Developing a New Generation of Pastors at Grace Point Community Church
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Please HONOR the copyright of these documents by not retransmitting or making any additional copies in any form (Except for private personal use). We appreciate your respectful cooperation. ___________________________ Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) P.O. Box 30183 Portland, Oregon 97294 USA Website: www.tren.com E-mail: [email protected] Phone# 1-800-334-8736 ___________________________ ATTENTION CATALOGING LIBRARIANS TREN ID# Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) MARC Record # Digital Object Identification DOI # Ministry Focus Paper Approval Sheet This ministry focus paper entitled DEVELOPING A NEW GENERATION OF PASTORS AT GRACE POINT COMMUNITY CHURCH Written by TERRENCE M. LEWIS 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: _____________________________________ Kurt Fredrickson Date Received: May 28, 2013 DEVELOPING A NEW GENERATION OF PASTORS AT GRACE POINT COMMUNITY 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 TERRENCE M. LEWIS MAY 2013 ABSTRACT Developing a New Generation of Pastors at Grace Point Community Church Terrence M. Lewis Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2013 The purpose of this project is to develop a strategy helping those who desire to enter pastoral ministry at Grace Point Community Church (GPCC). Elements of this strategy will include identifying their calling, developing the necessary elements to become a pastor, and then exposing them to a variety of ministry styles by shadowing seasoned pastors throughout the community. This paper begins with a description of the local communities surrounding GPCC. It explains the unique decade of growth that Lewis Center, Ohio has experienced. It also explains how that growth is creating opportunities for expansion for GPCC into surrounding communities that will necessitate a new generation of God-called and well- prepared pastors. The second section reviews several books that address the relevant biblical and theological concepts regarding the topics of ecclesiology, the pastoral calling, pastoral development and ecumenical cooperation and unity. The second section also presents a concise theology of both pastoral leadership and pastoral development. The final section focuses on the strategy itself as it is built upon the theological discoveries of the second section. It presents a pathway for selecting, developing, and commissioning future pastors at Grace Point Community Church. It also presents ways to evaluate and assess the pathways. Content Reader: Kurt Fredrickson, PhD Words: 229 To the wonderful pastors in the Lewis Center, Ohio and Grace Point Community Church who generously give their time and wisdom to the next generation of pastors ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would to thank the amazing leadership team of elders and staff at Grace Point Community Church for their generosity of both the time given for me to work on this project as well as their invaluable insights to its development. Thank you to the Fuller Seminary team of staff and professors that inspired me throughout the Doctor of Ministry process. Most importantly, thank you to my dear wife Kelly who prays for me and encourages me daily. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: MINISTRY CONTEXT Chapter 1. A DESCRIPTION OF SOUTHERN DELAWARE COUNTY 6 Chapter 2. GRACE POINT COMMUNITY CHURCH 17 PART TWO: THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS Chapter 3. LITERATURE REVIEW 33 Chapter 4. THEOLOGY OF PASTORAL LEADERSHIP 54 Chapter 5. A THEOLOGY OF PASTORAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 74 PART THREE: MINISTRY STRATEGY Chapter 6. A PATHWAY TO BECOMING A WELL DEVELOPED PASTOR 89 Chapter 7. IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF OUTCOMES 101 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 114 APPENDICES 116 BIBLIOGRAPHY 138 v INTRODUCTION When a church has a vision to grow and expand, one of the greatest challenges is to identify and develop future leaders. This challenge includes the recognition and training of future pastors or elders that will be ready to start new congregations. The common approach is to select the most talented, successful, or popular in the congregation and ask them to participate in a leadership development path. This approach seems to fail more than succeed and can cause chaos and frustration to everyone involved. The common approach is to only use the leadership development material the denomination or church association has used for years and not expose future leaders to the leadership development ideas of other church denominations and associations. This approach leads to an unnecessarily narrow and ignorant understanding of church leadership and development. The common approach in training future elders is to prepare them to serve on a board of counsel. This involves having a solid understanding of theology and character that reflects the qualities required for eldership in the New Testament books of 2 Timothy and Titus. Although these preparations are foundational and valuable, they provide what is necessary for helping counsel a current church pastoral team, but lack what is necessary in building a leadership vision for starting new congregations. There has to be a better way. There has to be a way to help identify and train future church leaders that will include a theological foundation, a depth of character and a set of ministry skills to prepare them for future congregational expansion. 1 The purpose of this Ministry Focus Paper is to create a strategy identifying the calling and development of future pastors for Grace Point Community Church in order to realize its dream of expansion with future multi-site locations. This Ministry Focus Paper establishes pathways for the development of theological understanding, character depth, and ministry skills. To expand pastoral trainees in their understanding of these concepts beyond what they have observed at Grace Point alone, the strategy includes a way to be mentored by several other pastors and ministries from churches throughout the community. Having a pipeline of well-developed pastors will be key in reaching the dream God has given to expand His Kingdom beyond our current location and into surrounding communities. Grace Point Community Church is a church of 600 attendees in the central-Ohio suburb of Lewis Center. The church began in the fall of 2000 with a handful of families and in its eleven years has expanded from a hundred people renting space in an elementary school to purchasing land and building a church facility that has allowed it to grow to include three weekend services. The church has grown to five full-time pastoral staff that serving along with three non-staff elders on the elder leadership board. I am the founding and lead pastor. Grace Point Community Church has a vision to have a greater influence in the surrounding communities and would like to expand using a multi-site strategy allowing us to multiply church services in different locations. This has created a need for a more effective identification and training process for future church planters and leaders. The 2 challenge we face is to create a new process that will both prepare and inspire these future church planters and leaders. Part One of this paper describes the ministry context. It begins with a brief history of the community Grace Point serves including its religious history and current community values. It also focuses on some of the ministry challenges that these community values create. A description of the surrounding communities is provided to describe the similarities and differences for future multi-site expansion. A description of the history and background of Grace Point Community Church is presented. This includes a description of the association of churches that Grace Point belongs to; Great Commission Association of Churches (GCC). A timeline is included describing the dream of birthing Grace Point as well as its growth since its birth in 2000. The historical background highlights the leadership identification and development strategies that have evolved over the past decades both in the association of churches as well as Grace Point itself. A brief description is given of unique relationships that have developed with a dozen churches in the Lewis Center community that opened up new and exciting ways to approach expanded leadership development of future pastors and ministry leaders. A description of what the role of these community pastors in mentoring our future pastors and their multi-site congregations is also included. Part One concludes with a description of the future vision for expansion through a multi-site strategy. Part Two of the Ministry Focus Paper contains three chapters. Chapter 3 reviews several books that investigate the relevant biblical and theological foundations for the areas of ecclesiology, pastoral callings, pastoral development, and ecumenical 3 cooperation and unity. Chapter 4 offers a theology of pastoral leadership. This chapter highlights the role leadership plays in God’s develop of his children and disciples of Christ throughout the Bible. It considers the theology of a pastoral calling as well as the biblical qualifications of the pastoral role in the church. The various biblical roles a pastor is called to fill are also discussed. Chapter 5 presents a concise theology of pastoral development.