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People vs. ProgramsI just got back from Kairos, a gathering of more-or-less emergently minded pastors and church planters in the hills of Western Maryland. I had a great time getting to know others who are trying to create, sustain and empower missional communities in different parts of the world. Brian McLaren led a discussion on the challenges of church programing in relation to the people who are in the church. Here are some thoughts that emerged:Problems: • money • people fall so in love with the program they lose sight of Jesus • making the funders happy vs. reaching out to others • country club (compartmentalized) vs. Anabaptist (missional) • acting your age—new churches can’t do what larger churches do • worry about heresy, neoprotestantism and Catholicism --we need to educate the people about where older, latent traditions come from so that they are not scared of them --we need to learn more about church history so that we can bring some traditions back to life • dualities tend to label people as liberal or conservative/ protestant or catholic • challenge of church growth with small missional communities A constant struggle for ministers is in balancing the needs of the individual with the needs of the many. Many churches employ programs to enable the church to minister to a number of individuals at the same time. However, when we do this we realize that we don't meet everybody's needs. The group began to think through what would happen if pastors stepped back from the programs and engaged in one-on-one discipleship. A church culture that is people-focused ought to precede a structure that is people-focused. If we create an environment where people are free to love each other, to serve each other, to pray with each other, etc. we can put more emphasis on people rather than into programs. These are my more-or-less coherent thoughts and notes. I'm wondering what ya'll think about program driven vs. people driven models of church? Peace. posted by Jake at 4/01/2005 04:15:00 PM  
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 Previous Posts Okay, I'll try to Clarify ------------ That's Okay...Emergent is not for you anyway;) ------------ And so it begins... ------------ Emergent and Ecclesial Segregation (Part 1) ------------ Exorcising Descartes' Ghost ------------ Jogger Etiquette ------------ Cultural Hermeneutics ------------ Conviction as Fashion ------------ Volf on Worship ------------ Introducing Hermeneutics (Part 2) ------------ Archives November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007
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Jake,
Since no one else is biting, I'll post some thoughts. First, I think that most would agree that people need to take precedence over programs. Yet there is a certain functionality to a program that allows one to minister to a larger number of people than would otherwise be possible. Yet I have to think that a program reaches a certain "terminal velocity" in terms of its ability to be effective once it morphs to a certain size. The relational dynamic is greatly reduced and the program degenerates into simply the passing of cognitive information.
So I say keep programs, but keep 'em small enough that the relational dynamic between mentor and mentored is not endangered. Coming from a mega church, I would have to say that a certain amount of valuable discipling is lost in the machine. Not only is the dynamic relationship between mentor and mentored minimized, but the ability of entire community to corporately mentor one another is lost.
This, in my mind, is one of the best arguments for smaller churches.
Gerald
I agree, Emergent churches do "need to learn more about church history." Perhaps that is the root of all their problems. One would speculate as to whether or not there would even be an Emergent church if they knew more about church history, eh?
I am a Doctor in the Emergent church. Come learn some of our doctrines at
http://blogsdosuck.blogspot.com/
your pal, norm