// March 10th, 2009 // Comments Off // Church, Leadership, School
Great statistical & sociological work on the growth of the early church
Relational evangelism over proclamation evangelism
Gene Edwards’ diaries series (great historical work on early churches)
1 Cor 11:18 … when you come together
The local congregation in European churches modeled a desire to be like a cathedral
The local people saw better priests (better looking, smarter), better buildings, relics, better worship (higher quality music)
Then they go back home and see “their” priest…who was committed to them – he wasn’t good enough
They wanted teaching & worship like they got at Catalyst & Passion & Beth Moore
The oikos expression has been lost to the western church.
The extended family has broken up and the close contact has broken up.
What would it be like if gatherings of peoples did all of the ministries of Jesus? (pastoral bases)
The model has to be re-producible by normal people / not rock stars
churches are led by cultures that are highly skilled (very few) this creates a hire & fire culture > God hates this.
you have to be able to be led by the “lump”
the average person has been hired wired by God to be capable of leading at minimum an extended family
there are a lot of leaders of 50 around & not many leaders of 1000’s
we’ve got to take leadership back in to the lump
clusters & mid-size communities have come out of that; once you have learned how to create a leadership pipeline (what Jesus calls discipleship)…reproduce yourself over & over again; the only determining step is the number of leaders you can get your hands on
Mike disciples 30/40 leaders a week
one great thing about the american mindset is entrepreneurism…we figure out what works
most churches build the cart (organization) & starve the horse (organism); or the horse gets left behind
what we need is a light-weight low maintenance cart
http://www.3dministries.com
2 Meetings a Week
> Huddle – Leaders of Leaders; identified & called out (character, skill & faith…2/3 hours per week) (trying to produce high challenge & high support = empowered people)
these guys are leaders of communities; what you invest will yield return
(high challenge & low support = discouragement) (low challenge & low support = apathy) (low challenge & high support = cozy)
> Ministry (1.5 hours)
1) What business are we in this week?
2) How are we doing?
Count Leaders…not people!
There’s always a new restaurant with a new menu
he was the smartest guy who ever lived & if you decide that you have a better model then you are a twit
when there is not enough food for the peasants what happens to the relationship between the lord & his peasants
“i go there because i get fed” = you are functioning in a peasant role; when the lord runs out of food you are in trouble…there is rebel
a disciple by definition is a producer not a consumer
Orbital Model
we were created on the 6th day and our first day on the job was a day off. we were designed to work from rest
life as a series of investments: spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual, financial
what are people looking for from me?
