An Old Model for the Post-Emerging Church part 2
Thanks to Anonymous for telling me about his or her church. It sounds really cool. I’m more than welcome to hear all the bad things about this idea. Please feel free to anonymously post. I hope Anonymous returns with a website for their church. One concern I see with that church is its size limit.
An appealing aspect to me about the “retreat format church” is its scalability. This can “feel” the same with 10 people or a thousand, which was at least the crowd size Ezra was dealing with. No matter how big the crowd, its still you, a dozen others, including a trained table facilitator and the Pastor. Hopefully, new facilitators are being trained to prevent burnout of the others and to provide for growth. I think the expectations on facilitators could be high. Would they be able to care for people at their table in the following week by prayer, calls and visitation? Can a mid-week meeting between Sr. Pastor and facilitators/elders/deacons provide sufficient interaction and encouragement and dialogue? What would be the practical limit on the size of the fellowship? Maybe this is community dependent. Here in New England, megachurches do not flourish. But I’m hoping that this model is easily reproducible and could birth daughter churches easily.
One of the secrets of Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapels, after the blessing of the Holy Spirit, is the verse by verse expository preaching. Former drug addicts can teach with the Bible’s table of contents as their lectionary. Three point sermons and concise outlines are not the hall mark of the Calvary Chapel pastor.
Another thing that appeals to me about a “seminar format church” is the safety of the practice of the gifts of the Spirit. I am a charismatic. I do speak in tongues. In a table format, people can risk their gift and get feedback from their table.
This safety in the table also allows more specific prayer for each other. I don’t know how confession would work, because of the inclusion of children at the table. I would expect confessional exhibitionism or tabloid testimonies wouldn’t be a threat. And while familiarity may also bring safety, I’d also want to encourage people to change their tablemates after a month to avoid cliques and ghettoes.
I’m already used to a weekly Communion option in my church. I think it would be good to have the elements at each table for a time of communion.
I hope to post next about its tie in with emerging po-mo people.
An appealing aspect to me about the “retreat format church” is its scalability. This can “feel” the same with 10 people or a thousand, which was at least the crowd size Ezra was dealing with. No matter how big the crowd, its still you, a dozen others, including a trained table facilitator and the Pastor. Hopefully, new facilitators are being trained to prevent burnout of the others and to provide for growth. I think the expectations on facilitators could be high. Would they be able to care for people at their table in the following week by prayer, calls and visitation? Can a mid-week meeting between Sr. Pastor and facilitators/elders/deacons provide sufficient interaction and encouragement and dialogue? What would be the practical limit on the size of the fellowship? Maybe this is community dependent. Here in New England, megachurches do not flourish. But I’m hoping that this model is easily reproducible and could birth daughter churches easily.
One of the secrets of Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapels, after the blessing of the Holy Spirit, is the verse by verse expository preaching. Former drug addicts can teach with the Bible’s table of contents as their lectionary. Three point sermons and concise outlines are not the hall mark of the Calvary Chapel pastor.
Another thing that appeals to me about a “seminar format church” is the safety of the practice of the gifts of the Spirit. I am a charismatic. I do speak in tongues. In a table format, people can risk their gift and get feedback from their table.
This safety in the table also allows more specific prayer for each other. I don’t know how confession would work, because of the inclusion of children at the table. I would expect confessional exhibitionism or tabloid testimonies wouldn’t be a threat. And while familiarity may also bring safety, I’d also want to encourage people to change their tablemates after a month to avoid cliques and ghettoes.
I’m already used to a weekly Communion option in my church. I think it would be good to have the elements at each table for a time of communion.
I hope to post next about its tie in with emerging po-mo people.
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