September Leadership Meeting

36 through 39, isn't that a wonderful promise of the Lord, prophetic word from the Lord? Go ahead and be seated. We thought it would be helpful this morning to give you a little sense of what the people in South Florida are going through. So when you arrived after your car ride and had to run into the bathroom and it didn't work, it does now. Isn't that great? What was wrong with it? Did that just take someone who knows what they're doing? Interestingly, there was a water main break too that knocked the water out for a while last night and over right up behind Denny's. Well, this morning we're going to hopefully get a whole lot of interaction going concerning our community groups. And the pastors are going to come up here in the platform in just a moment and begin to share some of their insights as to what's going on here. And I want to field some questions from you. And oh, by the way, before I forget, you never want to take some paper. So if a handful of you could grab some. I'll take all you want, David. Make sure you have something to write with, because you're going to want to be able to walk out of here remembering some of the things that are being said. So you can respond to people who have questions for you. It's rather important, I think. Let me say while you're getting those sheets, we had 20 folks at Denny's this morning for our breakfast. If you've not been there, you're missing a grand opportunity. And I really enjoyed it today. This was our best breakfast so far. And I think, let me urge you, if you know someone that you're trying to get involved in the life of the church, bring them. If you've already been to a breakfast, bring them and pay for your own. But bring them. We want folks to really hear our heart. And if you've not been there, let me just tell you again, what would you say, Don? About 80% of the time, it was talking about what the church is doing in the ministry. In just the last five or 10 minutes, did we talk about the facility. This isn't a sales job. It's just like information. In fact, I get a lot of good ideas, a lot of good feedback about what's concerning you and what's on your heart. So very important. We're going to do these through September. I think Arlene told me we're already full this week. Isn't that right? Wednesday's full, and the next one is Thursday. So there's some this Thursday. We're going to try to keep doing them as long as I can stay under 300 pounds, OK? Although today, I didn't eat anything because we were talking the whole time, which was great. I really do, I know. Well, there's a lot of buzzing going on. What are we really going to try to do here in the next weeks and months, people are asking? Flip back to, in your Bibles, to Ephesians chapter 4. Though I could read all 16 verses, let me just jump in at verse 7. But to each one of us, everyone say that. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. Notice that there is clearly, in God's economy of things, differing amounts of grace. He apportions it as He, and by the way, it isn't always the same in a given life. It can change, that apportionment can change. This is why it says, when He ascended on high, He led captives in His train and gave gifts to men. What does, quote, He ascended mean, except that He also descended to the lower earthly regions. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. It was He who gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of ministry or service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Now, how many of you know that's a wonderful statement, and it just happens, just snap your fingers, and there we are, all at unity and mature, right? Yeah. 11 and 1⁄2 years ago, this passage was the foundation piece from which North Way began its search to become a church that pleased the Lord and how it functioned. 11 and 1⁄2 years ago, we tore this chapter apart and really did an in-depth study. And not long after that, in our first year, we studied a book called The Problem with Wineskins, if you recall, where we talked a lot about what this was all about, because the Lord wants a church that's unified and mature. That's what He wants, a church where the people are all moving in the grace of God. You know, and I trust most of you know, that our heart has always been to do that. The working out of it, just like some of you parents have discovered, isn't always the way the books tell you, amen? I mean, if all you had to do was read a book and understand it, you'd have great kids, no problems, right? But it doesn't always work quite that way. So we're learning. We're still learning. And someone said very kindly this morning at the breakfast, you know, North Way's made some great decisions that we all love, and North Way's made some lousy ones. And you know what? Hang on, because it's probably still going to keep happening. And I don't personally feel like, well, that means we missed God as much as it means that we're fallen. And if you get every one right, come see me, and you can stand up here and do the whole thing if you never miss one. It's a matter of seeking Him and then obeying Him. Now, what we're going to be doing now is not really starting anything new. But what we're going to be doing now is reaffirming what we've felt all along has been our call in ministry. And that is to equip God's people for works of service, to see this greatest resource in this church, which is you. It isn't me, it's not Scott or David or John or anyone in two, three, it's you. You're the greatest resource. Imagine this church alive in the Holy Spirit, each person moving in their grace gift, functioning in ministry. Tonight and tomorrow, I'm going to be introducing to you the steering committee for the fundraising part of our building program. And all this information that you're wondering about will start to flow. We just waited for you all to come back, although it's such a nice weekend. Why don't we all go camping again? We can start next week. That'd be a great idea. The leaves start changing October 7th, and that's another whole season. And then skiing, then springtime when we go out and see the. Yeah. That's right. Every day is like a holiday. But anyhow, what I wanted to bring us to is that in that little group, we had a wonderful illustration of what we're going to talk about here today. We had been laboring for several weeks to come up with a theme for what, like prelude to a promise, gave us sort of a focal point and send a message. And so there was a little subgroup of people that had been appointed to help come up with that. Well, after a few weeks, we sat down for a meeting on a Monday night, and the little subgroup hadn't come up with anything. Now, I'd been thinking, and if you know me, I mean, it's like always happening in there. And so I said, well, folks, let's go around. Everyone, give it your best shot. And so we were coming up with all these wacky theme titles. If you build it, they will come, that kind of thing. And I threw my idea on the table, knowing it was the best one, of course. And it was shot down, and they said, we need the opportunity to do what we were told to do. And now, in fairness, we were at the deadline, and so we had to decide grace or law here. So we went on the side of grace and said, OK. We told this subcommittee, go back. You've got one week. So they came back the next week, and it's hard to describe, but everyone who was in that meeting will tell you. These people came back, and a few of them who you'll be hearing from, such as Gary Moore and Mary Allison and so on, shared how God had met them in the process of discovering this theme. And it ignited the whole group of us. All 18 of us or so were saying, this was really God. It really was the Lord. And it so took us from a plane of slugging through it to a place where we all knew that the Lord was in it. And I'll tell you, that is a marvelous experience. Doesn't happen all that often. But what the Lord said to me was, this is what I want to be doing at multiple levels. I want my people bringing their gifts and their strengths and functioning together and moving ahead. And so the purpose of moving in toward a community group focus is to give hundreds and hundreds of you the opportunity to rise up in your gifts. And I'm going to ask the pastors to come up now and take their seat here. One of these seats has a false back on it. And if you lean back, you could do a back flip. So be careful. We have all the microphones working? You're not going to tell us which one it is? No. OK, also Bob Mason's sitting in, who is, as you know, labored for a number of years in the home group ministry. And Bob will be describing his role in this adventure. Now, I'm going to ask a few questions. But you be thinking about yours. If we don't ask them, then I want you to ask them. And we'll kind of let things go from there. They're all wired guys. John, do you know where Pastor Ralph is? Do you know his phone number? Go back in my office. We're leading you. This is our leadership. Feel secure, you know? Obviously, this isn't our grace gift. Must be God. One of the things that we have now endeavored to do is to take the community and put it on a map. Today, we had people from as far away as Beaver, to Fombelle, to Millvale. I mean, it was probably about a 30-mile radius. But realistically, most of us are concentrated in about a 15-mile radius. We've decided to break North Way into five districts where pastoral staff can have more direct oversight and input into those districts to help you, as leaders, know more effectively how to care for your people. So why don't you one of you share how you think that the vision for districting will help to enhance the pastoral care that we want to provide for the people. I'd like to just ask everybody real quickly to turn to Exodus chapter 18 for my little part of this. In Exodus 18, Jethro visits Moses. And they're working through some problems and some disputes and so on. If you pick it up in verse 17, Moses' father-in-law replied, what you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me, and I will give you some advice. And may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God. And bring their disputes to Him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. But select capable men from all the people, men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain. And appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens. And have them serve as judges for the people at all times. But have them bring every difficult case to you, the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this, and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain. And all these people will go home, what's your Bible say? Satisfied. Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people. Officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves. I know from my vantage point, the simple process that's happening, first of all, is very biblical. I think it's probably very necessary. Organization in the church can be something that's terrible, because it can become the focus, but it can be something that's wonderful, because it can position all of the people for a place where they can be satisfied, where they can receive care, where they can have an opportunity to grow, and to move into a place where they can be responsible. And I know as I think about North Way right now, I often think of the church as a couple of thousand people, as this mass of people. How about you? I don't think of the church in terms of, as we once did when we were a church of 500, you could almost break the church down completely by home groups. And the people that weren't in home groups at that time had home groups that would reach out to them, and continue to try to satisfy their needs. But today, the church just doesn't function that way. So I know for my part, I see the changes that we're making as something that, although we dare not focus on structure and organization per se, biblically, I believe we're creating the possibility that people can grow again in their potential toward leaders, and leaders of leaders, and leaders of leaders of leaders. It's right here. Our focus, I think Pastor Jay, who of course is a leader of thousands, our focus would be leaders of hundreds. There will be men, women who will be leaders of fifties, men and women who will be leaders of tens. And by the grace of God, I know my goal is that the whole church has the potential, although they never will, of being satisfied. So that's my perspective. How about one of you guys? I think one of the things that happens is that we work out things in terms of what God is saying for the church, and it's a process for us. And it's difficult for you to understand that process. You're not there, you're not hearing the prayers, and the struggles, and the conversations that we have. And I'd like to just give kind of a brief background to where we are as pastors with this. I can say that in the two and a half years or so I've been here now in ministry, and as an elder here before that, that I'm more excited right now about ministry than I've been since I've been in the church. I'm seeing my brothers here as fellow pastors and leaders, that there's a heart of unity that's happening. We're working truly as a team and together, and we're seeing each of our gifts being utilized by God to the good of the whole group. And that really is just one part of what I believe God wants to do in every small group, that he's given each one of us gifts, each one of us a purpose in his church. Each member has a part, and each one fits together. And we're finding that as we do that as a group, as a small group, that we're beginning to know one another's giftedness. And I know that's just gonna deepen. And I think effectively what that will do is release ministry that those that we lead will then do the same thing. And we'll all begin to find out what is the giftedness God's given us? What part and what responsibility do we have in the church? And it really becomes down to a small group and one another kind of ministry that God has put on our hearts right from the beginning to equip the saints for the work of ministry. But you know, John, I was just thinking, the perception oftentimes I think of us as pastors is that we do work together as a team. But I think the fact of the matter is, and I want you to hear what John said, we really have functioned oftentimes more as independent contractors, kind of each of us doing our thing and taking care of our responsibilities, but not really thinking in terms of a cooperative effort where we're collectively seeking the Lord and trying to hammer things out together. And that's really been something we've only been doing well for five or six weeks now. And it has been tremendous already. You know, I think one question we better answer right off the bat is Bob Mason, who's up here, is an elder in the church and has been a lay leader. And Pastor, maybe you better explain what Bob's doing here so that nobody's confused about that as he joins his team. I'm confused, Bob, why don't you tell me who this is? What are you doing? Is everybody confused? I'm confused, too. I'm just serving in an interim position here to try and work with the pastors, to team with them, to put a vision, first of all, that we can grab hold of, and then say that to you and paint a picture. Look, our hearts are basically very simple. As far as I'm concerned, you know, the disciples grew with Jesus as they went with him. They were going and they were doing. Our heart is that every person in this body would learn how to go with the body and do with the body, that they would find a place in this part, as John was saying, to serve and to receive, giving out and receiving back. That's the only really way that we grow as Christians. We don't grow, we do not grow. Listen, we do not grow by just receiving. Now, do you agree with that? Is that a fact? Then what we've got to do, I've got to learn how to do it, these pastors have got to learn how to do it, and more importantly, you need to learn how to do it to get people doing. We have a problem, I have a problem. Sometimes I would just rather do it. Anybody like that? One of the things we need to learn how to do is get someone else to do it. Okay? I hope you hear our hearts. We don't have, look, we don't have all the answers. Do you? I mean, like Jay said before, if somebody's got the answers, I wish you would come up, there's an empty seat right up here. Okay? We are in a process, we're in a transition, and we're seeking together for unity here, unity there, and then unity in the body. You got it? We've decided that we're going to have unity here. That's it. Let's talk a little bit about how the training, weekly training will affect that. Some folks have asked me at the breakfast and so on, well, if we don't have Wednesday night, how are we going to be able to grow and so on and so on? Someone share how you see the training sessions leading toward more effective growth in the groups. Me? Well, rather than, I think, you know, in what we're doing here is we're making a transition as a church as to what even the emphasis of a small group is. And John and I and all the guys here have talked about this, that in a lot of ways, we've allowed the people within our home groups to gain an unhealthy perspective of what a leader is oftentimes. In other words, that that's the person of which the high heel, of the point of the high heel rests on them. It's kind of like, if I'd rather have John lay down on top of me than stand on me with a high heel. Neither one of which, really, would be pleasant. Think of another one, let's see. What I'm saying is that sometimes as a home group leader, all of the weight of everybody's problems funnels down to one point and it's you and it becomes much too heavy for you to bear. And it just becomes this snowballing effect where it's just overwhelming until you're just smothered under by it. And the other part of the process, which I recalled my own experience in a home group, that I felt cheated at one point in a home group because the home group leaders had to go through all of the problems of a few people in the home group and he felt like he couldn't share those with me. And here I was a fellow member of the group and yet he felt like it was his responsibility to work through these issues. And I was in effect cheated from helping God's grace to be seen there in that situation. And I don't know, the training of what we're going to do isn't gonna be like Jay said, just snapping your fingers. But somehow it's going to be changing our mindset from one of where one person is going to take on all of the responsibilities of the group where we are going to start to care for each other. And as best we can in a systematic way, we're gonna try and help you through that process. But as best we can do that in talking about it and being logical, God's gonna have to start to do a work on us in our minds and in our hearts. And that's what we're going to be trying to accomplish. But without the Holy Spirit, I don't think we're gonna get too far. What do you think? I'm real excited about the weekly training for a couple of reasons. Number one, since it's offered two times a week, two redundant, that's Ralph, welcome Ralph. Two redundant sessions a week. Jay is going to be sharing a little bit of his heart at each of those training times with all of our community group leaders. Three weeks a month, that's going to happen. That's going to be tremendously significant in this church because I know one thing that I do a lot of and I know one thing that you do a lot of is you defend your pastor's heart. Anybody ever do that? You ever find yourself defending him? You know, like, why do you do this? Well, you either come up with a good answer, you say, well, don't you trust him? So one thing that's gonna be happening immediately is you as leaders of leaders and leaders of people are going to be, you're gonna know his heart on a weekly basis. That's very exciting to me. That's gonna be very significant for this church in building a sense of unity like Jeff was talking about. Secondly, there will be a little bit of impartation of skill and training. We're not gonna overwhelm you. We're not gonna sit you down and hammer an hour of teaching into you a week and expect you to go home and, you know, pass the test, but we're going to share principles and we're gonna do it and we're gonna do it. You're gonna be teaching one another as well then during those times. The gifts that God has put in you are gonna be brought out and shared. So there's gonna be a collective sharing and effort to grow and to equip. I think one of the things that in that Ephesians passage of scripture, it said equip the saints for the work of ministry. And one of the things we've been learning is how to equip the saints for the work of ministry and that we'll continue to learn. And we'll learn that from you. We also want to hear how things are happening in your ministries, in your leadership, in your groups. So this is also an effective way to have that communication link that has been very difficult to do. We've had different segments of ministry that we can communicate with as pastors, but to collectively communicate, to understand what God is doing as a whole in the church, that each of the component parts that are working together, fitted together, not only the members, but the ministries as well. And there are things happening here that a lot of other individuals in the body don't know about and wonder where the ministry is happening, how it's happening. And we've been trying to find ways to communicate that. And I believe this is going to be an excellent way. We're going to have opportunities where leaders from all different types of ministries are going to be able to feed back to one another. They're going to be able to say to one another, these are the kinds of situations that we have. These are the kinds of solutions that God has been using in our lives, our groups, our ministry. And then we share that. So collectively, we have a heart and an understanding of what God's doing. That excites me. I mean, there's a wisdom in a multitude of counselors and God's given us a lot of individuals here to hear and understand his word for them. Yeah, you may not know, but I had a wedding last night and two families in the church. And someone from Geneva, who's a teaching professor at Geneva, sought me out after the wedding to tell me how much he's heard, how much, he's a professor of psychology at Geneva, how much he's heard about what's happening in the lives of people in Generations Ministry on Monday night. And he lives 45 minutes, and I venture to say most of us don't even know what it is. And this is one of the unfortunate things about a lot of different levels. We wanna try to start to appreciate the grace of God as it's functioning throughout us as a whole body. Somebody addressed the issue, one of the things that became a difficulty in years past was identifying a leader or co-leader in a group and then raising them up. How's that gonna happen or be encouraged along the way here? So we don't just continually stay with the same group. I think one of the things that we begin to discover, and I'm gonna refer to a scripture in Philippians, it says in Philippians 2, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others. And the scripture goes on to tell us about the humility of Christ himself, God himself who came and humbled himself and really decreased in the sight of the people on him and gave over the church to his disciples. And that leadership model is our hearts. To begin to identify where are those people that are pointing to Christ in your groups? Where are those individuals that effectively others look to to hear and understand the word of God in Christ? And that we're going to be doing a number of things in the leadership training to help us identify those individuals. Who are they? How do we just in a natural sense, not appointments, not recruitments, but just in the natural process that God would witness to our hearts and we begin to link together with those people that God is putting into those groups. And we're seeing it effectively happen in the groups where leaders are just naturally being identified. And then individuals want to give of themselves, let that leader begin to work into the group and lead the group. They start giving some responsibilities over in the group. And pretty soon you have a leader established within the framework of the group. And having a weekly touch point, you can bring that leader each week and get them trained alongside of you and then slowly release ministry and then go on from there. All right, let's talk about community groups. There's some language here that we need to clarify. What's the difference, someone in the, as we're talking about community groups versus a home group, they're not the same. What is the difference? Well, let's don't all answer at one time, right? What's the difference between a community group and a home group? There's no real difference. The difference is the emphasis of what they're doing. A community group, basically we want the groups to be around 10. We don't want them to be big groups because we want to have the time for people caring for people, people knowing people, people being with people. But the emphasis, you could have groups that would be like discipleship groups. They would be men groups, women groups, couples groups that determine that for a period of time that they're gonna meet and do a certain thing. Those would be called like doing groups, okay? So their emphasis is gonna be more like doing and learning than really caring. But we're gonna ask those groups in the process of doing to care too. And the home groups are gonna continue to do the things they've always done. They're gonna have equal portions. They're gonna do more of the people on people caring. And more, we're gonna emphasize more and more the need for evangelism in these groups. Prayer. Most simply put, we're broadening the definition of what a small group is because we realize the value of meeting with people in small groups. If David, Ed has a burden along with eight other people to study music history, as it relates to the church. And it's a very specific focus and he wants to do it for three or four months with some folks. We want him to have that privilege, but we want him to tie in to the network of community groups because we realize in the context of that small group, people are gonna be relating to each other. They're gonna be in effect discipling one another. David will be discipling them as they share life together. And that could be a very, very significant touch point for that particular group out of the church. That's just one, I'm creating an illustration. But we wanna broaden the definition so that we can, again, bring out the creativity, open the door wider to the possibility of small group. But the important thing is, and this is real important, that every community group leader be tied in to that weekly touch point, that one hour touch point so that our hearts are beating together. We're not gonna tell them what to do necessarily in the way they're teaching their group or the way that group is being shaped. No group leader is just gonna spin off on their own and show up once in a while. We won't let that happen anymore. So those of you who have a sort of an independent streak and say, well, I'm part of North Way, but if you can't be part of the group structure, then as far as we're concerned, that means you've basically disqualified yourself. Not that we don't want you, but you said you don't want us. That doesn't work. It creates its own independent thing. And it's not long before something arises that it's a point of conflict, or at least it's a distraction from the vision. Now, exceptions to that could be something like we have folks who, in their own neighborhood, I know a number of gals who will put a Bible study together for their neighborhood. That would be outside the orbit of North Way's community groups, but it could potentially become a part of the community group effort if that person wanted to tie into that. If they wanted to. Well, let's fire up the synapses here just a bit for some who are drifting. Let's talk about women leading groups and women who lead groups in terms of having men involve. Ralph, that'll get Ralph back on the beam. Women that lead groups, particularly single women that lead groups now. I think the church in this decade is really gonna be seeing the church overall. Universal's gonna be seeing women more and more leading groups in lots of the foreign countries like Cho's Church. That's quite a resource for the church. And I think in particular, women ministering to women in specific needs like some of the different task groups or nurturing groups that we talked about is gonna be very, very powerful. Like to search for significant groups that we have, specific needs. That's phase one. Now, what's phase two? Go ahead, Bob. Well, what we're gonna be doing is basically releasing women into roles of leadership across ministries as long as they're following. Remember what we said the touch points were? As long as they're under those touch points, as long as they're committing to be in unity with the leadership, in unity with the V8, what we call these weekly training sessions, they're gonna be released in a new way to lead home groups, couples' home groups. We want women to be, there's nothing more exciting than to give somebody something new and let them go with it and see the excitement. It's just like the illustration that Jay gave about the steering committee, about how Joanne Hackett took, and her committee took this thing and they were given the extra grace. Well, we're gonna ask the Lord for extra grace to get from where we have been to where we need to be. Do we have all the answers about it yet? I don't think so, but our heart is that we want every person, man or woman, in this body to be released to their full potential through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Every person. Not a bad vision, is it? I think, too, it's important for you to understand that this isn't something we're just rolling out and we have it done. I think God is going to continue to finish it for us as we go along. Now, us, as a group, we're looking toward the year 2000. Where does God wanna take North Way Christian community in the community group strategy in the year 2000? But we're also looking two years from now. Where do we wanna be two years from now? How do we wanna walk through the stages of development and growth to get there? And so we're, each week, we're coming together, we're praying, we're reasoning together with God and talking about ministry and how we're linking every one of us in ministry. So this isn't going to be something that is just put out and it's done. This is an ongoing growth and development and process that you're gonna be part of. You're gonna help define as we go along. Okay, one more question then we're gonna open it up to all of you. I'm throwing the word around quite a bit now, decentralization. Somebody speak to what does that mean? What kind of ministry is gonna be decen