Year 2 Pre-Residency Requirement #2: Biblical Foundations of Discipleship and the Church

Assignment #3: Moving Toward Contextualization:

A Ministry Plan to Pursue a More Biblical Community at Granada Heights Friends Church

Presented to

Dr. Joseph Hellerman and

Dr. Michael J. Wilkins

Talbot School of Theology

Biola University

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Ministry

by

Michael Sanborn

March 2011
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Part 1: The Present

I am the Pastor to Adults at Granada Heights Friends Church in La Mirada, CA. We are

a church of about 500 people situated less than a mile north of Biola University on La Mirada

Blvd. The people who attend are mostly white, suburban middle-class. However, we have two

very different worship services that attract different kinds of people. Our traditional first service

attracts a much older, ethnically and politically homogenous group of people. Our contemporary

second service is younger, more ethnically and politically diverse.

The backbone of our church’s community for several years has been the Sunday morning

adult fellowship groups. These groups are life-stage based and meet from 9:30am to roughly

10:50am. When we have elective courses (20 weeks out of the year), the fellowship group time

is limited to a half hour (9:30–10:00). The fellowship groups have been the hub of relationship-

building. Many strong friendships have emerged from these groups, but at the same time several

people over the years have expressed frustration at the limitations of these groups to produce

intimacy and edification. There is no formal commitment to these groups, and so people have

tended to come and go without much fuss being made, which would certainly not happen if

people viewed one another as brothers and sisters in a close family.

Small groups have not traditionally been a primary ministry focus at our church, though

we have had many different kinds of groups coming and going over the years. Currently, for the

men over the last 6 years there has been a strong small group system that involves a large

proportion of our men, though it is primarily comprised of men 50 and above. These groups

meet for about an hour a week to do a Bible Study and to pray for each other. Some men have

felt that these groups are inadequate for their spiritual needs because of their limited time and

singular focus on Bible Study. Occasionally throughout each year we offer mixed gender home
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groups that form for a short season to study a certain topic, but some have also complained that

they accomplish too little to be of much value to the church.

I believe that our fellowship groups and small groups reveal that we as a church are very

much steeped in the Western individualism that permeates our society at large. We are most

often more committed to our individual pursuits and projects than we are to the church. I have

often been discouraged by this lack of commitment to our community and mission.

To be fair, however, there are many good signs of the Holy Spirit’s work in making us a

family, as we have been very good about taking care of financial needs of members, widows,

shut-ins, the sick and ailing, etc. We have a very active Deacon committee that cares for

multiple needs. I just spoke on the phone with an elderly woman who is confined to her house

and she was very impressed with the amount of contacts and assistance that she has received

from our church. Our youth pastor has involved our youth in a tremendous amount of service

projects for those in need in our church. We have several active “prayer chains” for special

concerns that arise, and our fellowship groups have provided a “family” for many here. But I

sense that our church can still greatly improve our commitment as a family to one another.

The one very promising area in our church is in leadership. About 8 years ago our church

decided to embrace a plurality of leaders, elder-led church model as advocated by Hellerman.1

In many ways we have been learning as we go and making adjustments along the way. Although

we have embraced the equality of leaders and shared leadership principles of this model, we have

not truly embraced the community-relational aspects that Hellerman discusses. Namely, we do

not regularly “bare our souls” to one another and hold each other accountable to spiritual goals.

But I can envision this changing. Our elders may be very open to this. We shall see!

Part 2: The Vision

1
Joseph Hellerman, When Pastors Were Servants: Recapturing Paul’s Cruciform Vision
for Authentic Christian Leadership (unpublished), Chapter 10.
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Since our church follows a plurality of leaders model, no decisions

regarding our church vision/mission are made apart from the elders. A plan

to “resocialize” our church according to more biblical social values must start

with the elder board, of which I am a member. Currently there are 9 elders

who are not paid staff and two elders who are paid staff: myself and our

preaching pastor, Ed Morsey, who is also a mentor for me. The elders meet

twice a month on Monday evenings, and the meetings usually last about 3

hours.

They all know that I am in this Doctor of Ministry program, so I think the

best thing for me to do first is to request that I have some time to share each

meeting some of the things I am learning. This may be God’s timing,

because our elder chairman wants to devote more time this year in our

meetings to discuss issues of vision for the church. One Monday a month is

now devoted to discussing vision alone. So I will request time to share and

use this time to discuss the biblical social values presented by Banks2 and

Hellerman.3 I would also like to suggest that Hellerman’s book on servant

leadership become our training manual for developing elders yearly here at

Granada.4

My hope is that my sharing on these subjects will spark serious

discussion among the elders regarding things that we could change to build

a more biblical community at our church. Since we make big decisions by

2
Robert J. Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their
Cultural Setting (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, rev. 1994).

3
Joseph H. Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for
Authentic Christian Community (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2009).

4
Hellerman, When Pastors Were Servants.
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consensus, I am limited to what I as an individual can do to enact change at

the church. Usually the elders are very supportive of ideas for programs that

I suggest, but occasionally the ideas are shot down. I am excited about

possible changes that could take place because of how open the elders are

to the leading of the Spirit, but I am also hesitant to create a one-year plan

to disciple our church in these radically different social values. There are

some things that I can do as an individual with particular ministries that I

oversee, but when it comes to something that affects all adults I really need

the consensus and participation of the elder board. However, I will still draw

up a plan based on my own ideas for what I would like to see happen at

Granada, and this plan will be part of what I end up sharing with the elders.

When it comes to communicating this vision with the church, it is going

to take more than just announcing a new program and enlisting people to

sign up or help. It’s going to take teaching from the pulpit as well as

teaching in other segments of the worship service to prepare peoples’

hearts. Plus, it will probably take a lot of personal conversations with

members of the church. Eventually, I believe that where we need to end up

is having weekly home groups that look a lot like home churches, and

perhaps periodic Sunday afternoon lunch/fellowship gatherings. What

follows is how I hope we can arrive there:

1. Teaching from the pulpit. Currently I preach one-third of the Sundays.

The other two-thirds is covered by Ed Morsey. Ed and I have a very good

relationship and we see ourselves as a tight-knit team, which is a huge

benefit. I will need to have some heart-to-heart chats with Ed about these
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social values that I have been reading about, and I think that Ed will be very

receptive because he has often expressed his desires for our church to

become more of a family, committed to loving each other like brothers and

sisters. We are very committed here to teaching through entire books of the

Bible, segment by segment, but I will suggest to him that in our sermons we

make application points that discuss the new family that God wants us to be.

I will also suggest that we often make connections to the key Scriptures

about the new family of God from Jesus (e.g., Mark 3:31-35, 10:28-30; Matt

8:21-22, 10:34-38; Luke 14:26) and from Paul (e.g., 1 Cor 6-7; 1 Thess 2:17-

3:8; Gal 3-4).

I have a unique opportunity on Palm Sunday to preach a topical sermon.

What I plan to do is leverage the Palm Sunday story from the Gospels to

speak about cultural values that obscure our ability to embrace some of

Jesus’ core teachings. Many from the crowds that rejoiced for Jesus on Palm

Sunday were the same ones who turned on him on Friday and shouted for his

execution. This was because they had certain culturally-shaped ideas about

what the Messiah should do, and these pre-conceived notions clouded their

minds to Jesus’ teachings. Similarly, our Western values can do this to us

today. Thus, I will get to share some of the key ideas about the church as a

family from Hellerman, Banks, and other authors that I have been reading.

2. Testimonies in our worship services. Our worship services usually

incude a time for 5 minute testimonies. The guiding thought for these

testimonies is the question, “What has God been teaching me?” I am in

charge of scheduling these testimonies, and again perhaps this is God’s

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timing because I don’t have anything more scheduled for this year! Perhaps

I can schedule some testimonies about how the church has been a family to

certain people. Just a few weeks ago a married couple gave just such a

testimony, sharing about how after the husband had suffered a bad ATV

accident, our church really rallied to support them. Perhaps I could also

frame some testimonies around the question, “How has God been teaching

you about developing family relationships with others in the church?”

Perhaps I could also pose this question as an “open mic” question to which

anyone in the crowd can provide a short answer. Testimonies like this will

surely get people thinking.

3. Lunch conversations with some key church members. This would

involve me sitting down with some key people in our church, people who

hold a lot of respect and who also have a good idea about what many others

are thinking. A conversation over lunch would provide a good amount of

time for an in-depth discussion. At these meetings I would seek to hear their

ideas about how to build more biblical community, and at the same time

sharing my heart and what I have been learning with them, to anchor

whatever ideas are discussed upon biblical foundations. These meetings

might also result in a pool of volunteer leaders or assistants for whatever

new ministries we come up with.

4. Elimination or alteration of Wednesday night ministry. Currently

we have programs for all ages on Wednesday nights. For the last few years

we as a staff have wondered about the vision and effectiveness of these

programs. It seems to be good for the children and the youth, but for adults
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the value is questionable. Currently, the vision for this overall program

appears to be to provide a mid-week venue for focusing on spiritual matters,

to augment our Sunday programs (I don’t think the vision is any more

developed than that). For children and youth the vision also includes an

outreach element – they can more easily invite friends to come Wednesday

night than to a Sunday morning. Compared to Sunday, only a small fraction

of adults attends, whereas a much more significant portion of children and

youth attend the Wednesday night programs.

For children ages nursery through elementary school, the programs

run from 6:30pm to roughly 8pm. There are usually games, singing, Bible

lessons, and memory verses. My two children love it.

For junior high and high school they have their meetings at our south

campus which is about 500 feet away from the main campus. There they

can play music and games as loud as they want. They also have a strong

teaching time where they usually go through a book of the Bible. These

youth meetings run from roughly 6:30pm to 8:30pm, and typically have

extracurricular events happen afterward where a lot of relationships are built

up.

For adults, there are three options:

1) A Bible Study that goes through the past Sunday’s sermon in more

depth, led by whoever preached the sermon (Ed or myself). This Bible study

starts at 7pm and ends around 8pm. Typically there are about 25 people

who attend, and the time is spent almost entirely on discussing the passage.

Usually there are no prayer concerns shared or any time devoted to people
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sharing their lives. It is simply an interactive Bible Study where people sit in

a large circle. I have often been dissatisfied with this ministry because of its

limited scope.

2) Hang out and chat in the coffeehouse. A few years ago we

transformed one of our rooms into a little coffeehouse where people can sit

around small round tables and chat. A handful of parents regularly takes

advantage of this opportunity, but because the room is so small not many do

this.

3) Last fall I started a new small group with our young families and

some singles. The purpose of the small group is to provide a more

relationship-building setting to discuss spiritual matters. But I have been

discovering that the limited time we have (6:30–8:00 because of the

children’s programs, although it’s usually 6:45-8:00 due to latecomers), is

not that conducive to developing deeper relationships. It’s been fairly good

given the parameters, and certainly better than the Bible Study when it

comes to relationships, but I think that we can do something better.

There are two major challenges I face if any significant change can

take place. First, in order to make room for any new community-building

ministry, either Wednesday night has to go to make room in peoples’

schedules, or Wednesday night has to be altered considerably. Second, the

children’s and youth programs appear to be enjoyed by many kids and their

parents, and so it would be a very hard sell to make any changes to

Wednesday nights. This leads us to the changes that I would like to see

happen…
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5. New weekly or bi-weekly home groups/churches. I would love to

see the creation of home groups that meet together for dinner, singing,

teaching, sharing, prayer, etc. I actually tried something like this at our

home a couple of years ago for our young adult fellowship group, because

Sunday morning fellowship time was not successful in building community.

We met each Sunday night. We had dinner together first, all the little kids

ate with us in the kitchen and dining room, then the adults went to the living

room while the kids stayed in the family room with a babysitter or two. The

adults would then have some singing, there would be a Bible study, some

sharing of prayer requests, and some prayer. I think that we could have

improved our format now that I have read these books about home

churches, but the biggest challenge was the children. The children would

constantly interrupt and be too loud. The reason why we stopped doing it

was mainly because it was too much stress on my family to prepare, and we

didn’t know what to do with the children. Plus, it was getting to be too much

for the schedules of the young families. This is why I am hesitant to try

something like this again, but I still feel strongly that it would be great for

creating more biblical community. If we give it a try again, I would want to

include older people and mix the generations. I would also want to change

the format to reflect more of the picture in 1 Corinthians 14:26. And perhaps

we would make them bi-weekly to make it easier for peoples’ schedules. We

would really have to think about what to do with children, and this will

probably involve some “resocialization” through teaching and testimonies to

convince people that children can be included in home groups.

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6. Sunday afternoon lunches. I think it would be great to have lunches

open to the whole church family once a month after church. When the

weather is good we can eat on tables outside in the church courtyard, and

when the weather is bad we can eat in Joy Hall. The purpose of these

lunches would be to provide a stepping stone from attendance in the worship

services alone to becoming members of a home group. These lunches would

provide a good context to meet new people and to get to know each other

better, and to provide a way to invite people into deeper ways to be involved

in our church community. This will likely require a financial investment for

the church for the food, because I foresee that potlucks would burden people

too much. Perhaps some can be potlucks and some can be catered.

If we keep having these lunches regularly, this really helps with

keeping our congregation still focused on the Great Commission and seeking

potential disciples out in the community. We would still definitely need to

keep teaching about the Great Commission from the pulpit and through

testimonies. I think it would be a good idea to challenge each home group to

make it a goal to include 2-4 new people each year in their group. I think

that I would also challenge each group to adopt the practice for each

individual of making spiritual goals each year, based on the format of the

discipleship manual that I created last year as part of my D.Min.

assignments. Of the three types of spiritual goals in this manual, one of

them is a mission-oriented goal to be involved in making or nurturing new

disciples in some specific way. During home group meetings can be some

time to discuss and keep appraised of each person’s goals and progress.
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Part 3: The Plan

(This page will be on the backside of my teaching outline for our class
discussion)

1. Educate leadership

• Share and discuss with the elders 1-2 times a month what I have
been learning about
biblical community from Banks, Hellerman, and other sources.

TIMELINE: March – August, 2011. I just had a phone conversation

with the chairman of the elder board today and he agreed that I
could share at each vision meeting. I can see this continuing
through the entirety of my D.Min. program.

2. Educate the church

• Teaching from pulpit

TIMELINE: March: Speak with Ed about incorporating more thoughts

about biblical community in our sermons. April 17: My topical
sermon on Palm Sunday.

• Testimonies

TIMELINE: Schedule first one in May (schedule full in April), then do

once a month.

• Lunch conversations

TIMELINE: These conversations can begin now and run for several
months. I will shoot for having one meaningful chat about this
each week.

3. Implement new programs (conditional to elder approval):

• Wednesday evenings

TIMELINE: Early June: Assessment meeting with the church staff.

The Wednesday night program runs from September to May each
year, taking a break during the Summer.
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• Home groups

TIMELINE: Kick-off in September.

• Sunday afternoon lunches

TIMELINE: Start September 18 and do them on the third Sunday

each month.

A Ministry Plan to Pursue a More Biblical

Community
Teaching Outline • Mike Sanborn • Granada Heights Friends Church: La

Mirada, CA

Vision
• How big decisions are made at my church: Elder/plurality
leadership

- My role on our elder board.

* Amazing answer to my prayers! How several events converged in two

weeks in April after I pleaded with the Lord for home groups to
change our church’s community:
- My small group studying “pleading prayer” leads me to “plead” for
home groups.
- Ed Morsey reads all of “Sticky Church” in the middle of the night.
- A disgruntled couple in our church rallies our elders around home
groups.
- The elders are now going to study “Sticky Church” together.

• New ministries I would like to see happen:

1. Home groups
- Allow older Sunday school classes to continue. Focus on people
50’s and younger.
- Will adopt sermon-based Bible discussion from the “Sticky
Church” model.
- Will train group leaders in how to lead corporate prayer, worship,
and sharing.
- Meals together? Childcare?

2. Sunday lunches after church once a month

- Potluck, catered, or bring your own meal?
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- Outside in the courtyard or in Joy Hall.

• Changing the culture at our church:

1. Teaching in our worship services

- How Ed and I share the teaching ministry.
- Palm Sunday topical sermon on biblical community.

2. Testimonies in our worship services

- I oversee the schedule for testimonies. I will seek testimonies
from people in our church about how they have been blessed
by involvement in our community.

3. Current Wednesday night ministry for children, youth, and adults

- Assessment meeting with church staff
- Eliminate or incorporate into home group schedule?

• How can we stay focused on the Great Commission?

1. Sunday lunches: Opportunities to meet new people, invite them into

home groups.

2. Home groups: Challenge groups to do outreach projects together,

once/twice a year.