It's that time of year again... when we all get to whine and complain about missing the best sporting event around. I've already got two strategies I plan to employ to at least see some of the games: Slingbox and iTunes. I did the iTunes thing last year and I really enjoyed it but it's not the same as seeing the games live.
I hope that we could have full participation this year from all the different areas (not Stateside). We especially need to get everyone involved so that the SA guys won't have as good of a chance to go for 3 in a row (Congratulations AC and Liz, I hope y'all have hung on to the winner's shirt so that you can mail it to me in Brazil after I win).
Fill out your bracket and sign-up for our group today!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
CO Australia
There is a lot to catch up with. I am committed to our vision to build laborers on the campus, yet I also know that we need healthy churches to best launch them into an unbelieving world – and that is what I am burdened by.
We began meeting in August of 2003 to plan out our church plant. I have attached a couple of helpful documents we have worked on since then. We primarily used Tim Keller's materials on church planting. David has taken the lead from the beginning and has done a fantastic job – he is stretched to the max, but operating in many of his strengths. 16 of us were on the initial planning team (mostly campus staff and a few grads)
We launched the church plant in March of 2004.
Today we are 3 years into the plant and still wresting with a lot of issues – most of them are the right ones to wrestle with. One of the things we are doing is trying to best structure things for discipleship / ministry to take place in the context of the church – 70% of church right now is composed of ministry grads.
This is the definition of a “disciple” that we are working off of – trying to bring Matt28 into our world and define it… “A follower of Jesus Christ who is established in the faith and in basics of the Christian living, equipped for personal ministry in the church and to the unbelieving world, and purposefully engaged in the mission and ministry of Christ Community Church” – This is the goal that we lay before everyone in our church – a brief, but visionary target that we want everyone to embrace and move toward.
We have chosen to focus on a 4-fold ministry focus as a church - campus, business, community, and internationals. The campus is of course University Impact (CO in Australia). We are trying to encourage all grads to pick to focus their ministry on either community or business – whichever seem most natural for them. We have also just brought over Tony and Tracy Boyd to begin developing our ministry to Internationals living in Brisbane. We are only 1 year into this “4-Fold Focus”.
Community Teams – in 2006 we had 7 teams – met on weeknights in homes with 12-20 attending. We were burning CT leaders out with the responsibility of shepherding this many people. Burn out in the sense of needing a break, but still walking with God. Thankfully.
We are now restructuring for greater impact and less responsibility on a few people. In 2007 we are working from a toned down Perimeter Model. Basically there are 2 “Community Teams” – one on Wed night and one on Thursday. There are about 40-50 in each. Within the CTs, there are 15-16 Ministry Teams. There are probably around 18 prepped leaders each night(some are doubling up in expectation of dividing as we grow). Members were asked to sign up and then assigned to a Community Team and Ministry Team.
Format –
7-7:20 – Tea and Coffee
7:20-7:45 – Large Group Teaching / Stimulus – David takes Wednesdays and I take Thursdays (Teaching through the Attributes of God)
7:45-8 – Feedback, Large group questions or discussion
8-9 – divide into single-sex Ministry Teams – these have a 3 fold agenda to discuss : Personal Walk with God, Prayer, and Personal Ministry. Each week one of the 3 is emphasized for 80% of this time – in a 3 week period you would seek to cover these thoroughly in each other’s lives.
We are just now doing this. We have gotten good feedback. It gives David, Bruce, and me great contact with most members of the church – and gives more direct leadership to everyone. Many of our grads are more than ready to lead 2-3, but leading 10-15 was maxing them out.
Our hope is to see people develop and progress in the target of being a disciple of Jesus within our church (see definition). I am sure this is enough info for now. Keller's materials are good, Popes book is very helpful and Perimeter’s website has given us tons of thoughts and direction. Please give us feedback and any encouragement as well! We need it.
Our staff team pray for you guys this morning. They are very excited to see how the ministry is progressing up there. It is a privilege to partner with you. Feel free to copy and paste this to a blog so others can give us feedback or ask questions. Is there a blog for dummies that I could read??
bb - Brian Brown
Thursday, February 22, 2007
a structure for growth
Simple question: how can we structure the graduate/singles ministry to provide room for healthy growth? Right now we are divided into 2 groups (down from 4) with 15-20 in each group. It's manageable for Brian and I to lead right now but there's not much room for future outreach nor addition of future grads. The momentum is high due to the development of relationships but as it grows it's becoming more difficult to manage schedules and to go deeper in conversation. I'll just leave that question out there for a while before putting up what thoughts I've had.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Thoughts on Transitioning Graduates
I was thinking that it might be a good time to take down some thoughts on difficulties we’ve encountered in transitioning graduates from the campus to the “real world.” I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these & also any ways you’ve found to overcome these. Here we go:
Difficulties encountered in transitioning graduates:
- First difficulty encountered is upon the staff person who is discipling the person. Usually, this person is being equipped to Evangelize or Establish & then they graduate. The staff person is faced with the reality of making the decision to:
Bring the disciple on staff as an intern
Follow the disciple off the campus & help them grow – Thus distracting the staff from having his laser focused on the campus.
Transition the disciple from “his disciple” to “another person’s disciple who is focusing on graduates”
Trust God to complete the laborer completion process.
The second difficulty encountered is by the disciple – He realizes that much of the movement he’s been a part of is focused on the campus. He also realizes that he goes from being a leader in a movement to just another face at work & a beginner level employee at that.
The third difficulty is creating community within the body – For instance, on campus A & B were C’s disciple. D & E were F’s disciple. Etc, etc. and then after they graduate, they now find themselves in this new “graduates group” we’ve created and A, B, D & E aren’t really in community & actually find out that there was quite a bit of competition among them while they were on campus. Therefore, community is trying to be built on a pretty shaky foundation.
Another difficult faced by the disciple is Character Issues that really show when the pressure gets turned on after graduation. Weaknesses really show through that weren’t near as visible when they were on campus involved in the movement where life was much “easier” in many senses.
Finally, after taking the time to write all these thoughts down, it’s really easy to see that these disciples need not be overlooked or “thrown out to the wolves” in a sense. These need to be thought for/cared for/shepherded and lead. They need love & they need to be involved in a Leadership Environment that consists of:
Life on life; B. Stretching; C. Supernatural Dependence; D. Truth Spoken in Love; E. Experience and Explanation; F. Others Intensity; & G. Focus on the Lost.
Would love to know your thoughts on this. I know I’m making a lot of assumptions in writing this but feel like those who are reading this will be assuming much if not all I’m assuming in posting this. Brian Firpo
Difficulties encountered in transitioning graduates:
- First difficulty encountered is upon the staff person who is discipling the person. Usually, this person is being equipped to Evangelize or Establish & then they graduate. The staff person is faced with the reality of making the decision to:
Bring the disciple on staff as an intern
Follow the disciple off the campus & help them grow – Thus distracting the staff from having his laser focused on the campus.
Transition the disciple from “his disciple” to “another person’s disciple who is focusing on graduates”
Trust God to complete the laborer completion process.
The second difficulty encountered is by the disciple – He realizes that much of the movement he’s been a part of is focused on the campus. He also realizes that he goes from being a leader in a movement to just another face at work & a beginner level employee at that.
The third difficulty is creating community within the body – For instance, on campus A & B were C’s disciple. D & E were F’s disciple. Etc, etc. and then after they graduate, they now find themselves in this new “graduates group” we’ve created and A, B, D & E aren’t really in community & actually find out that there was quite a bit of competition among them while they were on campus. Therefore, community is trying to be built on a pretty shaky foundation.
Another difficult faced by the disciple is Character Issues that really show when the pressure gets turned on after graduation. Weaknesses really show through that weren’t near as visible when they were on campus involved in the movement where life was much “easier” in many senses.
Finally, after taking the time to write all these thoughts down, it’s really easy to see that these disciples need not be overlooked or “thrown out to the wolves” in a sense. These need to be thought for/cared for/shepherded and lead. They need love & they need to be involved in a Leadership Environment that consists of:
Life on life; B. Stretching; C. Supernatural Dependence; D. Truth Spoken in Love; E. Experience and Explanation; F. Others Intensity; & G. Focus on the Lost.
Would love to know your thoughts on this. I know I’m making a lot of assumptions in writing this but feel like those who are reading this will be assuming much if not all I’m assuming in posting this. Brian Firpo
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Dowdy thoughts on grads
Top objectives for the past month: reconnect with the graduates after the holiday season, build some momentum among them while the students are away at the project, think ahead and do some initial planning about our philosophy for this ministry. Highlights: I was encouraged about their desire to connect with one another and the plans they made over the break to be together. We had some clear thoughts about the LPV, which gives me hope that those thoughts will flow out into the grad ministry. Reconnecting with Michael Hart (pictured in green shirt, he was on staff here in 2002 and has been attending Covenant Theological Seminary).
Lowlights: I felt like some of the graduates attended the project out of a lack of vision and I felt like some of their participation in the project revealed just how behind we are in receiving them and helping them grow in this phase.
Things learned/observed: So far it seems like the natural tendency of the grads is to think more for their fellowship/social needs and not their more holistic needs nor the needs of others. They also tend to try and re-create what they've experienced in the past in the ministry. Their experience so far has defined what is "good" and they continue to look for that.
Top objectives for the next month: We need to think more about our general ministry philosophy for the graduates, align the ministry with the church's cycle for the year, and receive well those coming from the project, connecting with what God has been doing in them on the project.
Discussing A New Definition Of Laborers
Because we all feel so greatly the call to build laborers through the campus for the lost world, we must reflect on what we are actually building. Are we effectively accomplishing our purpose? Are our disciples really laborers as they graduate? Are we helping them really prepare for a lifetime of laboring with Jesus beyond the campus?
One thing is clear, all of us are continually being built up and developed. We are not necessarily complete until we stand face to face before Jesus in heaven. So what do we want for each of our disciples? What would be a success? How should we define it? Is it another campus staff?
As we have reflected over our campus ministry in Brazil we have realized that we have been more campus focused than laborer focused. This has affected our view of laborers to the point that most everything we were doing pointed toward equipping and developing new campus staff more than helping each person become the laborer that God intends them to be [Col. 1:28-29]! This often left us and our disciples frustrated!
As we have reflected over this and many other questions over the past year, we have began to work on a new definition of what is a laborer. This will help us better quantify and measure our effectiveness in reaching our vision and purpose. It will also help us improve our discipling and equipping to prepare our graduates to truly labor for a lifetime beyond the campus! And it will also help clarify for people inside the ministry and outside of what we mean by laborer; help them evaluate if they are one and help them understand what areas of development and help they may need!
Here is the new definition of Laborers that we are working on: [we have chosen a plural definition since we believe God's context for laboring is in community]
Laborers are disciples of Christ who serve the Body in reaching maturity as they engage the world to help others live as disciples of Christ.
One thing is clear, all of us are continually being built up and developed. We are not necessarily complete until we stand face to face before Jesus in heaven. So what do we want for each of our disciples? What would be a success? How should we define it? Is it another campus staff?
As we have reflected over our campus ministry in Brazil we have realized that we have been more campus focused than laborer focused. This has affected our view of laborers to the point that most everything we were doing pointed toward equipping and developing new campus staff more than helping each person become the laborer that God intends them to be [Col. 1:28-29]! This often left us and our disciples frustrated!
As we have reflected over this and many other questions over the past year, we have began to work on a new definition of what is a laborer. This will help us better quantify and measure our effectiveness in reaching our vision and purpose. It will also help us improve our discipling and equipping to prepare our graduates to truly labor for a lifetime beyond the campus! And it will also help clarify for people inside the ministry and outside of what we mean by laborer; help them evaluate if they are one and help them understand what areas of development and help they may need!
Here is the new definition of Laborers that we are working on: [we have chosen a plural definition since we believe God's context for laboring is in community]
Laborers are disciples of Christ who serve the Body in reaching maturity as they engage the world to help others live as disciples of Christ.
- disciples of Christ - 3 characteristics of a gospel-centered disciple (Identity-John 8:31-32, Community-John 13:34-35, Mission-John 15:8) [Disciples]
- serve the body - Unity, maturity, and preparation for ministry are the goal. This is the purpose of our giftings and roles within the church. Maturity of the body includes both quantity and quality. - Eph. 4:1-16, I Cor. 12:1-31, Rom. 12:3-8 [Servants]
- engage the world - Laborers are equipped and motivated to multiply disciples for cultural and generational transformation. – 2 Cor. 5:14-17,Col. 1:28-29, II Tim. 2:2 [Transformation Agents]
Monday, January 8, 2007
Observations regarding new graduates
I wanted to post several observations I've been making about ministering to recent graduates in the hopes of trying to figure out how much we should realistically expect from these folks (no matter how mature they are spiritually when they graduate.) My desire is to know when we're not calling them to enough or when we're trying to push too hard (I hope this makes sense.) So here goes some observations:
1. We must continually remind our graduates of what they are a part of & why it's worth it for them to persevere in finding a job in our city & how really just in every area of life. Perseverence is not easy for today's graduates.
2. I really don't expect our graduates to have much of a personal ministry for at least 5 - 10 years after graduation. Exceptions are rare, but it just seems easiest to expect little fruit from them.
3. Living situations for our graduates is a key to helping them continue in their walk with God.
4. We must make heroes out of our graduates who make good choices. We had a girl move back to Khon Kaen & she just decided that she was going to live off nothing until she found a job here. It's exactly what she did and we need to champion her example.
5. The principles of discipleship/multiplication are the same for graduates. The timeframe is just extended. IE - We don't redefine what a laborer is, we just understand that it takes longer in this context.
6. The more we can give ownership of our LPV's to our graduates, the more motivated they will be in every area of their lives.
7. We haven't found the balance of having our campus staff follow people into the community yet.
8. A church facility is important when ministering to graduates. A facility brings stability.
These are just a few I've been listing right now. Would love other thoughts. Love, Brian
1. We must continually remind our graduates of what they are a part of & why it's worth it for them to persevere in finding a job in our city & how really just in every area of life. Perseverence is not easy for today's graduates.
2. I really don't expect our graduates to have much of a personal ministry for at least 5 - 10 years after graduation. Exceptions are rare, but it just seems easiest to expect little fruit from them.
3. Living situations for our graduates is a key to helping them continue in their walk with God.
4. We must make heroes out of our graduates who make good choices. We had a girl move back to Khon Kaen & she just decided that she was going to live off nothing until she found a job here. It's exactly what she did and we need to champion her example.
5. The principles of discipleship/multiplication are the same for graduates. The timeframe is just extended. IE - We don't redefine what a laborer is, we just understand that it takes longer in this context.
6. The more we can give ownership of our LPV's to our graduates, the more motivated they will be in every area of their lives.
7. We haven't found the balance of having our campus staff follow people into the community yet.
8. A church facility is important when ministering to graduates. A facility brings stability.
These are just a few I've been listing right now. Would love other thoughts. Love, Brian
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