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
