Ben Sternke

Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom

missional community

Why I Believe in Mid-Sized Communities, Part 2

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I started this series by nailing my colors to the wall, saying that organizing a church as a network of mid-sized missional communities holds tremendous promise in reaching post-Christian contexts. In response to some of the questions on that first post, today I’ll set the stage a bit and define what I mean by “missional community.” Later posts will get into the biblical, historical, and sociological rationale for missional communities.

It’s helpful to understand some of the seismic shifts we’re experiencing right now in the Western world. Church attendance has been falling steadily over the past few years. The stats are fairly staggering. The weekly church attendance among the Builder generation is around 65%, Boomers are at 35%, Generation X is at 15%, and among Generation Y only 4% attend a church service regularly.

These statistics indicate the kinds of cultural shifts we’re experiencing right now. What was once a fairly important activity (church-going) is now something 96% of the emerging generation doesn’t do! So is this “missional communities” stuff about getting those people “back in church?” Not really. When I talk about “reaching” post-Christian contexts, I’m not talking about getting them to come back to church services. I’m talking about bringing people to experience the “eternal kind of life” that comes through trusting Jesus and walking with him. Missional Communities are a fantastic way to do this for post-Christian contexts.

Some of the questions readers asked revolved around whether or not this talk of “missional communities” was simply a new way to talk about things the church is already doing. What I am talking about is not more of the same with a new name, even though I’ve seen some “missional communities” that are essentially small groups with a mission focus. But the way I’m using the term, there’s a big difference.

Here’s a brief definition, taken from Wikipedia article on Missional Community:

A Missional Community is a group of anything from 20 to 50+ people who are united, through Christian community, around a common service and witness to a particular neighborhood or network of relationships. With a strong value on life together, the group has the expressed intention of seeing those they impact choose to start following Jesus, through this more flexible and locally incarnated expression of the church. The result will often be that the group will grow and ultimately multiply into further missional communities. Missional Communities are most often networked within a larger church community (often times with many other Missional Communities). These mid-sized communities, led by laity, are “lightweight and low maintenance” and most often meet 3-4 times a month in their missional context.

Because missional communities are larger than small groups, they can do some substantive things in their mission context. Because they are smaller than a whole church, everyone can be known and loved and contribute to the community. Check out the whole article for more information and a brief history of their genesis and development.

To put it another way (bullet points!), here’s how Alex Absalom, who has been working with MCs for 15 years, defines them in his upcoming book Missional Communities:

  • A group of between 20 and 50+ people
  • Can be either a new church plant, or more commonly a sub-set of a larger gathered church
  • Centered around Jesus
  • The defining focus is on reaching a particular neighborhood or network of relationships
  • This takes place in community, with lots of food and fun!
  • There is a healthy balance of UP (relationship w/ God), IN (relationship w/ one another) and OUT (relationship with mission context)
  • You don’t need to be a professing Christian to belong
  • The group is unashamed about following Christ, both in values and in vision
  • As disciples of Jesus, worship, prayer and Scripture reading are core practices
  • The group looks outwards through a mixture of service and witnessing
  • This common mission focus is a key glue for the shared sense of togetherness
  • People gather informally throughout the week, not just at formal meetings
  • Life together includes a high value on small groups for support and encouragement
  • Leaders receive ongoing help, coaching and accountability
  • Leaders do not do everything, they facilitate and release others to serve and lead

Any thoughts or questions strike you as you read this?

Next post –> The Early Church

Why I Believe in Mid-sized Communities, Part 1

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Over the past few years I’ve spent a lot of time looking into church planting practices, approaches, methods, etc. I’ve also been looking at the mission context we’re working in here in Fort Wayne, listening to the Spirit, and learning about how I am wired as a leader.

One of the practices I’ve come across is that of organizing a church as a network of mid-sized missional communities (MCs). MCs are “extended family”-like communities of 20-50 people with a common mission focus, usually a relational network or a neighborhood. One of the first questions I asked was “What’s the big deal with mid-sized communities? How are they different from small groups with a mission focus? Or from a house church?”

When I first asked the question, I had no idea how deep the rabbit hole went! But after a lot more reading, talking, and observing in various contexts, I have come to believe that organizing a church as a network of mid-sized missional communities holds tremendous promise in reaching post-Christian contexts.

We are making some transitions this summer in our church plant that will allow us to build the foundation we need to move in this direction.

I want to take the next few days to blog about why I believe in mid-sized missional communities from a biblical, historical, and sociological perspective, highlighting how they are different from small groups, and sharing some of the specific transitions we are making this summer in our church plant that will move us in this direction.

In the interest of making this series as informative and helpful as possible, though, I would love it if you would leave some questions in the comments.

As you read what I have written so far, what questions pop up for you?

I’m looking forward to the conversation!

Next post –> What Does It Look Like?

Warning List for Missional Communities

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My friend David Fitch is one of the pastors at Life on the Vine in suburban Chicago. Recently he posted a “warning list” for those who are considering joining a missional church/community. I think the same list probably applies to the church we are attempting to plant:

TEN THINGS ANYONE WHO JOINS IN A TWENTY FIRST CENTURY MISSIONAL CHURCH PLANT SHOULD NOT EXPECT

  1. Should not expect to regularly come to church for just one hour, get what you need for your own personal growth and development, and your kid’s needs, and then leave til next Sunday. Expect mission to change your life. Expect however a richer life than you could have ever imagined.
  2. Should not expect that Jesus will fit in with every consumerist capitalist assumption, lifestyle, schedule or accoutrement you may have adopted before coming here. Expect to be freed from a lot of crap you will find out you never needed.
  3. Should not expect to be anonymous, unknown or be able to disappear in this church Body. Expect to be known and loved, supported in a glorious journey.
  4. Should not expect production style excellence all the time on Sunday worship gatherings. Expect organic, simple and authentic beauty.
  5. Should not expect a raucous “lights out” youth program that entertains the teenagers, puts on a show that gets the kids “pumped up,” all without parental involvement. Instead as the years go by, with our children as part of our life, worship and mission (and when the light shows dim and the cool youth pastor with the spiked hair burns out) expect our youth to have an authentic relationship with God thru Christ that carries them through a lifetime of journey with God.
  6. Should not expect to always “feel good,”or ecstatic on Sunday mornings. Expect that there will ALSO be times of confession, lament, self-examination and just plain silence.
  7. Should not expect a lot of sermons that promise you God will prosper you with “the life you’ve always wanted” if you will just believe Him and step out on faith and give some more money for a bigger sanctuary. Expect sustenance for the journey.
  8. Should not expect rapid growth whereby we grow this church from 10 to a thousand in three years. Expect slower organic inefficient growth that engages people’s lives where they are at and sees troubled people who would have nothing to do with the gospel marvelously saved.
  9. Should not expect all the meetings to happen in a church building. Expect a lot of the gatherings will be in homes, or sites of mission.
  10. Should not expect arguments over style of music, color of carpet, or even doctrinal outlier issues like dispensationalism. Expect mission to drive the conversation.

O AND BY THE WAY Should not expect that community comes to you. I am sorry but true community in Christ will take some “effort”and a reshuffling of priorities for both you and your kids. Yes I know you want people to come to you and reach out to you and you are hurting and busy. But assuming you are a follower of Christ (this message is not for strangers to the gospel) you must learn that the answer to all those things is to enter into the practices of “being the Body” in Christ, including sitting, eating, sharing and praying together.

What do you think of the list? Does it make you think twice about missional living (“It sounded so sexy before!”)? Perhaps it has the opposite effect: do you feel more excited than ever to be part of a community like this?

A Missional Proposal, Part 9: Gatherings

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We’re continuing to post on the vision and values of our church plant.

So far: 1. “Why?” – 2. Our mission – 3. Skeptics and Dreamers – 4. Missionary communities – 5. Journey, Honesty, Community – 6. Participation, Oikos, Simplicity, Wonder – 7. Creativity, Roots, Justice, Truth – 8. 3D Church

Today: the specific kinds of gatherings we envision.

Remembering that we are committed to being a church that is both small enough (everyone is known and contributing in ministry) and big enough (resources are leveraged), and that we are committed to a three-dimensional expression of church, (worshiping God together, being formed as disciples of Jesus together, and engaging in Spirit-empowered mission together), we imagine the following types of gatherings…

JOURNEY GROUPS for SPIRITUAL FORMATION

Journey Groups are made up of 6-12 people who meet specifically to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). These will be more than just “hang-out groups,” (but we anticipate that quite a lot of spontaneous “doing life together” will happen in these contexts). The focus of these groups will be placed firmly on the formation of character in the likeness of Christ, and will probably meet in homes.

Journey Groups will be where people are known deeply, where friends share their lives with one another: their stories, their joys and sorrows, their stuff, their money, their faith, their decisions.

MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES for MISSION (duh)

Missional Communities are medium-sized groups consisting of 20-50 people (that could contain several Journey Groups within them) who meet regularly around a mission focus or vision. This mission focus could be:

  • a people group (e.g., young professionals, refugees, stay-at-home moms)
  • a place (e.g., a neighborhood or school)
  • a passion (e.g., soccer, racial reconciliation)

Activities and meetings for these groups would be determined by whatever seems to make sense based on the mission focus. A potential pattern would be gathering twice a month as Missional Communities (to serve, to celebrate, etc) and twice a month as Journey Groups (to explore Scripture, to pray, etc).

Missional Communities will provide an ideal “entry point” for many into the community, because they are larger (and thus less intimidating) than Journey Groups. They provide an ideal place for relationships to be cultivated while connecting to the heart and mission of the church. The Missional Community is also small enough to allow every member to be actively involved in ministry, using his or her gifts to further the mission of the church and the renewing work of God in Fort Wayne.

We also expect a lot of “doing life together” to happen spontaneously in missional communities; people eating in one another’s homes, inviting neighbors and friends over for parties, laughing together, babysitting one another’s kids, etc.

A lot of energy and resource will be directed toward establishing the Missional Communities and helping them thrive. We anticipate these communities will be the heartbeat of the church and the key to helping us become a church that is both “big enough” and “small enough.”

WORSHIP GATHERINGS for CELEBRATION

We will also meet regularly as one church community for worship gatherings, which will serve to build up, encourage, and equip the church to continue its work of transformation and mission by engaging in proven, communal worship practices that form us as missional people.

While there will be room for creativity and variety at these gatherings, we will seek to maintain a loose liturgical structure of:

  • Singing together
  • Listening to the Story of Scripture together
  • Responding to God’s Word together (consecration, repentance, etc)
  • Telling stories of what God is doing in our midst
  • Praying together
  • Celebrating the Lord’s Supper together
  • Being sent as God’s people together

We will value simplicity over sizzle, and strive to cultivate an expression of worship that invites participation instead of consumerism, that immerses people in God rather than awes them with our technical brilliance.

We want these gatherings to be meaningful but also sustainable for the long haul. We do not want them to become the “tail wagging the dog,” and will strive to keep simple enough that we have lots of energy left over for missional engagement the other six days of the week.

AND BEYOND?

As the church grows and Missional Communities multiply, there may come a time when it makes sense to plant another congregation with its own worship gathering. In keeping the mission central, we trust we will be able to discern these issues when the time comes. We intend to continue to multiply these kinds of communities in whatever way the Spirit seems to be leading.

We will be seeking to partner with other churches as well, for the purpose of instigating and participating in a movement that sees the Gospel run amok in Fort Wayne and beyond. In essence, what we’re interested in and what we dare to pray for is nothing short of revival, in the technical definition of the term: seeing the spiritually dead coming to life in great numbers. Nothing would delight us more than being able to be part of something like that.

Next post – Our Philosophy of Ministry