Introducing the Opportunity before Us

When the COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis hit Bendigo at the end of March and we suspended church gatherings and groups for the foreseeable future, the Elders met to pray through the opportunities before us. We saw the costs that would come with COVID, and we also saw that every problem is an opportunity – especially for the gospel.

This memo outlines how we may use the God-given opportunity before us, and in particular the key aspects our leadership’s plans and prayers.

In this memo I aim to demonstrate that we need to address the following challenges and problems in our church:

1. Complexity in ministry structures and systems

2. Pastoral span of care has been stretched

3. Church-wide and leadership-wide communication could be more streamlined

4. Post-COVID Reforming church will face limitations on capacity for care, evangelism and welcoming of newcomers

This list above is not exhaustive of course, and we need to remember that every challenge or problem is an opportunity for the gospel and not for complaining and blaming.

In this memo I aim to demonstrate that our plan for regathering and revisioning needs to see us:

1. Simplify our vision, values and corresponding ministry pathway to communicate for all people

2. Plan to use our building as much as possible for ministry by drawing up an adaptable auditorium design

3. Staff our ministries correspondingly according to a simple pathway for clarity, movement, alignment, focus.[1]

I pray that instead of the ongoing danger for ministry drift, and the temptation to use off the shelf ministry products to poke at our holes, that instead we will work towards ministry shift that is biblical and intentional

Vision and Values

Our church has a culture, one which we need to be constantly praying through and planning for, even working hard at, to curate our culture in a cruciform way. We seek to be gospel-grounded, Christ-centred, outcome-orientated in our vision for our church and in the shape of our church’s values. But of course, culture is much, much more than what can be written on a wall or a website – it must be who we are that continues to shape our life in manifold ways, thousands of conversations, prayers, responses, attitudes. 

So, what I propose is that we need not a complicated ministry plan, or an innovative vision, nor a long list of values just in case we haven’t covered anything (!). We have been thinking long and hard about Reforming, I guess since before we started planting Reforming, and therefore we need to keep working on simplifying our vision to grow in having values that are so easily communicated and so easily stick that they become embedded in our church culture – rather than staying on a strategy paper.

Obviously, this is all words, unless it is empowered by God’s word and our prayerful application of it. So please bear with me as I outline what would be good for us to move from and to.

Over the last 7 years we moved from a plant of 10 people, to four core-people (that was rough!), then by God’s grace He gave the growth as we planted and watered the gospel in people’s lives. Over 7 years we have had three major ministry movements related to our vision and values. 

Whilst the mission has always been the same (because Jesus gave us that mission), as we have grown under God we have had to re-vision from being a tiny planting core, to being a small church.

In each ministry movement we moved in the following stages:

1. Individual ministry service on an ad-hoc basis

2. Connect-Grow-Serve ministry teams

3. The 5Ms ministry purposes

The recent move into the 5Ms served us well-enough, with all my initial hesitations about ministry application that is “off the shelf” rather than in my mind more obviously from the Scriptures. Yes, originally the 5Ms came from Rick Warren’s library, and then from Australia’s Reach Australia/Geneva Push shelves, but I saw there was some scriptural merit in their use. However, I think that in our context there are some limitations and room for change, without throwing the concept of team pastoring and nomenclature out entirely. 

I contend that we need to simplify our ministry pathway shape around a vision that for our own context has more direct scriptural connection and more traction in the minds of our people. I have had multiple conversations with people trying to explain the 5Ms team-pastoring approach only to find that it doesn’t bear much fruit in actually onboarding people with a team-pastoring mindset. I think we should move from a focus on the 5Ms (whilst still using these existing ministries in our church), to a “rule of three” pathway. 

The “rule of three” is a famously used communication tool that we all use, and for good effect and for good reason. It’s easy to remember, provides clarity and therefore powerfully aligns people onboard to a common mission. It is why preachers end up with 3 points to communicate things, and why many people don’t remember the preacher’s 5 to 7 points, no matter how puritan-esk we think we all should be.

That pathway I have been toying with over COVID-time in conversations, sermons (anyone noticed I wonder) and writing is directly from Scripture. You may notice it has been sitting on our new website from its early days online. I think the rule of three based-pathway should be our mission, vision and values statement, it is simply: 

We love God, love people, and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Now, you could contend this is also “off the shelf”, and it is, the pages of the Bible. It incorporates the two big things Jesus tells us to do: the great commandment and the great commission.

Also, you could contend this is a universal kind of mission/vision statement all churches should have, or do have, and I say that’s great! Of course, it ought to be, it’s from the Bible. Yet what it would help us undertake at Reforming is to simplify our pathway for our people to align with in a way that they aren’t and can’t with the 5Ms.

Also, you could contend that we have already applied the “rule of three” as a pathway with Connect-Grow-Serve, except that ‘We love God, love people, and make disciples of Jesus Christ’ is distinctly different for three reasons:

1. CGS is an engineer-minded way of speaking about ministry that makes a person look like a number in a system – whereas the language of love helps shape our culture of ministry to people by including the language of values of love and discipleship from Jesus’ words.

2. CGS like the 5Ms can be seen from Scripture both by way of proof-texts – whereas the language of love and make disciples comes directly from two texts used directly quoted by Jesus.

3. CGS was too large as portfolio categories for a ministry leader for each because the verbs were specific and categories broad at the same time – whereas the language of love and making disciples is simple and encompassing of ministries that are more easily started and stopped as needed, with the people God has already given us.

Whereas in the past the M’s were our purposes as a church, our new purposes are to love God, love people and make disciples. And these are even better than Connect Grow and Serve because Jesus tells us to do this, and, the Bible uses this language, and, to love sounds more relational than to connect and grow and serve -  which are very pastor-engineer type driven things and so structural they don’t allow the mess and need of grace and love.

I’ve read quite a few books in the last couple of months on these things, but the one that stands out for more who engage on this is Simple Church, by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. It has been reviewed and critiqued by 9marks, and I agree with the review. Having said that, the concept of clarity and alignment that comes from Scriptures helped in seeing this needs to be our mission-vision statement, that works as our ministry pathway and forms the basis of building plan and staffing plan.

Whilst the love of God, people and making disciples happens across all the church’s ministries, the simplification of the language shapes each aspect. 

1. Gatherings – Love God

2. Groups – Love People

3. Teams – Make Disciples

What is gathered worship for? To see people, love God. That’s the primary outcome. Yes, that includes loving people, yes it includes disciple-making and teams – but primarily that is what gathered worship of God is for, to love God.

What are groups (as different to gatherings) for? To see people in close care and to share love with one another. Yes, that includes loving God, yes that is part of disciple-making – but primarily groups are where we get to love people in up close and personal ways.

What are ministry teams for? To see the love of God in gathered worship happen, and to see the love of people in groups and in our region happen in sent worship. Yes, that involves the love of God. Yes, that involves loving people. But making disciples in ministry teams has its purpose and outcome in seeing people recruited, trained and equipped to be disciple-making-disciples in groups and gatherings for the gospel to go into the world. It is the Make Disciples ministry that grows a ministry culture to see the saints equipped for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12)

This would mean our church would always be communicating simply two statements of alignment for everything we do, our motto (which has meaning for the name of our church) and our mission-vision-values statement:

1.      Our motto: (We are Reforming Church because…)

Jesus change everything / The gospel changes everything 

2.     Our mission-vision-values: (because Jesus / the gospel changes everything…

We love God, love people and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Staffing Plan

After seven years of trying different staffing models (part-time apprentices, part-time ministry coordinators), and after much research, I have come to the following conclusions which form the basis of what I aim to implement as our new staffing plan. We ought to staff our ministries correspondingly to our mission-vision-values statement.

Our aim will be to hire in order of a person’s availability and readiness for a role, matched with budget approval by the Board of Management.

Of course, we still aim to make apprentices along the way, with a focus on full-time apprenticeships due to the difficulties we have experienced in part-time apprenticeships.

When it comes to giving staff or leaders titles, I have thought about this extensively and we have changed that a couple of times in our church’s history. I think ‘Coach’ isn’t working, and adds to confusion in the role. So, I have developed again what I hope is a simple staffing plan terminology:

1. Ministry Coordinators: High-level leaders, who coordinate multiple ministries i.e. Groups Coord, Women’s & Children’s Coord, Teams & Training Coord, Operations Coord etc.

2. Ministry Leaders: Lead one ministry i.e. Meals Ministry, Music Ministry, Welcoming Ministry etc.

3. Team Leaders: Leaders of teams within ministries i.e. Band Leader, Morning Tea Team Leader, Welcoming Team Leader etc.

Why the language of Ministry “Coordinator”, whether paid or unpaid? It communicates leadership, like Director, but still letting our Presbyterian convictions be that Elders are the directors of the ministry under the Chief Shepherd. It conveys the concept of Coach, but without the idea that a coach just works from the sidelines. For in our church we expect Coordinators to not just equip and oversee others, but to undertake the ministry themselves as well. Not all Coordinators will be paid, but paid staff Coordinators will be paid for outcomes that they are to work for (not just expected inputs into their own development). To illustrate this, I am paid as the called Pastor, the Preaching Elder, to preach sermons on a weekly basis, and not just read lots of books.

 As we employ Ministry Coordinators over time according to the progression of the Staffing Plan, we will employ on the basis of Ministry Coordinator staff being Congregational Officers (according to Code 4.45ff). We won’t be applying for second-worker grants (we don’t wish to limit others in their access to denominational funding, and it’s healthy for Reforming to own and pay the wages of staff as needed).

What is the point of difference between unpaid Coordinators and paid Coordinators? I think Andrew Heard’s wisdom is right here, where he doesn’t pay anyone unless they undertake more than 15 hours of outcomes-based work a week[2]. For us this means we need to move away from the one day/week part-time model. This will mean, for example, we move away from a one day/week role for Teams and Training to a full-time role of Administration Pastor[3] or Operations Manager.

The love God and love people ministries of Gatherings and Groups have a mission focus, but now in a small-medium sized church we are able to operate ministries when God gives us the gifts (people) rather than trying to force a super-structure upon us. The Groups particularly will have the flexibility of not just being for discipleship but at different times and seasons some will be evangelistic explore groups, some will be newcomers’ groups, some will be recovery groups.

Also, the Men’s Ministry and Women’s Ministry groups/gatherings will serve as Make Disciples ministries of training and equipping men to lead and love people in Groups, in hospitality and in their home life (see Ryan Smith’s men’s ministry proposal). The Women’s Ministry will equip women to minister to other women (Titus 2 style).

Its beauty is in the simplicity, and space for changes in our church including growth, demographic, or pandemic (!). The simple beauty of this mission-vision-values in one is that it is more scriptural as a mission statement, simpler than 5Ms as a vision pathway for people; and more flexible yet intentional for outcomes-based ministry that is fuelled by values that are about people rather than performance in numbers.

We’ll host quarterly meetings and reports that look at the whole process horizontally that shows the metrics of the three-part movement as a whole and as it relates to each. Why do we measure things with gospel metrics? We measure things to understand them, to assess them, then to improve them. And we measure these metrics in comparison to ourselves as a church, because it’s not apples with apples at other churches or ministries. 

Ministry Coordinators and Team Leaders need reminded clarity on what they are responsible for, for they are not just given tasks but roles (with Role Descriptions) and responsibility.

And of course, this all involves the obvious 4 P’s of ministry which God gives shape to in the Scriptures:

1. Preaching & Teaching

2. Prayer

3. People

4. Patience 

It will be so helpful to have love God, love people and make disciples as our mission-vision-values because Jesus gives it to us, and because we believe it, we believe in Jesus. We need simplicity as well as the specialised work of team-pastoring. We’re already functioning like this, so this is a simple transition.

We then budget accordingly around these ministries as the Board undertakes it’s annual budgeting process, which is not so much an issue of allocation as it is to see the culture of our mission-vision-values work deep through our Board of Management and church Annual Congregational Meetings also. 

I do pray that this memo of plans and prayers are helpful for us as church, and glorify God our Saviour, our joy.

By God’s grace, and for His glory,

Russ

[1] Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger 

[2] Team Pastoring Conference 2017

[3] ‘Why Your Second Hire Might Be an Administrative Pastor’, Ryan Townsend (9Marks)

Make Leaders Article by Russ Grinter | Pastor & Teaching Elder

Russ is weak, but Jesus is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Russ gladly boasts of his weaknesses by preaching, writing, and speaking the gospel - because Jesus changes everything.