ARE WE A PEOPLE AT HALF TIME? - Leadership Network

“ The key to impacting the
culture is to enlarge the vision
o f your role as Christ’s follower
in the world.”
“We’re learning that the
capacity to form authentic
relationships is the key to
––Joel Ve s t a l
S e rvLife International
“God clothed his message in Jesus
Christ, not in a neon sign.”
––Art Ayris
F BC, Leesburg, FL
crossing traditional boundaries.”
––Jim Herr i n g t o n
Mission Houston
crossing traditional boundaries
Crossing traditional boundaries.
Not long ago,60 pastors gathered in a park in
O m a h a ,N eb ra s ka They . represented a spectrum of
d e n o m i n a t i o n s ,s o -economic c i and ethnic groups
that exist within the city. They didn’t gather to deb a t e
doctrine or accuse one another of “sheep stealing.”
I n s t e a d,they gathered to shoot a commercial. “T h e
Church of Omaha welcomes you,” the commercial
declared—a strong message coming from a city of
“one church,many congrega t i o n ” s .
“The level of unity we’re seeing now would hav e
been unthinkable even five years ago,” says Eric
Be n t s ,coordinator for Embrace Omaha, a cityreaching
orga n i zation woven together by dozens
o f churches in the region. Trinity Church, w h e r e
Eric is on staff, was one of the key churches in
establishing a strong prayer network throughout
the city. “We have been prayer-walking downtown
for 10 years and we have a network of i n t e r c e s s o r s
that currently includes over 200 people representing
all the churches.”
God has answered their prayers in astounding
w a y s .“Our childrens, youth and singles ministries
are all interconnected with other churches,” says
E r i c. In addition, a new unity has developed among
the Christian business leaders. God is “e m p o w e r i n g
Christian businessmen to take the gospel into
the work p l a c e ”,
says Eric. All this stems from the
unity among the church leaders within the city.
“ I t’s all built on relationships between leaders,
oiled by the leadership of the Holy Spirit.”
According to Eric and other city-reachers across the
c o u n t ry, building strong, v u l n e rable rel a t i o n s h i p s
among church leaders is t h ekey to reaching a city.
Gauging success by transformed lives.
E f fective missional churches are finding creative
ways to embrace the culture,cross traditional
boundaries and plant new churches.But how
do these churches effe c t i v ely gauge the impact
o ftheir ministry This is an area yet to be fully
explored as churches begin to come to grips with
the question,“What difference are we making”
Missional churches are beginning to ask the
question and search for indicators that tell them
t h e y’re making a lasting impact for the Kingdom.
One indicator is finances.“We look at how people are
giving financially,” says Art Ay r i s associate , pastor at First
Jim Herrington, executive director of M i s s i o n
H o u s t o n ,has seen firsthand what dramatic things
can happen when church leaders get together to
p ray and establish rel a t i o n s h i p “I s . think what we’r e
learning is that the capacity to form authentic
r elationships is the key to crossing tra d i t i o n a l
b o u n d a r i e ” s says , Jim.“ H i s t o r i c a ,w l l ye’ve crossed
boundaries by focusing on a project,but after the
project ends,e v e ryone goes back to their own thing.
So now, instead of inviting people to join in a project,
we invite them to join a prayer group.When we started
a year ago,we had seven prayer groups. Now we hav e
30 .The key is that our time together is ‘agenda free.’
The only agenda is for me to have a relationship with
you—not to get you to sign on a dotted line for some
p r o j e c .” t Because of the relationships built in these
p rayer groups,Houston churches have ga t h e r e d
together for the past three years and held a cityw i d e
p rayer summit. The most recent had 225 pastors from
d i f ferent denominations coming together to pray fo r
the city.In addition to the prayer summits,H o u s t o n’s
churches have also joined forces to reach out to various
communities within the city.One such effort is the
Convoy of H o p e .I t’s an outdoor carnival-like event
that includes free health screenings, free food and free
l e gal counsel for local residents.Herrington says that
Houston churches have begun taking this event into
n e i g h b o hoods r that, a year ago, nobody cared about.
To be effective at city-reaching, individual churches
h ave to let go of the “my kingdom” mentality and
e m b ra c ea bigger picture of what it means to be the
Church in the worl d. “I don’t look at things from
a ‘c h u r c h’ para d i g m ,” says Eric Be n t s .“I look at
things from a strategic para d i g m .When unity is
brought to bear at the leadership level ,it greatly
increases the life of the body in the community.”
e v e ry year.We always have more money than we need.”
In addition,missional leaders watch for other,
more subtle indicators.They look at the depth
o f worship taking place during church ga t h e r i n g s .
They listen to the things their people pray about.
They’re constantly asking for input from the
church and from members of the community.
They’re open to criticism and willing to change
course anytime something isn’t working, or is
communicating the wrong message to people
inside or outside the church.
But “the bottom line,” says Art, “is changed lives.We’r e
building a big church here, but the bottom line isn’t
building a big church—it’s tra n s formed people.”
Baptist
gauging
Church Le e s b u g,F r
success
l o r i d “ a People . give where
by transforming
their heart is.For the last 25 years,w e’ve been over budget
people’s lives