Mark Conner's Space

Pentecostalism (Pt.4)

A few final thoughts for my Pentecostal friends ...

I recommend that we continue to be unapologetic about our Pentecostal roots and its distinctive values, while clearly communicating the strengths and weaknesses we see in this movement and our response to them.

Referring to ourselves as “Pentecostal” can be helpful for those Christians who are seeking a tribe to identify us with. However, we should all take steps to clarify our uniqueness. In fact, why don't we all make efforts to seek to model what potentially could be a more balanced and biblical brand of Pentecostalism without some of the baggage this movement has accumulated over recent decades.

However, let's not get overly caught up with the label "Pentecostal" (it literally means "50" and I'm not that old yet!). It is interesting to note that most denominations are named after a single issue: Baptists (baptism), Presbyterians (eldership rule), Methodists (Wesley’s method), Salvation Army (evangelism), and Pentecostals (the baptism of the Holy Spirit). Maybe it's time we all modeled a broader and more balanced approach rather than be labeled by a single doctrine.

Finally, let's continue to seek to pattern our beliefs and practices after the teaching of Jesus and the apostles as recorded in the New Testament. May we all experience a fresh Pentecost as the Spirit empowers us once again for kingdom purpose!

P.S. For a copy of these posts on 'Pentecostalism' in WORD format, including references in footnotes, click here. Please feel free to pass this around as I hope it generates some good healthy dialogue and discussion.

Pentecostalism (Pt.3)

I also see a number of weaknesses in some of the Pentecostal movement. Obviously, these not all of these weaknesses are limited to Pentecostals nor do all Pentecostal churches necessarily exhibit them.

1. Extreme Prosperity Teaching. Many Pentecostal churches have embraced the prosperity gospel which promises riches for those who love and obey God. One of the main problems with this teaching is the ‘give to get’ mentality which is so opposite to the nature of God. He loves and he gives unconditionally - with no strings attached. If we choose to give to God or to the poor in order to gain our own personal prosperity, something is wrong with our motives.

I believe that we should live generous lives, giving to the work of God and to those in need - simply because we love God and we love people. We should not give in order to get back for ourselves. Yes, there is often a by-product of personal blessing that comes with generosity but that should not be our motive or our goal.

If you define ‘prosperity’ as ‘having your own needs (not ‘greeds’) met and enough extra to give away,’ then I believe that it is God's will for everyone. We should all work towards that. However, there are much more important things than money and possessions. The kingdom of God has a different value system. It is made up of love, peace, and joy ... and these things are found in the Holy Spirit, not in material possessions. In fact, Paul tells us that the love of money is at the root of all evil (not money itself, but the love of it). The issue isn't whether we have stuff but whether our stuff has a hold on us. Of course, poverty is not better or more spiritual than prosperity. There is nothing pretty or desirable about poverty. That's why so many people are working around the globe today to make poverty history.

2. Autocratic Leadership Style. Some Pentecostal pastors, due to the honor and the freedom given to them, can develop an authoritarian and hierarchical leadership style. Although it is without doubt that strong leadership ability is a key factor in the growth and effectiveness of many Pentecostal congregations, sometimes this can also lead to a lack of appropriate accountability. Governance structures tend to be more relational than formal, and boards and teams of elders are usually led by senior ministers who see the board or eldership as their team and as working for them. Some even have staff and family members as board members, potentially blurring the accountability lines and not providing adequate separation between proposal creation and proposal review. In addition, if Pentecostal pastors see themselves as above criticism and see people who question various matters as rebellious, then dysfunction usually develops and there is an eventual drift out of the church of hurt and disillusioned people. When authority is abused, much damage can be done.

I believe that it is essential to embrace a servant and empowering leadership style. Appropriate accountability at all levels of leadership is also very important and should influence the way leadership and governance policies and practices are shaped. There needs to be a culture of openness to feedback and constructive criticism in church communities. Also, team ministry should be taught and practiced.

3. Shallow Bible Teaching. In the early days of Pentecostalism, academic or theological training often was frowned upon. Seminaries were seen as “cemeteries” due to their lack of emphasis on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Even today, many Pentecostal pastors do not have more than a basic theological training. Unfortunately, this can lead to sermons that are high on inspiration but low on biblical content. Teaching can tend to be somewhat shallow and at times allegorical. Also, 'proof texting' is a common occurrence.

I believe that there needs to be a good balance between the Spirit and the Word. We need both the passion and energy of the Spirit and the safety and security of the Scriptures. We also should be committed to ensuring that teaching team members are well-trained in interpreting the original meaning of the Scriptures and then applying them appropriately to our contemporary context.

4. Elevation of Personal Experience. Some Pentecostal churches and preachers rely heavily on personal revelation (“God told me ...”). Personally, I believe that no personal experience or revelation is to be taken as more important or authoritative than the inspired Scriptures. All of these subjective matters need to be tested by the Word of God and considered in the light of how God has moved in and among his people throughout church history.

5. Elevation of Charisma over Character. Some Pentecostal churches are overly enamoured with charismatic personalities and spectacular spiritual gifts. I believe that all gifts are given for the purpose of serving for the benefit of the wider church and that the foundation of all ministry is to be a person’s character. Jesus said that we should test ministry by the fruit of their life not by the gifts or talents they exhibit.

6. An Unhealthy Elevation of Speaking in Tongues (or spiritual language). Some Pentecostal churches elevate speaking in tongues to such a level that those who have not experienced this gift are made to feel like second-class Christians. Other groups go to an even further extreme by saying that a person is not saved unless they speak in tongues. I believe that all Christians receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at conversion. Subsequent to this, I think that we should encourage all believers to ask for the baptism or infilling of the Spirit accompanied by a spiritual language, as I see this as an important aspect of the Christian life. However, we should not seek to pressure people nor look down on those who have not had this experience. I also believe that in church gatherings where unbelievers are present, appropriate discretion needs to be used in the public exercise of speaking in tongues (see 1 Cor.14:22-25).

7. An Instantaneous ‘Zap’ Mentality. Many Pentecostal churches place a strong emphasis on church meetings and on receiving a special touch from the Holy Spirit. I too believe in the importance of church gatherings and the special things God can do when we gather together. However, I believe that God’s presence is with us all the time and that we shouldn't buy into a separation of the sacred and secular. God is interested in all of our lives. I also believe in the change that can occur when a person encounters God in a powerful way (an ‘encounter’) but I acknowledge that even this is part of a continual process of change and growth that occurs throughout all of life.

8. End Time Hysteria. Some sections of the Pentecostal church go to extremes when it comes to end time teaching, emphasising the imminent return of Christ and getting ready for the rapture. I believe that all followers of Christ should live in such a way that they are always ready for his return but also with the wisdom and foresight that Jesus may not come back in our generation. We are to occupy, or be busy, until Jesus returns. This includes being about the work of the kingdom, which includes matters such as creation care and social justice.

9. Faith Healing. Some Pentecostal churches teach that all people should be healed and when healing does not take place it is an indication of sin or lack of faith in the life of the sick person. This heretical teaching can cause great damage in people’s lives. I believe that God does heal today and we pray for people to be healed. However, we recognise that sometimes people aren’t healed. This does not mean that a person lacks faith or has sin in their life. We live in a fallen world and we are caught between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ of the kingdom of God. Sin, sickness, and death were conquered by Christ but not yet do we see them eradicated from the world. We all await his return when the kingdom will come in its fullness and there will be no more crying, pain or death. Until then, we live in faith but we also recognise the reality of suffering in this present world, knowing that God’s grace and comfort are more than enough for us.

10. Extreme Focus on the Demonic. Some sectors of the Pentecostal church have a strong emphasis on the devil, demons, deliverance, and spiritual warfare. Without wanting to neglect an appropriate awareness of the spiritual battle that we are in, I think churches should seek to adopt a more balanced approach where the major focus is on glorifying God, living in the Spirit, doing good, and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

These observations about the strengths and weakness of Pentecostalism are generalizations. However, they do have a common occurrence within the broader Pentecostal movements of churches. I think that more and more Pentecostal church should more intentionally maximizing the strengths while seeking to avoid the weaknesses of this movement. More about this tomorrow ...

Pentecostalism (Pt.2)

I see a number of strengths in the Pentecostal faith tradition. Here are a few of the main ones. Obviously, these strengths aren't limited to Pentecostals nor do all Pentecostal churches necessarily exhibit them.

1. The Holy Spirit. The Pentecostal expression of the Christian faith presents God as someone who is not only known by faith and through the Scriptures but who wants to interact with each believer on a daily basis. Pentecostals teach that God wants a personal and intimate relationship with each believer and that this occurs through prayer (including the use of spiritual language or ‘speaking in tongues’), hearing God’s voice, and ministry to and from other believers. Ministry in Pentecostal churches focuses not on just attending a church service or on hearing a sermon but on allowing the Holy Spirit to move in a person’s life to bring about change and growth.

2. Passionate Worship. Pentecostals enjoy expressing themselves at church gatherings through joyful praise and intimate worship. Voices are raised, hands are lifted up, and there is a sense of celebration and vibrancy to singing times.

3. Evangelistic Fervour. Pentecostals believe that the Spirit has filled and empowered them to be witnesses for Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8) and to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). They are passionate about personal and corporate evangelism as well as church planting and foreign mission work. Compassion for the poor and the needy is also a growing characteristic of Pentecostal churches.

4. Prophecy. Pentecostals believe that God still speaks today – to individuals and churches. This is not at the authoritative level of Scripture but all prophecy is to be taken seriously, tested, then responded to appropriately (1 Thess.5:19-22).

5. Faith for the Miraculous. Pentecostals believe that God still does miracles today, including healing the sick and setting people free from things that hold them back from their full potential in Christ. They pray for God to intervene into human situations bringing about positive change.

6. Cultural Relevance. Most Pentecostals understand that although the message of Christianity and the gospel never changes, the methods and means of communication must change with each new generation in order to remain culturally relevant. Examples of cultural relevance include choice of musical style, focus on youth and children, a more contemporary communication style, contemporary facilities, and the use of technology.

7. Compassion for the Poor and Marginalised. Modern-day Pentecostalism began among people from the lower socio-economic strata of society, including uneducated people and marginalised races. Although, this has changed somewhat in the West, with other church movements and denominations being stronger in this area, it is encouraging to see the more recent emphasis on God’s heart for the poor and needy amongst Pentecostals.

8. Visionary Leadership. Many Pentecostal churches are led by leaders with strong sense of vision and an ability to communicate that vision to motivate people to action. They are willing to take risks to advance the cause of Christ in the world. Many Pentecostal churches are in a pioneering and expansion mode (a focus on “let’s create the future”) rather than a maintenance mode (a focus on “let’s preserve the past”). In Pentecostal churches, authority tends to be vested in specific individuals, such as the senior pastor or leadership team, rather than in formal structures or bureaucratic policies. The pastor is seen as the leader of the church rather than merely an employee. In fact, congregational trust often is placed more in the senior leader than in a specific board of directors, elders or committee.

Tomorrow ... some concerns I have about Pentecostalism.

Pentecostalism (Pt.1)

CityLife Church, formerly known as Waverley Christian Fellowship, began in 1967 under the leadership of Richard Holland. CityLife has Pentecostal roots and continues to value and practice many of the distinctive aspects of Pentecostalism.

The Pentecostals are a relatively new section of the Christian Church. For many years they have been considered to be outside mainstream Christianity; but, more recently, due to their phenomenal growth, they have begun to be noticed and heard. Here in Australia, they are the fastest growing of all the churches and their wider influence in society is increasing.

In the past century, Pentecostal Christianity evolved from a small group of believers to a worldwide movement with an estimated 588 million adherents. This incredible growth is unprecedented in the historical development of Christianity. Although the participants in this movement at the time of its inception at the turn of the twentieth century were on the margins of society, the expansion of charismatic experiences has now pervaded all parts of world Christianity. In the last 5 percent of Christian history, Pentecostals have become a major global force in Christendom, second only to the billion Roman Catholics in the world. Pentecostalism has also influenced various sectors of mainstream Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox faith and has prompted the birth of a neo-Pentecostal movement, a Charismatic Renewal movement, and a Third Wave movement, forming somewhat of a global culture and in the words of researcher, Harvey Cox, “a religion made to travel.”

Pentecostalism in Australia began in the early 1900s. Though influenced by people from overseas, it was not founded by them and has not depended on them. Over the last century, the Pentecostal churches in Australia have emerged as one of the fastest growing religious communities in Australia. In his landmark study on the Pentecostals in Australia back in 1996, Philip J. Hughes declared that nationwide the Pentecostals outnumbered almost every other religious group in actual church attendance.

There are a large number of different Pentecostal groups in Australia. The largest Pentecostal denomination is the Assemblies of God. Other significant Pentecostal denominations include the Apostolic Churches, the Christian City Churches, the Christian Outreach Centers, the Christian Revival Crusade, and a number of large independent Pentecostal “mega-churches”such as Riverview Church in Perth and CityLife in Melbourne. Numerous other smaller Pentecostal denominations and independent churches also exist.

The Pentecostal churches are very diverse and autonomous. They vary in some of their theology and philosophy of ministry. They also have no singular voice to the community. In addition, they still are not considered mainstream Christianity by some people, despite their amazing growth and size.

Tomorrow ... things I like about Pentecostalism.

Managing Transitions

Leading change is one of the most difficult and important tasks of leadership. Yet it is something God calls each of his leaders to do. God came to Moses and told him they he and Israel had been going around the same mountain long enough and that it was time to "break camp and advance" into their future (see Deut.1:6-7). God wants us to be his "change agents." So often we settle far from where God wants us to be so he comes down to shake us out of our complacency and into a fresh vision for a better future.

Leading change is not easy and we need lots of faith, courage, and wisdom to do it well - in an effective and God-honouring manner. [Click here to read an article I wrote early last year on Leading Your Church through Change, which contains an excellent model for leading change from Nehemiah]

Those who study change tell us that it is not the changes that kill us but the transitions. It was one thing for Moses to get Israel out of Egypt with God's help. It was a totally different thing to get Israel throughthe wilderness and into the Promised Land. In fact, many of them didn't make it.

The most insightful contemporary thinker and writer on this vital subject is William Bridges. His book Managing Transitions contains a wealth of wisdom for anyone leading or experiencing change. Click here for an extended summary I did of this excellent book many years ago.  

Experiencing change is like letting go of one trapeze and you still haven't taken hold of the next one. That's a scary feeling! it requires trust in God that he will not let us fall and that there is a new trapeze for us to lay hold of.

To change the metaphor, there is a new season and a new chapter after the close of this season and chapter. God is a God of movement. May he give us grace to keep in step with him. We don't know what tomorrow holds but we do know who holds tomorrow in his hands. He is the ALPHA (the beginning) and the OMEGA (the end). He has begun a good work in each one of us and he will complete it (Phil.1:6). We can sleep at night because of that assurance.

The Economic Downturn's Affect on Churches

Everyone is aware of and affected in some way by the recent economic downturn. Many analysts believe things have 'bottomed out' and we're on the way up, but only time will tell. Churches aren't immune from the stress and strain that emerges in times of pressure such as this. Tough times affect giving.

In a recent report about the state of the church in America, it was revealed that 19% of churches have recently laid off staff, with many other churches freezing salary levels or reducing ministry costs. This is due to a decrease in church giving. Many non-profit entities have also been hit hard.

Australia has been affected less than America by the current global financial situation. However, there are many churches whose income is down and who have had to lay off staff or downsize ministry activities.

At CityLife, we have been blessed by the continued generosity of our people. However, our giving is considerably lower than we anticipated for this year, though still slightly above last year's giving levels. Over the last month we conducted an entire review of all of our ministries. In addition to our lower than budgeted for income, we discovered that we had an imbalance of resource allocation (staff and budget). Some ministries were being significantly over-resourced in proportion to others who had gradually become significantly under-resourced. As a result, we decided to reduce and realign our staffing budget. This means that there are a number of staff roles that have recently been made redundant, as well as some reduction in hours for other staff, while a number of staff members have taken voluntary redundancy packages. These changes are organisational not personal, although obviously they do affect individuals who we love and appreciate very much. This has not been an easy thing to do. There is nothing worse that having to inform a faithful staff member that their job has been made redundant.

For those staff whose positions have been made redundant, we have given what we consider a generous financial package and the offer of human resources support (such as career counselling, resume creation and interviewing training). Most staff are finishing up fairly soon so as to not prolong this process unnecessarily. One of the reasons we have done this now rather than at the end of the year is to give people ample time to transition into new jobs or situations well before the Christmas and January period where it is much more difficult to look for work. 

In addition to this, we are looking at a number of other cost-saving initiatives including closing our bookshop (underway), moving our audio-visual resources online (free weekly audio messages), closing our CONNECT television program (to be replaced by a possible video podcast), and moving towards more web-based communications (we will shortly cease printing of the bi-monthly glossy coloured magazine and replace it with an interactive e-newsletter with hyperlinks to web, as well as a simple black and white bulletin each month for those without internet access).

This has been a period of uncertainty for all of us as a staff team. Pruning is an unpleasant but necessary activity at certain seasons in all of our lives. I would like to commend all of our staff for their excellent attitude during this time. It is very important that churches and ministries pull together during times like these and move forward with a strong sense of unity. This requires continued prayer and support so that transitions such as these are carefully navigated. We trust that God will work everything out for each person's ultimate good.

Women in Ministry

Thank you to everyone for their comments on my recent post regarding Women in the Church. I thought it would be worth re-posting another article I wrote on this topic back in 2007. Here it is ...

At CityLife Church, we are commited to releasing every person into ministry. We truly believe that every Christ-follower is 'saved' (not just to go to heaven!) AND 'called' (to a special purpose here on earth - see 2 Tim.1:9). We believe that all ministry should be based on 'godliness and giftedness, not gender'.

Unfortunately, many churches restrict or limit women from ministry, and especially from leadership. I believe this is because of a misunderstanding of what the Bible says about women. As with any issue, we need to go back to the beginning - to God's original intentions. Before the Fall, men and women were both created in the image of God and they were both given the dominion and the reproduction mandate. They were called as 'partners' in life and ministry (see Gen.1:26-31). Only after sin entered was there hierarchy and a loss of the partnership model between men and women (see Gen.3:16).

Jesus came to bring us back to God's original intention - partnership. Paul tells us that in Christ there is 'neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ' (Gal.3:28). He is not saying that these distinctions cease to exist (racial, socio-economic and gender differences) but that they should now no longer be a cause for prejudice or discrimination.

Jesus and Paul valued women and released them into ministry. The Holy Spirit was poured out on men and women, and both prophesied (Acts 2). Spiritual gifts are given to men and women, and both will be held accountable for their use (1 Cor.12,14).

Yes, there are a number of places in the New Testament writings that seem to limit the activity of women in the church, but these are always in dysfunctional environments (e.g. at Corinth and in Ephesus, where there was false teaching spreading amongst the women). In healthy environments, women were encouraged to minister and were also involved in significant leadership roles, including leading entire house churches.

It has been terrific to see the focus on racial reconciliation in the broader church world of late. People today would never think of withholding ministry from someone based on their race. I believe we also need to see reconciliation and release of women into the full rights and opportunities of ministry and leadership within the church. It is part of God's plan and I believe it is a key to the church being all that God has called it to be in our generation. Men, I believe it's up to us to create an environment where women feel valued, appreciated and empowered.

CityLife Church benefits greatly from the many women who faithfully contribute to our church's ministries, who speak regularly as part of our teaching team, and who lead in various ministries within the church, including our Board of Elders. CityLife women, we appreciate you!

Go girls!

Mark Conner

P.S. For a more detailed statement outlining our beliefs about women in leadership, along with some recommended reading, click here - Women in Leadership.

P.S.S. For an interesting article on the increase in women as senior pastors, click here.

.

Women and the Church

After sixty years of involvement in the Southern Baptist Church, former American President Jimmy Carter has left. Over what? Over his disagreement with their stance over the ordination of women. Read the article here. The SBC articles forbid the appointment of a woman as a pastor, as they see this as a male-only role.

The role of women in the church is such an important issue. It's sad to see some people ignoring the issue while others continuing with man-made traditions and spurious interpretations of the Scriptures.

As world renown biblical scholar N.T. Wright profoundly says, the best place to start when considering the role of the women in the church is John 20 and Romans 16. In John 20 we see women as the first witnesses of the resurrection and as being personally commissioned by Jesus to go tell others that he is risen. In Romans 16, Paul thanks and commends many women who were active in the church, both in leading house churches and even one who was an apostle - Junia (vs.7).

Other texts that seem to silence women need to be taken in their local context, which is always a dysfunctional environment and not to be seen as the 'norm'.

God's original design was for men and women to partner together in life and ministry. Jesus and Paul seek to get us back to that intention. Let's do the same in our generation.

P.S. For further thoughts on women in leadership and our approach at CityLife Church, click here.

P.S.S. For those who want to do some more scholarly work, this issue, like all issues, should take us back to our understanding of God as Trinity. Our God has revealed himself as one God existing in three persons. The Trinity is the model for all human relationships, including marriage. Is their equality in the Trinity or is their subordination? In the incarnation, the Son humbled himself and became man but does this equate to the eternal subordination of the Son? Kevin Giles has written an influential book on this topic called The Trinity and Subordinationism: The Doctrine of God and the Contemporary Gender Debate. Click here for reviews of this book and ongoing discussion.

The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small is the New Big for Today's Church

Imagine you take two elephants. For our purposes, they are a male and a female. You put them in your garage (hopefully, it's big enough!). You give them plenty to eat and drink and you shut the door on them. Three years later, you come back and open the door. What comes out?

Three elephants, that's right! Mum and Dad elephant and one baby!

Now instead of two elephants, let's pretend you put two rabbits in the garage. At the end of three years, when you open the door, you had better run for your life, because millions of rabbits will explode out of that door.

The point? Something that is large and complex is hard to reproduce. Something that is small and simple multiplies easily. Elephants take a long time to reach maturity and have long gestation period. It takes time to produce a single elephant. Rabbits, on the other hand, are extremely fertile all the time. They reach maturity in four to six months, and their gestation period is a mere thirty days. Hence the expression "breed like rabbits."

So begins a new book The Rabbit and the Elephant by Tony and Felicity Dale and George Barna on why small is the new big for today's church.

God's original mandate to us was to "be fruitful and multiply (Gen.1:26)." Reproduction is God's will for all of us. Disciples need to reproduce more disciples, leaders need to reproduce more leaders, ministries need to reproduce more ministries, and churches need to reproduce more churches. No doubt, smaller (more simple and less complex) things reproduce far easier. That's why large mega-churches sometimes don't grow (proportionally) as fast as smaller churches. That's why small groups are an essential part of any church, and especially as a church gets larger, because they enable unlimited reproduction. The first church at Jerusalem was a large church with over 3000 people from the first day but they multiplied rapidly through a network of smaller groups meeting in homes throughout the city (see Acts 2). Maybe God is wanting to so something similar in our generation ... in every town and city across the face of the earth.  

Let's go forth and multiply ...

Growing Churches

Every year, Outreach Magazine publishes a list of the 100 largest churches in America along with the 100 fastest growing churches. The 2008 research about the top 100 largest churches can be seen here or purchased here. The list of fastest growing churches can be viewed here.

Missiologist Ed Stetzer makes some insightful observations about this research in his article Behind the Numbers, including what growing churches have in common and why they have grown so rapidly.

Here are a few excerpts:

1. Behind the numbers are stories of changed lives, renewed churches, and transformed communities.

2. If current trends continue, the number of medium-sized churches will continue to decrease and the bulk of churches will tend to be large or small.

3. New sites, as well as new buildings and regional population increases - even new leadership - served as growth catalysts. 

4. Many churches are exploring the virtual world by making use of online technology for things such as internet campuses.

5. Multi-site continues to be one of the best-known strategies for church growth and expansion.

6. Interest in multi-generational churches for all ages is growing. So also is a focus on the 20-somethings, many of whom embrace megahurches who are intentional about reaching them.

7. Other common aspects of growing churches include: an outward focus, a climate of creativity, leader teams, clear vision, and the danger of leadership burnout.

Ed concludes by saying, "Regardless of your church's size or shape, Christ calls each f us to seek out fresh ways to contextualize the Gospel for a dying world. I pray that we never lose sight of that call or the people waiting to meet their Savior in or through our churches." Amen to that!

P.S. You can view a Power Point presentation of Ed's insights here.

Leadership Network Survey Results

Leadership Network is an excellent ministry established by Bob Buford. It's mission is to: identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact. They provide a wealth of resources for churches and leaders through their web site, publications, blogs and e-newsletters.

Recently Leadership Network conducted an extensive survey seeking to gain insights into the ministry roles of Senior Pastors of larger churches and of Executive Ministers.

Click here to read the Senior Pastor report and here for the Executive Minister report.

Any questions, feel free to post them in the Comments section.

'How the Mighty Fall' by Jim Collins (Book Review)

Jim Collins is the best-selling author of Built to Last and Good to Great. Collins is a student of companies and organisations - great ones, good ones, weak ones, and failed ones. His latest book (which I picked up recently in an airport bookshop in the USA), based on extensive research, is How the Mighty Fall. In it he proposes that, "Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you."

In his research, which took more than four years, Collins sought to discover whether decline can be detected early and avoided. Decline is a bit like a disease. You can look healthy yet really be sick. His conclusion is that by understanding the stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.

Here are the five stages of decline:

1. Hubris Born of Success (arrogance and pride)

2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More (over-reaching for more and more)

3. Denial of Risk and Peril (ignoring the warning signs)

4. Grasping for Salvation (grasping for quick fixes)

5. Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death (atrophy settles in)

Every organisation, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline. There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. According to Collins, anyone can fall and most eventually do.

In its essence, the church is 'people' and is better represented by a living system (or organism) than an organisation. However, these organisational lessons about how the mighty fall apply directly to local churches and Christian ministries, as well as to individuals, especially leaders.

Collin's latest book was an interesting read, especially after having just read the Old Testament book of Daniel where we see great and powerful rulers getting caught up in pride, then falling dramatically. Nebuchadnezzar is a classic example (Daniel 4). He was warned ahead of time but ignored the warning and was humbled greatly. This is a good lesson for all of us.

Here are some wise sayings from God's Word:

"Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall." [Proverbs 16:18. NLT]

"If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall." [1 Corinthians 10:12-13. NLT]

 "All of you, serve each other in humility, for 'God opposes the proud but favors the humble.' So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor." [1 Peter 5:5-6. NLT]

Unique Church Buildings

We know that the church that Jesus is building is not a physical building or a work of human architecture. Church buildings are really just 'sheep sheds' where God's people hang out from time to time. They can be anything from a home to a pub to a cathedral. The real church is people - God's new community.

However, it's interesting to have a look at the different types of buildings that are used for church around the world.

Check out this link for a list of the 10 most unique church buildings ....

I like the Rock Church!

re-Imagining Church (Pt.5)

The church that Jesus is building is a community of Christ-followers empowered by the Spirit to ...

4. Participate in God's Mission in the World.

God was not comfortable to continue for eternity with the amazing loving community he has always experienced. He decided to spread this community by creating human beings. When human relationships broke down and community fell apart, God did not remain aloof. He came and lived among us, taking on human form. He left the comforts of heaven to come into the brokenness of earth to make a way for people to be restored to God and to each other. God is a missionary God! He loves and has a passion for those who are outside his love.

Jesus came for outsiders, those far from God and his love. As Jesus called his disciples to be with him (community) and to become like him (discipleship), he empowered them with the Spirit, not just so they could feel good, but so that they would have the boldness and the wisdom to reach out to people ... locally right nearby them, as well as eventually in all nations of the earth and all sectors of society.

The church is NOT a closed group. Right now God is reaching out to this world. Mission begins and ends with him and his heart for people. When we engage in mission, we simply participate in what God is already doing in our world.

The church is extremely important to God. He loves the church and it is central to what he is doing in the world today. In fact, the local church is the hope of the world because it has been entrusted with the gospel, which is the only thing that can change a human heart – both now and for eternity. Jesus’ intention is that the church be united (John 17:20-21), glorious (Ephesians 5:25-27), and victorious (Matthew 16:17-19). We are not there but God always finished what the starts!

This leaves us with some important questions:

• Am I part of Christ’s community?
• Am I following Christ?
• Am I empowered by the Spirit?
• Am I participating in God’s mission in the world?

P.S. For more details about this message series, including a summry of each message and discussion questions, check out the CityLife Church web site resource section.

re-Imagining Church (Pt.4)

The church that Jesus is building is a community of Christ-followers ...

3. Empowered by the Spirit.

One of the most important keys to Jesus’ life and ministry was the fact that his entire ministry by being empowered by the Spirit (Mark 1:10; Luke 4:1, 14, 18-21). This infilling of the Spirit is to extend to his followers too. Jesus clearly declared that the power of the Spirit was an indispensable requirement for their lives (Luke 24:49. Acts 1:4-5). The fullness of the Spirit is to affect our character (the fruit of the Spirit) and it provides us with an anointing or enablement for life and ministry. Prayer is a key link to receiving and releasing the Spirit’s power in our lives (Acts 1:14; 4:31).

The Holy Spirit is a person, not just a force, power or influence. We are to be “born again” by the Spirit (John 3:1-21). We are then to live daily “in the Spirit”, being regularly filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit, as well as demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Finally, we are to be empowered by the Spirit both to overcome the enemy and be witnesses to the life that is in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit lives INSIDE every follower of Christ (Romans 8:9. 2 Timothy 1:14. 1 Corinthians 6:9). He is our Counsellor - the Comforter, Helper or Friend (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). You can’t live the Christian life by yourself. You and I need the help of the Holy Spirit.

Paul further defines the ministry of the Holy Spirit, our friend and helper (see 2 Timothy 1:7). He comes to break the power of fear in our life, to give us power and ability to do the will of God, to fill our hearts with love for God and others, and to give us wisdom for life.

The Holy Spirit is a person who lives within us. We are to have fellowship with Him on a daily basis (2 Corinthians 13:14). Fellowship involves sharing, association, mutual participation and friendship. We are to live in the presence, company, help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are to call on him in our time of need and seek to live by his power each day. When we think we can do it by ourselves, He lets us. When we come to a point when we recognise that we need His help, He then comes to our assistance. We need help to live the Christian life and thankfully we have a Helper – the Holy Spirit. Paul said, “I can do all things (that’s confidence) through Christ who strengthens me (that’s dependence) – who makes me equal to every task (Philippians 4:13)!”

re-Imagining Church (Pt.3)

The church that Jesus is building is ... a community of

2. Of Christ-Followers.

When Jesus called his first disciples, it was not just about community. He was calling them to leave what they were doing and to follow him, and eventually to become like him. His goal was to change them from the inside out. This involved a full surrender of their lives to his leadership. Throughout his time with them, Jesus was re-shaping their values, their priorities, their way of interacting with people and the world around them. He then told them to go and do the same – to ‘make disciples’, or to call people to follow Jesus and pattern their life after him.

 

As the church began, thousands of people joined the disciples not just to be part of their community but to begin living their lives as Jesus would in the world. This new community devoted themselves to a number of things, including the apostles teaching, which was everything that Jesus had commanded them (Matthew 28:18-20).

Becoming a Christian places you in a new family but it also puts your life under new leadership – under King Jesus. We enter and become a citizen of a new kingdom. The goal of every true disciple is to be like their Master so the goal of every Christian is to be like Jesus. Our very calling and destiny is to be conformed to the image or likeness of Christ.

re-Imagining Church (Pt.2)

The church that Jesus is building is ...

 

1. A Community.

God, in his very nature, is a community of three persons united as one, existing in loving relationship. When God created human beings he created them to also do life in community. When Jesus came to earth he lived out this value of community and priority of love. He did not do life in isolation. He was born into a family and he grew up in a family. When he began his ministry the first thing he did was choose twelve disciples to be with him. They ate together, walked together, talked together, travelled together, and ministered together during that entire time. He established a community and he infused it with his kind of love so that it would be a continuation and a reflection of the community he had always experienced with the Father and the Spirit before coming to earth.

 

When the church was birthed, this same kind of community continued (see Acts 2:42-47). Placing your faith in Christ was not just about beginning a new relationship with God but it was also about becoming part of a new community – a new family of brothers and sisters in Christ. In the first century, there was no such thing as being a Christian without being part of a community of other Christ-followers. Church is NOT a building that you visit from time to time OR even an event or meeting that you go to. It is a family or a community that God wants you to be a vital part of.

 

How does 'community' happen practically today? I think that there are a variety of ways, including building friendships, participating on a ministry serving team, or being part of a small group. A sense of community doesn't just happen. It can be awkward at times. It takes time and effort. 

re-Imagining Church (Pt.1)

Over 2000 years ago, Jesus boldly declared that he would build his ‘church’ (Matthew 16:17-19). The church was his idea and there is nothing else that he said he would build. It is his master project and all of his energies are focused on completing it. It is part of his eternal purposes (Ephesians 3:10-11). But what is the ‘church’ and what did Jesus really have in mind? There are many different opinions about what the church is meant to be.

Today when people use the word ‘church’ they are most often referring to a place of Christian worship or to the institutional aspect of the Christian community. We say things like, “Let’s go to church” or “Look at that nice old church” OR newspaper articles might refer to “The Anglican Church” or “The Catholic Church”, in which they are talking more about an organization than anything else. As a result, most people today think that a church is a building on the corner with a cross or a steeple, or an institution that you belong to. These meanings have strayed a long way from Jesus had in mind.

When Jesus chose the Greek word ecclesia (which we translate into the English word ‘church’) to describe what he was going to build, he was taking a pre-existing term and investing it with new meaning. It literally means “the gathering of called-out ones”. It was used to refer to a gathering of people who would meet regularly to discuss and deliberate over a variety of social and even political dilemmas facing a community. Today this would be similar to a meeting in a local town hall of a group of community leaders and members. It was a gathering of people, brought together by their common vision for the harmony and well-being of the wider community. Jesus is saying that he is going to build his own community, yet it will be a community of people who have a mission and a purpose to carry out in the wider world.

Let’s re-imagine the church by going right back to the beginning – to our origins. The book of Acts tells the story of the beginning and expansion of the church of Jesus Christ. As we read it, we start to get a clearer picture of exactly what Jesus had in mind. I see the church as ...

 

A community of Christ-followers empowered by the Spirit to participate in God’s mission in the world.

 

This describes what the church is and what it exists for.

 

If you were take a tour around the world today and visit a variety of churches, you would experience amazing diversity - quiet and loud, informal and formal, traditional and contemporary, small and large in size, and meeting in all kinds of different buildings (traditional, homes, cafes, auditoriums, stadiums, even pubs).

So what is the right expression of church and are ALL of these, or ANY of these, what Jesus really had in mind? Of course, no church is perfect today, just as there wer no perfect churches in the first century (churches in the first century faced many challenges including false doctrine, immorality, disunity, and false teachers). However, I believe that if any of these so-called churches today are “a community of Christ-followers who are being empowered by the Spirit to participate in God’s mission in the world” then they truly are an expression of the church of Jesus Christ, as imperfect as it may be.

Let's celebrate the diversity! After all, it takes all sorts of different churches to reach all sorts of different people. The form that the church takes will be different in different cultures and contexts but these ingredients are the essential ones.

We'll unpack this definition further over the next few days …

Re-Imagining Church

This coming weekend we begin a new series of messages at our church on the topic of Re-Imagining Church. I'm really looking forward to it.

Over 2000 years ago, Jesus said that he would build his church and the very gates of hell would not stop it (Matthew 16:16-18). I wonder if the church today represents what Jesus had in mind? Or is there something more?

We'll be reading through the book of Acts throughout February to help us on our journey. Going back to the beginning - our origins - is important because it is easy to drift or forget who we really are.

May the church in our time truly become the unstoppable force that Jesus intended it to be!

A Leader's Survey

One of the challenges I face as the Senior Minister of a large church (over 8000 people) is the inability to know and relate with every person who is part of our church, including our leaders (over a 1000 of them). The only way to accomplish this is through a team of leaders. Without them our church would not be what it is today.

One way for me to get a bit of pulse on how all of our leaders are going, in addition to spontaneous impromptu conversations from time to time, is through the use of a survey.

That’s why we are currently conducting an anonymous online survey of all of our church leaders. It is aimed at giving me a pulse of what our leaders are thinking and feeling at the moment – about the church, about their ministry, and about life in general.

We did this survey quite a few years ago and found it very helpful. It gave us some good insight as a leadership team into how we can serve our leaders better, as well as in helping to lead our church forward.

The seven questions we are asking are open-ended questions. Here they are, for your interest ...

How Friendly is Your Church?

You may have heard the story about a man who, in an attempt to find out what other churches were really like, visited 18 different churches on consecutive Sundays.

He always sat near the front of each building. After the service he would walk slowly to the rear then return to the front and back to the rear again using a different isle.

He was neatly dressed, smiled pleasantly at other worshippers and he would make it a point to initiate a conversation with at least one other person. He would also remain for coffee if it were served.

He used the following scale to rate his reception:

• 10 points for a smile from a worshipper.
• 10 points for a greeting from a worshipper.
• 100 points if a worshipper exchanged names.
• 200 points if he was invited to another service.
• 1000 if he was introduced to another person.
• 2000 points if he was invited to meet the pastor (maybe a bit over-rated!?).

On this scale 11 of the 18 churches earned less than 100 points.  5 churches received less than 20 points. 

His conclusion was this: the doctrine may be Biblical, the singing inspirational, the sermon uplifting, but when visitors find that nobody cares if they are there they are unlikely to return.

The Church That I See

As a child growing up in Melbourne, our family went to church three times every Sunday – morning, afternoon and evening. When I was 10 years old, went overseas with my parents. In the space of eighteen months, I attended over 700 church meetings, as my dad ministered in churches and conferences up and down the West Coast of America. I’ve been an active part of a church all of my life. It’s brought great benefit to my own life, I’ve made some great friends, and I have many positive memories and experiences along the way. I love the church and I've dedicated my life to helping it become all that God desires.

What about you? Maybe you’ve been apart of a church most of your life just like me or maybe you’re new to this thing called ‘church’. Maybe you’ve had some positive experiences like me or maybe you’ve had some negative ones. Although most Aussies would consider themselves ‘Christian’ (about 70% indicated this on a recent national census), the vast majority don’t attend church. In fact, only 10% of Australians attend church on any given weekend while about 20% go once a month.

What does God think about all this? Well, the church was his idea. In fact, it was the only thing that Jesus said he would build (Matt.16:18-19). His vision for his church is for it to be united (John 17:20-23), glorious (Eph. 5:25-27) and victorious (Matt.16:18). It doesn’t take a lot of insight to realise that we’re not there yet but once God starts something, he always finishes it. The church exists to: (1) love and worship God, (2) love one another, and (3) reach out to the world around us with Christ’s love. As Bill Hybels says, “The local church is the hope of the world.” Why? Because it has been entrusted with the gospel which is the only thing that has power to change a human life – both now and for eternity.

What Kind of Church Do You See?

One day, God woke up the prophet Zechariah and said, “What do you see?” When you just wake up, you don’t see too much. Burt God was showing him something important. When you think about the church – your church - what do you see? A few years ago, we crafted a We Have a Dream statement which tries to paint a picture of the kind of church we see God building here at CityLife. I shared it with our congregation last week as part of our annual Vision Weekend. Here it is …

Church Multiplication

In June of this year, I took my final course for my Doctor of Ministry degree at Fuller Theological Seminary. It was on Birthing and Multiplying Reproducing Churches with Dr. Robert E. Logan (one of the founders of CoachNet). Next year I begin work on my Final Project. I hope to graduate in June 2009.

The course with Dr. Logan was excellent and it really inspired me further with a vision for church multiplication. God's original mandate to Adam and Eve was to 'be fruitful and multiply' (Gen.1:26). Often we think that success is only about fruitfulness. But from God's perspective, that is only half of the equation. He also wants us to multiply.

• Success for a disciple of Jesus is not just being a good disciple. It is making another disciple.
• Success for a leader is not just being a fruitful leader but raising up another leader.
• Success for a small group is not just being a big small group. It is starting a new group.
• Success for church is not just being a big church. It is starting a new church.
• Success for any gifted person is not just being good and faithful with that they can do. It is training and releasing others into ministry who have the same gifting.

God wants us to have a multiplication mentality. Anything that is healthy will be growing and then it will reproduce itself. That's the very DNA of life as God designed it.

CityLife Church has intentionally moved into a multiplication phase over the last few years. We have added new weekend church meetings (two on Saturday evening, as well as two on Sunday morning), new congregations for specific ethnic groups (Chinese, Oromo, and Spanish), new sites or campuses (Hobson's Bay, Casey, and Manningham - launching in March 2008), and new international congregations (two in Asia and one on the way in Africa in 2008). This has required a lot of hard work but it has created some incredible momentum. It has also provided many opportunities for more people to use their spiritual gifts to serve others and to reach people for Christ.

May I encourage you - BE FRUITFUL ... AND MULTIPLY!

Influential American Churches

America continues to have a large influence on the rest of the world in many areas, including church life and ministry.

There are many excellent churches in America. Below is a list of ten key churches to keep an eye on, as God seems to be at work through them in our generation (these ten were selected because of the breadth of their influence - regionally, nationally, and internationally, as well as across demoninations):

1. Lakewood Church led by Joel Osteen (Houston) - the largest church in American history
2. Willow Creek Community Church led by Bill Hybels (Chicago) - Bill Hybels continues to be one of the most influential Christian leaders in the church today
3. North Point Community Church led by Andy Stanley (Atlanta) - a contemporary Baptist church
4. Saddleback Community Church led by Rick Warren (Los Angeles) - a well known Baptist church
5. Mosaic led by Erwin McManus (Los Angeles) - Erwin McManus is a leading contemporary communicator
6. LifeChurch.tv led by Craig Groschel (in multiple states via video) - Craig's church is pioneering a number of things, including multi-site, internet church, free online resources, etc.
7. The Potter's House led by Bishop TD Jakes (Dallas) - a predominantly Afro-American Pentecostal church
8. Mars Hill where Rob Bell is the teaching pastor (Grand Rapids) - Rob is a leading contemporary communicator
9. Community Christian Church led by Dave Ferguson (Chicago) - a leading multi-site church
10. The Christian Cultural Center led by Dr. A.R. Bernard (New York) - a predominantly Afro-American Pentecostal church

I'm currently reading the recently released book 11 Innovations in the Local Church written by Elmer Towns, Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird. It shows how today's leaders can learn, discern, and move into the future.

God has called us to 'create', not 'copy'. However, it's great that we can learn from one another and continue to see God work through all kinds of different churches to reach all kinds of different people.

P.S. For a list of America's largest 100 churches as of 2007 click here. Click here for a list of the 50 most influential American Christians, according to the January 2007 issue of The Church Report.

Catalyst - a Leadership Resource

Catalyst is an excellent resource for those wanting to keep in touch with some of the trends and developments in church, leadership and ministry in the USA. The Catalyst catch phrase is - 'a leadership filter for what's next in the church'.

This ministry initially began out of a partnership between leaders from North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia (led by Andy Stanley) and John Maxwell and his INJOY ministries.

Catalyst now includes an annual conference each October reaching over 10,000 leaders, an informative free pod cast (which I listen to each month), and other cutting edge on-line resources.

You can check out Catalyst at www.catalystspace.com

Committed to continual learning ...

Mark Conner

1 Timothy 4:13-16. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift you have, given to you and confirmed by prophetic words when the elders laid hands on you. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that everyone will see your progress. Be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this, because by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. [Net Bible]

A Balanced Perspective of Church

So you're a pastor. What are you supposed to do with this thing called "church"? Is it a family to simply enjoy and have fun with? Is it an army to try to take the world with? Or is it a business? Gaining a proper perspective on church can be quite a challenge but it is essential.

Read the following Scripture slowly … "But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs" (Phil 2:25).

Paul describes his team member, Epaphroditus, by three words, each portraying three different aspects of their ministry relationship that we need to keep in balance as we lead our churches (an idea  I first heard from Bill Hybels).

Let's unpack this a bit further ...

Church Governance

In many ways, churches tend to rise and fall based on the quality of their leaders. Strong godly leadership is important, as is good governance, clear decision-making processes, and appropriate accountability.

When it comes to the subjects of leadership and governance, the New Testament presents a fairly fluid and emerging model for local churches. That's why there are so many different views on what church leadership should look like today. [For a detailed look at the subject of leadership as portrayed in the New Testament, click here to download a paper I wrote on this topic as part of my Master's Degree at Ridley College back in 2001 - A New Testament Pattern for Church Leadership]

Last year, we completed a governance review of CityLife Church and its ministries. As churches grow they need to occasionally review their structures and processes to ensure that they are conducive to creating a healthy environment. As a result of our review, we made the following decisions:

1. To simply our Constitution. [Our Constitution now contains just our Statement of Purposes, our Statement of Faith, and our Core Values. It then outlines the required Rules for: Membership, General Meetings, Governance, and Administration. Now that these things are clearly established, they will most likely not need to be changed again]
2. To establish a single Board of Elders as the primary governance group of the church. [Prior to this time we had two governance groups - Elders and Board members]
3. To create an internal Policy Governance Manual that further outlines the specific role of the Senior Minister and the Board of Elders, and how they relate to each other. [It is important to know what decisions a Senior Minister can make by themselves and what decisions require the involvement of the Elders. This document is a working document and will by updated as necessary. Our goal was to create an environment with a high degree of empowerment for the Senior Minister but also with an accompanying high degree of accountability]
4. To require that no more than 1/3 of the members of the Board of Elders be employed by the church or its ministries. [This is in order for there to be proper accountability and genuine ‘independent review’, which requires separation of the creation of ideas from the review or approval of those ideas. Both the Staff and the Eldership leadership roles are crucial in the life of the church but there must be adequate differentiation between them. As a large church, our desire is to be ‘staff-led’ and ‘Elder-protected’ - a phrase I first heard from Bill Hybels]
5. To have an Elder other than the Senior Minister Chair the Board of Elders. [This enables the Senior Minister to report and be accountable to the Elders. It also enables the Senior Minister not have to perform a neutral facilitation role that may be best filled by a different person]
6. To consider an appropriate 'length of term’ for members of the Board of Elders so as to balance continuity and connection with the past while providing opportunity for new members to bring fresh ideas and perspective to a particular group. [Prior to this time, Elders remained in this role indefinitely or until they resigned or were disqualified]

These changes were implemented at the beginning of this year, at which time we also formed a new Board of Elders' team. So far these changes have served us very well.

The Emerging Church

The emerging church is a recent organic movement among postmodern believers seeking to practice the way of Jesus within contemporary culture.

Eddie Gibbs' and Ryan Bolger's book Emerging Churches endeavors to provide a pulse on this diverse grassroots movement. They define emerging churches by nine practices. In their opinion, emerging churches: (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, (3) live highly communal lives, (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities [p.45]. These are all good things. In fact, as a mega-church pastor, I'd say we're endeavoring to do most of these things within our own church community, although most people would not refer to us as an emerging church.

Most emerging churches are forming outside the confines of traditional denominations and not without controversy. One influential church leader in the USA recently told me that, in his opinion, most emerging churches were filled with disillusioned Christians. I also have a friend who pastors a large church in Australia who lost a number of young adults to a nearby emerging church a few years back. Recently some have returned indicating that they are now not sure what they were emerging to.

Needless to say, any true Christ-follower longs to experience a more genuine expression of Christian community, spirituality and mission in our generation. When a follower of Christ is not experiencing these things within their local church they may seek to find it elsewhere, even through different expressions of church life.

Personally, I'm for all expressions of authentic church life. After all, we need all different types of churches to reach all different types of people. As long as churches are loving God, loving each other, and reaching out to people far from God, we shouldn't be overly fussed whether a church is large or small, evangelical or charismatic, traditional or contemporary, urban or rural, or ... emerging! We need to value diversity!

What concerns me is when one type of church, or expression of church life, criticises or belittles another. Together we are the 'body of Christ' and every part is valuable and necessary. Let's seek to have a greater respect and appreciation for each other, as well as for different expressions of church. The truth is that from time to time, ALL of us need to rethink the way we 'do church' and how we are to best follow Christ in our culture.

Here are some other resources on the emerging church:

• An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches by Ray S. Anderson.
• The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball, Rick Warren and Brian McClaren.
• A popular emerging church web site.
• Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church - a critique of the emerging church by D.A. Carson.
• Listening to the Beliefs of Emergent Churches - perspectives from five pastors.
• An Emergent Manifesto of Hope by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones.
• The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch. Alan would not limit himself to the 'emerging church' label. However, in this book he challenges the contemporary church to reconsider the apostolic ethos of the first century church.

The Multi-Site Church

Up until this time, the two primary ways for a local church to fulfill the Great Commission has been church growth and church planting. Church growth has focused on growing a congregation in one location, often through the use of multiple services. Church Planting has focused on starting new churches in different locations with the intention of reaching new people for Christ. Both church growth and church planting have had a relative measure of success over recent decades. A new emerging model is the multi-site church, which is somewhat of a blend of the two.

A multi-site church is simply ‘one church in multiple locations’. All sites share the same leadership team, budget, staff and administration. In most cases, the name of the church indicates both the overall church name and the particular site location (e.g. Hope Church North and Hope Church South). Each location develops its own set of volunteers for ministry areas but there is one leadership team and one teaching team that oversee and are involved in all sites.

There are now over 1500 churches around the world using this model. Some of the benefits of this new strategy include: the ability to reach a larger number of people through having a presence in different parts of the city, the ability for a church to maximise existing ministry strengths, the elimination of the need to build bigger and bigger buildings all the time, the opportunity to provide small church intimacy with large church resources, the harnessing of existing credibility and reputation for new congregations, and the mobilisation of many new people into ministry.

CityLife Church is in the process of becoming a multi-site church. Currently we have eight church services each weekend (six in English, one in Mandarin, and one in Spanish) at campuses across the city of Melbourne - in the suburbs of Knox, Hobson's Bay, and Casey, with more on the way. We are excited about this new approach and believe that it has great potential for reaching more people for Christ.

There are also a number of challenges with this approach: the need for intensive leadership development, the need for a much greater degree of teamwork, the importance of alignment, as well as the fact that existing churches in an area can feel intimidated by a larger church starting a new site up.

Unfortunately, there is a common mindset that exists amongst some church leaders that says, 'We've already got enough churches in this area - why start another one!'  Personally, I think it is essential to keep looking at how many people aren’t in church rather than those who are. Here in Australia, only 10% of people attend church on any given weekend with about 20% attending once a month. That means that around 80% of our communities are still 'unchurched'. I think you’d agree with me that the reality is we need all existing churches in every community to reach more people and we need new churches to join the task at hand.

The motivation for a multi-site strategy should be evangelism, not just creating a more convenient location for people who live further away from the church. However, staring a new site with a solid core of existing members is a tremendous strength and a site nearer to their home can help assist them in seeking to win their friends and neighbors for Christ.

For further research on this new trend, I recommend the following resources:

• The Multi-Site Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations - this book published by Leadership Network is the best comprehensive overview of this new model of ministry. The book includes a list of many of the leading multi-site churches and their contact details. This related web site is also excellent.
• Leadership Network has a wealth of multi-site research papers available on their web site.
• Dave Ferguson and NewThing also offer some excellent resources and training events. Also check out Dave's excellent new book The BIG Idea: Focus the Message, Multiply the Impact, which an essential teaching concept for multi-site churches.
• Multi-Site Churches: Guidance for the Movement's Next Generation by Scott McConnell is the latest addition (2009) to the literature. Well worth a read, especially for those going to more than 2-3 sites.

Mega-Churches

A 'mega-church' is defined as a church with over 2000 people attending each weekend. The number of mega-churches around the world has continued to escalate exponentially despite a variety of criticisms.

Foundationally, we need to acknowledge that the church in Jerusalemin the first century was a mega-church with 3,000 people joining the 120 disciples on the very first day (Acts 2:41). Fairly soon there were 5,000 men in this church (Acts 4:4), meaning that if you included women and children, this church was most likely over 10,000 people in number. That’s a mega-church!

Amazingly, despite it’s size, this first century church had a high quality of community and discipleship, due to their regular gathering in homes in addition to their large gatherings (see Acts 2:42-47). We don’t have a lot of information about the ‘programs’ of the early church, but they did have both large and small gatherings of believers, a model followed by Old Testament Israel, as well as by Jesus himself.

We have adopted this approach within CityLife Church. We have a church community of over 7,000 people now. Thankfully, 60% of these people meet regularly in small groups throughout the city – for care, discipleship, ministry and outreach – and many others are involved in serving teams. This enables us to be ‘large enough to make a difference’ and ‘small enough to care’.

Ultimately, the mark of maturity for any church is not its size (bigger is not necessarily better), the architecture of it’s building (the first century church owned no buildings) or even its spiritual giftings (the church at Corinth was very gifted but still immature). THE mark of a mature church is the evidence of genuine LOVE - amongst its members and towards outsiders. This is what Jesus declared would be our greatest testimony to the watching world (John 13:35) and it was what Paul was always looking for in the churches he oversaw (1 Thess.1:2-3. 2 Thess.1:3. Col.1:3-8). As our churches becoming communities where authentic love abounds, God will be pleased and people will be reached. After all, the best church growth flows out of church health.

For more information about mega-churches, here are some helpful resources that you might want to check out:

• Megachurches Today - A report from Leadership Network exposing many of the myths about mega-churches (2005).
• The Hartford Institute of Religion Research keeps a current database of American megachurches.
• The Very Large Church – this book by church growth consultant Lyle Schaller explains the unique characteristics of the very large church (advantages and disadvantages), along with arguments for the need of more large churches (2000).
• Beyond Megachurch Myths: What we can Learn from America's Largest Churches - this is a new book published by Leadership Network that I have ordered but have yet to read but one that has a fresh look at the mega-church phenomenon (2007).
• The Rise of Lakewood Church and Joel Osteen – this book written by Richard Young gives an insightful inside look at the largest mega-church in the history of America (2007).
• Prepare Your Church for the Future – this book by Carl George outlines the uniqueness and dynamics of different size churches (1991).

Australian Churches

I am often asked to recommend a church for someone moving to another major city in Australia. This is not a complete list but here are a few key churches that I always encourage people to check out:

ADELAIDE

Edge Church - Pastor Danny Guglielmucci

Paradise Community Church - Pastor Ashley Evans

BRISBANE

Brisbane City Church - Pastor Waynce Alcorn

CitiPointe Church - Pastor Mark Ramsey

Garden City Church - Pastor Bruce Hills

PERTH

Christian City Church Hepburn Heights - Pastor John Finkelde

Riverview Church - Pastor Phil Baker

Swan City Church - Pastor Dale Hewitt

Victory Life Centre - Pastor Margaret Court

SYDNEY

Christian City Church Oxford Falls - Pastor Phil Pringle

Hillsong Church - Pastor Brian Houston