The Ecclesia Network

a missional church network

Archives for July 2011

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Ecclesia Northeast Regional – In Partnership with Fresh Expressions US

Ecclesia Northeastern Regional

A New Church For A New World: A Fresh Expressions Vision Day

At it’s core, Ecclesia is committed to the development of missional churches that are focused on reaching our growing Post-Christian society. We are also a network that is dedicated to collaboration with other like-minded people. Earlier this year, Ecclesia joined into a partnership with several other denominations and church networks to start an initiative called Fresh Expressions US. Fresh Expressions was originally started in England, and it has resulted in the birth of 3,000 new communities in the UK alone Fresh Expressions has also spread to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and is now taking shaping in the US. At it’s heart, Fresh Expressions is a movement dedicated to cultivating new kinds of church alongside existing congregations.

This years Northeast Regional takes a look at the need for new kinds of church expressions along with how to go about starting them. Dave Fitch, JR Woodward, JR Briggs, Chris Backert, and several others will be helping to guide the time.

Download the Brochure for more information on A New Church For A New World: A Fresh Expressions Vision Day

Date

October 6, 2011 at Biblical Theological Seminary; 9am – 4:30pm

Registration / Cost

Cost: $25 (includes lunch) – Registration for this event will be through the Fresh Expressions site and not the Ecclesia site. You can register here.

What is Fresh Expressions?

As someone once said … “if you have a new world – you need a new church”. Fresh Expressions is a movement that is cultivating new kinds of church alongside existing congregations, in order to reach our new world. Begun in England 8 years ago, it has resulted in the birth of 3,000 new communities in the UK alone. Fresh Expressions has spread to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and is now taking shape in the US.

At its heart, Fresh Expressions is about empowering and equipping God’s people to develop creative expressions of church that can reach the increasing diversity of our society.

What is Vision Day?

Vision Day is a great way to discover more about Fresh Expressions. In an interactive format, you will have the chance to:

  • Hear how Fresh Expressions is renewing the church
  • Talk about the development of Fresh Expressions US
  • Learn more about the Mission-Shaped Church
  • Discover tools to start a Fresh Expressions in your area

What’s the schedule?

  • 9.00am // Gathering Time – Coffee & Refreshments
  • 9.30am // Welcome & Worship
  • 10.00am // Session # 1 – Movement: How Fresh Expressions Is Changing the Landscape
  • 11.30am // Lunch Break*
  • 12.45pm  // Session # 2 – Cultivation: How Fresh Expressions Can
  • Develop // In Your Context 2.00pm Afternoon Break
  • 2.15pm // Breakout Sessions/Discussion Groups
    • Discipleship in New Forms of Church – Ben Jamison
    • New Forms of Church in Established Churches & Denominations – Chris Backert
    • Essential Practices for New Forms of Church – David Fitch
    • What Kind of New Church To Start? – J.R. Briggs
  • 3.15pm // Break
  • 3.30pm // Session # 3 – Action: How You Can Get Involved 4.30pm Closing

* Note: There will be a separate lunch for students interested in hearing about vocational ministry opportunities with the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

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Church Update: Kairos Hollywood

by Dave Kludt of Kairos Hollywood

So far, 2011 has been spent deepening roots in a city with tough soil. Over the last few years, Kairos Hollywood has rounded the five-year mark as a church plant and we’re now approaching ten, with the last few years being marked by significant change and transition. While instability is one of the more common threads connecting new city dwellers in Los Angeles, and especially Hollywood, this year in particular we have been trying to practice and live into some of the long-term rootedness we feel God calling us to.

Throughout the summer, we have limited our large (usually weekly) Sunday Gathering to every other week in order to give our community the time, space, and energy to engage our neighbors and city in new ways. In the last few months, our mid-sized communities have adopted “City Ministries” – long-term, regular partnerships or commitments to join God’s redemptive work with a specific demographic or location in mind. We desire to see these ministry partnerships grow deep into the DNA of Kairos Hollywood and our neighborhood.

We’ve continued to prune and cultivate our church structure to be more conducive to discipleship. We are now working to begin the third round of “discipleship workshops,” intentionally small, committed, and closed groups focused on spiritual formation and discipleship. While we don’t think there is a “silver bullet” that can cure the church’s discipleship problem, we are moving forward in faith that the people of Kairos will “clothe themselves in Christ” allowing our community in Hollywood to better reflect Christ’s redemptive work.

While there’s always more room to grow and live into God’s new reality for our city, it’s exciting to see that “it’s happening.” Our desire to see our community experience life and breakthrough in our relationship with God – it’s happening. Our desire to grow deeper in our relationships with each other – it’s happening. Our desire to see Kairos Hollywood move past the walls of the “church building” and “be the church” in our city – it’s happening.

Our prayer is that, God-willing, these things will continue to happen as our community continues to live into God’s faithful promises.

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Church Update: Christ Church

By Ben Sternke pastor of Christ Church in Ft. Wayne, IN.

Christ Church’s mission is to join God in the renewal of all things by planting a network of missional communities in the neighborhoods and networks of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Doing church this way requires a foundation a discipling culture and a lot of leaders, so our first step in the process has been to simply spend time discipling people who will be leading missional communities and discipling others.

We have spent the first half of 2011 discipling leaders in Huddles and modeling missional community life as a church. This summer four new Huddles were started by people in our initial Huddle, and we are working toward launching 2-3 Missional Communities on September 25. We’ll be spending the rest of the summer strengthening the relational bonds of our core group of leaders (creating the “extended family” atmosphere MCs need), training our core leaders in relational mission so they can disciple others into this, and helping MC leaders clarify and hone their vision and start well.

It has been great to see the growth that has happened in people as they step out in mission and leadership. Those who have embraced the call to make disciples and join with Jesus in his mission are the ones who are bearing the most kingdom fruit, and it’s exciting to be able to part of equipping people to make disciples who can make disciples. We’re excited to see where God takes us this fall after we launch our MCs.

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How Do You Serve the Poor?

By Gary Alloway

Redemption Church is a 2-year old church plant in Bristol, PA, a post-industrial small town just outside Philadelphia. About 2 miles from where we meet for worship, there is a tent encampment where about a dozen homeless folks live. For almost 2 years, we have made weekly visits to the camp and are proud to call those who live there our friends, neighbors, and brothers and sisters in Christ. This is one of our many stories …

How do you serve the poor? Do you bring them food and clothing, so that they might survive another day? Do you attempt to find them housing and jobs, so that they might leave poverty? Do you lobby your local leaders to care for those in need and make systemic changes?

Yes. And more. One of the crippling things about poverty is it turns people into consumers. They receive free meals, free clothing, and housing subsidies. And if they do this long enough, they can become hardened in a sense of entitlement and self-centeredness. But a life based on the gospel is never about just receiving. To be whole, we must both receive and give.

In May, we did a simple service project in our community of Bristol, PA. We helped paint and do maintenance at the local after school program. We had a few volunteers from among our regulars. We had a few volunteers from my home church, a wealthy suburban congregation. And the majority of our volunteers were our homeless friends. And it was a beautiful day.

Our homeless friends, who spend the majority of their days with nothing to do, had a day full of activity. Instead of the shame of being homeless, they had the pride of doing good work. Instead of the dullness that comes from only receiving, they had the joy of giving to others who are in need. Instead of the subtle condescension that comes to them from various charities, they were brothers to us that day and fellow workers for the gospel. When I stopped in the camp a few days later, they were all raving about the day asking, “When is the next one?”

How do you serve the poor? Give them opportunities to give love and let them feel the goodness of God’s creation within themselves.

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Update from Bruce and Terri Hopler

18 years ago, my wife Terri, 3-month-old son Caleb, and I drove into Howard County, Maryland, to start a church.  It was an “against all odds” story on many levels, but by the grace of God a church was born.

Over the next several years a lot happened in the life of Cornerstone: over 150 people were baptized, and many people were discipled and sent out all over the world. Relational evangelism took place, several church plants were birthed and supported, worship was authentic and engaging, children and youth were discipled, leadership structures were set up and engaged to do the mission of God, justice and compassion ministries were not only born but done on a healthy kingdom level such as the CWS, Paul’s Place, Samaritan Women, and the D.R. ministries. In short, “ community” happened.

Some time ago, Terri and I began a process of evaluating God’s call in our lives. We have always wanted to only be where God called us to be.  For the first time in the entire history of this church, I created a resumé to test the waters so to speak.  Open to staying at Cornerstone, the call of God became clear, it was time to make a move.

In truth, it is the new definition of insanity, to pursue this opportunity.  The pay cut will be huge and the risk will be high. It is an opportunity to be missionaries, for the second time, here in the United States.

The President of Bluefield College, along with The Ecclesia Network that Cornerstone is a part of, and the Baptist General Association of Virginia, approached Terri and I to come to Bluefield, Virginia to plant a church with the eventual hope to also launch a church planting training center there.  This will be a bi-vocational opportunity as I will also be an adjunct professor, part time campus spiritual formation director, and possible consultant to new church starts as well as established churches.

Even though the opportunity focuses on many of my “sweet spots,” Terri and I never thought we would go back into the world of being missionaries/ church planters.  Yet the call was clear, to head to this college town to begin a new work.

On paper it does not make sense as here we are in our mid 40s, taking such risks and to go back into fund raising to make this work.  Yet it is where we are called.

As one pastor buddy put it, “Spending the second half of your life pouring into the next generation is not a bad way to invest yourself.”

Please pray for Terri and I as we plant a church, for the second time, in Bluefield VA.  It will be a bit of culture shock, as all we have ever known is urban/ suburban life, yet we are so excited.

Please also pray for Cornerstone Community Church of Columbia Maryalnd, as they seach for a new pastor.  If you know someone that is interested, either contact Chris Backert or myself

Warmly in Christ,

Bruce and Terri Hopler

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Update from Horizon Church

Horizon Owings Mills in our tenth year as a church.  We started with two “missionary families” and a few college students in 2001 and within a few years we grew to about 220 people on Sundays, 120 people in small groups.  That was more people than our building and leadership structure could support so we we sent several small group leaders out to plant a church in a neighboring suburb.  Two years later, we grew again and had the opportunity to start a church in another neighboring suburb, but that didn’t work out.  Now, we’ve got about 90 people in small groups and about 100 people on Sundays.

After ten years, we’re starting to look like a “normal” church, and we have no idea what to do with that.  We used to be 18 to 25 and single.  We’d perform 4 to 5 weddings a year.  Now, we’re having 5 or 6 babies born each year.  All those babies are in our small groups, and they need to go to bed a lot earlier than 19-year-olds so many of our groups are experimenting with different times, patterns and activities, looking for models that fit our evolving community.  We can see why many churches turn to age/gender segregation and programming, but we’re not going to go that direction.  We don’t want to give up on the “extended family” we’ve been able to build through age/gender/stage of life-inclusive groups.

That’s a bit of what’s going on with us right now.  We’re playing around with some Sunday morning ideas, conceptualizing a business start up that we think will help us start future church plants and looking for ways to connect with the local college and surrounding communities.  But, including kids in our small groups and our movement from young and hip to geriatric and static are the biggest things we’re working through.

Welcome to Horizon.