Missional tricks
So recently as a part of Tangent, the congregation that Phil and I are both members and leaders of at Northern, we have been talking about mission. Our young adults congregations seem to have an ebb and flow pattern. We increase in size and enthusiasm and then a whole bunch of people move on to different challenges - they graduate uni and get a job somewhere else, they travel overseas, they get married and move or whatever. We figure we have Tangent/Jeebus/Haven/Nexus alumni in most states of Australia now. Seeing as we never really let our congregations get to be much over 20 people before we plant again, this ebb and flow pattern means that sooner or later we find ourselves with a small group sitting in a cafe or place and contemplating what our focus will be for the next little while.
The ebb and flow thing seems like a natural flow and very organic. The various congregations and missional teams of Northern have their own flow and I think that one of the great strengths of the way that we do things is we are comfortable with life cycles, and the change in stage of a congregation doesn’t throw everyone into a blind panic. Rather it offers a sort of renewal - the chance for the smaller core group to recast the vision and take hold of the way that they want to go forward.
At the moment, as I look around our congregation members, our profile in ebb is pretty typical - there are some that have been around for years in these congregations and seem destined never to move on but who are a little weary and disheartened by generating the energy to rebuild (again). And, as is typical, there are some that are recent arrivals who have nonetheless committed themselves strongly to our congregation and in many cases are eager to experience for the first time the sort of freedom and self determination that our model permits.
Anyway, part of the puzzle for us this time around has been to find a way that we can engage with other people in some sort of mission/connection/community based project. At one time many in our congregation had other missional or leadership projects in and outside of Northern and we only did one thing per year together as a group (an open Christmas community lunch). We still do that, but now we want to look at doing something as a group more regularly. We have discussed engaging with people in a pub, community lunches and dinners, drop in centres, film discussion nights and all manner of different things.
We are still exploring what we want to do and what it might look like. How do we create a missional project for a small number of time-poor people that connects us with people different to ourselves (or people who might benefit from being connected with)?
(serious question, cause if you post any good ideas I plan to steal them).
July 18th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Dan…I reckon the ebb and flow thing is fairly typical of churches trying something different, partly because you attract people who might be on the way out already anyway. Big issue.
Anyway…missional projects…maybe I’m just preoccupied with stuffing my face, but food is nearly always my starting point.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Oh…and things which are cheap or free…$$$ is an obstacle to participation which I try to remove.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Rather than “creating” a missional project it might be beneficial to partner with something that already exists. A couple of benefits - less work for you to set up/maintain the project (you’re just participants) and better suited to the fluctuating number of people involved in your group (i.e. the project lives on whether you’ve got 20 people involved or no one from your group is involved).
A few ideas I’m hoping to explore further down the track is joining up with a local environment rehabilitation group (i.e. tree planting to restore native habitats etc), or joining a mentoring programme with local school kids. Neither of these programmes have set Christian missional goals (though they are certainly cohesive with such goals), however it can become a missional experience for us simply by the fact we’re engaging with people outside of our usual networks and making a positive contribution to the wider community at the same time.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Bec, we find the ebb and flow is very much linked to the young adult nature of our congregations - it happened in small groups when we were in ministry at a large traditional church as well. But it is all good.
Matt, interesting thoughts - in some ways we are already talking about “partnering” with an existing project because our church effectively runs a community centre that has heaps of people from the community coming through it all week. We want the missional project to connect in with those contacts and connections rather than standing alone.
Oh, and we have discussed two aspects of this - the first is the mission to - having contact with people unlike us. Secondly is the fact that our sideways mission (in the sense of evangelism to people like us) has been more effective when people have been joining in with our missional teams than in joining with our congregational time.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
i think the challenge is developing a project with some degree of continuity but that is able to bend with the ebbs and flows of the community that are there.
we have just begun this project and while it isn’t immense, it is another string to the bow and is another way of doing mission in community
http://upstream.org.au/lendahand.html
July 19th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I really like your approach there Hamo - not duplicating etc., responding to opportunities to serve in the every day course of life…excellent.
July 19th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Good to see and hear from you Hamo. My men’s Bible Study Group did something like upstream a few months ago to a house that cares for high dependency kids. We did a backyard makeover - beautified and safetyfied the place and we had a great time doing it and the kids get the benefit. Keep it up!
September 1st, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I have no idea what this is about - I am just trying to be the last poster on the threads - leaving my mark for posterity’s sake.