Here's a seminar by Gary DeLashmutt, on of the lead pastors at Xenos.
Assumptions
* Home Group multiplication is central to the healthy growth of the church.
* Spiritual gifts are an important resource for healthy church growth (Rom 12; 1 Cor 12:14; Eph 4:1; 1 Pet 4)
It is easy and costly to over-emphasize or under-emphasize spiritual gifts in our ministry philosophy.
DON’T structure the church around programs, and urge people to use their gifts primarily in these programs. The boomer mega-church model is a program model. This approach is based more on the modern corporate business model than on the New Testament.
DO structure the church around home groups, and urge people to use spiritual gifts primarily to help their home groups grow and multiply. 1 Cor 14:26 – What shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation..... Not possible to do this in a large gathering.
DON’T focus people on discovering their spiritual gifts. New Testament neither commands Christians to do this, nor does it tell us how to do this. This is a misguided focus.
DO focus people on embracing a lifestyle of serving love-and affirm spiritual gifts as one expression of this lifestyle. This is both the emphasis of the NT and the context of all NT teaching on gifts. Become others focused and you will discover your gifts.
DON’T promote spiritual gifts as an alternative to/substitute for evangelism, loving one another, and discipleship. These 3 ministries are central to the NT – and crucial for home group multiplication. People avoid living out the basic Christian life by saying things like, “I’m not gifted in evangelism, admonishing others, discipling, etc” or “I like to serve in ways that make me feel excited, confident, etc.” We think our gifts need to make us feel good. In reality, we specialize as a supplement to the basic things all Christians are commanded to do. “The biblical doctrine of gifts is being greatly abused today because it is not being considered alongside the biblical doctrine of the cross” – Ajith Fernando
DO promote spiritual gifts to supplement and enhance evangelism, loving one another, and discipleship. These gifts are special competency that give us special opportunities to build the body. Gifts are built on the baseline – over and above that required for all Christians. If we really like about 20% of the work we do, and generally find about 40% acceptable, then we can handle the 40% we do not like that might be vital in giving relevance and depth to our ministry. Look for ways people can use their gifts evangelistically – building up and growth of the church (qualitative and quantitative). Look for potential gifting in the people you disciple.
DON’T prioritize spiritual gifts over character and a servant lifestyle in home group leader requirements. Deacon requirements make no reference to gifting (1Tim 3). Don’t be deceived by results at the expense of servant character.
DO urge home group leaders to use their spiritual gifts in their leadership. (1 Tim 4:14, 2 Tim 1:6,7) Using gifts helps us overcome timidity. Step out and use them and you will have greater confidence, greater power, greater self-control and greater love. This will unleash God’s power into the home group. This will complement their other leaders. This will help leaders serve in other areas with greater energy and confidence. Gifting seems to work in teams. When we are gifted in certain areas we see needs in that area. A team helps to see what we need to do in many areas. The best leadership teams have people with different giftings.
DON’T try to fit every spiritual gift into a biblical label. The NT gift-lists are not exhaustive. Great diversity of gifts, gift mixes and degrees of gifting. Some NT gifts are ambiguous (eg. word of knowledge). And who cares!
DO draw people’s attention to where you see evidence of ministry talent and urge them to use it consistently. Don’t worry about what to call it.
Showing posts with label Home Groups. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Groups. Show all posts
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
Supporting Those Who Serve Others
This session is by Joel Comiskey, world-wide cell church guru. Read on...
Research of 3000 Home Group Leaders in 20 Countries (Jim Egli) - Quality coaching of home group leaders was the most important factor in establishing a successful home group.
1. Make sure people are in relationship with Jesus. Spending daily quiet time with Jesus. This is the key discipline of the Christian life. “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then you Father, who sees what is done will reward you.
2. Make sure people live a balanced life. Taking a day off. The need for a 24 hour rest period. Lev 23:7-8.
3. Make sure they are successful with those closest to them. Success is having those closest to you love and respect you the most – John Maxwell. Relationship with spouse and other close relationships.
4. Make sure they get support from those closest. Character does count. DL Moody – “character is what you are in the dark”.
5. Make sure leaders are allow to step out and fail with a cushion. Someone is there to help out. Risking for Jesus. Stumbling and learning is normal. Valuable lessons are learned in the process. He who makes no mistakes, makes no progress. God’s grace covers failure but it does not cover passivity. At least Peter got out of the boat. We’ve made misunderstood what makes a person usable. God can only use 100% righteous people and through Christ we are all made righteous. People grow more when they are in useful ministry. God uses people who are dependent. Turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones. We are made strong in our weaknesses. Give people the liberty to experiment. Let my people go. Read Roland Allan.
6. Make sure you are listening to people. Listen 352 times in the Bible, hear is 379 times. Most people do not listen in order to understand, but in order to answer – Steven Covey. Prov.18:13. Direct our attention to their needs. We talk much slower than we think. Listen to unspoken words. Look people in the eyes.
7. Make sure you serve them. Serve through encouragement. 1 Thess 5:12-13. Serve those with rough edges. Serve by being a friend.
8. Make sure you challenge people. Eph 4: 15-16. Confronting areas of weakness. Ask for permission.
Research of 3000 Home Group Leaders in 20 Countries (Jim Egli) - Quality coaching of home group leaders was the most important factor in establishing a successful home group.
1. Make sure people are in relationship with Jesus. Spending daily quiet time with Jesus. This is the key discipline of the Christian life. “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then you Father, who sees what is done will reward you.
2. Make sure people live a balanced life. Taking a day off. The need for a 24 hour rest period. Lev 23:7-8.
3. Make sure they are successful with those closest to them. Success is having those closest to you love and respect you the most – John Maxwell. Relationship with spouse and other close relationships.
4. Make sure they get support from those closest. Character does count. DL Moody – “character is what you are in the dark”.
5. Make sure leaders are allow to step out and fail with a cushion. Someone is there to help out. Risking for Jesus. Stumbling and learning is normal. Valuable lessons are learned in the process. He who makes no mistakes, makes no progress. God’s grace covers failure but it does not cover passivity. At least Peter got out of the boat. We’ve made misunderstood what makes a person usable. God can only use 100% righteous people and through Christ we are all made righteous. People grow more when they are in useful ministry. God uses people who are dependent. Turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones. We are made strong in our weaknesses. Give people the liberty to experiment. Let my people go. Read Roland Allan.
6. Make sure you are listening to people. Listen 352 times in the Bible, hear is 379 times. Most people do not listen in order to understand, but in order to answer – Steven Covey. Prov.18:13. Direct our attention to their needs. We talk much slower than we think. Listen to unspoken words. Look people in the eyes.
7. Make sure you serve them. Serve through encouragement. 1 Thess 5:12-13. Serve those with rough edges. Serve by being a friend.
8. Make sure you challenge people. Eph 4: 15-16. Confronting areas of weakness. Ask for permission.
Monday, 23 July 2007
Spiritual Growth Through Christian Community
This is a session from Jim Leffel, teacher at Xenos Christian Fellowship on spiritual growth.
There is a wide range of considerations when thinking about spiritual growth through Christian community.
* Theological Convictions - What does spiritual growth look like? What is the relationship between growing spiritually and the church?
* Barriers to Biblical ideals - Are Christians shaped by culture? Are Christians blind to cultural influences?
* The Great Commission - What is the difference between winning converts and making disciples? What is the connection between spiritual growth and winning disciples?
* Practical - How to foster dynamic Christian community?
What does growth look like?
Christianity is not merely credal. It is not a list of things we say we believe and then we move on. The biblical metephors for growth are botany and physical biology (alive, growing, bearing fruit). The vitality of growth is measured relationally, and not by how far we retreat from the world. The greatest commandment is to love God and neighbor.
The fruit of the Spirit demonstrates character change (Gal.5:22-23). All of the fruit are relational. You need to be in relationship with people in order to demonstrate them.
We need to watch for the doors God opens and be prepared for those moments (1Peter 3:15). There is a paradox of discipleship that the more we give up, the more we gain (10:39; 16:25).
Spiritual growth is a fundamental life transformation manifesting the love of Christ. The context for life transformation is the Church.
Individual and Corporate Life
* There is both "me" and "we" in salvation. See the book Community of the King by Howard Snyder and The New Chosen People: A Corporate View of Election by William Klein.
* Individuals matter to God (called, elect, chosen...). These occur in a corporate setting - the Greek word "ekklesia" meaning "called out ones" (Ephesians 1:22, 23). God's work in the world is carried out through the Church.
* We gain a new community (1 Peter 2:9) having radical inclusion: there is a place for everyone in the Kingdom.
* We have an "oikos" meaning household, family. Salvation comes through adoption into the family of God. We have brothers and sisters and we need to be responsible for them (1Peter 4:10).
* We are part of Chirst's body (1Corinthians 12:13).
There are some implications to this:
1) Radical individualism. Isolation is not possible for growing Christians. The cost of individualism is that 25% of people have no one to discuss life with, and of the 75% who do, 80% have only a family member. Only 15% have close friends outside the family. This causes heavy alienation and lonliness. We are less sensitive to the needs of others and can go from apathetic to antisocial. There is increased physical and emotional ill health.
Only 15% of evangelicals have been spiritually mentored. Only 46% feel strongly the responsibility to share Christ. 53% say that their main purpose in life is enjoyment and personal fulfillment (from Barna's book Growing True Disciples).
2) Family life strains. Cultural values and trends are largely reflected in the Church. This leads to too much pressure on marriages, too little support or input, and no models for parenting. The cell provides a biblical context for family. The "household ordinances" are carried out in the context of Christian community. This happens because there is a broad relational base and tangible personal service. This is how we will resolve the tide of selfishness.
Is God calling us to a sense of urgency about spiritual growth?
There is a wide range of considerations when thinking about spiritual growth through Christian community.
* Theological Convictions - What does spiritual growth look like? What is the relationship between growing spiritually and the church?
* Barriers to Biblical ideals - Are Christians shaped by culture? Are Christians blind to cultural influences?
* The Great Commission - What is the difference between winning converts and making disciples? What is the connection between spiritual growth and winning disciples?
* Practical - How to foster dynamic Christian community?
What does growth look like?
Christianity is not merely credal. It is not a list of things we say we believe and then we move on. The biblical metephors for growth are botany and physical biology (alive, growing, bearing fruit). The vitality of growth is measured relationally, and not by how far we retreat from the world. The greatest commandment is to love God and neighbor.
The fruit of the Spirit demonstrates character change (Gal.5:22-23). All of the fruit are relational. You need to be in relationship with people in order to demonstrate them.
We need to watch for the doors God opens and be prepared for those moments (1Peter 3:15). There is a paradox of discipleship that the more we give up, the more we gain (10:39; 16:25).
Spiritual growth is a fundamental life transformation manifesting the love of Christ. The context for life transformation is the Church.
Individual and Corporate Life
* There is both "me" and "we" in salvation. See the book Community of the King by Howard Snyder and The New Chosen People: A Corporate View of Election by William Klein.
* Individuals matter to God (called, elect, chosen...). These occur in a corporate setting - the Greek word "ekklesia" meaning "called out ones" (Ephesians 1:22, 23). God's work in the world is carried out through the Church.
* We gain a new community (1 Peter 2:9) having radical inclusion: there is a place for everyone in the Kingdom.
* We have an "oikos" meaning household, family. Salvation comes through adoption into the family of God. We have brothers and sisters and we need to be responsible for them (1Peter 4:10).
* We are part of Chirst's body (1Corinthians 12:13).
There are some implications to this:
1) Radical individualism. Isolation is not possible for growing Christians. The cost of individualism is that 25% of people have no one to discuss life with, and of the 75% who do, 80% have only a family member. Only 15% have close friends outside the family. This causes heavy alienation and lonliness. We are less sensitive to the needs of others and can go from apathetic to antisocial. There is increased physical and emotional ill health.
Only 15% of evangelicals have been spiritually mentored. Only 46% feel strongly the responsibility to share Christ. 53% say that their main purpose in life is enjoyment and personal fulfillment (from Barna's book Growing True Disciples).
2) Family life strains. Cultural values and trends are largely reflected in the Church. This leads to too much pressure on marriages, too little support or input, and no models for parenting. The cell provides a biblical context for family. The "household ordinances" are carried out in the context of Christian community. This happens because there is a broad relational base and tangible personal service. This is how we will resolve the tide of selfishness.
Is God calling us to a sense of urgency about spiritual growth?
Becoming a Spiritual Community - Part 2
Here's Part 2 of Larry Crabb's session:
When reading the Bible, we must not come to the text with our questions but listening to the questions God wants to answer. Questions like....
1. Who is God? God is a community.
2. What’s he up to? Teaching us to move with Him. We are often too afraid of intimacy with the Holy Spirit to let him teach us how to dance.
3. Who are we? Gendered image bearers, bearing the image of God.
4. What’s gone wrong? Sin.
5. What has God done? Providing change coming from looking bad in the presence of love. Providing forgiveness.
6. What is the Spirit doing today? Lifting our denial of desire. Showing us we were built for another world. Until we are empty, thirsty, desiring to see Him. Lifting denial of guilt. So that we value Jesus more than anything else.
7. How do we tag along with the Spirit? Through spiritual community.
The Practice of Spiritual Community
What does it look like to participate in the inner life of the Trinity and to carry that life into our relationships?
It looks like reaching with supernatural power into the depths of another person’s heart so that the evil in our hearts that rules so often unrecognized in how we relate is clearly identified and exposed as hateful. The Holy Spirit is given full permission to release our appetite for the Father. Our reality is not God's reality. God wants to show us our reality until we are helpless before him.
God’s Reality: The Trinity - The Church - Our Reality: Seen and Unseen
How does God’s reality become my reality? - Through the Church. He forms us by how we relate to each other.
How to relate to each other:
We must enter the battle raging beneath the surface. We need to look deeper at the battle between the flesh and Spirit as we relate to each other. Rom 8:7
We must see the vision in the mind of God for the person we are relating to.
We must touch the soul with the Spirit’s power that works in us.
When reading the Bible, we must not come to the text with our questions but listening to the questions God wants to answer. Questions like....
1. Who is God? God is a community.
2. What’s he up to? Teaching us to move with Him. We are often too afraid of intimacy with the Holy Spirit to let him teach us how to dance.
3. Who are we? Gendered image bearers, bearing the image of God.
4. What’s gone wrong? Sin.
5. What has God done? Providing change coming from looking bad in the presence of love. Providing forgiveness.
6. What is the Spirit doing today? Lifting our denial of desire. Showing us we were built for another world. Until we are empty, thirsty, desiring to see Him. Lifting denial of guilt. So that we value Jesus more than anything else.
7. How do we tag along with the Spirit? Through spiritual community.
The Practice of Spiritual Community
What does it look like to participate in the inner life of the Trinity and to carry that life into our relationships?
It looks like reaching with supernatural power into the depths of another person’s heart so that the evil in our hearts that rules so often unrecognized in how we relate is clearly identified and exposed as hateful. The Holy Spirit is given full permission to release our appetite for the Father. Our reality is not God's reality. God wants to show us our reality until we are helpless before him.
God’s Reality: The Trinity - The Church - Our Reality: Seen and Unseen
How does God’s reality become my reality? - Through the Church. He forms us by how we relate to each other.
How to relate to each other:
We must enter the battle raging beneath the surface. We need to look deeper at the battle between the flesh and Spirit as we relate to each other. Rom 8:7
We must see the vision in the mind of God for the person we are relating to.
We must touch the soul with the Spirit’s power that works in us.
Becoming a Spiritual Community - Part 1
Here's the notes from a session with Larry Crabb (psychologist and author of The Safest Place On Earth and a bunch more books).
The premis is that what we need is not professional help but spiritual community as the Trinity models it. We may fall short at this type of Christian community but we can work toward it.
“We who offer spiritual leadership often find ourselves not living what we are preaching and teaching. It is not easy to avoid hypocrisy completely because we find ourselves saying things larger than ourselves. I often call people to a life I am not fully able to live.
I am learning that the best cure for hypocrisy is community. Hypocrisy is not so much the result of not living what I preach but much more of not confessing my inability to fully live up to my own words.” – Henri Nouwen
The Trinity exemplifies perfect communion - perfect relationship. There are no relationships in hell. Sometimes the church becomes a picture of hell rather than a picture of Trinitarian community. Isolation and our own needs are what the Bible considers death. In our age, the therapeutic community allows us to sit in our individual emotional needs and not in relationship. It is important that we live in communion with each other.
The GOAL of SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY:
1) Ask - What we need to know about ourselves and God to aim toward it?
Here's a question: When a first time visitor comes to your church, how would they answer “What’s this church all about?”
In the book Jim & Casper Go To Church, Jim took his friend Casper, an atheist, to a variety of well known churches in the US. Casper's response after visiting all of the churches was, “If people who had never heard of Jesus visited these churches, they’d have to conclude that Jesus’ number one priority was that Christians invest the very best of their energy and their money into putting on a church event. Is this what Jesus told you guys to do?” – Matt Casper
The goal of the church is to change us. To make us Christ-like for the Father’s pleasure and for the mission in the world, not for producing a church event.
“I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” – Galatians 4:19
“We proclaim Christ...so that we may present everyone perfect (mature). To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy which so powerfully works in me.” – Colossians 1:28, 29
We need to make disciples through conversations that matter. We are called to relate in such a way that gifting and talent does not make possible; that is natural. Loving like the Trinity is supernatural. This is why a PhD in Psychology can leave you still not reaching people. This is often uncomfortable for us because we love our own pleasure and our own comforts. We must love Jesus more than our pleasure.
See the book by John Owen – Communion with God.
2) Ask - What is spiritual community?
In the therapeutic community, people focus on individualism. This defines the health of the individual over the spiritual community.
But in John 17:21, Jesus prays that we would be in communion with the Trinity.
Often the Trinity is more like a problem to solve than a reality to enter. We spend forever studying and learning about the Trinity but do not realize the full application of what all of this means.
Perichoresis – Moving together in perfect harmony with love, with the ruling desire to give another what is alive in ones self for the sake of the other’s well-being.
In spiritual community, we attend to what is most uniquely alive in us that comes from the Spirit and we freely give it to others with their well-being in view. This is difficult because we are naturally self-obsessed. From conception the energy ruling from our center is individualistic.
We live to protect whatever we value in ourselves rather than living to give what might prove valuable to another.
The NEW COVENANT, an arrangement conceived by the Trinity that makes spiritual community possible:
A new purity: absolute forgiveness
A new identity: defined by relationship
A new appetite: outside law becomes inside desire
A new power: the energy to love.
The premis is that what we need is not professional help but spiritual community as the Trinity models it. We may fall short at this type of Christian community but we can work toward it.
“We who offer spiritual leadership often find ourselves not living what we are preaching and teaching. It is not easy to avoid hypocrisy completely because we find ourselves saying things larger than ourselves. I often call people to a life I am not fully able to live.
I am learning that the best cure for hypocrisy is community. Hypocrisy is not so much the result of not living what I preach but much more of not confessing my inability to fully live up to my own words.” – Henri Nouwen
The Trinity exemplifies perfect communion - perfect relationship. There are no relationships in hell. Sometimes the church becomes a picture of hell rather than a picture of Trinitarian community. Isolation and our own needs are what the Bible considers death. In our age, the therapeutic community allows us to sit in our individual emotional needs and not in relationship. It is important that we live in communion with each other.
The GOAL of SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY:
1) Ask - What we need to know about ourselves and God to aim toward it?
Here's a question: When a first time visitor comes to your church, how would they answer “What’s this church all about?”
In the book Jim & Casper Go To Church, Jim took his friend Casper, an atheist, to a variety of well known churches in the US. Casper's response after visiting all of the churches was, “If people who had never heard of Jesus visited these churches, they’d have to conclude that Jesus’ number one priority was that Christians invest the very best of their energy and their money into putting on a church event. Is this what Jesus told you guys to do?” – Matt Casper
The goal of the church is to change us. To make us Christ-like for the Father’s pleasure and for the mission in the world, not for producing a church event.
“I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” – Galatians 4:19
“We proclaim Christ...so that we may present everyone perfect (mature). To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy which so powerfully works in me.” – Colossians 1:28, 29
We need to make disciples through conversations that matter. We are called to relate in such a way that gifting and talent does not make possible; that is natural. Loving like the Trinity is supernatural. This is why a PhD in Psychology can leave you still not reaching people. This is often uncomfortable for us because we love our own pleasure and our own comforts. We must love Jesus more than our pleasure.
See the book by John Owen – Communion with God.
2) Ask - What is spiritual community?
In the therapeutic community, people focus on individualism. This defines the health of the individual over the spiritual community.
But in John 17:21, Jesus prays that we would be in communion with the Trinity.
Often the Trinity is more like a problem to solve than a reality to enter. We spend forever studying and learning about the Trinity but do not realize the full application of what all of this means.
Perichoresis – Moving together in perfect harmony with love, with the ruling desire to give another what is alive in ones self for the sake of the other’s well-being.
In spiritual community, we attend to what is most uniquely alive in us that comes from the Spirit and we freely give it to others with their well-being in view. This is difficult because we are naturally self-obsessed. From conception the energy ruling from our center is individualistic.
We live to protect whatever we value in ourselves rather than living to give what might prove valuable to another.
The NEW COVENANT, an arrangement conceived by the Trinity that makes spiritual community possible:
A new purity: absolute forgiveness
A new identity: defined by relationship
A new appetite: outside law becomes inside desire
A new power: the energy to love.
Home Group Conference Notes
A group of us just returned from a conference on Home Groups at Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus Ohio. It was the most useful conference I have ever attended. Most of the conferences I have been to in the past were put on by megachurches. A lot of times the sessions at these conferences are about new ideas that will bring a crowd to the church building. The Xenos conference was refreshing because it was more value based than technique based. Did I agree with everything they had to say? Not always, but they challenged us with a Scripture based value system and exposed us to things that broadened our way of thinking.
I am going to blog my notes on these sessions, but before I do, I should give some background to the Xenos model. This way there will be a context for the session notes.
Xenos was started in the 70's by a couple of hippies. It is amazing to see how this has developed into 5000 people. They are a House Church based fellowship. Each House Cchurch runs somewhere between 20-50 people (in Columbus, homes appear to be able to sustain those numbers). These House Churches - also called Home Groups - are their core structure.
They have also have a Central Teaching time on Sunday mornings. Groups of House Churches meet at different times on Sunday for their Central Teaching time.
Also within the House Churches are Cell Groups. The Central Teaching and Home Groups are open to anyone. The Cell Groups are men and women (divided by gender) who would like to move forward in discipleship. (So if you are from RVWC - the terms Home Groups and Cell Groups are used interchangeably by us, but not by Xenos - this caused some confusion when we were in the sessions and didn't know this).
So the basic flow is this:
Central Teaching - Home Groups- Cell Groups
The core value of Xenos is relational community. Everything is based on this value. Home Groups grow and multiply - thus the 5000 people attending.
Just one of my observations - I saw Dennis McCallum (the lead teacher of Xenos) walking around on many occasions. When he walked into a room it didn't seem like people really noticed - unlike in many of our fellowships where people flock to the pastor to make appointments etc. At Xenos, the people do the ministry. The leadership team equips them for this work - this includes marrying, burying, counseling, etc.
There are many more observations that I will mention as I blog these notes. I believe it is productive to be challenged and even rubbed the wrong way. When we become set in our ways and think that there is a set formula for advancing the Kingdom, we lose sight of the greater Christian community and the variety found within it. I hope you will be challenged to examine what the Scripture says, like I was, as you read the session notes.
I am going to blog my notes on these sessions, but before I do, I should give some background to the Xenos model. This way there will be a context for the session notes.
Xenos was started in the 70's by a couple of hippies. It is amazing to see how this has developed into 5000 people. They are a House Church based fellowship. Each House Cchurch runs somewhere between 20-50 people (in Columbus, homes appear to be able to sustain those numbers). These House Churches - also called Home Groups - are their core structure.
They have also have a Central Teaching time on Sunday mornings. Groups of House Churches meet at different times on Sunday for their Central Teaching time.
Also within the House Churches are Cell Groups. The Central Teaching and Home Groups are open to anyone. The Cell Groups are men and women (divided by gender) who would like to move forward in discipleship. (So if you are from RVWC - the terms Home Groups and Cell Groups are used interchangeably by us, but not by Xenos - this caused some confusion when we were in the sessions and didn't know this).
So the basic flow is this:
Central Teaching - Home Groups- Cell Groups
The core value of Xenos is relational community. Everything is based on this value. Home Groups grow and multiply - thus the 5000 people attending.
Just one of my observations - I saw Dennis McCallum (the lead teacher of Xenos) walking around on many occasions. When he walked into a room it didn't seem like people really noticed - unlike in many of our fellowships where people flock to the pastor to make appointments etc. At Xenos, the people do the ministry. The leadership team equips them for this work - this includes marrying, burying, counseling, etc.
There are many more observations that I will mention as I blog these notes. I believe it is productive to be challenged and even rubbed the wrong way. When we become set in our ways and think that there is a set formula for advancing the Kingdom, we lose sight of the greater Christian community and the variety found within it. I hope you will be challenged to examine what the Scripture says, like I was, as you read the session notes.
Monday, 30 April 2007
Who is the Church?
It is interesting to read people's comments to your posts. So here's some props to Shannon Marden who had the best comment to my last post - thanks to everyone else who commented too...good to know there are some others who have the similar twisted (although very sane to me) thoughts.
Shannon in the trenches and is still positive (some people in the trenches can get pretty jaded). I think it is great that someone other than me sees the glass half-full when it comes to the church. Many people are negative toward the church (a lot of time for good reason!) and then just check out of the whole thing. I totally acknowledge the way the church has screwed up and is still screwing up (see my last post), but change starts from the inside out. If all those people who are discontented and want change bail, then there is no hope and the baby goes out with the bathwater. The reason we bail really isn't about what was done to us, but rather a misunderstanding about who the church really is.
If we truly believe that the church is the people of God and not not a building, and not a company (most of us say this but do we understand what we are saying?), then we have to cut each other some slack. It is impossible for any of us to go through life and never offend anyone; all of us are dysfunctional at some level. We are deluded if we think the problem is everyone around us.
So yes Shannon, we do live in a day and age where things are exciting for the church. Exciting because, as you say, we are returning to what we should be. So, thanks to everyone who involved in God's church. You are changing things and making a difference in your families, communities and the world around you. I think we underestimate the little part each of us plays, in the grand scheme of things but all those little parts add up. All of our little parts fit together to create big change.
We become critical of the church when we see it as only an institution, an organization, or a corporation. Who isn't critical of all of those things these days, ha! But Scripture is pretty clear about what the church is. Search the word "church" in the Bible and see what it says about it - you won't find reference to any of the three things mentioned above. These are very exciting times. We are heading toward a clearer understanding of the essence of the church - Not mystical, not superior, not faultless - just normal people.
Shannon in the trenches and is still positive (some people in the trenches can get pretty jaded). I think it is great that someone other than me sees the glass half-full when it comes to the church. Many people are negative toward the church (a lot of time for good reason!) and then just check out of the whole thing. I totally acknowledge the way the church has screwed up and is still screwing up (see my last post), but change starts from the inside out. If all those people who are discontented and want change bail, then there is no hope and the baby goes out with the bathwater. The reason we bail really isn't about what was done to us, but rather a misunderstanding about who the church really is.
If we truly believe that the church is the people of God and not not a building, and not a company (most of us say this but do we understand what we are saying?), then we have to cut each other some slack. It is impossible for any of us to go through life and never offend anyone; all of us are dysfunctional at some level. We are deluded if we think the problem is everyone around us.
So yes Shannon, we do live in a day and age where things are exciting for the church. Exciting because, as you say, we are returning to what we should be. So, thanks to everyone who involved in God's church. You are changing things and making a difference in your families, communities and the world around you. I think we underestimate the little part each of us plays, in the grand scheme of things but all those little parts add up. All of our little parts fit together to create big change.
We become critical of the church when we see it as only an institution, an organization, or a corporation. Who isn't critical of all of those things these days, ha! But Scripture is pretty clear about what the church is. Search the word "church" in the Bible and see what it says about it - you won't find reference to any of the three things mentioned above. These are very exciting times. We are heading toward a clearer understanding of the essence of the church - Not mystical, not superior, not faultless - just normal people.
Monday, 23 April 2007
Believing Barna???
George Barna (US church pollster) says that America's faith community is changing (no kidding....does he think we have been asleep, I suppose some are). The reason he gives for this is that "there are more than twenty million adults who have dropped out of church, not because they've lost interest in spiritual matters or are disconnecting from God, but because they want more of God in their lives. These are believers who are less interested in attending church and more interested in being the church" (A New Kind of Church, Baker Books 2007).
I read this on the weekend and it reminded me of Wednesday night. One of the guests at our home group this week asked how we all got involved with the church. Did we grow up in it and if not, how did we get here? It was interesting to hear everyones stories. A few of us were brought up with the church as an important part of our lives, others of us had been involved in the church and had given up for various reasons, and still some others had not much history with the church at all. There was a common thread that ran through each story - the reason why they are actively involved in the church now is because they feel they are learning more about Jesus and less about the church.
Isn't this the whole purpose of the church's existence? To follow Jesus' command when he said "go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you" (Matthew 28:19-20, NLT).
Am I blind or something? Because I don't see it saying go and make disciples by teaching them rules that will set them above everyone else and church politic so they will eventually run themselves ragged and be driven into the ground. I understand that these are done under spiritual words, such as "holiness" or "commitment." We make ourselves feel better about doing these things to people if we can somehow find an obscure Scripture that "supports" what we are doing.
I believe in holiness, commitment and the church. But we have taken Jesus, his teachings, and his people and turned them into a strange religion where we decide to play God. The truth is we are not playing God because God wouldn't do these things; we are playing puppet master with God's people.
Instead of telling people what to, we need to value their relationship with God and trust God to speak to them and trust them to listen. If we can help people to listen to God and do what he tells them, isn't that the biggest thing we can ever teach. I know people who have done a lot in a church building, and who appear to have it together on the outside, and then flame out miserably. And then I know people who others might look down because they do certain things or look a certain way, and these people have gone on to be huge influences for God in their families and communities. So we never know...and so it's best not to pretend to know...and best to play our parts and not the part of God.
I read this on the weekend and it reminded me of Wednesday night. One of the guests at our home group this week asked how we all got involved with the church. Did we grow up in it and if not, how did we get here? It was interesting to hear everyones stories. A few of us were brought up with the church as an important part of our lives, others of us had been involved in the church and had given up for various reasons, and still some others had not much history with the church at all. There was a common thread that ran through each story - the reason why they are actively involved in the church now is because they feel they are learning more about Jesus and less about the church.
Isn't this the whole purpose of the church's existence? To follow Jesus' command when he said "go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you" (Matthew 28:19-20, NLT).
Am I blind or something? Because I don't see it saying go and make disciples by teaching them rules that will set them above everyone else and church politic so they will eventually run themselves ragged and be driven into the ground. I understand that these are done under spiritual words, such as "holiness" or "commitment." We make ourselves feel better about doing these things to people if we can somehow find an obscure Scripture that "supports" what we are doing.
I believe in holiness, commitment and the church. But we have taken Jesus, his teachings, and his people and turned them into a strange religion where we decide to play God. The truth is we are not playing God because God wouldn't do these things; we are playing puppet master with God's people.
Instead of telling people what to, we need to value their relationship with God and trust God to speak to them and trust them to listen. If we can help people to listen to God and do what he tells them, isn't that the biggest thing we can ever teach. I know people who have done a lot in a church building, and who appear to have it together on the outside, and then flame out miserably. And then I know people who others might look down because they do certain things or look a certain way, and these people have gone on to be huge influences for God in their families and communities. So we never know...and so it's best not to pretend to know...and best to play our parts and not the part of God.
Saturday, 14 April 2007
A New Kind of Ministry...Period.
Here's a quote from the book, A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee (Zondervan, 2007):
"If young people are to practice faith when they "graduate" from youth ministry, the most important gift the church can give them is lifestyle faith instead of program faith. Of course, that doesn't mean that Christian programs don't have a role to play. But young peple aren't looking for programs; and when the church makes faith into "one more thing to do," we turn the gospel into an extracurricular activity, one among dozens, and in so doing we gut it of its transforming significance" (p.50).
I believe that this is true for adults, children and teens; people of any age. Who needs something more on the list of their already busy schedule? I would rather spend my days living like a Christian and meeting people through my job than worrying about whether or not I have enough people to staff a program, whether or not my idea is interesting enough, or always feeling like I have to top what I did before so people don't get bored. Doesn't just living life as a Christian and making a difference in the lives of people around us sound a whole lot easier and more natural?
"If young people are to practice faith when they "graduate" from youth ministry, the most important gift the church can give them is lifestyle faith instead of program faith. Of course, that doesn't mean that Christian programs don't have a role to play. But young peple aren't looking for programs; and when the church makes faith into "one more thing to do," we turn the gospel into an extracurricular activity, one among dozens, and in so doing we gut it of its transforming significance" (p.50).
I believe that this is true for adults, children and teens; people of any age. Who needs something more on the list of their already busy schedule? I would rather spend my days living like a Christian and meeting people through my job than worrying about whether or not I have enough people to staff a program, whether or not my idea is interesting enough, or always feeling like I have to top what I did before so people don't get bored. Doesn't just living life as a Christian and making a difference in the lives of people around us sound a whole lot easier and more natural?
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