The Ecclesia Network

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Leaders Profile

Ryan Braught is the founding pastor/church planter with the Veritas Community in Lancaster, PA. We had a few questions for him!

How would you describe the area your church is in?

Veritas is based in the city of Lancaster, a city that is growing.

How would you describe the journey of pastoring Veritas? What have been some of the milestones/different seasons?

One of biggest milestones over the last almost ten years, both for myself but also for the community was my sabbatical in the summer of 2017. It helped me rest, rejuvenate, and reconnect with God and family. But more than just what it did for me, I believe it truly grew our community- People saying “this is our community,” people taking ownership, stepping into leadership roles, and become active participants in the mission and ministry of Veritas. Another milestone or series of milestones relates to our connection with our denomination (the Church of the Brethren). They have a process of planting where plants start as a project, move to fellowship status, and then become a full congregation. We have been able to walk through this process becoming a fellowship in 2016 and this summer will become a full-fledged congregation within the Church of the Brethren.

Looking back, what do you know now you wish you had known when you first started Veritas?

Just the amount of turnover that happens each year, especially as we have connected with a younger generation. And to look at that turnover as a blessing- that we get to disciple them for a season, then send people to other places around the country and the world, and commission them as missionaries from Veritas. Also something that i wish I had known is just how slow missional church and missional church planting can be. And how much patience I need to trust Jesus, rely on him, and really lean into the belief that He grows the church- and not succumb to the latest church growth fad to try to numerically grow the church.

As you think about what you’ve been able to do so far in ministry there what are some things you have done/tried that have worked well?

I believe there are three different parts to our ministry that have worked well. First, I believe our engagement with the arts community within Lancaster has been going very well. We have been able to connect with many different artists and are building a reputation within Lancaster. We have been doing a lot of social justice/awareness shows and been able to bless many artists and get behind their work. One of the neatest things related to this- is asking the artist that we feature each month to come to our worship gathering for a 5-10 minute Q&A and have them share about their work, and allow them to find a supportive faith community that is interested in their work and wants to encourage and bless them. I believe the second thing that has gone well for Veritas is related to the development of the community within Veritas. We have a tight-knit community and we have built it through many different ways- including our Veritas community What’s App, something called Conversation Project (where we do some intentional relationship building by pairing people from the community together, get them to meet up, and have them talk through questions and get to know each other), and just regular engagement with each other outside the “confines” of Sunday morning. Thirdly, I think our value of participation has been hugely beneficial to our community- in regards to building relationships with each other, but also in relation to discipleship. This value of participation while multifaceted, has led us to have interactive discussion as part of our sermon- where people dialogue around tables during and after the message, and to talk about how they will seek to apply and live out what we are talking about each worship gathering. The value of participation has also led to the creation of a teaching team, which includes myself, but also a few others- who help develop the teaching series, and also take turns in preaching and teaching throughout the year.

What hasn’t worked so well? What have you had to rethink/reimagine/rework?

One of the things we struggle with is the role of Children within the life of the community. Do we provide a nursery and children’s ministry and have the separated from the community for the entire worship time? Do we provide a nursery only? Do we provide a nursery and children’s ministry for part of the worship gathering? Do we act more as family- and assume infants and children will be in the service for the entire time? Or a hybrid of some of these? This is something that we struggle with- especially with not really having any children for children’s ministry (but having a growing number of young babies/infants/toddlers). We are in the process of also rethinking and reworking our leadership structure and how to develop a leadership pipeline, that grows and develops leaders, gives them the permission to begin and develop ministries, and develop leadership team and ministry team structures that fit our community (our vision, values, etc.).

What is one failure you experienced and what did you learn from it?

The day after Easter in 2018 I hurriedly set up a ladder against my garage, and hurried up the ladder to clean out a gutter. The ladder slid out from the garage and I came down with it, landing on my driveway and fracturing my wrist. You might ask what does this have to do with the church and ministry? This failure- 1. to take my time. and 2. Having someone holding the ladder, taught me those 2 valuable lessons in church and ministry.

First, in ministry I need to take time and not hurry though things. Planning events, preaching, visiting people, etc… takes time and I need to not hurry through those things and move on, “to more important things”. In planning events, I need to be diligent about the details (something that I struggle with), writing out the to-do list, and steps to making the event a “success”.

Secondly, I can’t do it alone. If I try, I will experience a fall. I desperately need others- both within my church and outside my church. I need a team of leaders within my church- those having different gifts and passions than I do- in order to make the church function as it is supposed to- as a body. If I try to function alone- the body is broken (just like my wrist was). I also need others outside my community who can pray with me, walk with me, and support me (as I also support, pray, and walk with them).

What is something you’ve been hearing from or learning from God in this last season of leading?

I feel that God is speaking to me about what leadership-like-Jesus truly looks like: a dying to the self, washing the feet of others, servant leadership. This is not an easy process- and I have to continually ask God to help me lead like Jesus- which means not always going in the direction that I think we should go in, not making all the decisions, trusting the leadership of others, and seeking to build consensus.

What do you dream/hope/pray Veritas looks like in five years?

My hope and dream for Veritas is that in five years we will be looking at planting a church out of Veritas. I also hope and dream that our church would be a strong family who are pursuing Jesus together, and following Him into the world and being about His mission.






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10 Practical Ways to Cultivate Trust With Your Leadership Team

The fundamental role of a leader is to build trust, bear pain and give hope.

Ultimately, all leadership flows from these three streams.

This week I was reminded once again of the crucial and irreplaceable stream of trust. It is the least common denominator in all leadership contexts, the fuel by which the leadership car moves. It is impossible to lead effectively over the long haul absent of trust. In Patrick Lencioni’s helpful book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he lists the major destructive factors among team dynamics: fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. But the keystone trait that undergirds all the others is the absence of trust. As one of my doctoral professors recently said, “The absence of trust is ultimately the absence of grace.” Conversely speaking then, building and deepening trust is the single greatest thing leaders must cultivate within and among their team in order to be healthy, fruitful and effective.

Albert Winseman, in his book Growing An Engaged Church, wrote that every person who walks into your church is asking two questions: Am I valued? and Do I have something to contribute? These questions get to the heart of the matter. Yet, I would offer that these are not just questions asked by churchgoers; they are also asked by any person who serves on any team in any capacity.

I don’t think anyone would argue with what I’ve offered thus far. Every well-meaning leader I’ve met believes trust is important. And every leader I’ve talked to wants people to feel valued and to allow space for collaboration, participation and contribution with their team. However, you may be thinking: Yes but how? Practically speaking, how am I to go about deepening trust with my team?

With Lencioni’s book in one hand and Winseman’s book in the other, it’s important for leaders to drill down further and consider how we can cultivate health in specific and practical ways, first by self-assessment. I offer the following ten elements – and questions – for self-evaluation.  

  • Value and love: how do I treat the people on my team (i.e. my words, posture, presence, tone, affirmation, etc.)? Is it a judgement-free zone? Which is more important to me: healthy relationships or accomplishing more? Are our team meetings and interactions safe spaces for people to really share what they are thinking and feeling?
  • Participation: how much do I actually empower and include our team on decisions being made? Am I collaborating or simply informing them of decisions already made?  
  • Congruence: how much do my words match my actions? Where might I be out of alignment? How would I even know?
  • Consistency: is there evidence of results in my leadership over an extended period of time? Do people have confidence in my ability to lead?
  • Self-differentiation: How much of my identity is wrapped up in me being the leader? Being a “successful” leader? Ultimately, which direction are the arrows pointing: toward me, toward our team or toward our mission?
How much of my identity is wrapped up in me being the leader? Ultimately, which direction are the arrows pointing: toward me, toward our team or toward our mission? Click To Tweet
  • Vulnerability: how vulnerable have I been (and how vulnerable am I willing to be) in order to model what a safe space looks like on the team? When others are vulnerable how have I responded? Am I capable of readily admitting “I don’t know” and verbalizing phrases such as “I’m sorry”?
  • Failure: How do I respond to risks and failures, individually and as a team? How much does it define who I am as a leader or who we are as a team?
  • Truth-telling: How am I at telling the truth – and embracing it – even if it stings? Am I actually telling the whole truth or am I telling the truth, plus or minus ten percent?
  • Unity: how much are we pursuing unity (not uniformity) as a team? Am I willing to let go of my personal preference(s) if it means we will be better off as a team in the long run? Do dissenting voices have a valued role among our team or are they hushed, ignored or swept aside?
  • Clarity: How clear and compelling is our vision, priorities, what we care about? How do we know if we are being clear in our communication?

In closing, I submit these additional questions worthy of reflection for leaders when it comes to deepening trust among our teams:

  • Why should people follow me? What gives me the right to lead others?
  • Because I have power, who, in turn, is flourishing?

It takes courage to ask these questions of ourselves about our own leadership; and it requires even more courage to ask others these questions about our leadership. But because trust is so crucial to the process, we can’t afford not to ask them. Ironically, we may find that if we ask these questions of ourselves and others with a humble, inquisitive and courageous tone and posture on a consistent basis, trust among our team will deepen.  

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Meditations on the Ecclesia National Gathering ’19

We recently asked some folks to reflect and finish the sentence “I left the Ecclesia National Gathering this year feeling ___________.”

Here’s what they said!

I left the Ecclesia National Gathering this year feeling a lot of respect for some leaders who have endured through some hard seasons!

– Bob

Grateful to be in a community that has walked through and adjusted to a lot of challenging circumstances. It encourages me as a future church-planter that our leadership team will have so much collective wisdom and experience to lean on.

– Curtis

Encouraged by what God is doing through the church.

– Jon

Heard, seen and loved by God.

– Jim

I left encouraged for the future, thanks to the gracious support of my brothers and sisters in Ecclesia.

– Wendy

Feeling grateful the two awards our network gives out each year are for (1) Perseverance and (2) Servanthood (and not Fastest Growing Church or Most “Successful” Church).

I was reminded once again why I love our network so much.

-J.R.

Feeling overwhelmingly confirmed in our vocation, gratitude for the support and experiences of those in the network, and happy to have even more new friends!

– Robbie

Even more thankful to be in the network!

-Mandy

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New Ministry Spotlight: The Mill Chapel Open Sanctuary

Ecclesia’s Redemption Church in Bristol, PA has started an amazing new missional initiative. Here’s Pastor Gary Alloway’s latest update:

In 2017, Redemption Church in Bristol, PA got a grant to research the topic of young adults and religion and after a number of interviews, a theme emerged: Young adults were open to God, but scared of the church. It got us thinking: “What would it look like to create a space where people could meet God, but there were no requirements for membership, beliefs, or behaviors?” In September, we opened The Mill Chapel, an open sanctuary space for the town of Bristol. The Mill is a storefront just off main street that is decorated in both simple and sacred aesthetics. Our initial offerings are basic: open prayer from 6 to 8 am and an evening contemplative prayer class. And while we have big dreams for classes, events, and workshops, our biggest dream is simply to have the space open as much as possible for anyone to come in.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Sometimes practice comes before belief. I’ve always been intrigued by the culture of AA, which asks people to pray even if they don’t believe. A weird thing happens when people do this. Quite often, people come to know God. When Jesus invites his disciples, he doesn’t first explain to them the Kingdom of God. Instead, he simply says, “Come follow me.” And it is only after they taste and touch the Kingdom of God that the disciples come to believe. Our hope is that someone could come in for prayer or silence or meditation and even if they don’t yet believe, they could meet the Living God.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Redemption has been working as missionaries in Bristol for 9 years now, forming relationships all over town. We’ve often found that Sundays are not a good point of invitation for those who are spiritual-but-not-religious. We wanted to create a middle space, something that is overtly spiritual, gets beyond the pleasantries and small talk, and yet, a place without the baggage that come with attending church.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Because Bristol, like anywhere else, needs prayer. One of the privileges of my life has been to visit churches and monasteries all over the world that are committed to prayer. There is a lightness and a joy that permeates the air. On mornings when I drive our kids to school, I drive past The Mill, look inside, and see that the candles are lit. Someone is praying for Bristol. And no matter how heavy the day feels, something of that lightness and joy comes to visit me. Bristol is being prayed for. It makes my heart happy.

The Mill is a missional experiment and we hope that many come to know and enjoy God through that place. But honestly, if all that ever happened at The Mill was that a bunch of Redemptionites got praying for Bristol, I bet God would do pretty good things with that. And since that is already happening, I would say the experiment is a success.

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News from around the Ecclesia Network

Redemption Church, Bristol PA

Weekly Worship, Meeting God

In September, Redemption switched back to a weekly worship service after six years of meeting in house churches.  We loved house churches, but after a careful discernment process, we decided God was calling us into something new.  We hope the switch is a way to care better for our kids, open the door for the community of Bristol, and take advantage of the talented teachers, liturgists, and musicians we now have at Redemption.  But more than that, we hope the switch is an opportunity to meet God.  While house church specializes in intimacy with one another, in discernment, we discovered a deep longing for intimacy with God – a desire to be drawn into something bigger than ourselves. We are still committed to discipleship, to local mission, and to intimate community.  But all those things are meaningless without a relationship to the Living God.  So we have prayed that God would meet us in worship.  And four months in, God has been answering that prayer abundantly!  Amen.

 

Austin Mustard Seed, Austin TX

At Austin Mustard Seed we’ve had a lot to celebrate lately. There have been many changes in our leadership since the summer. Throughout the process, we’ve had a clear sense of God’s presence and feel gratitude for God’s direction and provision. We believe it is gratitude that gives us joy, and we are thankful to experience shared joy as a community this Advent season.

This month we commissioned four leaders in our church. On December 2, April Karli and Daniel Read were commissioned as pastors, and on December 9, Ashley Blackwell and Shane Blackshear were commissioned as lay pastors.

 

 

Update From The Crowded House

“Central Florida doesn’t need another worship gathering.”

I remember uttering those words to countless people two years ago when Crystal and I decided to launch The Crowded House Network. We believed those words then and we believe those words now.

Central Florida does not need another worship gathering but The Crowded House Network does. Over the past few years we have grown from a small gathering of young adults on Tuesday nights, to an inter-generational church consisting of three house churches throughout Central Florida. Our dream is that The Crowded House be a spiritual family on mission together. This was easy to accomplish with eight people on a Tuesday night. Living into this way of being the church when we are three house churches spread out across Central Florida is anything but easy.

In order for us to live into the dream of being a spiritual family on mission together, our leadership team has made the decision to lead us into a new kind of gathering to complete all the good that is happening in our house churches.

On the first and third Sundays of every month, we will gather as an entire network to sing songs of praise, offer prayers for one another, proclaim the good news, and partake of the Eucharist. While this will have similar elements to other church worship gatherings, our focus on communal spiritual growth, corporate prayers and participation, and sacramental theology will make this gathering unmistakably The Crowded House.

This is an exciting time for us as a church. We are stepping into something new and unexplored for us. Just as we had the audacious dream to start a network of house churches in a land of traditional churches, we are exploring what is next as we continue to develop as a family on mission together.

 

The Renew Community, Lansdale PA

Recently, The Renew Community held a “Blue Christmas” Potluck/Gathering

Blue Christmas is a special service to acknowledge that for many people, Christmas is a time of loneliness, sorrow, alienation, sadness. This service offers a way for people to claim those feelings and still feel surrounded by the compassionate love of God. Afterwards, we will share a meal together. If you would like to provide part of this meal, please sign up for an item to bring.

If you want to know more about this, or even how your church can serve the grieving during the holidays, check out this webinar from Missio Alliance with Ecclesia’s own Kate Blackshear (from Austin Mustard Seed)- Download/Watch FREE until Dec 31st.

Reminder… 

We encourage all our churches, during difficult or stressful times in their community to remember that they have the resources of a network to draw on. Your Ecclesia staff members (Chris Backert, J.R. Briggs and Bob Hyatt) are ready and available to help you navigate whatever you are facing!

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New Church Spotlight:  Derik Heumann and Evergreen

 

Derik Heumann was part of our Fall 2017 Genesis Church Planter’s Training. Since then, Derik and his wife Kim along with another couple have been intentionally moving through a core-group phase, gathering like-minded folks, seeing people come to know Jesus, and moving towards launching a public gathering this coming Spring as Evergreen Church in Ann Arbor, MI! They are currently meeting in (and outgrowing) the Heumann’s basement, and as they connect with neighbors, friends old and new.

Some recent updates from Derik:

  • We are continuing to grow and welcome new people into the Evergreen community!  In the last month, we had 10 new people visit our Sunday gathering and experience 3 streams worship, intentional community, and Jesus as Healer.
  • We launched our second round of Discipleship Bands (groups of 3-5 who read together, pray together, and meet together to be the love of God for one another and the world). Now we have 16 of our community engaging with God and one another in deep, intentional, and accountable discipleship.
  • JESUS AS HEALER! We concluded our 7 week series by having a Healing Prayer service. 15 people came and encountered the Risen Jesus in many different ways. Our friend C.J. Hock from Asbury Seminary was our guest worship leader for the night.
  • We got to bless and send our first missionaries being scattered out into the world. Seth and Jenna have been with us since they came off their first stint with YWAM and are headed back to Norway for the next year. We sent them out in prayer and with Evergreen Church journals to record all of the ways Jesus speaks to them and moves through them around the world.
  • We began regular rhythms of singing together on the first Sunday of each month, are beginning to form the initial Discipleship Core of 12 to start working together in January, and we God is continually providing financially for us with 1-2 new donors each week.
  • People are encountering Jesus and finding belonging! Some recent stories:
    • “This is my community, these are my people.”
    • “This is what I’ve been looking for since coming to Ann Arbor.”
    • “I didn’t know this kind of Church existed! This is what Jesus has been telling me about!”
    • “Jesus said go and join Evergreen, so here I am ready to learn and grow.”
    • “I have never heard the voice of God like we did tonight, that was so cool!”

 

 

 

How you can be praying for Evergreen:

  • PRAY for 100% funding.
    • We need $69,700 to make our general 3 year budget: That’s 19 people committing to give $100 a month or 39 people committing to give $50/month for 3 years.

Does your church have money budgeted/set aside to help other church plants? Consider supporting Evergreen as they lean in with the Ecclesia Network!

    • Would you prayerfully consider the following to help us accomplish the mission Jesus has called us to?
      • A one time, end of the year tax-deductible gift of $500-$7500
      • A recurring $25-$200 a month gift to accomplish the mission Jesus has called us to?
        • CLICK HERE  for online giving or you can send checks to the mailing address at the bottom and write Evergreen Church in the memo line.

You can check out/follow Evergreen here: 

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