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Ministry Focus Paper Approval Sheet
This ministry focus paper entitled
REDISCOVERING COMMUNITY, DISCIPLESIP, AND MISSION THROUGH SMALL GROUPS AT THE BRONTE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
Written by
GERARDO OUDRI
and submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Ministry
has been accepted by the Faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary
upon the recommendation of the undersigned readers:
______Richard Peace
______Kurt Fredrickson
Date Received: October 1, 2014
REDISCOVERING COMMUNITY, DISCIPLESHIP, AND MISSION THROUGH SMALL GROUPS AT THE BRONTE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
A MINISTRY FOCUS PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY
BY
GERARDO OUDRI APRIL 2014
ABSTRACT
Rediscovering Community, Discipleship, and Mission through Small Groups at the Bronte Seventh-day Adventist Church Gerardo Oudri Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2014
The goal of this study was to help the members of the Bronte Seventh-day Adventist Church intentionally experience, better understand, and systematically engage in community, discipleship, and mission, so that they could live out their calling as the Church of Jesus Christ. The strategy involved developing a small group ministry using these three core ecclesiological elements as its main focus and structure. This study proposes a Trinitarian ecclesiology that defines the Church as the people who have responded to the calling of God, “in” Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to belong (community), to be-come (discipleship), and to bless (mission). At the heart of a Trinitarian ecclesiological identity is the Church’s mission to make disciples, which happens in and through community. In addition, from the beginning of the world and through history, God has used covenantal small groups as the fundamental communal experience to accomplish his purposes for humanity. A two-phased small group strategy was developed as follows: first, a six-week pilot program was implemented through a forty-days-of-prayer initiative with a small group component; second, this was followed by the first eight-week cycle of a new small group ministry for the church. The project consisted of six stages: a study of resources and vision casting; leadership recruitment and training for the pilot project; implementation of the pilot project; a five-part sermon series; leadership training on small groups; and implementation of the first small group cycle. At the conclusion of the project, a survey was conducted to evaluate its impact. Overall, this project made a significant positive impact in the life of participants and the church at large, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitatively, growth was seen in membership, giving patterns, and involvement in ministry. Qualitatively, growth was evident through new relationships, deeper fellowship, and more fervour and interest in discipleship practices.
Theological Mentor: Kurt Fredrickson, PhD
Words: 299
To my wife, Paola: best friend, spiritual partner, and supporter. You are heaven’s greatest gift. Our journey towards intimacy is indeed my greatest blessing.
To my daughters, Sofia and Fiorella: through you I understand God’s love better. With your mom, you are my truest small group.
To my parents, Alfonso and Nilda: thank you for raising me in God’s ways. Your unconditional love and unceasing prayers have sustained me through this project.
To my sister, Adriana: your care and love throughout my life has been a priceless gift.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to many people who have shaped my spiritual life and ministry leading to this project. To the Bronte Church leaders and members for their love, support, and commitment to Christ: I am a better pastor and a better person because of you. To the leaders of the Ontario Conference for their support: it is an honour to serve Christ alongside with you. To all my theology professors: you have moulded my thinking and spirituality in many important ways. To the churches I have had the privilege of serving: I would happily do it all over again. To my home church in Nueva Helvecia, Uruguay: I carry you with me wherever my pilgrimage takes me.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv
INTRODUCTION 1
PART ONE: MINISTRY CONTEXT
Chapter 1. THE TOWN OF OAKVILLE, ONTARIO 8
Chapter 2. A SNAPSHOT OF THE BRONTE CHURCH 29
PART TWO: THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
Chapter 3. LITERATURE REVIEW 56
Chapter 4. THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH 82
Chapter 5. THEOLOGY OF SMALL GROUPS 113
PART THREE: MINISTRY STRATEGY
Chapter 6: STRATEGY GOALS AND PLANS 140
Chapter 7: IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION PROCESS 158
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 174
APPENDICES 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY 185
v INTRODUCTION
Identity is of paramount importance in more than one aspect of life, but particularly in regards to spiritual health and maturity. In Matthew 16 Jesus asked his disciples an identity question; he asked them what people thought about him, perusing the community’s opinion regarding his identity. The answers varied: “Some say John the
Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (v. 14).1 He did not dwell much on these answers, but transitioned quickly into what seems to have been the real focus of his enquiry that day: “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). As Peter proclaimed Jesus’ most complete and accurate identity, “the Christ, the Son of the living
God,” Jesus pronounced Peter as blessed because of such a heavenly revelation (v. 16).
The more one studies the Bible, the more one realizes how important it is to understand and get to know God’s identity in its fullness. In the Old Testament, the prophet Hosea speaks to this point when he conveys God’s message in these words: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me” (Hosea 4:6). A logical follow-up question to this solemn divine admonition would be: “What was the specific knowledge that they were lacking that led them to such a predicament?” The prophet provides an answer to this question when he further presents this appeal to God’s people: “Come, and let us return to the Lord . . . let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord” (Hosea 6:1, 3).
Simply put, a lack of knowledge of God leads to destruction, while the knowledge of God leads to salvation.
1 All biblical passages are taken from the English Standard Version of the Bible, unless otherwise noted. 1 In the New Testament, the apostle John echoes this thought by stating that eternal life depends on knowing God and Jesus, on clearly and fully understanding and experiencing God’s identity. He writes, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Indeed, when it comes to biblical spirituality, the question of Christ’s identity is of vital importance.
Understanding the identity of Christ’s body, his Church, is of no less importance.
One can only wonder what the responses would be if Jesus approached a group of his twenty-first century disciples today and asked them a question like, “What do people say the church is?” Studies like the one recently done by the Barna Group have revealed that, in general in North America, the people’s perception of the Church is not as favourable as it once was. The response is loud and clear: some say the Church is out of date; some say the Church is judgmental and out of tune with society; some say the Church is anti- homosexual and hypocritical.2 And the list could go on.
More interesting, intriguing, perhaps confusing, and even disappointing would be to hear the responses to the more personal question, “What do you think the Church is about?” In other words, how would Christians themselves respond if Jesus asked them to define the Church, to determine the identity of the Church in terms of its mission and purposes? From conservative to liberal, from extreme legalism to “cheap grace,” from “in the world” to “not of the world,” from Bible teaching only to social gospel mainly, the array of variants would be probably close to endless. Amidst this sea of “versions” of the
Church – with sometimes minuscule and other times significant differences – live millions of sincere Christians seeking to become the authentic Church of Jesus.
2 David Kinnaman, unChristian (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007). 2 Both Jesus’ identity and the identity of the Church are closely interconnected.
First, they are connected because one of the main raisons d’être of the Church is to invite and help human beings to follow and emulate Jesus, to resemble him in character and deeds. Simply put, the Church is, or should be, all about Jesus, his teachings, his character, and his mission. Second, they are connected because a particular local church will develop its values and practices depending upon how it understands Christ. In theological terms, this means that Christology precedes and informs ecclesiology; a church’s understanding of Christ’s identity will determine its own identity. For example, a church with a Christology that mainly emphasizes Jesus’ acts of social involvement, care, and service, will not only proclaim those values but prioritize and portray them in its practices.
In the corporate world, much research has been done and much has been written about the importance of organizational identity3 and organizational identification4. The more clearly an organization defines its own identity, the easier it will be for its members to experience identification with the institution and its values, which, as multiple studies show, leads to a sense of belonging, self-worth, satisfaction, performance, and retention
3 Organizational identity can be defined as “that which is core, distinctive, and enduring about the character of an organization” See, Dennis Gioia, Majken Schultz, and Kevin Corley, “Organizational Identity, Image, and Adaptive Instability,” The Academy of Management Review 25, No. 1 (January 2000), http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/259263?uid=3739448&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid= 3737720&uid=4&sid=21103936367353 (accessed November 18, 2013).
4 Organizational identification has been defined (by authors such as Pratt, Ashforth and Mael) as “the alignment of individual and organizational values” as well as “the perception of oneness with and belongingness to the organization.” See Candace Jones and Elizabeth H. Volpe, “Organizational Identification: Extending our understanding of social identities through social networks,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 32, Issue 3 (April 2011), http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/csom_ sites/mgtorg/Jones/Org%20Identification.pdf (accessed December 17, 2013). 3 on the part of the employees.5 When it comes to organizational identity, it is not uncommon to see a disparity between: a) what the original identity of an organization was at its inception; b) what the organization’s identity is in theory at any present given time; c) what the members of the organization understand to be its main identity; and d) what people outside the organization perceive as its main identity. The Church, as any other institution, is not exempt from this.
The Bronte Seventh-day Adventist Church (hereafter, the Bronte Church) was established almost twenty-five years ago. Like most congregations, the Bronte Church has been through ups and downs, redefining itself, its unique subculture, values, and contextual mission as it has grown and changed over the years. In September of 2010, I became the pastor at the Bronte Church, and one of the first priorities was to get to know the specific milieu at the Bronte Church. After a year of interaction with leaders and members in general, through personal observation, as well as through the implementation of a Natural Church Development (hereafter, NCD) survey,6 a clearer congregational picture was developed. On the one hand, it became evident that the Bronte Church was a dynamic congregation, with many talented and committed professionals, and with many programs targeting different interests and age groups. On the other hand, it was also apparent that there were some major church identity areas that needed to be revised, rediscovered, and intentionally pursued.
5 B. Ashforth, S. Harrison, K. Corley, “Identification in Organizations: An Examination of Four Fundamental Questions,” Journal of Management 34 (June 2008): 325-374.
6 Christian Schwartz, Color Your World with Natural Church Development (St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2005). The Natural Church Development survey, developed by Christian Schwartz, analyzes the current condition of a church in eight quality characteristics: 1) Empowering Leadership; 2) Gift-Based Ministry; 3) Passionate Spirituality; 4) Effective Structures; 5) Inspiring Worship Service; 6) Holistic Small Groups; 7) Need-Oriented Evangelism; and 8) Loving Relationships. 4 The NCD survey indicated unmistakable limitations in the area of community,
“holistic small groups” being the lowest scoring factor of the eight quality characteristics.
Also, as a church strong on programs, its approach to discipleship was mainly program- and information-based, instead of community-centered and transformation-focused. In the area of mission and outreach, a look at the previous ten years showed a stagnant congregation with the majority of its programs and activities serving mainly the existing members. In essence, there seemed to be no clear understanding of the centrality of, nor intentional plans or strategies for, what I consider three fundamental ecclesiological identity elements: community, discipleship, and mission.
Though this project does not intend to provide the final and most perfect definition and identity picture of Christ and his Church, it does seek to assist the members of Bronte to intentionally experience, better understand, and systematically engage in the three core ecclesiological elements mentioned above: community, discipleship, and mission, so that they can live out their calling as the Church of Jesus Christ. This project understands these three elements to be fundamentally essential in relation to the identity of both Christ and the Church, and considers a small group strategy and setting to be a most fitting conduit for those core ecclesiological elements.
The purpose of this three-part project is to develop a small group ministry for the
Bronte Church that will help church members understand and intentionally practice community, discipleship, and mission. To accomplish this goal, this project will include two stages. First, a pilot project will be implemented, comprised of a “forty days of prayer” initiative through small groups. Second, a sermon series on ecclesiology and
5 small groups followed by the training of new leaders will be used to launch a small group ministry for the entire congregation.
The first part analyzes the context of the Bronte Church, focusing on both its surrounding community and the unique characteristics of the church’s ministry. In both cases, special attention is given to demographics, stated and lived values, and opportunities and challenges as they relate to the purpose and main themes of this project.
The second part explores biblical and theological data germane to ecclesiology in general as well as to the specifics of this study. First, it presents a review of relevant resources, both from within and outside of Adventism. Then, it provides a theology of the church based primarily on biblical foundations and Adventist views on ecclesiology, but also complemented by alternative ecclesiological views. Finally, it provides a theological foundation for a small group ministry.
The third part describes the specifics of the proposed small group strategy. It begins with a general description of its goals, content, leadership, and target population, and then moves into a more detailed explanation of its two stages, namely, the six-week pilot project and the implementation plan for the entire congregation. In depth information regarding timeline, leadership selection and training, resources needed, and the assessment plan and tools are provided in this section.
6
PART ONE
MINISTRY CONTEXT
CHAPTER 1
THE TOWN OF OAKVILLE
Ministry never happens in a vacuum; biblically and historically, ministry has been and should always be contextual. In many ways, the local context both within and outside the Church shapes the direction and the practices of any effective ministry. Biblical examples abound in this regard. Jesus ministered to different people differently. His parables and teachings in general clearly indicate that his mission, method, and message were contextual. Paul, arguably the greatest theologian and missionary the early Church produced, said, “And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law.” (1
Corinthians 9:20). Paul knew how to function and minister in different contexts, and that was in part the foundation of his success as an apostle and missionary.
Essentially, it is impossible to effectively reach out to a community and fulfill the gospel commission unless there is a clear sense of its history, culture, values, and worldview. This chapter presents a picture of the ministry context for the Bronte Church, focusing primarily on the community of Oakville, Ontario, where the church is located,
8 its neighbour city of Burlington, and the regional municipality of Halton that includes them both.
The Demographics of Oakville1
The Bronte Church is located in the town of Oakville, right on the border with the city of Burlington. A vibrant community within the Greater Toronto Area (hereafter,
GTA), the town of Oakville is a beautiful lakeside town with a strong heritage, preserved and celebrated by residents and visitors alike. Oakville was founded in 1857, and it has become a coveted residential and business center in Ontario, for different reasons. Its proximity to Toronto, safe neighbourhoods, attractive business opportunities, quality schools, a full-service acute care community hospital, proximity to Lake Ontario and recreational areas, easy access via three major highways, and Greater Ontario Transit are but a few.
The Regional Municipality of Halton
Oakville is part of the regional municipality of Halton, located in Southern
Ontario in the southwest part of the GTA. The region's headquarters are located in
Oakville, less than a minute away from the Bronte Church. This regional municipality oversees the city of Burlington and the towns of Oakville, Milton, and Halton Hills. It is worth noting that the Halton region experienced a growth rate of 17.1 percent between the 2001 census and the 2006 census, and 14.2 percent between 2006 and 2011, giving it one of the highest growth rates in the country. Despite the unprecedented growth in
1 This information was taken from Statistics Canada, www.statcan.gc.ca (accessed January 10, 2014), the official website for Canadian statistics, and from the Oakville website, www.oakville.ca (accessed January 10, 2014). 9 residential development, agriculture and protected lands along the Niagara Escarpment are still the predominant land uses in the region.2
The town of Oakville and the city of Burlington make up the major urban area to the south, while the towns of Milton and Halton Hills to the north are significantly more rural despite their recent urban growth. Although the town of Oakville and the city of
Burlington have their boundaries clearly delimited, in practice they form part of one major urban extension nearing 360,000 in population. While the Bronte Church is located in Oakville, members commute from various towns and cities of the Halton region and beyond, and the church considers both Oakville and Burlington as its primary geographical territory for ministry.
Another important piece of information worth noting is the fact that the Bronte
Church started as two small congregations, one from Oakville and one from Burlington, joined forces and resources to build a new church. Their intent at the time was to grow the current congregation in Oakville and eventually establish a new congregation in
Burlington. For this reason, and since the two communities of Oakville and Burlington are essentially one urban conglomerate, for the purpose of this study, they are both considered the immediate context for the Bronte Church.
European Caucasian Predominance Growing into Multicultural Diversity
Since the town was founded, the majority of the population in the town of
Oakville has been predominantly Caucasian. According to the 2006 census, 81.2 percent of Oakville’s population was white. Other groups include South Asian: 6.0 percent,
2 Wikipedia, s. v. “Regional Municipality of Halton,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_ Municipality_of_Halton (accessed January 15, 2014). 10 Chinese: 3.2 percent, black: 2.1 percent, and mixed race: 2 percent. As table 1 demonstrates, almost 70 percent of the population has English, Scottish, or Irish origins, with the majority of the remaining population claiming European ancestry.
Table 1. Ethnic Distribution for the Town of Oakville
Ethnic Origin Population Percent
English 47,920 29.13%
Scottish 34,055 20.70%
Irish 30,795 18.72%
German 15,490 9.41%
Italian 15,195 9.23%
French 13,905 8.45%
Polish 8,865 5.38%
Source: Statistics Canada website, http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/hlt/97- 562/pages/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=CSD&Code=3524001&Table=2&Data=Count&StartRec=1&Sort=3& Display=All&CSDFilter=5000 (accessed June 21, 2013).
Because of its proximity to Toronto, however, Oakville is becoming increasingly diverse. This is especially noticeable in newer subdivisions and neighbourhoods. The
2011 census confirms this trend towards multiculturalism and ethnic diversity; it shows that Oakville welcomed 7,300 immigrants from various parts of the world since 2006, which represents roughly 4 percent of the population. Though the population remained predominantly Caucasian, the percentages of other ethnicities increased distinctively.
Diversity is not only a reality experienced but also celebrated; programs such as
“Active Chefs,” an ethnic cooking program for children, are growing in popularity. The official website for the town of Oakville has the following statement regarding diversity:
11 “The town is committed to respect and celebrate Oakville's diversity and strive toward providing appropriate accessibility to town services and facilities for its citizens.”3 In the case of Burlington, the ethnic distribution and the trend towards diversity is almost identical to that of the town of Oakville. This increase in diversity has been reflected in the Bronte Church in the last few years and must be taken into account as the church strategizes for its present and future.
A Young Community
There are two predominant age groups of Oakville residents. The first predominant age group is from newborn to nineteen, and the second predominant age group is from thirty-five to fifty-nine. Of Oakville’s population, 67 percent falls within one of these age groups. This indicates that families with children make up a significant portion of Oakville’s residents. In fact, while in the province of Ontario the total amount of households comprised of two parents with children represent 31.2 percent of the total population, in Oakville this same type of household amounts to 41.9 percent. Residents aged twenty to thirty-four make up 17 percent of Oakville’s population, and residents aged sixty and over make up 16 percent.
According to the 2011 Canadian census, Oakville had a younger population than the province of Ontario and of Canada as a whole. Minors (youth under fourteen years of age) totalled 19.6 percent of the population, the working population (those aged fifteen to sixty-four) comprised 67.6 percent, and seniors (those aged sixty-five and up) comprised
12.9 percent. In comparison, the national percentages were 68.5 percent for the
3 Oakville website, “Diversity Statement,” http://www.oakville.ca/townhall/diversity- statement.html (accessed July 10, 2013). 12 population aged fifteen to sixty-four and 16.7 percent for the population aged newborn to fourteen. While the median age in Ontario is 40.4, and in Canada is 40.6, Oakville boasts a median age of 40.2. Burlington showed age percentages practically identical to those of the province.
A Growing Community
The 2006 Canadian census shows that at the time of the census, Oakville had
165,613 residents. This represents a 14.4 percent increase since the 2001 census. In 2009,
Oakville boasted a population of 177,200, and according to city projections this number was expected to grow by about 50,000 in the following ten years (roughly a 30 percent growth). As per the 2011 census, Oakville’s population grew to 182,520, a 10.2 percent population increase since 2006, compared to the national average growth of 5.9 percent.
Burlington, its neighbouring city, had a 172,400 population in 2009 and was expected to welcome about 10,000 new residents in the following ten years. As per the
2011 census, Burlington’s population increased by 6.9 percent between 2006 and 2011, from 164,415 to 175,779 residents. Both the real and the projected increase in population signifies a great opportunity for the Bronte Church, especially since the church is strategically located in the intersection of two major avenues, in a fast expanding area of the town of Oakville. In recent years, two new subdivisions have developed right across the street from the church, and two more are projected for the near future.
An Affluent Community Well Above the Canadian Average
Perhaps one of the most distinct attributes of Oakville is its high socio-economic status. In relation to the province of Ontario and also Canada-wide, Oakville is known to
13 be a very affluent community. In a report presented to the Chamber of Commerce of
Oakville in 2009,4 Statistic Canada’s Director Douglas Newson showed that the median household income was $109,563 (over 50 percent higher than the average in the province of Ontario) with an average house value of $720,943 (almost double the cost as compared with the rest of the country). Oakville continues to be among the most affluent communities in Canada.
General Ethos and Community Values of the Town of Oakville
The town Oakville’s official website has a section where its official vision, mission, and values are stated. As per this website, the vision of the town of Oakville is
“to be the most livable town in Canada.”5 As part of this vision, in June of 2009, the town of Oakville officially adopted what is known as the Liveable Oakville Plan, a comprehensive long-term strategy intended to “direct growth to identified growth areas while protecting the town's stable residential neighbourhoods, green spaces and employment lands to 2031.”6 The plan “was shaped by six major studies, several background technical studies and extensive public consultation.”7 This plan is intended to encompass and direct everything that the town does, from land uses to planned and
4 Oakville Chamber of Commerce, “2009 Presentation,” http://www.oakvillechamber.com/files/ Oakville%20Chamber%20of%20Commerce%20Presentation%20January%202009_Email.pdf (accessed January 14, 2014).
5 Oakville website, “Vision, Mission, Values,” http://www.oakville.ca/townhall/vision-mission- values.html (accessed January 14, 2014).
6 Oakville website, “Livable Oakville Official Plan,” http://www.oakville.ca/townhall/livable- oakville-official-plan.html (accessed January 14, 2014).
7 Ibid. 14 projected growth, to bylaws development to sustainability. In line with this vision, the town of Oakville defines its mission as follows:
We create and preserve Canada's most livable community that enhances the natural, cultural, social and economic environments. We achieve this by continuously improving programs and services that are both accessible and environmentally and fiscally sustainable. We are highly valued and widely celebrated due to the innovative and outstanding way we satisfy the needs of our residents, businesses and employees. As a result, the process is as fulfilling as the outcome. We ensure our staff receives the same level of respect, commitment and 8 care that they are expected to deliver to the community.
In order to fulfill its mission and accomplish its vision, the town of Oakville has chosen the following as its main six corporate values: accountability, dedication, honesty, innovation, respect, and teamwork.
“Town” Emphasis in Spite of Past and Projected Growth
According to Canadian standards, Oakville could and maybe “should” be considered a city. Both its population and its infrastructure well support the city status. In fact Burlington, which has a slightly smaller population, is considered a city, while
Oakville has chosen intentionally the town status. Perhaps it has done so in its task to
“preserve a liveable community” as its mission statement mandates. One of the guiding principles of the strategic Liveable Oakville Plan states that its goal is to “preserve, enhance, and protect the distinct character, cultural heritage, living environment, and sense of community of neighborhoods.”9 Undoubtedly, Oakville seeks to both “create” and “preserve” at the same time, as its mission says, and the “town” emphasis is but one example.
8 Oakville website, “Vision, Mission, Values.”
9 Oakville website, “Livable Oakville Official Plan.” 15 Community Values Reflected in Architecture and Building Bylaws
One of the areas where the “town” emphasis is clearly reflected is in Oakville’s architecture and building bylaws. A guileless observation of the buildings in the downtown area of Oakville would immediately appreciate a distinct architectural style that could be described as European, classy, and stylish. This architectural landscape did not come about by chance. The town of Oakville has very specific, unique, and in some cases strict building bylaws.
As a simple example to illustrate this point, the Bronte Church is planning to replace its front sign, one that has been there since its beginning almost twenty-five years ago. The hope was to use an electronic sign with the intent of making information updates easier and also being more engaging to observers that regularly pass by. After inquiring with the town of Oakville, the church discovered that such signs are allowed in all of the surrounding communities except in Oakville.
Embodied Community Values
As stated before, Oakville’s vision is to be “the most liveable town in Canada.” A quick and general look at Oakville—its affluence, its emphasis on town ambiance, its beautiful parks and recreation programs, the quality of its hospital and schools, its transportation system, and the increase of young families that choose to be part of this community—may lead to the conclusion that indeed this vision is becoming a reality.
However, while the list above describes true facts that cannot be denied, a closer look at some important current realities that very often are foreign to many Oakvillians, may help put things into perspective and lead to the realization that for many residents this dream is
16 far from their reality. In fact, Oakville is not a liveable town for many. According to information provided by Kerr Street Ministries, a multidenominational faith-based community center that has been serving the less fortunate in Oakville since 1995, there are close to thirty thousand people in Oakville who live “below the low income cut-off and are in need of physical assistance.”10 This represents almost one sixth of the total population. This is a hard-to-believe reality for Oakville, yet it is a fact.
At a recent event organized by the Halton Region Municipality, leaders from different sectors, both public and private, gathered to discuss ideas to deal with the increasingly tangible issue of affordable housing. This is becoming a major and serious problem in the Halton region, especially in the Oakville and Burlington communities.
The many organizations that currently exist to provide solutions in this area are not able to supply for the growing demands of families and individuals, many of whom end up living in the streets. At this event, the problem of “nimbyism” was loudly raised as an ongoing reality. The word “nimbyism” comes from the acronym NIMBY, which stands for “Not In My Back Yard.” Simply put and in general, Oakville residents want solutions for people in poverty, as long as those solutions happen as far away from their residences as possible.
Busyness and Materialism: A Setback for Christian Community, Discipleship and Mission
That the Western world has become increasingly materialistic should not come as a surprise to anyone, and Oakville is no exception. The “nimbyism” mentioned above is
10 Taken from Kerr Street Ministries’ official website, http://www.kerrstreet.com/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=144 (accessed January 14, 2014). 17 an external expression of at least two internal values – materialism and classism – which are prioritized over other important values. Simply stated and generally speaking, in
Oakville and Burlington, the status of someone’s neighborhood and the value of his or her property seems to be of more importance than the needs of the less fortunate in his or her community.
The pursuit of material possessions almost invariably leads people to having overly busy schedules, which in turn leads to lack of time for the family and other important valuable things in life. Christians are no different in this area. This presents a challenge since the three core ecclesiological values studied and pursued in this project are proportionally related to time; Christian community, discipleship, and mission are all time consuming.
The Town of Oakville and Its Religious and Sociological Makeup
This section will first consider the Canadian religious landscape as a whole. It will pay special attention to how immigration affects this landscape. The town of Oakville will then be discussed in terms of religious affiliation. Finally, this section will mention how building bylaws in Oakville are affecting the churches in town as well.
A General Look at the Canadian Religious Landscape
Reginald Bibby is one of the most popular sociologists in Canada and perhaps the national leading expert in the sociology of religion. For more than three decades he has been studying social trends in Canada through a series of national surveys of adults and teenagers known as “Project Canada.” This section presents some of the main findings of
Bibby’s latest book entitled, Beyond the Gods and Back, which was published in 2011
18 and deals with the most current religious trends in Canada, analyzed in juxtaposition with the data collected over the last three decades as presented in three of his previous books.
In his first book, published in 1987 under the title, Fragmented Gods, Bibby argued in favour of the secularization thesis, showing that with few exceptions, both church attendance and membership had declined steadily in Canada since 1960. In 1993 he published a second book titled, Unknown Gods, updating his earlier analysis and confirming ongoing participation problems for the country’s dominant religious groups.
These problems, argued Bibby, were due to both “the selective consumption habits of individual Canadians” and “the failure of religious groups to respond well to widespread interests and needs.”11 In his third book, Restless Gods, published in 2002, Bibby suggested that there were signs of new religious life. Church attendance among adults and teenagers seemed to be plateauing, however.
In his most recent book, Bibby argues for a new reality in Canadian religious life: religious polarization. Towards the end of his introduction, he begins to describe this polarization phenomenon as follows: “The religious times have changed significantly over the past five decades. . . . In the midst of such diverse experiences of prosperity and peril, the dominant story is the emergence of unprecedented polarization between those who are religious and those who are not, and what it means for personal and social life.”12
He compares the process of secularization over the last five decades to a fire which has devastated much of what through the 1960s was a flourishing forest, destroying much of
11 Reginald W. Bibby, Beyond the Gods and Back (Lethbridge, AB: Project Canada Books, 2011), 4.
12 Ibid. 19 religion’s presence and influence. However, Bibby states that due mainly to immigration,
“new seeds and new plants have begun to replenish parts of the forest.”13
For instance, Bibby shows how immigration has played a pivotal role in the development of religion in Canada since its birth as a modern nation until the present. It is based on this immigration influence that between 1860 and 1960, the Canadian religious landscape was clearly described in general terms as follows: Quebec was dominated by Roman Catholics, Ontario by Anglicans and Presbyterians, the prairies by
Evangelicals and Protestants, and British Columbia and the Atlantic region by the Church of England. Furthermore, Bibby describes how religious presence was fairly blatant in that same period in many institutions, such as hospitals, social service programs, schools and entire school systems, universities, and even in the political sphere.14
Things have changed drastically since then, according to Bibby’s study. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, religion no longer occupies center stage.
Protestantism is not a pivotal feature of Anglo culture, while Catholicism is no longer at the heart of Quebecois culture. While religion certainly continues to have a presence in
Canadian life, and while old and new places of worship serve as reminders that religion still remains important for some people, it is also true that religion in Canada is expected to be both non-partisan and respectful of pluralism.15 Bibby finds explanation to this drastic change from center-stage Christianity to marginalized Christianity and the predominance of secularism and pluralism mainly in two factors: a) a major shift in
13 Ibid., 6.
14 Ibid., 12.
15 Ibid., 13. 20 immigration patterns, and b) the changing mindset of Canadians led by the Baby
Boomers.
Bibby articulates the influence of the Baby Boomers in four major shifts that significantly reshaped religion. The first is the shift “from dominance to diversity. Bibby explains that due mainly to the strong influence of the “rights revolutions” of the 1960s on Boomers, Canadian society moved from “sameness” to “diversity,” from monoculture to pluralism as a core value of Canadian society; truth moved to being increasingly viewed in relativistic terms. The second shift was “from obligation to gratification.”
Bibby argues that the Boomer era saw a major shift in motivational emphasis from obligation to gratification; no longer were people motivated by loyalty, obligation, and duty; now people increasingly began to seek self-fulfilment and gratification as the basis for their decisions, including the area of faith and religion. The third shift was “from deference to discernment.” In general, people’s views and attitudes towards authority, leadership, and institutions moved from respect, loyalty, and deference to demands, lack of trust, scrutiny, and criticism. The fourth and final shift was “from homes to careers.”
This shift has to do with the proportion of women employed outside the home, which rose from 30 percent to 60 percent between 1960 and 2000. According to Bibby’s research, this affected family life in general and particularly in the area of religion in several ways, including pressure for the use of family time, the age people got married, the inclination to marry, and the necessity to remain married.16
These shifts in Canadian culture have led to the reluctance of Boomers and subsequent generations to embrace organized religion. This is evidenced by the drop of
16 Ibid., 18-29. 21 weekly church attendance from 50 percent in 1960, to 30 percent 1980, to 25 percent in
2005. Also, according to Bibby, this legacy has been passed on to younger generations;
Bibby reports that “the latest youth survey has found that the proportion of teens who say they are atheist is higher than anything we or any other pollsters have ever found.”17
As mentioned above, immigration has also influenced Canadian religions.18
Analyzing the findings of the 2001 census, Statistics Canada noted that one reason for
Roman Catholic growth has been immigration. In this regard, Bibby notes that “the primary countries of origin have been changing in favour of Catholics, Other World
Faiths, and people with no religion.”19 Protestants, however, have not been anywhere as fortunate since the early 1960s when it comes to immigration. Table 2 provides the percentages of the major religions of immigrants by decade of arrival.
Table 2. Religious Affiliation of Immigrants by Decade
Decade Roman Catholic Protestant Other World No Religion Faiths Before 1961 39 39 3 11
1961-70 43 27 7 13
1971-80 34 21 20 16
1981-90 33 14 26 17
1991-01 23 11 32 21
Source: Bibby, Beyond the Gods and Back, 31.
17 Ibid., 33.
18 It is important to note that an immigrant’s affiliation to a particular religion does not translate automatically into church involvement and participation.
19 Bibby, Beyond the Gods and Back, 31. 22 As seen in Table 2, while over the last five decades immigration has favoured the growth of Catholics, other world faiths, and the non-religious segment of the Canadian population, Protestants have seen a steady decline in immigration figures. This means that while Catholics and other faith groups may experience revitalization, growth, or at least constant stagnation as a result of immigration – despite the marginalization of religion in Canada – Protestants in general cannot expect to receive a boost in numbers from immigration and may have to face and fight the decline of religion in their particular contexts in more proactive and creative ways.
Perhaps the most significant contribution Bibby makes is his interpretation of the broad scope of data he has collected for the last five decades. In his first two books,
Bibby saw a clear trend towards secularization. Then, in his third book he argued in favour of a religious renaissance. In his fourth book, he focuses on the group in between extremes, the disappearing middle, and argues that more people are moving to one of the two poles: secularization or revitalization of faith. This process is what he calls polarization. He describes it with these words:
As some Canadians in the “ambivalent middle” have moved toward religion, observers . . . have suggested that a measure of “renaissance” and “revitalization” might be taking place. As others in the “ambivalent middle” have moved away from religion, we have suggested that we are witnessing the latest manifestations of secularization. More accurately, what has been emerging is polarization – two dominant postures toward religion.20
20 Ibid., 52. 23 Predominant Religions and Religious Trends in Oakville
According to the last census, these are the percentages that paint the religious landscape in the regional municipality of Halton: 41.8% Protestant; 34.5% Roman
Catholic; 18.3% Non-religious; 3.5% Other Christian; 1.2% Muslim; 0.7% Hindu. In
Oakville the percentages vary but not significantly: 79.4% of the residents stated their religion as Christian, almost evenly split between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Non-
Christian religions include Islam: 2.0%, Hinduism: 1.3%, Sikhism: 1.1%, and Judaism:
0.7%. Those who indicated no religion comprised 14%. In contrast with the Canadian figures described above, Protestantism seems to be more prominent in the Oakville region.
Religious tolerance and dialogue among various faith groups is not uncommon in the Oakville region. The formation of the Interfaith Council of Halton (hereafter, ICH) in
2001 has provided a strong platform for different faith groups to interact with each other and with the community. This body was formed as a direct result of the 9/11 attacks, with the purpose of seeking dialogue and tolerance among different religions, as well as to show solidarity for the tragedy of the terrorist attacks. The ICH is composed of religious leaders from various faith groups, including Muslims, Jewish, Christian, Baha’i, and
Hindu. This organization holds monthly meetings and plans events and ongoing activities to create awareness of, promote dialogue between, and educate people (especially youth) about the various religions in the region. Even though leaders from the political arena are open to working with the ICH for common goals, this organization has little room for input or influence in the public sphere, beyond a few annual events for religious dialogue and awareness.
24 Christianity Fading, Postmodernism/Secularism Rising
While Christianity still has a very strong presence in Oakville and in the Halton region, one cannot ignore Bibby’s findings after decades of research, which have several indications for Canada. First, Christianity has moved from center stage to the margins of society in public matters other than purely faith. Second, younger Canadians seem to have less faith in God and less interest and trust in organized religion. Third, the number of secular atheists is growing proportionally faster than the number of Christians. For these reasons, new and/or fresh expressions of Christianity may be necessary in order for the Church to be relevant for its ever-changing context, and to be able to reach out to both the middle group and the group on the opposite pole of the polarization spectrum as described by Bibby. Simply stated, “business as usual” for most religious groups may result in continuous decline except for the occasional immigration boost. This poses a major missional challenge for the Bronte Church.
Recent Building Bylaws and Their Effect on Religious Groups
As a corollary illustration of the marginalization of Christianity and faith groups at large in the public sphere in Canada and particularly in Oakville, it is relevant to succinctly mention some recent developments in regards to new building bylaws proposed by the town of Oakville, their impact on faith groups, and what this says about
Oakville’s values and priorities. The previously mentioned Liveable Oakville Plan includes a major revision of building bylaws to be implemented in 2014. This revision has undergone a thorough process, which is intended to come to an end in the fall of
2013. This revision proposes changes that will have a direct and potentially negative
25 impact in the uses, purposes, and taxation of certain parts of religious buildings. The
Interfaith Council of Halton became aware of these proposed changes and started a dialogue with the town of Oakville that, though extremely civic and cordial in nature, has proven that variances in the proposed changes in favour of faith groups will be more difficult than expected.
Without going into the minutiae of the proposed changes, a few things are worth observing. First, faith groups were neither considered nor consulted in the process of crafting the proposed changes. Second, the “voices” of the many faith groups in Oakville
(and the thousands of residents that they represent) are at the very best of equal weight and value than the “voices” of many or even a few individual residents who oppose the variances in favour of faith groups. Last, but not least, it seems clear that the contributions made by faith groups, both through spiritual programs and services, in the area of community services as well as financially, are overly underestimated by the public sphere. Simply put, the Church keeps moving to the margins of society, whether people like it or not.
Concluding Remarks
Several contextual facts have been stated in this chapter regarding the town of
Oakville and its neighbour city of Burlington, which speak directly and/or indirectly to the Bronte Church as it seeks to live out its calling as the Church of Jesus, particularly in the areas of community, discipleship, and mission. Demographically, as per Statistic
Canada reports and other reliable sources, Oakville appears to be a young, vibrant, growing community, historically Caucasian in its ethnicity, yet experiencing a noticeable
26 growth in diversity and multiculturalism. Burlington, though not as young and with a slightly slower growth, still expects to welcome thousands of new residents in the near future and shares a very similar ethnic composition. These facts have several implications, especially if analyzed from the perspective of the three main ecclesiological values studied and pursued in this study, particularly in the areas of mission and community.
First, from a missional standpoint, the past, present, and projected growth presents a great opportunity for the church to make a difference in the lives of thousands of new residents who will undoubtedly be looking for a community to belong to. Also, the younger median age (that is, younger than the Canadian and Ontarian average), together with the fact that there is a significantly larger percentage of families with children, is worth noting as the church reaches out to its surrounding community. If members individually and small groups collectively want to effectively connect with and reach out to the Oakville residents, this demographic distinctiveness cannot be overlooked.
A second missional factor is the rise of the postmodern/secular worldview as well as the transition of Christianity in society from center stage to the margins. Program- based evangelism may have worked well in the past and it may still work well in various contexts; however, it appears that a long-term, incarnational, process-based, relational approach to mission would be more effective for the current Canadian reality. Small groups as missional communities willing to engage their contexts in intentional, meaningful, caring, and relevant ways seem to be an endeavour worth undertaking.
In the area of discipleship, after a thorough contemplation of the context adjoining the Bronte Church, it seems imperative to analyze how the values of the surrounding
27 community are impacting church members, especially those values that contradict
Christian values, as well as to analyze how the church can intentionally help church members in their personal discipleship journeys and also make a transformational difference in the community. For instance, church members should not overlook the real yet often ignored poverty that exists in Oakville. Materialism and elitism should not be evidenced in the lives of true followers of Jesus. The unfortunate “nimbysim” that characterizes many residents in Oakville and Burlington should not be found within the confinement of Bronte. The question is whether that is always so. If not, the church must consider what it is doing about it. In essence, the church must consider how the gospel is informing and transforming the lives of the Bronte Church’s disciples and how they are becoming transforming agents in their societies. Small groups where discipleship is an integral component would be the place where these types of questions should seek and hopefully find answers.
In summary, a small group strategy would seek to engage the Bronte Church’s surrounding context in three ways. First, it would provide safe, caring, accepting,
Christian communities where newcomers from all walks of life can feel welcome, loved, respected, and cared for. Second, it would seek a discipleship path that embraces as well as transforms cultural values from within. Third, it would facilitate an incarnational approach to mission that seeks to engage the community and share God’s love and the good news of the gospel in tangible ways.
28
CHAPTER 2
A SNAPSHOT OF THE BRONTE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
The Bronte Church was established just over twenty-five years ago. Originally planted in a rural area in the outskirts of the town of Oakville, right in the border between
Oakville and Burlington, it is now posted in the intersection of two major avenues, surrounded by several relatively new thriving subdivisions. Like all living organisms, congregations go through a similar life cycle: birth, growth, stagnation, and eventually, death. At the same time, like with any other organism, the particular history and life experiences of a local church is unique and has its own peculiarities. This chapter focuses on the life – past, present, and projected future – of the Bronte Church.
Historical Analysis: Twenty-Six Years of Stability among Ongoing Transitions1
This section gives a brief historical account of the Bronte Church’s history, describing its beginnings and its major transitions, as well as its recent developments. It highlights the situation of the church right before the implementation of this project, including the contrast between its ecclesiological stated and lived values, and its main
1 This historical account is based on phone interviews with ten church members (Terry and Olga Cook, Anthony and Yolanda Polzer, Richard Roschman, Nick and Christine Santini, James Martins, and Alipio and Maria Geraldo) who have been at Bronte from its beginning. The interviews were held between August and October 2013 in the cities of Hamilton, Burlington, and Oakville. 29 opportunities and challenges as they relate particularly to this small group initiative and the projection of the church in general. This history can be summarized as twenty-six years of constant stability among ongoing transitions.
The Beginnings of Bronte: Unity Produces Growth
The Bronte Church was officially inaugurated about twenty-six years ago, and was the result of an amalgamation of two congregations, each located in the twin towns of Oakville and Burlington respectively. The Burlington church was a church plant initiated by the Hamilton Mountain Adventist Church. This project started in the 1970s.
Pastor Eric Juriansz was the pastor at the time. At the beginning the group consisted of about fifteen members, and it grew to about forty by the time it merged with the Oakville church. Pastor Richard Roschman, currently serving at a church in Toronto, was the head elder at the time. The Oakville church started in the late 1960s, and at the time of the merge there were about forty people attending.
Before these two groups became one, the church in Burlington used to meet at the
East Plains United Church, while the Oakville church met at a Walton Memorial United
Church on Lakeshore Road in Bronte. After a few years of direct dependence upon the
Hamilton Mountain Church, there was a pastoral transition, and Pastor Steven Villeneuve became the leader of these two small congregations. The Burlington church had funds saved, with the vision of buying or building a church in the future, while the Oakville church had recently acquired a piece of land. Knowing these facts, not too long after becoming the lead pastor for both congregations, Pastor Villeneuve casted the vision for
30 the two churches to combine forces and resources and become a bigger and stronger church, as well as to build a brand new church facility.
A business meeting open to the members of both groups was scheduled, and the proposal to unite the two churches and to build a new church was presented. Also at that meeting, after the proposal was approved, a nominating process was conducted to select the leaders of the new church. During the period when the plans were developed and while the building was being constructed, the newly established church decided to meet at the Walton Memorial United Church in Bronte, which until then had been the meeting place for the Oakville church.
The building project was a united effort, with some key players in leadership roles. Pastor George Ivkov and members Jerry Bradler and Terry Cook were instrumental in the acquiring of the land. Pastor Ivkov accompanied the building process, even though he was not the local church pastor. Brother Ralph Robison was in charge of the building project and Brother Ernie Muller, a builder from Oshawa, was heavily involved. After much sacrifice, dedication, and united effort by all the members, the building was completed and officially dedicated in 1989.
Members who joined the Bronte church when it first started remember it to be a very friendly church, a welcoming and comfortable place to fellowship worship. They describe the people as dedicated and hospitable and the general atmosphere as warm and accepting. Even if the ethos was generally conservative, members were open to new and fresh ideas. According to members’ testimonies, from the beginning Bronte was a very cohesive and active group, doing all sorts of activities, including door-to-door outreach, public evangelism, and various ministry events.
31 Pastoral Transitions
Since the formation of the Bronte Church, five pastors led this relatively young congregation before my arrival. They were Steven Villeneuve, Jack Friesen, Robson De
Oliveira, Andrew Kapusi, and Kristopher Zigowiec. The following is a brief description of the main developments that took place at the Bronte Church under the leadership of each of these respective pastors.
Pastor Steve Villenueve was the first pastor at the Bronte Church. His main legacy is undoubtedly the merge of the two groups into one and the building of the church. He is remembered as a very energetic person, and his strength was bringing unity and stability to the new group and mobilizing members for mission. Pastor Villeneuve conducted various evangelistic initiatives and outreach efforts. Several members from the
Reformed Adventist Church transferred their membership and joined the Bronte Church under his leadership. Health initiatives, particularly cooking schools, were a regular part of the church at that time. Creative ideas were tried, such as a yearly scavenger hunt with cars in the summer that included both spiritual lessons as well as social and fun activities.
One member describes his ministry as Christ-centered, with a strong emphasis on the assurance of salvation. Under his tenure, mission was mainly event-driven; fellowship and community were strengthened and facilitated by the effort of building a new church and the novelty of the merge. No unique discipleship strategy can be identified other than the Sabbath School program.
Pastor Jack Friesen is described by members of the time as a very amicable person, easy to get along with. He spent approximately five years at the Bronte Church, and of the three ecclesiological elements studied in this project, community was
32 undoubtedly his strength, both modeled in his lifestyle and as a main focus in ministry.
Under his leadership there were a lot of social functions, such as picnics and other gatherings. He is remembered as a peacemaker who did not like controversy, very humble, patient, and willing to work with church leaders. The church saw some growth under his tenure, although stability and maintenance of the current structures best describe this period. No major changes or missional initiatives are pointed out during this era.
Originally from Brazil, Robson De Oliveira spent about three years at the Bronte
Church. Members remember him as a very creative, organized, and dynamic leader. He was instrumental in bringing changes in music and worship style and format, which is perhaps his most important and salient contribution at the Bronte Church. These changes created some resistance and opposition by some. In fact, due to the changes in worship some members left the church. Another important contribution worth noting is in the area of Christian community and fellowship; he implemented creative, well-received initiatives for members to get to know each other. For example, he would show pictures during announcement time of members when they were children and the congregation would guess who was who. Initiatives like the one just mentioned helped the congregation develop a sense of family and belonging. Pastor Oliveira’s focus on worship affected the Bronte Church positively in three ways: first, in defining Bronte’s communal worship identity; second, missionally by attracting young families and establishing existing members prone to the fresh worship format and music styles; and third, in the area of discipleship as worship services became more relevant to members and visitors.
33 Originally from Hungary, Pastor Andrew Kapusi spent five years at the Bronte
Church. During this period, much happened in the area of youth ministry, and there were many activities, functions, and congregational events of all sorts. One example is the various outreach initiatives through music: a yearly Christmas cantata that involved the majority of the members, two major concerts at a community park, and the beginning of a monthly nursing home music ministry which still subsists today. Several members agree that though there were not major visible results in terms of church growth, these events brought members together and blessed the community in many ways. During his tenure, vacation Bible school became central and vibrant. Many members have fond memories of
Pastor Kapusi’s Wednesday night Bible studies and sermons. He is described as a very dynamic and sociable person, and his family was heavily involved in the church. Like with his predecessors, mission was mainly based on events and programs, and discipleship was pursued through the Sabbath school program.
Pastor Kristopher Zygowiec came from the US and was at the Bronte Church for only a year. At the beginning he showed a special interest in counselling as well as in community involvement, but his ministry was very short and time was not enough to develop any particular initiative or project in any of these areas. Due to personal and family-related reasons, he was absent frequently and therefore, the period under his leadership can be described as a stagnant one. After Pastor Zygowiec left, the church was in transition without a pastor for a year. On the one hand, this time without a pastor was a difficult time for the leaders and the congregation in general, as they had to carry to work of the church without a leader. On the other hand, this transition period helped both the leaders and the congregation – as they faced the various ministry challenges together – to
34 become more united and to take more responsibility and ownership of ministry and church life and health in general.
Change in Demographics
In terms of demographics, it can be affirmed that the Bronte Church has undergone significant changes, especially in its recent past. When the church was born, members were predominantly Caucasian with a small group of blacks and other ethnicities. The majority of the members were working class people. Today, even though the majority is still Caucasian, of European descent, there has been a significant increase in diversity, paralleled to that experienced in the communities in which it is located, with a notable increase also in the number of professionals.
This increase in diversity brings both benefits and challenges. Three main benefits can be noted. First, missionally, it is beneficial to reflect the socio-demographic changes in the surrounding community. Second, also in the area of mission, a diverse congregation tends to be more appealing to younger Canadians. And third, in the area of discipleship, diversity is beneficial as it evokes acceptance, understanding, tolerance, and patience, all character traits desired as discipleship outcomes.
Certain challenges can also be noted. First, diversity also brings an increase in diversity of Adventist subcultures, which at times leads to clashes among members due to different views on specific issues and how to “do church” in general. These theological differences have a direct impact on community (because of division based on various views), discipleship (as members envision Christian life and lifestyles differently), and mission (as different understandings of mission exists and as time is dedicated more to
35 dwell on theological debate). A second challenge brought by diversity is that the experience of Christian community becomes at times more difficult as a result of the transition from a mainly homogenous group to a more heterogeneous one.
Transitions in Leadership
Like with most congregations, the Bronte Church has experienced a number of transitions in leadership over the years. A few important aspects are worth mentioning about these transitions as certain significant changes have affected the church. The first change is from conservative to progressive, which is evident in issues such as music and worship, openness to new ideas, as well as how and how much money is used in ministry.
A second change is from being monocultural to multicultural. Presently there are six elders: four Caucasian men and two black women. A third change is from being predominantly executive and dominant to being predominantly inclusive and empowering. The current leaders, a cohesive group of professionals of different backgrounds, have a clear vision and passion for including, empowering, and mentoring members. It can be safely stated that a sense of unity and community has increased noticeably among the leaders, and that there is a marked desire to lead the church with purpose and intentionality, not just maintaining the current structures and traditions.
Worship Changes
As already expressed in relation to Pastor De Oliveira’s ministry at the Bronte
Church, one of the major changes this congregation experienced several years ago was in the area of worship. These changes included time allocated to music, music style, and the overall format of the service. Most leaders and members in general agree today that this
36 resulted in a notorious improvement in the flow of the worship service, as well as in membership engagement and participation. As already pointed out, though welcomed by the majority, these changes created discomfort in some and open resistance by a minority; some members left the church at the time and transferred their membership to other congregations. Though this is not something to be celebrated, on the positive side, once things settled, this issue of worship and music, which is currently a cause of friction and even division for other Adventist congregations, is no longer a problem at the Bronte
Church.
Financial Stability and Growth
One of the strengths of the Bronte Church is its financial stability. It is not uncommon to find Adventist congregations with limited resources or struggling in the area of finances for local ministry. This is not necessarily a reflection of the giving pattern of Adventist members, but it is predominantly due to the Adventist financial and organizational structure. In this regard, the Bronte Church’s finances are substantially healthy. The church building has been paid in full, and the income is such that money is not an impediment for ministry.
Decadal Stagnation
The Church exists for mission. Healthy churches are missional ones, churches that seek to enlarge God’s kingdom on earth by making true disciples of Jesus, not only within the community of believers but also and especially in the communities where they exist. One of the ways to measure the health of a congregation is to look at its numeric growth (or lack thereof) over a number of years.
37 According to records provided by the headquarters of the Adventist Church in
Ontario, during the period between 2000 and 2010, the Bronte Church saw no significant growth in membership. In 2000 there were 144 members, and at the close of 2010 there were 151. This shows a net increase in membership of only seven people over that decade. The number of baptisms in the same period totalled thirty-three, an average of three baptisms per year. Taking into consideration that several of these baptisms included young members who grew up in the Adventist faith, it is not an exaggeration to state that the evangelistic impact in the community and the effectiveness in outreach and church growth in general were minimal during that period.
There are probably several factors for this turn of events in the area of evangelism and church growth. One possibility is that there has been insufficient missional intentionality and effort; one could say that while several events and programs with a missional focus have been implemented over the years, in general, mission has not been a salient trait in this church. Another possibility is a lack of responsiveness on the part of the community; some could argue that while the church has been very active in mission and evangelism, Oakville and its surroundings is infertile ground for mission. A third possibility is a lack of adaptability and contextualization in the methodology used; this is perhaps the one that needs to be studied the most and is perhaps the answer to the previous two. As important as determining and clarifying these factors may be, the main point in question here is that there is an evident need to recognize the apparent absence of growth and above all to pursue more aggressive, effective, relevant, and intentional missional strategies at the Bronte Church.
38 Ecclesiological Stated Values
As part of the Seventh-day Adventist global Church, the Bronte Church adheres to its official doctrines and teachings, which are expressed and summarized in what is known as the “28 fundamental beliefs.” The twelfth fundamental belief, which addresses the church, reads as follows:
The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called out from the world; and we join together for worship, for fellowship, for instruction in the Word, for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, for service to all mankind, and for the worldwide proclamation of the gospel. The church derives its authority from Christ, who is the incarnate Word, and from the Scriptures, which are the written Word. The church is God’s family; adopted by Him as children, its members live on the basis of the new covenant. The church is the body of Christ, a community of faith of which Christ Himself is the Head. The church is the bride for whom Christ died that He might sanctify and cleanse her. At His return in triumph, He will present her to Himself a glorious church, the faithful of all the ages, the purchase of His blood, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish. (Gen. 12:3; Acts 7:38; Eph. 4:11-15; 3:8-11; Matt. 28:19, 20; 16:13-20; 18:18; Eph. 2:19-22; 1:22, 23; 5:23-27; Col. 1:17, 18)2
This official statement touches on several important ecclesiological elements, including the three that guide this project. First, it provides a definition of the church: “The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour . . . called out from the world.” Second, it provides the main purposes of the church: “worship, fellowship” (community), “instruction in the Word” (discipleship), Lord’s Supper,
“service and proclamation” (mission). Third, it reminds members of the church’s main authority: “Christ and the Scriptures.” Last but not least, it uses Bible-based illustrations of the church: “God’s family” (emphasis on community), “body of Christ” (emphasis on
2 Seventh-Day Adventist website, “Beliefs: The Church,” http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/ church/the-church/ (accessed January 14, 2014). 39 Christ as head and the functionality of members for ministry and mission), and “the bride for whom Christ died” (emphasis on faithfulness to Christ in discipleship).
Unfortunately, not all local Seventh-day Adventist congregations are familiar with this particular statement of faith, nor are they seeking to intentionally and practically experience it. Even if they were, since this is a general statement, there are several elements that need to be specified and clarified. Particularly, when it comes to the purposes of the church, the specifics of “what” and “how” have to be delineated. The following questions should be considered: What kind of fellowship (community) is this referring to? How is this facilitated in effective ways? What does “instruction in the
Word” (discipleship) specifically mean and what is the outcome pursued? How is that practically experienced in a local context and how is the outcome pursued evaluated?
What kind of service and proclamation (mission) does this statement envision? How is this supposed to be facilitated by the local church in ways that engage members and make a real impact in the community?
As simple or as complex as the answers to these questions may be, there seem to be at least two clear challenges when it comes to the application of this statement. The first challenge is a lack of intentionality: many if not most churches are not exploring ways to intentionally live out these key ecclesiological components. The Bronte Church has not been exempt from this. The second challenge is a lack of clarity and understanding. Even in those churches that are being somewhat intentional, there is often confusion among members regarding the purposes and paths to experience the foundational aspects of church. For example, many members think of mission and
40 evangelism primarily in terms of periodical attractional events, instead of mission as an incarnational lifestyle. The Bronte Church is not exempt from this either.
One tangible step the Bronte Church took in the past to find direction, clarity of purpose, and intentionality, was to create its own mission statement, which reads,
The mission of Bronte Seventh-day Adventist Church is to present the Gospel and all the truth about God from the Bible, as understood by Seventh-Day Adventists. Recognizing that many of our members do not live in the area of the church, we accept that our responsibility goes beyond our church boundaries to represent the Gospel wherever we work and live and play. We focus on creating a safe and comfortable environment that is conducive to building relationships, promoting personal ministry and most of all, strengthening our members’ and guests’ relationship with Jesus. Bronte strives to be a Christ centered church where worship, spiritual growth, and caring prepare us for sharing the Gospel with men, women, and children of all cultures.3
A few important points can be derived from this statement. First, it is important to note a primary focus on mission; the opening sentence alludes to mission in the phrase
“presenting the Gospel and all the truth about God.” One of the fundamental raison d’etre for the church is mission. Adventist pioneer Ellen G. White puts it this way: “The church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world.”4 On the ontological centrality of mission, Lesslie Newbigin, in his book, The Open Secret, asserts, “More and more
Christians of the old churches have come to recognize that a church that is not ‘the church in mission’ is not church at all.”5
Second, it is worth noting that mission is portrayed as a personal responsibility
3 The Bronte Seventh-day Adventist Church website, “Home Page,” http://brontesda.com (accessed January 14, 2014).
4 Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages (1898; repr., Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1940), 9.
5 Leslie Newbigin, The Open Secret (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1995), 2. 41 and also as a lifestyle that members should practice wherever they live and function. This is commendable. When it comes to mission, there is a constant danger to institutionalize it, depersonalize it, and/or turn it merely into church events and programs.
Third, and perhaps the most relevant for this project, the Bronte Church’s mission statement alludes directly to the three main ecclesiological elements put forth in this project, as the following organization of key phrases demonstrate: a) Christ at the center:
“a Christ centered church” and “strengthening members’ and guests’ relationship with
Jesus”; b) community: “a safe and comfortable environment,” “building relationships,” and “caring”; c) discipleship: “spiritual growth,” “truth about God and the Bible,” and
“represent the Gospel”; and d) mission: “presenting the Gospel,” “sharing the Gospel,” and “personal ministry.” Though this mission statement could be dissected and analyzed in detail, which would probably lead to a series of very important and constructive observations, two crucial aspects are worth mentioning as a way of a reaction germane to this small group initiative. First, this is a very comprehensive and balanced mission statement in its intent and scope; simply put, it covers the fundamental aspects of church identity, including community, discipleship, and mission. Second, there is one major concern, which is its disconnection with the day-to-day and week-to-week realities and practices of the church. In other words, though this statement looks very good on paper, this has not necessarily always been the guiding statement for the church in its practice.
The following questions better illustrate this main concern: Is the Bronte Church really and intentionally focusing on and pursuing this mission statement? Are the communities where the members live really being impacted in tangible ways with the Gospel and the biblical truth as understood by Seventh-day Adventists? What are the current specific
42 ministries and initiatives that intentionally seek the realisation of this broad purpose?
Of course, this is not to say that absolutely nothing has happened or is happening in any of the main areas incorporated in the mission statement. That would be a completely false depiction of Bronte. However, there seems to be a clear disparity between the theoretical organizational goals and general direction expressed in this mission statement and the current practices of the church. Furthermore, there is no system to measure whether the mission statement is being fulfilled, let alone the intent to do it.
As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” A mission statement is relevant and significant for an organization inasmuch as that organization is ready to implement it in practical ways. Otherwise, the mission statement becomes just a formality. Hence, there is a need to find practical and clear ways to bring the main elements of this mission statement to the forefront of the Bronte Church’s life and practices. That is one of the main goals of this project: to attempt to put into practice the main elements of the Bronte Church’s mission statement by casting and implementing a vision of a small group strategy that is intentional about community, discipleship, and mission as foundational principles for the life of the church.
Ecclesiological Lived Values
This section focuses on the lived values of the Bronte Church. It analyzes the current application (or lack thereof) of the main elements of the Bronte Church’s mission statement, with special attention to the three core values of this project: community, discipleship, and mission. This section also provides critical observations in areas where these can and should be improved.
43 A Program-Based Church versus Lifestyle Practices
As pointed out above, the Bronte Church envisions its mission being fulfilled in and through the day-to-day lives of its members in their respective communities. Whether consciously or not, this echoes one of the basic principles of the missional church as expressed by Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren in their book, Introducing the Missional
Church:
A missional strategy is shaped through dialogue and engagement with the contexts and neighbourhoods in which we live. . . . The early church engaged its context when they presented the gospel to its own diverse, pluralistic society. The task of the local church in our present situation is to re-enter our neighbourhoods, to dwell with and to listen to the narratives and stories of the people. . . . But this is not a strategy we take to a context; it is a way of life we cultivate in a place where we belong.6
As great and essential as this principle is to mission, however, the present reality shows that it is not being pursued at the Bronte Church. No intentional missional plans have been developed; no stories are being celebrated; no training is being done; no budgetary allocation has been secured for this type of missional approach. In actuality, the Bronte
Church still follows an attractional paradigm for mission. Plans, budgets, and leaders all center on programs that seek to attract people to the church. For instance, the maintenance and improvement of the church building is by far the most costly expense at the Bronte Church. Simply put, the mission statement says one thing, but in reality the main focus and modus operandi for mission is completely different. There are some members who are passionate about mission and try to engage their contexts to share the gospel, but this is certainly not the norm for the majority, nor is it the central focus or
6 Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren, Introducing the Missional Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2009), 84-85. 44 church methodology for missions. In the Adventist context in general and particularly at
The Bronte Church, it is safe to say that mission is still mostly correlated with attractional church-orchestrated projects, programs, and events, even if at times it involves individual efforts.
Discipleship through Sabbath School: Primarily an Information Focus
When it comes to discipleship, which is noted in the mission statement as the
“spiritual growth” and “truth about God and the Bible” elements, there are two structures at the Bronte Church that address these goals: the Sabbath School and the weekly prayer meeting. Of these two, Sabbath School is the one that has more potential, since the prayer meeting is a poorly attended midweek gathering generally consisting of a succinct Bible study and prayer exercises. According to the Seventh-day Adventist official and worldwide Church Manual, “The Sabbath School is the primary religious education system of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and has four purposes: study of the
Scripture, fellowship, community outreach, and world mission emphasis.”7 The Sabbath
School department at the world headquarters describes this ministry as follows: “Sabbath
School is discipleship through religious education—and so much more. In seeking to meet the spiritual needs of its members, it features emphases in fellowship, outreach,
Bible study, and mission and provides a rich spiritual environment in practical, everyday settings” (emphasis added).8
7 Secretariat of General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Church Manual of Seventh-day Adventists (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2005), 105.
8 General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, “Sabbath School Personal Ministries,” http://www.sabbathschoolpersonalministries.org (accessed January 14, 2014). 45 As per these two official statements, from its inception the Sabbath School has sought to facilitate four important aspects: fellowship, outreach, Bible study, and mission.
Over the years, though, the main focus has turned to Bible study. In most churches
Sabbath School has become a theological discussion in small groups with some general practical application at the end. It is fair to say that in most cases, of these four purposes, study of Scripture has become the number one purpose, followed by mission emphasis, though this purpose has weakened over the years and consists mainly of collecting and sending offering for mission projects abroad. The other two purposes of fellowship and local outreach are almost non-existent.
The adult Sabbath School program is generally comprised of three parts: a) the introduction, which takes generally about five to ten minutes and includes some music,
Sabbath School Superintendent’s remarks, and prayer; b) the division into classes, which takes about an hour for Bible study; and c) the closing segment which takes five to ten minutes and includes some closing remarks, a musical feature or congregational song and closing prayer. This program that has served the church for decades is a great structure for discipleship, yet it faces some challenges. First is the challenge of distorted focus. The fact that it is called a “school” in a society that generally associates the term with intellectual knowledge, adds to the fact that historically the Adventist Church has been a
“truth-oriented” denomination, results normally in an “information”-focused study, rather than a “transformational” experience. There are always exceptions to the rule, but in general, most of the time is dedicated to a theological discussion/debate, rather than transformation purposes.
46 The second challenge is one of format. Since this is a program that occurs right before the worship service (where people come dressed and mentally prepared for congregational worship), there is a certain formality. This formality is not always conducive to dealing with intimate life issues pertaining to personal character development.
The third challenge has to do with the venue and the layout of the class. Most churches do not have classrooms where people can sit in a circle and intimately share with one another face to face. In most cases the classes function in the sanctuary, where members sit in church pews and the teacher “lectures” from the front. This is the case at the Bronte Church, which has only one adult class that gathers in the church sanctuary.
This, again, is not necessarily conducive to intimate discussions on personal life issues.
Last but not least is the challenge of time. It is not uncommon for the program to start late, and the lesson time is reduced to about forty-five minutes. The teacher is usually concerned with covering all the points of the lesson, and little time if any is left for class interaction and fellowship. Again, most of the time is dedicated to the study of the lesson, rather than for sharing personal real life experiences.
Community: Lacking in Frequency and Trust
Community is an essential component of the church. It is impossible to fulfill the great commission of making disciples outside of Christian community. According to its mission statement, the Bronte Church seeks to be “a safe and comfortable environment,” focused on “building relationships,” and characterized as being “caring.” However, in actuality this is an area that needs attention and intentional action.
47 Towards the end of 2010, the Bronte Church implemented the NCD survey to determine its health in relation to the eight quality characteristics of healthy churches as proposed by the NCD paradigm. The results showed that one of the weakest areas is that of loving relationships. Some of the lower scoring questions had to do with relationships, particularly with lack of trust. The Bronte Church has been generally known for being a friendly church, but this survey and the discussion that followed with church leaders showed that the communal experiences at the Bronte Church are rather superficial.
Members seem to be very friendly on the outside, but deep inside they have not grown to trust other members in their congregation.
Any attempt to grow in community at the Bronte Church should address the following major internal and external challenges. The first of the internal challenges is lack of focus. Both at this local church as well as generally in Adventism, there is a tendency to miss the centrality of community in the life of the church. Community is commonly seen as a secondary, extra, bonus benefit, but not at the center of what it means to be the Church of Christ.
The second challenge is lack of intentionality. Because the church does not seem to see community as essential, little if anything at all is intentionally being done to foster authentic biblical community; social events and gatherings are sporadically planned while this vital aspect of the church is left to chance, perhaps with the hope that at some point the Holy Spirit will somehow bring it about. Deliberate plans need to be made to make community a central focus of the church.
The third and perhaps the most crucial challenge is lack of clarity. Some churches make efforts to foster community and yet still produce an individualistic alternative to
48 authentic biblical community, or what could be called “pseudo-community.” In other words, very often Christians have a vision of community that is not faithful to the biblical vision for community. The Bronte Church is no exception to this. On this very note, Julie
Gorman, in her book, Community That Is Christian, writes,
As possessors of a contrasting worldview, we struggle against another temptation in community. That temptation is to settle for a semblance of community by simply placing small groups on our church or classroom menu. Real community takes submission and commitment as well as intentionality and time. Simply calling a gathering a group or a committee does not make it into community.9
Gorman challenges churches to evaluate small groups and ask themselves if even what could be obviously perceived as the most conducive structure for community, namely small groups, is just a “semblance of community,” as she calls it. Along these lines she also states, “The group becomes one more tool to help the individual achieve what he or she has already determined, thus providing opportunity for the individual to focus on self in the presence of others. We use groups for our own ends.”10
In his book, The Connecting Church, Randy Frazee presents three problems that challenge community in our North American culture: individualism, isolation, and consumerism. According to Frazee, “Individualism is a way of life that makes the individual supreme or sovereign over everything.”11 Consumerism is a frantic race to obtain material things, putting relationships in a second place; material things become, consciously or unconsciously, more important than people. A fourth “external” challenge
9 Julie A. Gorman, Community That Is Christian (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 15.
10 Ibid., 63.
11 Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 42. 49 to community is lack of time. Most members at the Bronte Church face all of these external challenges.
Opportunities for a Small Group Ministry
This section presents some of the main opportunities at the Bronte Church that favour the launch of a small group initiative. The most important is the result of a recent
NCD survey, posing holistic small groups as the feeblest church health factor. Other opportunity factors include: low attendance to the weekly mid-week prayer meeting, a geographically dispersed congregation, and the arrival of a new pastor.
Recent NCD Survey: “Holistic Small Groups” as Lowest Factor
As mentioned above, towards the beginning of my ministry at the Bronte Church, the leadership decided to take the NCD survey in order to gauge the health of the church.
This survey measured eight areas: empowering leadership, gift-oriented ministry, passionate spirituality, effective structures, inspiring worship, holistic small groups, need- oriented evangelism, and loving relationships. Of these eight, the Bronte Church scored the lowest in holistic small groups.
All churches have some sort of small groups: committees, ministries, music groups, and classes are but a few examples. The difference, however, is in the word
“holistic.” Schwartz uses the words “head,” “heart,” and “hands”12 to describe the three main areas of a holistic small group.13 He defines it as follows: “The best way to
12 Christian Schwartz, The Three Colours of Community (Port Hope, ON: Fordelm, 2012), 11.
13 Though not necessarily exactly the way Schwartz uses them, for this project “head” relates to discipleship, “heart” to community, and “hands” to mission. 50 understand what holistic small groups are is to see them as a ‘church in microcosm.’ That means you can expect everything that characterizes the church as a whole – for instance the eight quality characteristics – to function, with slight variations, at the small group level as well.”14
Having holistic small groups as the lowest factor measured by the NCD survey became a great opportunity to intentionally develop this important aspect of church life, particularly for three reasons. The first and most obvious reason was that this was the weakest area of church health according to the survey. The second reason was because
Schwartz’s paradigm for small groups focuses on three areas that correspond almost directly with the three values of this project: “head” (discipleship), “heart” (community), and “hands” (mission). The third reason was because Schwartz sees the holistic small groups as a “church in microcosm”; this project seeks church identity through small groups. The natural follow-up step to this survey, in order to be consistent and responsible with the process, was to explore the development of a small group ministry that was balanced and included the three main areas mentioned before.
Low Attendance at Midweek Prayer Meeting
Prayer meeting is a one-hour weekly program that normally takes place on
Wednesday evenings. Its main components are Bible study, testimonies, and prayer.
Originally, when the Adventist Church started this ministry in the late 1900s, meetings used to take place in members’ homes, and there was a major emphasis on prayer and personal testimonies. Nowadays, however, prayer meeting has become more formal, and
14 Schwartz, Color Your World with NCD, 116. 51 it normally takes place in the main sanctuary of the church. This is the case at the Bronte
Church. Presently, out of approximately 130 people who regularly attend worship services, between eight and fifteen attend prayer meetings. This reality, plus the low attendance at the Sabbath School program and the fact that it is not conducive to transforming discipleship, presents a unique opportunity to establish a fresh small group ministry.
A Geographically Dispersed Congregation
One of the main reasons why members do not attend prayer meeting is distance from their homes to the church. Although there is a good group of members who live relatively close to the church, a significant number of members at the Bronte Church have to travel at least twenty to forty minutes to the church. This makes it very difficult for members to interact with each other and to experience their Christian faith in community outside of the formal church gatherings. The strategic formation of small groups – according to the geographical clusters of families in the various communities they come from – seems to be a logical way to try to facilitate meaningful and relevant community, discipleship, and mission.
New Pastor: Openness to Change and New Initiatives
Another opportunity to start a new small group strategy at the Bronte Church is the arrival of a new pastor, which usually marks a new cycle in the life of a congregation.
Most members seem to be more open to exploring new ideas and to try new initiatives when a new leader arrives. Also, if there is a time when a pastor puts on his or her visionary glasses, it is at the beginning of a term at a new church. Since the Bronte
52 Church went through a transitional year without a pastor, at my arrival the members seemed to be eager to follow a new leader in order to move things forward and upward.
Potential Challenges
One of the potential challenges of launching a new small group initiative is the fact that the Bronte Church is not a large church, and most of the members that would potentially become the small group leaders are already heavily involved in ministry. This could create different scenarios. One is that ideal potential leaders choose not to participate due to present commitments. Another is that they do choose to participate, adding an extra ministry load on them and their families which could potentially lead to ministry burnout. A third scenario is that they choose to participate and neglect other ministry responsibilities. And a fourth scenario is that hopefully they choose to participate and are able to manage all their responsibilities well.
Another potential challenge of implementing a small group strategy is members’ resistance to change. This is not necessarily change in terms of starting a new initiative but rather change to a new paradigm of doing church. As busy and burdensome as a program-based ministry can be, a lifestyle-based ministry is definitely more demanding and requires a commitment of time as well as accountability, transparency, and vulnerability.
Concluding Remarks
This chapter has presented a brief history of the Bronte Church, showing its development from its beginnings to its present scenario of a church at a crossroads. On the one hand, several current positive factors make the case for a bright present and
53 future. A few examples of this include its strategic location amidst a growing community; its recent demographical changes towards diversity, reflective of its surrounding population; its past positive changes in worship format and style; its well established financial stability; and its changes in leadership towards a more progressive, multicultural, inclusive, and empowering style.
On the other hand, some of the real challenges the Bronte Church is facing are: a stagnant membership in the last ten years; a disparity between its mission statement and its lived values; a discipleship program mainly focused on information; a lack of intentional and incarnational mission where evangelistic efforts are primarily focused on programs and events; and a weak Christian community experience as per the NCD survey. From a practical standpoint, these challenges could lead the Bronte Church to future decline; from an ontological and teleological perspective, ecclesiological identity and purpose of need to be revised and pursued in the life of this church.
These opportunities and challenges present and optimal opportunity to establish a small group ministry that will help the Bronte Church live out its calling as the church of
Jesus Christ. As church members intentionally seek to grow in their understanding and experience of community, discipleship, and mission through a small group strategy, a better optimization of current opportunities can be achieved.
54
PART TWO
THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
CHAPTER 3
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter examines literature relevant to the main topic of this project. It begins with a general look at ecclesiology and moves to a more specific study on the three core ecclesiological components of the proposed small group strategy, namely, community, discipleship, and mission. The last section looks at literature that speaks directly and specifically to the subject of small groups.
Perspectives on Ecclesiology
This section reviews two books that focus upon ecclesiology. The first, The Body of Christ, by Reinder Bruinsma, focuses upon Adventist ecclesiology, while the second,
The Forgotten Ways, by Alan Hirsch, discusses ecclesiology more generally. Each one contributes significantly to this project.
The Body of Christ, Reinder Bruinsma
This book was a much-needed one within Adventism. The first reason is, as
Bruinsma states, there is “hardly any major Adventist works on the doctrine of the
56 church.”1 The second reason is due to its scope. In this book, Bruinsma covers major aspects on the subject in a balanced and all-encompassing way. Adventist theologian
George Knight refers to it as “the most comprehensive treatment on this crucial fundamental belief in the history of the denomination.”2
Bruinsma opens his book on ecclesiology by presenting the relevancy of this topic, not only from a doctrinal, philosophical, and theological perspective, but also from the point of view of mere survival. It is important to have a clear understanding of ecclesiology in order to do things better. But beyond this, Bruinsma argues that a fundamental reason to study this subject is the major crisis that the Christian Church is facing, predominantly in the Western part of the world. This, writes Bruisnma, is mainly due to the shift from modernity to postmodernity. Though the issues in this crisis require practical solutions, they must be also analyzed theologically. In Bruisnma’s words, “Yes, a lot of change may be needed in the church. But how can we be sure that in adopting change we are not losing something that is fundamental and do not end up with something that many be an interesting social structure but is no longer a ‘church’ in the biblical sense and in the way Christ intended?”3
After presenting a convincing argument about the urgent relevancy for a serious theological study of the Church, the author goes on to tackle major ecclesiological issues biblically and theologically. Starting with the Old Testament and moving to the New
Testament, he makes a clear connection and continuity between the people of God before
1 Reinder Bruinsma, The Body of Christ (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2009), 11.
2 Ibid., 1.
3 Ibid., 19. 57 and after Jesus, Israel, and the Church. Even though the term “church” first appears in the
New Testament, in the broader sense of the word, it goes all the way back to very beginning. As Bruinsma puts it, “From the very beginning, God wanted to work through people who were loyal to His instructions, who were prepared to work with Him to bring salvation to the world.”4 Thus, God has always called individuals, families, nations, and groups of people to accomplish his purposes on earth. Simply put, the Church is the people who respond to that call. Bruinsma speaks of election and covenant as central realities of God’s people in the Old Testament.
Bruinsma discusses several major ecclesiological themes in this book. These include biblical foundations (Old Testament roots, New Testament beginnings, themes and metaphors, etc.), the marks of the Church, the Spirit in the Church, Church government, the doctrine of the Church through history, ecumenism, the Church and social justice, the mission of the Church, and the future of the Church. Overall and in spite of the serious challenges the Church faces in the twenty first century, Bruinsma conveys a very optimistic view for the future.
This book speaks to this project in many important ways. First, it provides solid biblical and theological foundations towards a clear understanding and definition of the
Church. Considering a broad conception of the Church – as the people who respond to
God’s call to accomplish his purposes on earth – it touches on general issues such as: beginnings, destiny, continuity, themes, and metaphors, thus painting a broad biblical picture of the Church from Genesis to Revelation. Many of these will be dealt with in more detail in Chapter 4, which deals specifically with ecclesiology.
4 Ibid., 23. 58 Second, the fifth chapter, entitled “The Marks of the Church,” correlates directly with the three core elements analyzed and pursued in this project as fundamental when speaking of church identity. Bruinsma points out that “the Apostles’ Creed expresses four fundamental convictions about the Christian church. It underlines (1) its unity, (2) its universality, (3) its holiness, and (4) is apostolicity.”5 He explains that these were the key criteria for the leaders in the early centuries to identify the true church and those who belonged (or did not belong) to it. The author writes,
Denominations are structures in which the visible church exists. Some are closer to the ideal of the Apostles’ Creed than others. Might one say that denominations can claim to be truly part of the church universal only as long as they are serious about maintain these marks of the Christian church? Could we also say that the Seventh-day Adventist Church will have and keep the right to view itself as being God’s church (albeit not exclusively so, as if they were God’s only children on this earth) only to the extent that it is committed to realizing true unity, true holiness, true catholicity, and true apostolicity in its community? And would it not be true to say that this applies to the denomination as a whole as well as to any local congregation? . . . It is important to devote some space to a discussion about the characteristics that identify the “true” church.6
According to this statement, Bruinsma invites his (Adventist) readers to consider these marks as “the” essential marks of the Church. He also seeks to take this discussion from the theological realm to the local church context. He writes, “This consideration ensures that the discussion about these marks does not remain on an elevated level of academic theology, but will actually touch the lives of the individual church members in whatever small or large church they worship.”7
5 Ibid., 59.
6 Ibid., 61.
7 Ibid. 59 As Bruinsma discusses these four marks – unity, holiness, universality, and apostolicity – he touches directly on the three core elements of this project: community, discipleship, and mission. First he speaks about the “oneness” or communal aspect of the
Church and argues that “striving for true spiritual unity in the church is not optional.”8 He then alludes to both discipleship and mission when he writes about two biblical dimensions of holiness: missional and moral. In this regard, he begins by pointing to the root meaning of “holiness” in the Bible as “being set aside, no longer being available for profane purposes but reserved for service to God”9 and concludes that “the holiness of the church has first of all to do with the mission of the church.”10 However, this would be, according to the author, an incomplete depiction of the holiness of the Church. He writes,
“It is important to keep this biblical usage of ‘holy’ in mind. Nonetheless, it does not offer the complete picture. For it cannot be denied that holiness definitely also has a moral dimension and that it stands in contrast with sinfulness and separation from
God.”11 He goes on to say that “a relationship with God presupposes an eagerness to lead a life that tries to incorporate the kingdom’s values.”12 The “holiness” mark, then, has to do with both discipleship and mission.
The universality or catholicity of the Church relate to both community and mission. Members of a local congregation experience community in their own local
8 Ibid., 63.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid., 64.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid. 60 contexts, but must remember that they belong and are connected to the universal Church, the Body of Christ. This universal connection, argues Bruinsma, has two dimensions: time and space. Christians are connected to the global geographical body of Christ as well as to the historical community of Christ. From a missional standpoint, the Church is called to make disciples of all nations; in other words, though local congregations may have a primary local mission, the Church also has a global missional responsibility.
The fourth mark, that of apostolicity, speaks directly both to the issues of discipleship and mission. Using Bruinsma’s own words, “Apostolic, therefore, means adhering to the teachings of the apostles. . . . The word ‘apostle’ comes from the Greek verb apostello, meaning ‘to send.’ As the apostles’ total focus was on their mission to proclaim the risen Christ to the entire world, likewise the church must remain truly apostolic in the pursuit of its task to preach the gospel to all people.”13 The apostolic
“mark” of the Church implies both to stay true and faithful to the teachings (discipleship) of the apostles, and to remain apostolic in the “sending” of the Church and in the preaching of the gospel (mission). In summary, Bruinsma argues that the true identity of the Church includes these four marks: unity, holiness, universality, and apostolicity. In the context of this project, community, discipleship, and mission are explicitly and/or implicitly interwoven in these four marks.
A third important contribution to this project is Bruinsma’s exposition on the mission of the Church. He discusses this both in general as it relates to Christianity and specifically from an Adventist perspective, particularly Adventist missionary origins and the influence of its eschatological emphasis on missions. He provides a balanced and
13 Ibid., 70. 61 holistic approach to the subject (a whole chapter on social justice), emphasizing God’s initiative and involvement throughout the Bible, including Jesus as the greatest missionary.
A fourth contribution and the last one worth noting is his chapter on the Holy
Spirit and the Church. Bruinsma describes the various aspects of the work of the Holy
Spirit on behalf of the Church and its members. The first aspect is that the Spirit gives assurance of our adoption to God’s family (community): “He is with us when we make our entrance to the family of God.” The second aspect is that the Spirit is the Spirit of truth (discipleship): “The Spirit of truth guides us, individually and collectively, in our choices between what is right and wrong.” The third aspect is that the Holy Spirit directs the proclamation of the gospel (mission): “Without a powerful presence of the Spirit, evangelism remains utterly ineffective.” The fourth aspect is that the Spirit directs the worship of the Church: “Real worship is impossible without the involvement of the
Spirit.”14
The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch
In his introduction to The Forgotten Ways, Hirsch describes himself and the intent of his book as “a missionary and a strategist trying to help the church formulate a missional paradigm that can take us through the complexities of the twenty-first-century world in which we are called to be faithful.”15 Written by a practitioner, this book provides a convincing ecclesiological paradigm based both on theological arguments as
14 Ibid., 74.
15 Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), 26. 62 well as on tested experiences. In it, Hirsch uses both the early Church and the twentieth- century Chinese Church as primary test cases. He tries to pinpoint the irreducible elements of what he calls “Apostolic Genius,” that is, “the built-in life force and guiding mechanism of God’s people,” as well as its missional DNA or mDNA (“missional
DNA”), that is, “the living components or elements that make it up.”16 The six interrelating elements of mDNA are, according to Hirsch: a) Jesus is Lord, “the claim of the One God over every aspect of every life”; b) Disciple Making, “becoming like Jesus by embodying his message”; c) Missional-Incarnational Impulse, “outward thrust and the related impulse that seed and embed the gospel into different cultures and people groups”; d) Apostolic Environment, “the type of leadership and ministry required to sustain metabolic growth and impact”; e) Organic Systems, “the appropriate structures for metabolic growth”; and f) Communitas, Not Community, “most vigorous forms of community, those that come together in the context of a shared ordeal or those that define themselves as a group with a mission that lies beyond themselves – thus initiating a risky journey.”17
There are six major contributions this book has made to this project. First is the concept of “irreducibility.”18 As already noted, Hirsch seeks to identify the “irreducible elements” of apostolic genius. The Church has evolved through the centuries; new practices and traditions based on different contexts have emerged. The problem arises
16 Ibid., 18.
17 Ibid., 24-25.
18 When I first read this book at the beginning of my doctoral program at Fuller, this concept of “irreducibility” literally revolutionized my thinking and challenged me profoundly to find my own irreducible or core elements of the church. 63 when traditions and practices that originated as means to an end become ends in themselves. Therefore, there is always a need to look beyond the surface of programs, practices and traditions; there is a constant necessity to define and/or redefine the “raw” elements and purposes that make up the church, and to be intentional about how to embody them in relevant ways.
A second contribution is the centrality of Jesus. On one hand, this should be obvious and it should affect everything the Church does. Yet it seems imperative to mention it explicitly. Hirsch writes,
At the very heart, Christianity is therefore a messianic movement, one that seeks to consistently embody the life, spirituality, and mission of its Founder. We have made it so many other things, but this is its utter simplicity. Discipleship, becoming like Jesus our lord and Founder, lies at the epicenter of the church’s task. It means that Christology must define all that we do and say. It also means that in order to recover the ethos of authentic Christianity, we need to refocus our attention back to the Root of it all, to recalibrate ourselves and our organizations around the person and work of Jesus the Lord.19
A third point, which speaks directly to the issue of ecclesiology, is the
“Christendom shift” which took place after Constantine’s alleged conversion to
Christianity. Seventh-day Adventists are most familiar with this event in the history of
Christianity, particularly with the official shift in the day of worship, from Saturday to
Sunday, which Hirsch points out in his book. However, Adventists in general have overlooked a bigger and more devastating shift that took place in relation to the core identity and overall modus operandi of the Church. In this regard, Hirsch quotes Rodney
Stark when he writes, “For too long, historians have accepted the claim that the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (ca. 285-337) caused the triumph of Christianity.
19 Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 94. 64 To the contrary, he destroyed its most attractive and dynamic aspects, turning a high- intensity, grassroots movement into an arrogant institution controlled by an elite who often managed to be both brutal and lax.”20 The problem is that, as Hirsch states, “while as a socio-political-cultural force Christendom is dead, and we now live in what has been aptly called the post-Christendom era, the church still operates in exactly the same mode.
In terms of how we understand and ‘do’ church, little has changed for seventeen centuries.”21
A fourth point worth citing involves the main elements of mDNA. For the purpose of the small group project in this study, three of them (Disciple making;
Communitas, Not Community; and Missional-Incarnational Impulse) are intentionally and explicitly sought, while the other two (Jesus Is Lord and Apostolic Environment) play a key intrinsic role as well. This does not mean that the small group project is modeled exactly and specifically after Hirsch’s paradigm; however, what it means is that the five same elements are central, three explicitly (community, discipleship, and mission) and two implicitly (Jesus as central and leadership).
A fifth contribution is the clear interconnectedness between the core ecclesiological elements. Hirsch identifies the following five elements as the essential components that together form a church: a) a covenantal community; b) centered on
Jesus; which results in c) worship; d) discipleship; and e) mission. About the relationship between these elements, he pens, “It needs to be noted that practically as well as theologically these are profoundly interconnected, and each informs the other to create a
20 Rodney Stark, For the Glory of God (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 33, as quoted in Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 60.
21 Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 61. 65 complex phenomenon called ‘church.’”22 This is to say that, while in theory each can be identified, analyzed, and studied separately, in practice they are all part of one and the same experience called the Church. Simply put, there is no community in Christ without discipleship and mission; there is no discipleship outside of Christian community and without involvement in mission; and mission in its fullest sense is experienced in community, and its ultimate goal is to make disciples.
A sixth and final major impact of this book is the author’s deep theological reflection on and practical implementation of each of the three ecclesiological elements of this small group project: community, discipleship, and mission. In regards to community, besides the theological exposition on the subject, it is hard not to be touched by, learn lessons from, and admire the author’s testimony of the communal experiences of the South Melbourne Church of Christ. In the area of discipleship, Hirsch proposes
Christlikeness as the main objective.23 This implies both imitation and embodiment. He also proposes a holistic approach to discipleship as a way of life with these words:
Disciple making operates best with the Hebrew understanding of knowledge in mind. In other words, we need to take a whole person into account in seeking to transform that person. We also need to understand that we have to educate these whole people in the context of life and for life. The way we do this, indeed the way Jesus did it, is to act our way into a new way of thinking. This is clearly how Jesus formed His disciples.24
When it comes to mission, Hirsch proposes an incarnational model with four dimensions, based on the incarnation of God in Jesus: a) Presence: God was present to us in Jesus; b)
Proximity: God in Christ has approached us not only in a way that we can understand, but
22 Ibid., 40-41.
23 Ibid., 113.
24 Ibid., 123. 66 in a way that we can access; c) Powerlessness: God takes the form of a servant and not that of someone who rules over us; d) Proclamation: Jesus heralded the reign of God and called people to respond in repentance and faith.25
An Exploration of Specific Core Ecclesiological Elements
This section will discuss the three ecclesiological elements that are focused on in this project: discipleship, mission, and community. For discipleship, James Wilhoit’s book, Spiritual Formation as If the Church Mattered, will be reviewed. In regards to mission, The Missional Church, by Darrel Guder, will be presented. Finally, on the topic of community, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, Life Together, will be discussed.
Discipleship: Spiritual Formation as If the Church Mattered, James Wilhoit
As the author states, this book seeks “to provide guidance on community-oriented and educationally-based spiritual formation that has stood the test of time”26 by setting forward “a curriculum for Christlikeness grounded in the gospel and the grace that it makes available.”27 It is a thorough exposition on the subject with a good balance between theory and practice. It also provides a robust integration of tested works and authors such as Willard, Bonhoeffer, Dikstra, Peterson, and Foster. Wilhoit proposes the following four spiritual commitments as the four pillars of formation, always in the context of Christian community: receiving, remembering, responding, and relating. He defines each of them as follows:
25 Ibid., 132.
26 James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as If the Church Mattered (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 14.
27 Ibid., 205. 67 The receiving dimension highlights our need to focus on Jesus and be open to his grace for spiritual formation. . . . Remembering describes the process of learning to remember, deep in our heart, who we are and, more important, whose we are. The next dimension, responding, reminds us that the enterprise of formational changes of character and action do not exist for our own private ends but to enable us to serve others and the world through love. Finally, relating affirms that spiritual formation takes place best in and through community.28
There are four major contributions this book makes in the area of discipleship, which can be summarized with these four words: priority, picture, path, and place. The first one, priority, has to do with the centrality of formation and discipleship to the
Church. The Church exists to make disciples of all nations. That is its main raison d’être.
Wilhoit puts it in this way:
Spiritual formation is the task of the church. Period. It represents neither an interesting, optional pursuit by the church nor an insignificant category in the job description of the body of Christ. Spiritual formation is at the heart of its whole purpose for existence. The church was formed to form. Our charge, given by Jesus himself, is to make disciples, baptize them, and teach these new disciples to obey his commands (Matt. 28:19-20).29
Second, the author conveys a clear and compelling picture of discipleship and formation. To begin with this picture, Wilhoit provides the following basic definition:
“Christian spiritual formation refers to the intentional communal process of growing in our relationship with God and becoming conformed to Christ through the power of the
Holy Spirit.”30 He then presents a series of biblical images of spiritual formation, grouped
28 Ibid., 50-51.
29 Ibid., 15.
30 Ibid., 23.
68 in three categories: Christian life and nurture; Christian life as journey and struggle; and
Christian life and the resurrection.31
As he unveils his picture of formation, Wilhoit also makes the connection between the gospel and formation. He writes, “Much of our failure in conceptualizing spiritual formation comes from our failure to keep the gospel central to our ministry. Too often people see the gospel as merely the front door to Christianity, or worse, ‘heaven’s minimum entrance requirement.’”32 On this point he also writes, “The gospel is the power of God for the beginning, middle, and end of salvation. It is not merely what we need to proclaim to unbelievers; the gospel also needs to permeate our entire Christian experience.”33 He even goes further to say that “the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the persistent rediscovery of the gospel. All our spiritual problems come from a failure to apply the gospel.”34
Third, not only does Wilhoit emphasize the priority of formation and provides a picture of it, but he also proposes a path, that is, a framework or curriculum to discipleship. This path or framework is based on the four dimensions already mentioned and defined: receiving, remembering, responding, and relating. He juxtaposes his proposed framework or model for spiritual formation with what he calls six false models,
31 Ibid., 24-26.
32 Ibid., 27.
33 Ibid., 29.
34 Ibid., 32. 69 which are: the quick-fix model; the facts-only model; the emotional model; the conference model; the insight model; and the faith model.35
Fourth, this book establishes a direct correlation between discipleship, formation, and community, particularly small groups. The author presents Christian community as the context or place for formation and discipleship. Any serious attempt to intentionally pursue discipleship will include a communal aspect attached to it.
Mission: The Missional Church, Darrell Guder
This book was birthed out of two main concerns. The first is the crisis the
Christian Church has been and is facing in North America in the last decades, moving from center stage to the margins of society and transforming North America into an increasingly challenging mission field. The second concern is the way that the Christian churches are responding to this crisis, offering mainly methodological solutions.36
Therefore, Guder writes,
The basic thesis of this book is that the answer to the crisis of the North American church will not be found at the level of method and problem solving. We share the conviction of a growing consensus of Christians in North America that the problem is much more deeply rooted. It has to do with who we are and what we are for. The real issues in the current crisis of the Christian church are spiritual and theological. That is what this study is about.37
At the heart of the book is a new look at ecclesiology from a missional perspective,
“moving from church with mission to missional church.”38 This means, argues Guder,
35 Ibid., 51-55.
36 Darrell Guder, Missional Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 2.
37 Ibid., 3.
38 Ibid., 6. 70 that “mission is not merely an activity of the church. Rather, mission is the result of
God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purposes to restore and heal creation.”39 Using this new missional focus at the center of ecclesiology as the point of departure, this study travels along some important major aspects of the Church in North America, such as the current
North American context and culture; the current reality of the Christian Church in North
America; and a fresh look at core elements of the Church, including vocation, witness, community, leadership, structures, and networking. This fresh look is presented from a missional standpoint.
A major contribution of this book, since this small group project is being planned and implemented in a Canadian context, is its inclusion of Canada in the North American picture, providing detailed unique realities that speak directly to such a context. Another important contribution is its thorough analysis of the North American context or mission field, contrasting the modern self with the emerging postmodern condition. The modern self is described as “the dominant construct for how people think of themselves within contemporary Western societies, including those of North America.”40 A more detailed definition of the modern self is offered in these words, “The modern self exists within a social order structured around citizenship and nation-state authority. Its shaping dynamics include the possession of personal rights, perpetual consumption, development of a constructed identity, the use of efficient technique, and a search for intense experience.
Each of these dynamics creates an unresolved tension.”41 In contrast, what the book
39 Ibid., 4.
40 Ibid., 31.
41 Ibid. 71 describes as the emerging postmodern condition includes patterns such as: endless choices made available by technologies; loss of shared experiences; meanings conveyed as surfaces and images; transient relationships; plurality of approaches to sexual expression and experience; increasingly two-tiered economy with many dead-end jobs; personal spirituality without the necessity of organized religion; random violence and clashes between cultures; feelings of anger or resentment because somebody else has left a “mess” for others to clean up; relative truth; decentered self; and a pluralistic society which results in new forms of community.42
Perhaps the most obvious contribution of this book is its deep theology of mission as central to the identity, life, and practices of the Church. The book deals both with the
“what” and the “how” of mission. It deinstitutionalizes the Church and its mission, emphasizing the view of the Church as people instead of a place, and tracing its missional origin back to the triune God under the missio Dei motto. Mission is seen not as the task performed by members to win more members for their organization (church), but rather as the sending of the called to represent the reign of God in their respective communities.
The authors make a distinction between the Church and the reign of God; they are closely related, but not the same.
In this book’s appeal for the Church to become missional, the Church is challenged to: be the community of the reign of God; act faithfully on behalf of the reign of God within the public life of their society; and then learn to speak in post-Christendom
42 Ibid., 37-44.
72 accents as confident yet humble messengers of the reign of God.43 This sequence is simple and yet imperative for mission in a postmodern context: be, act, and then speak.
Community: Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Life Together is a well-known theological treatise on Christian community, a result of the reflections of Lutheran theologian and martyr Deitrich Bonhoeffer on his involvement in and experience of a unique fellowship at an underground seminary during the Nazi regime in Germany. It provides both profound biblical and theological considerations as well as simple and practical applications on how to experience
Christian community. Though the immediate application is best suited for and understood in Bonhoeffer’s sitz im leben (“situation in life”), there are undoubtedly many practical applications for twenty-first century communities such as Christian congregations, families, and small groups.
The book is divided into five chapters. The first, “Community,” provides
Bonhoeffer’s biblical and theological understanding of Christian community. The second chapter, “The Day with Others,” describes how to experience community through the different faces of the day. The third chapter, “The Day Alone,” reflects on the relationship between solitude or aloneness and fellowship/community. The author writes,
“Only as we are within the fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship.”44 The fourth chapter, “Ministry,” speaks of ministry in the context of and as experienced in and towards community. Lastly, the fifth chapter, “Confession and
43 Ibid., 108-109.
44 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: SCM Press, 1959), 77. 73 Communion,” presents the need for self-examination and confession in the context of
Christian community, as a way to prepare for communion, or as Bonhoeffer calls it, “the joyful sacrament.”45 In the sacrament of communion, the author argues, “Community has reached its goal. Here joy in Christ and his community is complete. The life of Christians together under the Word has reached its perfection in the sacrament.”46
One of the most salient aspects of this book as it relates to this project is the succinct yet profound theological exposition on the basic needs, blessings, and implications of Christian community, particularly, as Bonhoeffer puts it, community
“through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.”47 He explains the meaning of this phrase as follows: “It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in
Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.”48 In this quote, Bonhoeffer stresses the divine origin of, the mediating means towards, and the eternal nature of Christian community as experienced “through” and
“in” Jesus Christ. Building on this concept, the author discourages any kind of human effort, human wishful thinking, or human idealism for community. In this sense he writes, “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”49 Yet by participation he is not
45 Ibid., 120.
46 Ibid., 122.
47 Ibid., 21.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid., 30. 74 just talking of mere external experience, but a faith-based participation, for he writes, “It is not the experience of Christian brotherhood, but solid and certain faith in brotherhood that holds us together. . . . We are bound together by faith, not by experience.”50
In essence, Christian community is not mere socialization but a spiritual intimacy that can only be experienced by faith as individuals grow in their lives “in” Jesus. This has tremendous implications for how community is sought through small groups. It means that true Christian community will not so much occur because of programmatic initiatives or the ongoing gathering of Christians, but rather as life “in” Jesus Christ is pursued and experienced through these gatherings and through the intentional practices of each individual.
Small Group Ministry
In this section, two books will be reviewed that discuss small groups as they relate to the purposes of this project. First, Gareth Icenogle’s Biblical Foundations for Small
Group Ministry will be presented in order to focus on the “why” of small groups. Then,
Jeffrey Arnold’s The Big Group on Small Groups will wrestle with the “how to” of small groups.
Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry, Gareth Icenogle
Many books have been written on the subject of small groups over the last few decades, but most have focused predominantly on methodology. As well, many books have been written on the theology of Christian community, but not necessarily in the specific small group context. It could be argued that Icenogle’s book is one of the first
50 Ibid., 39. 75 attempts to provide a solid biblical and theological foundation for community in and through small groups. As he puts it, “This is not a ‘how-to’ book. This is a ‘why’ book.”51 The author explains the main thesis of his book as follows:
This book is more than an attempt to add small group concerns to the general theme of Christian community. It is an exploration of Christian community in the very nature and character of God. The general thesis is that God has set in motion from the beginning certain divine and human realities that are uniquely “imaged” and “reflected” where two or more persons come together in the presence of God.52
Towards the end of the book, Icenogle boils down his theological foundations for small group ministry, as expounded throughout his book, to the following ten assertions.53 First, from the beginning, God has existed as a community of Being. Second, from the beginning of human history, the eternal God in Community created humanity as community. Third, from the beginning, the human community has struggled with maintaining its integrity of community with God. Fourth, cut off from God, the human community can choose to receive o reject God’s gracious offering to restore divine- human community. Fifth, if the broken human community chooses to accept God’s gracious and personal embrace of restored divine-human community, God works at the redemptive process of restoring an completing the human community be re-interjecting divine community in the midst of human community. Sixth, the ultimate and focused demonstration of God’s reconciling movement toward humanity comes in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, who, in his own being as both God and human, enters the human
51 Gareth Icenogle, Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 11.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid., 371-374. 76 arena as a man who does the work of restoring community between God and humanity.
Seventh, the small groups of men and women who responded to, lived with, and loved the historical Jesus came together as a new community with the resurrected Christ.
Eighth, wherever the person of Jesus calls together two or more other persons, there is the divine-human community in microcosm, the ecclesia, a Christian small group. Ninth, the ecclesia includes small groups of Christians who are scattered around the world, bound together by a common Spirit. Tenth and finally, the Christian small group is a penultimate expression of an ultimate eschatological reality.
Needless to say, the major contribution to this project is Icenogle’s all- encompassing theology of Christian community, particularly its (that is, community’s) consistent manifestation through small groups and hence the strong argument for small groups as God’s chosen framework for humans to return to his original plan for humanity’s existence as a divine-human community. By thoroughly seeking the theological foundations, the author not only provides the “why” of small groups, but also prescribes the “what for.” In this sense, this book is not so much a case to defend small groups as it is to provide a theological foundation (ontology) and direction (teleology) for them. Though it is primarily a theological treatise, it has nonetheless innumerable very practical applications interspersed in every chapter, which challenge the reader to rethink various aspects of small group life.
The Big Book on Small Groups, Jeffrey Arnold
If Icenogle provides the “why” of small groups, in this book Jeffrey Arnold provides the “how to.” This exceedingly pragmatic book is described as “a training
77 course whose purpose is to introduce new leaders to healthy group principles.”54
According to the author it can be outlined as follows: “The first four chapters are designed to be the core small-group training course, while the remaining eight chapters can be used for follow-up training.”55
The first four chapters comprise the main training course for leaders. Each chapter title reflects a principle that should be taught in the leader training. The first chapter is titled, “The Power of Small Groups.” In this chapter Arnold presents small groups as the discipleship model par excellence as evidenced in the life and ministry of Jesus as well as in the life of the early Church. The second chapter is titled, “Building the Church through
Small Groups.” It reflects upon the biblical imagery of the Church as a body, as a living fellowship where every member has a role. Contrasting this with the current predominant passivity of church members in the Western world when it comes to ministry and service, this chapter argues that healthy small groups can create opportunities for the body of
Christ to be built up and achieve maturity. This building up can happen when healthy groups reach inward (group care), upward (nurture and worship) and outward (service and evangelism).56 The third chapter is titled, “Becoming a Leader.” This chapter deals specifically with small group leadership issues, traits, and skills. In the fourth chapter,
“Starting a Group,” Arnold provides the main steps to form and start a small group, including how to choose the members, how to build a covenant, and defining what type of small group it will be. The rest of the book is follow-up training material, after the
54 Jeffrey Arnold, The Big Book on Small Groups (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 12.
55 Ibid., 13.
56 Ibid., 33-39. 78 groups have been established. The later chapters expound upon the three main functions of the group as per Arnold’s definition: reaching inward (community); reaching upward
(discipleship); and reaching outward (mission).
In this training manual for leaders, Arnold provides the following working definition of small groups, one that speaks directly to this project: “A small group is intent on participating with Christ in building his ever-expanding kingdom in the hearts of individuals, in the life of the group and through believers, into the world.”57 The three core ecclesiological elements of this study are directly alluded to in this definition, as
Arnold envisions small groups’ intent in expanding Christ’s kingdom in three ways: first,
“in the hearts of individuals” (discipleship); second, “in the life of the group”
(community); and third, “through believers, into the world” (mission).
Furthermore, Arnold provides specific ways in which the three main areas can be experienced in the context of small groups. Reaching inward (community) includes but is not limited to practicing effective congregational care members to members, more members discovering and using their spiritual gifts, and the development of lay leaders.
Reaching upward includes nurture through meaningful and participatory Bible study, inclusive and participatory worship, thanksgiving and praise, and a more consistent prayer life. Reaching outward includes evangelism, spiritual and numerical growth, and multiplication.
This book is an excellent resource to train small group leaders for a local church context like the Bronte Church. The fact that the author places follow-up training after the small group starts seems to be only wise. This text will be used as the primary
57 Ibid., 32. 79 resource to train the small group leaders for the small group strategy at the Bronte
Church.
Concluding Remarks
The books studied and analyzed in this chapter offered many important insights for this project. They contribute key elements for a theological foundation of the Church, including community, discipleship, and mission. They also contribute to the practical implications and applications for a small group ministry in a local church context.
Within the topic of ecclesiology, Bruinsma’s book made four important contributions. First, he postulates a solid biblical and theological foundation towards and
Adventist ecclesiology. Second, his chapter on the marks of the Church speaks directly to the three ecclesiological elements pursued in this small group strategy. Third, he provides a robust theological framework and a clear and balanced picture of the mission of the
Church. Finally, his chapter on the Holy Spirit and the Church informs directly various aspects of this small group strategy. Additionally, Hirsch's book contributed several insights: the concept of irreducibility; the centrality of Jesus for a coherent ecclesiology;
Constantine's impact upon the way the Church has functioned ever since his conversion to Christianity and the transition of the Christian Church to central stage; his exposition on what he calls mDNA and its correlation with the three elements of this project; the interconnectedness between the core ecclesiological elements; and his reflection on and practical application of the three elements of community, discipleship, and mission.
On the topics of discipleship, mission, and community, three books were reviewed. On the topic of discipleship, four major insights were gained from Wilhoit’s
80 book summarized by the words priority, picture, path, and place. The author emphasizes the priority of discipleship; his picture or definition for discipleship; his path or curriculum for formation; and the emphasis on the small groups as the optimal place or framework for discipleship. On the topic of mission, Guder’s book speaks to this project in many ways: first is the inclusion of the Canadian context as similar and yet different from the American context; second is his comparison and contrast between the modern self and the postmodern emergent condition; and last and most important is his theology of mission as central to the identity, life, and practices of the Church, dealing both with the “what” and the “how” of mission. On the topic of community, Bonhoeffer’s book provides a short yet profound theological exposition on the need, blessings, and implications of Christian community, particularly a Christian community experience that is “in” and “through” Jesus Christ. He also provides practical applications of his theological reflection, which target primarily his immediate context, yet shed light for any attempt of community in any context.
The last two books reviewed focused on small groups. While Icenogle’s book presents a serious all-encompassing theology of Christian community in the context of small groups, providing a theological exposition on the “why” and “what for” small groups, Arnold’s book provides the “how to,” proving to be an excellent, practical resource to implement a small group strategy in a local church context. His threefold inward-upward-outward emphasis correlates directly with the concepts of discipleship community and mission.
81
CHAPTER 4
THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH
This chapter explores the subject of ecclesiology as the foundation upon which the strategy in this project is built. It first presents a biblical study of the Church with a special focus on community, discipleship, and mission. Then, it transitions into an exposition of unique ecclesiological values within the Adventist faith, particularly its historical emphasis on eschatology, the concept of “the remnant” and how that impacts
Adventist ecclesiology, and the three ecclesiological elements of this study. The last section focuses on a current picture of the Adventist Church, including central ecclesiological issues and recent developments.
The Church: A Community with a Mission to Make Disciples
The ecclessia – the Church – is the people who have responded to the calling of
God, “in” Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to belong, be-come, and bless.1 They “belong” to the family of God, experiencing intimate Christian community centered on Jesus. They
“be-come” like Jesus in character and conduct, through a discipleship process that is only possible through the power and transformation of the Holy Spirit, and in the context of
1 This definition has been composed by the author for the purposes of this doctoral project. 82 community. And they bless others, through a life of intentional service and incarnational mission to humanity and creation at large, in the context of the missio Dei, the mission of
God. For illustration purposes, this definition can be expressed in the form of the following equation, where ε= ecclesia; χ= “χριστος” (Christ); and �!= belong, become, and bless:
�! � = �
Figure 1. Definition of ecclesia
The Church in the Image of God: The Trinity and Ecclesiology
The Church originates in the heart of God; it has a divine origin and it is the result of God’s initiative. As the definition above states, the Church exists in response “to the calling of God, in Jesus and through the Holy Spirit.” Furthermore, in the fullest sense of the word, the Church cannot exist apart from God, in the same way that life cannot exist apart from or outside of God. If the Church both originates and can only exist in God, then the Church can be seen as an extension of God on earth. This is not to say that God and the Church are the same. It means that, first of all, it is impossible to conceive the
Church without reference to God, and second, whatever the Church is or does on earth has to be aligned with and be a reflection of God’s person(s) and will.
Christianity, in its majority, understands God as a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit; they are one in three and three in one. They are perfect in unity of purpose and character, and so they are one God. They are perfect in diversity of roles, and so they are
83 three persons. It is not the doctrine of the trinity per se, but the intersection between the
Trinity and ecclesiology that interests this project. As a reflection of the Trinity, the
Church is one with at least three fundamental roles/purposes.
Paul closes his second letter to the Corinthians with the following Trinitarian statement: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen” (2 Corinthians 13:14). This final threefold benediction (of grace, love, and communion) to the church in Corinth, can be used as a point of departure towards a Trinitarian ecclesiology. This verse can be seen as an expression of the desired full reality for the church: the church as a reflection and experience of the triune God. In it, an allusion is made to unique roles of each person of the Trinity and hence three key purposes of the Church as God’s extension on earth.
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Mission
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul affirms, “For it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:8). Luke echoes this idea when he writes, “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved” (Acts 15:11). God’s grace and God’s salvation go hand in hand. It is God’s grace that led Jesus to incarnate into humanity, to live a perfect life, to suffer an unjust, terrible death, and to resurrect again and thus bring hope to humanity. It was not the Father or the Holy Spirit who incarnated and became one with humanity. It was Jesus, the one who fully identified and “graced” humanity with his perfect life and his sacrifice for sinners. The Godhead shares in this grace, of course, but it is Jesus, in his incarnational mission, who is the ultimate
84 expression of it. On the missional nature of the Trinity, in his book, Transforming
Mission, David Bosch writes,
Mission is understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It is thus put in the context of the doctrine of the Trinity, not of ecclesiology or soteriology. The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit is expanded to include yet another “movement”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world.2
It is on this doctrine of God that the missional ecclesiology is built. Commenting on Bosch’s words, Guder states, “This Trinitarian point of entry into our theology of the church necessarily shifts all the accents in our ecclesiology . . . as it leads us to see the church as the instrument of God’s mission.”3 On this very point, in a brief article on the missional church, Hirsch writes,
A proper understanding of missional begins with recovering a missionary understanding of God. By his very nature God is a "sent one" who takes the initiative to redeem his creation. This doctrine, known as missio Dei—the sending of God—is causing many to redefine their understanding of the church. Because we are the “sent” people of God, the church is the instrument of God's mission in the world. . . . Although we frequently say “the church has a mission,” according to missional theology a more correct statement would be “the mission has a church.” A missional community sees the mission as both its originating impulse and its organizing principle. A missional community is patterned after what God has done in Jesus Christ. In the incarnation God sent his Son. Similarly, to be missional means to be sent into the world; we do not expect people to come to us. This posture differentiates a missional church from an attractional church.4
Ultimately, Jesus is the fundamental model for mission. In his prayer in John 17 he affirms, “As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John
17:18). This means not only that his disciples were to continue his mission and his
2 David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991), 390.
3 Guder, Missional Church, 5.
4 Alan Hirsch, “Defining Missional,” Christianity Today Leadership Journal (fall 2008), http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/fall/17.20.html?start=1 (accessed March 1, 2014). 85 message but also his methodology “as” he was sent. In this regard, Ellen White writes,
“Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then he bade them, ‘Follow Me.’”5 Six clear progressive steps are proposed for mission, based on the example of Jesus: a) mingle with humanity; b) desire their good; c) show sympathy; d) minister to their needs; e) win their confidence; then, and only then, f) bid them “follow me.”
As noted in Chapter 3, Hirsch proposes a similar fourfold incarnational model for mission, also based on the incarnation of Jesus. The first is “presence”: God was present to us in Jesus. The second is “proximity”: God in Christ has approached us not only in a way that we can understand, but in a way that we can access. The third is
“powerlessness”: God takes the form of a servant and not that of someone who rules over us. And the fourth is “proclamation”: Jesus heralded the reign of God and called people to respond in repentance and faith.6
It is the reflection of Jesus’ grace and his sacrificial role in the plan of redemption that should motivate and mobilize the Church – those who respond to God’s calling in
Jesus – to show grace to others through ongoing, intentional, incarnational Jesus-like mission. Thus, to wish that “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all” is to wish not only the experience of receiving, but also that of giving grace. This display of unmerited favour will be expressed through intentional and incarnational acts of service
5 Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (1905; repr., Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 1942), 143.
6 Ibid., 132. 86 in the Church’s mission to the world as an imitation and a reflection of Jesus Christ and his grace.
The Love of God: Discipleship
Discipleship can be defined as the intentional process in a communal context by which a person grows in his or her reflection of God’s character and conduct. In his first epistle, John provides the best and most succinct definition of God’s character: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). But God’s love is not just an abstract concept. In Romans 5:8 Paul writes, “God shows his love towards us.” God’s character of love is demonstrated by his conduct or acts towards his creation. Love that is not demonstrated is a questionable love at best.
In 1 Corinthians 13, a well known chapter on love, Paul speaks of the centrality of love for the Christian experience and provides a picture of what true love is like: “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Since “God is love,” these verses can be read by replacing the word “love” with the word “God.” “God is patient and is kind; God does not envy . . . God does not behave rudely, does not seek his own” and so on. It is this type of love that should lie at the heart of discipleship.
In light of this picture of love, it is not hard to understand Jesus when he said that the entire law and the prophets can be summed up in these two commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
87 mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’” (Matthew 22:37-40). Discipleship, then, is not a mere outward obedience of
Jesus’ teachings and commands. It involves inward transformation of a person’s character, which results in acts of love within the parameters of Jesus’ teachings.
In his sermon on the mountain, Jesus also said, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. . . .
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:44,
45, 48, italics provided). Jesus is saying that when his followers get to the point of loving their enemies, they are best reflecting the Father, because “God is love.” As per Jesus’ words, godly perfection is best reflected in humanity through unconditional love, even, or especially, love for one’s enemies.
According to these passages and many others as well, it can be affirmed that love for God and love for others, especially love for one’s enemies, is discipleship at its best.
Love for God involves total surrender to him, regular devotion, undivided worship, and obedience to his commands. Love for others is expressed through healthy attitudes and kind, merciful, pure, uplifting acts towards others.
Of course, the Church has to be intentional in seeking activities and developing effective curriculums for discipleship. For instance, the one proposed by Wilhoit, with the four spiritual commitments/pillars of receiving, remembering, responding, and relating, as mentioned in Chapter 3, proves extremely helpful. However, the Church has
88 to pursue discipleship with its ultimate goal always in the forefront: love God and love others. All the teachings and aspects of Christian discipleship can be summarized by and should strive towards loving God and loving others, including one’s enemies. When one wishes, then, that “the love of God be with us all,” one’s focus should go beyond being recipients of God’s love to becoming conduits of it as his disciples and in a discipleship process towards Christlikeness.
The Communion of the Spirit: Community
Right before his ascension to heaven, the gospels state that Jesus gathered his followers and gave them what is known today as the Great Commission: the mandate to make disciples of Jesus of all nations. In the book of Acts, Luke includes a very specific command in the context of that commission: “And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
Father, ‘which,’ he said, ‘you have heard from me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4, 5).
The baptism of the Spirit is perhaps the most important promise given by Jesus to his Church. It is so essential that Jesus instructed his followers not to do anything but to stay in Jerusalem until they had received it. In the case of the early Church, the experience that led to the fulfillment of this promise was pure, authentic, transforming, inclusive, Christian community. Prior to receiving the Holy Spirit, Luke writes, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). Commenting on this experience,
White writes,
89 In obedience to Christ’s command, they waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father—the outpouring of the Spirit. They did not wait in idleness. . . . As the disciples waited for the fulfillment of the promise, they humbled their hearts in true repentance and confessed their unbelief. . . . Putting away all differences, all desire for the supremacy, they came close together in Christian fellowship.7
According to Luke’s account, this experience of fellowship and community that led to the outpouring of God’s Spirit was deepened after Pentecost: “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need” (Acts 2:44, 45). The experience of Christian community and the baptism of the Spirit go hand in hand. To wish then that
“the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all” implies more than to enjoy the company and communion of the Spirit in one’s life, as important and beautiful as that can be. It also implies to experience this communion “horizontally,” as Christians relate to one another.
These are not the only three purposes of the Church, but they are foundational, and other purposes are included in, subservient to, and/or a result of these three. Worship is one example of another purpose of the Church that falls under one or more of the three primary purposes. In Chapter 3, Bruinsma’s fourfold description of the work of the Holy
Spirit on behalf of the Church was presented as: first, the Spirit gives assurance of believers’ adoption to God’s family (community); second, the Spirit is the Spirit of truth
(discipleship); third, the Holy Spirit directs the proclamation of the gospel (mission); and fourth, the Spirit directs the worship of the Church.8 Bruinsma adds worship to the three elements of community, discipleship, and mission. When considering where worship fits
7 Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles (1911; repr., Nampa, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2002), 35-37.
8 Bruinsma, The Body of Christ, 74. 90 in the Trinitarian ecclesiology, worship can be seen as an element of discipleship (love for God) as well as the celebration of the Trinitarian ecclesia (community).
Worship is the human response to the Trinitarian God and his character, actions, and interactions with humanity. Worship is the celebration of God as God of heaven and earth. In the context of discipleship, he is the only one worthy of worship and praise because he is the creator, sustainer, redeemer, and ruler of all creation. Worship is also the celebration of God in heaven and on earth. He is worthy of worship because he is active in and interactive with his creation. Believers worship him because of his love towards them; they worship him because of his grace towards them; they worship him because of his communion with them. In essence, faithful worship of the triune God is
Trinitarian worship as the Trinitarian Church moves towards a reflection of the Trinity.
In broad terms, there are two kinds of worship: worship as “event” and worship as
“lifestyle.” Worship as lifestyle precedes and informs worship as event. Worship as event is what most churches attempt to do on a weekly basis; worship as lifestyle is to intentionally seek to reflect God’s grace, love, and communion (2 Corinthians 13:14).
The Church worships at its best when it experiences community (the communion of the
Holy Spirit), discipleship (the love of God and the love of one another), and mission (the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ “in” and “through” us). Meaningful (both to God and humans) “lifestyle” worship is possible without “event” worship, but the opposite is not true. It is impossible to experience true, meaningful, Christian “event” worship without experiencing community, discipleship, and mission. However, a church that experiences true Christian community is engaged in an effective process of discipleship, and practices mission following Jesus’ example is already a church at worship. The New Testament
91 seems to be almost silent when it comes to describing acts of worship in the early Church or in the life of Jesus and the twelve apostles. Besides a few theological statements and a few heavenly worship scenes in the book of Revelation, there is no explicit worship model, no worship programs, nor mention of gathering for the act of worship as it is known in North American churches today. However, instruction on, celebration of, and/or challenges around community, discipleship, and mission abound in the New
Testament.
In essence, the Church is the people who have responded to the divine calling through the Holy Spirit to experience the good news of the gospel “of” and “in” Jesus
Christ. They have a mission, a principal focus, and a reason for existence: to be and to make disciples. Discipleship can be explained as being and becoming followers of Jesus, reflecting gradually the image of God, in character and conduct as per his revealed will.
If mission is the focus, and discipleship is the goal, community is the context where all of this happens. Figure 2 illustrates a Trinitarian ecclesiology.
Di Lo Mi Fa Jes Gr sci the us ve ac ple ssi on r Divine e shi God Church Attributes p
Holy Communion Community Spirit
Trinity Trinitarian attributes Ecclesiological purposes
Figure 2. Trinitarian Ecclesiology: Foundational to and Pursued in this Small Group Strategy, Based upon 2 Corinthians 13:14
92 Notions of Community, Discipleship, and Mission in the Old Testament
The very first notion of community, discipleship, and mission appears in the book of Genesis. In the first chapter, there is a description of the biblical account of the origin of this world: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
According to the narrative in this chapter, everything God made was “good” in his eyes.
This means that God made things perfect. When it comes to the creation of humanity, it says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’”
(Genesis 1:17-29).
Three things are worth noting from this biblical passage. First is the fact that humans were made in God’s image; this is discipleship at its best. This “image” of God was more than simply physical resemblance. It means that in the beginning, when everything was perfect, humans were a reflection of God’s character, and this was evidenced in their daily interactions between themselves and the created order. The same force that moves everything in God’s kingdom motivated their every action: selfless, unconditional love.
Second, God created them to belong, to experience intimacy: “male and female he created them.” God could have made only one being, a woman or a man, but he made two beings with two different genders. From the very beginning, God designed humans to live and flourish in community, which is the best and only way to live in the image of
God. On this very point, Icenogle writes, “The human community is created as male and
93 female, a reflection of the image and likeness of God. Male and female together is intrinsic to the address of and receptivity of God. In order to reflect this full community of God rightly, both men and woman must be together in human community.”9
Third, he made them with purpose, empowering them to fulfill a mission: be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and have dominion. God wanted them to rule over his creation, to be stewards of his kingdom. It is clear, then, that in God’s original plan, humans were created to belong in the intimacy of community; to be in his image (in their daily interactions, in their dominion over creation and in giving life through procreation); and to bless as they fulfilled their mission of exerting loving dominion (selfless service) over the created order.
The entrance of sin to this world affected all three: intimacy was broken and alienation took place; the image of God was damaged, moving from a selfless life motivated by love, to a selfish life driven by self-interest; and the dominion over creation as a blessing morphed into antagonism between humans and the created order. But God, in his love, did not leave things to chance and eternal damnation. He designed a plan to rescue humanity and to restore the world to its original intended perfection.
God’s plan of redemption in Jesus seeks more than to forgive humans’ past sins.
Its ultimate goal is to restore things back to his original plan. White addresses this idea when she writes, “To restore in man the image of his maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul,
9 Icenogle, Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry, 22. 94 that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized – this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life.”10
As part of that plan of redemption, very early in the history of the world, God called and sent human beings as his main conduits for the fulfillment of his redemptive plans. As Bruinsma pens, “From the very beginning, God wanted to work through people who were loyal to His instructions, who were prepared to work with Him to bring salvation to the world.”11 Hence, as early as Genesis 6, Noah and his family were being chosen and called by God to accomplish his purposes.
Noah was called “in” and “to” discipleship. “But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord. . . . Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:8, 9). “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him”
(Genesis 6:22). “I will establish my covenant with you” (Genesis 6:18). Noah’s discipleship experience, his life as a follower of God, is described as a walk with God and was evidenced by a righteous, blameless life. Moreover, Noah entered into a covenantal relationship with God. Biblically, the process of discipleship is always experienced in a covenantal context; this covenant, or commitment with God, happens in response to the redemptive acts and promises of God and begins with a pledge to live one’s life in concordance with and in obedience to God’s instructions. Thus, Noah was called in and to discipleship.
Noah was also called in community. “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with
10 Ellen White, Education (1903; repr., Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1952), 15.
11 Bruinsma, The Body of Christ, 23. 95 you” (Genesis 6:18). After the destruction by the flood, “only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark” (Genesis 7:23). It can be stated that his blameless life had an impact on his family and vice versa. One can argue that his “walking with God” was a result of his communal experience and that it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Noah to face the traumatic experience of the flood alone. Furthermore, as the verse at the beginning of this paragraph clearly states that God established his covenant with and designed a salvation path and a future, not just for Noah but for Noah and his family.
In this context of a covenantal community and through a life of discipleship, Noah and his family were also called to fulfill a mission, to live their lives with a divine purpose. Before the flood their mission was to build the ark, to point people to God and his message, and to call people to repentance. After the flood, they received almost an identical missional mandate to that given to Adam and Eve: “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’” (Genesis 9:1). In summary, Noah and his family were God’s people in their time, called to belong to a covenantal community, to “be-come” God’s followers in the context of the covenant and to bless the world.
This same pattern – belong, be-come, and bless (community, discipleship, and mission) – appears over and over through the Old Testament and the Bible as a whole.
Abraham and his family (community) were called and sent by God to live within the framework and the stipulations of a divine covenant (discipleship) and to be a blessing to the world (mission). Genesis 17:7 states, “And I will establish my covenant [discipleship] between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations
96 [community] for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” Genesis 12:1-2 also states, “Now the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing [mission].” As the descendants of Abraham, the people of Israel
(community) were also called and sent to live within the contours of God’s covenant
(discipleship) to be a blessing to the world and call people to the true God (mission). The rest of the Old Testament is basically an account of how Israel lived out (or did not live out) their calling to belong, be-come, and bless.
Jesus’ Dream for the Church: A Study on John 17
The gospels report that early in his ministry, Jesus created a small, intimate community of twelve men; he called them to be his disciples, and to prepare them to become “fishers of men” to continue his mission. For over three years he lived with them, taught them, and prepared them to be the leaders of the nascent Church. At the end of his ministry on earth, before he ascended to heaven, he entrusted them with the mission to make disciples. Jesus’ experience with the disciples – the future leaders of the emerging church – over the three years they spent together can be summarized in three steps: creation of community, formation in discipleship, and sending in mission.
John 17 relates a prayer of Jesus that is extremely significant for the Church at least in two ways. First, it is significant because of its timing; Jesus prayed this prayer the night before going to the cross. One can say that this was his “deathbed” prayer. Jesus knew he was about to die, giving his life as a sacrifice for humanity. This was not just
97 another prayer; it was his last before going to Calvary. This means that the content of his prayer was undoubtedly very important and dear to him. Second, it also has great ecclesiological significance, for its main focus is “those whom you have given me” and
“those who will believe in me through their word.” In other words, in his last prayer before dying for the world, Jesus prayed predominantly for his Church, present and future.
Out of this prayer, substantial insights can be gained about Jesus’ vision for the
Church and his main areas of concern for it. First, in this prayer Jesus provides a description of his followers, his ecclesia. They are those who are “in but not of” the world (v. 16), as those that have “received and kept his words” (vv. 6 and 7), and as those whom he has sent to the world in the same way he was sent to the world (v. 18).
Also and especially, much ecclesiological insight can be obtained out of the five specific request phrases in that prayer. The first is for God-like unity: “Keep them in your name, that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:11). The second is for protection from Satan: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). The third is for sanctification in the truth through the word: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). The fourth is for God-like unity as a witness for mission: “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). And the fifth is for unity as a witness for mission: “That they become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me”
(John 17:23). In his prayer for his ecclesia, all the request statements quoted above and the descriptive declarations can be summarized in three words: community (“that they
98 may be one as we are one”); discipleship (“sanctify them in your truth; your word is truth,” “keep them from the evil one,” and “they have received and kept my words”); and mission (“I have sent them” and “that the world may believe”).
It is important to note not only the centrality and importance of these three elements in Jesus’ prayer for the Church, but also their interdependence. Sanctification in the truth – to be “in” but “not of” the world and to “keep” Jesus’ words – results in a life of unity and oneness, a unity reflective of the Trinitarian unity. This unity, in turn, is the most convincing missional argument for the world to believe in Jesus: “That they may be one that the world may believe.” Using Hirsch’s words in his description of mDNA, one can say, “Practically as well as theologically these are profoundly interconnected, and each informs the other to create a complex phenomenon called ‘church.’”12
Early Church Ecclesiology
After Jesus’ ascension to heaven, the early Church, comprised of a relatively small number of believers, stayed in Jerusalem as instructed by Jesus, to wait for the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As a result of this experience, Jesus’ prayer as expressed in John 17 began to be answered. Acts 2:42-47 reports: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (discipleship); “And all who believed were together and had all things in common” (community); “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (mission). They did not have sophisticated equipment, no fancy programs were developed, nor were monumental buildings erected. Their main “tools” moving
12 Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 40-41. 99 forward were a strong Christology, the power of the Holy Spirit, and a commitment to
Jesus and to the basic things they had learned from their Master.
As the Church exploded in growth, God’s kingdom was expanded to various regions of the world and numerous congregations were established. Most of these, however, could be described as small missional communities that met in homes, seeking transformation into Christlikeness and the fulfillment of Jesus’ Great Commission. There was no heavy structure or apparatus to be maintained. The principal goal was to learn about and live according to Jesus’ teachings and to fulfill the mission he had entrusted his followers with: to make disciples, as they awaited his return.
With the passage of time and the rapid growth of the Church, the need to establish new church members in the faith, to correct false teachings that emerged from time to time, and to address various church conflicts grew as well. Among the main teachings addressed by New Testament writers in the various letters sent out to the churches was the teaching of the Church. One of the metaphors used repeatedly by Paul to illustrate key aspects of the church is that of the church as the body of Christ (Romans 12, 1
Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and Colossians 2).
Several important concepts on ecclesiology can be derived from this simile. First,
Christ is the head of the Church (Ephesians 4:15); ecclesiology is directly connected to
Christology. For the early Church, Jesus was indeed at the center of their theology and proclamation. Second, there is one body (Romans 12:4, 5; Colossians 3:19). One of the main Pauline emphases through this metaphor is the unity of the Church; members are reminded that as members of the same body, they are to suffer and rejoice together.
Thirdly, like with the physical body, the members of the body of Christ are called to a
100 variety of functions (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). Each member is given at list one spiritual gift to be used for the body of Christ. Lastly, the main goal of the of the members working together in unity, in direct dependence of the head, Jesus Christ, fulfilling their respective functions, is “the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12, 13), and to cause “growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16). In summary, there is one body of Christ: the
Church; Jesus is the head. The members are to work together in unity, each performing his or her respective functions, to build each other up in the knowledge of Jesus and the growth and the edifying of the whole body. In Jesus, members of the Church are called to belong in community, to be-come in discipleship, and to bless in mission.
Adventist Ecclesiological Heritage
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was born out of the so-called Millerite movement. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, worldwide spiritual revivals were taking place. In this context and with a special interest in the end-time prophesies, Baptist William Miller from Low Hampton, New York began his ministry.
After a thorough study of the Scriptures, following the traditional historicist premillennial method of prophetic interpretation, Miller came to the conclusion that the second coming of Christ would take place in October of 1844. As Miller preached his convictions, an interdenominational movement grew rapidly between 1839 and 1844.
101 Eschatological Emphasis and Its Impact on Ecclesiology
In his paper, Seventh-day Adventist Ecclesiology, 1844-2001: A Brief Historical
Overview, Adventist theologian Alberto Timm exposes the influence of the Millerite movement on the historical development of the Adventist Church and its ecclesiological understanding.13 Timm points out that at first, the Millerites focused solely on the doctrine of the Second Coming, avoiding and discouraging bringing other doctrines into focus. Initially, Miller and his followers had no intention of breaking out from their original denominations. With the passing of time, however, this interconfessional revival received opposition and rejection by established denominations, and Miller’s followers were forced to choose between giving up their convictions on the end-time prophecies as presented by Miller and being disfellowshipped from their churches. The Millerites, now cut off from their original churches, were forced to create their own doctrinal “Adventist” identity.
After what is known as the Great Disappointment of October 1844, when Jesus’
Second Coming did not take place as the Millerites had prophesied, the Millerite movement disjointed into different fragments that can be organized in three main categories. The first group was comprised of those who went back to their original churches or to mainstream churches. The second group were those who believed that the events in the prophecy were correct but the date was wrong; they continued setting dates for the second coming. And the third group were those who believed that the date was correct but the event was wrong. Out of this last fraction came a group of Sabbatarian
13Alberto R. Timm, “Seventh-day Adventist Ecclesiology, 1844-2001: A Brief Historical Overview,” in Pensar La Iglesia Hoy: Hacia Una Ecclesiologia Adventista, eds. Gerald A. Klingbeil, Martin G. Klingbeil, and Miguel Angel Núñez (Libertador San Martín, Entre Rios, Argentina: Editorial Universidad Adventista del Plata, 2002), 283-302. 102 Adventists that eventually developed into what is today the Seventh-day Adventist
Church.
In the second half of the 1840s and through the 1850s, the Sabbatarian Adventists focused mainly on thorough Bible study,14 searching for answers after the disappointment. It is because of this practice that early in their development, Adventists view themselves as “the people of the Book.” As a result of their exhaustive study, not only did this group find convincing answers to the disappointment of October 1844, but they also discovered other biblical truths overlooked by Christianity in general, formulating a set of beliefs that they grouped and identified as “present truth.”15 Timm expands,
The doctrinal components of that system of “present truth” comprised both the eschatological doctrines derived from the historical and/or supra-historical fulfillment of specific end-time prophecies of Scripture and the historical doctrines of Scripture that had been overlooked and disregarded by the larger Christian church, but which would be restored at the end of time. The eschatological doctrines were (1) the personal and visible, premillennial Second Coming of Christ; (2) the two-phase priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, with special emphasis on the second phase that began on October 22, 1844; and (3) the modern manifestation of the gift of prophecy in the person and writing of Ellen G. White. The historical doctrines included (4) the conditional immortality of the soul and the final annihilation of the wicked; and (5) the perpetuity of God’s law and the seventh-day Sabbath.16
As it can be seen, the eschatological background in which the Adventist Church was born had a direct impact on its view on ecclesiology. More specifically, early in Adventism the
14 Though more will be shared on Chapter 5, it is important to note, for the purpose of this project, that this Bible study thrust took place mainly in the context of small groups.
15 Ibid., 287.
16 Ibid., 288. 103 concept of “the remnant” was established as central in Adventist eschatological ecclesiology.
“Remnant” Ecclesiology
The concept of the remnant is central in Adventist theology and has played a major role in the development of Adventist ecclesiological identity. As Sabbatarian
Adventists developed their system of “present truth” after the Great Disappointment of
1844, Timm reports that they “excluded from the concept of God’s end-time remnant people (Revelation 12:17; 14:12) not only the Roman Catholic church and the non-
Adventist Protestant denominations but even the non-Sabbatarian branches of
Millerism.”17
Adventist theologian Angel Manuel Rodriguez, in his chapter titled, “The
Remnant in Contemporary Adventist Thinking,” points out that in recent years there has been a tendency to de-emphasize or ignore this fundamental teaching, based on various factors: a) relationships with other Christians and their negative view of the Adventist
Church based on the exclusivist Adventist “remnant” theology; b) the apparent delay of the second coming; c) theological training of Adventist scholars in non-Adventist universities; d) the proliferation of worldviews that clash with the Adventist worldview; and e) real or perceived spiritual crises among leaders that undermine the notion of remnant.18 This has resulted in a diversity of new views on the remnant. Rodriguez summarizes the traditional Adventist view on the remnant as follows:
17 Ibid., 289.
18 Angel M. Rodriguez, “The Remnant in Contemporary Adventist Thinking,” in Pensar La Iglesia Hoy: Hacia Una Ecclesiologia Adventista, eds. Gerald A. Klingbeil, Martin G. Klingbeil, and 104 First, the remnant mentioned in Revelation 12:17 describes the faithful ones who survived the attacks of the dragon during the 1260 years (A.D. 538-1798). Second, they are characterized as those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. Third, the commandments mentioned are the Ten Commandments, including in a special way the Sabbath. Fourth, the testimony of Jesus, according to Revelation 19:10, refers to the manifestation of the Spirit of Prophecy among the remnant. Fifth, since the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the main body proclaiming the perpetuity of the Law of God and the Sabbath and since, in addition, there was a manifestation of the gift of prophecy in this particular church, we can identify it as God’s faithful, end-time remnant.19
This traditional position has been questioned on various levels, particularly for being too exclusive and also for making membership in a denomination the automatic inclusion in the remnant. In other words, most Adventists today agree that there are faithful children of God in all denominations as well as with the fact that not every
Adventist member is a faithful follower of Jesus. Still, various views exist on this subject; the more progressive Adventists embrace a more inclusive view of the remnant, while conservative Adventists support a more exclusive view.
Regardless of an Adventist’s personal position in this particular subject, it should be clear that both this concept of the remnant in particular, as well as the eschatological emphasis from the inception of the Adventist Church, directly affect Adventist ecclesiological views and practices. For the purpose of this project, the notion of the remnant affects the three specific ecclesiological elements of community, discipleship, and mission in at least the following ways. First, it affects community by potentially limiting the inclusiveness of members, depending on the level of remnant exclusivity embraced. Second, it includes some unique theological elements and practices in the
Miguel Angel Núñez (Libertador San Martín, Entre Rios, Argentina: Editorial Universidad Adventista del Plata, 2002), 270-272.
19 Ibid., 272-273. 105 discipleship process; the notion of “present truth” alluded to above contains specific beliefs that should affect one’s discipleship experience. And third, it places mission in the particular framework of the end times and informs the message to be carried as part of the mission.
From Movement to Organization
Timm divides his brief historical overview of Adventist ecclesiology in three periods: “United by the Message” (1844-1863); “Organized to Fulfill the Mission”
(1863-1950); and “Challenged by Disrupting Voices” (1950-2001).20 The first period was already covered in the previous section and deals with the origin of the Adventist movement, its eschatological emphasis and the development of the concept of the remnant. This section will discuss the second period.
According to Timm, the following ecclesiological improvements took place during the second period (1863-1950): giving a more explicit evangelical tenor to the
Adventist message; changes in organizational structure; and an outstanding worldwide expansion of the Seventh-day Adventist mission work.21 As the Church matured during this period, a more Christ-centered message was established. Because of the fervent desire to share the distinctive view on the law and the Sabbath, the movement was rapidly heading towards legalism until a historic General Conference session was held in 1888.
During this meeting, a heated debate over grace and works took place that almost divided
20 Timm, “Seventh-day Adventist Ecclesiology, 1844-2001,” 302.
21 Ibid., 291-295. 106 the Church, but it brought the centrality of Jesus and salvation by grace to the epicenter of Adventist theology and beliefs.
Also, not without much debate and opposition, a formal organization for the church materialized during this period, which resulted in a five-tiered structure by 1913.
The five tiers include: local churches; local Conferences (comprised of a group of churches in a region); Union Conferences (comprised of a group of Conferences);
Division Conferences (a group of Union Conferences); and a General Conference. Timm explains, “In 1918 the Division Conferences were abolished as independent conferences to become actual extensions of the General Conference,”22 reducing the structure to four levels, which is the current structure still today.
The third and most important ecclesiological improvement, as pointed out by
Timm, was the development of a worldwide vision for mission. While at first, Adventists saw the fulfillment of their mission to the world mainly by preaching to people of various national and ethnic origins living in the United States, Timm states that in “the early
1870s the denomination became more and more convinced of their responsibility to develop and Adventist overseas outreach mission program.”23 This resulted in an unprecedented rapid growth around the world. The small movement of Sabbatarian
Adventists morphed and grew into a rapidly expanding worldwide organization. In relation to their message, Timm asserts,
During the period under consideration (1863-1950) Seventh-day Adventists continued to consider themselves as God’s end-time remnant people and to view other Christian denominations as absorbed by the “false doctrines” of Babylon,
22 Ibid., 292.
23 Ibid., 294. 107 which include “the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked, the denial of the pre-existence of Christ prior to His birth in Bethlehem, and advocating and exalting the first day of the week above God’s holy and sanctified day.”24
However, Timm proposes that in the 1950s, this unity and clarity of ecclesiological identity started to be tested within Adventism, as “disrupting voices” began to be heard in the Church and a new era was born that he entitles, “Challenged by Disrupting Voices.”
The next section focuses its attention on this third period.
Contemporary Issues in Adventist Ecclesiology
Although there are many issues that could be addressed regarding current
Adventist ecclesiology, this section centres on a few important ones. Continuing with
Timm’s historical sketch on Adventist ecclesiology, in his third period (1950-2001), he identifies two major overarching challenges.25 The first was disunity in church identity, reflected by the ongoing polarization between liberal-revisionists and extreme- conservatives; the proliferation of harmful, divisive, and extreme independent ministries; as well as different views on Adventists’ relationship with other denominations. The second challenge was organizational structure. In the last decades, several voices have pointed to the urgent need for a structural revision of the Adventist Church, one that would be more effective in its support for mission. Of course, growing polarization in these areas threaten the unity and the future of the Church.
Under the title, “Ecclesiology in SDA Theological Research, 1995-2004: A Brief
Introduction and Biographical Guide,” Adventist theologian Gerald A. Klingbeil provides
24 Ibid.
25 Timm’s article lists the third period as being “1950-present,” however 2001 has been given as an end to this period since this is the year in which Timm wrote the article. 108 an exhaustive list – with a brief review – of all Adventist publications on ecclesiology worldwide.26 He includes all publications written between 1995 and 2004, as they appear in theological journals, magazine articles, theses and dissertations, monographic studies, and books. This is a most useful article to anyone desiring to have a broad spectrum of
Adventist material on the subject.
In his conclusion, Klingbeil lists several current ecclesiological issues within
Adventism in need of serious ongoing theological study and discussion as the Church moves forward. The first issue relates to geographical changes in global Adventism, with a decreasing ratio of Adventists living in the U.S. to Adventists living in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. This has no small repercussion on decision-making and future trends, such as women’s ordination, since voting power is based upon membership. The second issue is that of the administrative structure of the Church. The third issue is the spiritual/mental unity of the Church. The fourth issue is the relationship between world and the Church. The fifth issue is the study of the remnant, a concept increasingly under fire. The sixth issue is the influence of worldview in theological thinking and its theological implications.
Two other important current ecclesiological issues that the Adventist Church needs to grapple with are the theology of ordination and the loss of youth and young adults. The issue of the theology of ordination includes particularly women’s ordination into ministry, which has been in the forefront of the Adventist theological debate in recent years and will be at the top of the agenda at the next General Conference session in
26 Gerald Klingbeil, “Ecclesiology in SDA Theological Research, 1995-2004: A Brief Introduction and Biographical Guide,” Andrews University Seminary Studies, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Spring 2005), http://documents.adventistarchives.org/AdvRelated/AUSS/AUSS20050401-V43-01.pdf (accessed February 27, 2014). 109 2015. Decisions made around this issue will have significant repercussions on the life and worldwide unity of the Church. The issue of the loss of youth and young adults especially affects the Western world. Several studies have shown that in general, the youth are leaving the Church and not returning; the Church is currently seeking strategies to retain its youth.
Signs of Hope and Renewal
In recent years, some important developments have taken place in the area of ecclesiology within Adventism. At the academic level, two theological events deserve attention. The first event was the Fourth Adventist South-American Theological
Symposium. Under the theme, “Thinking the Church Today,” more than five hundred participants gathered in 2001 at the Rive Plate Adventist University in Argentina.
Authors of various disciplines from six different countries and fourteen different institutions presented eighty-eight papers on an array of ecclesiological subjects. Out of that symposium, the book Pensar la Iglesia Hoy was published, which is a collection of thirty-five of the eighty-eight papers that are making a significant contribution on the ongoing debate on ecclesiology among Adventists. 27
The second significant event was the International Bible Conference. This event, co-sponsored by the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference, the Adventist
Theological Society, and the Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological
Seminary, took place in 2006 in Izmir, Turkey. It gathered several well-known Adventist theologians and leaders and it revolved around the topic of ecclesiology. These two
27 The title of this book in English is Thinking the Church Today. 110 events, academic in nature, took place with the intent of rethinking Adventist ecclesiology in order to face the present and future challenges of the Church.
More at a local church level, two organic, grassroots initiatives are worth noting.
The first is “Simple Church at Home,” which is an international Adventist house church planting movement that was developed in recent years by Adventist pastor Milton Adams with the blessing of the Adventist Church. It is present now in eleven countries. The second initiative worth noting is “The One Project.” Led by young adults, this is a yearly gathering that started about four years ago in the United States, which has extended to various parts of the world. It gathers church leaders, theology professors, local pastors and members in general, and its main focus is to bring Jesus back at the center of
Adventist spirituality, theology, and ecclesiological communal practices. As already stated, Christology and ecclesiology go hand in hand, and this serious ongoing theological and spiritual dialogue around the person of Jesus as the center of all doctrines, teaching, and beliefs will hopefully lead to a positive marked impact on how the
Adventist Church and its views on ecclesiology are shaped in the years to come.
In summary, the Adventist Church, born in a marked eschatological milieu, has historically seen itself as the remnant of Revelation 12 and 14, called by God to proclaim the “eternal gospel” of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, as well as a unique prophetic message (Revelation 14:6-12) to the world, before and in preparation for the second coming of Jesus. Ongoing polarizations in recent decades pose significant challenges as the Church continues to redefine its identity and face its present and future challenges. A
Trinitarian ecclesiology that focuses on community, discipleship, and mission as
111 expressed at the beginning of this chapter may be a preferred starting point in this
Adventist ecclesiological quest.
Concluding Remarks
This chapter begins with a personal definition of the Church as “the people who have responded to the calling of God, ‘in’ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to belong, be- come, and bless.” It argues in favour of a Trinitarian ecclesiology in which community, discipleship, and mission are central. A Trinitarian ecclesiology aims at a Church that experiences “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [mission], and the love of God
[discipleship] and the communion of the Holy Spirit [community]” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
Though the word ecclesia is a New Testament word, it was shown how God has always intended the “ecclesia experience” for his people. He has continually called his people to belong, be-come, and bless. They are to belong through an experience of intimacy in the context of community; to be-come like Christ, reflecting the image of
God, through a process of discipleship (love to God and love to others) in the context of divine/human covenants; and bless the world through a missional lifestyle in the context of the missio Dei.
Attention was given to some unique elements of Adventist ecclesiology, particularly the historical eschatological emphasis and the concept of the remnant. It was pointed out that Adventist eschatology has had and continues to have a significant impact in the development of an Adventist ecclesiology in general, as well as on the three foundational elements of this study. Also, current issues related to Adventist ecclesiology were listed and recent developments were described.
112
CHAPTER 5
THEOLOGY OF A SMALL GROUP MINISTRY FOR THE BRONTE CHURCH
This chapter presents a theology that justifies a small group strategy focused on community, discipleship, and mission. It takes the Trinity as the foundational point of departure, and bases this strategy on four elements: a biblical structural models for God’s people, historical records throughout the history of Christianity, the beginning of the
Adventist movement, and current small group practices and developments. This chapter argues that true Christian community is the best context for both discipleship and mission and can be better experienced in the intimacy of a small group setting.
Small Groups: A Proven Platform for God’s Purposes for His People
This section discusses small groups as the primordial structure utilized by God to accomplish his purposes through his people on earth. Continuing with the argument in favour of a Trinitarian ecclesiology detailed in Chapter 4, it sees the Trinity as the model small group. From creation on, this section details several examples of small groups in the Bible and in the history of God’s people.
113 A Trinitarian God and Small Groups
Christian community finds its roots in God himself. To believe in a God who is three persons in one is to believe in a God who is in his very essence relational, a communal God. Along these lines, Andy Stanley and Bill Willits, in their book, Creating
Community, write, “We were all created in the likeness of our Father. Our heavenly
Father and God is a relational being. As God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, He is three persons in one. In Genesis 1:26, God said, ‘Let us make man in our image.’ The God who desires to have a relationship with all human kind has always known meaningful relationships.”1
On this same note, Gorman quotes Ray Anderson when he penned, “Quite clearly the imago is not totally present in the form of individual humanity but more completely as co-humanity. It is thus quite natural and expected that God himself is also a ‘we.’”2
Gilbert Bilezikian echoes this thought in his book, Community 101, when he writes,
“Community finds its essence and definition deep within the being of God. . . . It is grounded in his nature and reflects his true identity as a plurality of persons in oneness of being.”3 In essence, true Christian community is a reflection of the person and the character of God.
It is along these lines that most proponents of small groups trace its origins all the way back to the very person of God. When it comes to the theology of small groups, the
1 Andy Stanley and Bill Willits, Creating Community (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2004), 35.
2 Ray Anderson, On Being Human: Essays in Anthropology (Pasadena, CA: Fuller Seminary Press, 1982), 73, as quoted by Gorman, Community That Is Christian, 25.
3 Gilbert Bilezikian, Community 101 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), 16, 43. 114 Trinity is often presented as the small group par excellence. In his robust theological foundation for small groups, Icenogle states,
It may be overly dramatic to say that God lives as a small group, but the church has historically described God as Trinity, three persons in one. In any case, the creation account presents both divinity and humanity as communities of being and action. God is described as existing in divine community, in dialogue with other members of the God-self, an intracommunicating group who also created humanity to exist in group intracommunication. God created and addressed humanity as community with community, as group with group. The divine community has existed in intercommunity with human community from the beginning. Three areas of dialogue and community are established from the beginning: within (intra) God’s group self, with (intra) the human group and between (inter) God’s group and the human group. The human community is created as male and female, a reflection of the image and likeness of God.4
Several important concepts are included in Icenogle’s statement, most of which he develops in his book: first, God is understood as a small group community; second, God created humanity to live in intimate community; third, community can be best lived in the context of a small group (“male and female he created them”); and fourth, living in a small group community is the best and only way to reflect the image of God.
In the creation account in Genesis 1 and 2, from the very beginning the importance of community is clear. Genesis 1 presents a God who lives in community
(“let us make” in verse 26) and also creates in and for community (“in our image . . . male and female he created them” in verse 26). In Genesis 2, as the author relates a more specific account of the creation of humanity, it is clear that everything God had created was good in his eyes, except one thing: “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” (Genesis 2:18). Stanley and Willits comment on this passage as follows:
4 Icenogle, Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry, 21-22. 115 What is striking is that the fall has not yet occurred. There is no sin, no disobedience, nothing to mar the relationship between God and man. The human being in a state of perfect intimacy with God. . . . Yet the word God uses to describe him is “alone.” And God says this aloneness is “not good.” . . . No substitute will fill this need in you for human relationship. Not money. Not achievement. Not busyness. Not books. Not even God Himself.5
Reflecting on this same passage, Icenogle notes, “Aloneness is not God’s desire for men and women. Loneliness and hiddenness are the result of humanity’s misguided desire for independence from and equality with God.”6 One of the clear consequences of humanity’s fall into sin is the fracture of community. As a result of sin, community was compromised, so the context in which discipleship and mission were and are supposed to happen was marred by the sin condition. From Genesis 3 onwards, humanity lives in tension: Icenogle explains, “While the desire for relationship is strong, the fear of intimacy is also strong.”7 It is because of this fear of intimacy that, according to Icenogle,
“while few contemporary small groups degenerate into the darkest behaviours of personal destruction, every group dances around the edges of avoidance, denial, deception, hiding and condemnation.”8
The biblical record, the history of Christianity, and one may say the history of the world to this day,9 is marked by the contrast between two kinds of communities. The first kind is a community in response to the divine calling, one that strives and struggles
5 Stanley and Willits, Creating Community, 30.
6 Icenogle, Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry, 27.
7 Ibid., 28.
8 Ibid. Italics added.
9 The Peep Diaries, a book written by Torontonian journalist Hal Niedzvecki in 2009, in which he delves into and analyzes the growing “peep culture” of self-disclosure through social media, is a good twenty-first-century example of the ongoing human thirst for, attempts towards, and failures in the area of community. 116 towards the Trinitarian model of authentic, intimate community. The second kind is a degeneration of God’s original intent for community, a human fabrication of community.
Icenogle utilizes the movement from Babel (Genesis 11) to Abram’s call (Genesis 12) to contrast these two types of communities, which he denominates “broken humanity” and
“covenantal humanity.”10 In Icenogle’s words, “The ongoing reality of Genesis 11 and the city of Babel is why God calls Abram in Genesis 12.”11 He succinctly summarizes this small group paradox as “productivity together or life together.”12 On this very note he also pens,
Only God who exists as a covenantal community of being can create human community, for such community only flourishes in the intimate presence of a God who comes down to walk with humanity in the “cool of the day.” Humanity can build only a faint replica of community, a pseudo community where God is not present, a community that shatters under the stress of construction, fragmenting and scattering people to the four winds.13
The “covenantal humanity of being” – as a human community “in the presence of God” – has always found its reality in the context of a small group. From Genesis onward, through the Patriarchal era, to the establishment of Israel as the people of God, to the formation of the Church as the spiritual Israel of the New Testament, and arriving to today’s reality, this community has been and should always be experienced primarily in the context and the intimacy of the home. Second to the home, it has been and should be experienced as an “extension of” or a “supplementary alternative to” the home, through the intimacy of covenantal small groups. For example, both in the patriarchal era and
10 Icenogle, Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry, 32-33.
11 Ibid., 34.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid., 33. 117 through the history of Israel, the family or tribe is the foundational sociological structure for God’s people. Adventist theologian Efrain Velazquez, in his chapter, “The Tribe:
Towards an Adventist Ecclesiology Based on the Hebrew Scriptures,” provides important insights in relation to this notion of the tribe as the ecclesiological structure in the Old
Testament.14
Exodus 18 – Jethro’s Advice
Perhaps one of the most explicit biblical texts in support of a theology for small groups is the one found in Exodus 18. The story in this passage takes place not too long after Israel’s deliverance from the Egyptians and the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea.
In this story, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, pays a visit to Moses and his family. On the second day, he notices a major problem both for Moses and for the people of Israel: “And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before
Moses from morning until evening. So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, ‘What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?’” (Exodus
18:13-14). According to this story, there were at least three obvious problems: first,
Moses was overwhelmed with the task of judging God’s people; second, the people’s needs were not met, which undoubtedly created much frustration; and third, Moses’ family was neglected and their needs were not met appropriately either.
After Jethro observed this situation, he gave Moses the following advice:
14 Efrain Velazquez, “La tribu: Hacia una eclesiologia adventista basada en las Escrituras Hebreas,” in Pensar La Iglesia Hoy: Hacia Una Ecclesiologia Adventista, eds. Gerald A. Klingbeil, Martin G. Klingbeil, and Miguel Angel Núñez (Libertador San Martín, Entre Rios, Argentina: Editorial Universidad Adventista del Plata, 2002), 25-40. 118 Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. (Genesis 18:19-22)
Jethro’s advice can be organized as follows: first, he advised Moses to appoint leaders for a new structure based on small groups in which leadership responsibilities would be shared; then, he recommended the criteria for leadership selection; next, he suggested the various levels of the new (small group) structure: thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens; and last, he provided the job description, both for Moses and for the leaders.
Jethro also explained what the result of this small group structure would be: “So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing, and
God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace” (Exodus 18:22-23). Moses indeed implemented his father-in-law’s advice, and from then on this was the structure for God’s people through their journey towards the Promised Land.
It seems important to note that this small group structure was implemented before the Ten Commandments were imparted, before God’s covenant with Israel was ratified, and before the sanctuary with its services was erected. Establishing a small group setting as the structural basis for his initiatives on earth appears to be God’s modus operandi. It happened at creation; it happened through the patriarchal era as God established his covenants with various families; it happened with Israel at the very beginning of their journey; and it happened with Jesus at the beginning of his ministry.
119 Jesus’ Ecclesiological Paradigm: Small Group Community
Jesus came to this world to fulfill the plan of redemption. As part of this plan, he also came to establish a new communal reality for his people: the Church. Community and its fulfillment through small groups were central in the life and teachings of Jesus: he preached and taught community; he practiced community in the context of a small group; he prayed for community; and he promoted small group community.
First of all, Jesus preached and taught community. A close look at Jesus’ preaching and teachings will reveal “community” as one of its main themes. For instance, his famous Sermon on the Mount mentions this theme several times. In the beatitudes, he says, “blessed are the meek,” “blessed are merciful,” and “blessed are the peacemakers.”
He also expands the law from merely outward behaviour to the “spirit” of the law, equalling anger with murder and proposing such ideas as “love your enemies,” and “go the extra mile.” All of these are teachings undoubtedly pertaining to community.
Later on in his ministry, when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it:
‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the
Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40, NIV). Jesus saw the summary and the fulfillment of all the teachings of the law in two simple and yet profound concepts: love for God and love for others. Now, love cannot be experienced in isolation; love is always demonstrated relationally in the context of intimate community.
Second, Jesus practiced community. Jesus began and developed his ministry around the practice and modeling of community in the context of a small group of twelve.
120 Toward the end of his ministry, the very night of his crucifixion, he took a basin, humbled himself, and washed his disciples’ feet, including his betrayer Judas, as a sublime expression of ultimate Christian community, where, love, mercy, humility, grace, forgiveness, and acceptance are central. This would unquestionably be one of the most powerful object lessons that would remain in the minds of the founders of the new divine-human communal reality: the Church.
Based on his perfect example of Christian love and community, Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). On Jesus and his practice of community, Gorman quotes Leonardo Boff, author of Ecclesiogenesis: The
Base Communities Reinvent the Church: “Jesus not only proclaimed community, he constructed it. [Boff writes,] ‘Jesus did not select the twelve as founders of future churches. Jesus established the twelve as a community; as a messianic, eschatological church. The apostles are not to be understood first and foremost as individuals but precisely as the Twelve, as messianic community gathered around Jesus and his
Spirit.’”15
Third, Jesus prayed for community. As already noted in Chapter 4, John 17 registers a most significant prayer of Jesus. It is a prayer for his present and future
Church; it is a prayer for community. John 17:20-22 reads, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, as
15 Gorman, Community That Is Christian, 35. Gorman quotes Leonardo Boff, Ecclesiogenesis: The Base Communities Reinvent the Church (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986), 28. 121 you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one.” The ideal community that Jesus prayed for is small group, Trinity-like, intimate community.
Finally, Jesus promoted small-group community. Jesus encouraged his followers to gather in small groups when he said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). A small group of disciples
(two or three), gathered in Jesus’ name and experiencing his presence, is the purest expression of the Church (ecclesia). No other argument in favour of small groups seems more attractive and convincing than seeking the promised presence of Jesus “where two or three are gathered.”
New Testament House Churches – Core Practices
The early Church as described in the New Testament can be seen as a grassroots movement, comprised of small congregations or households (oikos) that met in private homes (Acts 2:46; 5:42; 16:40; 20:20; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians
4:15; Philemon 2). Adventist professors José Umberto Moura and Roberto Pereyra, in a chapter titled, “Small Groups in the New Testament,” note that the word “house” appears at least 229 times in the New Testament. They argue that “the history of church in the
New Testament is as related to houses as the church in the Middle Ages is related to
122 cathedrals.”16 W. Sanday and Arthur C. Headlam, in their commentary on Romans, describe the first few centuries of the Christian era as a small group phenomenon.17
Milton Adams, in his dissertation titled, “Developing, Planting, and Multiplying a
House Church Using Principles of Missiology in the Florida Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists,” points out that while “the gospel of Luke opens within the temple of
Jerusalem (Luke 1:5-23) and closes in that same temple (Luke 24:53) . . . the book of
Acts of the Apostles opens in a home setting in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4, 13) and ends in a home setting in Rome (Acts 28:30).”18 Adams also quotes Mario Barbero as follows: “In the Book of Acts the house, as a social institution, appears frequently and is significant in spreading the gospel ‘to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). In Acts there is a geographical movement from Jerusalem to Rome. It seems there is also a religious movement from the
Temple to the house.”19
It is clear that, similar to the structure implemented by Moses as per Exodus 18, and the small group paradigm established by Jesus, the Church in the New Testament used small groups in homes as the main organizational structural element. In Acts 2:42-
47, Luke describes the core practices of these small congregations:
16 José Umberto Moura and Roberto Pereyra, “Los Grupos Pequeños en el Nuevo Testamento,” in Grupos Pequeños: Profundizando la Caminata, eds. Jolivê Chaves and Alberto R. Timm (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Asociación Casa Editora Sudamericana, 2011), 35.
17 W. Sanday and Arthur C. Headlam, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1979), 420.
18 Milton Adams, “Developing, Planting, and Multiplying a House Church Using Principles of Missiology in the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists” (DMin diss., Andrews University, 2009), 41.
19 Mario Barbero, “A First-Century Couple, Priscilla and Aquila: Their House Churches and Missionary Activity” (DPhil diss., The Catholic University of America, 2001), 174, as quoted in Adams, “Developing, Planting, and Multiplying a House Church,” 41-42. 123 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
It was based upon a home-based small group structure that the early Church continued the experience of and growth in: the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, prayers, wonders and signs, togetherness, sharing all things, breaking of bread, praising God, having favour with all the people, and the Lord’s daily addition of those that were being saved. This same structure would be instrumental in the history of God’s Church, throughout the centuries following the early Church.
Small Groups in the History of Christianity
As mentioned in Chapter 3, Hirsch describes the negative impact that the conversion of Constantine had on the Christian Church. One of the many areas impacted was the structure of the Church, changing from a house-church movement to an organization with large congregations and big cathedrals. Until Constantine, it is not possible to find archaeological evidence of large church buildings.20 During the first three centuries, the Church continued to function as a house-church movement. Before the conversion of Constantine, small groups as the principle basis for church organization remained practically intact.
20 Ibid. 124 Hirsch references the work of Stuart Murray as he lists the profound changes that
Constantine’s conversion caused in the Christian Church.21 These changes include: first, the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of a city, state, or empire; second, the movement of the Church from the margins of society to its center; third, the assumption that all citizens were Christian by birth; fourth, Sunday as an official day of rest and obligatory church attendance, with penalties for noncompliance; fifth, the construction of massive and ornate church buildings and the formation of huge congregations; and sixth, a generic distinction between clergy and laity, and the relegation of the laity to a largely passive role. This transition from the home to the cathedral, along with the other transitions, brought devastating consequences to the Christian Church.
In spite of the negative direction the Church took after Constantine, many have been the groups throughout the history of Christianity that, as a result of prayerful study of the Scriptures and their commitment to faithfulness to God and his Word, have found their way back to biblical community through small groups. A few examples include
Reformers such as Luther, Zwingli, and Schwenckfeld; groups such as the Waldenses,
Anabaptists, Puritans, Quakers Pietists, and Moravians; and movements such as
Methodism.22 It is practically a constant reality: whenever the church has experienced a spiritual revival based on the study of God’s word, small groups have almost constantly played a significant role and have been a common denominator in most of those revivals.
21 Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 59. Hirsh references Stuart Murray for the list provided here: Stuart Murray, Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, 2004), 76-78.
22 Paulo Clézio dos Santos, “Cristianismo Contemporáneo: Congregacionalistas,” in Grupos Pequeños: Profundizando la Caminata, eds. Jolivê Chaves and Alberto R. Timm (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Asociación Casa Editora Sudamericana, 2011), 57-69. 125 Adventist Perspectives on Small Groups
This chapter now shifts to a discussion of the theology of small groups specifically from an Adventist perspective. It starts with a historical review, with special interest in the role small group played in early Adventism, the influence of Methodism in
Adventism implementation of small groups, and small groups in the life and writings of key Adventist pioneers. It also provides a succinct current look at small groups within
Adventism.
Adventist Beginnings: A Marginal, Missional Community
As discussed in Chapter 4, the Adventist Church came out of the Millerite movement after the Great Disappointment of October 1844. Because of this traumatic spiritual experience, a group endeavoured to study the Bible diligently in search for answers. Passionate about their new discoveries and convictions, they saw themselves as called by God with the great missional responsibility to share their theological convictions, particularly their eschatological views and even more specifically the messages of the three angels of Revelation 14. Most members had experienced rejection and expulsion from their original churches and had to function as a marginal movement in a quest for self-identity. During this gestation period of the Adventist Church, these
Christians met regularly in homes. White describes that experience as follows:
My husband, with Elders Joseph Bates, Stephen Pierce, Hiram Edson, and others who were keen, noble, and true, was among those who, after the passing of the time in 1844, searched for the truth as for hidden treasure. We would come together burdened in soul, praying that we might be one in faith and doctrine; for we knew that Christ is not divided. One point at a time was made the subject of investigation. The Scriptures were opened with a sense of awe. . . . The seed that was sown was watered of God, and He gave the increase. At first we assembled for worship, and presented the truth to those who would come to hear, in private
126 houses, in large kitchens, in barns, in groves, and in schoolhouses; but it was not long before we were able to build humble houses of worship.23
It is clear that in its inception and through the formation period, the Adventist Church started mainly as a house church movement. Even after a more formal organization and structure were developed, the newly established congregations were generally small in nature and the house meetings continued for many decades.
Methodist Vestiges in a Nascent Movement
Among the movements that came out of the Reformation and the revivals that followed, one that was instrumental in the proliferation of small groups was Methodism.
On February 15 1742, John Wesley established the Methodist classes, groups of twelve believers that met weekly to study and pray together under the leadership of a class leader.24 Typically, the group met for one hour to an hour and a half, during which time each person would have an opportunity to share his or her experience of growing and deepening in love in Christ. They also gave money toward sustaining the “Connexion”
(the whole of Methodism within a country).
There is a direct connection between early Adventism and the Methodist
Church.25 Many of the prominent Millerite/Adventist pioneers, such as Josiah Litch,
George Storrs, Apollos Hale, Hiram Edson, John Byington, John L. Loughborough, and
23 Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers (1923; repr., Nampa, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2003), 24.
24 Ibid., 66.
25 Russell Burrill, Recovering an Adventist Approach to the Life and Mission of the Local Church (Fallbrook, CA: Hart Books, 1998), 149. 127 Ellen G. White, came from a Wesleyan/Methodist background.26 Writing about the strong
Methodist influence on Adventist ecclesiology, Adventist professor Russell Burrill, in his book, Recovering an Adventist Approach, states,
Early Methodism developed all the essentials of relational small groups that met together regularly for mutual support and encouragement and to hold each other accountable for their life in Christ. The Methodist class meeting had all the elements of small group. This was the first time since the apostasy of Constantine and the establishment of the institutional church that a church which was built on relational small groups had gained such popular support. It must not be forgotten that much of Adventist ecclesiology was borrowed from the Methodist roots. Adventist conference organization is essentially Methodist in origin. Even the itinerant, circuit-riding preacher of early Adventism can be traced to Methodist roots.27
Adventist professor Silvia Scholtus de Roscher, in her chapter titled, “Ellen
White: Small Groups as Part of the Lifestyle of the Church,” asserts that Ellen White
“inherited from the Methodist church the concept of the formation of small groups for the strengthening of the church through Bible study, prayer, and to promote Christian unity.”28 Given these historic connections and facts, it is not rare to see small groups playing a pivotal role in early Adventism. It was in a small group setting where the first theological conclusions that would lead to the formation of the Adventist Church were made; for instance, it was as a result of a small group Bible study that Hiram Edson (a former Methodist) had a vision that led to the current uniquely Adventist understanding of the doctrine of the sanctuary.
26 Ricardo A. Gonzalez, “Los Grupos Pequeños en la Historia de la Iglesia Adventista del Séptimo Día,” in Grupos Pequeños, Profundizando la Caminata, eds. Jolivê Chaves and Alberto R. Timm (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Asociación Casa Editora Sudamericana, 2011), 72.
27 Burrill, Recovering an Adventist Approach, 147.
28 Silvia Scholtus de Roscher, “Elena de White: Los Grupos Pequeños Como Parte del Estilo de Vida de la Iglesia,” in Grupos Pequeños: Profundizando la Caminata, eds. Jolivê Chaves and Alberto R. Timm (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Asociación Casa Editora Sudamericana, 2011), 93. 128 Even as the Church grew and a more formal organization was developed, it was the continuation of small group meetings in homes for prayer and Bible study in the early stages of Adventism that gave birth to several important organizations.29 Some of these organizations still exist today in some form or another. Examples of these organizations are: The Vigilant Missionary Society (which focuses on missions); The Dorcas Society
(which focuses on community service); and The Adventist Youth Society (which focuses on youth).
Small Groups in the Life and Ministry of Ellen G. White
Adventist professor Daniel Rode, in his book, Seminar: Small Groups as the New
Christian Lifestyle, reflects on the close relationship that Ellen G. White had with small groups throughout her life and ministry.30 In her childhood (1840-1844), White had her first contact with small groups through prayer meetings in homes and the Methodist classes of which her parents participated. After the Great Disappointment (1844-1885), she received her first vision in a small group meeting, and promoted small group meetings for testimonies and spiritual growth. In her ministry in Europe (1885-1887),
White encouraged the formation of small groups as an effective way to train members, share testimonies, do evangelism, and plant new churches. As Adventist institutions grew
(1887-1891), particularly in the United States where she lived during this period, she fostered small groups especially to strengthen the spirituality in the churches, as well as to apply the truths taught at large gatherings. In the years she lived in Australia (1891-
29 Gonzalez, “Los Grupos Pequeños en la Historia de la Iglesia Adventista del Séptimo Día,” 78- 79.
30 Daniel Rode, Seminario: Grupos Pequeños Nuevo Estilo de Vida Cristiano (Libertador San Martín, Entre Rios, Argentina: Instituto de Misión y Crecimiento de Iglesia, 2001), 25. 129 1900), she promoted small groups to plant new churches, to share testimonies, to train leaders, for pastoral care, and for evangelism. In the last stage of her life (1900-1915),
White advised small groups for the various areas of the Church, including education, medical, and youth ministry, as a way to fulfill God’s mission and for pastoral care.
Towards the end of her life, after that rich experience with and strong advocacy for small groups, White shared the following well known declaration on small groups:
The formation of small companies as a basis of Christian effort has been presented to me by one who cannot err. Let there be in every church, well- organized companies of workers to labor in the vicinity of that church. . . . If there is a large number in the church, let the members be formed into small companies, to work not only for the church members, but for unbelievers. If in one place there are only two or three who know the truth, let them form themselves into a band of workers.31
Several key points are made in this quote: small groups are presented as the basis for
Christian effort; small groups are God’s plan for the Church; both large and small congregations should be divided into small groups; and small groups should work both for members (community and discipleship) and for non-members (mission).
A Contemporary Look at Small Groups within Adventism
In some way or another, with different names and with minuscule variations in structure and application (Sabbath school classes, Sabbath school action units, Sabbath school brunches, house churches, and so on),32 small groups have always played some part in the life of Adventist congregations around the world. However, it was not until the late 1980s and early 1990s that small groups began to regain center stage in Adventism.
31 Ellen G. White, Christian Service (1925; repr., Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2002), 72.
32 Rode, Seminario: Grupos Pequeños Nuevo Estilo de Vida Cristiano, 8. 130 This has been evidenced by the marked surge of books and articles on the subject, the writing of doctoral dissertations on the subject, and the development of small group strategies in local and regional church contexts. A good example of this is the explosive growth the Adventist Church has experienced in Peru since the 1990s as a direct result of clear, intentional, and systematic small group efforts pursued by the leaders of the Church at various levels.
It would be only accurate to state that in areas where the Adventist Church is growing the fastest, such as South America, the experience of community through small groups plays a vital role. On the other hand, according to hundreds of NCD surveys taken in North America (one of the areas of the world where the Adventist Church is most stagnant), the consistently common lower two factors of the eight NCD quality characteristics, among the majority of Adventist churches in North America, are holistic small groups and loving relationships.
Small Faith Communities: Simple, yet Faithful and Effective
The stagnation of the Church in North America is not a uniquely Adventist phenomenon. Several authors, including George Barna in the US and Reginald Bibby in
Canada, have signalled the recent marked decline in Christianity in the Western world.
This fact is substantiated by many statistics that show the decrease in church attendance.
Reporting on this phenomenon in his book, After the Baby Boomers, Robert Wuthnow pens, “There has been a decline in the percentage of younger adults who attend religious
131 services regularly, and a corresponding increase in the percentage of younger adults who seldom or never attend religious services.”33
In his book, The Younger Evangelicals, Robert Webber states, “What I have found among the younger evangelicals is (1) the rejection of the modern Western model of the church and its relationship to culture and (2) the widespread commitment to lead small, growing, start-up churches.”34 He also writes, “The younger evangelical is interested in building organic Christian communities, not huge Wal-Mart churches that deliver a full range of Christian consumer goods.”35 It seems evident that the decline of the Church in the West includes and is tightly connected to the experience of community, or lack thereof. Simply put, lack of authentic, relevant, organic community is among the principal factors that motivate younger (and not so young) Christians to opt out of traditional churches and search for newer congregational expressions and practices.
In their book on the emerging church phenomenon, Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger write, “Because of the highly relational, continual, and missional aspects of community, emerging churches tend to be either small groups or networks of small groups.”36
Explaining the central communal aspect of the emerging churches, they add, “They abhor the idea of church as a meeting, a place, a routine. Clearly, for these communities, church is a people, a community, a rhythm, a way of life, a way of connectedness with other
33 Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007), 52.
34 Robert E. Webber, The Younger Evangelicals (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 135.
35 Ibid., 118.
36 Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger, Emerging Churches (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 109. 132 Christ followers in the world. These communities are small, missional, and offer space for each individual to participate. Emerging churches form tight communities.”37 It seems evident that any attempt to confront the challenges of the Church in the West must include serious consideration of how community is pursued. A good example of how some Christians are addressing this issue is the house church movement.
House Churches in Today’s Context
While many Christians stop attending church and abandon their faith altogether, one of the ways in which many disenchanted Christians have found spiritual renewal and a fresh expression of their faith is by engaging in house churches. Wolfgang Simson, strong proponent of the house church movement, provides fifteen theses in favour of house churches. They are: “Christianity is a way of life, not a series of religious meetings”; “time to change the ‘cathegogue system’” (from the words cathedral and synagogue); “the third Reformation” (Luther started a reformation of theology; the seventeenth century revivals produced a reformation of spirituality; it is time for a reformation of church structure); “from church houses to house churches”; “the church has to become small in order to grow large”; “out of the hands of bureaucratic clergy and on toward the priesthood of all believers”; “return from organized to organic forms of
Christianity”; “from worshipping our worship to worshipping God”; “stop bringing people to church, and start bringing the church to the people”; “rediscovering the Lord’s
37 Ibid., 115. 133 Supper as a real supper with real food”; “from denominations to the city church”;
“developing a persecution-proof spirit”; and “the church comes home”.38
In 2006, The Barna Group performed a study on how these independent, non- denominational house churches operate, much of which is reflected in Barna’s book,
Revolution. This study analyzed the general audience attracted to house churches:
The report found that there are two types of people being attracted to house churches. The older participants, largely drawn from the Boomer population, are devout Christians who are seeking a deeper and more intense experience with God and other believers. The other substantial segment is young adults who are interested in faith and spirituality but have little interest in traditional forms of church. Their quest is largely one of escaping outdated structures and institutions.39
Moreover, in the same study, Barna makes the following prediction: “The percentage of Americans who express and experience their faith through the local church will drop from 70% in 2000 to about 30-35% in 2025. And the percentage of people experiencing their faith through an alternative faith-based community will increase from
5% in 2000 to 30-35% in 2025.”40 In essence, the experience of intimate community through small groups, the house church movement being a good example, seems to be a path demanding serious consideration as Christianity faces an increasing decline in the
West.
38 Wolfgang Simson, The House Church Book: Rediscover the Dynamic, Organic, Relational, Viral Community Jesus Started (Carol Stream, IL: BarnaBooks, 2009), xiii-xxiv.
39 The Barna Group, “House churches are more satisfying to attenders than conventional churches” (January 2007), https://www.barna.org/organic-church-articles/112-house-churches-are-more- satisfying-to-attenders-than-are-conventional-churches (accessed March 10, 2014).
40 George Barna, Revolution (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2005), 49. 134 A Look at the Simple Church Model within Adventism
The Simple Church house church network has been gaining an apparent momentum in recent years within Adventism. Started and led by pastor Milton Adams, this network is a missional, lay-led movement which seeks to reach out to the
“unchurched.” It centers mainly on house gatherings of small groups of participants who meet weekly for food, fellowship, and relational Bible study.41 Among the main reasons provided by Adams in favour of house churches are: first, approximately 80 percent of churches in North America are plateaued or declining; second, church attendance is rapidly declining in North America; third, most churches in North America spend the majority of their budgets on salaries and building maintenance; fourth, as per a study done by Fuller Seminary, older churches take significantly more members to lead one person to Christ than younger congregations; fifth, the median age of the general population in North America is thirty-six while the median age of Adventists is fifty-one; and sixth, based on research done by George Barna, Adams concludes that the best way to reach this growing number of unchurched people is through house churches.42
In the conclusion of his doctoral dissertation completed in 2009, based on the launch and development of this Adventist house church network, Adams writes, “Simple
Church has effectively provided a place outside church walls for active discipleship and spiritual growth, and has evidenced itself as a viable front-line missionary initiative.”43
41 Milton Adams, “Simple Church: Frequent Questions,” http://www.simplechurchathome.com/ FAQs.html (accessed February 24, 2014).
42 Ibid.
43 Adams, “Developing, Planting, and Multiplying a House Church,” 127.
135 Unquestionably, community, discipleship, and mission are central in this house church network. Based on the data collected between June 2008 and March 2009, besides reporting several baptisms and the multiplication from one to three house churches,
Adams reports “a network average of 29.77% of adult guests who were unchurched.”44
He also notes,
Although there is an ethnic mix of people involved in Simple Church, a non- recorded observation is that Simple Church is reaching American-born Caucasians. In some cases the fathers were not willing to attend a public church building, but were actively participating in Simple Church while leading their children in Bible studies as they themselves were going through Bible studies.45
Though this project does not intend to develop a house church model for the Bronte
Church, it does mention here the Simple Church Adventist house church network as an example of how small groups that intentionally focus on community, discipleship, and mission can be a viable way to be the Church of Christ in the twenty-first century.
Christian Schwarz’s “Holistic Small Groups”
As mentioned previously, one of the main arguments to justify and promote this small group strategy at the Bronte Church is the fact that according to a recent NCD survey implemented in this congregation, holistic small groups was the lowest-scoring factor. With this in mind, it seems worth mentioning Schwarz’s view of this quality characteristic. In Schwarz’s own words,
The best way to understand what holistic small groups are is to see them as a “church in microcosm.” That means you can expect everything that characterizes the church as a whole – for instance the eight quality characteristics – to function, with slight variations, at the small group level as well. . . . Holistic small groups
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid. 136 should nurture the heads, hands, and hearts of the participants. If just one of these dimensions is missing or underdeveloped, it might still be a small group that fulfills an important function, but is no longer a “holistic” small group.46
Two things come out of Schwarz’s understanding of holistic small groups. First, he sees them as the “church in microcosm.” In this sense, holistic small groups are small churches. Holistic small groups, then, as per the NCD paradigm, are not much different from house churches, except for the fact that while Schwartz sees them as “microscopic” churches forming part of a larger church, a house church is still a small group, but an independent church in itself. For the ecclesiological identity purposes of this project, it is important to point out that according to Schwarz, a small group can be the church in its fullness. Second, in order for these groups to be a “church in microcosm,” Schwarz proposes a three-dimensional model as follows: green (the reflective side), red (the proactive side), and blue (the affective side). Using the language of this project, green represents thinking and learning, or discipleship through God’s Word; red represents doing and action, or mission and evangelism; and blue represents feelings, emotions, and affections, or community. In fact, Schwarz corresponds the colours to what he calls the
“Trinitarian Compass” with the persons of the Trinity as follows: green is the Father, red is Jesus, and blue is the Holy Spirit.47
Concluding Remarks
Using Icenogle’s words, this chapter has argued that “God as Being exists in community. Humanity as the imaged beings of God were created in community and are
46 Christian Schwarz, Colour Your World with Natural Church Development (St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2005), 116.
47 Ibid., 53. 137 called to live and mature in community. The natural and simple demonstration of God’s communal image for humanity is the gathering of a small group.”48 From the beginning of the world and through the history of God’s people, covenantal small group communities have been called and established by God to fulfill his purposes through the experience of community, discipleship, and mission. Abram’s call, the small group structure implemented by Moses as per Jethro’s advice, Jesus and the twelve, and the early Church house church phenomenon are but a few examples.
Throughout the history of Christianity in general, and particularly in the life and growth of the Adventist Church from its very inception, small groups have played an integral part as the most fundamental structural unity, one that has preserved the Church of God through its darkest periods in history. As the Church in the West faces some major challenges, especially the displacement from center stage to the margins of society and its decline in attendance, moving the Church “from the temple to the homes” seems to be a path worth following. The house church movement in general and the Simple
Church Adventist house church network are good and attractive twenty-first century examples. In essence, small groups that intentionally strive towards biblical community, discipleship, and mission are “the church in microcosm” and become the fulfillment of
God’s vision for the Church and for humanity.
48 Icenogle, Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry, 13. 138
PART THREE
MINISTRY STRATEGY
CHAPTER 6
STRATEGY GOALS AND PLANS
This chapter presents a small group strategy for the Bronte Church. Using small groups as the platform, the main goal of this strategy is to help church members grow from “doing” church to “being” the church, transitioning from a programs-and-events focus to a clear understanding and an intentional practice of community, discipleship, and mission. This strategy includes casting the vision, identifying and training leaders, testing the main concepts through a pilot program, and eventually involving the entire congregation through teaching on and implementing small groups.
Theological Implications and Ministry Overview
This section considers the implications of the theology discussed in the previous chapters. In particular, it presents the importance of the Church being a community in
Christ, and that community focusing on discipleship and mission. This section also states the preferred future for the Bronte Church.
The Church as a Community in Christ
A serious biblical and theological study of the doctrine of the Church will inevitably lead to and include Christian community at its heart. As the previous two
140 chapters demonstrate, the oneness of the Trinity is to be reflected among God’s followers on earth, those who have responded to his calling: the Church. Simply put, the identity of the Church is directly proportional to the experience of community “in Christ.” On this issue of church identity and community, Bonhoeffer writes, “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”1 Simply put, if we are in Christ, we are in Christian community.
This community experience is not just social interaction. It is a community “in
Christ.” This is essentially what makes the Church a unique community, a “Christian” community. Bonhoeffer explains the meaning of this qualitative formula – “in Christ” – as follows: “It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to other only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time and united for eternity.”2 According to these words, three things should be noted: first, Christ and the experience of salvation in him is the basis and motor for Christian community; it is because of that experience that a Christian needs other Christians; second, Christ is the
Mediator of and the means to Christian community; only through him can Christians relate to one another; and third, once we are in Christ and find our eternally destiny in him individually, we also share that destiny in community. This strategy intentionally seeks the experience of Christian community for the Bronte Church; as such, both community and Christology are central.
1 Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 30.
2 Ibid., 21. 141 The Church as a Community for Disciples and Discipleship
To be “in Christ” is not only a theological statement and the ontological reality of those who respond to God’s calling, it is also a practical reality that is to be sought continually in the process of discipleship. In biblical terms, this means that being “in
Christ” implies faith that leads to obedience. Obedience without or outside of faith is mere legalism; faith without obedience is not genuine faith. To be “in Christ” is ultimately and ideally to reflect Christ’s image in character and conduct. In Dissident
Discipleship, David Augsburger presents a tri-dimensional view of discipleship:
Tripolar spirituality, by definition, possesses three dimensions: it is inwardly directed, upwardly compliant, and outwardly committed. The spirituality of personal transformation (the inner journey), the experience of divine encounter (the God-ward journey) and the relation of integrity and solidarity with the neighbour (the co-human journey with friend and enemy, with neighbour and persecutor) cannot be divided.3
This strategy intentionally seeks a path to discipleship with practices that embrace these three dimensions: inner, by learning to relate to ourselves “in Christ”; upward, by learning to relate to God “in Christ”; and outward, by learning to relate to one another “in
Christ.”
The Church as a Community “in Christ” with a Mission
Another essential identifying mark of the Church is mission. Biblically, it would be inconceivable to formulate a faithful picture of the Church without a missional component. God is a missional God; hence, the Church is a missional Church. As Guder puts it,
3 David Augsburger, Dissident Discipleship (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), 13. 142 We have come to see that mission is not merely activity of the church. Rather, mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purposes to restore and heal creation. “Mission” means “sending,” and it is the central biblical theme describing the purpose of God’s action in human history. God’s mission began with the call of Israel to receive God’s blessings in order to be a blessing to the nations. God’s mission unfolded in the history of God’s people across the centuries recorded in Scripture, and it reached its revelatory climax in the incarnation of God’s work of salvation in Jesus ministering, crucified, and resurrected.4
A few important points from this quote are that, first, mission originates in God; second, mission is central in Scripture; and third, Jesus is the ultimate climax, revelation, and model of God’s mission. This strategy seeks to intentionally and gradually engage members in God’s mission as modeled by Jesus.
Preferred Future
The strategy described in this chapter is based on the theological implications for ministry mentioned above, and in pursuit of a faithful ecclesiological experience at a local church. It is hoped that the strategy will facilitate Christian community, discipleship, and mission for the Bronte Church. Centered on the person of Jesus Christ, a small group ministry will be implemented as the main platform.
Strategy Goals
This strategy has four main goals. The first goal is to help participants understand the three core ecclesiological elements: community, discipleship, and mission. Though most members would probably agree that these three are very important in the life of the
Church, there are at least two areas where a better understanding is needed. A clearer understanding of the centrality of these ecclesiological elements is needed. In other
4 Guder, Missional Church, 4. 143 words, members need to understand that if they seriously want to be the church God wants them to be, these three are non-negotiable. Also needed is a clearer and deeper biblical understanding of each of the three elements. To understand that community, discipleship, and mission are central is not enough. There needs to be a clearer definition and comprehension of each of these three. Questions like the following need to be answered in search of that clearer understanding: What kind of community does God envision for the Church? What is biblical discipleship and how is it achieved? What is the mission that true followers of Jesus should be engaged in?
The second main goal is to develop a church culture that passionately embraces and intentionally focuses on community, discipleship, and mission. It is one thing to obtain a clearer understanding on a subject and its centrality to the Christian experience.
It is a totally different reality to make that subject part of the culture of the local church.
As important as it is, understanding alone is not sufficient. Once a clearer understanding is obtained, there needs to be an alignment within the church – its structures, ministries, programs, and resources – that is coherent with such an understanding.
The third goal is to help the church understand the purpose and value of small groups as a most appropriate vehicle to experience community, discipleship, and mission.
Members at the Bronte Church have different opinions about small groups – some positive, some negative, and some in between. These opinions are based on a combination of personal experience, third party accounts, and as a reaction to how small groups were presented and promoted in the past. It is imperative that members can identify small groups as a very effective structure God has used since the beginning of this world to accomplish his purposes through his people.
144 Lastly, the fourth main goal of this strategy is to actively seek the practice of
Christian community, mission, and discipleship in the context of small groups. This last goal has to do with a “hands on” experience, and it hopes not only to complete a small group cycle, but to establish a small group ministry and to create a lifestyle that will bring transformation and kingdom growth at the Bronte Church.
Content
To implement a new program implies change, and bringing about change is not always simple or easy. In his book Leading Change, John Kotter proposes eight stages for organizational change.5 The first is to “establish a sense of urgency.” Before people can be ready for a new change, they have to sense the need for it. At the Bronte Church, there are several ways a sense of urgency can be generated: first, by sharing statistics that show a plateau for the past ten years; next, by stressing the fact that to continue with
“business as usual” will probably lead to the same results; and finally, by sharing how projections predict a growth in population and diversity in the surrounding community, which presents a great opportunity for Church and kingdom growth.
In Kotter’s second stage, the leader should “create a guiding coalition.” This implies creating a team of people that will provide leadership and make the project sustainable. This should include the identification and gradual engagement of key leaders who will make this “their” project and become instrumental in its implementation.
In the third stage, the goal is to “develop vision and strategy.” This project provides an overall vision and strategy to launch a small group ministry at the Bronte
5 John Kotter, Leading Change (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1996), 33-158. 145 Church. However, once the ministry starts, more members will engage in the project, experience is gained, and changes will be made to that overall strategy to facilitate a “buy in” among key leaders and hence provide continuity and sustainability.
The fourth stage is the time to “communicate the new vision.” This is perhaps one of the most crucial steps of the process. A great vision that is not communicated properly usually does not get too far. There are many different ways by which a vision can be communicated. At the Bronte Church some of the elemental communication avenues that will be used include: informal yet intentional one-on-one interactions; the bi-weekly pastoral newsletter; the weekly church bulletin; verbal/visual announcements during the worship service; and the church website.
In the fifth stage, the goal is to “empower leaders for broad-based action.” While in general, small group ministries are extremely detailed in terms of methods, materials, specific dates, and other aspects of the life of each small group, the main goal of this strategy is to intentionally promote the three ecclesiological elements in question: community, discipleship, and mission. Under the guidance of the pastor, the specifics for each of these three major areas will be left for each leader and group to determine.
Kotter’s sixth stage is the time to “generate short-term wins.” Short-term wins give people a sense of accomplishment, and this usually becomes a motivator for people to commit more deeply and to stay focused. Instead of launching an open-ended ministry, this strategy will start with a six-week cycle as part of a forty-days-of-prayer initiative, with the hope that groups and leaders will have a very positive short-term experience and that this will result in a desire and a determination to continue.
146 In the seventh stage, the leader should “consolidate gains – more change.” As short-term goals are accomplished and momentum is created, the plan is to continue to motivate ministry leaders and members in general to continue with and to expand this small group ministry. Some of the potential changes that will be pursued at this stage include getting more members involved, starting new groups, and transitioning from being a short-term pilot program to becoming fully established ongoing church ministry.
In Kotter’s eighth stage, the leader will “anchor new approaches in the culture.” If the previous stages take place, the ultimate goal is that, as a natural consequence, what was considered “new” will become part of the ethos of the church. Though it may appear as a very ambitious goal, it is thought that if indeed this becomes an ongoing ministry of the church, it could literally transform the life of the Bronte Church at many levels.
With these eight stages of organizational change as a backdrop, this strategy will be comprised of six specific components. These are vision casting, sermon series, pilot project, small group seminar, church-wide ministry launch, and resources. The following sections describe each of these.
Vision Casting
The first component of this strategy is vision casting. Vision can be defined as “a clear picture of a preferred future.” Everything in life, any sort of enterprise or project, usually starts with some sort of vision for the future. For instance, one only needs to go to the first chapter of the Bible to find a an example of vision; though not necessarily with this language, the Bible opens with a description of the beginning of life on earth as a result of God’s vision. Things, creatures, humanity, and life in general exist on planet
147 earth because God had a vision and he implemented it. There are many benefits to developing and casting a clear, compelling vision. It provides direction and purpose; it is the point of reference for periodical evaluations; it inspires and motivates people to participate; and it facilitates efficiency.
Before a small group initiative can be implemented, it is important to dedicate time to cast the vision. This vision casting process will be done in two stages: before the pilot program and after the pilot program. The former will focus primordially on the pilot project; the latter will focus on the follow-up stage and the transition into an ongoing small group ministry at the Bronte Church.
The vision casting process will also be done mainly in two ways: formally through meetings with the board of elders and the church board, and informally through one-on-one discussions and pastoral visitation. This vision-sharing process will seek both in order to describe some of the areas in the church where growth is needed, thus creating a sense of urgency. The vision-sharing process will also seek to paint a picture of what the church could look like and how it would benefit from developing a small group strategy based on community, discipleship, and mission.
Sermon Series on Ecclesiology and Small Groups
Another important component of this strategy, as a way to paint a picture of a preferred future for the entire congregation, is a five-part sermon series that will cover the main elements of this project. These elements will include a general, biblical-theological overview of the church; a specific look at the three ecclesiological elements: community, discipleship, and mission; and the relevancy of small groups from a biblical, historical,
148 and practical point of view. Of the various ministries and programs that take place at the
Bronte Church, the weekly worship service is undoubtedly the one that congregates the majority of the membership. Thus, this is the best and most strategic time to share crucial information with the church at large. This sermon series will attempt to answer the following questions: Why do we need the Church? In essence, what is the Church? How do we become the Church?”
The first sermon will tackle the question: Why the Church? In a day and age where thousands are leaving the Church, especially in the Western world, these questions beg to be answered: Is the Church still relevant today? Do we still really need the
Church? This sermon will argue that the ultimate goal of God’s plan of redemption is not only forgiveness of one’s past sins, but also and especially transformation of one’s character and conduct into Christ-likeness, which is only possible in the context of
Christian community. Moreover, as already presented in Chapter 4 in dealing with John
17, true Christian community is the best missional approach for the Church. Jesus prayed,
“That they all may be one, as you, father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:21). In essence, the
Church – the community of those called in Jesus – is crucially needed both for character development and for missional purposes, “that the world may believe.”
The second, third, and fourth sermons, will deal respectively with each of the ecclesiological elements: community, discipleship, and mission. First, they will adamantly emphasize the centrality of the three as indispensable identity marks of the
Church, with the caveat that more than an organization or institution, the Church is the people; each individual person experiencing these three elements makes up the Church.
149 Second, these series will attempt to unveil what the Bible says for each of the three core elements; in this sense, the goal is to bring a clearer understanding of the kind of community, discipleship, and mission God envisions for his Church as revealed in the
Bible and in the life and ministry of Jesus. Third, this series will present the interdependence of community, discipleship, and mission. Though in theory and for clarity of understanding the three can be discussed separately, in reality and in practice these three are indivisible in Christ; for example, one cannot be a true disciple and not be involved in mission.
The last sermon will make a case for small groups as the structure that God has used since the beginning of the world and throughout history, to bring about his plans and purposes for humanity. The sermon will begin with the Bible, then travel through the history of Christianity in general and Adventism in particular, and end with a personal testimony about my experiences with small groups. It will be argued that small groups are the best vehicle through which to experience community, discipleship, and mission.
Pilot Project
In order for members to have a foretaste of small groups, and to test the response of the church in general and of leaders in particular to the implementation of small groups, the third component of the strategy will be a pilot project. This pilot project will be comprised of a six-week initiative using the book, 40 Days: Prayers and Devotions to
Prepare for the Second Coming, by Adventist pastor Dennis Smith, and will include three steps. The first step will be reading the daily devotional readings in the book for each of the forty days and praying, individually or as families at home. It will be emphasized that
150 this personal prayer experience should include intercessory prayers, praying for at least five people. The second step will be finding a prayer partner to pray for and with, over the phone or in person, ideally every day for the forty days. This will seek to foster discipleship in community through commitment, support, and accountability. The third step will be joining a small group and meeting weekly for six weeks.
Also, there will be three congregational events. The first event will be the official launch of the project with a special prayer of dedication during the worship service on the first Saturday of the six weeks. The second event will be a special day of fasting and prayer in the middle of the forty days. That same day, a group of members will go out
“prayer-walking” in the neighbourhood surrounding the church. And the third event will be an “Agape Feast” to conclude the forty days. This celebration will take place in the fellowship hall on the last Saturday of the six weeks after the worship service and will include music, a time of reflection, group discussions, and personal testimonies.
The time span of forty days was chosen for three reasons. First of all, it was chosen because of its biblical symbolism. Several books and projects have been created for this same reason. Most Christians are familiar with the biblical stories where the number forty played a significant role in preparing a person or a group of people for something special. Noah spent forty days in the Ark with his family; Moses spent forty days in the mountain receiving the law; Israel spent forty years in the desert; Jesus spent forty days fasting. In many ways, people feel they are connecting with these stories as they also engage in a forty-day period.
151 Second, it seems important to have an established period. It is generally easier for people to make a commitment when they know there is a clear set beginning and end. It is helpful to see the end in the near future.
Third, forty days allows sufficient time for changes to become habits that will last beyond the forty days. Although opinions vary, it is commonly believed that it takes approximately a month to develop a habit. It is hoped that some of these practices will continue after the end of the forty days, especially the devotional practices (reading the book and praying at home), the missional thrust (praying specifically for at least five people)6 and the communal practices (prayer partners and small group meetings).
Small Groups Training Seminar
Another component of this strategy is the implementation of a small group seminar targeting small group leaders but open to and promoted among the membership at large, which will provide both foundational, biblical principles and practical guidelines for a small group ministry. Doctor Daniel Linrud, the executive secretary of the Ontario
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, will conduct this seminar. Doctor Linrud completed his doctoral studies in ministry at Fuller Seminary, and his final project was about a church plant using a cell church model.
This seminar will include four modules. Two will deal with the biblical, theological, and historical foundations for small groups. These will be presented on a
Saturday morning, using the time of the Sabbath School and the worship service. The
6 Members will be challenged not only to pray for but to do tangible things for these five people. 152 other two modules will be presented the same day in the afternoon, and will cover practical aspects of small group life.
Church-wide Ministry Launch
The last stage of the strategy is to establish the small group ministry at the Bronte
Church. The details of this stage will depend directly on the overall experience with the pilot project. The number of groups and the leaders and the locations for each group will be determined at this moment. Although the greater the number of people involved the better, quality is more important than quantity. For even if only one small group is created, as long as a number of members decide to be more intentional in seeking to experience a more authentic church identity through community, discipleship, and mission, this project will be a success.
Resources
When it comes to resources for small groups, there are many excellent options.
Once the small group ministry is established and the groups define themselves in terms of the needs, age, and life-stage of the participants, different resources will be considered.
However, the following resources will be used at the beginning stage of this strategy.
First, for the pilot project, the book by Pastor Dennis Smith, 40 Days: Prayers and
Devotions to Prepare for the Second Coming, will be the main resource. Written by an
Adventist pastor, this book speaks directly to Adventists, presenting revival and discipleship insight and suggested practices in the eschatological context of the second coming of Jesus. Each chapter has discussion questions at the end that will be used for the small group meetings.
153 In the area of training for small group leaders, four resources will be used as a reference and/or guiding structure. First is a book by Kurt Johnson titled, Successful
Small Groups.7 This book not only provides practical guidelines for organizing and leading successful small groups, but it also presents the foundations (biblical and historical) for small group ministry, all from an Adventist perspective. In this very practical resource, Johnson defends the effectiveness of small groups in both nurturing church members and leading non-members to relationship with Christ.
Another book that will be used as a primary reference for small group leadership and training will be Christian Schwartz’s The 3 Colours of Community.8 This is a very practical book, but instead of dealing with the technicalities of this vital ministry, it portrays seven qualities that all healthy communities have in common. It also provides a
“communal test” to assess and reveal which of the “seven God-given energies” are strongest in the participants lives, and also to help them understand the essential communal quality they can best contribute to, as well as the areas in which they are most vulnerable to sin. Due to the fact that the Bronte Church recently completed the NCD survey and is using NCD as a tool to assess the health of the church, this resource is a natural choice. The lowest scoring factor as per this survey was holistic small groups, and this book is the corresponding NCD resource for this quality characteristic.
7 Kurt W. Johnson, Successful Small Groups (Hagerstown, MD: Review & Herald Publishing Association, 2012).
8 Christian Schwartz, The 3 Colours of Community (St Charles, IL: Churchsmart Resources, 2012). 154 A third resource that will be made available to small group leaders after the pilot project is a book by Michael Breen and Walt Kallestad titled, A Passionate Life.9 This is a practical book on discipleship that uses eight shapes to explain eight facets of discipleship. They are: a circle of repentance and faith; a semi-circle of rest and work; a triangle of relationships; a square of priorities; a pentagon of ministry; a hexagon of prayer; a heptagon of life; and an octagon of peace.
Lastly, the primary resource for the training of small group leaders will be The
Big Group on Small Groups, by Jeffrey Arnold. As mentioned in Chapter 3, this is a
“how to” book on small groups. There are many benefits in using this very practical, easy-to-implement book.
Leadership and Target Population
Like with any other human endeavour, leadership is one of the most important elements of a successful small group ministry. In fact, this aspect cannot be overly emphasized. While not the only factor, this is undoubtedly among the top priorities in developing a healthy and sustainable small group strategy. The pastor of the Bronte
Church will be the main person responsible for the identification, selection, and training of small group leaders. He will spend time in careful and prayerful consideration through this process, which will be done in consultation with the elders of the church. In the same way that Moses, as per Jethro’s advice, developed clear and specific criteria in selecting the leaders of the different levels of his new structure to organize and lead Israel, a threefold criteria will be followed in choosing the small group leaders for the Bronte
9 Michael Breen and Walt Kallestad, A Passionate Life (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2005). 155 Church. Potential leaders must be: active and mature Christians; experienced group facilitators; and well-respected church leaders.
The long-term target population for this small group strategy is primarily the members of the Bronte Church, and secondarily, as a missional extension of this project, the communities where God has placed the members of the respective groups. The short- term target population includes whoever responds to the call to be a part of the forty- days-of-prayer initiative through small groups. The minimum hoped for is between five and twelve people to create at least one small group.
Concluding Remarks
Using the theological implications from Chapters 4 and 5 as the launching platform, this chapter presented the different components of the small group strategy for the Bronte Church, including its goals, content, leadership, and targeted population.
There are four goals: first, to help participants understand three core ecclesiological elements; second, to develop a church culture that passionately embraces and intentionally focuses on community, discipleship, and mission; third, to understand the purpose and value of small groups; and fourth, to actively practice community, mission, and discipleship in the context of a small group.
The main content of the strategy is comprised of six sections. Vision casting will be done both formally in various meetings and informally through one-on-one interactions and pastoral visitation. A five-part sermon series will focus on ecclesiology in general, the three elements of community, discipleship, and mission, and small groups as an optimum, divinely inspired platform to be the Church and to live the three elements.
156 The pilot project will include a forty-days-of-prayer initiative comprised of three steps: devotional practices at home, prayer partners, and weekly small group meetings. The small group seminar will be a one-day training event for small group leaders, providing theological foundations and practical instruction on small groups. The church-wide ministry launch will take place after the pilot project, and the plan is to launch a small group ministry for the entire congregation. Finally, the resources that will be used for the small groups, both for group meetings and for leadership training, will be put into place.
157
CHAPTER 7
IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION PROCESS
This last chapter presents a detailed implementation and evaluation of the small group strategy for the Bronte Church as proposed in the previous chapter, designed to seek the intentional practice of community, discipleship, and mission. This encompassing process is described in a specific timeline, divided into two general stages. For each of these stages, time and resources were devoted for leadership recruitment and training, ongoing leadership support, and evaluation exercises to assess the effectiveness of this strategy in fulfilling its pursued goals.
Project Summary
This project was divided into two major parts. The first part was a pilot project with small groups through a forty-days-of-prayer initiative. It included vision casting, leadership recruiting and training, and the implementation of small groups for a six-week cycle that accompanied and supported the prayer initiative. The second part consisted of the first small group cycle of a small group ministry for the entire congregation. This included a five-part sermon series, more leadership training, and the official launch of the small group ministry, with an assessment exercise at the end of the first cycle.
158 Timeline
The timeline for the different parts of this overall project was divided into six phases. First of all, time was allocated to study and develop resources and to work on the specific logistics of the pilot project, while at the same time beginning to cast the vision for a small group component in the pilot project and a longer-term small group initiative.
This was done in the summer and fall of 2011.
During the second phase, in the fall of 2011, leaders for the pilot project were identified, recruited, and trained. Two existing departments of the Bronte Church were instrumental in this stage: the prayer ministry and the personal ministries department (in charge of motivating, training, and mobilizing members for outreach and mission). A meeting with the key leaders of these two ministries was held to work on the details of the 40 Days of Prayer initiative. As a result of the leaders of these two ministries understanding and “owning” the vision for small groups as a key component of the prayer initiative, and with the full support of the church board, great enthusiasm and energy was generated towards the pilot project.
The third phase was dedicated to the implementation of the pilot project in the winter of 2012. This was chosen in the context of the New Year, challenging the members to begin the year consecrating their lives to God. The 40 Days of Prayer initiative was promoted since the beginning of December of 2011 and was launched on
January 21, 2012. The previous week, on January 14, in preparation for the launch and as a way to promote the initiative, the congregation was challenged to seriously and prayerfully consider making at least one of the following three commitments: a) to take the devotional book home and to individually read and pray daily throughout the forty
159 days; b) to find a prayer or growth partner to journey with, for the forty days; and c) to join a small group for six weeks during the forty days.
Originally, the goal was to have ideally two to three small groups established and active during the pilot project. However, after much promotion, when the initiative was launched, thirteen small groups were formed, with the vast majority of the members at the Bronte Church involved; this surpassed all the expectations of the organizers. The day of the launch, the worship service was organized around this prayer initiative, including a concurrent sermon and a special prayer of consecration for all those involved: small groups in general, leaders, hosts, all participants, and the small groups’ surrounding communities.
At the middle of the initiative, on February 4, a special day of fasting was held.
The worship service was centered upon this theme. A good number of members stayed in the afternoon for a special meeting with prayer and devotional exercises, and also for a
“prayer walking” activity in a neighbourhood close to the church. To close the forty days, a special worship service was held on February 25, with an Agape Feast following the service. The Agape Feast consisted of a light lunch (vegetables, fruits, nuts, breads, and spreads) in a highly spiritual atmosphere, with a program that included reflectional music, selected readings, and testimonies from the different small groups. Practically the entire congregation stayed for this activity, and many friends and visitors that were involved in the small groups attended as well. While all the parts of the program were meaningful, the personal testimonies were the highlight of that event, hearing members and non- members getting emotionally moved as they shared their stories of spiritual blessings, miracles, and answers to prayer was extremely uplifting.
160 After the pilot project was completed and a four-week break was taken, the next phase in the timeline included a five-part sermon series on the topics of the church, community, discipleship, mission, and small groups. This took place in the spring of
2012, specifically the months of April and May. A few testimonies from the small groups experience during the pilot project were included in this sermon series, as a way to promote the benefits and blessings of engaging in small groups.
The next milestone in the timeline was the training of small group leaders, which was done in two ways. First, a small group seminar was held at the Bronte Church and was conducted by Doctor Daniel Linrud, who was Executive Secretary for the Ontario
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists at that time. This one-day event took place at the very beginning of the month of September, in the fall of 2012. Based upon the targeted goal described in the previous chapter, this seminar covered both biblical foundations and practical aspects of small groups. Second, during the trimester following the training, the pastor of the Bronte Church had several meetings with the leaders of the small groups in order to, first, emphasize the main focus and components of the small groups: community, discipleship, and mission; second, to evaluate the progress in light of these three areas; and third, to inspire, motivate, and encourage the leaders.
While almost immediately following the pilot project, several groups decided to
“unofficially” continue their weekly meetings, the official launch of the small group ministry for the entire congregation took place in the fall of 2012, following the training for small group leaders mentioned above. Several resources were proposed, but it was left for each group to choose their study material for the discipleship component as well as to decide how to intentionally and practically live out community and mission.
161 Leadership Development and Roles
Not only was careful consideration followed in the selection of the small group leaders, but also in their development once they engaged in leadership. Coaching was done one-on-one as well as through a series of meetings as a group. The main training included biblical foundations for small groups, practical aspects of small group life, and the specifics of this particular strategy for Bronte, emphasizing the intentional pursue of community, discipleship, and mission.
Small Group Training for Leaders: Theological and Practical Components
As mentioned before in the description of the timeline, time was allotted for leadership training after the pilot project and before officially launching small groups as an ongoing ministry for the Bronte Church. The formal training consisted of a one-day seminar with two components. The first component was theological: though most of the leaders were convinced about and committed to this small group ministry, time was dedicated to review the biblical and theological foundations for small groups, as well as the theological support for the threefold emphasis sought for the small groups. The second component was practical: this part of the training focused on practical aspects of small group life such as leadership responsibilities, starting and sustaining a group, group dynamics, and so on.
Leadership Responsibilities and Goals
Among the primary responsibilities assigned to the leaders, three were primary.
The first responsibility was to coordinate the general functioning of their respective small groups. This included finding and confirming the meeting place, particularly in those
162 cases where they chose to rotate their meeting locations. This also included communicating with group members regularly to motivate, inform of changes or any key information, and to remind them of the overall goals as well as the daily devotional exercises. The second responsibility was to orchestrate and facilitate the weekly meeting, particularly the dynamics of the group interaction and the spiritual discussion. Though the devotional book chosen for the 40-days-of-prayer pilot project included application questions that focused on personal spiritual transformation, this aspect of leaders as discussion facilitators was strongly emphasized in the training. It was made clear that the goal was not only to obtain theological information through an exchange of intellectual ideas and conversations, but also and especially to correlate that information with current personal experiences and to seek personal application relevant to members’ current spiritual journeys. The third responsibility was to intentionally focus and seek the experience of community, discipleship, and mission in and through the life of the group.
Leaders were challenged to be catalysts for these three main components of this small group strategy.
Ongoing Leadership Support
In order to ensure stability and the overall well-being of the small groups, ongoing leadership support was facilitated through phone calls, informal yet intentional one-to- one interaction with leaders, visitation to small group meetings, and monthly leadership meetings. This support consisted usually of these components: first, listening to concerns about specific situations and providing advice accordingly; second, offering positive affirmation and encouragement; and third, reminding leaders of the threefold objective of
163 the small groups and their key role in leading the group to continually and intentionally pray for and pursue community, discipleship, and mission.
Resources
The resources needed to implement this strategy can be divided into five main categories. The first one had to do with printed materials both for leadership training as well as for the weekly meetings. For leadership training, a summary of the material presented at the training seminar was distributed to leaders. For the weekly meetings, two kinds of resources were used: for the pilot program, 140 copies of the book, 40 Days of
Devotions in Preparation for the Second Coming, by Dennis Smith, were purchased and distributed among members. For the first small group cycle, each small group decided which resource to use for its study.
The second type of resources had to do with the facilities both for congregational meetings and for the small groups. All the leadership and training meetings, as well as the congregational activities, took place at the church. The small group meetings took place mostly in members’ homes, with the exception of one small group of professional women who met in downtown Toronto right after work. Some small groups met always in the same home while others rotated among members’ homes. Once the leaders for the small groups were established, and the groups formed around those leaders, each group determined their place of meeting.
A third kind of resource needed was financial, mainly for study materials, guest speakers’ related costs, and food and refreshments for the congregational gatherings, particularly for the Agape Feast. One of the advantages of working with small groups is
164 that it is very cost effective. Most of the meetings took place in members’ homes and members themselves provided most of the things needed for their gatherings, such as refreshments and other needs. For the congregational events, such as training, the Agape
Feast, and the like, most funds came out of already existing departments. The church board has been very supportive of this ministry, and this is reflected in its ongoing financial support.
Fourthly, in relation to resources, arrangements were made with the audio/visual department of the church to make sure that proper sound and visual equipment was ready for all training, leadership and congregational meetings, and activities. Lastly and perhaps most importantly were the human resources. The number one human resource needed was in the area of leadership. Also, after the pilot project, various members were contacted to share their testimonies during the sermon series as encouragement and motivation in preparation for the launch of the small group ministry.
Additional Personnel
Beside the small group leaders, who played a pivotal role in the organization, recruitment of participants, and the overall week-to-week performance of the small groups, two other groups of leaders also proved helpful in the implementation of this small group initiative. First, as the overall overseers of the church who work closely with the pastor to provide vision and leadership, the church elders were extremely helpful by assisting with recruitment of leaders and ongoing assessment and visioning for this ministry. Second, as mentioned above, the leaders of the prayer ministry and the personal
165 ministries departments were critical in the planning and successful implementation of the pilot project.
Originally, the intent was to elect a small group coordinator, a lay member to oversee this ministry, in the same way that there are leaders for each of the ministries at the Bronte Church. After much consideration and since this was a new project, the pastor decided to take that role himself. Still, this is something to be implemented in the near future. Two small group leaders have been identified who could easily and effectively fulfill that position.
Assessment Plan
Three kinds of assessments took place through this strategy: before, during, and after. The first one, before this strategy was developed and implemented, was an in-depth analysis of the NCD survey. Originally, the plan was to create and conduct a pre-test for small group participants to be used at the beginning of the pilot program and then at the beginning of the first cycle with entire congregation. However, two situations led to a change. First of all, the detailed study of the NCD survey result, which was done through a healthy and extensive discussion with the church board, provided key information about the condition of the church in the areas of community, discipleship, and mission. It would have been redundant to do a pre-test to procure information in these same areas.
Secondly, since practically the entire church engaged in small groups for the pilot project, there was no need to conduct a second pre-test at the launch of the small group ministry for the entire congregation.
166 Three important realities where discovered through the NCD survey, directly germane to this project. The first and most obvious one was the fact that of the eight quality characteristics, holistic small groups was the lowest scoring factor with a score of
35. This was not necessarily a surprise since this is the most common lowest NCD factor among Adventist churches in North America, and because other than the Sabbath School and various ministry teams, there was no small group ministry existent at the Bronte
Church. A second important finding in regards to the health of this congregation was derived from a closer look at the ten lowest-scoring questions. Table 2 illustrates their connection to the components of this project.
NCD Small group 10 Lowest-Scoring Questions Score Characteristic component In our church is possible to talk with other people Loving 1 12 Community about personal problems. Relationships Holistic Small 2 In my small group we trust each other. 21 Community Groups Loving 3 I can rely upon my friends at church. 25 Community Relationships Our leaders are clearly concerned for people who do Empowering 4 26 Mission not know Jesus Christ. Leadership The leaders of our church support individual Need Oriented 5 26 Mission Christians in their evangelistic endeavours. Evangelism In my small group we spend lots of time on things Holistic Small 6 26 Discipleship which are irrelevant to me. Groups Passionate 7 Our leaders are spiritual examples to me. 29 Discipleship Spirituality I know of people in our church with bitterness toward Loving Discipleship/ 8 30 others. Relationships Community The leaders of our small groups are trained for their Holistic Small Mission/ 9 31 tasks. Groups Discipleship The leaders of our church prefer to do the work Empowering Mission/ 10 31 themselves rather than collaborate with others. Leadership Community
Table 2. Bronte NCD Survey Results: Ten Lowest-Scoring Questions
167 A third finding was experienced as the church board took time to dig deeper beyond the NCD data and find and discuss the congregational realities behind the data.
Among the most salient conclusions was the fact that while the Bronte Church has been generally known as a very friendly congregation, with several vibrant ministries and attractive programs, there have been some trust and relationship issues among many members. As a result, the experience of community – which directly affects discipleship and mission – is in many cases superficial. Moreover, the fact that need-oriented evangelism was the second lowest scoring factor of the eight NCD quality characteristics explains and corresponds with the decadal stagnation in the years leading to this project.
A second kind of assessment was done during the project, through pastoral personal observation and discussions with the church elders. This was done periodically during the pilot project and then during the first cycle of the small group ministry for the church. As it was to be expected, not all the groups functioned equally steadily. In general, the leaders were very dedicated and enthusiastic throughout both the pilot project, and, in the case of those who chose to continue, after the small group ministry was launched.
In retrospect, though, for some of the meetings held with the small groups leaders, more consistency and a higher frequency would have been beneficial. All groups completed the pilot project; the consistency of the meetings, however, varied from group to group, depending on age (in particular, families with young children found it difficult to commit to a weekly gathering, especially through the winter months), geographical dispersion, and so on. Out of the thirteen groups involved in the pilot project, eight
168 decided to continue after, with an overall average attendance of approximately sixty members.
A third type of evaluation was done after the first small group cycle through a simple questionnaire for small group leaders and members alike.1 This questionnaire sought to measure the impact of the small groups in the lives of the members, particularly in the areas of community, discipleship, and mission. This survey was comprised of three parts. In the first part, six small group areas were ranked, each corresponding to one of the ecclesiological elements (community, discipleship, and mission). In the second part, there were twelve more specific statements seeking to evaluate the overall experience as well as the elements of community, discipleship, and mission. For each of these six areas and thirteen statements, participants were asked to rank them or to indicate their agreement by writing a number between 0 and10. Finally, at the bottom of the survey, an invitation was made for members to share in a few words the overall impact of this initiative on their lives.
Report on Results
About half of the small group participants completed the survey mentioned above.
Table 3 presents members’ collective response to the directive: “Please rank each of the following areas of your small group with the same scale, from 0-10.”
1 Appendix A provides the one-page survey. 169 Small Group Area Small Group Component Collective Score 1 Fellowship Community 92% 2 Bible Study Discipleship 84% 3 Spirituality Discipleship 86% 4 Unity Community 83% 5 Mission Mission 67% 6 Service to Others Mission 73%
Table 3. Collective Scores and the Corresponding Six Small Group Areas Evaluated
The second part of the survey instructed members as follows: “For the following list of statements, please choose a number from 0-10 to indicate how much you agree with each assertion.” These statements can be grouped in four areas: general satisfaction; community; discipleship; and mission. Table 4 depicts the collective score.
170
Area Statement Collective Score evaluated Overall, I had a very positive experience with my 1 General 92% small group I got to know the members in my small group 2 Community 94% better After this experience I feel more comfortable 3 Community 75% sharing personal things with other members The weekly discussion was very relevant and 4 Discipleship 90% helpful for my spiritual life My prayer life improved significantly as a result of 5 Discipleship 80% my involvement with my small group In my small group I was encouraged to share my 6 Mission 74% faith with non-members In my small group I learned ways to spread the 7 Mission 78% gospel in my personal context Our small group is a safe place where I can share 8 Community 75% openly about my life Because of this experience I understand better 9 General 80% what “being” the church of Jesus is all about Having a prayer partner was very helpful for my 10 Discipleship 76% spiritual journey Reaching out to the lost was central in my small 11 Mission 72% group My church experience in general was enriched as 12 General 88% a result of this small group initiative
Table 4. Members’ Assessment of Small Group Components
As per the above tables, a few observations can be made. Overall, participants were very satisfied with this initiative. In the area of community, while participants were able to get better acquainted with other members (94%), they were not as prone to describe their small group as a “safe place” where they could share openly about their lives. In the area of discipleship, the relevancy of the weekly discussion was the most supported statement (90%). This marks a significant contrast with the sixth lowest scoring question in the NCD survey that read, “In my small group we spend lots of time on things which are irrelevant to me.” Also, the prayer experience of participants saw a
171 significant improvement as a result of this small group initiative (80%). The area of mission received the poorest endorsement of all; this is undoubtedly one of the areas that require more attention and intentional coaching. It is important to note, though, that because all of the groups have a short existence, it seems only natural that some time may be needed for members to grow in the experience of community and discipleship before they can focus full force on external, missional projects.
Finally, there are several remarks that members made to the invitation at the bottom of the survey: “In a few words, describe the impact of this small group initiative in your life.” These remarks capture only in part many of the positive contributions of the small groups have had in the life of the church. These answers are listed in Appendix B.
Concluding Remarks
This chapter presented the implementation and the evaluation of the small group strategy for the Bronte Church. The implementation was done between the fall of 2011 and the fall of 2012. The process was comprised of six stages: first, development of resources and vision casting (summer and fall of 2011); second, leadership recruitment and training for the pilot project (fall of 2011); third, implementation of the pilot project
(winter of 2012); fourth, five-part sermon series on church, community, discipleship, mission and small groups (spring of 2012); fifth, leadership training for the first cycle of a new small group ministry (fall of 2012); and sixth, launch of the first eight-week small group cycle.
Evaluation for and of this strategy was done in three ways. Before the project, evaluation was done through a thorough analysis of the NCD survey taken at the Bronte
172 Church in 2011, with particular interest in the holistic small groups NCD quality characteristic and the questions that related to community, discipleship, and mission.
During the project, it was evaluated through personal interactions with and observation of leaders and members, both informally and formally via leadership meetings. And after the project, evaluation was made through a survey done with a large percentage of small group participants. Overall, those who participated in this small group initiative were extremely blessed by it; of the three components, community scored the highest while mission scored the lowest.
173 CONCLUSION
Adventist theologian Angel Manuel Rodriguez, in his book, Message, Mission, and Unity of the Church, provides the following missional statement: “The mission should not only be understood as something that the church does, as if the church could still be the church without accomplishing this most important task. Mission, like its union with Christ and its organization, belongs to the essence of the church. It is not what the church does; it is what the church is.”1 On the same subject of the mission of the Church,
In an interview about Dallas Willard’s book, Renovation of the Heart, Willard said,
The Great Commission is still the mission statement of the Church. It’s just stunning to watch churches struggle to get mission statements when there it is, the Great Commission, and they should simply do what it says. Make disciples. Surround them in the reality of the Trinity in a fellowship of disciples. Teach them to do everything Jesus says. We’re not going to improve on that. That was the church-growth program that conquered the world.2
Based on these statements, it can be argued that at the very heart of the purpose for the existence of the Church is the fulfillment of the mission that Jesus entrusted to his followers: to make disciples. Therefore, mission and discipleship go hand in hand. Paul
Pettit, in his book, Foundations of Spiritual Formation, provides a working definition of discipleship as follows: “[Discipleship] is the ongoing process of the triune God transforming the believer’s life and character toward the life and character of Jesus Christ
1 Angel M. Rodriguez, Message, Mission, and Unity of the Church (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2013), 101.
2 Dallas Willard website, “Conversation with Dallas Willard about Renovation of the Heart,” interview by Lyle SmithGraybeal for Perspectives, a publication of Renovaré, October 2002, http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=86 (accessed April 6, 2014). 174 – accomplished by the ministry of the Spirit in the context of biblical community.”3
Along these lines, Richard Peace quotes Michael Wilkins’s definition of discipleship as
“living a fully human life in this world in union with Jesus Christ and growing in conformity to his image.”4
These definitions include three important aspects of discipleship. The first is transformation: the essence of discipleship has to do with change. The second is process: transformation is not instantaneous, but rather it takes time. The third is towards Christ- likeness: the goal of this transformation process is to become like Christ and to restore
God’s image in humanity. A fourth element of discipleship, according to Pettit’s and
Willard’s statements quoted above, is the fact that this ongoing transformation happens in the context of community.
In essence, the Church exists to fulfill a mission, that is, to make disciples, and discipleship always happens in the context of community. It is based on these convictions that this project has defined the Church as “the people who have responded to the calling of God, ‘in’ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to belong (community), be-come
(discipleship), and bless (mission).” This project has also argued that throughout the
Bible and throughout the history of Christianity, God has used small groups as the primary context in which God’s people have lived out his calling to belong, to be-come, and to bless. In order to help the members of the Bronte Church intentionally experience,
3 Paul Pettit, ed., Foundations of Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008), 24.
4 Michael Wilkins, Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), as quoted by Richard Peace, class resources for the course, “Spiritual Formation and Discipleship in a Postmodern World,” http://moodlearchive.fuller.edu/mod/resource/view. php?id=7557 (accessed February 1, 2010). 175 better understand, and systematically engage in community, discipleship, and mission, so that they could live out their calling as the Church of Jesus Christ, this project developed, implemented, and evaluated a small group strategy using these three core ecclesiological elements as its main focus and structure.
Summary of Project Impact
This project has had a great impact in the life of the Bronte Church, both qualitative and quantitatively. Quantitatively, a few important results are worth mentioning. First, greater involvement in church ministry was evidently seen; more members and even visitors engaged in active participation in various church ministries and activities. Second, a marked church growth was experienced; in the last three years and since the small groups started, membership grew from around 150 to over 190.
Though not in its entirety as a direct result of small groups, it is not hard to make the connection between church growth and the reality of more members engaged in systematic prayer and other discipleship practices in the context of small groups. Third, there has been growth in giving patterns. The tithe giving increased almost 70 percent over the same period, which could be seen as a mere coincidence, but it could be that the spiritual revival among members, as well as the membership growth that the small group strategy facilitated, directly affected giving patterns. Fourth, there has been more leadership participation in discipleship. While before the implementation of the small groups, the pastor was normally the one leading the midweek prayer meeting, now there are several lay members leading all aspects of the weekly small group gatherings, including of course the spiritual discussions. Fifth, the launch and development of new
176 ministries has taken place. During this period, several new ministries, initiatives, and events have emerged.
Qualitatively, several improvements were noticed. First, there have been new connections between members. People who were relatively strangers before became acquainted, and several new friendships started. Second, there has been growth into deeper fellowship. As the small group survey indicates, the prominent lack of trust revealed by the NCD survey was improved significantly through the small groups. Third, more fervour in spiritual growth/discipleship initiatives has been present. Though this is something that cannot be quantifiably measured, it is hard to argue against the spiritual revival that many individuals are showing in their commitment to and experience of discipleship practices. Fourth, the reclaiming of inactive members has taken place.
During this initiative, several members who had been inactive for quite some time returned to active church life at the Bronte Church.
Looking back with analytical eyes and forward with a desire to improve things, as with most human endeavours, there are always areas for improvement. First, there is a need for a more marked missional focus. Perhaps more time is needed for some groups to discover their missional calling, while others will have to prioritize this component in more creative ways, for in general this has been unquestionably the weakest of the three elements. Second, although intentional actions were taken in the area of leadership and ongoing support, a more structured monthly leadership meeting will only enhance this ministry. Third, a systematic coaching plan where existing leaders begin to train future leaders would be optimal. Fourth, since the Bronte Church its almost reaching its
177 building capacity, a church plant in the Burlington area using one or two small groups as the core group seems only logical.
Overall, this has been a highly beneficial initiative both personally and collectively. On a personal level, my family engaged in a small group for young families and was extremely blessed at various levels. We were able to enjoy deeper relationships with the members of our group; our spiritual lives grew tremendously as a result of the discipleship practices; and as a family we were able to grow in our missional focus.
Moving forward, I am confident that God has many blessings in store through the small groups at the Bronte Church, and that the best is yet to come.
178 APPENDIX A
BRONTE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH SMALL GROUP QUESTIONNAIRE
This is a short survey to assess the 40 Days of Prayer small group initiative and the small group ministry that followed it. Thank you for taking the time to read and answer the questions carefully.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Not at all Extremely
Please rank each of the following areas of your small group choosing a number from 0-10. A. _____ Fellowship B. _____ Bible Study C. _____ Spirituality D. _____ Unity E. _____ Mission F. _____ Service to others
For the following list, please choose from 0-10 to indicate how much you agree with each assertion. A. _____ Overall, I had a very positive experience with my small group B. _____ I got to know the members in my small group better C. _____ After this experience I feel more comfortable sharing personal things with other members D. _____ The weekly discussion was very relevant and helpful for my spiritual life E. _____ My prayer life improved significantly as a result of my involvement with my small group F. _____ In my small group I was encouraged to share my faith with non-members G. _____ In my small group I learned ways to spread the gospel in my personal context H. _____ Our small group is a safe place where I can share openly about my life I. _____ Because of this experience I understand better what “being” the church of Jesus is all about J. _____ Having a prayer partner was very helpful for my spiritual journey K. _____ Reaching out to the lost was central in my small group L. _____ My church experience in general was enriched as a result of this small group initiative
In a few words, describe the impact of this small group initiative in your life
179 APPENDIX B
ANSWERS TO THE OPEN-ENDED RESPONSE QUESTION
“I’ve felt more comfortable sharing my life, fears and doubts with the persons in my group.”
“My small group helped me to get closer to God and close to each other.”
“It broke down barriers and allowed everyone to be more open; made everyone realize we all have challenges in life and it was good to pray for one another and others as well.”
“I would like to see this ‘ministry’ continued in our church.”
“To have worshipped, shared songs and prayed together was a very fulfilling experience that certainly encouraged constant prayer and study.”
“I have become closer spiritually to fellow members of the church that had once been acquaintances. Their lives and testimonies have impacted my life in a very positive and spiritual way. I look forward to our time and friendship together.”
“I liked that we used books that had a specific study plan in mind. The biggest impact of the small group initiative was two-fold: 1) My husband and I had the opportunity to grow together spiritually because we both were studying the same spiritual material at the same time and would chat about it during the week. For some reason, we rarely do that with our Sabbath School lessons, for example. 2) We got to know people in the church better, which was lovely since we were just starting to come to this church. Importantly, though, it wasn’t just getting to know people better – because you can get to know people better in any social situation – but it was also getting to know people better within the context of spiritual growth. That is a different type of intimacy and friendship.”
180 APPENDIX C
TWO REMARKABLE STORIES
When dealing with spiritual initiatives, surveys can be taken, data can be analyzed, and theoretical arguments can be debated, but nothing has more argumentative power or provides more convincing evidence than real personal stories that testify of the transforming power of God. This small group strategy has witnessed several stories of unquestionable divine intervention. Relationships healed, jobs found, doubts removed, and “lost sheep back at the fold” are some of the categories for these stories, gestated in the bosom of small groups. Two are worth sharing as a conclusion of this project.
Lennox
The first story is about a young man named Lennox. Lennox started attending the
Bronte Church while this small group strategy was in its inception stages. He grew up in an Adventist setting, but left the church in his teenage years. Now in his mid-thirties, married, with one daughter, he decided to make his way back to his childhood faith. The church started Bible studies, and not too long after he was baptized. Before his baptism, though, and soon after he started attending the Bronte Church, Lennox joined one of the small groups. His passion for God and his commitment to Jesus seemed to grow stronger by the minute.
A few months after his baptism, during the first small group cycle, I received a phone call from Lennox with bad news: “Pastor, I have a brain tumour.” He was logically concerned, but not desperate. I immediately shared with him about the biblical practice of anointing for the sick. As I briefly explained it to Lennox, he right away expressed an
181 interest in it: “Sure! Let’s do it!” I then proceeded to give him three options: “We can do it in your home; we can do it at the church; or if you want, we can do it with your small group.” Without any hesitation Lennox replied almost instantly, “With my small group!”
That in itself spoke volumes to me; it made it very clear that for Lennox, his small group had become his primary church experience.
That Friday night small group meeting was very special. We did go through the meeting and spiritual discussion as usual; however, the climax, what everybody had anticipated and was eagerly looking forward to, was Lennox’s anointing, left for the end.
It was a very simple yet moving experience. After I provided a short biblical exposition on the practice of anointing, we all knelt, creating a circle with Lennox in the center and had a prayer for healing. It was a very spiritual, powerful, and emotionally moving experience for those present. The presence of God was sensed and the promise of Jesus’ company “where two or three are gathered” was surely fulfilled.
A few weeks after I received another phone call from Lennox; this time, with good news: “Pastor, I am tumour free!” We rejoiced together and gave thanks to God for his answer. Deep in my heart I also silently gave thanks for Lennox’s church of fifteen; I gave thanks for God’s church. An anointing service was conducted; a prayer (or hundreds) was answered: a tumour was removed; a family was relieved; and a small group (the church) was there: for someone to belong, for many to be-come, and for all to be blessed and bless others.
182 Lucca
The second story is about a boy named Lucca. As stated before, my family and I decided to join a small group for young families with children. Among the members were our friends from Brazil, Haroldo and Simone, and their children, Laura (age ten) and
Lucca (age seven), who are around the same ages as our daughters. My wife was Lucca’s teacher at the time. One morning after recess, Lucca went back to the classroom, complaining of having a strong headache. His complaining was unusually persistent and the pain apparently acute and increasing. My wife decided to call Lucca’s mom. She picked him up early and took him home. The pain did not leave but increased.
After calling her sister-in-law – a paediatrician who lives nearby – she followed her advice and decided to take Lucca to the McMaster hospital in Hamilton, conveniently located only a few minutes from their home. Not too long after checking in at emergency, things took a turn for the worse. Lucca went unconscious, and after rushing him in and doing some procedures, they discovered that Lucca had internal bleeding in the brain.
This is an extremely delicate condition with potentially devastating consequences, death being one of them.
As I walked into the emergency room that evening, my heart was broken when I saw this little boy lying unconscious, surrounded with tubes and monitors, and his parents devastated by his side. Only two things came to my mind when I wondered what I could do or say: presence and prayer. We certainly prayed. That same week, a small group gathered at the church to offer fervent prayers for Lucca’s recovery. As a symbolic gesture, a small chair from one of the children’s classrooms was brought and put in the middle of the prayer circle. After the prayer time, I decided to place the tiny chair on the
183 platform and leave it there until Lucca came back healed, which was a bold act since we were not even sure if Lucca would make it through the week. It goes without saying that our small group, adults and children alike, prayed unceasingly for this little small group member and surrounded this family with prayers, love, and support.
The procedures were numerous, the process was lengthy, the details are many, the story is long, and miracles abound. But by the grace of God, if one attends the Bronte
Church today and the Oliveira family happens to be there as they normally are, one will see Lucca running and smiling like any other child. Indeed, a prayer (or hundreds) was answered; a little chair was removed from a platform; a boy’s health was restored; a church was transformed; and a small group was there: for someone to belong, for many to be-come, and for all to be blessed and bless others.
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