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Europe Brings Insight Into Church Planting
American churches began to lose their connection with society in the late 1950’s. Prior to that society had regarded it “socially in” for one to belong to a church. But as we moved into the sixties there was something much larger occurring on the world scene, something that no one alive at that time had experienced before. We entered the transition from the over five hundred year Modern Age to the new Post-modern Age.
Unlike with the corporate world, this transition went nearly unnoticed in the church, now to our chagrin. Today the vast majority of our congregations are growing older, greyer and smaller. Over the next thirty to forty years the majority of them will likely disappear. For decades before this transition, however, attendance shrinkage was already part of the European church experience. This came about because their state church model had already grown more and more out of touch with society.
Whether churches in America or Europe can do anything to stave off the wolves depends on their ability to “get” and implement a significant reality: churches based on membership will not survive in the Post-modern Age. Both membership and denominations belong to the Modern Age and can no longer produce long range effectiveness. Effective congregations for Christ’s mission in the 21st Century will be organic systems of discipleship, similar to those seen in the 1st Century.
But a new wind is beginning to blow. In the more beleaguered churches of Europe we are now seeing a fresh insight into church planting. We see a new movement emerging that comes in a variety of expressions, congregations or networks made up of mid-sized communities, groups, identified as MSCs. A limited number have named these communities pastorates.
Retaining some similarity to what we in America call small groups, MSCs are larger than our 12+ member small-sized groups referred to in Europe as cells, and smaller than celebrations, where multiple MSCs gather together one or more Sundays per month with over 100 in worship. Not always, but most often MSCs gather weekly, and then sometimes not on the weeks they gather with other MSCs for celebration. Ideal MSC optimum size is 35 with maximum being considered 50. Having once thought 72 was maximum, today MSCs larger than 50 are encouraged to divide so as not to compromise their sense of family, belonging and purpose.
Not all, but the majority of MSCs, describe their purpose as threefold: UP which focuses on their relationship with God, IN which is their relationship with one another and OUT, their relationship with those beyond their community. Diagramed as an equilateral triangle, reality demonstrates most MSCs are stronger in one focus than the others, similar to experience with small groups.
Much depends on their vision for mission. Some more creative MSCs place the IN point on the bottom, the UP point straight above it and the OUT point off to the right, representing an arrow pointing the MSCs primary outreach direction. Most important they live the important foci of discipleship growth, spiritual gift discovery, empowerment of personal ministry, lay leadership, etc, all supported with very effective organic systems of organization.
MSCs meet in a variety of places. Some gather in church halls, some in homes that can accommodate a group of this size. Many more today are meeting at restaurants and other public or private facilities. Weather permitting some have even met at fields that accommodate sporting events. Generally MSCs are made up of persons not a great distance from one another. An important high rate of attendance contributes greatly to both the success and effectiveness of MSCs.
The European Church Planting Network (ECPN) is a concerted effort within all European state churches and countries. It draws together both expertise and experience to maximize the impact for Christ’s mission. For us ECPN becomes at the same time the best way to stay in touch with what is happening in Europe with this venue. ECPN has been the principal source of information and permission to use it for this article. Be sure to check out their concept papers.
The focus of ECPN includes all aspects of church planting within and beyond parishes. The organic aspect of MSCs has proven a very effective way to transform traditional membership model congregations into a discipleship model similar to the early church. Alpha provided some early groundwork for this in the UK. The spiritual experience within MSCs as families with belonging and purpose generates excitement and passion that motivates wanting to share it with others. Most of this effectiveness, though, is best attributed to the efforts of the Holy Spirit. Where there are human motivations to grow parishes in this manner, the desired growth often does not come to pass.
The organic reorganization of MSC parishes has occurred in a variety of styles. Parishes that already had numerous cells (small groups) encouraged every two or three cells to form a MSC. Some parishes that covered even a twenty-five mile radius asked MSCs to organize with geographic clusters of families. These and others have worked quite well, but most predictable for success are MSCs that gather around a particular vision for ministry. Whatever their application, though, where MSCs exist they have become a key component in the organic transformation of that parish.
MSCs have also been some measured part of success in church planting at the diocesan level. It has worked in the UK where bishops have demonstrated passionate support for it. Germany, while more typical church plants have come from established parishes, the diocesan level has been successful in planting what are being called youth churches, targeting the newer Post-modern generations. Similar work is just beginning in Norway.
Like our experience in the U.S., though, many parishes, and for that matter dioceses, are still resistant and suspicious of any change and waffle with whether to let the Holy Spirit lead them. As was fully evident back at the beginning of the Modern Age, the Holy Spirit and Christ’s mission are not to be held back by human self-interest.
Today there is also a growing number of MSCs that exist beyond the ministries of either parishes or dioceses. They function as MSCs, not as house churches, not as living room bible studies. And, to experience celebration, Word and Sacrament worship as we would identify it, these MSCs are seeking out each other and networking together for celebration, truly a grass roots church planting movement.
This last dimension of church planting in Europe, while it is as free-spirited as the Holy Spirit leading it, represents increased advancement for Christ’s mission. However, since it is breaking totally new ground, it brings to the forefront several keys to be noted. The first is an alert to be prepared for potential tension with both inside and outside groups challenging one another. Without full communication these efforts for church planting can become fraught with misconceptions from proselytizing to sheep stealing.
That key leads directly to the second in even wider perspective. Never underestimate the importance of good communication between what is perceived to be conventional and unconventional. A third key is not to underestimate the positive impact these new expressions can have on helping those out-of-touch to realize their need to change and reform. And a fourth key is to celebrate how all of these new expressions in church planting are empowering both lay leadership and ministry.
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