CHURCHPLANTING

by David Lynch The Ideal

At Summerleas we are trying to organise our church life around a number Gospel Communities (GCs). In many ways GCs are like house churches. They... Consist of apx. 15-20 men, women and children. Seek to live out authentic Christian relationships before a watching world. Strive for diversity (consisting of as wide a range of ages, life stages, personalities and backgrounds as possible). Are much more than just a weekly meeting. Rather, they are small, family like, networks of relationships in which pastoral care, youth and childrens ministry, discipleship and evangelism take place. Aim to do mission in community, grow, raise up new leaders and multiply. Seek to do all of the above in the context of everyday life. Unlike house churches, however, they... All look to a central gathering for their main Bible teaching, sacraments, finances and administration. All sit under the one eldership and look to these elders for broad vision, accountability and training.

MINISTRY FORMATION
December 2011

Summerleas Christian Church

The Reality
Summerleas Christian Church is a church plant of the Christian Reformed Church of Kingston. The core team was raised up by one of the CRCK pastors to plant into a new and rapidly developing area of Kingston. This team was open to trying anything and were keen for someone to come in, help set the vision and take on the role as Pastor. This is the job I have taken and done for nearly 3 years now. None of the core team had experienced or David Lynch, Summerleas CC heard much about GCs before. Because of this, I have taken a gradual, planned, 3 year approach to introducing the church to the GC concept and life.

Year 1
We really just worked on theology. We thought about the origins of community in the Triune God, Gods great plans for community as the eternal end for mankind, what a community centred on the gospel looks like, and the key role community plays in evangelism and discipleship. At the same time, we ran a fairly basic church program with Sunday Morning meetings and mid week Growth groups.

December 2011

Year 2
We introduced the Gospel Community concept as our way of responding to the teaching of year 1. Each growth group was renamed as a Gospel Community and we asked people to adjust their vocabulary to reflect this. We spoke a lot and taught a lot about the ideal (see above), but in actual practise we didnt push for a lot of change. One thing we did do, however, was to ask people to find 1 or 2 normal everyday things (things that they would do alone anyway) and do them with others in their GCs. The challenge was to do these things together just once a month and see them as an opportunity for ministry. We call these community rhythms.

however, is a time where we break up into GC leadership teams and spend time thinking about how our GC is doing. We think through where our people are at, what we need to do to help them grow and whether the community life still has a Gospel shape to it. We then set goals for the next month and revisit those goals again at the next meeting.

The Future
2012 will be a year of structural consolidation and creative thinking and planning. The next step for us is to work out how to mobilise our GCs in communal mission more effectively.

Year 3
This year we have started to change things structurally. Until the beginning of this year, our GCs were essentially standard Growth Groups with different names. They now look quite different. Each GC manifests itself in different ways each week of the month. 2 weeks a month it will take the classic format of a mid evening Growth Group style meeting. At least one week a month they might meet on a different day with all of the children. They eat together and then engage in a Whole family learning experience where adults and children study the Bible together. Another week they meet at a different time and place, again the whole GC (kids included), again around food and try to include outsiders. This structure is not an end in itself, but rather a way helping people progress towards the ideal. In addition to this, we have started a monthly GC leaders training session. This is where all of the GC leaders come together for a time of accountability, refocussing and training. Perhaps the most useful part of this session,

Strengths of our approach

It prioritises, encourages and provides structure for people to foster the deep, diverse, Christlike relationships God calls us to. It means our fringe is much less fringy, everyone engaged with others (or at least has others trying to engage them) outside of Sundays. It means Pastoral Care and Discipleship is the work of a large team. It demands that we be very proactive about identifying and raising up leaders It involves Everyone in youth ministry It offers new comers plenty of opportunities to be included outside of Sundays. This means it takes less time to get to know people and feel a part of things. Children are included in all aspects of church life and have opportunities to minister and be trained in ministry themselves.

December 2011

Weaknesses of our approach

Like any small group, GCs have the potential to turn inward, lose their Gospel focus and go toxic. The role occupied by a GC leader is more like a house church pastor / planter than anything. This is a big job for your average fulltime worker.

Some helpful resources

Total Church by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester Community and Growth by Jean Vanier The Soma Communities Website also has some helpful talks on it http://www.somacommunities.org/ For more detail on Summerleas visit http://summerleaschurch.org/