The Ecclesia Network

a missional church network

Equipper Blog

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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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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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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

 

 

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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 to 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.

 

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Spiritual Parenting

by Aaron Graham, Lead Pastor at The District Church (Washington, D.C.)

Originally Posted on November 16, 2017.

This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from Pastor Don Coleman from East End Fellowship and Pastor Stuart Royall from 180 Degrees Church. We had a conversation about discipleship and what it means
to be a spiritual mother or father to a younger son or daughter in the faith.

Our Scripture was 2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

We were highlighting our value of being a multiplying church that develops leaders and churches in DC and beyond and how this all starts through the process of multiplying disciples.

During my freshman year at the University of Richmond almost twenty years ago I met both Stuart and Don. Don was discipling Stuart as they ministered in a under-resourced community in the East End of Richmond and then Stuart started meeting with me to disciple me weekly.

The Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 4:15 that you may have many teachers, but you do not have many fathers. Having a spiritual mother or father in your life is a rare gift and something to be cherished.

Spiritual mothering and fathering is a great goal to reach toward in discipleship, yet the reality is that most discipleship relationships occur on the counseling and mentoring level. But we must start somewhere and the reality is that spiritual fathering relationships always start off on the teacher or mentor level. But the key is that they progress toward a deeper level of trust and maturity.

Here is a helpful framework that I’ve used when it comes to thinking about discipleship in a 1:1 context. There is:

  1. Counseling – this is when you meet with someone to work through a specific challenge you are facing in your life.
  2. Mentoring – this is when you meet with someone to learn how you can grow in a specific area of your life.
  3. Spiritual Parenting – this is when a relationship moves beyond just mentoring to a life-long relationship because of trust and spiritual authority the person has been given.

One of the ways you know if you have a spiritual mother or father in your life is when that person delights in your success as a son or daughter more than their own. Spiritual fathers are willing to lay down their life for their sons.

We have many teachers in life that help us learn. We have many counselors who give us advice. We have many mentors who helps us grow to reach our goals in life. But there are few spiritual mothers and fathers.

My prayer for our churches is that God would raise up men and women of God right here to help mother and father the next generation of disciples.

The huge prayer response from Sunday gave me the sense that there is a real hunger for this.

To God by the glory!

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