New Kind of Church , livre ebook

A New Kind of Church
A New Kind of Church

Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21 st Century

Aubrey Malphurs
2007 by Aubrey Malphurs
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording- without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Malphurs, Aubrey. A new kind of church : understanding models of ministry for the 21st century / Aubrey Malphurs. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references ISBN 10: 0-8010-9189-6 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-8010-9189-6 (pbk.) 1. Mission of the church-North America. 2. Church work. I. Title. BV601.8.M35 2007 262.0017-dc22
2006026116
Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction
Part 1 Changing Times
1. Who Is Changing? Churches Are Changing
2. Why Are Churches Changing? The Buck Stops Here!
3. Should Churches Change? Arguments against New-Model Churches
Part 2 Changing Churches
4. Doing Church: Interpreting the Biblical Passages
5. The Changing Church: Developing a Theology of Change
6. The Connecting Church: Developing a Theology of Culture
7. Defining Church: Developing a Definition of the Local Church
8. The Serving Church: The Biblical Concept of Servanthood
9. The Thinking Church: Evaluating Church Models
10. The Strategizing Church: Developing a New-Model Church
Appendixes
A Church Consulting: Why Using a Church Consultant Is a Good Investment for Your Ministry
B Readiness for Change Inventory
C Church Ministry Core Values Audit
Notes
Introduction
I took one look at Pastor Bill and knew something was seriously wrong. He had dark circles under his eyes, and they looked puffy. So I asked him how much sleep he was getting these days. He confided in me that he slept little, and it was beginning to tell on him. He also looked gaunt, and his wife was beginning to worry about him. What was his problem? Did he have some serious physical ailment, such as heart trouble or maybe even cancer? No. What was happening to him was likely worse, depending on your perspective.
Several months earlier, one of Pastor Bill s key staff persons resigned to pursue ministry elsewhere. When people asked about his resignation, the staff person confided that he didn t agree with the church s direction. The church could be called a seeker church and included elements of the Purpose-Driven Church model. The church s leadership didn t realize that some others in the church felt the same way as this staff person but had remained silent. The staff person s leaving served as the catalyst for these disgruntled people to coalesce.
As word got out about the resignation and the reason prompting it, this minority began to express itself in a number of ways. First, they talked among themselves, discussing the resignation, their empathy for the staff person, and their dissatisfaction with the church. Second, they began to show up at board meetings to verbalize their discontent. And third, several wrote letters, some very extensive and harsh, to the board as to why they believed the church was moving in the wrong direction.
Bill and his staff didn t just sit back idly and watch all this take place. They went to countless meetings, both public and private, to explain themselves and what they were seeking to accomplish. At times they felt as if they were ministry firemen, spending much of their valuable time fighting fires rather than igniting fires for Christ in their community. Their efforts helped to some extent, but just about the time they thought they had put out the fire, it would reignite, making matters even worse. What had been a dream job was turning into Bill s worst nightmare.
Most good leaders have the same fatal flaw-they like to please people and keep them happy. And when people aren t happy and complain, leaders aren t happy. This was true of Pastor Bill. Furthermore, his church had been growing, due in large part to its outreach focus on Sunday morning and its evangelism ministries. Bill and the staff had worked hard, very hard, at keeping the church focused on outreach, and the result was significant conversion growth. Now all was in jeopardy. In fact, Bill was in enough emotional pain that he was finding it increasingly difficult to resist thoughts of resignation that had recently begun to nag him.
A Familiar Story
Chances are very good that you are familiar with such a situation as Bill s. Perhaps his story is your story. In some way you can identify with this man and his church. It may be that you are a member of a church that has been through a similar experience. If not, it s likely that you know of a church somewhere close that has, and you re wondering what is going on. Or maybe you are part of a group in a church that is struggling with the church s current direction. The leaders are not doing church the way you think it should be done. And you ask, Why is all this taking place?
The twentieth century as a whole was a time when we didn t see a great deal of change, at least nothing like what we ve seen toward the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Widespread change is also being reflected in America s churches. During most of the early to middle twentieth century, there was a typical, traditional way we did church, and a large number of people attended church, especially in the South.
As we ve transitioned into the twenty-first century, however, the number of churched people has decreased considerably, and several new church models have been planted on American soil. In addition, to address demands for change, some established churches have transitioned and adopted new ways of doing church. The problem is that, while they claim to be churches, they don t look like the church, at least not the traditional church model that was the norm during much of the twentieth century.
There are all kinds of labels for these new models, such as emerging churches, megachurches, seeker churches, Purpose-Driven churches, cell churches, connecting churches, contemporary churches, house churches, new-paradigm churches, postmodern churches, and so on. For example, I m aware of one church that seeks to combine what it believes is the best of the seeker church model with the Purpose-Driven Church model.
Church names don t sound familiar either. Some I ve heard are Mars Hill, Journey, Crosswalk, the Highway Community, Warehouse, Next-Wave, Solomon s Porch, Liquid Church, and Mosaic. What happened to good old First Church Downtown? I firmly believe that we ain t seen nothin yet. There s more, much more, to come.
New-Model Churches
Some important questions are: Are these new-model churches really churches? How can we know? Or are they some weird aberration or cult in church clothing ? And worse, are they taking us down some slippery slope that will not only dilute the church s impact but lead it into doctrinal heresy? Should we sing their praises or throw stones?
Some people have opted for throwing stones, describing these churches and what they do in derogatory, emotional language. They might say these churches are taking their cues from the world, slick, or just entertaining. However, if we can get beyond their offensive language, I believe we can learn from the critics of the new-paradigm churches as well as from the churches themselves.
The major issue we must address is wrapped up in this question: Is there a standard model for doing church? Does the Bible give us a correct, prescribed model that we re all to follow? If so, is it more like today s traditional or contemporary format? If not, then is each church free to develop its own model? Are there any biblical guidelines for this?
There are several reasons why I ve written this book. First, it s grown out of my love for the local church. I believe that Bill Hybels is correct when he says the church is the hope of the world. Jesus said this in Matthew 16:18. Second, my love for Christ s church has led me to study the various church models, and I would like to share what I ve found. Third, my experience as a consultant with churches where some infighting is taking place has raised my concern over what critics of the new-paradigm churches are saying.
I worked with one church where the critics caused great harm to the church, its outreach, the pastoral staff, and the pastor in particular. It took a huge emotional toll. He, like Pastor Bill, didn t get much sleep at night. I took the opportunity to engage at least one of the church s detractors so that I could learn more about such critics and how they think. Some of what is in this book-especially chapter 10-comes from that conversation as I ve thought through what is being said and how that interacts with the Bible.
A fourth reason for my writing this book, as I ll demonstrate in chapter 1, is that the church is in serious decline, perhaps unlike any time in America s past. Not only are vast numbers of people unchurched, but a number of Christians are dropping out of church. And many of these are spiritually vibrant people who feel that their church experience is doing them and their families more harm than good. I believe that new-model churches could offer a viable answer to this dilemma.
Who Should Read This Book?
Every church is a model, whether it likes it or not. Church models are all about how we do church, and every church does church some way. So this book is for all churchgoing Christians. It will help lead pastors who are church planters and