I love the fact that this group has started and done so well – I would NEVER have dreamed it up by myself!  This is one of the benefits of a culture that Releases Control and Chooses Accountability.

If you would like to read more, here is an earlier post about the group.

While I used it as a place to work or meet people from church, my favorite thing to do was to take one of our boys there for Daddy Time.  I’d choose from their excellent selection of teas, while hot chocolate and the largest-cake-on-display was the order of the day for the boys.  Then we’d pick one of the board games, settle into a window seat and enjoy hanging out together.

As we spent time there, it was amazing who would pop in for a drink from the local community.  It was such a great place to connect and chat and build friendships.  Naturally enough, we also built a great relationship with the staff, learning about their stories and being able to pray with them on several occasions.  The owners used to refer to us as their English Okies – often greeting us with that shout across a crowded cafe as we walked in the door!  By our last year there, they were inviting us to spend Thanksgiving with them.

After we moved to Ohio, one of the things that I especially missed was spending time in ‘our’ cafe (although by God’s kindness we have been able to build some strong relationships in our local Starbucks – ministry is tough!).

One of the issues for Missional Communities is finding places to meet besides homes.  In Summer months parks are great spots, but to be more consistent we need to identify a Third Place – an open, public setting that is neither home nor work.  This won’t be the right thing for every MC, but for some it will be an amazing way to become more embedded into a particular context.  In my homeland of England the pub often serves this purpose – a place where people can naturally and easily gather and build relationships, coming and going as they please.  In the US, we haven’t seen a direct correlation to the pub, but do see the role that coffee shops play in local culture.  Obviously there are many other options as well – the question really is, who are you called to reach and where do they naturally gather?

I think the principle of the Third Place, as it liberates our thinking and helps us think more like missionaries.  If you would like to read more, check out this excellent (and brief!) post by Brad Brisco on the topic.

John Moores wraps up his series with this post.  Follow John’s blog here, as he shares about RiverTree’s journey into missional student ministry!

Prior to moving away from Sunday morning programming for students, make sure that you have enough tangible things in place to fill the void.  After being in their own separate setting students will need some time to acclimate to adult worship services, so the more you can do to help them with this the better.  It’s not rocket science – in fact, it’s pretty obvious stuff, so you might well read this and think “duh”!  Don’t rush through the process though.  You still need to think it through, be creative, have fun and include senior leadership in planning.

Here are a few suggestions to help make the transition smoother.

Encourage students to sit together
They can do this with their families, or the students can all sit together in one area of the church.  We have a student section at our latest Sunday morning gathering.  It is front and center – the first five rows in the middle.  I would suggest this over the back rows.  Put students up front in an effort to help them engage and participate.

Have leaders present
The student section is not just students.  Many of our leaders and their families sit with students.  Again, we are seeking to share life with students and part of that is worshipping together.  The more leaders and their families that sit with students, the more momentum you will gain.

Make the student section feel special
You can do this any number of ways.  We rope the area off to save seats for students and get some donuts to hand out.  I would encourage you to really think outside of the box here.  What can you do to make students feel like a part of what is happening?

Include students in the execution of the worship gathering
In what ways can students help/ serve/ lead in the service?  We have students help take the offering and serve communion.  We also seek ways to get students up on the platform.  This could be to pray, sing or play an instrument.  In your context what could work for you?

Be present after the service
Once the service is over, hang out and talk – the longer you linger the greater the sense of community.  It’s strange how that works, but if folks are just looking to get out of the building as quickly as they can then something is missing.  This has to start with you as a leader.

Encourage leadership to talk about it
Anytime the senior pastor or worship leader points out the students, it’s a good thing.  This could be either intentionally acknowledging that “a bunch of students are down in front” and encouraging other students to join in, or it could be using real life student stories as sermon illustrations.  Anyway students can be verbally mentioned is helpful. At first this will need to be very intentional and often.

The journey away from highly programmatic weekends being the center of student ministry is a tricky one, but it is one that is well worth taking.  Do let me know how it works for you – both your successes and disasters! – so that we can grow a solid base of working examples from different churches and contexts.

People are impacted by Jesus through life-on-life transfer, as they see how following Him works out in practice.  Like Paul, we invite others to “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ”.  This means that they see me in my successes and on my good days, as well as in my weaknesses and on my bad days.

In our experience, such a way of living is deeply impactful for people at every stage of the spiritual journey.  No Christian is ever too mature, no pagan too far gone. The journey of discipleship is our secret evangelistic weapon.  It enables us to go into even the darkest of communities and shine for Jesus, as we live out what it means to follow Him.

Today a friend passed on a link to a truly inspiring story of a couple radically living like this in urban Chicago.  Here is a 3 1/2 minute video about their life, where they build a dynamic missional community in their home and surrounding neighborhood.

My colleague John Moores is sharing with us some of his wisdom on how student ministry fits into the future of church services.  John leads the student ministry at RiverTree and, along with our colleague Mike Suit, blogs here.  This is the second of his three posts on this topic.

As soon as it’s announced that Sunday morning programming for students is being phased out, people will begin lighting torches and finding pitchforks!  A mob will form with the intent to find and punish the person responsible for this decision, which is usually the student ministry director.  Sadly, in the face of such hostility and even though they know it will not help them move forward, leaders often overturn their decision and Sunday morning student programming continues.

I have often asked, “Where does this violent reaction come from? Why does making this particular change seem to hit a nerve?”.  One major mistake I made at RiverTree was not being more aware of why people feel so strongly about this prior to announcing the decision.  I wish I knew then what I know now.

Here’s why it hits such a nerve:

• It’s counter intuitive
  When students attend a worship service designed for them, they will understand more of what they are being taught and also enjoy it more.  In many ways it does not make sense to put them in a service that is for adults.  But what we often overlook is the positive impact that integration has on students.  In addition, segregating students into their own service feeds into a consumer mentality which will have negative long term effects.

• Responsibility is shifted to parents and the whole church
  When students are in adult worship services a greater burden of responsibility falls upon parents and church leadership.  Parents, feeling inadequate, become angry that they are being asked to do something they think they are ill-equipped for.  I think we are all like this.  I know that if I was suddenly given the responsibility to be my kid’s dentist I would be pretty angry, because I have no idea where to begin.  Parents often feel this way.

• It’s all about what you learned
  What’s the first question we ask our kids after church?  ”What did you learn today?”  It’s a telling question if you think about it for a moment.  It infers that what is most important at church is what we learn (information).  Of course students will learn more in a setting designed just for them and therefore having them in adult church can not be too helpful.   But what if we changed the question?  Aren’t there better questions to ask after church?  What if we started to ask our kids, “Did you honor Jesus with your heart today?”, or “Did you connect with someone today that  helped you follow Jesus?”, or “Did you worship with all of your heart, or did you hold back?”

So before you make any big announcement, I would suggest you think through the underlying felt needs of people.  Consider why they will react so strongly and be prepared to answer their heart felt needs both confidently and with compassion.

The second blunder I made was that I did not have tangible things in place to fill the void once student services stopped.  I’ll discuss how to fill that void in my next post.

I’ve asked my friend John Moores to do a couple of guest posts on the topic of how student ministry fits into the future of church services.  John leads the student ministry at RiverTree and, along with our colleague Mike Suit, blogs here.  They are really leading out well in implementing Missional Communities and building a strong discipling culture amongst teens.

As Alex has pointed out, the more we move into a missional church culture the more energy is turned towards contexts outside of our church gatherings and programs.  Which means there likely won’t be ample leaders available to support a Sunday morning student ministry program.  As folks who care deeply about students and want to see them become more like Jesus, how do we respond to this?

A few years ago we wrestled through this very issue.  It became increasingly clear that we did not have the resources to continue our weekend programming for students and also invest in a more missional model of student ministry.  It is simply too much to ask volunteer leaders to attend two programs a week and expect them to also be invested in relationships with students.  In the end, for our context, we chose to discontinue our weekend programming for high school students.

Here are four of the ideas we considered that brought us to this conclusion.

• We value relationships above anything else
  Most folks would agree that the number one thing God uses to change lives is relationships, but very few student ministries are built around this idea.  We decided to build around relationships.  We want to do everything we can to help adults who love and follow Jesus to be connected to students.  If something we do does not help us do this, we consider changing it.

• Sunday morning is not the best platform to launch relationships
  We noticed that it is difficult for leaders to utilize Sunday morning programming as a launching point for relationships with students.  Let’s face it, morning is not a good time for teenagers, plus the church setting tends to be too stiff.  Not to mention the time restrictions.  We found that an evening during the week with a freer environment and extended time is a better relational launch pad.

• Integration is better than segregation
  Given the choice of students either being in their own worship service (segregation) or included in with adults (integration), we think integration is healthier long-term.  There is a fascinating article entitled Is the Era of Age Segmentation Over? that addresses this – it’s well worth reading.

• Discipleship is the goal
  If discipleship were about how much we know, then a student worship service or traditional Sunday school would be more beneficial.  Certainly students will absorb more information in their own customized programming.  Disciples, however, are primarily defined not by information (what they know) but rather by obedience (what they do).  Therefore the very best thing for students is to be in a worship setting with other adults, so they can interact, see them worship, pray with them and seek Jesus together.

Eliminating weekend worship services for students is right up there with having a cavity filled or eating canned peas.  It was not fun and caused a bit of a stir, but it was a necessary change.  It was the right decision for us to make.  Still, we made a bunch of mistakes and learned a ton, which I’d like to share with you in the next post.

How do you communicate about GoCommunities at RiverTree weekend services?

We try all sorts of things to communicate the priority of GoCommunities!  Our view is that it takes a patchwork assortment to reach different people and personality types, so to be honest it is more a case of we throw everything at the wall and see what sticks!

Some of our ideas include:

Information Wall
We have two of these areas, at different ends of the main corridor the majority of people access at weekends.  Each GoCo has its own framed information sheet, which lists the group name, mission vision, leaders and some basic practical info.  We also include a photo of the leaders, both to humanize it and to help people connect.

Business Cards
On the information wall we also have business cards for every GoCo, which have the leaders’ names and contact details.  We encourage people to grab cards from two or three groups and simply say they’d like to come along and have a look.
(Very practically, many GoCo leaders create a dedicated email account if they don’t want to publish their private email account or phone number.)

Online
We prioritize GoCommunities on the church website.  You can read an overview of the vision for GoCos, as well as browse the equivalent of the Info Wall.  We also include a tab for people interested in starting a group, which as much as anything underscores our desire for multiplication.
We also have a GoCommunities page on Facebook, as well as encouraging individual groups to use Facebook for group communication etc.

Sign-up Table
Roughly once a month we host a table in the busiest section of the church building, as a base for recruiting and publicizing GoCos.  This works especially well when we have new groups launching.

Story Telling
We regularly include stories from GoCos during the Gatherings.  These include short videos, interviewing GoCo leaders about their vision or telling stories about what God is up to.

Sermon Illustrations
Our preachers have been trained to think through the filter of GoCos when they illustrate and apply their sermons.  This sounds simple, but can be a major shift!  However, this does add to the general ‘drip effect’ of transition, so that over time people become very used to hearing about GoCo life and thinking about discipleship through that filter.

Special Weekend Focus
I’ve posted about this before, but this is about devoting a weekend to GoCommunities, so that the sermon and invitation to response is all about trying out a community (or being affirmed in a choice that has already been made).

Welcome Brunch
Essentially, when we host a Welcome Brunch (or similar) for people new to the church, the number 1 thing we want to communicate is this – “your next step is a GoCo”.  This is because we want them to join a community and be evangelized and discipled in that context.

What other ways do you use to draw weekend attenders into a Missional Community?

It feels much harder to get people to serve at weekend services because they are so focused on their energies going into their Missional Communities.  How do we keep enough people serving at our services?

4.  What vision are you casting for weekends?
Are you casting vision for weekend services, and thus weekend serving, within the overall framework of your missional life?  The mistake many leaders on the missional journey make is to create competing priorities or value systems (ie attractional weekends vs missional midweek).  Instead, show how your weekend gatherings are part of the bigger picture of resourcing your missional movement, so that there is a coherent overarching story and vision behind all that you do.

5.  Release control to your MC leaders
Alan Hirsch coined the term communitas to describe a community on a mission, as a context for discipleship.  Talk through with your MC leaders about how they can have greater ownership of weekend services (see previous posts).  As that begins to take hold, see if some of your MCs are up for serving as a group in particular ways, in order to be a blessing to the wider church family.  The added benefit is that if you can give them room to do the task creatively and with fun, they will draw in new people and generally model how much fun communitas can be!

6.  Benefit from MC servant life
As more people learn how to contribute in MCs, it may actually become easier to recruit people to serve at weekend services, as the ethic of servanthood is experienced more widely within the church family.  If I have learned to expect to contribute week by week at my Missional Community, then I will be more open to having the same attitude at larger weekend gatherings.

7.  Communicate the need in a fun and engaging way!
A few weeks ago we focused one of our weekends on what we called ‘Plunge’, where we invited people to take the plunge and serve in the life of RiverTree.  We had tons of fun, communicated clearly about various opportunities, showed a great film of loads of people talking about how they serve and the difference it makes to others and them, etc.

Does that sound contrary to a church that is meant to be leading out in developing Missional Communities, Huddles and a disciple-making culture?!  Well, we are committed to doing the both/and, as we recognize the value of all sizes of community – public space weekend services, social space missional communities, personal space small groups.  The difference, however, is that our weekend gatherings are increasingly fueled by the life of our GoCommunities, and at the same time we are pointing weekend attenders to our GoCos for their place of belonging and investment.

The key is to show how everything fits within the bigger picture of obeying Jesus, as we restructure everything to equip us to go and make disciples who can make disciples.

Reflect:

• Do you cast an integrated vision?
• Who controls your weekend services?
• How well do you communicate the need?

It feels much harder to get people to serve at weekend services because they are so focused on their energies going into their Missional Communities.  How do we keep enough people serving at our services?

As we move more into a missional church culture, the focus, energy and passion of Jesus followers is increasingly turned towards contexts outside of our church gatherings and programs.  This can create a significant internal tension for churches.

At one level, we are delighted that people are walking more into the fulness of their God-given destiny and that the Kingdom is being incarnated more effectively into neighborhoods and networks.  We can see glimpses of how in, say, a decade’s time, our city will be greatly transformed.  But then we are dragged back into the present moment by the pressure of staffing the nursery on Sunday morning, as two team members have quit in order to be out in their Missional Community!

There is no magic ‘answer’, but here are a few encouragements for you to chew on.  I’m going to give three suggestions today, and four more in my next post.

1.  Is God asking you to stop some things?
As we put more energy into 24/7 ministry and life, something has to give.  Are there things that your church has historically offered or done at weekend services that need to stop?  (By the way, this does not mean that thing was wrong or sinful, it is simply a reflection of a shift in focus and the greater reality that, apart from Jesus, nothing lasts forever in the Kingdom.)

2.  Can some things be done more simply?
At RiverTree we have shifted the value from ‘excellence’ to ‘good enough’, in order to free up energy and resources.  Rethink how to live simply at your services.  For instance, whereas previously you might have spent another 5 hours perfecting your very cool intro video, could that time instead be spent capturing stories of lives being changed out in the wider world?

3.  Don’t bow to Christian Consumerism
In every church I’ve ever seen, there is a pressure from (some) people to limitlessly meet their demands.  However, consumerism is not a trait of the Kingdom.  In fact, it is something to be (lovingly) challenged and overturned.  Ultimately this means that if someone threatens to leave the church unless you meet all of their perceived needs then, with the greatest of compassion, we have to let them go.  Bowing to their unreasonable demands is not helping them grow as disciples, and certainly is not good for the health of the wider body.

Reflect:

• What are you going to stop?
• What can you do more simply?
• Where are you pandering to Christian consumerism?

Greg writes about the journey that the church went through from being just For people, to being With them, to (crucially) becoming One Of, and thus enabling the Holy Spirit to come and live In them, so that they can then in turn go and make disciples.  I then share about some of the practical steps that have taken place over the past 18 months in moving the church into a stronger disciple-making mindset.

Thanks to our sponsors – Exponential, Stadia Church Planting, Visioneering Design, Compassion International and our own Synergy – who together have enabled this book to be free to download.  So please do download it, post links wherever you like and generally pass it around!

One favor: If you like what you read, please could you post a quick review on the Exponential site?  It could just be a couple of sentences, but that would really help (especially over the first couple of weeks) if we had some good reviews!  Both Greg and I would be extremely grateful – thank you!