This is the final section on our series reflecting on the Greenhouse Conference (Story 2) that took place here in Chicago, Feb 19-21st.

In the previous section, we peeked into the petri dish of organic church cultures, the reproduction of disciples, leaders, churches, and movements.  We considered the particulars on preparing the soil for nurturing and harvesting leaders as they emerge in and for a local movement.  Leadership is especially important in the early days of a network’s formation, so that patterns that are woven into the fabric of the network will result in spontaneous reproduction of healthy leaders.

The Church has always been about glocal influence.  In gardening, this ever-spreading and multiplication is known as propagation.

All over the world (global) this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you (local) since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all truth — Colossians 1:6

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. — Isaiah 61:11

“The Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” — Matthew 13:33

If the Church influences at the glocal level, what is its purpose?

The Church exists to bring glory to God and to bring God’s glory to all people.

That means indigenous worship, social justice, mercy, reconciliation, spiritual formation…holistic salvation!

Beginning with the End in Mind

Think about the destination, then make all your plans to get there.  For God, its about his creating a city – a living, organic city – and bringing it to earth where people of every tongue, tribe and nation are present and compose one diverse family…bursting with worship for God! (Rev 7:9-10)  With this picture of God’s dream in mind, how can we join God in his mission?

By cultivating a vibrant family of God’s from every tongue, tribe and nation in our part of the world. That is our mission.  Saturation church planting for the purpose of propagating God’s Kingdom in the hearts of each person on earth.  We dream that justice from heaven would pour out like a mighty river and that peace would be finally given a real chance. This stuff is what God has been about, and what the earliest church was intent on.

This is different than your typical “church plant” – this is about giving each people group on earth a in-life picture of Jesus-with-skin-on in their context.  With that said, we cannot continue to only propagate churches that reproduce like elephants — we need “rabbit” churches.

Watch this video for a good description of “rabbit churches” that exemplify saturation church planting.

Missionary Resources Teams

I’ve written elsewhere on MRT’s, even wrote a paper on the topic of Five-fold missionary resource teams… and Neil Cole ended Greenhouse by peeking at these teams.

Think of these teams as the catalysts in the chain reaction of gospel propagation – or maybe the connective tissue for energy to flow through.  They are the gifts of Christ to the Church (Ephesians 4:7-11), apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.  These folks are not titles, offices, or even positions.  They don’t wear badges or funny liturgical gowns.  They are functions – and their function is to work together to equip those who have spiritual gifts to do the work of ministry (v16).

Much of the recent study on church leadership has come from (1) deeper study of the terminology itself (apostolos, etc), (2) the several brief passages that address the subject (3) doing bios on people in the New Testament that lived as examples of one of the five giftings (4) church history and (5) your own walk with the Spirit of God.

This does not kick out “elders, deacons and widows” from church leadership, it simply augments it to provide a fuller picture of God’s catalyzing force in his Kingdom.

Here’s a brief snapshot of each of the giftings:

Apostle: A sent one to lay a foundation for the expansion of the church with a specific God-given assignment. Helps the whole church say, “I can do this!”

• A sent one (apostolos) is often looking for new places and people to spread the Kingdom of God.
• Lays a foundation in a given region (Eph 2:19-22) and like a good foundation are not noticeable after the building has begun. Does not build on another’s foundation. (Rom 15:20-21)
• Identifies/empowers leaders quickly, and is often the one who will call out the other functions in the MRT. (1 Tim 1:18, Acts 14:23)
• Reads cultures and sees open doors for the message.
• Has a relational authority rather than positional.

Prophet: One who hears and speaks a specific word from God to a distinct person or persons.  Helps the whole church say, “I can hear from God!”

• Encourager, comforter, and strengthener. (1 Cor 14:3)
• Often speaks for God, and reminds others that God’s ways are higher than our ways. (1 Cor 14:25)
• Consumed by the truth – tells the truth without fear of consequence.  Can be a polarizing force in the church.
• Often unappreciated. (James 5:10)

These two are the “start and go” team – the “foundation” of the church.  They function as a start-up team that can initiate the momentum and get down all the needed systems for viral multiplication. (Eph 2:19-22) When the whole church can say with confidence, “I can do this!  I can hear from God!”  anything is possible.

The next three are the “stay and grow” team.

Evangelist: One who is called to passionately seek out opportunities to share the holistic gospel with others through word and deed, bringing them to relationship with Christ. Helps the whole church say, “I want that passion!”

• Good news-caster (euangelistes)
• Often more comfortable with lost than found (1 Cor 9:19-23)
• Makes opportunities to share the whole gospel (Col 4:5-6)
• Listens closely to the promptings of God (Acts 8:26)

Shepherd: One who has an overwhelming concern for the continuing care and formation of God’s people. “I can love these people!”

• Protects and cares for the flock. (Acts 20:28-31)
• Strengthens the weak and searches for the lost sheep.
• Helps feed the young Christians and models how to be “fed” directly by God.
• Values intimacy. (John 10:3, 13-15)
• Leads by example, and is trusted by the flock because he/she has relational authority. (1 Peter 5:1-3)

Teacher: One responsible for progressive growth in understanding and truth’s application. “I can feed myself and show others how!”

• Facilitates learning of truth and a kingdom lifestyle.
• Mentors on a personal level with a “bifocal vision”. (2 Tim 2:2)
• Aims people in a healthy direction. (Phil 3:15-17)
• Loves to expose false assumptions and reveal actual truth. (2 Cor 10:5)

There is and will always be dialogue and guessing on the roles of the functions mentioned in Ephesians 4:11.  I recommend not turning this into a “personality test” where you pigeon hole someone into one category, where they are stuck for the rest of their lives.

Its important to remember that Jesus held all of these gifts in a perfect balance.  All of them are Christ-like – there is no “super-gift.”  And its important to remember that the goal of the MRT is to equip the whole church to be apostolic/prophetic/evangelistic/pastoral/didactic.

Our God is a multifaceted God, our goal is to live deeply into those endless facets, and to express our God’s glory in endless ways.  For his Glory!

All I can say is WOW!  We had a great weekend at the Greenhouse Conference, with Neil Cole and Ed Waken!  It was packed out like never before – over 100 people went through the intensive training weekend, preparing each of them to implement simple strategies for relational outreach, reproducible discipleship, and organic church planting.

Of course, the absolute best part of the weekend was spending some quality time with friends in the Underground, and reconnecting with other leaders across the Chicagoland area. Shared meals, coffee breaks, sharing dreams… nothing from the front of the room can compare with connections made there.

Check out these photos of our time together!

The “fire hose” of content that we received this weekend might best be unpacked in a series of blog posts.  I find that’s the best way I learn, so if you missed the conference, here’s your place to tune in!

*** Keep in mind – there were actually TWO conferences going on at the same time this weekend.  Greenhouse Story 1, and Story 2.  I went to Story 2, so these posts will be looking primarily at what was said at that conference.

Organically Multiplying at Every Level

CMA Resources, the organization that presents the Greenhouse Conference, sees their purpose as

facilitating church multiplication movements by focusing resources on reproducing healthy disciples, leaders, churches and movements.

Story 1 focuses mostly on resources for making disciples that make disciples… Life Transformation Groups are one of their strategies – what we call the Micro Layer of the Onion.

Story 2 then is left to talk about Leadership, Churches, and Movements.

Organic Leadership

Organic Leadership starts as a seed planted within yourself.  Unless you are personally seeing Christ’s life transforming power within you, whatever else you do will be disaster.  Your “organic church planting” will be more like “sowing the wind, and reaping the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7)  The choice to participate with God in cultivating organic churches across your city and region is to commit to being a certain kind of person; filled with the Spirit, a humble, authentic walk with Christ, always growing and changing, and empowering and serving others.

There are two kinds of people in the world – people who have the adventures – and people who only read about them.  Dive right into this life – let it immerse you.  At the end of your life – know that you have run the race well, and that adventure was not a book on a shelf, but a lifestyle well-lived!

Not sure if you’re out in the bush or only reading about the victories of others?  Do a quick check of your own life — Do any of these characteristics describe your plateau?

Avoids relationships of accountability // Infrequent application of God’s Word // Looking for greener pastures // Joy and love replaced with resentment and fear // Faults are in others, not so much in yourself // Compromising previous personal ethical standards // Sticking to areas of expertise, rather than risking new areas of learning // Talk more than you listen // Christian life for you is mere a routine.

The Right Kind of Authority

There’s a lot of resistance against the word “authority” in our culture today.  Even “power” in any form is suspect.  But is there a godly form of power?  What does it look like?

There’s a clip from Braveheart where William Wallace is speaking with the Princess of Wales says, “I understand that you have recently been given the rank of Knight.”

William repsonds, “I’ve been given nothing.  God makes men what they are… a lordship, title, gold…that I should become Judas?”

The Princess replies, “Peace is made in such ways,”

William: “Slaves are made in such ways!”

William is making known the temptation in all leaders – to take on the title and the gold and the power and make it their very identity.  Positional Power is never as power as Relational Power — anything William wanted, the Scots would have given him, died for him, because they saw his courage and personal contributions to the cause they all believed in.

Too often, we take our leaders from a shrinking pool of fish.  What Organic Leadership challenges us to is to reorient our recruitment for leaders from the very harvest field we are trying to reach!  Jockeying for the few of us that have been seminary-trained and groomed for maintaining a single congregation will never make a major dent in transforming our world for Christ.  It must become a living movement, made up of local leaders straight out of the harvest field.

So what do Organic Leaders do?

They are a lot like Organic Farmers!

Tending:  the work of leaders to create a Christ-centered environment in which healthy famly life and ministry can occur freely and fully.

Harvesting: is a result of intentionally developing disciples, leaders, churches, and missional teams. Here leaders are multiplied with personal mentoring that has a long range view of one’s whole life.

Propagating: is the extension of the whole gospel via ordinary disciples and apostolic teams into the sectors of city life, across a region, and globally among unreached peoples.

I’ve been learning a lot about wiki’s and their potential to help communities work and create together.  More and more I’m convinced that there is opportunity for God to help his Church find each other and to discern the spirits in mass-editing projects.   Wikis, at their heart, are living documents that are kept fully online and a repository for shared knowledge on something that matters to that online community.

Already I’ve got a beta site up for Pray4Chicago that includes the wiki technology.  This wiki is a space where Pray4Chicago event participants can upload their prayer-walk findings onto a “spiritual map” of sorts, helping the Body of Christ discover what God’s doing in the city, and where the most desperate needs are.  But I see wikis needed in other areas of our mission.  I’ve got some other ideas on the brain…

Private Mission Team Workspace: Wikis like Wikipedia are public, and anyone can read, search through and even create content.  But most wikis are private, inviting only a select few to view and/or edit the pages.  (maybe shared interest groups, peers, or co-workers)

What if a mission team of 10-12 people, spread out across a huge metropolis, could log in to a secure site, and work together in ways previously impossible or extremely cumbersome.  They could share contacts made in the field through a content management system.  They could work on documents and files together without laboriously having to email back and forth the latest copy, trying to keep track of changes.  Shared calendars, prayers, dreams, training curriculum, even team finances could all be kept in this space.

Group Facilitation “Playbook”: Organic churches are constantly morphing and changing to fit the needs of the community.  They are without the luxury of a set “order of worship,” but this means that group facilitators (and really, each member) are asked to bring fresh ideas for how to raise the level of worship, fellowship, and mission in their community.

One of my favorite pastimes (strangely) is going to my family reunion and singing hymns with all my relatives.  We would sit in a circle, each holding hymnbooks, and call out the numbers of songs we wanted to sing.  Also at these reunions, families collected recipes and compiled them into a book for all to use.  What if there was a wiki that was built around the great ideas I’ve heard from house churches in the area – from “ice-breaker” games to prayer litanies for the environment.  This could be a natural hub of information for group leaders who are looking to inject some fresh ideas into a stale format, or specifically address a topic in their church that needs attention.  Groups could find curriculum, worship songs, prayer activities, and more all posted by the ever-expanding network of friends in an organic network.

It is little known that Wikipedia is written and edited almost exclusively by around 3,000 people (with 2.7 million articles!).  The rest of us just go there to learn a bit of history, or grab a technical definition.  The same would certainly be true of this “Group Playbook” or “Spritual Cookbook,” (nicknames ad infinitum).  Those with a passion and gifted as teachers could “equip the body” (Eph 4:11-16) with resources that humbly serve and develop the Church to its fullest capacity.

Wikis are slowly becoming a powerful tool for the Kingdom of God.  What other ideas could be implimented?