General

AND: Pursuing Incarnational and Attractional

The Landscape

Throughout history the next great movement has consistently emerged from the convergence of factors that come together to create advances in thinking and doing. What if the next great movement, possibly one with historic significance, presents itself to us? What if we are being called to serve as catalysts and stewards of this next movement of God? Is it a coincidence that all this comes at a time of growing (holy) discontent among our best thinkers and church leaders in the prevailing church…a roaming of the mind that is only now beginning to be articulated?

In the past 30 years the number of mega-churches has increased from under 100 to over 7,000. In the past 10 years the number of multi-site churches has increased from under 100 to over 2,000. By the numbers, these prevailing church models are movements and these churches enjoy the national platform, the national voice, and the resources to profoundly impact the Kingdom. But to what end? In spite of the rapid growth of these prevailing churches we are losing ground.

Some estimate the percent of people living in the US who will never be reached by prevailing church models to be in excess of 60%. In fact, in spite of its relative successes, church growth theory and practice has by and large failed to stem the decline of the church in America over the last 40 years. We stand at the verge of serious (exponential) decline if something is not done…and soon. Numerous studies and books are being written documenting the flight from and frustration with the institutional church. Yet the local church is Jesus’ plan for reaching the world.

A growing number of our mega-church and multi-site church leaders are experiencing what Bill Hybels calls a holy discontent. Some would say a mid-life or half-time crisis. A large percentage of our prevailing churches are lead by founding pastors at the mid-career point. After growing large churches, starting campuses, planting churches, and doing the externally focused thing, a growing number appear to be experiencing a discontent rooted in the urgency that there must be a more leveraged impact than simply growing bigger.

The prevailing church is strong at “catching”, converting, and holding. The holy discontent described above also includes a dimension that we need to become better at “releasing” and sending. Jesus said “as the Father has sent me, so send I you.” This holy discontent causes us to wrestle with this command to be more than catchers of men but also to be senders. Unlike boomers who generally are comfortable contributing to ministry, the young emerging “millennial” leaders seek to be ministry; to live missional lifestyles.

These young emerging leaders are demonstrating a strong idealism rooted in service. Their scorecards are different. They measure success not by the size of buildings or budgets or staff but by their sending capacity, their relationships, and their impact in improving lives. These leaders are likely to respect the structures and strengths of the prevailing church models while at the same time resonating with the paradigms of more incarnational ministry approaches.

In recent years a growing schism emerged between those calling themselves missional-incarnational leaders and those leading prevailing church models. The conversation has focused on what Jim Collins calls the “tyranny of the OR” rather than the “Genius of the AND.” However, a growing number of innovative leaders are seeing the possibilities that exist in the “AND”. Applied to the issue at hand, we believe the next big step for the church in the US lies in applying missional-incarnational AND prevailing church models.

The rapid growth of social networking and online technologies is changing the way we connect. From Internet campuses to faith communities meeting in homes, the Internet has opened a whole new opportunity for churches to reach the lost. Technology becomes one of the greatest tools available for the prevailing church to release its leaders and engage in more incarnational faith community approaches.

If the storm of factors discussed above were not enough, our economy is in what some experts call the greatest challenge in our nation’s history. Most mega-churches and multi-site churches in existence today have only enjoyed strong economic times. The staff driven / lead values of the prevailing church are already being challenged by the downturn in the economy. Many churches have made the painful decision to layoff staff. We now face great challenges that are likely to cause a renewed focus and call for volunteerism in our churches.

God is at work amidst all the uncertainty. The faint knocking is increasing in intensity. A growing number of leaders sense it. As we find ourselves in the middle of a perfect storm, could we be on leading edge of a great movement of God?

The Big Idea

“I founded Kensington, grew it to mega status, we’ve done externally focused, we’ve done campuses, and we are committed to planting. We will continue to do these things. However there are not enough years left in my life to just keep growing Kensington bigger. I’m interested in something more viral that will take our city. I’m interested in transitioning from a conversation focused on ‘where is our next campus’ to one of ‘how do we release 250 of our members this fall to start autonomous faith communities around Detroit?’” — Steve Andrews, Kensington Community Church

Steve is not alone in his discontent. He is one several thousand mega-church pastors who founded their church and who are potentially entering their own form of “halftime” where they experience a healthy discontent with simply growing things bigger.

In February 2009 a group of 10 mega-church pastors came together with Alan Hirsch for a time of unstructured sharing. What emerged was a distinct call to pursue a journey together in looking beyond “multi” and “mega” to how God may be using these current movements to see a more exponential expansion through new incarnational faith communities. An approach where the strengths of “mega” (stage, microphone, dollars and people) are the key leverage strategy to birth and multiply incarnational faith communities.

What if prevailing church models (e.g. Mega-church, multi-site, etc) and leaders ARE the future delivery system / channel for incarnational faith communities to retake our cities and expand our churches exponentially through multiplication rather than linearly through addition? What if its not a tyranny of the OR of whether to be “attractional” OR “incarnational” but rather a genius of the AND to leverage the strengths of the prevailing church platform to more aggressively release leaders to expand the Kingdom through new faith communities?
The Pursuit

The group committed to form a peer-to-peer coaching and learning community for piloting incarnational faith communities and leveraging prevailing approaches as “hubs / platforms” for releasing and sending members to take their cities. This group of pastors and Alan Hirsch will journey together providing permission, encouragement and accountability to one another with an eye toward results; results measured by effectiveness in reaching those far from Jesus who are unlikely to connect through traditional, prevailing church models.

The group met this past week in New York City. Tim Keller told the group that less than 3% of the population in Manhattan is evangelical. We spent the first evening walking the streets of several communities. Alan Hirsch kicked our meeting off with “if you were going to reach the people far from God in these communities who simply are not going to be reached by the prevailing church, how would you start?”

So starts our learning journey together.

In addition to the fellowship together (which was worth the trip), we had Alan Hirsch facilitating and Tim Keller, Bob Buford and Frances Hesselbein share their wisdom and insights with the group. It reminded me of the scene in Star Wars where Yoda, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are all watching over the younger emerging leaders.

I’m still processing lots of takeaways and will share them in a subsequent post.

© 2009 Envisaging.