Just a thought,
The Army grows when we have outposts and new ventures. When we dont have them we seem to go backwards and actually decline in numbers. What comes first the new plant or a healthy corps that produces people to start the plant??? It doesnt matter. But what does matter id that we need to plant more corps, outposts etc...
If we do this we need them to be fruitful. What works is the first question I ask. We seem to have a few lines of thought here.
1) Attractional church- where we have a big meeting and try to attract people to us, and more specifically to our meetings
2) Integrated- where we try to integrate social work stuff to the corps that is sort of attractional
3)Incarnational- Where we live in a community, work intensively with the people we live near
I dont think Attractional works in the Salvos. Why? Because we're too small, our leaders are spread too thin, and our quality can be beaten very easy.
I havent seen the integrated approach work very well. Why? Because corps are piggy backed by the social stuff and pick up on the spiritual, and the people see right through it and arent cared for or brought into the community.
Incarnational works on a small scale, but when trying to make it grow can be hard. But places like Vancouver 614 has worked if over 150 people in just 54 years in their corps last time I heard.
Incarnational is Biblical (John 1) it is hard work (you cant lie about whether you love people or not, people see straight through it) it is also multiplication based (not addition based, so not just adding 1 person every now and then, its getting new people who start new cells etc..) But it can often missed out on joining together as a large group, but a weekly prayer meeting will sort that out easy!
The question I am often faced with is how did the salvos in the early days disciple their people so fast? How can we do that today?
Anyways, I think incarnational is the way to go, I don't see any other way working, whilst I see places like 614 in Melbourne, Vancouver, and Cho's church growing fast in a cell based incarnational way! What do you think?
The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. John 1:14 (MSG)
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Church
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1 comment:
Hi James - I agree that most of what you're saying is spot on. In the majority of settings, the incarnational model is going to be our most effective weapon. The reality is most of our Corps are small and struggle in so many areas.
My gut tells me the attractional model can only be truly effective when (assuming there are fired up believers making it happen) a critical mass sufficient enough to drive it exists. Having been at a larger Corps for some time, my experience is once you have 250+ people, it changes the dynamic in so many ways. We've actually attracted people to our Corps who have got saved and we often hear how they love the worship (which I initially translate as music for unchurched newcomers) and figure if the speaker is half reasonable, then that's a bonus. That gets them in the door, but then it's relationships that matter most in the next steps. Here's where I see incarnational ministry working in tandem with the attractional model.
I also think this can work in smaller Corps and I'm certainly not suggesting the critical mass point is in the hundreds. Yet, I think we all know when it feels just plain wrong and it's hard to generate a good atmosphere for the worship and teaching in a place that holds 200 with only 30 there. Even so, I still think there is real hope in a smaller place, provided there is a core group who are fired up and clicked into a strategy that supports their vision. If the inner core is healthy and outwardly focused, it will grow. If it's not, we really need to fix it or ...
I suppose I get concerned that some people see attractional and incarnational as extreme viewpoints. I really think they can be complimentary. Again, that's only the case if there's a team who play with a strong vision and mission game plan.
Thanks for making me think, James!
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