The Ecclesia Network

a missional church network

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Bob Hyatt

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New Churches Welcomed to the Ecclesia Network!

We were pleased at this year’s National Gathering to welcome a number of new churches into our network! Get to know them!

Mission Wilmington, Wilmington, NC


Mission Wilmington’s goal is to transform their community by connecting spiritual seekers together to know Jesus and to grow together as they grow in Him.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Contact

Brick City Church, Ocala, FL

Brick City Church is a non-denominational church whose mission is to become fully devoted followers of Christ, growing in both knowledge and relationship with Jesus, the Bible, and one another. We believe following Jesus means joining in God’s work of restoring our broken world and caring for the most vulnerable in our community, specifically vulnerable children in Marion County and beyond.

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The Crowded House Network, Longwood, FL

The Crowded House Network is a network of house churches that serve as missional outposts in central Florida. By gathering together, sharing a meal, proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus, and engaging our communities in acts of justice and mercy we believe we are forming dynamic communities that reflect the nature of God in and to the world.

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Defiance Church, Glenwood Springs, CO

Defiance is a church born out of the radical reformation – a people who defied the dominant cultural forms of faith in their time. These Anabaptist communities held a theological and spiritual stance that refused to let violence be the last word in a world fractured by sin, violence, and fear.  We are called to live differently – to live in a way that often stands at odds with what the world tells us is important. We live in God’s wholeness with each other and extend this movement of peace out into the world.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Contact

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Ecclesia National Gathering ’18 Round Up!

Another great family reunion time with Ecclesia people!


Each year the Ecclesia National Gathering is a time of celebration for those within the network and other friends of Ecclesia. In addition to the welcome of new churches, one of the highlights of each year is the recognition of those who have been newly ordained or commissioned within Ecclesia. Within Ecclesia we like to say that Ordination or Commission is something that is best Locally Coordinated and Conducted, Regionally Involved and Affirmed, and Nationally Recognized and Celebrated. This falls in line with our value of the Primacy of the Local Church (note: this is distinct from the autonomy of the local church).

At the 2018 National Gathering we recognized the commissioning/ordination ofthe following 7 leaders:

Wendy Chinn, New Life in Blacksburg, VA

Aaron Hatton, University Christian Church in Cincinnati, OH

Christian Hearl, New Life Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg, VA

David McCann, New Life Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg, VA

Scott Meiser, Redemption Church in Bristol, PA

Becca Osborn, Life on the Vine in Arlington Heights, IL

Emily Shulz, New Denver Church in Denver, CO

 

In addition, a few years ago we began a special honor called the Perseverance Award. Typically, the perseverance award is given to those individuals who set out to plant a new congregation, but their journey has been met with challenge and disappointment. Yet, in spite of those obstacles they maintained faithfulness to God’s call and didn’t give up or move on.  However, this year our staff team decided to honor someone who has persevered in ministry over several decades of ministry.  This year, we recognized Jim Pace for his many years of service and faithfulness at NLCF in Blackcsburg, VA.  Jim has spent three different decades in leadership at NLCF and has been an exemplar of dedication to ministry for many in Ecclesia.  Jim is a former board member for Ecclesia and now regularly gives time to coaching and consulting with other churches.

In 2016, Ecclesia also began a new honor called the Servants Award. This award is given to a member of the network that goes above and beyond the norm to pour themselves into the ministry of Ecclesia and the relationships between leaders. Past recipients of the Servants Award have been Mike Hollenbach of the TheBridge in Easton, PA and Jeanette Staats of NLCF in Blacksburg, VA.  This year, our staff team bestowed the honor of the Servants Award to our excellent board chair person, Cyd Holsclaw. 

Cyd stepped in faithfully to serve as the first non-staff board

 

chair for Ecclesia in 2017.  She has dedicated hours of service to Ecclesia as a whole, as well as many trips and visits to network churches across the country.  We have been blessed by her leadership and look forward to many more years!

More ENG ’18 photos here

Listen in as Katie, Jeremiah, Matt & Meg from Oak Church in Durham, NC share testimonies of their recent time together at the  Ecclesia National Gathering

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Ecclesia National Gathering ’18 Workshops

Here’s a preview of the workshops we’ll be offering at the National Gathering!

  • Communicating the Gospel in An Age of Skepticism – Josh Crain

The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. What do these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others? Borrowing from experts such as Charles Taylor, James K.A. Smith, Don Beck, and Stanley Grenz, Josh Crain walks us through the cultural shifts that define 21st century Western society and how the church might continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus in this evolving context.

  • Contextual Apologetics – Lisa Fields

Historically, apologetics in America has been framed by white evangelicals.  While important work has been done in this area, challenges exist because the dominant culture is often disconnected from the needs and the nuances of other cultures that they are seeking to engage.  Therefore, a contextualized approach to apologetics is helpful in this endeavor. In this session we will seek to help the participants defend their faith in every cultural context.

  • Before the Bridge – Cyd & Geoff Holsclaw

When it comes to explaining salvation, many of us know the bridge illustration. But what if, instead of us crossing the bridge over to God’s side, it was God who came over to our side and built a house for us to live together with him? How might this house depict the reunion of heaven and earth (God’s side and ours), and even the reunion of God’s presence and our purpose in the world? Can we use the image of a house to quickly communicate the whole narrative of scripture and make it possible to proclaim good news answers to life’s really big questions? In this session, help us ‘beta test’ a new illustration for the gospel that we hope can be shared with people of all ages and faith backgrounds.

  • Proclaiming the Good News to Children/Youth – Juliet Liu

There are loads of curricula, books, and websites geared to share the gospel with children and youth. It can be overwhelming and exhausting to try to sort through all the possibilities. But how is everything we decide to read / say / do with kids shaped by who we are with kids? This session will be part theological foundations and part collaborative conversation / brainstorming. Bring your celebratory stories and your challenging struggles. All are welcome, whether you work with kids or not.

 

  • It Doesn’t All Point to Jesus: Preaching the Gospel Without Preaching the Gospel™ – Norton Herbst

Preaching is hard. Preachers have to be engaging, biblical, helpful, and above all, gospel-focused. Every week. But what does it mean to preach the gospel? How do you preach gospel sermons from the Old Testament without simply saying “it all points to Jesus”? And how do we avoid the tendency to develop a packaged summary of the gospel message—the Gospel™—that we simply append to every sermon? In this breakout, we’ll explore these questions about preaching philosophy, style, and methods as it relates to gospel themes. Norton Herbst will suggest some practical ways we can take more risks, incorporate creativity, and bring a holistic approach to preaching that can engage diverse audiences with the life-changing message of the gospel.  

  • The Gospel in the Life of the Pastor – Mandy Smith & J.R. Briggs

As church leaders our job is to proclaim the gospel to others, but we often forget that the gospel applies to us as well.  In the midst of the busyness and demands of ministry, it is too easy to lose track of the significance of the gospel in our own lives.  In this workshop, Mandy Smith and J.R. Briggs want to help create a safe space to share the challenges of ministry, apply the truth of the gospel to those challenges, and to pray with and for one another.

 

  • Incarnational Apologetics – Lisa Fields

Classical apologetics focuses on giving intellectual arguments for the hope that we have, while incarnational apologetics focuses on giving a defense for our faith through the way we live our lives. These two must work together in tandem for an effective defense of the Christian faith. The goal in this session is to highlight the importance and means of incarnational apologetic to the Christian walk.

  • The Power of the Gospel Across Cultures – Mia Chang & Danny Prada

One of the uniquenesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ is how it is has inhabited and transformed hundreds, if not thousands, of cultures and people groups around the globe throughout history.  For many years, those cultures were relatively isolated from one another. Today though, a wide range of ethnicities and cultures are in many of the communities that we are seeking to engage with the gospel.  As local churches, how can we proclaim this same good news, contextually and appropriately, across many cultures in our singular local churches. Further, how does the gospel help us live together amidst our differences in heritage and perspective.  Join Danny and Mia as they share the story of how diverse communities of biblical faith have developed in their congregations and how their learnings can apply to yours.

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What You Win Them With is What You Win Them To

Every easter, every Christmas—no, scratch that—every Sunday, we as leaders are faced with a dilemma: Do we go big, advertise, put on an amazing show and attract people who otherwise wouldn’t have visited? Or do we simply remain a faithful gospel presence, observing the important days of the Christian calendar, but avoiding any hint of spectacle? Can we trust the work of the Holy Spirit and the good reputation of a community of love to draw those who come?

What we win people with is what we win them to. Those who are drawn in by the smoke machines, the amazing technical productions or even the polished preaching of the quasi-celebrity Christian voice tend to stick around as long as those things remain available— or until they learn of another church doing it a little bit better.

Those drawn in by the reality and closeness of Christian community through love and radical hospitality don’t tend to be pulled away by other things. They’ve tasted the reality of church community and don’t feel the allure of smoke and mirrors. To be clear, I’m not condemning “excellence,” but I do question its priority at some churches. Is the reality of the presence of Christ among a people of love, inviting us to worship together as we gather around his table, no longer enough? Now, the music has to be louder, the sermon funnier and more engaging, the weekly activities bigger and better. There need to be a lot more exclamation points on our websites and mailings.

I’ve wondered what the people who start attending churches during the Advent or Easter seasons think as the spectacle dies down and things return to normal. Do they wonder what happened to all the production, the huge effort they saw expended? Do they feel caught in the middle of an ecclesiastical bait and switch? I would.

I never want to find myself on the hamster wheel of church performance, trying to outdo the church down the street or even trying to outdo what we ourselves did last week. Our staff sometimes jokes that if we ever find ourselves renting a helicopter in order to rain down prize-stuffed Easter eggs on a crowd, we’ll know we’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.

We want people to connect with our communities, but we have to want them to do so for the right reasons. I just don’t buy the “anything to win souls” mind-set, especially when I see churches giving away cars, houses and even, in more than one case, AR-15 rifles to entice people to attend church. If you want to give away things, then give them in the love of Christ, without making a not- so-subtle play to boost attendance. Generosity is something we do in response to the gospel, not as a ploy to raise attendance.

If you want to draw people to your community, let the community itself (its love and unity and gospel ethos) be the draw, not the efforts expended by a small team of people to draw a crowd.

Anyone can draw a crowd—but it takes partnering with the Holy Spirit to build a community.

This is an excerpt from Ministry Mantras: Language for Cultivating Kingdom Culture, by J.R. Briggs & Bob Hyatt, 2016 IVP

-Bob Hyatt

Director of Equipping and Spiritual Formation

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2017 Ecclesia Network Annual Report

Below you will find a link to Ecclesia’s Annual Report.  It is our prayer that you will find this encouraging as it gives a glimpse into how God has moved within and throughout the network this past year.

We encourage you to share this with your congregations as well as anyone you might be in contact with looking to connect with a network.

We look forward to seeing you in April!

 

2017_Ecclesia_Annual_Report

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The Surprising Findings About Bible Engagement and What Pastors Can Do About It

Recently I had a phone meeting with Paul Caminiti who serves on staff with the Institute for Bible Reading (instituteforbiblereading.org). Formerly, he served as the Bible Publisher for Zondervan and the Vice President of Bible Engagement at Biblica (formerly known as the International Bible Society). Paul shared with me the research that he and his team had discussed: the average America (religious or irreligious) household owns four Bibles – and yet, over 700 people give up Bible reading for good every single day.

The research also found three main reasons people give up Bible reading: (1) People read the Bible in fragments. (2) People read the Bible out of context (3) People read the Bible in isolation.

What are pastors to do with the disconnect between Americans’ Bible ownership and the lack of Bible engagement? Well, Paul and his team are encouraging people to read the Bible in three ways (as a foil to the findings in the research): (1) Encourage people to read the complete story of God (2) Challenge people understand the Bible in context (3) Work to have people read the Bible in community.

In our conversation, Paul shares three “mantras” with others in an effort encourage further Scripture engagement:  

 

  • Fluency is more important than literacy

  • Read real

  • Implication is more important than application.

 

On the surface, the research and mantras may sound simplistic, yet I find it to be incredibly helpful as I think about people in our church. But I’m left with questions: Where have I (maybe without knowing it) encouraged people to read their Bibles, but not challenged them to engage with it? Am I preaching only out of my “favorite texts” or heavy on the New Testament passages? Where might I be able to provide more context, background and understanding of what was going on in the time of the Biblical story that might help shed light on understanding and impact on my own life?

More questions come to me: Where could we encourage people to read, discuss and live out Scripture together with others, rather than simply prescribing a “personal daily quiet time” approach to Scriptural engagement? Where and how might I encourage people to be fluent with the Bible (like being fluent in Spanish) rather than simply know facts (like just knowing Spanish vocabulary words)? Where can I encourage people to “read real” by asking the tough, hard, complex and uncomfortable questions about the text rather than just moving on and ignoring the questions themselves? Can I challenge people to search for what implications this story/passage has on our personal and communal lives rather than just giving them a few application points at the end of the teaching?

On a ridiculously practical side of things, we’ve taught people in our church (whether they’re seminary graduates or they’ve never owned a Bible) to ask five questions every time they read a Bible passage.

  • What’s going on in the passage itself?
  • What comforts or encourages me in the passage?  
  • What makes me uncomfortable or confronts me, frustrates me or upsets me in the passage?
  • What does this reveal about the nature of God or the character of Jesus?
  • What will I do with what I just read within the next seven days?

Certainly, there are other questions that could be asked when engaging with Scripture. But try these on for size in your congregation and see if people are engaging the Scriptures more deeply, broadly, frequently and authentically.

 

 

-J.R. Briggs

Director of Leadership and Congregational Formation

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