Tony Wheeler dot Net

The internet is a funny place.  Many moons ago, before Al Gore invented the internet, people used really neat technology to call other computers or servers.  Basically these computers would talk to each other and the owners could transmit 1s and 0s to each other in nifty green screen or if you were lucky orange screen.  They would also dial into a central computer and use something called BBS.  BBS was the early form of online community.

Now, I’m not that geeky and most of what I know about these old technologies I’ve learned from Hollywood or books such as “The Computer that Wore Sneakers”.  My foray into the wonderful world of the information superhighway came sometime in the mid-Nineties when I would use my grandparent’s home computer to dial up (probably a 9600 or 14.4 modem I don’t remember) to America Online to research and occasionally chat.  Surely you remember those days?  During college I utilized AOL Instant Messenger exclusively and services like Yahoo and MSN were loathed by yours truly.  I used to chat a ton and always had IM active when I was online.  Then I would meet one person who used Yahoo or one person who used MSN Messenger.  Then cool services like Trillian and now the web based Meebo came out where you could have one central location to manage all of your contacts.  Today, Social Networking, which is pretty much what the early BBS and IM were, has exploded into tons of networks and services.

So what?  I was thinking today as I was reading a new blog that I stumbled upon by a guy named Paul Watson about the social nature of the internet. It seems that we’ve come full circle in terms of what we use the internet for.  Sure we can get the latest news, stock quotes, pay bills, buy stuff that we don’t even need, and conduct endless amounts of research.  But by and large the internet is still used for networking of the social and professional variety. Blogs, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Forums, LinkedIn, and a whole bunch of other places are simply ways to connect with other people.

Paul’s blog has a ton of interesting info about reaching the online generation.  If you are a staff member or volunteer at a church, it is worth your time to take a minute to check his blog out.

I’ll be talking more about the online community and what I’ve done and what I would like to do to have a great impact more as the days go by.  The real eye opener behind all of this is that people are searching out connections and community in any way that they can get it.  What can we do to help fill this real need in people’s lives?

If you’ve been around the blogosphere lately you’ve probably seen several bloggers hashing out the ideas of discipleship/small groups/organic church vs. ‘traditional’ church.  I’ve had some opportunity to read some of the stuff that these guys are writing and also had some great conversations with some of them.

Perry Noble wrote a post that basically outlined the things that he is struggling with in terms of discipleship.  He mentioned a person wrote to others wondering what their churches were doing to make discipleship.  The caveat was that this could not be on Sunday mornings.  Being a pastor, Perry obviously didn’t agree with that point.  My thought is that discipleship must happen during gatherings such as Sunday worship.  Many churches have Bible teaching times outside of the worship setting as well.  I’ve seen this done tremendously well in a church plant I was on staff at in the Minneapolis area.  I was always impressed that we could gather 50 plus people for an hour each week and they engaged and implemented what we taught.  Amazing!  Should discipleship extend beyond Sunday mornings?  Certainly, but to say that it cannot and does not happen is simply insane.

Perry defined discipleship as teaching someone to walk with Jesus, picking them up when they fall down and teaching them to feed themselves.  Pretty straightforward definition if you ask me.  Perry did mention that it is difficult to make disciples without first having converts…not sure I agree totally there, but could be a matter of semantics and when the point of conversion actually happens.

Anyway..thoughts? Comments? Smart remarks?

Check out these guys for some more reading in this vein.

Chris Elrod

Brian Jones — He has a great series of posts on the idea of small groups….Loved it. Thanks, Brian.

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.

1. The model or methodology has to be unique to the person or persons doing the work.  While I am perfectly capable of launching an all out balls to the walls church plant that looks and feels like 87% of the other church plants that will launch this year, I would be living a lie.  I’m not any of those guys and that type of church planting just doesn’t fit who God has designed me to be.
2. The model or methodology must work in the community in which the church is to be planted.  I said to my former pastor that what we intended to do just would not work in Rochester, MN.  I wasn’t even sure what that meant at the time, but now I see a glimpse of what it meant.

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.

The Portability of the Organic Church

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.