The effectiveness of evangelism depends on it.

PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT EVANGELISM:

SERVING IN OUR CULTURE IN THE REALM OF “SOCIAL SERVICE”

By Mark Simpson

WE WILL NOW LOOK AT THE MINISTRY OF SERVANT/CARING EVANGELISM. Why? It is becoming more and more recognizable: the American people are getting deeper and deeper into bondage, developing a hard, paralyzed heart. Many of the so-called saints share the same condition, but a remnant of aggressive saints are being raised up in this day with answers.

WE ARE SEEING THE TRUTH OF THE DIVINE "NUTCRACKER", USING THE WORD AND PRAYER AS ONE SIDE, AND GODLY SERVING LOVING WORKS AS THE OTHER.

MESSAGE, LIFESTYLE AND RESULTS

In Acts 2, the message was simple. It was based on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and its implications: we must repent, be baptized, and receive the Spirit: and be saved from the whole generation!

But in Acts 2:41-46 THERE WAS A LIFESTYLE that these new believers were invited into: they were baptized, then in the teaching, fellowship, eating, praying, signs and wonders, being together, having all things common, selling their possessions and sharing with the needy, eating together and praising God. Then AND ONLY THEN do we see in Acts 2:47 THE RESULT: Favor with the people, and the Lord adding daily those that were saved.

LESSON IN CATCHING SICK FISH: WE MUST HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER THEM IN THE WAY OF LIFESTYLE, A WAY OF SERVING THEM THAT OPENS HEARTS TO THE WORD. It is called SERVANT EVANGELISM and CARING EVANGELISM.

Notice that in Acts 2 above, there was a key step in between the message shared and the results. That step was lifestyle. There were things in the lifestyle of those early Christians that helped the unsaved "take the step to Christ" that produced the enormous results. That is the "Caring" part of evangelism.

THERE MUST BE SOMETHING THAT IS "CARING" IN US TO PRODUCE AN INTEREST IN THOSE WE KNOW; OUR COMMON KINSHIP, COMMON FRIENDSHIP, OR COMMON ASSOCIATION. There was in Acts 2.

“Unless our salvation works out through our fingertips and everywhere else, there is nothing to it, it is religious humbug. It is easy to turn our religious life into a cathedral for beautiful memories, but there are feet to be washed, people to be fed. Very few of us go there but that is the way the Son of God went. If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we had better abandon that one. His religion is one which brings help to the bottom of hell, not a religion that can deal only with what is fine and pure.” (Oswald Chambers)

WHY IS "SERVANT", AND SOCIAL/CULTURAL INVOLVEMENT, A CRUCIAL PART OF EVANGELISM?

I) A Christian view of love and compassion compels us.

Every social/need issue has a human face. 1.6 million abortions every year happens a person at a time. Each person aborted is a child, and each person getting an abortion is someone's daughter, wife or friend. Behind the billions of dollars of pornography sold is a multitude of collapsing marriages and individuals arrested for sex crimes . . . ONE AT A TIME.

Hear the cry: "There is no escape for me. No one cares for my soul." (Psalm 142:7)

"The whole land is desolate, because no man lays it to heart." (Jeremiah 12:11)

We have all heard the stories. Maybe it was on the news, or somebody who knows somebody from church. Again, each story has a human face. People dying of AIDS, children in organ transplant wards, the elderly having life support removed because of budget cutbacks and tolerance of euthanasia and assisted suicide, while God calls us to love them as ourselves. How?

Christ, in John 11:33-36, shows us a balance between weeping and concern, and actual action taken. He has two reactions when hearing the news of his friend's death and seeing the mourners gathered around. First, He wept with them. Also, He was "deeply moved." The Greek word is "embrimaomai", used by the Greeks to describe stallions before battle, rearing up on their hind legs and pawing the air. It literally means "to snort in spirit." We see Christ quickly moving forth to DO something. It was His correct understanding, too, of the nature of man, man being spirit, soul, and body.

“One cannot save and then pitchfork souls into heaven. Souls are more or less securely fastened to bodies. And as you cannot get the souls out and deal with them separately, you have to take them both together.” (Amy Carmichael, one of history’s greatest missionaries, who spent 55 years in India without one furlough)

In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lu. 10:25-37), two religious people are set forth as do-nothings. The priest was likely returning home with his duty done for the day, and the Levite could not touch a dead body ("Well, that guy by the road COULD be dead!") because of tradition and the fear of defilement. BY CONTRAST, THE SAMARITAN DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT, THAT CAUSED LOSS OF TIME, LOSS OF INCOME, AND PREOCCUPATION OF MIND.

New Testament Christians got the message. In Rome, they rescued babies that had been left to die from exposure outside the city walls, and raised them as their own. In Corinth, they offered their homes as places of refuge for temple prostitutes that had become pregnant.

WHAT SHOULD NOT MOTIVATE US? MERE ANGER. "The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." (Jam. 1:20) Do you have an area of victory in your life, like financial affairs being in order? Ever find someone out of control in that area and become resentful? You cannot effectively help people that you simultaneously resent and are angry with.

II A Christian view of human beings assumes it.

"Man is not just a soul to be saved." (Francis Schaeffer) God's view of humanity shows us that people have social, physical and emotional needs to be met, not just salvation-spiritual ones. "If we truly love our neighbors, we shall be concerned for their total welfare, the well-being of their soul, their body and their community. AND OUR CONCERN SHALL LEAD TO PRACTICAL PROGRAMS . . . " (John Stott) Ralph Neighbour heard the Lord ask him, "When will you accompany Me to see My friends?"

John Carr prophesied in Pittsburgh many years ago, "The Lord is about to send a multitude of broken, miserable, bound people into our midst. We are not currently ready to receive them."

In Matthew 25:31-46, God honors the sheep that have met such needs. In the parable, nothing is said about their teaching of the Word. Of course, other passages refer to the importance of that ministry. (Matt. 28:18-20) On the other hand, the goats are condemned for failing to meet those physical and practical needs.

Historians show that throughout Church history, it has been missionaries and preachers that raised up the schools, the hospitals, took medicines and cures and agricultural innovations and pure water technology and a hundred other social improvements.

Missions writer Pierce Beaver writes also that they "were constantly the protectors of native peoples against exploitation and injustice by government and industry, played an important part in abolishing slavery and slave labor, and fought fiercely for human rights in combatting opium production, widow-burning, infanticide, temple prostitution, caste system and other injustices."

“The rebellious or idle, who would never to respond to confrontation or warnings, will change after a crisis. When God’s people rally to their aid, they see the hand of God in others; they experience the power of God, and for the first time the church means something.” (Bill Mull)

When our Christianity fails to address all aspects of life, it appears to the world too trivial and superficial to be true or worthy of making the Gospel a priority.

III The effectiveness of our evangelism depends on it.

The recent Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism stated that it is time to balance evangelism with social/servant action. They are like the two sides of the nutcracker, two sides of the scissors, the two wings of a bird.

Eph. 2:10 "We are created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Gal. 5:6 "Faith works through love."

Tit. 2:14 "Christ came to purify for Himself a people of His own who are zealous for good deeds."

Tit. 3:14 "Let our people also learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs, that they may not be unfruitful."

"Good works cannot save, but they are an indispensable evidence of salvation. Social responsibility, like evangelism, should therefore be included in the teaching ministry of the church."

Servant action is not just a consequence of evangelism. It can be a bridge to evangelism. "It can break down prejudice and suspicion, open closed doors, and gain a hearing for the gospel.

"IF WE TURN A BLIND EYE TO THE SUFFERING OF THE PEOPLE, WE SHOULD NOT BE SURPRISED IF THEY TURN A DEAF EAR TO OUR MESSAGE." (Lausanne Report)

Servant action accompanies the evangelistic message as its indispensable partner. Again, see the pattern of Jesus in Acts 10:38.

"You know how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power, AND how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed."

No one would dispute the blessing of feeding the hungry, or social service.

However, what happens when we are called to take a stand for social action, and begin to protest corrupt structures that cause the service to be needed in the first place? Will we keep calling ambulances to a bad intersection, or intercede to have a stop light put up there?

Will we prayer walk and see the injustices, mutter and shake our heads and say "OH Jesus return soon. It's bad out there!"

Now we face the danger of "going political", and this is a controversial question to try to answer. John Stott says, "If we truly love our neighbors, our service may oblige us to take POLITICAL action on their behalf."

EXAMPLES:

- The ministries of the New Testament church; as I mentioned earlier, they rescued unwanted babies from the city dumps and raised them as their own, took in pregnant prostitutes, and made sure there was “not a needy person among them” (Acts 2:45, 4:34). We learn much about this early church from reading the words of their enemies, like Emperor Julian who wrote,

“(It) has been advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers,

And through their care for the burial of the dead. There is not a single

Believer who is a beggar, and these care not only for their own poor but

For ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help

That we should render them.” (Stephen Neill, “A History of Christian

Missions”)

This is exactly what happened after the recent tsunami that flooded huge areas of the island of Sumatra in islamic Indonesia: the Islamic nations printed articles and advertisements of their solidarity with the suffering, but it was the Christian missions that showed up with water, food, blankets, housing, boats and much more.

- Consider Charles Finney and William Wilberforce, who in the United States and England crusaded against slavery.

- Billy Sunday, who applauded and fought for prohibition of alcohol sales.

- Pro-life and crisis pregnancy organizations who continue to lobby our nation on behalf of the unborn and care for hurting women.

- Donald Wildmon and the AFA, who call for boycotts of companies that support television, movie and written pornography.

- William Booth, who championed the cause of workers rights as he saw tremendous abuses of laborers, even children, in London.

- Corrie ten Boom and her family hiding Jews from the Nazi executioners.

These are Christian moral values in action, not political "hot potatoes."

IV. SOCIAL ACTION IS CALLED FOR IF WE DO INDEED POSSESS A BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING OF GOVERNMENT.

In Mark 12:13-17, Jesus taught, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." What is the domain of our earthly governors? As citizens of our earthly country, we are taking advantage of "Caesar's" amenities like police protection and civil laws. In fact, if we live in a democracy and elect our leaders, in a way we are ALL "Caesar." As citizens of our country we benefit from its economic prosperity, its political order, its public safety, transportation, educational opportunities, etc.

Romans 13:1-4 shows that God ordains government to reward good behavior and punish evil. Why is God concerned that earthly government function well? In I Tim. 2:1-4 we are called to pray for its officials so that we could live peacably and that the gospel can go forth. Bible examples of God's people opposing authority when their leaders violated God's laws are in abundance. In Acts 5:29 we have a duty to oppose governmental laws that violate God's laws. Daniel 3, Joshua 2, and Exodus 1 are all examples.

God is also a God of justice, not just justification. (Ps. 146:7-9) In the first two chapters of the book of Amos, the prophet speaks specifically about injustice in the nations around him.

THE STAGE IS SET

The 1994 report by the National Center for Policy Analysis details that "private charity" does a much more effective job than government of getting prompt aid to those who need it. "94 percent of all homeless shelters are operated by the private sector. As many as 80 percent of low-income people turn to the private sector first when facing a crisis."

Our own government is now working on cutting back on its size. (applause is appropriate at this time) At the same time, it is asking us, the Church, to get more involved in volunteerism. However, many citizens are not as generous these days because they are already woefully overtaxed by government that needs to lead us from a welfare state to a culture of caring. IN ITS OWN ROUGH WAY, OUR NATION'S LEADERS ARE ASKING US, THE CHURCH, TO ENTER THE ARENA OF SERVANT ACTION. NOW IS THE TIME.

Where do we begin in a "Save the Whales-Kill the Unborn" generation, where a divorce is easier to obtain than a car loan and an abortion is easier to obtain than a teeth cleaning?

How do launch out where we have one million teen pregnancies each year and three million teens with venereal disease, and where there are more adult bookstores than McDonalds restaurants?

If over three quarters of our people believe there is a God and believe He has given us His Word, but our culture shows all the signs of A Sodom or a Rome or Babylon, where do we begin?

Each one of us, with one needy person at a time.

"River of Life Ministries/Ministerios Río de Vida provides resources for training churches and their leaders in many parts of the world in both English and Spanish. For more resources you can go to their website, www.RiverOfLifeMinistries.com and hit either "Leaders Letters" or "Departamento de Español" keys, or e-mail Mark Simpson at mark_simpson53@hotmail.com

Why LC2C Is NOT A Program or Curriculum

What Kind of Teaching Makes True Disciples? August 27, 2007 John H. Armstrong When you read the Gospels you soon discover that various phrases and ideas occur again and again. This is not an accident. We are meant to pay attention to these things. The frequency of some words shouts to us if we are not totally dull. One such phrase that frequently occurs is: "And Jesus began to teach them, saying . . . ." This phrase indicates that our Lord made disciples, which is the word for learners or students, very explicitly by teaching them. One of the titles most commonly used for Jesus was Rabbi, or Teacher. This idea is so prominent in the Gospels that you could easily, and correctly, surmise that Jesus came for two primary reasons: (1) To die and rise so as to redeem all who believe in him, and; (2) To teach all those who would follow him. It is really that simple when you get right down to it. The Great Evangelical "Field of Dreams" But many of us have a problem when we hear this put so starkly and simply. Some incorrectly translate these ideas into our modern cultural forms and think of things like crosses and classrooms, pictures and overheads, musical arrangements and power points. We buy Bibles to mark them, pens to mark them with, and special systems for marking them correctly. The more evangelical we are, the more likely we are to stress Bible teaching as the key to discipleship. Study the Word and it will happen. Know your Bible and all will go well. I call this our "Field of Dreams" theology. If you know the movie you will recall that Ray was told to build a baseball field in the middle of an Iowa cornfield. He didn�t comprehend the message or the meaning but he was told that if he built it "they would come." Well, he did build and they came, right onto the field to play ball with Ray the dreamer. Stars from an the early era of baseball magically appeared to play with Ray the dreamer. In reality, most of our modern evangelical practice tells new converts to: (1) Find a good church where they can get fellowship, and; (2) Get under a ministry of good teaching so that they can grow. But being a disciple means so much more than being taught correct content and good material from the Bible so you can grow. In many ways this is such a distortion of what teaching is that it is crippling the Church hazardously. May I suggest that we stop thinking of a classroom when we read these texts? Don�t get me wrong. I am a teacher and I love classrooms and classes. But the teaching Jesus gave to us is meant to teach us to think like him, to live like him and to follow him wherever he sends us. The classroom of Jesus is not so much a place where we gather but the whole world. And that world should be interpreted through the whole Word, not just through favorite proof texts taken from here and there. This is why I believe real reformation will always be anchored in the whole of Scripture as the primary witness to the Living Word, Christ. This is also why I am calling Christians to a gathering in November where the only book we use in our discussion will be the Bible. The Great Commission and Teaching the Faith "To teach the faith" is for one disciple to teach another disciple to observe all that Christ commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). This is an active process, never passive. And this is the mission of the whole Church, to make disciples as a fellowship of Christ-followers. This is not just a calling for a few special agents. We must all do this by baptizing and teaching those we reach with the Good News, always understood as a community process, to live like Christ. They are to come along the way with us, as his disciples, just as we are his disciples. But Faith Must Have Content The Christian faith has a content without which there is no Christian faith at all. We must be very clear about this when there are voices here and there advocating a type of Christianity without a creed of any sort. This is why the earliest Christians wrote creeds like the Apostle�s Creed and the Nicene Creed. This content was a set of beliefs and this set of beliefs formed the core of what it was that the church or an individual confessed in order to be baptized and to become a real Christ follower, i.e., a disciple. And without this a church would lose faith, thus health and life. This is why theology really does matter, not so much as a system to be argued for as a core to be believed and lived. In the words of a Presbyterian pastor-friend, "The Church has a faith without which she cannot live faithfully." This one of the reasons we teach, so that people can follow Jesus faithfully in accordance with the truth that Christ gave to his flock. Faith Has a Core If we are in perpetual doubt about what forms the core of the Christian faith we will be unable teach a core, and thus we will emphasize those things that are on the periphery as actually being what is at the center. And by this mistake, we fail will fail to actually teach what is really at the center. This is the problem with much of modern American evangelicalism. It teaches things that are not central as though they were, and then majors on learning these things as part of a system we should master. (The list here is endless, which again argues for keeping the core of faith at the level of basic creeds, not human shibboleths.) The Christ of Scripture teaches us a faith to be lived by disciples who obey him, not as theories to be debated and debunked. We need to get this core right, but we also need to connect this core to the vital living of Christian obedience. This seems obvious if you know Church history at all. But what is even more obvious, at least to my mind, is that this is not what is happening in most of our churches today. My Dilemma and My Decision Because of this simple biblical model for teaching and life, I have little or no interest in some things that continually present themselves to me as important for this ministry. I have no interest in: 1. Creating and marketing a new curriculum to solve church problems. Denominations and parachurch groups have been doing this for decades, and it has done very little to really make the kind of disciples that we encounter in the New Testament. 2. Putting together a systematic teaching formula that is my own and that promises more than it can actually deliver, since it is the Spirit through the Word who makes real disciples. 3. Mass marketing my insights and solutions for all kinds of problems in the family, the Church or the culture. Sorry, but I have no cool plans for how to get the ACT 3 message out in ways that will sell and work like the modern approach promises. And I do not plan to write a book on marriage and family either since we already have more of them than we need and we know far more about these issues than we actually practice. The problem, as this simple illustration proves, is not in giving out good content and in making it available. It is that we do not obey what we already know. We have missed the core, bought into a system that tells us how we grow, and then processed a reductionistic brand of Christianity that doesn�t deliver. Reformation Is Still the Need What is needed is a fresh reformation that takes the Word so seriously that it actually believes in true discipleship. This discipleship is not found in knowing a book but rather in the teaching of the person of Christ through Holy Scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit. Far too many of us think that Christian faith is an exam that we pass, not a life that we must learn and pass on to faithful people who will then help us to pass it on to others. We have given them the impression that people are to make a commitment to Christ and then give their money and time to the Church so they can watch others do the mission for them. What I am saying here is not difficult to grasp. If you have been a Christian for only a few years you know I am right. But then church after church, and pastor after pastor, have often taught you otherwise. Don�t you think it is time we called a moratorium on all these "answers" and got people into the life of faith through teaching the Scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit? Yes, this will require gifted teachers and solid teaching, but it will also require a renewal of faith on the part of congregations to stop seeking for every new thing that comes down the pike, packaged and ready to excite another movement of American Christians. I am tired of movements. I want to know Christ. The really hard part, at least for me, is that this requires that teachers just like me not offer pre-packaged deals to churches so that we can create our own group and gain our own fan base. The tug on me to do this is huge at times. I know it well. I have had people tell me that I will never be successful until I follow a marketing plan and offer some new solutions for the Church in sharp and beautifully done ways. I can�t find it in me to give in to this urge. And I think the longer I live, the better I understand why. People don�t really need me at all. They need Jesus. He can teach them with me or without me. I am nothing more than an unprofitable servant at the end of the day. And so are you.

Reactivating the Missional Church - New Book Excerpts

The Forgotten Ways

+ reactivating the missional church

by Alan Hirsch

Brazos Press Grand Rapids, Michigan 2006

A church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling.

...[We must] play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, and live by improvisation and experiment.

Hans Kung, The Church as the People of God

The truth is that the twenty-first century is turning out to be a highly complex phenomenon where terrorism, paradigmatic technological innovation, an unsustainable environment, rampant consumerism, discontinuous change, and perilous ideologies confront us at every point. In the face of this, even the most confident among us would have to admit, in our more honest moments, that the church as we know it faces a very significant adaptive challenge. The overwhelming majority of church leaders today report that they feel it is getting much harder for their communities to negotiate the increasing complexities in which they find themselves. As a result, the church is on massive, long-trended decline in the West. In this situation, we have to ask ourselves probing questions: "Will more of the same do the trick? Do we have the inherited resources to deal with this situation? Can we simply rework the tried and true Christendom understanding of church that we so love and understand, and finally, in an ultimate tweak of the system, come up with the winning formula?"

I have to confess that I do not think that the inherited formulas will work anymore.

Even much of the thinking about the so-called emerging church leaves the prevailing assumptions of church and mission intact and simply focuses on the issue of theology and spirituality in a postmodern setting. This amounts to a reworking of the theological "software" while ignoring the "hardware" as well as "operating system" of the church. In my opinion, this will not be enough to get us through...how did the early Christians do it?

• They were an illegal religion throughout this period.
• They didn't have any church buildings as we know them.
• They didn't even have the scriptures as we know them.
• They didn't have an institution or the professional form of leadership...
• They didn't have seeker-sensitive services, youth groups, worship bands, seminaries, commentaries, etc.
• They actually made it hard to join the church.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that if we are going to meaningfully reach this majority of people, we are not going to be able to do it by simply doing more of the same. And yet it seems that when faced with our problems of decline, we automatically reach for the latest church growth package to solve the problem - we seem to have nowhere else to go. But simply pumping up the programs, improving the music and audiovisual effects, or jiggering the ministry mix won't solve our missional crisis. Something far more fundamental is needed.

Statistics...indicate that the vast majority of the church's growth comes from "switchers" - people who move from one church to another based on the perception and experience of the programming. There is precious little conversion growth. No one really gets to see the problem, because it "feels so right" and it "works for me." In fact, the church is on the decline right across the Western world, and we have had at least forty years of church-growth principles and practice. We can't seem to make disciples based on a consumerist approach to the faith. We plainly cannot consume our way into discipleship.
All of us must become much more active in the equation of becoming lifelong followers of Jesus. Consumption is detrimental to discipleship.

Strictly speaking one ought to say that the church is always in a state of crisis and that its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it...

And if the atmosphere of crisislessness still lingers on in many parts of the West, this is simply the result of a dangerous delusion. Let us also know that to encounter crisis is to encounter the possibility of truly being the Church.

David Bosch, Transforming Mission

No one looking at the situation of the church today can say that over the last century or so things have not fundamentally changed. The reality we deal with is that after around 2,000 years of the gospel, we are on the decline in just about every Western cultural context.

Much ink has been spilled in trying to analyze the situation. But seldom in these assessments do we hear a call for a radical rethink about the actual mode of the church's engagement - the way it perceives and shapes itself around its core tasks. Rarely do we hear a serious critique of the often hidden assumptions on which Christendom itself stands. It seems that the template of this highly institutional version of Christianity is so deeply embedded in our collective psyche that we have inadvertently put it beyond the pale of prophetic critique.

I am now convinced that one of the major blockages... is our adherence to an obsolete understanding of the church.

People now identify themselves less by grand ideologies, national identities, or political allegiances, and by much less grand stories: those of interest groups, new religious movements (New Age), sexual identity (gays, lesbians, neofacist, eco-rats, etc.), class, conspicuous consumption (metrosexuals, urban grunge, etc.), work types (computer geeks, hackers, designers, etc.), and so forth. On one occasion some youth ministry specialists I work with identified in an hour fifty easily discernible youth subcultures alone (computer nerds, skaters, homies, surfies, punks, etc.). Each of them takes their subcultural identity with utmost seriousness, and hence any missional response to them must as well.

Speaking of the Alpha course, this remarkable evangelistic tool has been used to bring many to the faith. I understand that up to 3 million people have participated in Alpha courses in the United Kingdom alone. The way it is generally used by churches is as an evangelistic tool to contribute to the church's numerical growth. The interesting thing is that in the United Kingdom, Alpha is most successful among what has been called the "dechurched" rather than the genuinely unchurched - in other words, those who came within the m0-m1 framework. And in spite of its evangelistic power, viewed from a broader perspective it has not substantially added to church growth. There are certainly not 3 million new church members in the United Kingdom as a result of Alpha. In fact, the church there is still in serious decline. As such, Alpha, far from being an effective missionary tool, actually serves as a good example of how we don't reach very far beyond ourselves at all.

How can this be? A major part of the problem is that although largely dechurched people do come to faith in Jesus through Alpha, it seems that they still don't want to "go to church." It's that darn "Jesus, yes. Church, no" phenomenon again. People will come to faith in small, intimate communities of friends but generally don't want the organized-religion part of the deal. This swapping of agendas has sometimes been perceived as a "bait and switch" strategy, which is generally considered unethical in the commercial world. So we have now reached the vexing situation that the prevailing expression of church (Christendom) has become a major stumbling block to the spread of Christianity in the West. Applying the grid of Apostolic Genius, I find myself asking the question "What if instead of just being a church growth tool, Alpha became a church multiplication movement - a new church emerging out of the original Alpha group and reproducing itself from there?" My guess is that with a different paradigm driving it, it could really take off. It has so many elements of Apostolic Genius latent in its structure but is hindered by a more institutional understanding of church. Here we see the clash of the paradigms in stark form.

When all their external reference points are removed, when most of their leaders and theologians killed or imprisoned and all access to outside sources is cut off, they are somehow forced through sheer circumstance to unlock something truly potent and compelling in the message they carry as the people of God. The result is a Jesus movement unparalleled in history. What is going on here, and what can we in the West learn from this?

...in order to survive in the context of persecution, they also have to jettison all unnecessary impediments, including that of a predominantly institutional conception of ecclesia. But perhaps even more significantly, they have to condense and purify their core message that keeps them both faithful and hopeful.

Therefore all unnecessary complexities are extracted, and in the process a miracle happens - the people discover their true message, and the movement is born. Faith is once again liked in utter simplicity to Jesus, the author and completer of the faith.

But something else is unleashed in this recovery of simplicity, namely, the capacity to rapidly transfer the message along relational lines. Freed from the philosophical density of the academy and from dependence on the professional cleric, the gospel becomes profoundly "sneezable." This reference to sneezing is not just whimsical. We know from the study of ideas that they spread in patterns very similar to that of viral epidemics. We also know that in order to really take hold and become an "epidemic," they have to be easily transferred from one person to another. And to do this they need to be profound and yet simple - easily grasped by any person, and in many cases illiterate peasants.

The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief. T. S. Eliot

C.S. Lewis rightly understood that the purpose of the church was to draw people to Christ and make them like Christ. He said that the church exists for no other purpose. "If the Church is not doing this, then all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible, are a waste of time."

For the follower of Jesus, discipleship is not the first step toward a promising career. It is in itself the fulfillment of his or her destiny.

Church growth exponents have explicitly taught us how to market and tailor the product to suit target audiences. They told us to mimic the shopping mall, apply it to the church, and create a one-stop religious shopping experience catering to our every need. In this they were sincere and well intentioned, but they must have been also totally ignorant of the ramifications of their counsel - because in the end the medium has so easily overwhelmed the message. Christendom, operating as it does in the attractional mode and run by professionals, was already susceptible to consumerism, but under the influence of contemporary church growth practice, consumerism has actually become the driving ideology of the church's ministry.

The very shape of the church building gives us away (refer to the diagram of the church building in chapter 1). Ninety percent or more of the people who attend our services are passive. In other words, they are consumptive. They are the passive recipients of the religious goods and services being delivered largely by professionals in a slick presentation and service. Just about everything we do in these somewhat standardized services and "box churches," we do in order to attract participants, and to do this we need to make the experience of church more convenient and comfortable. It is the ultimate religious version of one-stop shopping - hassle-free. But alas, all we are achieving by doing this is adding more fuel to the insatiable consumerist flame. I have come to the dreaded conclusion that we simply cannot consume our way into discipleship. Consumerism as it is experienced in the everyday and discipleship as it is intended in the scriptures are simply at odds with each other. And both aim at the mastery over our lives, only in marketing it's called brand loyalty or brand community.

How have we moved so far from the ethos of discipleship passed on to us by our Lord? And how do we recover it again?

The answer to the first question is that Western Christendom was so deeply influenced by Greek or Hellenistic ideas of knowledge.

The assumption in Hellenistic thinking is that if people get the right ideas, they will simply change their behavior. The Hellenistic approach therefore can be characterized as an attempt to try to think our way into a new way of acting.

So what is that better way? You will not be surprised to find out that it is found in the ancient art of disciple making. Disciple making operates best with the Hebrew understanding of knowledge in mind. In other words, we need to take a whole person into account in seeking to transform that person. The way we do this, indeed the way Jesus did it, is to act our way into a new way of thinking. This is clearly how Jesus formed his disciples.

...[T]he most probable assumption is that no currently working business theory will be valid 10 years hence...And yet few executives accept that turning a business around requires fundamental changes in the assumptions on which the business is run. It requires a different business.

Peter Drucker,"A Turnaround Primer"

...religious institutionalism happens when in the name of some convenience we set up a system to do what we must do ourselves so that over time the structures we create take on a life of their own.

In order to remain truly missional, established organizations need to be very aware of the dangers of institutionalization. Harvard's David K. Hurst (Crisis and Renewal - Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2002) talks about the shifts in emphasis that take place in institutionalization in the metaphor of moving from being hunters to becoming herders. In his analysis the marks identifying this transition are that

• Mission becomes Strategy
• Roles become Tasks
• Teams become Structure
• Networks become Organization
• Recognition becomes Compensation

Walter Henrichsen points out that "the reason that the church of Jesus Christ finds it so hard to stay on top of the great commission is the population of the world is multiplying while the church is merely adding. Addition can never keep pace with multiplication." (Walter Henrichsen, quoted in N. Cole, Cultivating a Life for God (Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1999),22

It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly seeking, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers...

Cmdr. Benjamin Sisko, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Although we often hear about successful attempts to revitalize existing churches, the overall track record is very poor. Ministers report again and again that their efforts at organizational change did not yield the promised results. Instead of managing new, revitalized, organizations, they ended up managing the unwanted side effects of their efforts. At first glance, this situation seems paradoxical. When we observe our natural environment, we see continuous change, adaptation, and creativity; yet our church organizations seem to be largely incapable of dealing with change.

A lot of energy (and money) is put into the change program, with all the usual communication exercises, consultations, workshops, and so on. In the first few months, things seem to be changing, but gradually the novelty and impetus wear off and the organization settles back into something like its previous configuration. The reason for this is simple,though often overlooked - unless the paradigm at the heart of the culture is changed there will be no lasting change.

I discovered this time and again while working with my denomination. My aim was to try to cheat history by recovering a missional mind-set and a movement ethos as the central paradigm of the denomination. On reflection, we managed to get the missional part of the equation into the center, but we were not able to instill a movement ethos because of a deeply entrenched institutional paradigm at the heart of the organization. The problem is that most people see the church as an institution and not an organic movement (a living system), in spite of the fact that the Bible is replete with organic images of church and kingdom (body, field, vine, soil, etc.). In such a situation, all efforts at other changes are doomed to failure. The structures just revert back to default once the pressure of change is alleviated. The fact remains that for this very reason the vast majority of Christian institutions throughout history never renew and change. The institutional systems story informs so much of what we do. Machiavelli was right: "Nothing is more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than achieving a new order of things."

Ivan Illich was once asked what the most radical way to change society was; was it violent revolution or gradual reform? He gave a careful answer. Neither. Rather, he suggested, if one wanted to change society, then one must tell an alternative story.How true. We need to retell the story of the church and mission in light of the organic living systems perspective if we are to evolve into a genuinely missional church.

A note of warning for those leading in established churches: what Western Christianity desperately needs at the moment is adaptive leadership - people who can help us transition to a different, more agile, mode of church. Such leaders don't necessarily have to be highly creative innovators themselves, but rather people who can move the church into adaptive modes - people who can disturb the stifling equilibrium and create the conditions for change and innovation. By and large, many leaders in church organizations, particularly those with strong caring and teaching gifts, can exhibit a tendency to avoid conflict and too easily soothe tensions. Left unchecked, this can be lethal, because it caters to equilibrium and therefore ultimately to death.

Most churches start from dynamic and exciting adventures in evangelism and church planting, and at the end of their organizational life cycle they are usually miserable, static, institutions. And it appears that an essential part of the process is the movement form the early, more unstable, disequilibrium to that of a stable envionment of equilibrium. The early days of most churches or parachurches are experienced as unpredictable and wild but at the same time seem to filled with a kind of spiritual energy.

The history of missions is quite clear about this: Christianity is at its very best when it is on the more chaotic fringes. It is when church settles down, and moves away from the edge of chaos, that things go awry.

By and large, churches are very conservatine organizations, and after they have been around just a few years they can quickly become institutional...

...their primary orientation is often backward to an idealized past rather than forward to a new vision of the future. As such they are classic, often inflexible, institutions that enshrine an inherited tradition.

Here is the deal: the basic Christendom mode of church is simply unable to respond, because it was not made for this kind of fluidity. Most churches are too institutional, and therefore too clumsy in their inherited form, to be able to adapt and respond adequately to this missional environment. A useful comparison is between a supertanker and a speedboat. The tanker takes many miles just to stop or turn, but the speedboat maximizes on responsiveness. Our situation requires agility and adaptation and not solidity and fixedness. It's the age of the speedboat-style church. And it is happening ... a new species of Christian community is being born, and to use the technical phrase of this chapter, it is emergent as well as adaptive. Interestingly, the same process is happening in the corporate world. Tom Peters (Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution, London: Pan, 1987, 355) notes that excessive, unwieldy structure is "management's time bomb" in a rapidly changing, global environment. The smaller, more responsive organizations are the ones that will thrive in the new millennium.

Signs of City Transformation

By Luis Bush

Mission as transformation has emerged as a new paradigm at the beginning of the twenty-first century. We are living in a fallen, deformed world needing to be transformed. Individuals are being called to be conformed to the image of Christ. Churches are being challenged to be renewed and reformed to align with God's greater purposes. Cities and nations are being transformed.

What are the telling stories of transformation?
The stories grow daily. There are sixty transformation venues in Fiji alone. Tribal leaders are being reconciled, denominational leaders have coalesced in heart, mind and vision, the Prime Minister begins the day early seeking God, the governmental cabinet seeks to do what is right and the regenerative work of God is becoming evident in nature itself. God is demonstrating His approval all over the islands through regenerating coral reefs, returning fish, growing fruit on plants that had ceased to bear for decades. Torch lights carried village to village by enlightened Fijian government officials symbolically impart revival to catalyze other venues.

Transformational city-focused prayer initiatives have been taking place since 1989 in Indonesia. More than 350 cities currently have interchurch and intermission prayer committees offering seminars for facilitators
trained for enabling transformational initiatives.

In Africa annual transformation prayer days have grown exponentially over recent years. On May 2, 2004, more than 400 African stadiums in fifty countries will open their gates to allow God's people to come in for
several hours of fervent, united prayer. A week of bounty precedes the prayer day in Africa when God's people give generously to bless communities, cities and nations. Positive changes are being reported by
secular newspapers.

In Latin America, city-wide transformational initiatives have been taking place for well over ten years in Argentina. The Cali, Colombia, story on video is about a city where 60,000 Christians jam the municipal stadium for all-night prayer vigils every 90 days; where a multi-billion dollar drug cartel has been brought to its knees.1 In Almolonga, Guatemala, video footage tells the story of city jails closed for lack of crime. The
presence of God is claimed by more than nine of ten people and agricultural production beyond imagination.

What are the major transformational streams?
Four major transformational streams are flowing across the world: the revivalist stream, the church growth stream, the city-reaching stream and the stream engaged in the transformational development of the poor. These overlapping, diverse transformational streams converge into the same "transformational river." This comprehensive movement to bless the nations includes many emphases:

• Marketplace transformational initiatives seek to bless nations in tangible ways.
• Transformational leadership engages a new generation in participatory leadership with current leadership.
• Missional initiative among the last and the least prioritizes the spiritually needy while integrating the physically needy without leaving any country out of "focus."

We are being called not to dilute, adulter, temper, water down, reduce, weaken or pollute that which the Spirit of the living God is purifying and gushing forth on this dusty plain we call Earth.

Convictions, commitments and coordination
Christian leaders around the world made their voices heard through the World Inquiry, calling for the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. Mission as Transformation global events have been
scheduled for Indonesia in 2005, India in 2006, Korea in 2007, Brazil 2008, Africa in 2009, the Turkic World in 2010, Beijing 2011, Monterrey, Mexico, in 2012. Approaches to transformation vary, including.

• Transformational development of the poor through community development
• Saturation church planting
• Emphasis on divine visitation and revival. God acts on the Church bringing revival and He acts on society bringing spiritual awakening.
• Obedience to God as an apostolic people with an apostolic mission to
• transform peoples, places and the culture within which the Church lives.

An effort to define a comprehensive approach to transformation must be "rooted in the theology of the mission of the Kingdom of God and seeks to express the Lordship of Jesus over every aspect of life, economic, religious, personal, political. It does not give priority to any area of life as an area for mission . . . but this change will be effected whenever people address issues of life directly, rooted in a gospel
perspective."2

As the head of the church Christ initiates and His body responds - as one body. Transformation associates are now gathering to contemplate then seek to cooperate with the beauty of God's movements. The basic idea behind "transformation coordination" is that, not only can we do more together than we can separately, but we move to a new ministry realm which operates on entirely new laws of input and output. Like the gushing forth of the waters the love of God through the people of God unleashes multiple mission initiatives in which divine resources are channeled through willing servants to meet human needs to the glory of God.

The ultimate vision of transformation is for the power, the presence and the peace of God experienced by all. Shalom-Salaam embrace. The power of God shows. The peace of God rules. The presence of God fills the earth.

Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. Psalm 85:10,11 (NIV)

How do we express this mission of transformation?
"Transformation is a concept rooted in the New Covenant (see John 4:14; Romans 12:2; II Corinthians 3:18, 5:17; I John 3:9). The term itself derives from the Greek word "metamorphoo" which means to change from one degree of glory to another, with ever increasing glory. It is the spiritual equivalent of a caterpillar being metamorphosed into a butterfly. Unlike reformation, it does not merely tinker with society, it
changes it from the inside out. It operates at the heart level." George Otis, The Sentinel Group

Transformation is the progressive and ongoing measurable supernatural impact of the presence and power of God working in, through and apart from the Church on human society and structures. In the church, this is characterized by increased holiness of life, reconciliation in relationships, and appetite for prayer and worship. Through the Church this is characterized by accelerated conversion growth, mobilization of
gifts and callings, and an increased relevance to and participation in greater society.

In the culture, this may be characterized by pervasive awareness of the reality of God, a radical correction of social ills, a commensurate decrease in crime rates, supernatural blessing on local commerce, healing
of the brokenhearted (the alienated and disenfranchised), regenerative acts of restoring the productivity of the land, and an exporting of kingdom righteousness.

"To this end, a catalytic core of saints typically embrace a lifestyle of persistent repentance, humility, and sacrificial servanthood that attracts the favor and presence of God, and breaks the predominating influences of the ruling power structures of human flesh and negative spiritual forces." Tom White, Prayer Summits

"Transformation involves seeking positive change in the whole of human life materially, socially and spiritually, by recovering our true identity as human beings created in the image of God and discovering our true vocation as productive stewards, faithfully caring for our world and people." Bryant Myers, World Vision

Transformation is the change from a condition of human existence contrary to God's purposes to one in which people are able to enjoy fulness of life in harmony with God.

According to the biblical view of human life, then, transformation is the change from a condition of human existence contrary to God's purposes to one in which people are able to enjoy fulness of life in harmony with God (Jn. 10:l0; Col. 3:8-15; Eph. 4:13). This transformation can only take place through the obedience of individuals and communities to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whose power changes the lives of men and women by releasing them from the guilt, power and consequences of sin, enabling them to respond with love toward God and towards others (Rom. 5:5), andaking them "new creatures in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:17).3

"City reaching is the ongoing process of mobilizing the whole body of Christ in a geographic area to strategically focus its resources on reaching the whole city with the whole Gospel, resulting in the
transformation of the city and its societies.

Dedication to mobilizing the whole Church requires the initiative be inclusive of every believer in its approach. Commitment to the whole city requires that the initiative be comprehensive in its scope to include all peoples, problems, and conditions that affect community life. The whole Gospel requires methods that are holistic in nature requiring a balanced integration of proclamation and incarnation. A city reaching initiative by definition must be inclusive in approach, comprehensive in scope, and holistic in nature.

Transformation is a reference to two points of time in a city's history; where the city is now and where it once was. For a growing number of cities the language that best describes the degree of societal change
occurring between those two historic points is transformation. Deep and profound change is possible in human beings and is equally possible for the social organisms that we call cities and communities."
Jack Dennison, CitiReach

"It is less important where a city is on the transformation continuum than where it is compared to where it was." George Otis, The Sentinel Group

What are the principles for transformation?
We are being called to seek God in all His holiness, to humble ourselves as did Isaiah of old, to respond to God with a "yes" when he asks "Whom shall I send?" to seek the unity of God…s servants and to cultivate
creative transformational community initiatives to bless the peoples and the nations.

Principles emerge in response to the question "What will it take to achieve the vision for transformation?" Some of the proven principles include the following: 4

Spiritual Vitality Laying the foundation for ministry through corporate
spiritual growth

Experiencing the holiness of God with other leaders leads to repentance,
humility, and deeper life commitment to Christ and His mission in the
world.

Relational Priority Fueling momentum for ministry through loving
relationships

Reconciling, forming and developing relationships of mutual love, respect,
and trust enables leaders to work together for the common good of their
community.

Compelling Vision Aligning transformational efforts by maintaining vision
for the completed task

Ongoing clear, compelling and comprehensive vision casting that involves
everyone in the project brings about shared vision, values and strategy,
common language and goals, urgency to act and a bonded team.

Empowering Leadership Identifying leaders and initiating a process for
community transformation

Empowerment thrives from a growing base of committed leaders and no barriers to keep them from doing a good job. Effective leaders shepherd people and processes putting together the structures and strategies to
carry out God…s vision. Strategy results from the prayerful planning of leaders who recognize the activity of God in the community and make the large-scale adjustments needed to join Him in that activity.

Thorough Research Increasing understanding of the current realities of one's community
If the Church wants to be relevant and effective in the community, it needs good information that describes the community's people and need, the condition of the church; and the spiritual forces which influence current reality. The Church must see the city as it truly is; not just what it seems to be. These data will show leaders God's top priorities and highest leverage (greatest results per effort) ministries that will bring about
the most impact and lasting results.

Loving Service
Enacting high leverage opportunities to minister to the community. Building bridges through acts of service and kindness establishes relationships of trust and credibility with the community. People open their lives to those who genuinely care about personal and community needs
and more often will open their heart to the One who empowers loving service.

Intentional Learning
Making a fresh commitment to individual and corporate learning around needed skills and effective ministry models. Constructing the right structures and steps to work together effectively means we must use the assets God has given us to their fullest extent - committing ourselves to training and ongoing learning. Finding out what the Church needs to learn to bring about greater impact is crucial to achieving its goals. For many of us, community transformation means a shift in our underlying philosophies, as well as learning new skills. Building the Church…s ability to facilitate change in the city requires a community of learners who are committed to discover news ways to achieve God's plans and purposes.

What are the signs of transformation? 5
Jesus did more than preach the Kingdom; he demonstrated its reality with "signs of the kingdom," public evidence that the Kingdom he was talking about had come. These "signs of the kingdom," are the same as signs of transformation.

Since "the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work" (I John 3:8), he inevitably came into collision with the prince of darkness. The signs of the kingdom were evidences that the devil was
retreating before the advance of the King. As Jesus put it, once the strong man has been overpowered by the Stronger One, his possessions can be taken from him (Matt. 12:29; Luke 11:22). Similarly, signs of transformation prompted by God-initiatives often through transformed individuals and the Church which is the body of Christ also evidence the advance of the King of Glory in the twenty-first century.

The first sign of transformation was (and still is) Jesus himself in the midst of his people (Lk. 17:21; Matt. 18:20), whose presence brings joy, peace, and a sense of celebration (John 15:11; 16:33; Mk. 2:18-20).

The second is the preaching of the Gospel. There was no Gospel of the Kingdom to proclaim until Christ arrived. Now that he has come, however, the Good News of the Kingdom must be preached to all, especially to the poor (Lk. 4:18,19; 7:22). The preaching of the Kingdom points people to the Kingdom itself.

The third sign of transformation was exorcism. Although the "principalities and powers" may have a reference to demonic ideologies and structures, they are evil, personal intelligences under the command of the devil. Demon possession is a real and terrible condition. Deliverance is possible only in a power encounter in which the name of Jesus is invoked and prevails.

The fourth sign of transformation was and is the healing and the nature miracles - making the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the sick whole, raising the dead (Lk. 7:22), stilling the storm, and multiplying
loaves and fishes. We all agree that these were not only signs pointing to the reality of the Kingdom's arrival, but also anticipations of the final Kingdom from which all disease, hunger, disorder and death will be for
ever banished. We also agree that God is still free and powerful, and performs miracles today, especially in frontier situations where the Kingdom is advancing into enemy-held territory. Some Christians think we
should expect miracles as commonly as in the ministry of Jesus and his apostles (e.g., John 14:12), while others draw attention to the texts which describe these miracles as authenticating their unique ministry
(e.g., Heb. 2:3, 4; II Cor. 12:12).

A fifth sign of transformation is the miracle of conversion and the new birth. Whenever people "turn to God from idols, to serve the living and true God" (I Thess. 1: 9, 10), a power encounter has taken place in which
the spell of idols, whether traditional or modern, and of the spirits, has been broken. God's power for salvation is displayed in the Gospel (Rom. 1:16), and converts who have been rescued from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18) are said to have "tasted ... the powers of the age to come" (Heb. 6:5).

A sixth sign of transformation is the people of the Kingdom, in whom is manifested that cluster of Christlike qualities which Paul called "the fruit of the Spirit." For the gift of the Spirit is the supreme blessing of the Kingdom of God. Where he rules, love, joy, peace and righteousness rule with him (Gal. 5:22,23; Rom. 14:17). Moreover, love issues in good works. Thus, if the Gospel is Good News of the Kingdom, good works are the signs of transformation. Good News and good works, evangelism and social responsibility, are once again seen to be indissolubly united.

The seventh sign of transformation is suffering. It was necessary for the King to suffer in order to enter into his glory. Indeed, he suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps (I Pet. 2:21). To suffer for the sake of righteousness or for our testimony to Jesus, and to bear such suffering courageously, is a clear sign to all beholders that we have received God's salvation or Kingdom (Phil. 1:28,29; cf. II Thess. 1:5).

A Conclusion
"The good news is that God wants to visit our communities. Indeed He desires to make them His habitation. But He will not be comfortable in our midst until we remove offending spiritual roots and cultivate an appetite for holiness, unity, faith, humility and prayer. In the end, divine visitation is as much our responsibility as it is God's." George Otis, The Sentinel Group

The word transformation and its cognates have emerged as an expression of mission throughout the Christian world today. For example, representatives from seventeen Christian relief and development organizations met in February 2004 and agreed on a statement that expresses their vision as a
collective association that the whole Church become a transforming and transformed sign of Christ's Kingdom among all people.

Different transformational streams, each with its own approach, are flowing into a river of transformation. As the river of transformation moves across the earth individuals, churches, communities, cities and nations are being transformed by the power of God through the people of God for the glory of God.

Christians are engaged in a transformational mission at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A cyclical pattern is emerging of those getting involved. It begins with a fresh awareness of the holiness of God which
leads to greater humility. The humility of the servants of God makes way for a spirit of unity. Greater unity leads to the cultivation of a transformed and transformational community sensitized to discover, embrace
and become servant catalysts on His mission of transformation.

How can you join in?

References
1 George Otis, Jr in Transformations.
2 Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden, eds., “Introduction”, Mission as
Transformation, Regnum, 1999.
3 Wheaton ’83, sponsored by the World Evangelical Fellowship, provided a
platform for further clarification of the response to human need among
evangelicals. In the book containing the presentations made at the
“Consultation on the Church in Response to Human Need,” edited by the co-
presenters of the topic “Evangelism and Social Responsibility” a year
earlier, Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden, the final document titled
“Transformation” reflects, by its very name, the call for societal
transformation (Samuel and Sugden 1987:254-265).
4 Jack Dennison, CitiReach
5 Adapted from Evangelism and Social Responsibility, written during the
international Consultation on the Relationship between Evangelism and
Social Responsibility, held at Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 19-25, 1982 in
which the term transformation replaces kingdom.


* HilldaleCC.org
* UprisingChurch.org
* back40outreach.com
* RodsCalvaryWebsite.com
* NashvilleRedCross.org
* DCAnet.org
* HCCFamily.com
* BrentwoodHills.org

* Open Forum

CARE ~ Catalyst Groups: A New Strategy

What is a Catalyst Group?

Catalyst- One that causes an event or process

Overall Purpose

We seek to honor God by striving to improve our community through positive change based on Christian values and ethics. We serve, influence, and lead by providing vision and resources in synergy with others as we value our past and guide our future.

The Premise to a Catalyst Group

If a group of 12 to 15 equal people with a common interest will meet for 36 hours per year around a purpose in a structured program, they will achieve three significant cooperative successes in the first two years.

Catalyst Group

Groups of people with like interests who meet to learn together and from each other, share ideas, assist each other in the improvement of their leadership skills, and cooperate in the implementation of programs and ideas that exemplify God’s love, serve others and support the chosen mission

The Elements

Periodic meetings and communication including

A centered purpose around a vision, goal, or mission

Committed and qualified

Long term

An outpouring of ones self

Passion for the purpose

Many different possible interests

A collection of talent based on diverse perspectives

A coach or mentor

Commonality

Meeting rules or an agreed upon process

Confidentiality

Balanced participation

Participants

Entrepreneurs

Community leadership

Young emerging impact individuals

Volunteers

Values role models

Combination

Member criteria could include

Willing to be vessels of Gods will

Positive thinkers

Doers

A willingness to serve others and the community

Regular attenders

Values oriented thinkers

A vested community interest

Interested in the future

Seeking personal growth

Willing to teach

Understanding of the leadership culture

Must add diversity to the group

Strong character

Credible

No self serving initiative

Participation Rewards-Individual

Understanding the cumulative knowledge and experience of the group

Growth and continued effectiveness of participant

Build future leaders

Train future mentors

Education of participant

New voices of leadership

Mentoring

Coaching

Positive community change

Growing circles of influence

Propagation of the organization

Cooperation

Friendships

Participation Rewards-Organization

1. Growth and continued effectiveness of the organization
2. Lead others who need lead
3. Propagation of the organization
4. Further the purpose
5. Education
6. Coaching
7. Positive Community Change

Improve community quality of life

Community service prevalence

Economic growth

Expanding community programs

Vision and build the future

Cooperation

God’s way of ensuring the right fit with participants

1. Project failures
2. Unbalanced participation
3. Lack of trust or confidentiality
4. Impatience
5. Disengagement
6. Wrong fit
7. Personal Agenda
8. Schedule conflict

Success Meeting Elements

1. The group must develop a purpose statement that supports the Overall Purpose Statement
2. Coaches or mentors must be organizers, repositories of information, and guardians of the purpose.
3. Group size must be manageable.
4. Members must share a common passion for the purpose.
5. The meeting must include prayer for guidance, wisdom, and any other pertinent requests and thanksgiving
6. A short leadership lesson based on Christian values should be included in the agenda
7. Confidentiality must be adhered to when appropriate
8. Participation must be balanced and respectful
9. New ideas are more valued than critique. Consistent method of prioritization.
10. Regular attendance

Implementation

1. Strategic

2. Identify resources

Divide and conquer

3. People

4. Documentation

Replication

Improvement

Historical learning

Feedback

Some thoughts about community leadership.

1. Leaders model Christ’s example of leadership
2. Leadership is dependent on character.
3. Leadership is teaching, and often times involves asking for faith from those around the leader
4. A leader isn’t always necessarily out in front. They may play an encouragement role.
5. Leaders must understand first, and then serve, in order to lead.
6. Leaders have similar traits not the least of which is listening.
7. Leaders command respect.

History of Catalyst Groups

The Catalyst group is a spin off of another group that met for many years. That group was formed with the idea that committed people acting as humble servants to the community through their common beliefs and circle of influence could accomplish great things. Unknown and unsung they had some great successes. They got the east end of Shepherd of the Hills Expressway finished. They initiated the renaming of the Springfield- Branson regional airport…just to name a couple.

Built on that foundation a new group was formed, the Catalyst Group.

This new group of people was structured based on peer group research from as far away as South Africa. The outcomes, processes, membership, and facilitation were all guided by the research and adjusted based on personal growth and the specific situations. A mentoring aspect was added to the structure to facilitate personal growth in leadership.

The purpose guides the efforts. Meetings are held twice per month at lunch for an hour and a half. Mentors are responsible for organization, the repository of information, and keeping the group true to the purpose. Members have a common passion for the purpose and the discussion subjects which are picked by the group.

A model exists for the meetings. They are all begun with prayer. The leadership of each meeting is rotated, as is a short leadership lesson. Someone is always responsible for dessert. Participation is balanced and ideas are not critiqued until all ideas and discussion are on the table. We commonly use what is lovingly called the dot method of prioritizing issues and ideas.

How did we journey to the present?

Over the past 20 months, an initiative was developed along with the cooperation of the Keeter Center for Character education at the College of the Ozarks to survey the community of Stone and Taney county to determine what areas the community would like to see more time spent on in the future. The choices were Transportation, Healthcare, Housing and Community Design, Environment, Healthy families, Business/Economic Development, Employment, Education, Emergency Response and Preparedness, and Community Ministry.

These choices were the result of review of Springfields Vision 20/20 initiative. A Taney County Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis and the City of Branson’s Common Thread Project. Jerry Henry from the Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation helped us design the survey. The survey was distributed through pastors and local churches in both Stone and Taney County. Almost 400 responses were tabulated.

Four items surfaced as clear winners of the community’s attention: Healthy Families, Education, Healthcare, and Employment.

Four groups were formed