Category: megachurch

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austin stone leadership megachurch missional community

Transitioning Your Church to Missional Communities

The Austin Stone didn’t begin as a church committed to missional communities.  Through several years, we have transitioned our church from a traditional community/small group model to our current model of missional communities.  This series of posts will help you understand how we made that transition over time:

  • Transitioning Your Church to Missional Communities
  • Two Ways to Transition
  • Creating a Sense of Urgency
  • Forming a Strategic Team
  • Crafting a Vision
  • Communicating the Vision
  • Empowering Others to Act
  • Celebrating Wins
  • Building on the Change
  • Institutionalizing the Change

Much of this framework is adapted from John Kotter’s model for leading organizational change.  I pray this series will help many of you that are leading churches through a season of transition!

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Transitioning Your Church to Missional Communities

The vision of The Austin Stone has always been “to be a New Testament Church, existing for the supremacy of the name and purpose of Jesus Christ.”  Early on as a church, we were committed to the authority of the Bible and the supremacy of Christ.  Additionally, one of the things that made us unique as a church was a willingness to try new things and a strong commitment to necessary change.

At the outset of the church, preaching and worship were definitively our core competencies – it’s hard not to be when you’ve got a guy like Matt Carter filling the pulpit and Chris Tomlin leading worship!  We continue to pursue excellence in these areas as a church, but also early on began to feel a sense of dissatisfaction with simply doing church on Sundays.

Several different things over time led us to consider missional communities.  From the outset, we had a desire to be a church that led people to Jesus and changed our city, but we began to analyze our strategy and structure in light of that desire.

Asking Tough Questions

In 2006, our lead team was reading through Transformation by Bob Roberts, and the book posed the question “What if the church was the missionary?” and that’s when some light bulbs started going off.  Rather than simply operate as usual, we began to examine everything we did in light of adopting the posture of a missionary.  As we processed that question, we realized that when we aimed at community, we got neither community nor mission.  But when we aimed at mission, community almost always resulted.

Also, we started surveying church planting movements around the world and there were some very clear patterns that emerged. We realized that very few of them were characteristic of our existing communities.  

Finally, we began to see mission as central to the new testament church as we studied Acts together. In many ways the mission to make disciples was the organizing principle of every facet of that church. We just couldn’t keep doing church the way we have been doing it after we considered all these things.

A Learning Journey

Those early years were filled with many questions, several challenges, and a lot of learning along the way.  One of the things I continue to be grateful for is the leadership of Matt Carter and Kevin Peck, as they are men who embrace change and are willing to lead through it.  Convinced that we HAD to change, our church began the process of transition to missional communities late in 2006.

We made several mistakes in our transition, adopting more of a “Ready, Fire, Aim” approach, but God was faithful and our people were forgiving.  We learned how powerful stories are in shaping vision, and how necessary structure and practices are in persevering in mission.

Although the process has been long and difficult, it has brought more joy in Christ, obedience to the Spirit and God’s Word, and greater fruitfulness in disciple making in our city.  We have learned a ton about leading people through change, about leading a rapidly growing church, and about leading people into everyday rhythms of community and mission.

Take Your Time

Perhaps the single greatest lesson we have learned in the process is that it takes time for churches, communities, and individuals to change.  In fact, a transition from start to finish takes the better part of a decade!  The process is long, but in my opinion, the outcome is worth it.  We see more and more people pursuing God’s mission to glorify Himself through making disciples in a community on mission.  Austin may not look extremely different now, but in the years ahead, by the grace of God, this city will change.

What has led you to consider a transition in strategy?

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church leadership megachurch missional pastoring

The Lobby – Day 2

Today has been another encouraging and challenging day of conversation, and has left me with some good thinking to do.

Session 5: Mission and Community

We began the day today talking through the idea of mission, and how it plays out in community.

My friend Spence Shelton gave me the opportunity to share the story of The Austin Stone and the strategy we employ of missional communities.  After some processing with Mark Howell, I have a stronger appreciation for how the context of our church has dictated our strategy, and that it certainly is not perfect.  

On the flip side, it was fun to challenge people with the idea that often our forms contradict our intentions, and in many ways we need to challenge the consumerism that is widespread in our churches.  I pray that there would continue to be a spirit of humility and gracious critique between our churches!

Session 6: Measurement

I’m a data nerd, so I always enjoy conversations around measurement and effectiveness.  There was a great dialogue on the idea that “metrics motivate your thinking, stories stir the soul”.

Measurements should include both quantitative and qualitative data, and leaders need both stories and data.  Stories are encouraging, but are easily used as anecdotal justifications for something that may not really be working.  Data, without stories, is to easy to misinterpret or make say what you want it to say.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of the conversation was that everyone struggles to capture stories.  The most effective churches at capturing stories were those who incentivized them.  Apparently a little bribery goes a long way!

Session 7: Tough Issues in Group Life

This discussion was probably the most spirited that we’ve had, because it dealt with much more personal and sensitive issues for many of us.  The specific dialogue centered around sexuality in the life of the church, and how our communities and leaders respond in circumstances of sin with both grace and truth.

The church doesn’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to same sex attraction, so how do we lovingly engage people in the church and those outside the church?  This discussion cause me to reflect on Jesus, and how he practically ministered in different circumstances.  Specifically, I thought of the woman at the well, and how Jesus addressed not only her sexual sin, but pointed to the unfulfilled longings of her heart that were designed to be met by Jesus himself.

The conversation also brought to mind the woman caught in adultery, and how Jesus dealt with the accusing crowd who lacked mercy and love, but also corrected the adulterous woman by exhorting to go and sin no more.  I pray that I myself would minister like Jesus, lovingly yet firmly, and also that our churches would not be like the self-righteous Pharisees, but the gracious Savior.

It was another fun filled day!

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church megachurch missional community pastoring

The Lobby – Day 1

It’s been a great day gathering with so many thoughtful and humble leaders here in Atlanta.  Today was centered around four different discussions:

Session 1: Disciple Making

Our first discussion centered around the idea of making disciples, and Rick Howerton provoked some good healthy discussion and serious reflections on whether or not our systems were actually producing healthy disciples of Jesus.

In processing through the different viewpoints that individuals had, my primary takeaway is that we need to allow Jesus to speak for himself through the Word.  It’s easy to distill discipleship down to a set of practices or core values, but fundamentally people need to encounter the real Jesus in His authoritative Word. To be a disciple of Jesus means we must find Him in the Word!

Session 2: Small Group Strategies – Multisite

In our second discussion, we split up into different strategic challenges we are facing as we lead in groups ministry, and I was particularly helped in our discussion on groups in a multisite church.  Everyone agreed that there is no “best-practice” yet, but all of us agreed that we needed clarity and simplicity to effectively lead in a complex environment.

My key takeaway from this discussion was particularly in the area of culture – how do you not only foster common practices, but common culture in a diverse set of contexts and campuses?

Specifically, as we continue to bring new people onto our team, whether staff or volunteer, we need to not only articulate our culture, but foster experiences and pose problems that help people understand why our culture is the way it is.

Session 3: Strengths and Weaknesses in Different Models

In our third session, we discussed the various strengths and weaknesses of our systems for groups.  It was really helpful to hear where others are succeeding and struggling, and how their systems are helping and hindering their ministry.

My key takeaway in this session was understanding the different tradeoffs in groups systems in general.  They primarily come in two flavors – connection-oriented systems and development-oriented systems.  Connection types are really effective at reaching into the unconnected and the lost, but struggle to maintain groups over time and cultivate depth.

Conversely, development-oriented systems are great at creating depth and longevity, but really struggle to connect new and different kinds of people.

The reality for most of us in the groups/discipleship world is that we must continue to adapt over time, and there is no problem free model, and my friend Mark Howell conveys so well.

Session 4: Trends in Culture

In our final conversation, we spent most of our time dialoguing through some cultural trends that directly affect ministry within the local church.  Primarily, we spent time on the impact of the virtual world with respect to community, and some implications for how we engage thoughtfully and theologically to a world dominated by new means of communication.

I am cautious, and yet also somewhat eager to see how we can leverage the tools of technology to strengthen the local church, as well as engage people whom we may not have been able to without these new tools.

There’s more to come tomorrow!

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assimilation megachurch missional community pastoring

The Lobby Conference

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This week I will be spending time with many of the best and brightest small group thinkers in the country at The Lobby. I’m so thankful for our gracious hosts, North Point Community Church, and my friend Bill Willits.

What questions would you love to ask guys like Steve Gladen, Bill Donahue, and many of the fathers of the small groups movement?  Let me know, and I’ll make sure and get them asked!

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assimilation church megachurch missional

Multisite Church | Christian Standard Interview

If you have been interested in the multisite discussion as a missional church, then I’d recommend reading the article below.  Todd Wilson does a great job of highlighting the upside of multisite planting, and a holistic perspective on how it fits with church planting strategy.

Christian Standard Interview – Todd Wilson on Multisite

I think the theory of the article is spot on, but there is one key phrase in the article that a church must wrestle with:

If you take anything less than a very healthy process, whether it’s your children’s process, newcomer assimilation process, worship process—any process you have—when you copy it, if it’s unhealthy, it may become even more unhealthy than the original. On the one hand, your church might be growing rapidly beyond the current capacity of your leadership and systems. On top of that, you may be copying less than vibrant and healthy processes and systems. The result can be sideways energy that further slows you down.

The key to a successful multisite launch will be the health of your existing organization, which is a good motivation to do some deep assessment prior to launching.

Great thoughts to consider!