Driven by Purpose

Rick Warren, of the fast growing Saddleback Community Church in Mission Viejo, California, makes a valid point that every church is driven by some force whether it be tradition, finances, personalities, facilities, etc.1 Leaders should decide Cod's purpose for their church from the Scriptures and let that be their driving force. As opportunities arise, rather than saying, "We've never done it that way before" (tradition, the last seven words of a dying church), "Do we have enough money?" (finances, "oh holy budget"), "What will brother so and so say?" (personalities), or "Do we have the room?" (facility), we should ask, "Will it fulfill our God-given purpose?"

At Southwest we have a vision statement: "To be a Christ-focused family committed to living for Cod, loving each other, and lighting the world." We evaluate new opportunities with the questions, "Is it biblical?" and "Will it fulfill our vision statement?" This philosophy forced us to raise $150,000 last summer for building expansion and a down payment on future land, to develop a staff plan with a full-time leader for every 125 -- 150 members, and to begin double services on Sunday mornings.

Small Groups: the Heart instead of an Appendix

Often leaders see good in small groups but make them an appendix or side ministry for the church. Members who are struggling already to attend other services have a hard time giving up another evening for a small group. In order to adapt our ministry to the busy lifestyles of our culture, we have removed our corporate meeting Wednesday night at the building, providing our people time to attend LIFE (Love, Involvement, Fellowship, Evangelism) groups in neighborhoods throughout our metro area. God has taken us from 11 groups with 154 attending to 18 groups with 295 in attendance. These groups have 25 - 30 visitors every week.

Each week I change my Sunday sermon outline to a question format and the entire church discusses the material on Wednesday nights. A high point every week is the Sunday 5:00 p.m. LIFE Group Leader's Training. In this positive session we share good news, cover the lesson for the week, count the attendance and personal Bible study figures, hand out new contacts, and end with a motivational leadership message and prayer. These leaders are being trained to do more than give a Wednesday lecture. They are ministering to the people in their group. They work at adapting the message to their group, pray together, fellowship together, and set up Bible studies with non-Christian visitors. Leaders are trained to take care of any special needs in their groups such as benevolence, hospital visitation, and child care. All new contacts are given to the leaders on Sunday night and the leader or someone in his group follows up within the next week. In this way, members are trained to have evangelism as part of their lifestyles.

We plan to continually multiply groups throughout the Portland area and build strong relationships, obeying the multiple Bible teachings on caring for one another. Each group has a leader, apprentice, and host. The groups grow through evangelism and multiply with the apprentice taking out a core to begin a new group.

Every six months we host the Tigard Lifestyle Evangelism Workshop with keynote speakers and classes for men and women taught by our own LIFE group leaders. The goals of the workshop are: 1. Serve the Brotherhood. 2. Encourage our LIFE group leaders. 3. Raise up new apprentices for future groups. 4. Achieve new levels of attendance on workshop Sunday. These goals were realized in our first two workshops and we plan to have workshops in March and September in 1996. Workshop Sunday is an exciting time to recognize our LIFE group leaders and new apprentices, and multiply new groups.

With constant emphasis on LIFE groups and relationships, the church grows larger and smaller at the same time. Elders are able to evangelize, train leaders, and mature new Christians through quality care provided in small groups. Building a small group ministry is not without challenges or hard work, but we will never win the world sitting comfortably in our fortress. Our members are learning to give people not only the gospel but also their lives (1 Thess. 2:8). By going "house to house," we are opening our homes and hearts to build relationship for eternity.

Every Member a Minister

We provide training for every member to find how God has shaped them for ministry. Members are encouraged to find their ministry through a ministry interview, ministry experimentation, ministry fairs, and 301 Discover Your Ministry seminar. Ministries are occasionally highlighted with the "Southwest David Award" given to a ministry leader for taking on a giant challenge. Presently the elders are preparing to bring on a full-time evangelist to direct our ministries. The church has grown from 40 ministries to 60 and plans to have 75 in 1996. Members are encouraged to use creativity and develop ministries that build the body and reach out to the lost. New ministry ideas are greeted with three questions, "Is it biblical?," "Does it fulfill our vision statement?" and "Will you lead it?"

Ongoing Evangelism Training

Members are trained for evangelism in several ways. An Evangelism I class is offered frequently in our Bible class curriculum. LIFE group leaders are trained to do evangelism. Evangelism workshop classes are taught by members who are leading people to Christ. However, the best way we train is by having our leaders always take a partner with them to a study for "on-the-job training."

Since God provides the increase through the teaching of his Word, studies are highlighted. The current number of studies led by members is posted in the front of the auditorium each week along with Sunday attendance, LIFE group attendance, and LIFE group visitors. Every week the elders and staff receive a weekly report listing new Christians, prayer requests, studies, and possible studies. The bulletin also lists the number of studies and the number of baptisms in the present year. With this constant emphasis the entire church is learning to "think studies!" "As the studies go, so go the baptisms." We constantly challenge one another to be a church that is growing through saving souls rather than swelling from drawing members from other congregations.

Celebrative Assemblies

We call Sunday assembly the celebration and teach members that we are not coming together to mourn the death of a friend but rather to celebrate the risen Lord and our victory through the cross. At the beginning of my sermon each week I have all new members stand and encourage them to be true to their good confession. I tell them, "We are your family and we need you and you need us." This is followed by a loud "Amen!" from the entire church. Before going into my sermon, I then tell our visitors that they have found the "friendliest church in the Northwest" and we all stand to greet our visitors. The joyous noise is that of a family reunion. We believe that things must not only be done decently and with order but also decently and with ardor! On Sunday we worship Cod, encourage each other to live for Jesus, and then return to our neighborhoods to go "house to house" throughout the week.

Spiritual Development Process

Each quarter we offer Super Sunday C.L.A.S.S. (Christian Life and Service Seminars). The seminars are four hours long with a meal. The seminars are 101 Discovering Membership, 201 Discovering Maturity, 301 Discovering Ministry, and 401 Discovering the Missions. In this way, members are brought through a process that helps to bring them in, build them up, train them for service, and send them out.

Special Events

We have achieved new levels of attendance by targeting special days for drives. We make the most of opportunities by having Friend's Days on days such as Workshop Sunday, Christmas, and Easter. These special days have helped us pack the house and move to double services on Sunday morning.

Our leadership prayerfully considers events that encourage our growth momentum. Last summer the church studied the Sermon on the Mount and dosed the summer on a Wednesday evening with a "Sermon on the Mount party" at the beautiful Rose Garden in Portland. Many non-Christians visiting the garden gathered to observe a singing group, congregational singing, a brother quoting the entire Sermon on the Mount, and a prayer overlooking Portland.

Making the Main Thing the Main Thing

God is blessing our efforts because we are driven by His mission. Our church continues to grow with a baptism every week because we remain focused outward and strive to be a "Christ-focused family committed to living for God, loving each other, and lighting the world!"

Frequent visiting church leaders comment more on the attitude of our evangelistic members than our methodology. Truly, there is no magic. Our people are excited because they are finding the joy of bringing people to Christ. As my co-leader of our small groups, David Hughes, states, "People don't get excited about rowing and sitting in a boat. They get excited when they catch a fish." Passion for the lost is the pulse of our church and God will continually make us grow as we go public and house to house winning the lost one by one.

ENDNOTES

1 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), p.77.