Review:
Brad House, a pastor overseeing community groups at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has written a book that is both visionary and practical. He writes very well, regularly using a cogent turn of the phrase that is both refreshing and pithy. He has evident passion for and ownership of transforming small groups to include community outreach as well as member care. The book is particularly helpful for large churches which are able to adapt his model. House’s theology of mission and community are solidly Biblical and his chapters on Spaces, Rhythms, Structure and Boot Camp are particularly excellent and practical enough for churches to digest and adapt. House has a tendency to redundancy as he elaborates his principles, however. Considering the shift in Christians’ lifestyle he is advocating, his repetitions are understandable. But the way he belabors his points unnecessarily detracts from the overall strength of the book.
- M.L. Codman-Wilson Ph.D., 10/21/11
Summary:
1. His strong case for Christian community is based on the model of relationships within the Trinity and the Acts 2 model. He prefers to call small groups “Community groups” because that name includes the missional goal that he believes is in obedience to God’s sending heart and the Great Commission. His challenge is to develop groups that incarnate Christ and reach out to individual neighborhoods. He feels that the nomenclature of “small groups” has been used to describe many church groups which have lacked life as well as outreach. These groups, though well-meaning, have been inward-focused. Instead, he advocates community groups which balance shepherding care of the members with an outreach to one’s neighbors. This balanced focus builds more holistic and vibrant disciples who are committed to go make more disciples. His model of community groups focuses on the wonders of Jesus Christ and what He makes possible in transformed life. He says, “We want our friends and neighbors to be transformed by Jesus” (61). The goal is thus to get Christians out of their isolation and into contact with unbelievers so the unbelievers can be exposed to and choose to experience Christ’s life.
2. “The essence of mission is the compassionate heart of God. When our hearts beat in rhythm with His, we begin to see His mission and are ready to take ownership of it (69)…Ownership means to internalize it to the point where not only can you reiterate it but also you can teach it, defend it and live it…The majority of church members are in agreement with their church’s mission but do not own it personally” (73). To inspire people to the mission of God you must lift up the Son…When we see Him in His power and are overcome by His love, we are joyfully compelled to respond to His call to make disciples.” (75).
3. Lifting up the Son in His resurrection as the centerpiece of a community group focuses on “the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. We don’t want to accommodate the limitations of apathy, cultural priorities and sin. We want to call people to a passion for Jesus, God-centeredness and holiness that are anchored in the power of the resurrection (84). This is needed because we are at war with the enemy of people’s souls. We need the direct intervention of God and his directives through prayer made available in the Holy Spirit. ..The purpose of community is to receive the grace of God and respond by imaging Him and lifting up the name of Jesus and being his image bearers.(90) We do this through our identity in Jesus, worship, community and mission.” (91) Using the text in 1 Peter 2 he says community groups “should point to and worship Jesus consistently, should remind you of his grace and mercy in your life, should reflect his heart and his priorities, should help you wage war against the flesh and should maintain a good reputation with unbelievers” through your good works that they can see (95).
4. Biblical community models attachment and belonging (to God and to one another) and counters the disconnected, transient realities of society. It is what many unbelievers long for but “the church needs to come out of its holy ghettos” (136) and begin to engage the wider society (and their specific neighborhoods) so people can be drawn into its community. Each individual community group will decide how to reach out so the group is not just for their own member care but is missional as well. Thus community groups “need to be built with the freedom to contextualize and express community in whatever way best reaches the individual neighborhoods of their group.” (78)
5. “There are barriers of space, culture (language and behaviors) and perception (stereotypes) that keep people from the gospel. (He has excellent material on this in chapters 6 and 7).We need to overcome these barriers by building bridges to our neighbors as we share our lives with them. (131). He draws 4 concentric circles for the levels of engagement. The outermost circle is called participation – where a community group participates with their neighborhood in common spaces and events (block parties, fairs, etc. etc.) Next is service – where the community group meets practical needs of the neighborhood. More intimate is hospitality – where the community group affords a safe place for outsiders to belong – usually in a neutral place (invited to a weekly restaurant gathering or touch football or knitting group or bowling etc.) The most intimate level is fellowship where the community group meets for devotion to teaching, prayer, worship and repentance. The two inner circles are where Christians usually remain. Unbelievers have to be invited into these places. However, we must understand the great energy barrier involved in being invited into someone’s home; even greater is being invited to a fellowship group. If Christians exist only at the fellowship level, this isolates us and is a very intimidating place for the unbeliever to come or for a new relationship to be built (138). The outer two levels of engagement, service and participation, get Christians out of their normal spaces to be missional – to do the good works that show God’s reality through us. To know how best to do that, a community group needs to get involved in their local neighborhood center and learn what the needs are so they can serve there. We can host service or social events (even an every other week breakfast for the neighborhood) but do not include a gospel presentation – just build relationships.(145)
6. Therefore, Christians need to develop a culture of opportunity, looking for natural ways to engage others in life (i.e, our family goes out to breakfast at a pancake house on Sat. morning; invite others to join us). This means “we need to realign our use of time with gospel centered priorities -serving each other and reaching out to the lost” (151). The excuse that Christians are too busy and don’t have the time is not accurate. We will take time if we have the desire. Hence the need to rearrange our time to fit the vision. It is a matter of changing your rhythms so you, as a Christian, do not just meet other Christians on Sunday once a week and at a prayer meeting or a Bible study one other night but are seeking creative ways as a community group to engage your neighborhood for the sake of introducing people to Jesus.
7. His chapter on structure (171-190) describes how this vision works at Mars Hill. They have a hierarchal structure of a pastor who oversees 6 head coaches, each head coaches oversees 6 coaches, each coach oversees 6 leaders and each leader facilitates a community group of 15 people. This accounts for 3,000 people. Once a month they have “synch training” to gather the coaches and leaders together. There is 6:00 dinner, 7:00 training, 8:00 coach huddles and 9:00 head coach huddles. (189).
8. In order effect the change that this paradigm requires, House stresses the need for repentance. “Wherever we have missed God’s mark, we need to lead our people in repentance. We need to repent of the distance between God’s compassion for those He created and our own” (217). We need to repent of apathy, a willingness to accept the status quo of how we have handled small groups, and repent of an unwillingness to do the hard work of change and transformation. We also need to repent of indifference to God’s mission (in our practice) or to our fear of man. He believes it is a bit ridiculous for people living in the U.S. to have this fear since few of us will be martyred for our faith. This fear “chokes out our faith in the resurrection and power of the Holy Spirit….When we fear men or their opinions rather than God, we elevate their importance above our King’s (204). We have not been given a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Tim.1:7). Our fear should be in “receiving the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor.6:1). We will need to fight against apathy, indifference and fear of man continuously as we shepherd one another toward a bigger vision of community. But we fight by believing the truth and promises of the gospel. This battle has been won on the cross. The Holy Spirit will give us everything we need to be Christ’s ambassadors. We are new creations in Christ, no longer bound to sin but slaves to righteousness…Repentance is a restoration of who we already are in Christ, a holy people loved by our heavenly Father. Repentance makes way for a new vision and prepares our community groups to be used by God.” (206).
9. To give shape to this new vision within a church he advocates the model of a boot camp. At Mars Hill it is 7 consecutive weeks of 2 hour meetings on Sundays between services. Keeping it condensed in time is important so the vision stays fresh. It is mandatory for all leaders and coaches. That training includes worship, teaching and time to work out practical strategy with neighborhood groups and their leaders and coaches. There is homework to do each week between meetings. (Chapter 10 articulates how to do this very clearly.) (207-222) The whole book is great in vision-casting and in implementation.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion:
1. What is the focus (emphasis) and goal in your small group(s)?
2. What do you think of House’s understanding of community groups which have a vital missional component to their neighborhood?
3. How could a missional element be a bridge to your neighborhood?
4. What would it look like practically?
5. House says most churches need to repent “for the distance between God’s compassion for those He created and your own.” Is that true in your setting? How could you bring this vision to your small group and lead the way in repentance?
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