding yes / no on an activity. If you'll indulge me, let me toss out a few examples and perhaps you can go through your thought process in evaluating them. Assuming at least one answer will be "it depends", what does it depend on?
1) A group of artsy / musical folk want to have a single coffehouse event at the church where they and others can perform / display their God given talents and invite their friends.
2) A woman with a SHAPE for women's ministry asks to begin one at Great Oaks.
3) A mechanically inclined guy wants to start a 1st Saturday of the month ministry to single mothers / widows by doing oil changes, etc. in the church parking lot. He hopes to get some other guys to join him.
(I assure you that I personally don't represent any of the three)
The biggest thing we want to avoid is adding more "layers" to the ministry of Great Oaks. We don't want to have more meetings and more ministry teams than absolutely necessary. We also want our Living Room events to be varied in target audience and focus. That means we don't do the same thing month after month (i.e. monthly men's breakfast, etc).
So in response, here's the filter I would go through on your three hypothetical scenarios. Please understand that the following represents my personal filter I would go through on these. These may not be the filters the leadership of the church would go through as we pray and discern the areas of ministry God is calling us to pursue. Remember...I am only one part of a larger team of people!
(1) Coffeehouse - This would be a great Living Room event. It is unique and connects with a demographic that is not highly visible in our church. It is also highly relational. The concerns would stem around having a large enough audience to warrant the time, energy, and resources.
(2) Women's Ministry - It's already happened; I met with one such woman late last year. I explained our Vision & strategy and informed her that elements of a Women's Ministry could fit into the Vision without developing a completely separate ministry (i.e. more layers of ministry and repetitious events). We can host an occasional women's breakfast/tea or bring in an outside speaker or go to a retreat/conference, etc. The same thing applies to a men's ministry or a single's ministry or a _________ ministry.
(3) Oil changes for single women - Great community service to offer but may be best offered through a small group of people than as a Living Room event. This is one of those things that can be done outside of formal organization by the church. My other thought here is that - if organized by the church - it could take away resources (money, time, energy) from the local social-justice organization with whom we are considering partnering.
One more thought... we don't want to saturate the church calendar with a ton of one-time, relational events. We will probably discuss setting a maximum number of events that would be hosted/offered in a given month and/or year.
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