St Helens Pioneer day
Written on 4 March 2008 by Dave Betts
Hi everyone,
Last weekend we held a pioneer day in St Helens near Liverpool for those who dont know where it is. About 60 people showed up which was awesome given the topic. There was a real buzz about the day, people were really getting excited about seeing their city won for Jesus and new churches being started all over the city. Please pray for the guy who leads the church there called Phil, he has a BIG heart to see these things come about. Pray for small churches to be started amoungst the homeless and also amoungst the youth in the town. Pray also for a new coffee shop church plant starting next Sunday.
Spent some time with a new church plant in Liverpool pioneered by Davey & Maggie, they kicked off on Sunday afternoon and already had new people. Pray that they can reproduce there work into every part of the city.
Discipleship - ‘The missing ingredient’
Written on 28 February 2008 by Dave BettsDiscipleship is one of those words that you seem to see come up over and over again in most Christian articles. We have started whole movements based around it, and filled countless libraries with books on the subject. But are we any closer to actually doing it, by that I mean actually reproducing disciples?
At a conference I was at recently the over riding theme coming from the front was the desperate need to make true authentic Jesus Following disciples. It seems that even with all the knowledge about what a disciple is we still are missing some vital ingredients to making one.
I hopefully would like to shed a little light on this subject. In fact this is such a vital subject that if we dont get this right then our whole mission and purpose on this earth will not be realized.
A quick look at the great commission should help… Matt 28:19-20…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, by International Bible Society)
The question then is How do you MAKE a disciple? I guess also another good question is what is a disciple?
Our role as I am constantly repeating is NOT to fill buildings but to fill the EARTH. If filling buildings were the goal then we simply only need to make ATTENDEES. No if we actually need to reproduce to fill the earth then we need to make something all together different.
Our role is to help develop brand new baby Christians into mature interdependent spiritual adults.
Lets have a look at these 3 stages: - Dependent, Independent and interdependent
The DEPENDENT Stage
Dependent: Relying on or requiring the aid of another for support and survival. Someone who is subordinate, someone contingent on another.
This is the ‘baby’ stage. This is where the newborn Christian (especially if they have had no church background) starts off. This person requires constant feeding and nurturing. They need to be told what to read, how to read, what to listen to and how to listen. They will need regular reminding as to how they are to behave. They will be constantly seeking direction from you and looking to you for their confidence and affirmation.
The model of parenting needed for this early stage of discipleship is that of a King, hence the triangle picture above. We need to be strong and clear as to what the values are and where the lines are. We need to provide a place of security for the new disciple to grow in. Our presence in their life must be highly visible and frequent. All too many times new Christians are born, but are left to fend for themselves too soon. When we are involved in planting new churches with lots of new salvation’s it is a very busy time. Ask any parent of a newborn baby and they will tell you it is a mixture of fun and great fatigue. Midnight calls and lengthy talking sessions are normal for new Christians. The way we disciple in this stage is crucial to the future development of the new Christian. Now I don’t want to lessen the role of the Holy Spirit in all of this, as He is the great counsellor, but we have the responsibility to nurture and watch over in tandem with the Holy Spirit. Just a word of caution though: we must be careful not to take the place of the Holy Spirit, but keep pointing the new Christian to what He is saying to them.
The INDEPENDENT Stage
These are the teenage years. Ask any parent and they will roll their eyes upward and sigh. The saying, “Ask an 13-year-old, they know everything.” This is the stage that most pastors dread in growing disciples.
During this stage the growing child learns to take on responsibility and experiences some authority. They are empowered to make choices. This is where they start to question most things that are taught to them. It’s where they start to ask for themselves what things actually mean. They may even question some of the core values that have been taught them from an early age. In church circles this is a very challenging time. These people are often labeled troublemakers and rebellious. Now sometimes they are, but for most I think they are just growing up. Remember that a controlling model produces one of two types of people: Rebels or Robots.
However, if we are building people with the BIG picture in mind, this is a stage to be embraced. We need our people to start to challenge things for themselves for it is only when you have wrestled with things yourself that you truly own it. This stage is crucial for the development of strong spiritual fathers. People challenging our viewpoint should not threaten us. If we cannot bring a reasoned answer then what right do we have to hold such a view? It is not enough to build our lives on our parents’ or church leaders’ faith.
The model of leadership needed for this stage must change. I have drawn a triangle, but notice that this time it is on its side. This style of leadership must be vision casting. This is not the time to draw boundaries or teach right and wrong. This is the time to talk about values and vision; to inspire to greater things. I know, through experience, that this stage is the most difficult of all. Everything in you wants to use the submission word, but this just is not the time for that. Come let us reason together as the Word teaches; this is the time for long walks and lots of talking.
In my experience the best way forward is to give them a project to do in whatever way they wish. Allow them to make mistakes, but obviously watch over them and be careful who you let go with them. It is crucial that you give them the room to develop and learn for themselves. Most of the bigger lessons in life will be learnt at this stage. People need to have the room to try out their ideals; it is only through this that they learn to connect their ideals with reality. So many great potential ministries are killed before they start, because insecure spiritual fathers seek to confine and control rather than release. We need to learn to live with mess. A look at the NT church gives us a picture, not of perfect little churches, but often a lot of mess. God doesn’t seem to be phased by mess, but is very capable of bringing great ministries out of seeming chaos. If we are truly asking God for spiritual families then we need to be willing to live with people in both stages. We need to be able to discern what kind of leadership is required for each person. We can’t just have a ‘one size fits all’ style of leadership—to do that keeps everybody a child.
The INTERDEPENDENT Stage
This is the adulthood stage of life. This is the place where the disciple is able to feed him or herself, and not be dependent upon anyone else for their survival. They have defined their own values and calling. They have a grasp of their destiny and more importantly their abilities and limitations. They have bumped their head a few times, have had to stand down and at times stand up to various leaders. These people are highly reproductive. This was the goal that I believe Jesus had in mind for his disciples. It is the point at which he was able to commission them to go into the world and preach the gospel, make disciples…reproduce themselves. Jesus said to them, “these things and greater you will do.” His intention was not for them to always be under Him, but to be able to do greater than He did. Inter-dependence is the understanding that on my own I can’t fulfill the great commission, but in a team with others I am able to be more fruitful. This is the point at which disciples are able to embrace the true meaning of team: the covenant community we spoke of earlier; the picture of the Trinity. Later, when we talk about networking church families together, this stage will be crucial for the health and development of the growing network.
Again it is vital that we keep the BIG picture in front of us if we are going to build what God had in mind at the beginning. We need to be comfortable with leading people in different ways at different times. We need to be secure when we are challenged and we need to watch for the trap of being needed, which can be a snare that causes us to constantly keep our church in a place of dependency. The goal of a parent is to raise children to ultimately not need us. Remember that the Eph 4 ministry is that of equipping, not constantly doing. Once we have equipped we are no longer needed.
Back to the drawing board
Written on 21 February 2008 by Dave BettsRedefining success
I once was asked a question that at first seemed to have an obvious answer, but I was soon to discover that the actual answer to that question would radically shape my whole view of church and its mandate. So what was that question I hear you ask well here goes don’t say I didn’t warn you. The question was what’s the fruit of an apple tree? I know the answer that is going around your head; it’s an apple of course! Well is it? I also declared that answer confidently. The key to answering that question I guess is in the defining of the word fruit. You see the correct answer to that question as told to me was ‘another apple tree’. The success of the tree was not in the amount of apples it could produce but in the amount of apple trees that it was able to reproduce.
This question had the effect of challenging my paradigm of ‘what is success’ It led me to start to think about what I saw as success in the church that I was leading at the time. What was the measuring stick that I was using? What ‘fruit’ was I looking to produce? The mechanism for reproducing another apple tree is apples. They look great even taste great but its real purpose was to ensure that the world always had a bountiful supply of apple trees.
I was reading one day in Genesis and was quite struck by a passage that I had read many times before but this time it jumped out at me. Gen 1:28…God blessed them and made them fruitful and multiply, filling the earth and subduing it. Did you see it? There it was again, fruit and reproduction (filling the earth). I had to ask myself a question, was my measuring stick to short? Up until now my paradigm for success had been how many apples I had on the tree (names on the membership list). Could it possible be that the real measure of success was how many churches could we plant? I mean if the fruit of a disciple is another disciple then surly the fruit of a church family is another church family? You see it requires that change from produce to reproduce.
That leads me to another thought. That word family. I had called our church a family for years but to be honest it was one of those words that conjured up a warm emotion rather than a strategic word. I started to think again about that word family. Again I was drawn to Genesis. It occurred to me that the first thing God blessed was a marriage. In fact it was very plain to see the whole plan of creation was based around the concept of a family. 2 people covenanting together and the result being reproduction. By now my mind was spinning, firstly my whole paradigm for success was being challenged and now the method for attaining that goal was under the spotlight.
Then came another question, equal to the first. What is the goal of a family? Was it to see how many children you can have living in your house? I mean was a successful family really measured by the amount of children produced? If it were many of us would have to confess to failure. The real answer to that question which by now I know you have is that the goal of a family is to raise up mature inter-dependant adults who go on to start families of their own. Obvious really! So back to that phrase ‘church family’. I mean none of us would go along with ‘church business’ or ‘church corporation’. If that phrase of ‘church family’ is more than a letter head then it must demand of us a new set of questions.
Is the goal of your church to equip your ‘spiritual children’ to be ready to leave your church family and start a new one? Do we really have the goal in mind to train, equip and mature our congregation from dependants (babies) through to spiritual adults who can feed themselves, develop their own values and be able to reproduce a whole new inter-dependant family? These are tough questions. (I think the next time someone asks me a question I shall plug in my ipod and dutifully ignore them!).
Can you imagine for a moment what would happen if the goal for success was actually measured by the number of church families one could plant out. If every church in this nation planted out 1 church every 2 years, and those churches planted out 1 every 2 years this nation would again have a church on every street, in every community and in every village and town. Does this sound a little like a strategy for ‘filling the earth’? This kind of thinking messes with your head but also gets into your heart. I have to admit that for many years my goal was to fill the church not fill the earth. In order to change my paradigm of success I was going to have to change the whole way I go about church.
The biggest change I had to make was in the way I saw the people who turned up every Sunday to hear the message and worship together. I would find myself saying things like ‘if this is put right, or when this happens they might be a leader one day’. Is that how we think about our natural children? The fact is we know that they are going to be adults, the question is what kind of adults are they going to be? That changes my whole view on discipleship. If I don’t prepare them to stand on their own 2 feet, 1 of 2 things are likely to happen. Either they are going to never want to leave, (they will be 45 and still living at home expecting dinner on the table and washing done) or they are going to be out the door at the very first chance and quickly become disconnected to the family. This unfortunately can also been seen in some of our churches today.
If we are going to recapture the pioneering roots that every movement starts out with we are going to have to get back to some very basic questions. What is your measuring stick for success? Are we really looking to fill the earth or are we still counting the apples on the branch. The deeper we explore this the more challenges arise but I know that if we pursue His agenda and His mandate He will give us wisdom to over come every obstacle and see this nation and indeed the world filled
Keeping it simple
Written on 21 February 2008 by Dave BettsWell thanks for taking the time to check out my new blog site… This is still very much under construction but I hope that as it grows it will be a great source of encouragment to all those on the journey into organic church.
I have just come back from a great trip to South Africa, I had the great privalage of meeting with Floyd Mcclung who is pioneering a project called cpx in Cape Town. The idea of the project is to help people learn more about how to start a ’simple’ church and grow missional networks. I also had some great contact with people in the Hillcrest area of Durban, there is a growing network of people in the Natal area who are passionate to see a new missional organic form of church network develop. As a result of these meetings we have arranged the first ever Pioneer Academy in South Africa. It will be held in Waterfall Community Church in the Hillcrest area of Durban…it will be on the 1st and 2nd weekends of August…. more details to follow!
For more info while this blog site is being put together go to www.dave-betts.co.uk
Why I hate garden centers
Written on 12 February 2008 by admin(Apologies in advance to all those garden centre-loving readers)
I have never been keen on gardening but when the suggestion is made to go and visit a garden centre a cold shudder descends my being, I am filled with dread. I know I am not alone when it comes to this. Almost as soon as you arrive you quickly realise that there is another universe you didn’t know about, they have there own language, culture and customs. You spend hours walking up and down row after row of plants that are all grouped according their species, colour and type. Not to mention rows of garden gnomes and endless water fountains. Everything is neatly placed and organized with military precision.
You see my problem with this whole thing is this, it docent have much to do with a real garden! Gardens are in my opion an expression of life, beauty, passion and peace all living together. A place where you don’t feel it has been engineered but rather that something supernatural has taken place – Life and beauty!
It was on one of those painful visits to such a place that I started to see God’s intention for His Kingdom. You see we tend to do to church what we do to garden centers, we organize everything into boxes, neat and tidy no mess showing. Youth in one box, elderly in another, small group people in one area, river people in another, mega church people in another, pew jumping, devil shouting scary people at the back behind the sound desk!
It now makes sense to me why God didn’t give us a ‘pattern’ for church. You see if he had we would package it, make the DVD and send it out thinking we have it all wrapped up. Franchise may work for McDonalds but not for the Kingdom of God.
What’s needed to reach this world is true gardens that express the life of the Kingdom.
We need the old and the new, the large and the small, the Trans-local ministry, and the local. What we need is to honour all the expressions that God has graciously raised up. The Kingdom of God is not based around one pattern of church, its not based around a ‘way’ of doing church. Jesus didn’t come to reform Judaism or make the temple trendier, he came to introduce us to a new way of reaching the world… Christianity was to become ‘viral’. It was to constantly be changing so that is can effect the world, small enough to get under the defences of our culture, big enough to make an impact. It is supposed to constantly change its expression… The Kingdom is about LIFE, beauty, passion and peace, these are not patterns. The last thing Jesus wanted was for us to form another religion, he came to bring us life and freedom, he came to see gardens planted full of colour and diversity.
This world needs the Kingdom of God to break out. It needs to infect every area of life, schools, governments, sports clubs, business. We need fresh expression of church in every place in life.
If you are looking for a certain type of person to start a church stop now… God broke the mould when Jesus rose from the dead… No more boxes, no more patterns, people of all types, styles, colour and age deciding to make a difference.
A Garden for all
We live in a society that has totally bought into the philosophy that its all about the individual. Its all about ME. We walk around looking for the perfect garden to suit me. The garden where they play the songs I like, the garden where all my little shoots get looked after the way I like…We live in a individualistic world that interprets everything they read through the lens of ME.
People have a theology of ME, me getting to heaven, ME being blessed. Strange then that when it comes to sacrificing for others we struggle. When it comes to the Kingdom the 3 muskateers have it right… all for one and one for all! The Kingdom is not about me but about US. A great garden is not based around one persons likes but about the blending of everyone! A great family is not one made up of every getting their own way… it’s a place of diversity and unity.
We need to firstly start to see the Kingdom in terms of US and not ME, and then we need to learn what it is to lay our lives down for the sake of the Kingdom! This means getting out of the comfort boat and grabbing a spade and start digging! Or in this case we need to start PLANTING!
This year my prayer is that we will see a new bread of Christian, one who lives for the Kingdom, one who is willing to lay their life down for the sake of others, willing to pick up their cross and pioneer. Willing to say ‘God what expression of church do you want me to plant’, willing for the diversity of the Holy Spirit. We need to find that ‘viral’ form of the Kingdom again, let it get into society and bring about the change that we have been praying for.
Church planting is not about structure or wineskin or meetings or programmes, its about delivering the life of the Kingdom of God!
