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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: J-B Leadership Network Series
- Sprache: Englisch
A hands-on resource for both large and small churches It has been predicted that in the twenty-first century extremely large churches would emerge in America that resemble neither an elephant nor a field of mice. Which is better? At one time the answer would have been either/or. Now it's both/and. We want both the intimacy of smallness and the impact of bigness-we want a hybrid of the two. Hybrid Church is a practical guide for clergy and leaders who want to have the best of both church worlds: the intimacy of small "house church" groups and the impact of very large mega-churches. * Offers a guide for churches who want to capitalize on their strengths to build intimacy with impact * Written by the pastor of one of the "fastest growing" and "most innovative" churches in America with thousands of members organized in small house groups * Outlines a vision for how the church of tomorrow could look like the early church. Given that the trend is toward very large and very small, with few churches in the middle, this book will be a welcome resource for both large and small churches.
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Seitenzahl: 221
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010
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Table of Contents
Cover
More Praise for Hybrid Church
Title
Copyright
Leadership Network Titles
Dedication
List of Tables and Figures
About Leadership Network
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction to Both
Both Are Church
Both Are Valid
Both Are Effective
Both Are Imperfect
Both Are Misunderstood
Both Are Biblical
Both Are Beautiful
1 THE EXTREME WORLD
It’s a Well-Curve World
It’s a Hybrid World
2 THE FALLACY OF EITHER/OR
The Ups and Downs of Being an Elephant
The Ups and Downs of Being a Mouse
Elephant-Mouse Dynamics
3 THE BEAUTY OF BOTH/AND
Poles and Spectrum
Reach and Range
4 THE EMERGING BLENDS
A Green Church
5 THE CONVERGENCE OF INTIMACY AND IMPACT
The Challenge of Hybrid
The Cooperation of Hybrid
The Creativity of Hybrid
Notes
The Author
Index
Other Books of Interest
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
1 THE EXTREME WORLD
Table 1.1. Fidelity and Convenience
2 THE FALLACY OF EITHER/OR
Table 2.1. Elephant/Mega and Mouse/Micro Contrast
Table 2.2. Percentage of Churches Based on Attendance
Table 2.3. The Ten Largest Churches in America in 2008
3 THE BEAUTY OF BOTH/AND
Table 3.1. Mega/Micro Contrast
Table 3.2. The Spectrum Relative to Size
Table 3.3. Value Designations Across the Spectrum
Table 3.4. Desirability Across the Spectrum
4 THE EMERGING BLENDS
Table 4.1. CTK Attendance, Early 1990s
Table 4.2. CTK Attendance, Late 1990s
List of Illustrations
1 THE EXTREME WORLD
Figure 1.1. A Typical Bell Curve
Figure 1.2. The Well Curve
Figure 1.3. Pop Settings for a Stereo’s Equalizer
Figure 1.4. Jazz Settings for a Stereo’s Equalizer
Figure 1.5. Direction of Energy
3 THE BEAUTY OF BOTH/AND
Figure 3.1. Intimacy-to-Impact Spectrum
Figure 3.2. Ethos of the Spectrum
4 THE EMERGING BLENDS
Figure 4.1. The Hybrid Color Spectrum
Figure 4.2. The Intimacy-Impact Grid
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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More Praise for Hybrid Church
“In the polarizing either/or debate between microchurch and megachurch Dave Browning inserts a convincing argument for both/and. As always Dave’s view is engaging, challenging, and somewhat controversial; and in the end a viewpoint that anyone serious about ecclesiology in the twenty-first century should consider.”
—Geoff Surratt, pastor of ministries, Seacoast Church, and coauthor, The Multi-Site Church Revolution
“This important book explains why healthy churches are getting smaller and larger at the same time. It argues that the preferred church design combines the intimacy of a microchurch with the impact of a megachurch, giving God’s people the best of both worlds. This ‘hybrid church’ is no idle theory. It works itself out powerfully at Dave Browning’s church—and it just might become the approach for your church as well.”
—Warren Bird, Ph.D., coauthor of twenty-three books including Viral Churches and Culture Shift
“Most people can only find ‘balance’ in mediocrity. Others only experience it for brief moments, moving from one extreme to the other. Dave’s contention is that genuine balance can be found by actually targeting two extremes, both at the same time. This book shows how both intimacy and impact are within all of our reach. If Dave is right, then the ongoing battle for legitimacy between megachurches and microchurches can finally end. Impact and intimacy—throw in détente and you’ve got Hybrid Church. It’s about time.”
—Tom Mercer, senior pastor, High Desert Church, and author, Oikos: Your World, Delivered
“Dave Browning is standing in the middle of the tension and the dream of every church. ‘Mega’ churches love the impact they are having in their community but will readily admit that their greatest struggle is achieving intimacy within their Body. ‘Micro’ churches thrive on the intimacy of their fellowship but are challenged to have a lasting impact within their community. Dave has been placed in the unique position of having credibility with both groups. Hybrid Church is a constructive dialogue between both models that promotes a novel idea—we can learn from each other—we need each other. This is a must-read for pastors and people who are living both sides of the same dream.”
—Grant Fishbook, lead pastor, Christ the King Community Church, Bellingham, Washington
“Dave tracks two of the rising trends in evangelicalism—the megachurch and the microchurch—and shows how they not only can coexist, but cooperate. Regardless of the size of one’s ministry, any church leader can benefit from the collaborative concepts found in Hybrid Church.”
—Dr. Charles Arn, president, Church Growth, Inc., Pasadena, California
Hybrid Church
The Fusion of Intimacy and Impact
Dave Browning
Copyright © 2010 by Dave Browning. All rights reserved.
Published by Jossey-Bass
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Browning, David, date
Hybrid church : the fusion of intimacy and impact / Dave Browning. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Leadership Network titles)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-57230-6 (cloth); 978-0-470-88079-1 (ebk); 978-0-470-88080-7 (ebk); 978-0-470-88081-4 (ebk)
1. Church development, New. 2. Church growth. 3. Church renewal. 4. Small churches. 5. Big churches. I. Title.
BV652.24.B77 2010
254′.5—dc22
2010018790
Leadership Network Titles
The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs, Brian Bailey and Terry Storch
Church Turned Inside Out: A Guide for Designers, Refiners, and Re-Aligners, Linda Bergquist and Allan Karr
Leading from the Second Chair: Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams, Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson
Hybrid Church: The Fusion of Intimacy and Impact, Dave Browning
The Way of Jesus: A Journey of Freedom for Pilgrims and Wanderers, Jonathan S. Campbell with Jennifer Campbell
Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code: Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration, Samuel R. Chand
Leading the Team-Based Church: How Pastors and Church Staffs Can Grow Together into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders, George Cladis
Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens, Neil Cole
Church 3.0: Upgrades for the Future of the Church, Neil Cole
Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders, Earl Creps
Reverse Mentoring: How Young Leaders Can Transform the Church and Why We Should Let Them, Earl Creps
Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments, and Practices of a Diverse Congregation, Mark DeYmaz
Leading Congregational Change Workbook, James H. Furr, Mike Bonem, and Jim Herrington
The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
Baby Boomers and Beyond: Tapping the Ministry Talents and Passions of Adults over Fifty, Amy Hanson
Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey, Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem, and James H. Furr
The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation, Jim Herrington, Robert Creech, and Trisha Taylor
Whole Church: Leading from Fragmentation to Engagement, Mel Lawrenz
Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out, Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro, with Warren Bird
Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement, Will Mancini
A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey, Brian D. McLaren
The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian, Brian D. McLaren
Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church, Reggie McNeal
Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders, Reggie McNeal
The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, Reggie McNeal, Reggie McNeal
A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders, Reggie McNeal
The Millennium Matrix: Reclaiming the Past, Reframing the Future of the Church, M. Rex Miller
Shaped by God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches, Milfred Minatrea
The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World, Alan J. Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk
Missional Map-Making: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition, Alan J. Roxburgh
Relational Intelligence: How Leaders Can Expand Their Influence Through a New Way of Being Smart, Steve Saccone
Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers, Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird
The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community, Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw
The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and Ken McElrath
Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America’s Largest Churches, Scott Thumma and Dave Travis
The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken About Pastoral Transitions, Carolyn Weese and J. Russell Crabtree
Dedicated to my pastors over the years who have “walked the talk” : Paul Weimer, Ludwig Zerbe, Ralph Colas, Gerald Zordel, Bernie Augsburger, Fred Davison, John Ruhlman, Steve Mason. Thank you. “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7).
List of Tables and Figures
Table 1.1. Fidelity and Convenience
Table 2.1. Elephant/Mega and Mouse/Micro Contrast
Table 2.2. Percentage of Churches Based on Attendance
Table 2.3. The Ten Largest Churches in America in 2008
Table 3.1. Mega/Micro Contrast
Table 3.2. The Spectrum Relative to Size
Table 3.3. Value Designations Across the Spectrum
Table 3.4. Desirability Across the Spectrum
Table 4.1. CTK Attendance, Early 1990s
Table 4.2. CTK Attendance, Late 1990s
Figure 1.1. A Typical Bell Curve
Figure 1.2. The Well Curve
Figure 1.3. Pop Settings for a Stereo’s Equalizer
Figure 1.4. Jazz Settings for a Stereo’s Equalizer
Figure 1.5. Direction of Energy
Figure 3.1. Intimacy-to-Impact Spectrum
Figure 3.2. Ethos of the Spectrum
Figure 4.1. The Hybrid Color Spectrum
Figure 4.2. The Intimacy-Impact Grid
About Leadership Network
Leadership Network, an initiative of OneHundredX, exists to honor God and serve others by investing in innovative church leaders who impact the Kingdom immeasurably.
Since 1984, Leadership Network has brought together exceptional leaders, who are focused on similar ministry initiatives, to accelerate their impact. The ensuing collaboration—often across denominational lines—provides a strong base from which individual leaders can better analyze and refine their individual strategies. Creating an environment for collaborative discovery, dialogue, and sharing encourages leaders to extend their own innovations and ideas. Leadership Network further enhances this process through the development and distribution of highly targeted ministry tools and resources—including video, podcasts, concept papers, special research reports, e-publications, and books like this one.
With Leadership Network’s assistance, today’s Christian leaders are energized, equipped, inspired—and better able to multiply their own dynamic Kingdom-building initiatives.
In 1996 Leadership Network partnered with Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, to develop a series of creative books that would provide thought leadership to innovators in church ministry. Leadership Network Publications present thoroughly researched and innovative concepts from leading thinkers, practitioners, and pioneering churches. The series collectively draws from a wide range of disciplines, with individual titles providing perspective on one or more of five primary areas:
Enabling effective leadership
Encouraging life-changing service
Building authentic community
Creating Kingdom-centered impact
Engaging cultural and demographic realities
For additional information on the mission or activities of Leadership Network, please contact:
Leadership Network
2626 Cole Avenue, Suite 900
Dallas, Texas 75204
800-765-5323
www.leadnet.org
Preface
At a conference I attended, the facilitator said, “It’s more important to be kind than to be right.” At first the statement resonated with me. I’ve certainly seen rightness expressed at the expense of kindness. But upon further reflection, I think it was unfortunate that the conversation was being framed in terms of kindness versus rightness. Can’t we have both? I think a better statement would have been “It is important to be right. It is just as important to be kind.”
It’s okay to be extreme, but it’s not okay to be imbalanced. It was said of Abraham Lincoln that he was “a man of steel and velvet,” extremely strong at the core, with a very gentle exterior. It was said of Christ that He was “full of grace and truth,” completely truthful, but gracious. That is what I want to be when I grow up—both. And that is God’s dream for all of us in His church—that when we grow up we will “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:7–16). Greatness appears to be balanced extremes.
Balance is not very sexy or cool. What is deemed newsworthy is often excessive in one direction or another. The media tend to amplify the highly unlikely outliers and minimize the more commonplace “midliers.” This is true in Christianity as well. The ministry that is extremely (fill in the blank: large, evangelistic, Calvinistic, dogmatic, and so on) gets noticed. But for long-term effectiveness, balance yields the best results, in your personal life and in your ministry.
A wise older pastor advised me in my youth, “Lean against the prevailing wind.” He had used this phrase as a sextant for his personal life, his leadership, and his teaching. “If you find yourself preaching about grace all the time,” he counseled, “maybe balance that with a message on holiness. If you’ve focused for a while on outreach, teach on discipleship.” So much of spirituality, he told me, is both/and, not either/or.
This book is about both instead of either, about and instead of or. Its focus is what is right with the church, from pole to pole—from the biggest, most impacting megachurch to the smallest, most relational microchurch. But instead of taking you toward one pole or the other, this book will lead you on an expedition to both extremes simultaneously.
My hope is that the book’s tone will be conciliatory. Before my first book, Deliberate Simplicity, was published, I was told that the publisher liked its tone. The publisher felt that the book was gracious toward the traditional church even while drawing contrasts with it. I was happy to hear this. In the foreword to that book, I wrote: “God is at work in every church, and in every church tradition there are elements that work well for the people in those traditions. We all have to be faithful to what God is calling us to be and do.” I still feel this way. My prayer would be that this book will become known not just for the ideas presented here but also for the manner in which they are presented.
We are called to experience and express the grace of God. There is no question that we have experienced grace. The question is, will we express it? And we need to extend grace in matters of style as well as in matters of sin. The church that I pastor, Christ the King Community Church, has become noted for being a place of grace for sinners. We tell you, without reservation, “There is always a place for you.” We don’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done; we say, “God will take you where you are, He just won’t leave you there.” We believe there is forgiveness for the past and hope for the future. There is no question about how we feel about sinners. We love them, and love covers a multitude of sins. The question is, will we extend the same kind of grace to someone who differs from us in style? In other words, will love also cover a multitude of styles?
Thomas Jefferson put it so well when he said, “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” This has proved to be a difficult balance for Christians to maintain. We have tended first to gravitate toward certain styles (in preaching, music, liturgy, programming), and then to imagine that our preferred methodology must be “right,” and then to become cynical, critical, or judgmental of others for being different. We imagine that the way God is at work in our story is the only way God could ever be at work. And in our efforts to validate our own method of ministry there is often a temptation to invalidate another’s. We must resist this temptation. As Jefferson noted, style is an area where we want to see diversity, not unity. We want to be loyal to Master and mission, not to method and manner.
I have found that many believers have a wrong notion about Christian unity. We confuse unity with uniformity. Uniformity involves looking for little things we have in common with others, creating a group around those commonalities, drawing distinctions between the newly created group and others who do not share these points of affinity with us, and then increasingly insisting that others be like us in order to be in our company. But that is not creating Christian unity. That is creating worldly uniformity. And, frankly, anyone can do it, which is why everyone is doing it. But Christian unity means embracing diversity within the will of God (see 1 Corinthians:12). Do you see the difference? Within God’s will there is grace for differences in personality and presentation.
Can you appreciate a sermon that is preached in a style different from the one you prefer? Can you worship with a song that isn’t your favorite? Can you talk up a denomination that isn’t yours? If not, you may need to take some of the grace that you have for sin and apply it to style.
It’s a shame that the different wings of the church often look askance at one another. Imbalanced perspectives about ministry size have proved particularly corrosive to unity. Small churches tend to invalidate larger ones, and vice versa. As G. K. Chesterton has noted, this imbalance is based on the phenomenon of “knowing what you know” and being far too confident about the rest: “If a man lives alone in a straw hut in the middle of Tibet, he may be told that he is living in the Chinese Empire; and the Chinese Empire is certainly a splendid and spacious and impressive thing. Or alternatively he may be told that he is living in the British Empire, and be duly impressed. But the curious thing is that in certain mental states he can feel much more certain about the Chinese Empire that he cannot see than about the straw hut that he can see.”1
If we would come out of the bunkers that we have created with our mission statements and philosophies of ministry, we might find that there is something to be learned from our brothers and sisters who do things differently. In this book I contend that God works in different ways at different times and places. Rick Warren likes to say that he’s neither right wing nor left wing but “for the whole bird.” When a congregation stretches its wings toward intimacy and impact, it experiences greater lift.
This is a book about the church having its cake and eating it, too. I hope you don’t believe the extremists who say, “You have to pick your poison as a church. You either are going to be big and impacting or small and intimate.” Or if you do believe that, I hope you won’t still believe it after reading this book. If you are tempted to buy into that either/or thinking, this book will point you in the direction of a beautiful blend. You don’t have to choose. In fact, you don’t want to choose. Both perspectives are critical. You should value both. You should pursue both. You need both. You should enjoy both. This is a book about having the best of both worlds, in a hybrid church.
August 2010
Acknowledgments
Many mentors have steered me over the years. I want to acknowledge a few whose direction is embedded in Hybrid Church.
Dr. Jerry Prevo is the longtime pastor of the Anchorage Baptist Temple (ABT). I never got to know him personally, but ABT was the first megachurch I ever noticed as a kid growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, and it made me want every church to be noticed. As a young man, I was greatly impressed by the magnitude of the ministry. A fleet of buses picked children up from around the city. A choir that was bigger than most other churches backed up the singing. Thousands of people were in engaged in dozens of ministries. ABT operated a Christian school (I was a student there for a few years). ABT was on television and on the radio. It was a big church that did things in a big way. That church significantly expanded the horizons of my thinking about what was possible for the church.
At the other end of the spectrum, in terms of scale but not significance, is Phil Ellis. Phil led the first small group in which I ever participated, a men’s recovery group in which I experienced a fair amount of personal healing. Phil led me on my first foray into vulnerability. I experienced things in that group that are still reverberating in me today. Phil was particularly transparent, and he engendered the sort of safe environment in which we would all want to grow.
I made my first pilgrimage to Willow Creek in the early 1990s. What I remember, more than Willow Creek’s mall-like campus, complete with a food court, was Bill Hybels and his unparalleled heart for people. Bill’s passion for lost people blew away my skeptical stereotypes about what made megachurch leaders tick.
A one-day Serendipity workshop led by Lyman Coleman lit a fire for community in me, and that fire burns to this day. The idea of convening people in small groups as an inherently valuable activity had never really occurred to me before that workshop. The idea that church was essentially community, and the idea that average people could lead the church if it was organized in smaller pockets—these are big ideas that continue to inspire me.
Carl George’s “metachurch” language never really caught on, but his both/and concepts certainly did, at least with me. Over the years, I have accumulated a lot of tools in my ministry toolbox, but the ones that George gave me fit my hand the best and have allowed me to accomplish the most. George saw value in both small and large gatherings of the church. He lobbied for an ecosystem of different-size conventions that would meet different needs in different ways.
