Archive for the ‘disciplemaking’ Category
My takeaways from Creating Community (Andy Stanley)
My takeaways from Creating Community (Andy Stanley)
- We must push people to get in groups. The alternative is "disconnected, isolated, lonely people…not a viable option."
- Group experiences across the church need to be predictable – not in boring but in what their purpose is, how they will meet, etc.
- Clarify the "wins" for groups
- Strive for 100% participation
- There are easily identifiable levels of relationship in a church.
- Stanley uses the metaphor of a foyer (guest), living room (friend), to kitchen (family) to identify the different levels.
- Our opportunity as the church is to help people discover the power of each relationship in community.
- We must be directional about helping bridge each gap. What is a specific step that will help them make the jump?
- Good intention is not enough.
- Be honest with people up front as to what groups are NOT about: i.e. not a social club, meditation group, support group, or an expert group.
- The primary purpose of groups is simple: social fellowship, Bible study, and prayer.
- Through implementing a process to the groups system, Stanley's church has seen 90% involvement in small groups.
Connecting the concentric circles with social media
Rick Warren introduced an idea several years ago in his book "Purpose Driven Church". The concentric circles represented the influence and relationships of a community in this order:
- Community
- Crowd
- Congregation
- Committed
- Core
It provides a handy framework for understanding influence and commitment among the people in any given church environment. I began thinking recently about the use of social media and the context within which they operate for pastors and churches.
To me the correlation between technologies goes something like this:
- Community = mass media (radio, tv, youtube)
- Crowd = Twitter
- Congregation = facebook
- Committed = email/phone
- Core = face to face / coffee
Community is a larger body that pretty much allows one-way communication or limited two-way. Community has been traditionally fostered through mass media and now perhaps some narrowcast media as well. At Coffee Creek we implement a weekly podcast and our media team produces a vimeo video that is available 24×7 for streaming on the internet.
The crowd is a smaller group that raises it's hand and says – I'd like to know more. Twitter facilitates this sort of relationship with a feedback channel through retweets and direct messages. With twitter I send updates on service themes, topics, and links to resources that fit our current theme or teaching series. This is a natural occurrence as I read, highlight, and copy the thoughts into 140 characters or less. follow @clarkfrailey on twitter
Next a congregational relationship is a little bit closer in that I know your kids names and care what you might have done over the holidays. facebook facilitates a closer connection by sharing photos, videos, and more posts of a more personal nature that engages a conversation (via comments). Our Coffee Creek facebook fan page allows us a level of more personal connection to a smaller group of people that have expressed an interest in knowing what's going on around Coffee Creek.
The committed group is a tighter group that expresses a desire to be on the "inside track" – to me communication in email and by text/phone provide this group a deeper connection with volume of content and ability to ask questions and receive responses. At Coffee Creek we send a weekly email update with little text and big pictures that link back to website pages for further info or registration forms as appropriate. MailChimp is an excellent and reasonable service for sending regular emails to targeted mailing lists.
The final group, the "core" is the group that probably deserves to be communicated with regularly (monthly/weekly) in face to face conversations, coffee meetings, and brainstorm sessions. It's hard for me to envision how this group could maintain the direction and unity necessary for a core if they did not have some significant face time outside of social media.
One major upside of social media to me is that crowd, congregation, and committed prior to this technology were largely omitted from these channels of communication (outside of a newsletter or special mailing). Social media allows an extra layer of connection that should strengthen the bonds of all levels of relationship
2:00 am and driving to a hospital
The pastor that helped me begin to follow Jesus Christ, baptized me, taught me to golf, preached at my ordination and wedding, and mentored me through my early years in ministry died recently from complications with a brain tumor.
Phil embodied to me the calling of a pastor and the desire to pursue God in all things. As I drove home at around 2:45 am this morning from the hospital it was Phil I remembered teaching me about the life of a pastor. He told me to never be surprised when in the middle of the night I’d be called upon to offer comfort, hope, and peace to a family in crisis.
I was reminded of Matthew 18:19-20 as our small group huddled in prayer in the ER, “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” NIV
Phil exemplified a simple life of prayer and care as a pastor. It was evident in his prayers and his leadership that he was not an angry man but rather a determined person seeking to walk in the presence of God as he did his best to shine the light of Christ into the dark times of our lives.
Perhaps the most telling thing Phil taught me was by an action where he didn’t say a word. When my grandfather died while I was a teenager at youth camp, Phil drove 6 hours roundtrip to stand in the back of the crowded room in a little Nazarene church. I didn’t see Phil to talk to him that day…his presence spoke volumes.
-Pastor Clark
Friday is for Friends: disciplenowstuff.com
I am a big proponent of Open Source and free resources especially for church resources. When you begin to see the quality of materials being offered today for free or really inexpensive, you can see the potential a movement of resource sharing could have for the Kingdom.
A friend of mine (Michael Bailey) from OBU that is now a youth minister near Ft. Worth, has developed a website called disciplenowstuff.com where he is offering original DNOW materials for youth groups or other groups – some for free and others at an incredible value.
I’ve been out of youth ministry as a primary leader for several years now, but I would highly recommend taking a look at this material if you’re planning a DNOW or other retreat for youth. I know resources like this were always hard to come by and definitely not always user friendly. The guides I looked at help explain how to use the guides and are all well organized.
You can also see the disciplenowstuff.com facebook page here. Michael has put together the beginnings of some great resources and this will definitely be a page and ministry to track as he shares more of his DNOW materials online.
Friday is for Friends: Blue Door Ministries
I am so blessed to be friends with Chris and Dana Byers who are currently serving in missions work in London. Increasingly I have friends who are doing longer-term missions that are still shy of what you would traditionally think of as “career” missions.
Chris and Dana sold their house, cars, and most earthly possessions then moved their family (toddlers Blake & Mackenzie) to London on an experimental basis back in October of 2007. What was to be a trial six-month run has turned into a nearly 2 year work now in church planting and ministry revitalization for churches in the UK.
Chris and I were friends at Oklahoma Baptist that had fallen out of contact when we reconnected about two months before they were set to begin their new work. My church’s team in 2008 had an opportunity to worship with Chris and Dana’s church plant and it was a blessing to see God working in their midst.
Besides the obvious blessing of God in their ministry I might add that another element working in Chris’ favor is that he really did marry above himself and has an awesome partner in ministry, Dana. You can see their videos online, learn more about their work, and donate to further the ministry online at their website: http://www.bluedoor.tv/
I encourage you to check out their good work in London and read their blog to understand the interesting things God is doing as He works through those that will go be the workers in the harvest.
“And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” -Luke 10:2 ESV
About
Clark Frailey is a husband, father, and Lead Pastor of Coffee Creek Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.
clarkfrailey.com
