Hybrid Church: The Fusion of Intimacy and Impact - Rilegato

Browning, David

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0470572302 ISBN 13: 9780470572306

Casa editrice: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2010

Riassunto

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.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sugli autori

Dave Browning is a visionary minimalist and the founder of Christ the King Community Church, International (CTK). CTK is a nondenominational, multilocation church that has been noted as one of the "fastest growing" and "most innovative" churches in America by employing the K.I.S.S method: "keep it simple and scalable." It involves 17,000 people in several countries. He is the author of Deliberate Simplicity: How the Church Does More by Doing Less.

Dave Browning is a visionary minimalist and the founder of Christ the King Community Church, International (CTK). CTK is a nondenominational, multilocation church that has been noted as one of the "fastest growing" and "most innovative" churches in America by employing the K.I.S.S method: "keep it simple and scalable." It involves 17,000 people in several countries. He is the author of Deliberate Simplicity: How the Church Does More by Doing Less.

Dalla quarta di copertina

The church of the future is going to look a lot like the church of the past. The early church was both small and big. It met house-to-house and in the temple courts. Today we also have both forms, the mega and the micro, and the possibility of a hybrid that capitalizes on the best features of both.

Hybrid Church is a practical guide for clergy and leaders who want to have the intimacy of small "house church" groups and the impact of very large megachurches. Pastor Dave Browning should know. He leads Christ the King Community Church in the Seattle area, a nondenominational, multilocation church with thousands of members organized in small house groups. Based on what he has learned from Christ the King, which has been cited as one of America's fastest growing and most innovative churches, this groundbreaking book shows what it takes for a church to embrace the best practices, forms, and organizing principles of the mega- and micro? church models to become a hybrid and capitalize on the unique strengths of both.

As Browning explains, the small church has the advantage of harnessing the power of prayer in intimate groups, focusing on Christ-centeredness, and offering comfortableness, while megachurches tap into the strength of faith, momentum, and creativity. By combining all these advantages into a hybrid church, leaders and their churches can reach more people more effectively. Ultimately, this vision of a hybrid church is not about numbers, it is about people. It is about fulfilling the great commission and bringing people out of darkness into God's marvelous light.

Dal risvolto di copertina interno

The church of the future is going to look a lot like the church of the past. The early church was both small and big. It met house-to-house and in the temple courts. Today we also have both forms, the mega and the micro, and the possibility of a hybrid that capitalizes on the best features of both.

Hybrid Church is a practical guide for clergy and leaders who want to have the intimacy of small "house church" groups and the impact of very large megachurches. Pastor Dave Browning should know. He leads Christ the King Community Church in the Seattle area, a nondenominational, multilocation church with thousands of members organized in small house groups. Based on what he has learned from Christ the King, which has been cited as one of America's fastest growing and most innovative churches, this groundbreaking book shows what it takes for a church to embrace the best practices, forms, and organizing principles of the mega- and micro? church models to become a hybrid and capitalize on the unique strengths of both.

As Browning explains, the small church has the advantage of harnessing the power of prayer in intimate groups, focusing on Christ-centeredness, and offering comfortableness, while megachurches tap into the strength of faith, momentum, and creativity. By combining all these advantages into a hybrid church, leaders and their churches can reach more people more effectively. Ultimately, this vision of a hybrid church is not about numbers, it is about people. It is about fulfilling the great commission and bringing people out of darkness into God's marvelous light.

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Hybrid Church

The Fusion of Intimacy and ImpactBy Dave Browning

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-57230-6

Chapter One

THE EXTREME WORLD

Kristyn, my wife, after talking with her sister Robyn, asked me if I had heard about the Extremely Focused Church conference in Colorado (her sister was going to it). I told her I hadn't heard about it. After some research, I realized she was talking about the Externally Focused Church conference (which I had heard about). But of the two conference names (one made up, one real), I like the sound of the Extremely Focused Church conference better, and that's saying a lot, because the idea of being externally focused resonates with me a great deal. There is something to be said for being extreme, particularly in our new world, which is filled with well curves and hybrids.

It's a Well-Curve World

The bell curve is a statistical distribution pattern showing how the majority of people in a study of a particular social phenomenon will gravitate toward the middle of a range of outcomes. For example, most people have families of moderate size, are of moderate height, and get average grades. Because there are fewer extremely large families, and fewer extremely tall or short people, and fewer people who earn A's or F's, the data pertaining to these phenomena, plotted on a chart, take the form of a bell. Figure 1.1 shows a typical bell curve.

For decades, American business and culture have been formed to meet the needs of the middle range of consumers. The mass media have also been pointed toward the center. We have loved the word general in business—General Mills, General Motors, General Dynamics, General Electric. Mainstream culture has been organized around the general masses.

When it comes to churches, however, mainline denominations do not command the position they used to. Over the past decade, a bimodal pattern has been emerging as sociological gravitations have moved toward the ends of a surveyed range and away from the middle. Pink has used the term well curve to describe this new trend: "Although bell curve distribution is still considered normal, a surprising number of economic and social phenomena now seem to follow a different arc. Instead of being high in the center and low on the sides, this new distribution is low in the center and high on the sides. Call it the well curve" (see Figure 1.2).

The well curve describes a world that is getting bigger and smaller at the same time. And the middle is falling out (for example, the middle class and middle management), and the extremes are becoming even more extreme (the lower and upper classes). Homes, television sets, and media are all getting larger and smaller at the same time. Bell-shaped curves are giving way to well-shaped curves, where the middle is not the high point but rather the low point. The extremes are the high points. The middle is a tar pit. Examples of the shrinking middle abound:

• The rise in sales of either very big TVs (60-inch plasma) or very small ones (incorporated into cell phones), and the severe decline in the sale of midsize ones (such as the old 27-inch TV)

• The release of more automobiles of the extremely small and big varieties, and the decline in popularity of midsize vehicles

• The growth of organizations through mergers and acquisitions, or their shrinkage through spinoffs

• The rise in huge multinational federations (NAFTA, the European Union, and so on), with the simultaneous multiplication of independent states and secessionist movements

• Increasing or shrinking portions at restaurants

• The rise in the number of students scoring in the highest and lowest ranges on standardized tests, and the drop in the number of students scoring in the middle ranges

• The increase in the number of people earning at the top and the bottom of the income scale, and the decrease in the number of people earning a middle-class income

• The increase in the number of consumers flocking either toward high-end products or toward cheap products while fleeing products in the middle ground

• The rising popularity of extreme sports—and of golf

• Increasing polarization of politics toward the left and the right, with movement away from the center

• The proliferation of megaretailers as well as of niche boutiques

The middle may still be where most people are, but it is no longer the place where most people desire to be or plan to stay. Words like average, medium, and middle have fallen in popularity. And whereas companies used to gravitate to the word general, they no longer do. The slogan for today's culture is "Wherever you end up, don't end up in the middle."

As a basketball official, I can tell you that the worst place from which to see the play is the middle of the floor, right under the basket. You are much better off at one side or the other, in order to get a wide-angle view of the court. In fact, officials are taught to imagine the area below the basket as quicksand. You don't want to find yourself there, and if you do, you want to get out of there as quickly as possible and go wide.

Even popular music has shifted away from the comfortable middle to a more dynamic range. When I was young, I was coached in how to set the equalizer on my stereo. My equalizer had sliders from low to high frequency. For best effect, I was encouraged to create a bell-shaped curve with these sliders, with lower settings of highs and lows and a greater midrange. This would not tune to the modern ear, however. Old-school pop has given way to modern jazz stylings, with a lower midrange, higher highs, and lower lows (see Figures 1.3 and 1.4).

Where is the worst place to be assigned a seat on an airplane? The dreaded middle seat. What is the worst kind of drink you can be served? The room-temperature, lukewarm, "spew you out of my mouth" kind. It is much better to be either inside or outside, hot or cold.

Today the middles are in trouble, and the edges seem vital. According to Sweet, who explores this model in the realm of a chain of coffeehouses, one of the keys to the success of Starbucks is the company's gravitation toward giving the consumer an extreme experience—extreme comfort, extreme tastiness, extreme hotness. Maxwell House, by contrast, is stuck in the middle. The days of the happy medium (and of a related word, mediocre) are gone.

How does the well curve apply to the church? Relationships are one of the areas where I don't think you can go partway and be successful. If you are going to make your ministry about relationships, then really make your ministry about relationships. Don't go halfway. You can't "kind of" make community a priority. You have to go full-on.

And how does the model of the disappearing middle apply to the church? Here are three of the many ways, according to Hall:

• Membership. Some congregations are raising the bar and giving membership greater emphasis; others are dropping membership.

• Money. There are fewer "average" givers.

• Manpower. There is a shrinking role for moderately involved volunteers.

But I think the greatest application of this model to the church is in overall positioning. The medium-size church of a few hundred people, once prized, now doesn't seem attractive. It is neither big enough for impact nor small enough for intimacy.

And yet the brighter the light, the darker the shadows. I was talking with a friend who is a leader in a traditional denominational church. He was telling me about a worship director his church was about to hire. Evidently she is very gifted and qualified. A very proficient pianist. A very powerful vocalist. Sounded pretty good on the surface. Maybe too good, actually. The number of times my friend used the word very to describe her raised a red flag for me. I said to him, "Challenges often attend the word very." To be specific, a few years ago I hired a young lady to be a worship director. She was an extremely gifted violinist. In fact, she was so good that she is now living in Nashville, working with some of the biggest names in the music industry. She brought tremendous value onstage, but to make her compensation make sense, I also had her doing some things for me in the office (setting up small groups, answering phones, and so on). She was a way better performer than a clerk. If we could have opened up her skull, we would have found that the right side of her brain (the creative side) was musclebound and that the left side (the analytical side) was shrimpy. Corresponding to the overdeveloped part was an underdeveloped part. I call this phenomenon of the shadows that attend extremes the bright-light quandary. Taking the example of talent, you can see that as the light gets brighter, the shadows become more intense. What to do about the shadows? Do not turn down the light. Instead, turn on the backlight. Counterbalance with the opposite extreme. You do have to cover the blind spots, and they tend to be more dramatic the more you have to use the word very to describe the strength.

It's a Hybrid World

Hybrid is a hot word in our mash-up culture. Hybrid forms provide us with elements of two desired outcomes. A hybrid is an attempt to get the best of both worlds. Hybrid vehicles, for example, give us economy with performance.

There are hybrid dogs, toaster ovens, and schools. Hybrid forms result when two elements of different entities are mixed for a particular purpose. They bring together the best of two worlds. Here are some examples of hybrid forms:

In mythology, a creature combining body parts of two or more species

In biology, the offspring resulting from cross-breeding of different plants or animals

In etymology, a word with mixed origins

In the world of bicycles, a model combining the design features of a road bike and a mountain bike

In automotive transportation, a car that combines an internal combustion engine with an electric motor

In finance, an economic vehicle that combines elements of debt and equity

In golf, a type of club that combines elements of a driver and an iron

In video games, human avatars with alien characteristics

In the world of churches, a congregation that achieves the best of both intimacy and impact

In our hybrid world, the extremes are becoming more extreme, but the poles of the emerging well curve are also being bridged in various ways.

For example, both quality and convenience are having their day in transportation. Harley-Davidson can ship four hundred thousand motorcycles per year. Confederate Motorcyle, based in New Orleans, builds high-performance $62,000 bikes but sells fewer than one hundred per year. Confederate is not trying to compete with Harley for market share. Confederate is focused on breakthrough performance and design innovations, and that's all.

You can also see combinations of higher convenience and higher quality in some business models that have come forward in the music industry. There is a place for both kinds of value. Musicians are allowing their music to be downloaded at low quality and cost (in some cases letting the consumer name the price) and at the same time they are providing high-quality concerts and CDs with extra content. In response to extremes in convenience, you are also seeing extraordinary value-added packaging. From the same artist you can now download a twelve-second ringtone of a popular song or order a four-DVD set with live concert and studio footage.

Bounty, the manufacturer of paper towels, has found that people are actually polarized over which value proposition—smallness or bigness—they favor overall. Bounty researched the reaction of people to a smaller size of paper towel (six inches by eleven inches) and found that one in four people will select a smaller towel when given the option. The company also found that many people did not want a smaller sheet at all, ever, and that they preferred the full-size square towel. Bounty's solution? The company created a paper towel from which the consumer can tear off one, two, or three sections, according to his or her needs and tastes. Do people want a smaller or a bigger towel? Yes. At different times? Yes. In different combinations? Yes.

Speaking of technology and packaging, one day I was browsing YouTube videos on my phone and caught myself avoiding the longer video clips. I did not want to have to put up with the buffering times for clips of a minute or more, and so I began to gravitate to clips that were sixty seconds or less. When I realized what I was doing, an idea came to my mind—the sixty-second sermon. The idea is pretty simple, really—a video that would include a reading of scripture, an explanation, an illustration, and a summary. In the middle of the workday, maybe at a stoplight or during a work break, a person could watch a brief sermon and have a moment of inspiration. Who says that spiritual content has to be delivered in thirty to thirty-five minutes? And yet I have sensed a growing desire for deeper Bible teaching that cannot be accommodated on a typical Sunday morning, and so I am strategizing about providing several hours of biblical and theological instruction on a weeknight.

There is demand for both. For example, as things now come at us in miniature, Johnson sees a "snacklash" in our culture, with people wanting not just want bite-size content but also the full-meal deal:

If we're truly living in a snack culture, how come so many forms of entertainment—TV shows, games, movies—are getting longer? Most of us, I suspect, have had this experience lately: You tell a friend that they simply have to start watching one of the new long-format dramas, like Heroes or The Wire. There's no question of picking it up midseason. They've got to go back and start at the very beginning—using iTunes or BitTorrent or Netflix to catch up—or they'll be utterly confused. Invariably, your sales pitch also comes with the disclaimer that they'll have to watch four or five episodes before they really get hooked. Some of the most complex shows—like Deadwood or Lost—take multiple episodes just to introduce all the main characters.

Think about that: At roughly 45 minutes an episode, that means viewers will readily invest two to three hours in a show just to get oriented. The story itself can stretch on for dozens of hours. (The Sopranos, for instance, should top out at nearly 75 hours when it ends this spring.) Television has always had serial narratives, but aside from soap operas, each episode was traditionally designed to stand on its own. A midseason hour of Kojak made perfect sense in isolation. But you'd need Cliffs Notes to follow a midseason installment of 24 cold.

In today's culture, there is interplay across the spectrum. Just as customers want both low cost and high quality, both the personal and the professional, both the informal and the formal, both freedom and structure, both caring and competing, those of us in the church want the intimacy of smallness and the impact of bigness, if we can have both. Intimacy and impact seem to pull away from each other, like the two poles of a magnet. But they are both desirable in the church. How do we achieve a balance between the church as a close-knit family and the church as a world-changing army? We can achieve that balance in one of two ways; by heading toward the middle or by counterbalancing on the edges, just as you can balance a teeter-totter by coming to the middle and straddling the fulcrum, or by having equivalent weight applied to each end of the board. Of the two approaches, I prefer balancing by extremes, that is, becoming extreme in both respects, intimacy and impact.

In fact, extremes in two directions are actually characteristic of Christianity. As Chesterton notes, "We want not an amalgam or compromise, but both things at the top of their energy; love and wrath both burning." In the area of worship, for example, if the extremes are "rockin' out" at one end of the teeter-totter and old-time hymns at the other, then it might be better for us to use an extreme version of each style in a single service—really rockin' out, and really singing hymns—than to try to put the two styles in a blender and come out with something that doesn't give us the taste of either. I know from experience that "blended" worship is not very tasty. You have to go to extremes.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Hybrid Churchby Dave Browning Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission of John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0470572302
• ISBN 13: 9780470572306
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 134
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile