If those words give you the willies, don't worry: me too...
But here's the proposal. I REALLY want ideas, feedback and assistance in thinking this through.
The opportunity -to do something at a low-rent housing complex, with large number of distressed families, youth in trouble, etc.
The proposal by others - to do something for the kids in the summer (I'm sure they are thinking VBS/bus ministry/plug 'em into youth group type stuff)
The resources - One committed (but still in IC) Christian family who lives there, 2 HC families, and two IC pastors willing to assist, and supportive of the "new thing" the HC families are doing
My proposal: +To plant a "youth movement" church - one where the "man of peace" is a youth, but the families are the target. (In other words, follow Jesus' "Go to a village... find a man" strategy, considering the complex a village) + Train the IC people in the "open church" strategy, + Use the "meeting room" for a strategy/prayer room for the adults while + our youth play on the playground with the other kids, looking for "children of peace", potential leaders + ask them if they want to learn about "God's country, the Jesus Way" etc. + Pursue the families by asking for permission to spend time talking with the kids, asking if they want to join + give them a Bible and read it with them. +Create a discipleship team with the family that lives there, a la Patterson/Scoggins model (7 commands of Christ, do the "one anothers").
+++ most importantly: Expect divine appointments to open the way.
Does anyone have an info on anything like this being done? It's been a strategy on the so-called mission field quite a bit, but state-side outreaches are almost always "bells and whistles" programs with dragging the kid to a legacy church the "goal."
I'm new to the forum so I just read this post from last March. I'm sorry you didn't get any replies as it would have been good for people like me to see.
Did you end up doing this or are you currently?
Couple of things: 1) What is the "open church" strategy? 2) What is the Patterson / Scoggins model? 3) Did you make up the verbiage you are using like "man of peace", "God's country" etc. or did you get those terms somewhere?
If you have any references for resources on the above (like websites for example or even books) that would be great.
Thanks for your interest! No one responded -- here, or in "our group" very much either! The house church definitely still suffers from "Hey,we're having a good time, why do you keep bugging us about the unevangelized and the unreached?" syndrome, but We Press On!
Open church - refers to church in a public place, where people are passing by and welcome - or something like that! It would be based on what happened at the Temple - it was believers meeting, however the point of the meeting was to allow non-believers to see what God was doing. (That is how I'm using it, anyway! as with most newer terms, it is still under construction:) I've read about that being done in coffee shops, hotels or at the beach. It has to be very "un-churchy" compared to just an old-fashioned Open Air service to be truly Open Church.
Open church is distinguished from in-home meetings, where people would need to be invited in, the household leader would exercise oversight, etc. The early church met "at the temple" and "from house to house" and we are trying to as literally as possible duplicate that.
Patterson/Scoggins wrote the "Church Multiplication Guide", and while I don't agree with them on everything (they don't, anymore, either from what I understand - we are all growing!) it is a great get-started manual for those who want to be thinking in terms of a "transferable model" to the mission field rather than just suburban America. Another great author on the topic is David Garrison. Our latest favorite is The Celtic Way of Evangelism.
I did not create the term "man of peace", it is in common usage, based on what Jesus said, "Go to a village... find a man of peace... say Peace to this house". Paul's description of "elder" and "deacon" in his letters would be describing the attributes of this Man of Peace - examples Jesus would have had in mind would have been Abraham, Job and Martha (whom we'd call a Woman of Peace, of course!). This is a person who already is looked up to for leadership in their community, with a good reputation (another example is Cornelius, and Acts 10 and following is an excellent demonstration of Peter doing what Jesus said to do). When Paul said not to lay hands hastily on a "neophyte" he was talking about the kind of young person or failure who thinks they already know it all but have not proven their mettle yet, not a "new believer".
"God's country" instead of the Kingdom of God is more or less my own idea, because the term Kingdom has no viable meaning in our culture. The problem with it is, of course, the common usage of the term to mean Texas, but that would at least have more meaning than Kingdom.
My #1 choice of resource, if you care about winning those totally outside the Christian tradition is here: http://www.cafepress.com/cpcoaches/753261 , The Church Planting CD for use with a computer.
Email this page to someone.
