how to stop your home church becoming too exclusive
This idea comes from Bill Tenny-Brittian at Easum Bandy & Associates.

The Matthew Party is one of the small group’s best multiplication tools. Matthew Parties are named for the party Matthew threw for his tax-collector friends on the evening he met Jesus. Matthew held this party so his friends could meet the Lord in a safe, hospitable setting (Mark 2:14–17). The Matthew Party at a small group is meant to offer the same opportunity.

In our small group Network, we recommend that each small group host a Matthew Party approximately once a quarter. In some small groups, the Matthew Party is deemed so important to the health of the group that it supersedes the regular gathering. Other groups choose to host the party on a weekend or at some other convenient time.

The goal of a Matthew Party is to fill the meeting place (typically a home) with guests who will have the opportunity to mingle with members of the small group. By meeting new people, and discovering that these people are “normal,” the guest becomes comfortable and may choose to attend one of the regular small group gatherings to check it out.

When it comes to inviting the neighborhood, some small groups generate either formal or informal invitations to the party. Others rely on word-of-mouth alone. With the inexpensive cost of VistaPrint Postcards (I got one-hundred four-color postcards for the cost of shipping—less that $9—recently), many small groups are investing in these high-quality invitations.

There is no standard format for a Matthew Party. Some simply host a big dinner, do some group singing, and introduce the guests to the concept of their group. Others create a theme party. We attended one Matthew Party where the theme was A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The party featured a fondue fest on an expansive deck at a member’s home. Twinkle lights were strung across the deck and in the evergreen trees as if fairies were looking on. Another small group hosted a mystery by purchasing one of the mystery party game kits. Ideas for a Matthew Party are limited only by your creativity. The goal is for everyone to have a great time and to get comfortable with the participants of your group.

About the only “rule” of a Matthew Party is that there must be a hand-off to the next event. A hand-off is a flyer, invitation, postcard, brochure—something in writing that invites the guests to a regular small group gathering. Often the small group begins a new series of studies the week following a Matthew Party. For instance, the group may choose to do a six week series on marriage and the Bible, or eight weeks on Jesus’ teachings on finances, and so on. There are any number of topics and studies that could be attractive to the guests and give them an opportunity to experience the transforming power of Jesus Christ in a small group setting.

Over the years, we’ve discovered that when small groups regularly host Matthew Parties, they are less likely to become “closed” and/or exclusive. Instead, they find themselves being intentional about evangelism and small group growth.

posted by alexander @ 10:34 AM    2 comments

2 Comments:

Great idea! Thanks for a useful tip.

By  GuyMuse, at 2:00 PM  

There's some great idea's in there but the whole tone of the piece sounds like the same purpose driven croq that i thought simple/organic/house church movements was trying to get away from, most of the proponents that i've mett seemed that way, and i think it has an opposite tone to that of the most interesting missional thinking of the moment.

Why not just throw party's regularly their fun and enjoyable. Or rather be like Jesus go to their party's on their turf instead of throw them on your turf.

By  Matt, at 4:19 PM  

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such a time
Wherever I travel now across Europe I find that God is awakening a strong desire amongst believers for a different sort of church life; one in which all are empowered, where top down heirarchies no longer dictate the direction and shape of things, where lifeless programs are replaced by face to face fellowship and the life of the church simply flows through the day to day activities of its members.

If you follow my personal blog alexandercampbell.co.uk you'll know that I was in Romania recently and with a friend Steve Hill from Holland we found ourselves sharing about organic, simple, reproducible church stuff with some hungry people.

Romania has been through a political crisis recently. The President, Traian Basescu, was faced with a vote of no confidence in parliament as a result of standing up against the endemic corruption in the country. The powers behind the powers were not happy.

Steve spent several days with a group of bible school students after I had left and at the end of that time sent them out in pairs onto the streets of Cluj - a city with 11 universties and 100,000 students and not a single christian ministry reaching them with the Gospel.

On their way back to the bible school 2 of the students passed a hotel just a few doors down the street from the school. Noticing film crews and photographers outside they asked what was happening and were told that the President was meeting with his key supporters inside.

One of the students felt strongly impressed to go in and see if they could talk with the President (they had been praying for him each morning in the school). They made it into the lobby but were quickly surrounded by police and security guys and having explained their purpose were being 'politely' ushered out.

At that moment the doors on the far side of the lobby opened and out stepped the President; looking directly at the 2 students he called them across and asked them what they wanted. They explained that they were christians and would like to pray for him. He gladly asked them to do that, so one grabbed his hand the other put a hand on his shoulder and they prayed for him right there, then prophesied over him and asked him whether he knew that he was Gods man for this time in the nations history, "Yes" he replied, "I know that".

I will pour out my spirit in the last days... and your young men...

posted by alexander @ 10:31 AM    0 comments

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an unusual lady
Had the priveledge to meet with the remarkable founder of Tell Asia Ministries. LC is a 'Jackie Pullinger' type individual who gave up her comfortable western lifestyle in order to follow Gods call to reach those who have never heard about Jesus. Through her God has raised up a wholly indigenous network of house church planters which has seen over 700 churches established in the last few years.

Once again 95% of their new churches have been started as a result of a healing or deliverance. However in reviewing the health of their many churches they have discovered a need for more foundational discipling to happen and have begun a refocusing on raising up disciples primarily rather than focusing only on planting churches.

It was inspiring and encouraging hearing LCs passion for the unreached and her willingness to identify with the poor and persecuted - to become one of them. I am reminded too that our motivation to reach the lost is not born of guilt or pressure but simply as a response to the direction of the Holy Spirit; as when Paul & Barnabas were set apart and sent out from Antioch.

posted by alexander @ 11:51 AM    0 comments

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this organic world
If you're interested to read an up to date review of organic simple church stuff in the UK then check out the link over on the right there.

In the meantime how about some organic wisdom from Jimmy Wales creator of wikipedia. Whichever starting point people are coming from in the organic shift - business, technical, church etc - it is extraordinary how similar the discoveries and language are between them all.

Check this out:

1. The most important key is love he said for community to happen.

2. When around 25 to 30 people are active, it means community. They have talked, they have met, they have fought, they have made up, started talking deeper. Its community out of control!

3. Voting is when you give up on consensus. They oppose voting because it creates polarization, the minority vote is still incredibly valid, talking just needs to continue to happen to there is unity.

4. The dream is to democratize what we know and change what we know.

5. Organization comes after and just happens. Jimmy Wales is already establishing a new enterprise which is exploding, but Jimmy admits he still has not decided what structure he will use for it, or how it will happen!

6. The key is INTENTIONAL VULNERABILITY

7. People love to talk about decentralization and the power of ordinary people but seldom do we do it, they on the other hand just do it.

8. Assume good faith. When you assume the worst you need to create complex systems which makes a bad society.

9. People are always asking Jimmy for the rules of Wikipedia and how those rules are formulated and even he cant remember what the are.

This came from Philip Edwards blog, where you will also find a link to the audio version of Jimmy's talk.

posted by alexander @ 8:02 AM    2 comments

2 Comments:

I love these comparisions! It is amazing the relationship between the two concepts.

By  GuyMuse, at 1:33 PM  

Thanks for the Organic Church in the UK paper - very interesting and stirring to read what is (and isn't yet) going on. Appreciate all the hard work; some really sharp thinking on where we are in this country. Helpful stuff.

By  Nick, at 3:28 PM  

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more lessons from the muse
Am in Romania doing some simple church stuff with a friend. Check it out on my own blog here.

In the meantime Guy Muse over in Ecuador has come up with some more sage advice from lessons learnt the hard way!

Try these:

1) Work with what you've got on hand. In Jesus' miracle of the five loaves and two fish, he asked the disciples what they had on hand? Of course five loaves and two fish were not nearly enough to feed 5000, but when turned over to Jesus, He blessed those few loaves and fish so that they become a blessing for thousands. The same hold true in church planting. Start with what you have and turn it over to the Lord and watch him multiply the "little" into "much."

2) The importance of a few key details. The difference between success and failure in church planting often hinges on attention to a few key details. For us, it is vitally important that within 48 hours of someone making a decision to follow Christ that we begin the discipleship process with them. Another is baptizing new converts as soon as possible. Ongoing relationship and mutual nurturing of leaders within an accountability group of fellow believers is another biggie.

3) Materials are not the key. The most frequent question people inquire about is what materials we use. "Show us your materials." This is the least relevant thing and yet is what everyone thinks is the key to a successful church plant. Just get the right materials and voila you get a church planted. Not so. What is important is the person's perseverance through the ups and downs of planting a church. Knowing how to effectively use a few simple tools (materials) can carry them a long way and is an important part of training, but nothing takes the place of an inner drive and love for the Kingdom.

4) "Just do it." Nike's slogan is ours too. Don't wait to have all the answers before beginning. It is better to just get out there and start something, than to stand back waiting for further clarification, more training, and for conditions to be just right. The best way to learn is to get out there and "just do it." Yes, mistakes will be made, but seldom are mistakes fatal to the overall work if the heart is right. The grass is NOT greener on the other side of the road. It is no harder to plant a church where God has placed you, than it is for someone else in another "easier" location.

5) Praying the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Once you settle that He is the one who does the calling, then it becomes important to accept those he sends, regardless of initial unpromising impression these folks might make upon you. Over and over it has been the "least promising" individuals who have panned out, while the really sharp, cool, educated dudes fizzle along the way. In our network of house church leaders there isn't a single leader who stands out as a model church planter. ALL are quite common folks--like you and me!

6) Dealing with the "authority" issue of who can plant a church. Many are looking for authorization or blessing from their pastor, denomination, an ordination council, or respected leaders to give them the "green light." If there is any doubt in the mind of the novice church planter that he/she has the authority to plant a church, they will not do so. If, however, they understand that authority to do so comes directly from Jesus, they will be mightily used of the Lord. Every potential novice church planter needs to settle in their hearts and minds that Jesus is the source of their authority issues. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth [therefore] go...make disciples...baptizing...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you..." One of my roles is empowering people to do those things that Christ has already empowered them to do!

7) Having a clear idea of what it is you are out there trying to do is also key. Many of our folks see themselves as simply "evangelists" and are out trying to win a few to Christ. Once they get it into their heads that they are apostolic church planters, fully invested with authority to do ALL that such an undertaking entails--baptizing, serving Lord's Supper, counseling, teaching, praying for the sick, planting a church, etc.--they are transformed into amazing vessels for the Master's use.

8) Simplicity. This one cannot be emphasized enough. Neil Cole states it simply, "Simple is transferable, complex breaks down." He goes on to say, "Simplicity is the key to the fulfillment of the Great Commission in this generation. If the process is complex, it will break down early in the trasference to the next generation of disciples. The more complex the process, the greater the giftedness needed to keep it going. The simpler the process, the more available it is to the broader Christian populace." Almost every mistake we have made in the church planting process can be boiled down to our making things more complicated than people can actually handle. I have the tendency to think "more" is better, but "less" is always more in the long run. This certainly applies to church. The more simple church is made to be, the more likely it will take root and grow. The more complex we make it, the more likely it will fail.

It's amazing how relevant all these things are to our own context 1000's of miles away in W Europe. Thanks Guy for sharing them.

posted by alexander @ 7:28 AM    1 comments

1 Comments:

This is FABULOUS and I couldn't agree more. Great post- thanks for sharing these good tips. :o)

By  Trailady, at 12:57 AM  

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clarification about 3 murdered in Turkey
I covered the recent murder of 3 believers in Turkey and have since read some pretty aweful stories about how these murders were committed. It appears that some aspects were somewhat over-exagerated so I think it only right to point people to a recent letter from another Pastor who was amongst the first on the scene in Malatya, in which he corrects and clarifies these.

The complete letter is here.

posted by alexander @ 2:55 PM    0 comments

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closing a church plant
Such a helpful story from this Swedish church planting couple on how their church plant came to an end, c/o Steve Addison's blog.

Here is the first part:

"While in Sweden recently I had the good fortune to meet Johan Pernryd. We discovered that we shared a common experience of starting a church that we eventually had to close down. Here’s Johan and Philippa’s story. . .

How did you get involved in church planting?

We were students in Uppsala, Sweden (Johan studied to be pastor and Philippa to be psychologist). Halfway thorugh our studies we were asked by our church to lead a church plant in the city.

We had already been thinking and dreaming of church planting so after almost a year of prayer. We had prophetic words from different people. We felt sure of what God wanted and we decided to go for it.

We began to meet with a group for prayer, dreaming and talking about what a church in that area should and could be like.

In August 2001 a team of 10 adults started the work with the blessing and support of the motherchurch.

How did it go?

After a year we had about 20 involved in our housechurches, we were connecting with people and involved in different ways in the area.

We decided to start Alpha in the spring 2003 there was a lot of positive energy in the team.

But then we also faced some challenges.

Already after six months we were struggling with a conflict within the team on issues of sexual morality and leadership. When you’re not so many a conflict like that is hard to handle and it took a lot of our energy for almost a year.

We survived and the work continued but it is hard to say how much damage it did to the group and the work...

What led to closing the church plant down?

After four and a half years we made an evaluation together with the motherchurch and our denominational leader of church planting, Manfred Rusner.

Everyone in the team answered three questions:

1. How do you feel about our work, where is your heart?
The answers were overall positive. Many wrote how it helped them in their relationship with God and this was the way they wanted to do church.

2. How many do you share your faith with or have invited to our events?
We got a list with 43 persons that we thought was a really great and satisfying number.

3. How long are you going to stay?
Here we realized that half of the team were going to move when they finished studies or of other reasons.

We started to pray and discuss alternative ways to continue because we felt it was impossible to go on like before.

After three months walking like in a fog we started to se our path forward. It was a hard decision but we agreed on ending the work and to bring all our experiences in to other ways of serving the Lord."

The rest is here.

posted by alexander @ 1:07 PM    2 comments

2 Comments:

Hi Alexander

It's sometimes unsettling to think of death. But if church is truly organic then it is part of the natural process. All credit to these brothers to realise that the natural life of this church had come to an end, even if at a young age.

John

By  John Marklew, at 7:04 AM  

It's sometimes unsettling to think of death. But if church is truly organic then it is part of the natural process. wow goldAll credit to these brothers to realise that the natural life of this church had come to an end, even if at a young age.

By  Anonymous, at 6:41 AM  

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