Proposed Changes For FBCR

Proposed Changes For FBCR

Intro: Before I announce the proposed changes, I’d like to first set the groundwork – the platform for the proposed change.

Sometime back I sought a group of brothers to meet for a “Pastor’s Round table” for intentionally “church” related discussions. This one was on discipleship. Since then I’ve been praying and seeking the face of the Lord, Who led me to develop our values, mission, and vision for FBR.

Of all the statements that we developed that I would want you to definitely know, this is the one that is the most important. It is our vision statement.

Church Vision Statement: We seeks to be a Church that…Praises God. Pursues God-centered relationships. Proclaims the hope of the gospel abroad!

This is our vision of discipleship and any strategy we can employ to carry out discipleship. It must arise from this simple and clear strategy.

So let me explain it again and explain how it relates to each of us personally and to the church.

1. We want people connecting to God.

· We want our people (church membership) connecting to God (PRAISE). In relation to their individual walks with God this means we want them to have a saving relationship with God through Christ. Also, we want them living daily lives of worship and prayer.

· In relation to the church, we want them to connect by participating in our Sunday Morning time of worship.

2. We want people Growing in Christ-likeness.

· As this relates to our individual lives it means that we’ll be intentional in training ourselves for godliness together (PURSUE). It means that we will look at our daily experiences and everyday occurrences as spiritual growth opportunities knowing the God works all things together for our growth.

In relation to the church, growing in Christ-likeness means that you’ll be involved in a Care Group (a discipleship group) that would meet Sunday morning after worship and in our homes 2-3 times a month.

3. We want people Serving in Joy.

As this relates to our role in the church, it means that we’ll use our talents and gifts to serve one another for the building up of the church (Eph. 4:12-16).

· In relation to our lives individually, this means that we will live our everyday lives (as mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, employers and employees, teachers and students etc.) as servants.

As this relates to our role in the church, it means that we’ll use our talents and gifts to serve one another in the church.

· But as this relates to our role in the church, it means that we’ll use our talents and gifts to serve in at least one ministry in the church.

3. We want people Going to Evangelize.

(We have another way of stating this – being Missional (PROCLIAM)

Missional)

In relation to our lives individually, this means that personally we will be sharing Christ – that we will be making disciples. You’re not really discipled until you are making more disciples.

· In relation to the church this means that we as a body will connect with our community, serve our community, take the gospel to our community.

In relation to the church this means that we as a body will connect with our community, serve our community, take the gospel to our community.

Now discipleship is not complete until we (the whole body) are going to evangelize. Connecting to the world is discipleship. So to sum up, we (the whole body)are desiring to, fully cooperate with the Holy Spirit, to produce fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

You remember our mission from to proclaim Christ and present everyone mature in Christ. Or we can break that down to: share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all people and assist them in becoming His fully devoted followers.

So what does a fully devoted follower of Christ look like according to our vision statement as it relates to our church.

He/she is connecting to God in our worship service (coming to Sunday AM worship service).

He/she is growing by being part of a Care Group (discipleship group) where he/she is serving the church (inside and outside the building) by using their spiritual gifts and talents in at least one area of service and possibly more.

And lastly, he/she is being missional by participating in ongoing missional ideas through the church out in the community.

Now as we start looking at this and how our church is doing in relation to our vision for making disciples (which is the Biblical strategy for making disciples) we start to see some problems.

Due to the changes made when the families were brought back together, we see that were bogging down in the area of grow (here, seeing ‘grow’ as the intake of information). And we see that we were not doing much as far as being missional.

– that is, our people (our church) is not connecting on an ongoing basis with the world.

We see that our way of making disciples places too much emphasis on the taking in of information and not enough emphasis on connecting to the community. That is, there is in our structure too much emphasis on learning and not enough on doing; too much emphasis on being in class, not enough emphasis on taking what we’re learning in the class to the world.

So what we see was that we were loading up on the grow turn (the informational part of discipleship). I mean we have which in our church is discipleship), we have

The Sunday Morning Family Bible Study (which is a one hour teaching from Scripture...

The Sunday Morning Worship preaching service (and I disciple from the pulpit), and we have...

Our Sunday Evening Worship (more from the pulpit).

Our Wednesday Bible study is more of the same.

So this one area, we have at least four areas in our structure where people are acquiring more information about how to be a disciple.

I mean, go to the Sunday Morning Worship services and you learn truths on those days; then you go home and come back later for more of the same. Leave there and come to the and Wednesday night service and you learn truths there; then you go to a men’s bible study and you learn truths there. Now, the plain truth is, there in NO WAY that any of us are processing all that information.

I feel like we were drowning in information, but really were not more discipled than we were before. In short, we were seeing that we were very much an internally focused church and that the structure that we were working from was only worsening the situation.

I’ve seen that there are multiple opportunities to acquire knowledge about how to be a follower of Christ, but that it isn’t necessarily leading us to be better disciples. Instead, I believe it’s one of the reasons why we have struggled with apathy and spiritual lethargy. We have been far too inwardly focused instead of outwardly focused as a church. So we’ve seen that we need to become more missional as a church – that we need rearrange our structure where there is a little less focus taken off the Grow (turn) as it relates to the intake of information, and more emphasis placed on helping our people get involved in the community – be missional.

So recognizing the busyness and the complexities of our culture, we need a structure that was simple and missional. We need a structure that will propel us out into the community -- that would be conducive to taking the church (us) to the them (the world).

So we want our people to focus on doing three things well,as it related to serving Christ through the local church.

We want them to connect to the worship service on Sunday Morning.

We want them to be in a Care Group for discipleship, where they are led to serve through using their spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ.

We want them to be involved in gathering with that Care Group out side the church and seek some ongoing missional projects with their fellow members in the community.

We want them to serve through using their gift in at least one ministry in the church; and we want them to be involved in an ongoing missional project with their fellow members in the community. Four simple things – worship service, Sunday school, serving in the church, involved in a missional project. Four simple things that are clear and measurable.

Three simple things – worship service, Care Group (serving one another and neighbors), to proclaim Christ when the opportunity arises. Three simple things that are clear and measurable.

In the past some of the practices in the church seemed to try to keep people busy in the church – but busyness is not the same thing as holiness. Upon examining some people’s character, whether spiritual devotion to Christ, prayer life, leading their family in the things of God, were almost non existent, and “serving” in the church only hindered the real work of the majority ministries (at home and missional-neighborhoods), were being severely neglected.

So now our focus will shift from what we can do to keep our people busy at church and will instead release them and train (disciple) them to be missional out in the world. We find that we can get too busy in the church and too disconnected from the world.

The Proposal

Move Away From Sunday Evening Services

Make Sunday morning Care Groups our primary form of Small Group Discipleship. Allow these groups to hear the Word of God from the morning (meaty) sermon to utilize specially crafted curriculum that is deeper and more challenging all geared toward “being doers of the Word and not hearers only” ().

Our hope is that each group will adopt an ongoing missional project. (As a shepherd pastor, this will mean an educational, equipping, administration, and oversight requirement on my part.)

Change the Name of Our Sunday Schools to a More Creative Name like Life Groups Allow the Life Groups to Utilize Curriculum that is Deeper and More Challenging than Currently Being Used. (Will start out the first half of next semester doing a study on Sent) Have Each Sunday School Class (Life Group) adopt an ongoing missional project. (I will be the Director of Missional Ministries which will mean an educational, equipping, administration, and oversight requirement on my part.) Loving the Community Missional Project – No catches, no promoting the church, no evangelism Witnessing to the Community Missional Project – Doing missional projects, building relationships, promoting Christ and Our Church Witnessing to the Individual Missional Project – Adopting an individual (lost or unchurched) that you can disciple.

Care Groups will meet together (in homes, parks, etc.) for worship/fellowship at least twice a month.

fellowship at least once every two months.

Perhaps come together Sunday evening quarterly for celebration, baptisms, members meetings etc.

Perhaps come together Sunday evening quarterly for celebration, baptisms, members meetings etc.

baptisms, members meetings etc.

Utilize other times on Sunday PM for other events, e.g. concerts, children’s musicals etc.

events, e.g. concerts, children’s musicals etc.

Utilize other times on Sunday PM for other events, e.g. concerts, children’s musicals etc.

Wednesday PM

Rational For The Proposal

1. Shifts some of our focus from Grow to Go; from just learning the Gospel to living the Gospel; from being an internally focused to an externally focused church.

learning the Gospel to living the Gospel; from being an

internally focused to an externally focused church.

2. Fits With Our Discipleship Strategy of: Connect (PRAISE), Grow & Serve (PURSUE), and Go (PROCLAIM).

Connect (PRAISE), Grow & Serve (PURSUE), and Go (PROCLAIM).

3. Keeps us from bogging down in our discipleship process.

4. Frees Our People Up To Be Involved In Missional Projects in the Community

Projects in the Community

5. Allows us to focus more personnel and energy on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings.

Sunday morning and Wednesday evening.

6. I am deeply convinced that a simple structure that focuses on doing a few things well is best for our church and for our culture.

focuses on doing a few things well is best for our culture

and for our culture.

7. Allows us the have a special niche among other churches in our area. We have an opportunity to distinguish ourselves.

churches in our association. We have an opportunity to

distinguish ourselves.

8. Is consistent with a cultural change. Sunday Evening services are becoming more and more irrelevant. We have to focus a lot of energy to keep them going when they naturally would die on their own.

services are becoming more and more irrelevant. We

have to focus a lot of energy to keep them going when

they naturally would die on their own.

9. Because your pastor, some plugged in people (who come 3-4 times a week and who deeply care for God’s glory, this church body and our dying culture, have prayed and believe this is the way to Go.

Church Council Have Prayed and believe this is the Way

to Go.

Possible Objections to The Proposal

1. Taking Away The Sunday Evening Service is Not Biblical, nor is it Baptist.

Biblical, nor is it Baptist.

· What makes us Baptist are not our programs or our church schedule. Rather it is our doctrine that makes us Baptist and it is the fact that we cooperate with other SBC churches to do missions that makes us Southern Baptist.

· The history of having Sunday evening services is relatively a new thing in church history. Around the time that gas lamp lighting was big, people began to come out into the dark and go to the lighted church house. The church initially did it for evangelism purposes. Our church particularly because there used to be working men who worked during the day but were able to worship at night. This has served that purpose and is no longer needed. The Bible nowhere mandates having two Sunday Services. In fact, in the early church, they only met one time on Sunday and together in homes (community) through the week.

· God nowhere in Scripture mandates a certain type of church structure – what He does mandate is that we carry out the Great Commission – and church structures will change with a changing culture to help us better fulfill the Great Commission.

· There are more Baptist churches doing this now(especially new church plants)

2. Why Can’t We Keep Sunday Evening and Still Do all the Other Things – Care Groups & Missional Ideas etc.

Other Things – Missional Projects etc.

· It would not free our people up to be more missional, thereby making the missional aspect of this change less likely to succeed.

· Fails to recognize the change in our culture and the busyness of families – especially young families with children.

· Harms our desire to have a simple structure that focuses on doing few things well that is best for our culture and for our church.

focuses on doing few things well that is best for

our culture and for our church.

· By not having Sunday Evening service, we will not be any less discipled. In fact, you could say that by having it, it will hinder our discipleship.

3. You Just Want To Kill Sunday Evening Service

· If I thought Sunday evening service would help us become better disciples; strengthen and grow our church – then I would be all for it.

· However, I believe that it is no longer serving a purpose.

· Actually it’s just a shift in focus. Instead of meeting here, we are encouraging hospitality and fellowship to happen on Sundays for lunch our dinner, thus actually furthering our biblical mandate to stir up one another to love and good works (). That energy and focus would be better utilized focusing on making our missional projects work through our Care Groups (relationships).

4. I Don’t Believe This Will Work Because Some of Our Church Members Will Not Get Involved in Dicipleship/ Missional Ideas.

Sunday School Members Will Not Get Involved in

Missional Projects.

· I realize that probably at first, that a certain group of our church members will not get involved. This is a heart in all of us to sort of naturally resist change. For many, “change” is a synonym for “compromise”. This is the devils lie that cause many church members to hold on to certain (unbliblical traditions) practices and actually and mournfully set aside the Great Commission (). These folks hurt the church by holding on to the things they should let go of and grab hold of what they should have.

our Sunday School class members will not get

involved.

· Always, when you are going to deeper levels of commitment, your participation goes down.

commitment, your participation goes down.

· But if we can get a third of our church to be involved in missional activities in the church/community and allow them to report back to the church about their experiences, then that will encourage more participation.

missional projects in the community and allow

them to report back to their classes and the church

about their experiences, then that will encourage

more participation.

· The bottom line is this puts a structure in place that forces us to be more of an externally focused church.

that forces us to be more of an externally focused

church.

5. Are You Not Afraid That This Change Will Cause People To Leave?

To Leave?

· Yes. This does concern me.

also who voted in favor of the change.

· I don’t like losing anyone, especially someone who is leaving because of a change I’m proposing.

who is leaving because of a change I’m proposing.

· But, my first responsibility is before God to follow His leadership the best I know how and put ourselves in a position as a church to do His will.

His leadership the best I know how and put

ourselves in a position as a church to do His will.

· I’m human, I want to be liked – I don’t want people to be mad at me, especially people I love, have prayed for and sought to invest in.

people to be mad at me, especially people I love.

But my primary concern is not man’s approval or even job security, but to lead the church in the direction I believe the Lord is telling me!

even job security, but to lead the church in the

direction I believe the Lord is telling me – and let

the chips fall where they may!

6. We Just Changed (brought the family together) A While Back, Why Are We Changing Again So Soon?

Again So Soon?

· First, remember what drives our strategy as a church is our Discipleship Development Process of connecting, growing, serving, and going.

church is our Discipleship Development Process

of connecting, growing, serving, and going.

· The changes we made a while back was to help us get closer to fulfilling that process. However, as we evaluate it, it still does not get us to where we want to be.

closer to fulfilling that process. However, as we

evaluated it, it still did not get us to where we

wanted to be.

· Our process will not change, but the strategies we employ to carry out that process will sometimes change to be more effective.

employ to carry out that process will sometimes

change to be more effective.

· I think last years changes were helpful in that they moved us closer to where God wanted us ultimately to be.

moved us closer to where God wanted us

ultimately to be.

Question: Do people outside of our church benefit by our church, even if they don’t attend our church.