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Into Action Archives
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Into ACTION
Ideas, connections and tools for equipping others
Issue Number 30, February 2003
THE LINE-UP
Special Announcement
The most effective churches in the future will be those who know how to improvise...who understand about getting ready for what's next. Camp Improv, Leadership Network's 2003 national learning experience, is a boot camp for improvisation that leads to innovation. Held in Dallas, Texas, September 30-October 2, Camp Improv features world class speakers such as Jim Collins, Ron Heifetz, Ray Bakke and Mary Crossan plus more than 25 practitioners from local congregations. For more info and to register online, go to www.campimprov.com.
Blueprints - This Month’s Best Practice
This Month’s Best Practice
This month’s Into Action continues a three-part series of excerpts from our own Eric Swanson’s published white paper called “Ten Paradigm Shifts for Community Transformation.” Eric works with Leadership Network concentrating on externally focused churches. For the past several months, Eric has researched churches around the country that are engaging their communities with good news and good works. If you want to know what the results are…you have to keep reading. CW
Blueprint Research: Ten Paradigm Shifts Towards Community Transformation (Part II)
By Eric Swanson
Edited by Christian Washington
All over our nation there is a quiet movement of the Spirit of God that is causing believers to re-examine how they “do church.” Churches around our nation are throwing out the old measures of success. It’s no longer merely about size, seeker sensitivity, spiritual gifts, church health, nor the number of small groups. It’s about making a significant and sustainable difference in the lives of people around us—in our communities and in our cities.
A paradigm is a model consisting of shared assumptions regarding what works or what is true. A paradigm shift is that “aha!” moment when one sees things in such a new light that one can never go back to the old ways again. Each paradigm shift takes us from a model of thinking that we must discard to a new model that we must embrace. To maximize our impact on our communities--urban, suburban or rural, we have observed changes in at least ten of our paradigms of how we currently view church.
From encouraging the saints to attend the service to equipping the saints for works of service.
“It is (God) who gave some to be…pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service…” (Ephesians 5:11,12) In the typical church, lay people are asked to serve in five or six capacities:- Teach a Sunday School class
- Work in the nursery
- Lead a home Bible study or small group
- Sing in the choir
- Be an usher or greeter
- Serve on a board or committee
And pastors lament that only about 20% of their members are “active.” Could it be that the service opportunities are not broad enough to engage the energies and passions of people in the church? Robert Lewis notes that when people entered his church they were excited for about 4-5 years. How could they not be excited? Fellowship Bible is a teaching church and Robert is an incredible teacher. But he observes that after around five years, people get bored with church if they are not involved in ministering to others. It was not until the church began to serve their community did members find their serving niche and continue in their growth.
Tim Keller, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, writes that the process of mobilizing members into ministers “starts by articulating clearly and regularly a theology of ‘every-member ministry’…From the pulpit, in the classes, by word of mouth, it must be communicated that every layperson is a minister and that ministry is finding needs and meeting them in the goal of the spread of the kingship of Christ.”
In the 1980’s, a small group in Mariner’s Church in Costa Mesa, California, met for a year to study every Scriptures that had to do with the people of God and the needs of a community. They asked themselves two questions—“What could we do?” and “What should we do?” This was the beginning of Mariner’s “Lighthouse Ministries.” Today, Lighthouse is employing the volunteer hearts and entrepreneurial skills to minister to the under-resourced people in Orange County. In 2001, Lighthouse Ministries employed the dedication and talents of nearly 3,400 church volunteers who gave 95,000 hours of service (the equivalent of 46 full-time staff!) in the form of tutoring foster children, mentoring motel families, taking kids to camp, visiting the elderly, teaching English at one of their learning centers, working in the Mariner’s Thrift Store ($168,000 in sales last year) distributing Christmas gifts, team building with teens at their leadership camp, assistance with immigration papers, working in transitional housing or volunteering with Orange County Social Services. Despite the prolific use of volunteers, volunteering is simply the avenue to “build relationships with people in our community.” Recently they were featured on National Public Radio for their work in providing transitional housing for youth leaving foster care. Last year they touched the lives of nearly 12,000 people in their community through their relational volunteer ministries. Their mission of “Bringing Christ’s hope to those in need” is being fulfilled.
From duplication of human services and ministries to partnering with existing services and ministries
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work” (Ecclesiastes 4:9). Nearly every community has a number of human service agencies that are morally positive and spiritually neutral that are doing their best to meet the needs of the underserved and under-resourced people of the community. Such agencies include the local food bank, homeless shelter, emergency family housing, and safe houses for abused women, etc. Equally true there are church and parachurch ministries that are effective in ministering to specific target audiences (business community, youth, college students, etc). Rather than starting a new ministry, why not form partnerships with existing groups as “partner ministries” of a local congregation? Chances are that people from your congregation are already serving in many of these organizations. Why not use the current community energy to create synergy? The Bible is replete with examples of how God used secular people in partnership with his people to fulfill his purposes. Think of Joseph and Pharaoh, Nehemiah and Artaxerxes, and Esther and King Ahasuerus.
Rick Rusaw is pastor of a 2,900-member LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado. Several years ago, LifeBridge made a conscious decision to “care for their community.” They invited local human service agencies to office on their campus and encouraged members to get involved in the life of the community. “We’re just looking for ways to help the city,” Rick explains. “For example, we decided we didn’t want to start a Christian school but to get involved in serving the needs of the existing public schools of our community. We don’t need to duplicate what is already out there.” Last year, when a local high school student took his life, the school principle called Rick at LifeBridge and asked if they could send over 20 counselors for three days to be on campus with the kids. When asked about how they gained such access into a public high school, Rick responded that he sent over the same 20 folks who had been setting up chairs at assemblies and raking the long-jump pit all year long. Servants always have access to the palaces of kings. Last year, over a thousand people from LifeBridge donated 6,000 hours of community service over Christmas break cleaning three elementary schools top to bottom and then spent another six weekends fixing up a mobile home park. Five auto mechanics from LifeBridge serviced over 300 cars of single moms in the Longmont area. Recently, LifeBridge members came up with 5,000 new ways they could serve their community. Rick sums up his commitment to Longmont—“I used to think I could change the world. Now I just want to change the stream…not by standing on the bank and yelling but by getting in the water.”
(Part III of Eric Swanson’s “Ten Paradigm Shifts Toward Community Transformation” will be in the March issue of Into Action.)
Know of an innovative congregation or leader that is a Blueprint for transforming a community? Share their story and contact information with Into Action (christian.washington@leadnet.org) and you may see them in this publication in the future.
Resources You Can Use
LeadNetChurchStaffing.com
LeadNetChurchStaffing.com is our new alliance to assist large churches with their staffing needs. It is also designed to help those individuals seeking a place of service with large churches. To learn more, click right to the site LeadNetChurchStaffing.com.
Leadership Network is proud to announce the release of its latest publication.
Just released: The Leader’s Journey: Answering the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation by Jim Herrington, Robert Creech and Trisha L. Taylor.
“This book…does a marvelous job of taking insights from family systems theory, fusing them with solid biblical theology, and making these concepts practical and accessible for pastors. It is a ‘must read’ for shepherds who understand that things don’t change in our ministries until we change.”
-Dr. Jim Jackson, Chapelwood United Methodist Church
Visit www.josseybass.com and use promotion code XM173 to get a 30% discount. This discount code will also apply to other Leadership Network books at the josseybass.com web site.
eChurchConference2003 – April 2-5, 2003 – The Power Center, Houston, Texas
eChurchConference2003 is presented by the eCHURCHInstitute, an initiative of Windsor Village United Methodist Church and is designed to empower and energize church and community leaders to produce excellence in ministry through practical training sessions. Conference speakers include Bill Hybels, Marian Wright Edelman, Sue Mallory, Bill Easum, and Kirbyjon Caldwell.
Windsor Village United Methodist Church has made a big difference in southwest Houston. From 25 members in 1982, Windsor Village is currently the spiritual home for more than 14,000 members. Embracing both evangelism and economic development and armed with the belief that every member is a minister, each congregant is encouraged to embrace Jesus’ mission of identifying and holistically meeting the needs of those around them. Under the leadership of Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell, the church purchased a 104,000 square-foot former K-Mart that was converted into their “Power Center.” Since 1999, the Power Center has had an estimated $28.7 million impact on the community creating over 500 construction jobs and 300 regular jobs through the Power Center which serves over 9,000 families a month through Windsor Village’s over 100 ministries. Currently they are engaged in developing a 24-acre planned residential community consisting of over 450 affordable single-family homes called Corinthian Pointe and they continue to make a difference.
For more information and online registration, visit the eChurch page at www.kingdombuilder.com.
Leadership Network
Advance Scouts for the Emerging Church.
www.leadnet.org
800.765.5323
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