life::discipleship::transformation
It is pretty crazy that I just cranked out 5, now 6 posts in one single day! God has been building all of that stuff in me and it is time that I let it all out.
Sorry that I dumped it all on you at once…I could have used time delay, but frankly I couldn’t wait to get all that out!
Thanks for reading!
I’ve discussed the Organic/SImple/House church model here at some length. I’m obviously a fan. I’ve read a lot from various sources over the years about how these types of churches play out and what some of these guys have to say about mainline churches.
The number one thing that discourages me about being identified with/being a part of a movement of Organic/SImple/House churches is that a number of folks in that camp seem to throw the baby out with the bathwater. They are under the impression that their meeting in their smaller groups is all that there is to it. While I understand some of their reasoning, I really don’t understand it. Cell Churches, which are basically house churches that also meet on Sunday for celebratory worship, have thrived in various parts of the world for years. Christ the King Community Church in Washington State has done an outstanding job of centering their mission and vision around small groups, but also convening together in larger gatherings. They have done this quite well across the United States of America and also globally as well. This is just one example, but there are many more. An interesting facet of Christ the King’s ministry is that the have geographic worship centers. This seems like a natural outflow of the motivation behind the smaller home church gatherings. I’m pondering the idea of meeting on a monthly or quarterly basis as a collective body to worship, fellowship and reach out. I don’t think it has to be either/or, but a both/and. Or in some cases neither. I might only get to be in an LTG with someone before they have to go home, but they are taking with them some resources to help them start churches once they get there!
Organic/House/Simple Church folks…stop being pissed off at the mainline churches around you. Redeem what you think is wrong with them, use it to the benefit of the people in your movement and you may be surprised at the outcome. It isn’t an us and them battle, we’re all in this together. Just a side note: If you’ve got one house church going and it never grows and/or reproduces, you’re not healthy. They have a name for groups like that, they are called cults. God’s vision for your church is much larger than your living room. Expand your horizons. Meet some more people. Make some disciples, that is what you’re supposed to be doing anyway!
As far as church planting goes, I have seen many different models and makes. I’ve been to conferences and taken part in various things online that are proponents of one model over another. I’m not saying that one is right or one is wrong, but one thing that I have learned is that there are two very important elements that need to be in place for ‘effective’ church planting.
Given these two things that must be true for an ‘effective’ church plant, I’ll now talk a bit about the extended vision for what it is that we are doing here.
Simple Church, Organic Church, House Church, Cell Church, Neighborhood Church…all those are terms used to describe what God has called us here to do. The Life Transformation Groups are, as I see them, foundational to building larger gatherings of 12-15 people in homes, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, theme parks, resorts etc. These gatherings are churches. They function much like a family, sharing meals, sharing struggles, serving together, worshiping together. I envision a network of these churches that reaches across the city, beginning with us in our own neighborhood. As I see it, this is truly the representation of what went on with the First Century followers of Jesus.
One of the unique things about the Orlando area is that it is very transient. People come here from all over the world to work for Disney or Lockheed (to name a couple), they also come here to study or to search out life. One of the huge areas of opportunity for people like us is with Disney Interns. Typically they come here for 6 months, away from their friends and family for most major holidays. When their time is through they usually go home. What if we were able to equip them to be church planters before they left? Using LTG groups and an organic church model, these folks could very well transplant the church from Orlando to King of Prussia, PA or Beijing, China or Oslo, Norway.
The thought that in as little as a few months, we could be planting churches all across the world simply blows my mind. I’ve been burdened with this town and this people group (Disney is the largest single site employer in the country with about 60,000 employees…talk about a mission field!) and I’m excited about the possibilities that are ahead of us.
You may be asking yourself if we have gone insane. Possibly. In reality, the idea of Organic Church simply fits us. We’re more grassrootsy than glitz and glammy. We’re more about relationships and people than structures and systems.
As I said before, I’m not trying to make my case as to why the Organic Church is THE method of church planting. I don’t think there is one right or wrong way of being the church. I’m not bashing anyone, just laying it out for you to play it out.
Next time — I’ll give the Organic/Simple/House Church guys and gals something to chew on.
As a student of Church Planting over the past decade or more, I’ve seen a lot of fads come and go. Systems that work well for one church in one location but fail miserably in another. I’ve seen God’s hand divinely placed on some churches while others struggle and eventually close. One thing that I can say with certainty is that there is no one right way to plant a church. What works for one may not work for another. What one pastor can pull off, another will fall flat on his face with. In the following, I’m NOT bashing anyone, just sharing where my heart is at.
A couple of observations:
Being different for the sake of being different is dumb. Being different for the sake of the Gospel is not. I’ve been greatly influenced by a number of different speakers and authors, but in the past couple months I’ve been devouring everything that I can get may hands on regarding Simple Church or Organic Church. I’ve been greatly blessed by Neil Cole, who wrote Organic Church and a host of other stuff that most people haven’t even heard of. I heard Neil at the Exponential Conference back in April. He explained a bit about how discipleship is a lost art and that we are on a search and rescue mission. He explained about how Awakening Chapels, the organic church planting movement that he founded, does discipleship. Life Transformation Groups (known by many other names) are one of the primary vehicles that they have used in disciple making.
LTGs are groups of 2-3 people of the same sex who meet for one hour each week for Bible reading, accountability and prayer. The Bible reading is 30 chapters a week. Seems like a lot, but Neil explained that the goal isn’t simply to finish the reading, rather the goal is to not finish the reading. If the reading isn’t finished by one person, then the next week the same 30 chapters are to be read. This continues until everyone finishes the reading. There are a series of accountability questions that are asked and each person should answer truthfully. Finally, each person selects a couple of people in their lives to pray for. When God moves into the lives of those people that we have been praying for, new LTG groups are formed. The possibility for exponential growth is literally limitless.
Simple enough? You bet. Can anyone do it? Indeed. Can it be transferred to other cultures, time periods in history and survive trends in church planting? I think so.
So, LTGs are the simplest form of church that I have been able to find. The Bible promises us that where two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, that he is there also.
Is that it? Is that where we want to stop? NOT A CHANCE!
Stay tuned for Part III — The Simple Way Church.
I’ve been intentionally quiet on the Church Planting/Spiritual Community building that we have been called to here in the great nation of Florida. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, praying, listening and conversing. Our journey to Florida is one that God has had in the works for years and it has been amazing to watch His hand at work in this whole thing. From the night in 1998 when I went running (yes, I used to run once in awhile!) down on 192 when I was in Orlando for vacation with my entire family and I felt some strange urging that I needed to live here, to the amazing time in 2001 when I spent 6 months on an internship with Disney and met some lifelong friends and some not-so-lifelong friends, to 2003 when I had an unshakable urge to move to Orlando again (little did I know that God had some serious plans for that season as well including preparing my wife and I for each other) and then about 2 years ago God started stirring in us that we were going to be church planters one day in a land far far away. That land turned out to be Orlando. Hindsight is a beautiful thing…The movements in our lives over the past few years have been outstanding. I’m thankful for where we have been and the people along the way and I’m even more thankful for where we are at right now.
I’m gearing up to say: I’m going to do a series (okay, well it might be one) of posts talking about some of the things that I have learned and heard over the past few months. It is all rather exciting, to us at least, and it is a huge God movement in us and around us.
Stay tuned!
Just read a cool little article on the Orlando Sentinel’s website that talks about a partnership between NASA and the Walt Disney Company. It seems that Disney developed a series of educational materials called the Space Ranger Educational Series at the request of NASA. In return, NASA is sending Buzz Lightyear “To Infinity and Beyond” by sending Buzz up in the Space Shuttle Discovery slated to blast off tomorrow, May 31 at 5:02 Eastern Time. Coincidentally, Toy Story Midway Mania is opening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Those Disney people aren’t dummies!
Having just spent the better part of last week around 2800 people who aim to return to their home turf and plant churches, I have a lot of stuff swimming around in my head that I’m dealing with. Prior to last week, I’ve kind of been quiet. I’d not listened to too many podcasts, read too many Christian type books, surfed many blogs or really thought about what God sent us here to do. I think that was good for my soul.
Having met and spent some time with some people who are really kicking some serious tail, I’ve got a fire in my belly. I’m not ready to lay it all out here just yet, but hold on to your britches. I’m really not a hyped up kind of guy. There are really few things that make me get really excited — the kind of excited where you jump up and down and get all silly. God’s been planting seeds in me for a couple of years…those seeds are about to sprout and that makes me excited.
So, all that said, I was doing a little blog reading today and my blogging friend, Ben Arment, had a great post about the difference between a church planter’s first and second church plant. Now I know that I have never been a lead guy in a church plant, but I’ve done various things at various levels in several plants over the years, so I can feel where Ben is coming from. The huge thing that Ben talked about was a shift in priorities. I especially think that in the coming years, the shift from any one ‘church’ or denomination or network to the Church of Jesus Christ will be HUGE. With declining numbers of people in pews, the economy tightening people’s budgets, and disinterest in organized religion, we are going to have to band together. Things will have to change. I’m not saying that God won’t still build his kingdom — that really is ultimately his job, he just invites us along for the ride– but we are commanded to go into all the earth and make disciples, so we should probably be doing that. You should head on over to Ben’s blog and check out what he has to say. He is a great blogger, marketer and Starbucks fanatic. I think he and Scott Hodge have kept Starbucks afloat while Howard was away.
(You know, it is funny, now that I have to drive at least 10 miles to get to a Starbucks, I want it daily. I could drink an Venti-sugar-free-hazlenut-skinny-iced-latte pretty much any time of the day. I’d much rather have something from a local joint, but alas House Blend is like 25 miles away. Love you guys, but can’t make that trek for a latte! Wow, I’ll end the parenthetical sidebar now.)
