NATIONAL LEADERSHIP FORUM of the MISSION AMERICA COALITION
New York City Oct. 5-8, 2003
Advanced Track:II
A Synopsis of the Advanced Practitioner’s Sub-Track of “Building Effective City Coalitions”
In a combined opening session with both entry level and advanced city leaders, Phill Butler (Interdev) and Tom White (Frontline Ministries) presented an introductory framework for the focus of these two parallel tracks. The notes that follow are a summary of the major points of presentation and discussion that occurred in the Advanced Track. Thirty-five to forty practitioners participated over the two days, representing around twenty to twenty five cities.
Tom White began by noting that while close to fifteen years of a vital prayer movement in the US has brought wonderful results (increased unity, relational trust, common vision for a city), there are still no cities in North America where we are seeing major kingdom acceleration and breakthrough. Many of us share a presupposition from the early 90’s that if we got involved in united, fervent prayer with colleagues in our cities, and reconciled our differences, revival and awakening would surely result. This has not happened. Thus, many city practitioners have moved forward embracing a balance of promoting prayer and spiritual vitality, with putting hands to the plow of obedience in ministering Jesus’ grace and mercy to the felt needs of the city, i.e., “no strings servanthood.”
Just back from facilitating Prayer Summits in Chennai and Mumbai, India, White noted there seemed to him to be an “open heaven” of God’s response to the fervent, united prayers of His people, a keen sense of divine favor, God powerfully working, even in the face of anti-Christian governments/legislation, and increased persecution. He raised the question: “Is the Church in America in a season of favor with God, or have compromises with our nation’s corporate sins and idolatries provoked our Lord’s displeasure?” Are deeper desperation and repentance required? Is a broader critical mass of identificational repentance necessary to open a door for the restoration of God’s favor?
Tom shared his working definition of “transformation,” and a conviction about the new ecclesiology of the “city church.”
Transformation--the measurable supernatural impact of the presence and power of God on human society, sacred and secular. In the church, this is characterized by increased holiness of life, accelerated conversion growth, reconciliation in relationships, mobilization of gifts and callings, and an increased relevance to and participation in greater society. In the culture, this may be characterized by pervasive awareness of the reality of God, a radical correction of social ills, a commensurate decrease in crime rates (evidence of authentic biblical justice, as described in Isaiah 58), supernatural blessing on local commerce, healing of the brokenhearted (the alienated and disenfranchised), and an exporting of kingdom righteousness. To this end, a catalytic core of saints typically embrace a lifestyle of persistent repentance, humility, prayer and sacrificial servanthood that attracts the favor and presence of God, and breaks the predominating influences of the ruling power structures of human flesh and the devil.
Emergence of the “City Church” Clearly, the Holy Spirit is initiating an historic restoration of the geographic integrity and responsibility of the one Body of Christ in a city or region, calling leaders to walk together in the spirit of the Great Commandment, and work together to more effectively fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission. God is calling leaders to embrace a shared and sustainable vision to faithfully shepherd and disciple the collective souls of a city.
This restoration requires a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo, a hunger to see Jesus’ prayer of John 17:21-23 fulfilled, and leaders who are bold enough to begin to “paint outside the box” of existing ecclesiologies.
Tom shared a cornerstone passage for this track, Psalm 127:1: “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”
At this stage of our journey, me must press more deeply into God, to better discern and discover what He is up to in our hearts, homes, congregations and cities, and be more willing to renounce our American propensities for ingenuity and activism, and be willing to follow God’s initiatives.
Coming into this Forum, poll responses had been received from some participants pre-registered for the Advanced Track. Tom shared some of the key questions/concerns raised coming in:
1. What strategies are actually working to bring large, complex cities together?
2. How and when are we going to see increased breakthrough with increased cooperation/participation of diverse racial streams, particularly whites, blacks and Hispanics?
3. What is working to effectively unite the independent, charismatic, Pentecostal and storefront churches with traditional, evangelical denominational streams?
4. What is the role of a city leadership team in bringing discipline to a local leader or congregation that sins or errs, and brings a leaven of strife into the city?
5. After making substantial time for prayer, building relational trust, casting common vision and setting worthy goals, how can a coalition of leaders truly hold one another accountable for agreed upon, measurable outcomes?
To illustrate the kind of results numerous cities have seen over the past decade, Tom outlined the key components of two cities where he has been involved personally and extensively.
• Corvallis, Oregon (50, 000 pop, 14 years)
– Sustained annual Prayer Summit with 60-80 leaders
– Weekly “CitiPrayer” 1 Tim. 2 intercession for the city
– EASTER 2000, 80% of life-giving churches involved, $62 K gift to city
– Tangible increase of favor with city following EASTER 2000
– Love INC, city-wide cooperative ministry of mercy, (w/ evangelistic fruit)
– Regular, on-going service projects with local schools
– Women in Leadership organized & mobilized
– Unity & functional cooperation of campus orgs (Oregon State U)
– Stable CitiChurch of Corvallis leadership team, 7 men, 2 women
– Measurable health & stability of local congregations
• Adelaide, AUSTRALIA (million pop, 7 years)
– Sustained annual Prayer Summit in May (60-80) & one-day “Top-Up” in December (100+)
– Regional Leaders Prayer Groups, well-led, prospering, increasing
– Worldclass army of Intercessors “PRAY-SA” well-led & focused
– Statewide vision for South Australia…spontaneous prayer awakenings
– City Prayer Tower across from City Hall
– Open doors with city Mayor & members of SA Parliament
Success & influence of newly formed “Family First” political party
Mayoral Prayer Breakfast
Favor with the Governor of South Australia
– “ONE HEART FOR THE NATION” National Transformation Network
Tom identified a major question he personally brings to the “Building City Coalitions” Track:
After the typical “honeymoon stage” of city-wide prayer, relational trust & expressions of unity, to what degree can the Body of Christ become a functional entity in a city context… and what kind of leadership is required to more effectively reap an increased harvest of souls, and bring change to the social, economic and political structures of a city?
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“Sustaining a Holistic, Strategic Vision for City Transformation” Doug Small (Alive Ministries, and SE Regional Rep. for IRM)
(There is a very good PowerPoint along with this presentation. Best to look at both to fully understand these notes)
Intro:
We do not know what we have wandered into (city reaching). We have to ask God, “What are we so close to that we do not even see?” What we are involved in is nothing less than a reformation of the church. This is not going to happen in the next 18 months. We are laying the foundation for the next generation. We are only the first (or second or third) wave on the beach. There will be more after us.
We have to find a way to bind ourselves together. Those of us who are linear and those who are “spaghetti” (ref. Copi Valdiviez’ input) have to be bound together. We cannot end up with more camps, there has to be a coming together. If we can tether ourselves together and learn from one another in the long term, we will all be blessed.
Presuppositions for Unity
- There is one church in the city – an organic expression of the one body of Christ, of the essence of trinity and of the love believers have one for another. This is a non-negotiable; this unity is apart from the functional and utilitarian value of the unity.
- Organically we are one (giving evidence of unity by prayerful worship & service)
- Doctrinally we are grounded in core theology
- Functionally we move from the nurture of members to mission
- Unity – nothing less than the whole church together engaging the whole church will accomplish the task of city renewal – we must learn to pastor the city together. (We know that we will not get the whole church – all four streams, charismatic, messianic, liturgical, and evangelical – but we need a critical mass and we need to keep striving. Doug’s best hope is that if we can get 20-30 percent of churches, transformation can begin to occur.)
Presuppositions for Leadership
- The church of the city is relationally led. Leadership must be servant, non-political, productive, proactive, representative, dynamic, generational, orthodox and missional, incarnational and proclamational.
- Need to continually bring more and different people into the leadership team and allow others to step off of the team. We have to ask not who is called to the leadership, but who is called to this city.
- The pastoral servant leader team must evolve into a city transformation team- synergizing leadership, radiating vision, engaging strategic process and tactical deployment through connected agencies.
- Every city must be sliced according to that city’s own make up. All groups should come together in prayer, with solid research (not anecdotal), real planning based in constant relationship. All must be undergirded with intercession.
- No one leader is broad enough to direct this movement – a team is absolutely necessary. One person bends the movement toward their own passion and gifting. It takes a team to balance one another. This should not be a team that is outside the church but works through the church. This cannot become another para-church agency that calls the church to do something.
- Leadership must: exist in an atmosphere of humble dependence on God (in corporate prayer); Leadership must be soaked in prayer; Prayer-birthed vision of what the city and church can be; Employ an architectural team to assist in conceptualizing the strategic process. Engage practitioners – people who deploy the plans.
- The failure of most servant leadership teams results from:
• Absence of a clear vision
• Absence of a long term vision
• Absence of empowered practitioners
• Absence of learning from connections with other cities
Presuppositions – Reconciliation
- Identificational repentance must not take the place of authentic personal and corporate repentance.
- Peacemaking efforts must characterize the movement inside the church and become an expression of the church’s impact on culture. Every city is full of relational fault lines, fractures in the relational matrix of the city. Trained, empowered peacemakers should be deployed working to mend relationship ruptures.
- City Impact and Renewal begins in prayer, is sustained by prayer and ends in prayer. This prayer is communal and transformational. This is not about building a prayer engine to change the city but is about being relational with God and therefore transformed by God through that relationship.
Until prayer summits move pass the pastors and leadership and into the pew, the city will not be transformed.
- A city must be a prayed for city in order to be a blessed city.
- No city will be transformed if pastors themselves are not transformed by prayer.
Presuppositions – Strategic Process
- Nothing we can do will transform our cities. God needs to come sovereignly.
- Empowered laypeople and pastors working together
- Process is Critical – When vision is vented tactically, but outside the bounds of a strategic process, the impact of the detached tactical endeavor is diminished. So Prayer must inform vision and drive the process. The legitimate process is to allow vision to form out of prayer, and then to be translated into a strategic process, played out tactically.
Praxis and Ethos
- We are now at ineffective praxis and unhealthy ethos. We want to use the most effective praxis at the point when there is a healthy ethos.
- What does the church of the city look like?
- There must be a common vision of the church, expressed through each individual congregation.
“Discovery Fair”
After the research of the city is complete, it has to be shared with the pastors and lay people of the city. Once it has gone past the discovery fair stage, there should be a “planning summit.” In Nehemiah fashion, each congregation, denominational group, parachurch organization (with research in hand) sets forth long-term missional goals for city impact.
Presuppositions – Ecclesiology
- Ezra and Nehemiah streams both must be mobilized. We need to transform the church to understand that the church is not what happens on Sunday, but what happens during the week.
- There must be a rediscovery of the geographical engagement of the city.
- Success should be measured by demonstrable impact on the societal structures of the city.
Presuppositions – Research
We need five areas of research: spiritual mapping, redemptive gifts, harvest field data, compassion needs and resources.
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Case Study: Boulder, CO Eric Swanson and Sam Williams (CitiReach, Int.)
What is CitiReach? CitiReach is the integration of the good news and good works of the church into the life of the community in such a way that the community experiences spiritual and societal transformation.
Community Transformation
It is internally strong but externally focused. The relevant question is not, “how big is your church?” but “how does your church impact the community around it?”
We need to be Micah 6:8 churches: walking humbly, loving mercy, acting justly
“When I feed the poor I am called a saint, when I ask why they are hungry I am called a communist.”
Programs and Paradigms
This must be a paradigm, not a program. It is a strategy not a tactic.
Two things congregations must believe:
• Our community cannot be healthy unless the church is actively engaged in the life of the community.
• Our people cannot grow apart from ministry to others (Ministry is defined as meeting other’s needs with the resources God has given to me).
When the church is withdrawn from a city, the city is dead, as when a soul is withdrawn from the body.
In most places, church has withdrawn itself from the community; the community did not ask it to leave.
In general, most churches only have about 20 percent of the congregation involved in running the church. We usually say that the rest do not want to get involved. But in reality, we are not giving the rest of the people jobs they are gifted for. It takes the entire church (not just 20 percent) to impact the community.
The transformation of a city is not about the speed of transformation, but about placement within the community. Once you are in the game, a part of the community, then God shows what to do. We should not be trying to coordinate what is going on, but giving people opportunity to follow God’s direction within the sphere of their own church (person, group, etc.)
Unity
John 17: 23 is the example of complete unity. There are multiple unities.
• Unity of Family (Eph 4:3-5a) – we are a part of the family, but we may not like one another
• Unity of Fellowship (Rom 15:5-7) – we are part of a fellowship that has been reconciled to one another.
• Unity of Function (Phil 2:1-2) – we have a unity of purpose and the work that we do is based on that purpose. No control is required because we are all working toward the same purpose.
Most programs fall under the least common denominator, instead of following the calling of the individual church, person or group. We have to let the church be the church in their setting and let it go from there.
Partnering
It if it exists, join it. If you start it, give it away.
We should be about partnering, not creating.
We should be morally positive but spiritually neutral. This means that we can come to a homeless shelter and serve the people there. We don’t have to insist that all shelters be Christian before we can help. Helping homeless is morally positive. A shelter does not need to be Christian, but it doesn’t need to be Buddhist either. If it is spiritually neutral everyone can agree that we help, without needing theological agreement.
Critical Mass
There seems to be about 2.5 percent that are innovators, about 13 percent that are early adopters, about 34 percent that are middle adopters, about 34 percent late adopters, and about 16 percent that are laggards.
It is not about Control but Service. Every city will define its own needs, dreams and identity. God also has mandates and desires for a city. Add to this the callings and capacities of the church. The overlaps between God and the city are what we call common grace. This is where government can solve problems. The overlap between God and the church is where salvation occurs. The overlap of church and city is where the church cannot control the city. The overlap of all there is where the church can serve the city under God’s direction.
Questions
What is the scriptural basis for community transformation? Throughout history, hospitals, orphanages, etc., exist because Christians started them. Many of the good things that the church has started have been secularized, but the society (secular) has adopted many of the values that started these organizations. We use Isaiah 61:1-6. The role of city reachers has been achieved when the city identifies you as its pastors.
Jesus’ prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done” is our basis for transformation.
When did this start? The first two years of Boulder’s Prayer Summit were about reconciliation with God, and one another. The third year, prayers focused more on the city. These prayers were warfare prayers, but we were challenged to be servants, not warriors. That was a breakthrough. We understood we were servants of the city, not conquerors. We took the servant leadership team on a one day tour of the major social service agencies of the city. We asked them what they did, how we could send volunteers and how to access services.
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Response summary from Roundtables:
- Bus tours of social service agencies for pastors, business leaders, and intercessors to get them into their community. The idea of morally positive and spiritual neutral is a great idea. But also need to think of political neutral. Need to plan for the long term (10-20 years) but expect that the Lord may act tomorrow.
- A number of cities are evaluating neighborhoods and measuring the assets of the neighborhoods, but one thing that is lacking in those evaluations is the church. The church isn’t seen as an asset. We have to work so that the church is seen as a part of the solution, not just part of the problem.
- We could be moving the target to fit what we are doing instead of keeping a high target and perpetually evaluating how we’re doing it.
- Get pastors to listen to inner city needs, expand the leadership team, and address the problems of the city.
- Pastors need to get real with one another and walk in covenant. Asking city leaders what their impossible problems are is a good idea. We need a balance of justice and righteousness in a way that they work together.
- Reinforce the strategic plan and vision all the time. Strategy to pursue the pastors in our neighborhood. We really need to see how we can serve the city.
- We need to be just as intentional with getting young leaders as we are to get minority groups.
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“A Non-Linear Approach to Leading a City-Wide Coalition” Copi Valdiviez Toledo
Observations and Principles:
- God is everywhere: God was working in the city before and will be working in the city after we are gone
- God is all knowing: God is inside and outside of time and space. God is continuing to birth new things that we do not control.
- God is not linear: While we are in time and space, God is not. It is God’s work and he is doing it. We cannot perceive the infinite, multidimensional work God is doing.
- We need to follow God, rather than ask God to bless our work.
- It is God’s work and he is doing it. We are to follow him, not lead him. God has a perfect time. If we try to accelerate at our own speed, the work will not succeed. God must plan and sustain his own work.
- God does not need a model. We only need a blank sheet of paper and a willingness to listen to God, and follow him.
- There is no “silver bullet.” We must pray, receive direction, and do it. If he hasn’t said anything, then do the last, clear thing he told you to do. You don’t have to take a road just because it is there.
- Unity is connectedness…loving relationship. Unity is not sameness. It is not necessarily agreement (theological, sociological or political). Unity is based on John 17 love.
- The Whole Church may include people that think very differently than we do. Jesus is a friend of sinners. He loves the people but not the sin. So we must as well.
- Ministry must be relationship driven. People will walk miles with you if they are your friend. Geography does not drive ministry, relationships do.
- Serving is a universal idea, winning is not a universal language.
Practical Applications
Typical approach
Form a mission and get people to join it. In most cases, no more than 10-15 percent will participate and the rest will never join because it becomes us/them.
Metroplex vs. Municipality
Metroplexes are made up of many municipalities. Municipalities have a different type of buy in than Metroplexes.
The Spaghetti Bowl (Copi holds up a large bowl of pasta, picks up spaghetti noodles)
There is no way to have a table big enough to bring everyone together (especially in large geographies.)
It is not possible to form cooked spaghetti into a grid system that covers everything.
The five fold ministries exist. God put them there and they are functioning already. When you put meatballs into the spaghetti, they go where they go. You cannot control where they go.
Our job is to connect people to one another and allow them to organize what God has told them to do.
Step by Step in Toledo
There was a call. God provided the funding. Copi met pastors and made friends…connecting people to people. Started pastors prayer groups…started Prayer Summits. Navigated many minefields.
Understanding Race and Culture Issues
If you were going to be a missionary in another country, you would spend a lot of time studying the culture and language of that country. We need to do that for work in the US. We study language and culture to build friends, not to make decisions.
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Case Study – Richard Dalton – Marietta, GA
(Richard is an advocate and implementer of a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach to city reaching. An excellent handout accompanied his presentation)
Four tracks to urban ministry: 1) Presentation of the Gospel, 2) Discipleship, 3) Community Development (enriching the lives of others around you), and 4) Personal spiritual growth.
The only way to be happy as a Christian is to submit. We should be intentional and allow God to do the dynamic stuff.
We must be counter-cultural; if our culture is against God, we must be against the culture.
A simple presentation of the gospel is not enough. There are people that become Christians and a few weeks later are on the street, because they are not discipled. (See the Nehemiah Partnership Project handout)
Once there’s relationship between pastors & churches (a small area, maybe a two mile radius in a city), you have a vision casting session, and define the mission. Then a covenant period is laid out, with each partner’s role defined. You add outside partners, then implement the services.
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Case Study- Barney Field – El Paso, TX
El Paso has had success. The city has seen one of the highest crime rates in the country drop to the third lowest of any major city. It has had one of the largest drops in divorce rates in the Country. It went from almost no pastoral prayer to lots of pastoral prayer.
Three keys to city reaching.
1. Unified Prayer
2. Unified Pastors
3. Unified Projects
It is best if the projects eventually lead to salvations. Salvations will add new families to participating congregations, which will create new enthusiasm for shared ministry among the pastors.
The first ministry that was started was an intercessors’ network. This group has met monthly for more than 10 years, and has led to other prayer ministries in the area. The second ministry was Pastors for Jesus, a monthly lunch that is rotated to different churches. Every month each pastor gets a letter, an email and a personal phone call. The pastors each year elect six facilitators (there is an attempt to rotate leadership to draw many people into the leadership.) Barney meets with them once a month to plan for the next luncheon, and they talk about strategy and tactics for winning El Paso. The pastors luncheon has about 30 senior pastors a month, occasionally as large as 200 before large events. About 70-100 pastors will self-identify as being a part of Pastors for Jesus. In the past there were associate pastors and para-church leaders involved. But the senior pastors felt inhibited and have recently restricted the group to senior pastors. There has been an attempt at trying to bring in bi-vocational pastors but it hasn’t worked well. Women pastors are invited, but rarely attend more than one or two luncheons. There are not many female pastors in the area. The program verbally repeats the goals, Apostles’ Creed and five purposes. We allow people to share needs. There is a group of three that shares one ministry request and one personal request, then pray for one anther.
The next part is a business session. The final section is a speaker topic. They ask people to submit topics of interest and then rank them. A local pastor then speaks on that topic. The session closes with prayer and a song. The meeting is 11:30 to 1:30. There are no other meetings during the month. There is also a similar meeting for youth pastors.
Some city-wide projects have included Luis Palau, Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames and Year of the Bible (5 minutes of bible reading a day to read the New Testament), Year of the Family (a daily newspaper column about the family), Book of Hope, Hour for Jesus (distribute door knob hangers at the same time throughout the city), Pastors Prayer Summit, National Day of prayer, etc. The thing that seems to have had the most measurable response is the Year of the Bible.
Arn Quakkellar, Milwaukee, WI shared an inspiring story of the Spirit’s working to bring saints of the city together for worship and prayer in the Brewers baseball stadium, and the on-going collaboration among pastors and marketplace leaders to more effectively reach the city.
Montie Ralstin (Boise, ID) shared significant input & wisdom gleaned from his many years leading pastors of the Treasure Valley. The Lord led him recently to resign from the leadership team, and to seek better understanding of how the prophetic and apostolic callings/giftings operate in the city context. Moving toward closure, the Holy Spirit segued us into a highly stimulating and productive discussion.
SUMMARY OF THE FINAL SESSION’S INTERACTION & DIALOGUE
1) Brokenness of heart & humility of life must be the mark of authentic city-reachers. Walking and working together in humility enables us to truly be friends, and move forward in trust.
2) While we all have deep longings to see a major breakthrough, we must do a better job of waiting, listening for and discerning the Lord’s initiative (Ps. 127:1). We must embrace an intentional renunciation of American activism. In short…”hurry up and wait!”
3) It is crystal clear that a no-strings spirit of servanthood is a bridge to salvation. We must continue to maintain the balance of “saving the lost & serving the least.”
4) We must allow for a greater flexibility in how we see leadership happen in our cities. Some leadership teams will be more “left brain linear” (predictable, hierarchical) others more “right brain spaghetti” (spontaneous, grassroots).
5) Thus far, we are not doing very well at “tethering” together the roles and activities of the spiritual leaders of our communities with those of the leaders in the marketplace (incl. business, government, social services, education, etc). We must work towards an increased working alignment of pastoral and professional leaders in the city context.
Toward the close of our dialogue, Al Way, Director of Great Dads (Washington, D.C.), shared a relevant illustration. When a car’s tires are out of alignment, you burn more gas…wear down your tires…and endure a bumpy ride. Eventually, other parts of the car wear, tear and risk breakdown. Bring your tires into proper alignment…and you get a smooth ride with the least amount of wear and tear. It is time to bring our relationships into kingdom alignment…to minimize the bumpiness…to maximize the efficiency of our working together…and to move toward a common destination.
