Indigenous ministries, grassroots leadership, and financial generosity are all trends commonly part of international missions. But what do those same commitments look like when applied in traditional churches in the United States? CT Pastors asked three pastors who have led their congregations toward radical missional expressions to describe the convictions and commitments that transformed their churches.
Growing Where You're Planted
Antioch (The Church of the Y) Lebanon, Ohio Pastor David Newman
A few years ago, Antioch Church began holding services at the Countryside YMCA in Lebanon, Ohio, a northern suburb of Cincinnati. At the time, the congregation considered the location a temporary space that would suffice until they could find or build a permanent facility. But since then, Antioch has recognized the YMCA as a mission field and has made this rented space its permanent home.
In the New Testament, the church went where the people were, pastor David Newman explains, and the Y is where people are today. "I have 8,000 people a day walking the halls in the place where I minister. That's an extraordinary opportunity." Not only does the Y attract a host of nonbelievers every day, the institution's demographic is a wide cross-section of the area's population.
To reach them, Antioch meets in a gym in the YMCA facility (for a very modest fee). During the week, church members teach classes, serve on the board, coach t-ball and soccer—whatever they can to be a missional presence at the Y. Families are often attracted to the Y by some desire for personal improvement, whether it's learning a skill, getting into shape, or spending more time with the kids.
A common story at Antioch, according to Newman, is a young family coming to the Y for swim lessons and seeing signs and literature for the church. They realize they should be asking spiritual questions, and they turn to Antioch for answers.
The best part is Antioch's ability to do ministry with "little to no red tape," because the Y is a faith-based organization. "What makes the Y a great church planting platform," says Newman, "is when you walk into this building, you can point to the mission on the wall and say, 'We can help you fulfill your mission.'" Each year, every YMCA signs a national pledge affirming their mission to be "a worldwide fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of developing Christian personality and building a Christian society."
That means, as Newman points out, that "the true mission of the YMCA and the true mission of missional churches are essentially the same."
Like its biblical namesake, Antioch sees itself as a missionary congregation. "Antioch was the missional launch pad of the ancient world. Similarly, we want to be instrumental in seeing a church planted in every YMCA in the world—all 14,000 of them."
Newman also hopes to use Antioch's "Church of the Y" network to connect with other churches that currently meet in YMCA facilities.
In the meantime, the congregation is committed to the missionary life at home and remains fully immersed in its target culture.
"We aren't just a church in the Y." Newman insists, "We are the church of the Y. We are not meeting here until we become a 'real' church; we are committed to this community."
The Faith of Mustard Seeds
Trinity Lutheran Church Lynnwood, Washington Pastor Eileen Hanson
Founded in a rural area north of Seattle in 1942, Trinity Lutheran watched its neighborhood transform into a high-traffic and increasingly multi-cultural suburb. Amid this change, the church building was destroyed by arson in 1992, a tragedy that forced the congregation define itself apart from its building.
In 2006 the church entered a new era under the leadership of pastor Eileen Hanson, who moved the church away from exclusive dependence upon "pillar ministries," such as choir, Sunday school, and weekend worship, and diversified the church's ministry into smaller, organic expressions. Trinity calls this initiative the "Mustard Seed," a collection of lay-led small groups that "encourage people to see themselves as disciples—followers, learners, apprentices—of Jesus Christ, with the purpose of discipling others."
These groups carry the gospel into the community among the unchurched and the de-churched through ministries as varied as creation care, softball, drama, Bible studies, a micro-cooperative in Nicaragua, and automotive restoration.
"Mustard Seed is not so much a program as an attitude," Hanson clarifies. "It's an effort to put into practice the biblical principle of the priesthood of all believers." While her pastoral responsibilities at Trinity are fairly traditional, her relationship to Mustard Seed is slightly different. To those small groups, Hanson serves as a coordinator and mentor for Mustard Seed ministry leaders, ensuring that each of them accomplishes the discipleship requirements:
< Nurturing an upward relationship with the Triune God by engaging Scripture
< Nurturing an inward relationship with others for fellowship and support
< Nurturing an outward relationship with neighbors near and far through invitation and service
Beyond this level of oversight, each group is autonomous—free to interpret and apply these principles through their own particular interests.
"This is 'high accountability/low control' ministry. The responsibility for reaching out into the community is primarily the congregation's, not mine. My job is to make sure the leaders are equipped and supported." Because Mustard Seed groups are led by lay people, they require very little funding. Perhaps more significant is that the groups meet genuine needs in the community because the "ministry grows out of the people, and not the institution."
Trinity understands that their pastor's purpose is not to transform the entire congregation into an army of missional ministers. Rather, Hanson emphasizes that each of the Mustard Seed initiatives needs the blessing of the whole congregation to be successful. Even though some (approximately 30-35 percent) of the people who attend a Trinity missional small group never attend weekend services, nevertheless all the church's resources—including people, money, and facilities—are made available to the small groups and their leaders. That is, the church gives without expectation that the people who are reached will join the church to support its programs or sustain its budget with their tithes.
The result has been a culture of change and generosity at Trinity. This generosity has been manifested internally through Trinity's willingness to fund Mustard Seed groups, and externally as Trinity uses its resources to help other area churches launch their own Mustard Seed initiatives.
Indeed, in Hanson's mind, generosity is the central commitment of missional ministry.
"We do not think of the gospel as a scarcity, but as an abundance," she says. "God always takes the initiative with humans, so the church should take the initiative into the community on God's behalf. If we are doing that faithfully, God will provide."
Scattered Saints
Vineyard Central Cincinnati, Ohio Pastor Kevin Rains
Vineyard Central's decentralized ministry was not a strategic decision, but rather the result of what Kevin Rains calls "our Acts 8:1 moment." That verse reads: "On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria."
The church began as an inner-city plant of the large, suburban Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, and met until 1994 in a local community center. When the building became the center of a municipal legal battle unrelated to the church, the congregation was given 48 hours notice to pack all their things and leave.
After announcing this would be their last Sunday to worship in the current space, the pastor asked the congregation to stand and cluster into groups based on geography. When the groups were formed, he told them, "Welcome to your new church."
In a single week, Vineyard Central went from one central location to six home-based congregations scattered across Cincinnati. The plan was to reconvene as soon as a building became available.
But, Rains says, in their decentralized expression, the church discovered it was finally accomplishing its goals for community, discipleship, and mission. Even though it cost them nearly half of their members, they decided to remain a church distributed. "There was just so much good fruit coming from it—so much community and missions and healing—that we decided to stay in that format."
Now, after 14 years, Vineyard Central meets every Sunday morning as a conglomeration of autonomous house churches.
"We consider each of our house churches a true expression of 'church,'" Rains explains. For that reason, not everyone involved in a Vineyard Central house church attends the weekly gathering.
"The house churches perform all the functions of a church, including community, teaching, Communion, and deciding how to use the gifts and resources of the people involved. A lot of people feel they get all they need from the house church without joining the larger gathering."
Vineyard Central purchased property from the local Roman Catholic diocese that included a sanctuary, school, convent, and rectory. Rains, whose main source of income is the auto body repair shop he owns and operates, purchased the rectory from the church for the balance of the mortgage, so the church is debt free. Each house church contributes a small stipend to cover utilities and taxes and compensate the church's part-time administrator.
Rains is not a pastor in the traditional sense. He doesn't preach every Sunday, and he does not have a single congregation to oversee.
"I'm most interested in the mission side of pastoral work," he says. That commitment prompted him to move his auto body shop to within walking distance of the church so that his whole life and ministry could be located in the West Norwood community. Other church members followed suit; nearly 80 people have relocated to within a few blocks of the building. They have bought older homes and updated them. Church members have opened a café, an artist co-op, and purchased rental property—all independent of any particular church program—in an effort to incarnate the gospel in the neighborhood.
Rains puts it this way: "Our ministry isn't driven by the organization—the 501c3—but by people who connect with the church's vision and decide to put it into action."
Brandon O'Brien is assistant editor of Leadership and BuildingChurchLeaders.com.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today/CT Pastors.
