To strategically grow or organically grow? That is the question!
This week we read the book Shaping The Church: The Promise of Implicit Theology, Explorations in Practical, Pastoral and Empirical Theology by Martyn Percy, he explores Implicit Theology and its impact on shaping ecclesial life. He writes “Only by understanding implicit theology can theologians gain an understanding of ecclesial evolution, pastoralia and faith development. The volume seeks to introduce academics, clergy and ecclesial commentators to something it in some sense already knows: that which is implicit is deep and informational for ecclesial life. The implicit therefore deserves to be treated as both an original yet familiar concept to the academy and church, which offers fresh insight on the apparently ordinary. Implicit theology opens up new vistas of enquiry in practical and pastoral theology that grapple with the perplexing, puzzling and perspicacious possibilities for ecclesial life.”[1] His discussion is broken into three parts–Part I:Sacraments-Spiritual Life, Part II: Church -The Nature of the Body, Part III: Ministry-Practising Theology. Instead of giving a full summary of his book, I am choosing to discuss his work through practical reflection. His discussion in Part II: Church- The Nature of the Body was very interesting to me. The current sta
te of affairs with the Church as we know it universally has so many layers. There is so much pressure within church movements now to increase growth and impact. Unfortunately, the way in which these metrics are measured are not consistently measured and bench marked within or across many denominations. Furthermore,the level of consumerism that has plagued our culture makes church more of a commodity than a safe haven for community and worship. Despite alternative views, ministries are challenged to address the current day to day affairs that exist within their communities. With the pressure to grow, ministry leaders must ask themselves do I try to grow strategically or do I choose to grow organically? While strategies are vital to organization execution of vision and unity, I wonder if sometimes the strategies get in the way of building the organic relationships and draw people to something more authentic than what could be artificially manufactured. In his book, Percy discusses church growth and highlights what we would call in America a “seeker church” in England they would identify as “Fresh Expressions”. What I would deem as the seekers movement, is a way in which churches and/or home based ecumenical communities find ways to connect with contemporary culture. I would not say that there is something holistically wrong with seeker groups or churches but I found it very intriguing the way in which each of these groups choose to associate their spirituality to God and others. He begins Part II by identifying eight Fresh Expression groups:[2]
- Park or also known as Natal Faith is a community exploring God through understanding a natural pursuit of life. The mother’s womb is significant to how they imagine the feminine ideals of who God is as explored within oneself and community.
- Foundation is a group that wants to explore God within experiences of daily life.
- mayBe is an emerging church that seeks God in a simple way through prayer and action with the intent to impact the world for the betteJourney is focused on seeing Jesus through arts and music.
- Moot Community is a community that desires communion beyond the hustle and bustle and desires to seek out meditation and how to incorporate into daily life.
- Sanctuary (Birmingham) –this faith community wants those of others faiths or no faith to have a safe community of spiritual expression.
- Sanctuary (Bath) is seeking to be a “catch all”for worshipful activities to art, etc. They desire to foster a place for all ages.
- Dream – [this summary deserved to be stated explicitly] “a network of seven groups in the Merseyside area of Bolton. Our focus is on building community that values openness, honesty and freedom in the exploration and pursuit of spirituality centred on Jesus … A Life More Ordinary … An invitation to fishermen, shepherds, vicars and tarts, and all other extraordinary people with ordinary lives to explore the presence of God and reality of heaven in your story …“[3]
While we can discuss the differences that exist between the church of England and/or church communities in England with the 21 Century Evangelical church today, I do believe that we have more similarities than differences. These eight groups represent many faith based communities I have witnessed in America. It is interesting the dynamic that exists as they try to gain focus and attention within the Christian community. When I was in high school I was apart of a church plant. The challenged we faced was answering the questions of “what was our purpose?” and “who were we seeking to engage with?”. I am happy to say the church exists to this day but it has evolved quite a bit from our early days. No matter how much we wanted to avoid the added weight of church planting, we all felt the pressure, and the pull to be contemporary and relate to the culture. When it was all said and done, the church became a place of grace, hope , faith and reconciliation for those seeking to belong. We upheld the sacredness and symbolism of the sacraments, while fostering a charismatic atmosphere with a solid biblical basis. I enjoyed being apart of the genesis of this community but I also recognize the pressure our leaders faced having to be unconventional in a time when people were not sure if they could or would embrace a worship place where they felt free but were not accustomed. We soon learned that our strategies came second to our faithfulness to allow the Holy Spirit work. Martyn Percy discusses the fact that churches should not be as intense in their growth strategies but rather seek out a broader understanding of faith and belief that exists outside the four walls of the church is a crux in all areas of ministry. Timothy Ngern in his review of the book stated that “Percy urges that churches should relax rather than to be uptight about employing aggressive church growth strategies; they should trust the resilience of religion to work itself out. He however reminds the churches that they must respond to society by offering ministry to those in need.” [4] It is our duty and obligation to be implicit in our approach to live out our faithful practice. As a “marketplace minister” I am not sure what this all means day to day for a full time ministry leader in the church . What I do know is that this challenge is very real and contextual. I want to ask questions as to how the church continues to be shaped in light of the digital age? How do we as ministry leaders engage and foster ministry outside our ecumenical communities.
An additional note: This past week I came across a hilarious comedy spoof entitled “Swag Seminary”. It reminded me of the practical dilemma that exists between the church and contemporary culture. There is this idea that a church may be outdated or out of touch with the culture and/or this generation if they do not have the essentials to draw millennials to Jesus. This video depicts in a very factious way the lengths some ministries will take to become “relevant”. All jokes aside, I do believe that our culture is shifting. Many people may not attend church but they are seeking faith communities that keep them connected to God.
https://www.facebook.com/johnbcrist/videos/1070692939732451/
[1] Martyn Percy, Shaping the Church: The Promise of Implicit Theology (Explorations in Practical, Pastoral and Empirical Theology) (Ashgate Publishing Group, 2010), 13.
[2] Ibid, 67.
[3] Ibid, 68.
[4] Timothy Lim Teck Ngern, “Martyn Percy, Shaping the Church,” The Pneuma Review, July 5, 2012, , accessed May 16, 2017, http://pneumareview.com/martyn-percy-shaping-the-church/.
About the Author
Christal Jenkins Tanks
21 responses to “To strategically grow or organically grow? That is the question!”
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Yes, Christal, the challenge of “relevance” and the crazy and silly lengths that some churches have gone to to be relevant is an interesting one. Willow Creek reassessed its “seeker” model several years ago and stated that, when it comes to discipleship, the seeker-sensitive model has been a bust.
I don’t think “Fresh Expressions” is a direct correlation to the seeker-sensitive model, but the same conundrum applies as the church seeks to reach this generation!
Yes Geoff it is true that they may not a direct correlation but to your point the unfortunate outcomes of these types of models is the same. Hopefully we can find a way to allow the Spirit to enable our faith communities to be transformative without being motivated by appealing to the culture through any means necessary.
Great post Christal! I enjoyed hearing your perspective to the reading. Like you, I took a walk down memory lane when he described the various movements in the last few decades. Your church plant sounded like a great experience for you. Glad to hear it as this is not always the case. Yes, I agree with you about the pressures of churches to meet the various needs and be culturally relevant. Also an excellent point about strategies getting in the way of organic development of communities. I would be curious to your thoughts on how to keep this fine balance of strategies implemented as well as allowing organic development in a church plant?
Jennifer you pose a great question about striking the balance. I believe that it is first and foremost important to know why God has called your church to be in that specific community. Understanding the churches purpose helps to develop the proper mission and ministry purpose/ focus necessary for those who choose to come along and serve. Hopefully these things allow for tactical ways that can be practically applied because they meet the needs of the community that you are placed in. Furthermore, it will draw and allow for community members to be involved in serving within their own community. Being implicit and intentional (in a contextual way) can be lived out in an organic way. Just my thoughts. I hope this makes sense 🙂
Wow, great response and helpful. Thanks.
Great video!
Great illustration, Christal! I’ve never gone to a seeker church. Your listing of the 8 Fresh Expressions groups is a good summary of the reasons many people do not feel comfortable in the large denominations. I’m still thinking that God brings people to Himself in many ways and that I am thankful that there is so much diversity along with options for institutional church. As you illustrated with your church, the basics can still be respected.
And is there a sort of contradiction when Dr. Percy talks about the steadfastness of the older church but then encourages churches to be more inclusive, respecting the differences of others? Just wondering.
Mary great question. I am not sure of there is a contraction but more of a question about how do we hold the two in tandem for the sake of being the Church that God has called and designed for us to be. The answer to that question is challenging. I believe it must be discerned within community and also be applied contextually because every community is not the same but the sacredness of our Faith is what unites us all together.
Whether a pastor is “old school” or “trendy,” the key for me is AUTHENTICITY and LEADERSHIP.
The video makes a good point, do we follow culture or do we lead through culture? Also, I would look very silly in a bright purple suit, or liturgical robes. yet I know some preachers who look very comfortable in flashy suits, others who look good in vestments.
Not sure we believe you, Stu. Maybe you’d better post pictures so we can decide ourselves. Purple suit? Vestments?
Stu your question takes me back to last term where we talked about the dance between Faith and culture. Discussing the question which one influences the other the most?
The video had me laughing with the sermon titles. but it does demonstrate the lengths to which many churches will go just to see people come into the four walls of the church.
*Side Note: oh and what Katy said about the suit 🙂
Christal, what an interesting post. Our team has recently been asking the question, if we are a church planting movement, then what does the church look like. It’s not the same question you asked about purpose, but those times when we being to face the difficult questions are the times when we take huge steps forward. We eventually decided to move away from the term church planting and instead use the terminology “developing faith communities.” In our Europe setting, this allows us to develop faith communities in unique settings and in a way opens the door to people who would not come to “Church”. We know it’s not an earth-shattering revelation, but small changes can make a big impact. Thanks for sharing your experience about the church plant–very insightful.
Jim, contrary to your comment, “We know it’s not an earth-shattering revelation” it IS a big deal to re-evaluate the language we choose to use. Our language shapes our reality. And whether we like it or not, even the word “church” is a churchy word with a lot of baggage (good and bad). “Developing faith communities” allows for an openness to the way the Spirit will work to create something unique to that place. (Like how I threw in a pentecostal concept?? 🙂 )
Thanks Katy. I do like how you threw in the Pentecostal concept!
“Developing faith communities” can be a great way that leads to how we shift our thinking about the church and our mission. Yes, while I can tell there were more in-depth discussions and even strategic/tactical methods you had to land on in order to define what that would be for your team, I find it refreshing that these difficult discussions are taking place. They are necessary for us to discern in community and allow the Spirit to lead us to where we should go as we live out the mission of God in a faithful manner together.
It took us months of conversations–sometimes heated–to reach a point where we felt that we were not somehow moving away from a biblical principle or in some way moving away from our roots. To be lead by the Spirit sometimes means getting out of His way. I’m practicing getting out of His way a lot lately!
Percy states that Fresh Expressions is no different that Donald McGavran’s HUP (homogeneous unit principle) (p77), a concept I studied in seminary many moons ago. While McGavran sprang from the same church movement as me (Restoration/Disciples), our seminary prof (and thus, me), was deeply skeptical of his formula. In fact, we noticed enough issues with McGavran’s methods that Kip eventually wrote about it: http://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=firstfruitspapers (for your spare time reading 🙂 )
Like Taber our prof, and Dr Percy, we believe that organic relationships should be the starting place are the place to start, not looking for a “target audience.”
Yes Katy I agree. Organic growth is truly everlasting. While certain strategies may get people in the door, it will not keep them in community with each other. Even in a business context, companies know that organic growth is necessary to the stability of the organization. Organic growth is sustainable growth 🙂
Christal, I enjoyed your post. I have a strong interest in the way churches are relating to the people and their community. There truly are parallel pictures of the Fresh expression movement to the church movements in America. There are many skeptics about their presence.
I agree that it is a challenge to Pastors to be able to preach to a changing culture when you are based in a traditional culture. That is why some churches have different services that meet the needs of the various cultures (worship style) or they have different locations.
You used the term ‘marketplace’ minister. What is that exactly?
Lynda, I define marketplace ministry as a person whose ministry is in the business, government, non profit, education communities. They live out the mission of God through making an impact within the roles they serve in their community. That is a short definition but it does have more depth.
while in a different manner, some church communities have ministries/ activities that are “targeted” (for lack of a better word) to evangelize within the marketplace or secular workplace communities. Those ministries are called “Marketplace Ministries”.
I actually want to go to all of those Fresh Expressions churches, Christal! Not because I think we need a “new” way of seeking God but because people encounter the “thin spaces” in so many different ways. I have friends who feel closer to God while hiking than they do at church, and friends who hear God speak and feel the Spirit best when they are painting or sculpting. Maybe there is a way to take a Wesleyan approach and create “societies” that people attend regularly for these expressions, but still attend a congregational community to share the Table and hear a word?