Church Leadership and Our House Church Network

The move from solo traditional church to a house church network has required me to rethink issues of church leadership. In short, I am attempting to negotiate a new identity from "Pastor Bill" (the "senior pastor" of a local traditional church) to Bill, the Director of a church network. The latter is a much more apostolic role -- i.e., it is much more about leading leaders who empower the people they directly influence than it is about me pastoring the entire flock in the manner most familiar to a traditional church structure.

All of us in VCMN are adjusting to this shift in various ways. I remember a conversation I had with one of our house church host couples who, after finally sensing the call to open their home, asked me who I would be sending to act as the group's leader. I wasn't sure. I began to think of people I could send to the group to be the leader, but I had a nagging feeling that this was the wrong way to approach things and the wrong precedent to set given our network formation. Eventually, the couple came back to me with a new message: they had figured out on their own that they were called to lead the group they were hosting. I heartily and instantly agreed that this was right. Up to that point, we had been trying to simply reproduce traditional church in a home format -- sort of a miniature church. But that is not a reproduceable or empowering model. The fact is that this couple -- like thousands upon thousands of people sitting in the chairs or pews of traditional churches -- were PLENTY qualified to care for a house church group. They had been Christians for YEARS, had been involved in church and missions ministry, have adult children in full-time ministry but, even then, we all stumbled for a second over the issue of whether they should "lead" the group they would host.

How many churches are stacked with leaders of all ages who (as my friend Charity put it) are in a college from which they never really graduate? They hear sermon after sermon, sing song after song, maybe even find a niche of service in the church, but if you asked them whether they were "leaders", you would likely get a puzzled look in their face. "Oh, we're not qualified to be leaders", they might say -- but they'd be wrong. I am convinced that the corporate church notion of leadership is stifling kingdom ministry in everyday places and causing multitudes of perfectly good and qualified leaders to remain blind to their gifts and opportunities.

As house church leaders, my friends are responsible to make decisions about the spiritual direction of the group they lead (in collaboration, of course, with their group). They are called to provide basic spiritual care and support and have backup in people like me should higher level or thornier issues of pastoral care come up. They are true leaders, truly leading a small group of people who are discovering their mission, growing in faith, managing challenges -- all without being told what to do or how to do it by their "upline". This model is endlessly reproducible and will support untold numbers of new community-based ministry outlets if we will trust the Holy Spirit to organize leaders, groups and their ministry focuses in ways that express God's timeless mission instead of everything needing to be highly centralized or heavily "top down".

It's rather like a home school model. In the home school model (as I understand it) the assumption is that "non-professional" moms and dads are equipped and supported to be their children's teachers. I suppose this is because it is assumed that no one knows their kids and the their learning styles better and, if properly resourced, supported and connected with others, are perfectly capable of making eduacation happen in everyday places (homes and the like). Traditional schools, by contrast, are "top down" affairs. The assumption is that the experts know education best and they tell the teachers what to teach and how to teach it. Resources are centralized and authority is heiracrchical. No one would say these schools don't produce students and no one should say that traditional church don't make some disciples. But the explosive growth in home schools -- and the growing boom in house churches and other simple church models -- remind us that there is another way that is effective (some would say far more effective) at using kingdom resources to fulfill the kingom mission.

Building Myself Down in the Faith

Finally got around to reading the infamous Newsweek cover story on the demise of "Christian America". Nothing in it was news to me. However, it reinforced for me the reality that Christianity in the West continues to struggle to define itself apart from the institutions, structures, personalities and methodologies with which it used to be almost solely identified. To my observation, there is a splintering going on in the American Church which has given us the New Reformed, the Missional and Emerging crowd, the Post Charismatics, The House Church-ers, The New Orthodox and even some new Anglicans (witness the fascinating recent developments in the life of my friend Todd Hunter) and others. It's amazing to recall that for much of my earlier lifetime Billy Graham spoke for many, many American evangelicals and his presence in the halls of power was, for the most part, respected as an undeniable sign that we had a place at the table. Who speaks for "us" now? Rick Warren? Joel Osteen? Bono?

I, for one, think that the former order of things -- institutional church life in America -- is sinking like the Titanic. Alot of the activity and noise I witness resembles people frantically moving around the decks while the band plays on. But I've already lept into the ocean and am looking for something much smaller than a luxury liner to cling on to while the call goes up to heaven for help and salvation.

I see this as a time to "build myself down" in the faith -- to abandon my formerly comfortable and somewhat bloated notions of what supporting a Christian commitment looks like -- in favor of a stripped down, simplifed, organic and streamlined alternative. For me right now, less is more. Give me the BASICS of fellowship, Christian service, lifestyle witness and tough-minded simplicity and keep the change. It's probably a good time to go underground a bit, to retool our message and our ministry priorities, to "remonk" (as Kevin Rains puts it), to find a few key Kingdom focuses and concentrate on them. For me, they are mentoring of next generation disciples/leaders, simple and focused expressions of lifestyle evangelism, fellowship that produces "family" rather than crowds, and (perhaps most of all) empowering everyday people to take the ministry of Jesus to everyday places. Hunkering down and keeping it as real as can be may not seem impressive, but -- at least to me -- it seems vital.

Wait 'Till You See What Happens in This Railway Station!

I have no idea if this is for real. If not, it should be -- and, I suppose, could be.



What I love about the video in addition to its all around appeal and "feel good" power is the way it makes me think of empowering everyday people to take the ministry of Jesus to everyday places. I love the way it speaks of an "inbreaking" that invades this everyday (and somewhat depersonalizing) environment and then transforms it and the people who are a part of it in ways that hint at the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God.



In short, not only is it entertaining to watch, but those who have an ear to hear and eyes to see might just hear and see The Kingdom in all this silly fun. Give it a try! (Couldn't succesfully upload so use this youtube link instead):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBepgH00GM

The Tradeoffs

There are tradeoffs involved with empowering everyday people to take the ministry of Jesus to everyday places versus leading and doing ministry in the manner of a traditional church. There are things that need to be surrendered in order to gain the benefits of seeing ministry happen beyond church walls and through "non-professionals". Inasmuch as we just finished celebrating our first Easter as a Network dedicated to this mission, I thought I'd list a few things that must be surrendered if we are to trade the old wineskins for new.

1. Control of the ministry environment -

Doing ministry in everyday places means we must surrender the control of the "turf" we have gotten used to controlling in our typical church building-based ministry environments. Doing church at Starbucks or outdoors in a cul-de-sac (as two of our house churches recently did) defies efforts at over-programming and insulating the worship experience. And yet, this will be necessary if we want the life and ministry of the church to authentically impact everyday places. Instead of controlling and fine-tuning the ministry environment for effect as traditional churches so often attempt to do, spiritual impact must come from the raw basics of the church in action and in worship.

2. Professionalism in ministry -

Empowering everyday people to do ministry in everyday places means that "professionals" must become committed to the role of supporting, training and empowering "non-pro's" to take risks with the church's time, talent and treasure. This redefines the shepherd from the "one-call-does-it-all" professional, to more of a mentor/coach who focuses on maximizing the gifts of others.

It takes guts to buck today's image-conscious church culture in favor of raising up everyday people to preach, teach, lead, design and implement the ministry of the Kingdom, but nothing is more fulfilling than witnessing this when it happens!

3. Non-organic infrastructure

By organic, I mean the kind of infrastructure that springs forth naturally from the life of God's people while on their mission. Along the way, they encounter opportunities and challenges and must discover and implement solutions and sturctures that are truly relevant to their work and to their fellowship. At times, this will stand in sharp contrast to the programs, products and priorities of churches that seek to develop familiar infrastructure first and then figure out how to do "outreach" or other forms of ministry from that platform. To me, this has caused many churches to shed influence and struggle under unneeded burdens simply because the cart is in front of the horse.

There are other tradeoffs. Care to weigh in with a few of your own?

Some Key Wimber-isms 25 Years Later (Huh-Oh)

I loved many of John Wimber's pithy statements and mottos. They had a way of cutting to the core and stating profound things simply. Here are some of his sayings followed by my follow-up observations 25 years later:

1. "When do we get to 'do the stuff' (that Jesus and the Apostles did in the N.T.)"?

The full context of that statement is that Wimber, the new convert, was puzzled as to why the church didn't just divide up the city on a map and replicate the Acts of the Apostles (so-to-speak) in everyday places around them -- "doing the stuff" he saw being done by Jesus-followers in the Bible.

That's still a great question for our churches today. When do we get to "do the stuff" in the community we see being done by the church of New Testament days?

My observation is that, with some notable exceptions, doing the stuff "out there" was abandoned in favor of getting people to come to us (at church) so we could "do the stuff" to them on our turf. What a bait-and-switch!

2. "The meat is in the street".

This was Wimber's way of saying that we needed to take the gospel to everyday places, i.e. "the street" where people who needed to encounter the Living God through power evangelism, mercy ministry and various other ways and means could be touched with the gospel of the kingdom.

My observation is that, once again, based on how churches really prioritize spending their time, talent and treasure, too many actually believe that "the meat" is in the sanctuary.

3. "Everyone Gets to Play"

This goes to the idea that churches had become too focused on ministry done by highly-trained professionals or ultra-anointed spiritual superstars and had not been released to the people, by and large.

John's vision for church life was one in which "everyone gets to play" (so to speak) -- meaning that the ministry needed to be released back to the everyday man, woman or child in fulfillment of passages such as the prophecy of Joel quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost wherein the Spirit is seen as being poured out "on all flesh" -- "your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams". "Even upon my servants, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy".

But in fact -- with so much emphasis on professionally programmed worship services (even in so-called "Spirit-filled" churches) everyone does not "get to play." And that makes sense -- if worship services have indeed become the primary arena for doing ministry. Indeed it is obvious that "everyone" can't speak, sing or otherwise effectively engage a captive audience.

My experience is that the real message of the church (in far too many cases) is that "everyone" gets to give money, gets to listen to the best music and teaching we can muster, gets to eat donuts after the service, gets to volunteer for ushering, Sunday School and youth group, but "everyone" does not really "get to play" with the big boys (the highly-trained or ultra-gifted) at all.

Sadly, John's original notion took a serious hit once the philosophy of ministry exemplified by the Kansas City "Prophets" (so-called) that he had invited into the Vineyard took hold.

4. "Let the children do the healing".

The context for this statement is an experience John had involving a public healing prayer time for a woman in need in which the Spirit of the Lord spoke to John's heart, saying: "Let the children do the healing".

John took this to mean that the Spirit was calling for the adults to step aside and, after a bit of instruction, feature the children as the agents of the healing prayer in order to illustrate how profoundly simple and powerful healing prayer ministry was meant to be -- even "the children" could be used! That's because it wasn't about the giftedness of certain people but it was about the mercy and majesty of God and the reality of the kingdom. As I recalled, John obeyed and arranged for the kids to lead the healing prayer with the result that the woman recieved a notable healing.

Too often, it seems the church's unintentional message to children is that God has called them to be "cute" (not too hard for most kids!), or entertained, or instructed in a classroom at church, but not really called to "do healing" or other such kingdom works. "Real" ministry, once again, is too often the province of "specialists" who have little value for imparting or giving away any gifted-ness they have become known for.

There are more such sayings, but these will do for starters. Perhaps you remember a few of John's slogans, sayings or mottos and have a comment or two of your own!

How Healed About to Happen (Really!)

How Healed do You Want to Be?, my first book, was accepted for publication 1 1/2 years ago. I am happy to say that I have recieved word that it is now due to be published in April -- as in this next month! No, really (some of my friends and family have heard me project publication dates before). I've even okayed a cover, reviewed galleys (the typeset version of the manuscript that is the last chance for corrections) and written the dedication and acknowledgements.

I feel like I imagine it would feel to deliver a baby after a two year pregnancy: "Congratulations, Mr. Faris, you have succesfully brought a 23 pound child into the world". To quote a line from an old commercial: "How do you spell relief?"

Getting to this point has already been an adventure and major learning experience. But now, the real adventure begins. Step One of this new leg of the journey will take place on May 2nd at the Walsh home in Laguna Hills when we will have our official book release and signing party. More on this later, but take note: there is a rumor How Healed? may be sharing space with Robin's famous homemade Baklava. A win-win if there ever was one!

A primitive form of the dedicated website www.howhealed.com is up. Lots will be added in the days just ahead, but first-adopters are welcome to peek now.

Okay, Lord, delivery is in sight. I'm dying to know where You will be taking it -- and me -- from here.

Say Goodbye to the "Wubbie", Bill

In the film Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton's character (that would be Mr. Mom himself) has to help his youngest son say goodbye to his beloved "wubbie". The wubbie, of course, is a special blanket that the little fellow takes everywhere with him in the manner of Linus of Peanuts fame. My thesis is that we all have our Wubbies, if you will, and that there is a time we too may need to let go of them in order to, well, grow up.

I speak of this because the time has come for us to move out of the 1,000 or so square feet we have been subleasing since last August after we left our Crown Valley Vineyard Church space in Rancho Santa Margarita. The new (and much smaller) office / storage space represented my last grip on traditional church as I have known it. We may have deconstructed our worship center and other remnants of a destination campus and moved to house church mode, but at least I still had my own office and Pam, our administrator, had her desk there, too. So, now that our obligation to stay there is finished and the time has arrived to move out, I automatically began looking for replacement office space -- smaller and cheaper, of course -- but we would naturally need to retain an office location for the Vineyard Community Mission Network (or so I thought). Turns out, not so much...

Before long I came to the sobering realization that having my own church office space was a "wubbie" I needed to surrender. Given our mission, our operational needs and our calling to be community - based, an office no longer makes sense. So it's "say goodbye to the wubbie, Bill" and keep saying hello to the new way of being in the ministry that this whole journey represents.

I wonder: is there a "wubbie" in your life that needs to be surrendered?