Monday, February 11, 2008

A Vision for a Simple Church--the Barbarian Bridge


Before I get too into the details I need to return to the overall blueprint. My vision for a simple church is one that produces "barbarian Christians" ready to storm the gates of hell via the bridge (worship) then brotherhood (new member training and small groups) and then battle (more training followed by sending out as missional followers of our king, Jesus).
Worship will be no more than 1 hour. Begin with a song, then prayer, then another song and then a 30 minute sermon and end with a song or music video. If God blesses the church then the first service will be an early Sunday morning service with softer music (keyboard and acoustic guitar) to connect to older seekers. The second Sunday morning service will be more K-Love upbeat to build a bridge to the boomers. The afternoon and evening service will be alt./indie rock flavored with the first afternoon service generally situated between ballgames (I'll defend on this later) and then an evening service for singles with no childcare. The praise band may be the same and do the same re-worked hymns just in different styles. The sermon will also be the same. The staff will come together during breaks, talk about the services, eat together, pray together, etc.
No other activities will take place on Sunday so that everyone can focus on worship. The staff will celebrate their role as instruments of God on Monday afternoons when they come back together to discuss the weekend.
Children's services for the first 3 services will mirror the sermon so that families can discuss it if they so wish. Hymns will also tie into the sermon. All sermons will be podcasted with additional readings listed on-line for some small groups (more on this later).
Generally, this is the bridge. According to Richard L. Reising, if it is done right then attendees will be excited and will invite others on their own without encouragement and the congregation will grow at a rate of at least 15% until it hits its saturation mark. Next comes the brotherhood phase.