You'll connect more people if you plant one of these (hint: not a church)
Iona Abbey in Scotland, where Aiden was sent from in the 7th century
I have been contemplating something with radical theological and ecclesiological implications.
Ok, that was definitely not the way to hook people into reading a post….but hang on. It will have some definite actionables for you as a reward!
If you follow me on instagram you may know that I have been on a 3-week virtual journey with Pete Craig of Lectio365 who is taking his followers on a 300-mile pilgrimage from the Scottish Isle of Iona to Lindisfarne.
He is retracing the 7th century journey of Aiden, a Celtic monk and evangelist planting life-saving and kingdom-expanding outposts in the Scottish and English wildlands. The depth of insight and meditations on this pilgrimage are profound.
The spread of faith in Jesus throughout the British Isles and European continent was exponential as Aiden himself followed the Celtic Way of Evangelism, established by his spiritual predecessor Saint Patrick (a personal hero of mine). Patrick’s strategy (which I write more in depth about here) inspired him to not plant churches, but Abbeys.
Why? Because vulnerable, unsafe and poverty stricken people in these outposts of the British Isles were more likely to respond to a monastic community than a church service.
In an Abbey, people were invited to come and work in exchange for sharing in the food and sub-economy that came from farming, the making of beer, and other trades. In walled protected communities, the good news about Jesus was modeled in an invitational-yet-optional way. Prayer for those in need was commonplace as the vision of a different way of life was experienced from sunrise to sundown.
Historians conclude that the conversion of England and Scotland, and through English missionaries the conversion of much of western and northern Europe 1500 years ago, can be traced back directly to the impact of the Irish missionary movement — which began with Patrick and extended through Aiden and his successors.
All this is forcing me to ask an outlandish question when it comes to connecting new people to our churches:
What if we planted communities and not churches?
The modern idea of church planting tends to look more like planting a worship service than an actual community of Christ followers.
Here’s the problem with that in our day: Bible content is on the internet, while community is across the table and across the street. If I simply want some good music and a pertinent biblical message for my life, I can find something spot on through some artful googling and Shazam!
A relevant sermon and good music (probably on while I’m pouring my coffee) appears on my smart TV or other device. The one thing that cannot come through a screen is a listening ear, a companion who knows you and is there to offer help and prayer, or someone who is grateful for your encouragement and resourcing in their life. There is no youtube channel that will offer that even with the comment feature in full operation.
Now I’m going to make an assumption about you.
I assume you are not in the seat of decision-making about things as big as this. You may be a volunteer, but you are probably in one or two other categories:
➊ a pastor of small groups, first impressions, next steps, “connections”,. or the like in a large church.
Or, you may be…
➋ a senior pastor at a smaller congregation with a board to report to or some other authority above that.
Regardless of your role, you are probably not going to close down your church and reopen it as a Celtic Abbey either 🤷♂️
So, I will offer some suggestions with the opportunity to “lead up” by offering some of the following options to make your church little more of a community and a little less of a worship event. Here we go…
more community, less worship event
➊ Print Invitations for small groups and not just sermon series
If your small group studies are based on useful message series at your church (and even if they are not), these invitations expand the vision of small groups of Christ following friends, making them inclusive outposts for people looking for community in the post-COVID world.
The invitations can enable small groups to…
invite neighbors who are outside of community
reach older people, parents with kids, single parents and others that can extend the demographic boundaries of the group
move summer meetings into driveways with fire pits, food and drink to share.
bring meals to neighbors with various needs with no expectations of reciprocating
➋ Open up for prayer and need brokering
Having Pastors on Call (POCs) in your common areas after worship for prayer and resourcing goes a long way. Having a counter manned by people who are well-connected to compassion programs in your community can do wonders to help POCs network with others to meet real needs. Adding an old-fashioned invitation to come up for prayer at the end of a service can open up these characteristics of authentic community.
I can remember serving last year at a worship service at my church where the offer of prayer up front was extended. A woman came up who had lost her job and was terrified of not making rent. After praying for her, I walked her over to our compassion counter where we were able to help her pay rent through our benevolence monies.
I ran into her just a few weeks ago at church. She was smiling from ear to ear telling me about her new job and how much the church had helped her get on her feet. This is Acts 2 style community in action.
➌ Offer affordable food (and fire pits!)
A simple barbecue from Home Depot could be all you need to offer combo meals (burgers, chips, and a coke) for a few bucks (we offer them free to first time guests). We put out fire pits and have lots of comfortable outdoor seating at our Saturday night services resulting in people hanging out and talking to each other. It also gives me as a pastor an opportunity to move table to table having meaningful conversations with many people.
➍ Make services a little more interactive.
Ironically, services in Aiden’s day were probably a lot more interactive than you and I experience at our churches. There was kneeling, standing and sitting. There was liturgy to say out loud, communion to walk forward and receive, and more.
Adding affirmations to repeat in a service and taking communion together can increase a horizontal engagement as you pursue God.
Texting questions to the pastor (using an intermediary with a special phone number) has worked well for us, too. Leveraging your church app or website for taking surveys in the middle of church can increase participation and the sense of community worshippers experience.
Aiden, along with his predecessors and successors, planted fully-functioning communities—not churches as we know them.
What ideas do you have for making your church more of a community and not just a worship event to attend?
What aspects of community do you have in place that we all could learn from?
Share in in the comments and let’s become Sherpas that lead people onward and upward with a slight Scottish brogue.
When was a time you felt engaged horizontally (not just vertically) in a worship service? What were the factors? Are they repeatable?
What would it take to increase access to the resources your church and local community have to offer? How can prayer be leverage to broker needs and resources in your context?
What role could food play to increase the sense of community surrounding your worship services?
How could small groups become people’s first experience of your church, even if they’ve never been to a worship service?
