For Now, Focus on Purpose Rather than Structure

"Making disciples" is the commission God has given us in the Great Commission.  

Therefore we believe our mission is about "Knowing God and Making Him Known".

As we ask how we do that as a Body.  We look to our vision which is "To Experience God through relevant worship, discovering a place to belong, and participating in opportunities that make a difference."

Broken down, that means we want to...

• Engage people in worship and loving God
• Engage people in groups and loving others
• Engage people in ministry and serving the world

Through these engagements we believe God enables us to assist His Spirit in making disciples. These disciples are characterized in the following ways.

They love God.  The love others. They are...

1) Connected

2) Caring

3) Growing

4) Serving

5) Giving

6) Worshipping

7) Reaching Out

I wonder if our starting point is found elsewhere than figuring out new structures (That will take time and planning).  What if we each started upon focusing upon the three priorities.

1) Infuse the Discipleship purpose into everything we do.  It's not just about ministry, getting through material, having a meeting.  Every activity, etc is infused with the purpose of discipleship.

2) Each of us (and every ministry leader) accept the calling of a "Shepherding Leader".  We accept the call to...

a)  Know their name

b) Know their story

c)  Know their need

This applies to each member of the group/team and the group/team as a whole.  Who are they?

Where are they spiritually, etc.?  Where do they desire to head?  With this knowledge we choose to shepherd the individual, shepherd the group.

3)  As Shepherd Leaders who know our groups, we continually are identifying the lowest common denominators (Seven Essential Qualities) of our group/team and designing ways in which to disciple the group accordingly.

Let me know what you think.

Shepherding Leaders & Spiritual Formation

As I read and ponder our church in its context, I see similar language (vision statement, etc.) What I don't see is discipleship being the goal. As I stated earlier, I believe much of what I believe we talk or do is build the organization. We need to make discipleship the purpose or goal. I also believe we need to get back to some basic themes and ideas. I don't believe discipleship should be a ministry of the church. I don't believe it should be defined merely by classes people take. I believe it needs to be a shepherding responsibility that occurs in our small groups (and for lack of better term) our ministry/service teams. I believe we need to... 1) Ensure every such leader feels the call to shepherd 2) Train each leader to disciple within the context of their group or ministry 3) Establish what that discipleship process looks like. I think our Seven Essential Qualities were our attempt at that. We established discipleship courses that went along with each. I do believe they need to be refined; taught to be implemented. I guess my question is, "What if each small group and ministry leader were called to shepherd their group/team in keeping with some sort of predescribed (Seven Essential Qualities) type goals?" What if each Shepherding Leader understood and worked at developing not only their group but each individual along the lines of... Worshipping Connecting Caring Reaching Out Giving Serving (We do have definitions for each) Can you imagine if this became the ministry of the church? Can you believe what might occur if we developed small group leaders with these as their long term formation goals for each member? I think some of our next steps reside within our Shepherding leaders and small groups!

Leadership Team Committed to Our Process (Vision)?

About staff (and I would say leaders)...

Cross Church is also looking for staff, but their questions are different.  What they are seeking is different.  Like First church, they want people who are blameless in character and competent in their ministry calling.  However, they are also looking for people who are on board with their ministry process.  This is important to them.  

Each existing staff member was recruited on the “love God, love others, serve the world” process.  Some talented and highly recommended staff members are not considered because they had their own pet programs.  And these programs fell outside of this ministry process.  so the potential staff person was not considered.

Simple Church, pp. 52-53

How committed do you feel our staff and leadership team are committed to our vision of...

Experiencing God through relevant worship, discovering a place to belong, and participating in opportunities that make a difference.

How committed are we to...

Worship

A Small Group

Engaged in Service

The "Ends" and the "Means"...It Matters

Are we making the “means” an “end”?  Think about that for a moment.  With all the talk about church growth, church health one could almost begin to believe that our end is the church.  Yet is not the end the “making of disciples”?    I know I state the obvious in terms of theory.  I know it’s not really a new idea, at least when it comes to discussion.

Yet I wonder what the discussion looks like if we could only use our present church activities.  What do our activities reveal about our real purpose?  Have the “ends” become the “means” and the “means” become the “ends”. 

I also wonder what activities we presently are engaged in that presently do not contribute to the ends of making disciples?  What do we presently do that contributes to the “making of disciples”?  What do we presently do that contributes to building a church?  I actually believe some of our same activities/programs with a declared purpose of “making and developing” disciples would change.  What do you think?

The "Why" and "How"

I find Rainer and Geiger’s opening chapter a breath of fresh air. I do believe we are at the end of an era in which church’s believed they needed to do all things for their believing community. Church became about services provided for the family. The questions about mission, etc were lost as health clubs and a wide-spectrum of programs were added. Though I believe we are at the end of this era, I do believe we still live in the wake of its jet plumes.

With the above comment as context, I do believe that any discussion of “programming” or “ministry philosophy” must start with a clear understanding of purpose. And I think most of us would agree (at least I think so) that this purpose resides within our commission to make disciples. No discussion of how should take place until the why has been understood. Conversely, once the why is established, no how should reside outside of it. It probably is in the latter in which we error the most. The forgetting or the ignoring of the why in the implementation or decision to do some of our hows.

Read Chapters 1 & 2

Alright, let's get started. What did you like or dislike about the chapters? Where do we get it? Where do we miss it? How would you apply what you read in your area of ministry? Let the reading and blogging begin!

Reading Schedule and Further Instruction

Here is the reading schedule for Simple Church:

June 3 - July 1: Chapters One and Two
July 1 - August 5: Chapters Three and Four
August 5 - September 2: Chapters Five and Six
September 2 - October 7: Chapters Seven and Eight
October 7 - November 4: Chapter Nine and Final Thoughts

The underlined dates indicate a meeting date on which we will spend time discussing the assigned chatpers. Prior to that meeting date is when we are to go to this blog and begin to post our comments and observations.

To enhance the experience, I hope that you will allow me to suggest (OK ... insist) on the following:

1. Thoroughly read the chapter. Underline key concepts, make notes in the margins.
2. Attempt to blog your comments three times in the month. A suggested format could be ...
*What did you agree with and why? Find surprising? Disagree with?
*Where do you think Westwood Church is incorporating the ideas presented? What do we already "get"? What don't we have a clue about?
*How do you think you would apply the concepts to your area of ministry? What would need change? What would it look like?

I look forward to reading, hearing, and interacting with your comments.
So, let the reading, blogging, and discussing begin!!!


Pastor Jon