Going Organic
At Faith Community Church of God we are treading ground that, to my knowledge, is unique among CGGC congregations.
When I read the CGGC Mission Statement in the Church Advocate I was thrilled and I decided to take it to heart and to start leading our ministry, to the best of my ability, according to what is modeled in the Book of Acts and in the Epistles. To use Stephen Covey’s language, the end I began with in my mind was achieving a New Testament community of Jesus followers in my time and place. I had—still have—no idea what that finished product might look like.
I implemented some changes in the way I participated in worship and, after a short time, explained to leadership the difference between Seeker Sensitive worship and changes I had recently introduced. I asked leadership to decide—without my participation in the conversation—if it wanted to abandon seeker sensitive worship for what I described to them as an organic/simple approach to being the church. That group met a number of times over the course of several weeks. On its own, it focused its decision process on a threefold foundation:
1. Diligent prayer.
2 Asking the question: Is what we have begun to do consistent with what the Bible teaches? (Obviously, they were already oriented toward living out the New Testament plan.)
3. And also asking the question: Is this of the Spirit?
All but one person in that group affirmed that the path we had begun was biblical and Spirit-guided. They reported that result to me in November of 2009. Since then we have continued the journey. There have been and continue to be many twists and turns on that path.
But, these past two Sundays have taken us to spiritual places I could not have imagined.
Two Sundays ago, the worship ministry put the following schedule of our worship time in the bulletin:
“A Time of Prayer and Praise.” That was the order of worship.
They also handed out to every participant in worship an 8 ½ x 14 inch sheet of paper that listed 112 hymns, gospel songs, Scripture songs and choruses they felt proficient enough to lead without rehearsal. At times during the gathering when the team felt led, they asked if someone from the congregation had a song they wanted to sing. (One suggestion was not on the list and it turns out that we can sing a cappella as poorly yet joyfully as we sing with instruments.) Prayer time consisted of everyone physically able standing and forming a large circular hand-holding mass of people. Unbidden, the people positioned themselves so that those who remained seated could also join hands. Prayer needs were shared and then worship gatherers were invited to pray as they felt led. I was instructed to close. I lost count of the number of individuals who prayed out loud. It was powerful.
Labor Day Sunday others in the congregation besides me scheduled a ‘Lord’s Breakfast’ gathering in which everyone who was able was invited to bring a breakfast food item for a communal meal. The leader of the gathering directed us in singing a few songs. One of the congregational members offered a meditation on prayer in which he instructed us to pray, not talk about praying. We formed a circle again. The time invested in actual praying lasted, as far as I can tell, about 20 minutes. Friends, the power of the Spirit’s presence was amazing. I had a word of instruction/prophecy which I gave to the people gathered. My notes consisted of four Scripture references. One person from the congregation chimed in twice to affirm that things I said were biblically accurate. I/We spoke for about a half hour then I asked if anyone wanted to pray over the truth I spoke. One of our women did so— energetically. Then, the guy who directed prayer time led us in taking the bread and the cup. After that, we ate our meal. The fellowship was sweet.
We’ve achieved a degree of participation in our gatherings that I could not have imagined two years ago. People who at one time sat on their hands in worship are now praying aloud. Some of them are speaking words of revelation, knowledge, prophecy or instruction that contain wisdom and power my words cannot.
To be honest though, using Christendom, Church Growth Movement metrics, we’re failing. Average Sunday morning worship attendance has fallen and total financial giving has declined, though I suspect that giving per attender has remained constant, even though the downturn in the economy has het us hard.
One thing I can tell you is that none of us are bored.
I’m curious: How does what I’ve written make you feel? What do you think about it?
posted by bill Sloat at 8:46 AM
23 Comments:
praise God, brother. it's exciting to hear, and challenges some of my own ideas on Biblical worship. i'll write more after i've chewed on this some. thanks for posting, and thanks to God for the reality of the priesthood of all believers.
I think it is awesome, Bill. I share many of your thoughts about participation in worship, being the Body in our gatherings.
I do think it works best in smaller gatherings, and that beyond a certain size it won't work well, which of course is why many are concluding that small simple/house church concepts are the only way to go. Those who are rigid on that point will make it a new kind of legalism.
Our church gatherings are too large even now to do what you are describing. What I hope to see is the development of more small communities within LifeSpring where "everyone plays".
I'm not sure what might account for your drop in size. The obvious answer, I suppose, is that whenever you shift the paradigm, those who don't like the shift will leave. I want to believe there are places greater body participation intersects our culture in a way that is compelling to those who are thirsty for the reality of God.
What I loved most was your description of how the Spirit's presence was obviously manifest. How ironic that in trying to reach those seeking God we have spent decades asking God the Holy Spirit to hang out in the kitchen until service is over.
Walt,
Thanks for your kind remarks. Let me know your further thoughts.
Fran,
You are correct that it works best in a smaller gathering. Wolfgang Simpson says that as soon as the 21st person is present in this type of gathering issues develop. I suspect that we will need to have multiple gatherings during the week in order to grow numerically. It's at this point that the CGGC Vision Statement comes into play.
You are correct that there is a temptation toward legalism in the way we are doing things. We talk more and more about the importance of doing what we do so that we do it in the Spirit and not merely mimic the form of New Testament community. What we say is that how we do it is as important as what we do.
My greatest concern about the organic church is that it is overly concerned with form and tends to forget how much the early Christian movement was a spiritual movement.
GAH! The stupid blog errored my request and deleted everything I wrote.
Bill, what you have here is lovely and important. In some ways what you have here is something I am jealous of. Thought we are a small group and we have wonderful participation in our discussions and our offering time and communion time, the worship time is less than what it should be.
I will get to me in a moment, but I wanna focus on you for a moment. What I read is that you guys asked,"What is worship?" then you asked,"Do we worship?" That led to a repentance and a change. The attrition you saw is a result of that, but the better news is that the Spirit is now there in your midst at worship and this is a tree planted in good roots and the appropriate fruit is sure to follow.
In your small gathering you have a majority of people who seem to accept Jesus as their savior. In my small community I do not have that at this time. I suspect if you polled my group right now you would have maybe a third say yes, a bunch say, I do not know-but I am compelled to stay and find out, and a few who are opposed to the very thought, but come anyway. One of the opposed folks who was VERY opposed sent me an email last week expressing her confession of Jesus as Messiah and will be leading us in song and prayer this Sunday. It was her ability to participate and honestly discuss that allowed the Spirit time to work on her heart IMHO. End of the day, a 17 year old girl is planting roots now. I cannot wait to see the fruit.
Our participation is in discussion, but worship-due to my error in leadership is largely some songs and prayer that is largely audience participatory where the "sermons" are all participation discussion. Working on steering that. One thing I have done right is the offering time. We not only make financial offerings, but there is a time of silence and reflection and a stack of note cards and pens to make an offering to the Lord, light a candle in prayer, and then to take Holy Communion as a community. This time is about 15 minutes of silence, sometimes tears, reflection, and beauty and the things written on the cards are lovely and beyond description.
I suspect some changes will happen soon and the changes may involve some attrition. Starting this Sunday and ending October 31 we will be asking,"What is the Church?" and then comes the question,"Are we the church?" If we are being honest, the answer will be no. Then,come Oct 31 we will (on the 493rd anniversary of Luthers thesis) post our points, repent, and commit to being the church. I assume some will not wanna be a part of that journey and others will. I also assume that real worship like yours with the Spirit will be a part of that road of being the church.
Finally, good on you for being as opposed to a dogmatic model. I have found wonderful truths in APEST, Organic, Post Modern, etc. But these things are not the WAY. Jesus is.
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That's really neat. Those are things I could do in our church without issue - but probably not consistently. That's probably the challenge, to continue to make these things the new norm and not a novelty.
The size thing is interesting. It seems that there is agreement that this doesn't happen wit the same dynamics in a group of 100 or more. Obviously smaller communities could, as Fran mentioned.
Here is a question: What aspects of shared participation in the worship gatherings could happen in a larger group?
Very interesting questions to come from this.
Finally, I'm glad that you posted this Bill because I've really been wanting examples of a different way of doing things that is actual and not theoretical.
Thanks.
Pat,
May the Lord bless you as you make these changes. I hope that you will keep us updated.
You are correct: Jesus is the way. It can be so easy to lose sight of that.
Dan,
You make the observation that this is neat. Well said.
The neatest thing is that, while I believe very strongly in what the congregation is doing, the gatherings I described were initiated, planned and executed by people other than me. My participation was at the direction of others.
I began casting vision for these things years ago as I was reading The Present Future and The Shaping of Things to Come. I have tried, to the best of my ability, to model these things in my own life and to empower them in others.
We have gotten to the point that the members of the body of Jesus followers in our community are making this change happen.
To me, that's the real story.
Bill,
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing it. Makes me feel... glad.
Actually, the first thing it reminded me of was a piece in Mike Yaconelli's book 'Messy Spirituality' (which is one of my all-time favorite books, and I highly, highly, highly recommend it). He said he pastored the "slowest growing church in America" (it was written in 2002 - church growth time); they started with 90 and 'ungrew' to 30 in 12 years.
Also related... you might be interested in David Fitch's latest blog post: "Sanctuary or Living Room? Senior Pastor or Community Organizer?"
Dan H,
Thanks for the link to the Fitch blog. There ARE others out there.
KUDOS!
Yeah, I can do that. Thank you for the accolade. From you, that means a lot and is quite humbling.
Keep on being an example of repentance and new directions. :)
Wow! Another Sunday.
Justin has described Faith as a hybrid. I have used the same description myself.
Yesterday I realized for certain that we are not a hybrid. A hybrid is a finished product. It is a desired end. There are labradoodles because there’s a demand for a dog that contains characteristics of poodles and Labrador retrievers. Congregations don’t enter that fuzzy space between being a Christendom congregation and being a “New Testament plan,” organic SMOC with the idea that they’ll remain in that state. Faith is in transition. It is not a hybrid. We have no desire to permanently be what we are.
Yesterday’s gathering was, in a sense, a dream come true for me. Yet, I felt horrible—sick, even. Some things that I’ve described to you in previous posts and threads as organic goals suddenly seem to be settled realities for us at Faith and I don’t know what to make of that.
We are no longer essentially a Christendom congregation that is, nonetheless, committed to the New Testament model of church. What I think we are now is organic-ish with heavy duty Christendom baggage. That’s what I think we are.
What I am is disoriented and confused.
What I think we need—and we need it very soon—is apostolic presence. Prophets are best equipped to be forerunners of new ways but they are ill-equipped to give substance and structure to that which is new. I think I’ve done my job as forerunner. I have little giftedness or none at all to make what comes next a reality. And, since I know of no one who had taken this journey before us, I don’t know what to do.
H-E-L-P!
Friends,
Our journey organicward continues.
Yesterday about five minutes into prayer time I checked the clock. Later I checked the clock again and 32 minutes had passed. Prayer time concluded about 2 or 3 minutes later. The time we devoted to prayer in our gather was approximately 40 minutes. I didn't pray one word of prayer during that time.
The quality of that time was super intense. At the end, we were handing a box of tissues around and people were hugging.
But, the time was not conducive toward creating an atmosphere is which a visiting seeker would feel comfortable.
What are your thoughts? I genuinely could use some apostolic, evangelistic and shepherding insight.
It seems like what your group needs to decide is how you are going to undergo the task of evangelism (or inviting new people to discipleship if you want to put it that way).
As you've mentioned - quite correctly it seems - people there are becoming disciples. But how you will begin to make new disciples is an important question I think.
Maybe for an organic church, the place where you engage people who are not followers of Jesus is not during the Sunday gathering at all.
It seems to me like even in a traditional church model, something like what you describe would be welcome at a prayer meeting, small group, or Sunday night gathering.
Even in my traditional church, I don't view Sunday morning in a seeker sensitive way. It is important to me, however, that new people be given some idea of what's going on. I think we can speak to the body of believers most directly, but in such a way as the message is understandable to visitors.
So, the question that I have for you is, do you want the Sunday gathering to be a place where people can be invited to early, or not? If not, you have to decide how you are going to engage people who are not following Jesus in other contexts. If so, you are going to have to figure out how to have organic worship while still being intelligible to others?
I still think that we should be moth missional outside the walls and attractional, even if you view attractional as people witnessing the transforming beuty of the family of faith at worship.
Okay, Dan, I just entered this thread. What is "moth missional"?
By the way, Bill, Dan has a good question. How will you go about making new disciples in this context. What will be their way of connecting leading to reconciliation with God?
By the way, Bill, Dan has a good question. How will you go about making new disciples in this context. What will be their way of connecting leading to reconciliation with God?
both not moth. Both missional and attractional.
Sorry. I can type quickly but not accurately.
Dan and Steve,
Thanks for your comments. I was beginning to think that no one was listening any longer. It gets a little lonely over her at times.
You both raise the issue:
...what your group needs to decide is how you are going to undergo the task of evangelism (or inviting new people to discipleship if you want to put it that way).
I agree.
What I think we need that we don't have is apostolic leadership, which is, I believe, where that insight would come from. The CGGC , of course, doesn't have a leadership community in which apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teacher are empowered to lead the whole body in a cooperative and a collaborative way. We have access to institutional leadership but that all appears to be shepherds.
I'd love for someone whose spiritual empowering is apostolic to offer guidance.
Re: Maybe for an organic church, the place where you engage people who are not followers of Jesus is not during the Sunday gathering at all.
Dan, perhaps you don't need to read Houses that Change the World. Simpson makes the point for the New Testament and early church history that, as the Kingdom was expanded, the last place a new follower was taken was to a gathering of believers. And, I see that in the New Testament. What I don't have, at least for the moment, is a model for doing holistic discipleship, not only what we call evangelism, in that way. I believe that the Spirit would bless that if we ministered in that way.
Re: ...the question that I have for you is, do you want the Sunday gathering to be a place where people can be invited to early, or not?
I want the Sunday gathering to reflect the "New Testament plan." I want all we do to be of the New Testament plan.
I need help in making that a reality.
Bill, I recommend the book total church. I've mentioned it to you before. You can get audio talks of most of it online for free too. David Fitch had some similar ideas as well.
I'm thinking h about these things myself. U think we need to have gatherings in homes etc that are a way to engage others with people in the faith community. I think it's fitch's church that has home gatherings on Friday nights. They do something fun that people enjoy- sports, BBQ, game night etc. Then they have some kind of study topic and prayer time. The guests are invited to stay if they like but are also welcomed to leave. Many of the churches that do this have an area or group as a mission field to love and bless. In this way, people are invited to serve even before they are believers.
One person put it to me this way: how can we invite people to follow Jesus before they even believe in him?
Just some thoughts but these at the things that are capturing my attention lately.
So in most of these plans, by the time a new person comes to the worship gathering, they at least already know several people or perhaps have already received Christ through a obe on one study or the smaller group.
Gang,
This is my first update on this thread in a long time. I reread the whole thread before I typed this.
I noted that I called for apostolic influence from outside the congregation and we are still waiting.
Since I wrote on this thread last, Faith has evolved into something like a 'missional community.' The congregation seems to be very committed to be true to Jesus Matthew 25 prediction that on the day He separates the sheep from the goats that He will observe, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat." We actually do feeding well and are beginning a ministry that will provide meals to needy in the community. The local social services agency will help us promote this ministry. Pretty much right out of the book The Externally Focused Church.
Yesterday worship included the taking of the Lord's Supper as a fellowship meal. The taking of the bread and cup was, as usual, led by someone other than me. He did it better than I could have. And, perhaps most notably, the decision that he would lead was made mere moments before we began that part of our gathering. It was a very spiritual time in which human preparation was kept at a minimum--as a core value of our ministry.
The time the congregation devoted to the gathering was a few ticks short of three and a half hours. And eyes were brighter at the end than they were at the beginning.
One thing that I wish were not so in all of this is that we are doing this on our own. There is much we lack in leadership giftings that other CGGCers could provide. There is also, I believe, much that we could offer others. Yet, as a denomination, we are not living out our lip service that we exist as a body in which its parts are interdependent.
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