Group Sharing Under 200 (see additional article)
Notes taken by Jeff Slaughter
For revisions email Jeff at: Jeff@europeanworshipinstitute.com
Went around and share names and backgrounds.
Best practice
Christopher – Indonesia
Spend time pouring into our team. Can’t do it by myself. God brought different people onto our team. One of the things we heard back home is ‘date your team.’ Some will sign in pencil, some pen and some blood. These people show up at 6:30 every Sunday morning to set up for church. We have 40 in our ‘dream team’. I believe this is a result of pouring into our team.
Stephen – Hong Kong
First three years of being there has been dealing with the past and looking to the future. We have really focused on spending time waiting on the Lord. The other thing is our children. When we got there, the children’s ministry was babysitting. We changed that. Our children are not the church of tomorrow but of today. We teach them to pray, hear from God, etc. We teach three Sundays and on the fourth Sunday of the month we teach them to wait on the Lord, His presence. ‘Waiting on the Lord’ for children involves them worshiping, praying, journaling. However they feel comfortable worshiping God.
Wally
Watch for what God is doing rather than start something on your own.
Waltemor & Rose Marie-Indonesia
Haven’t really started our meetings, but we do have small group meetings. Rose Marie meets with a woman; and I meet with a couple of groups of men. The lady across the street from us is a winner of the Nobel Peace Price in Indonesia and she has introduced us to a lot of people we normally wouldn’t meet.
Lew Belcourt from West Jakarta
In Indonesia we don’t think of westerners. They’re mostly Indonesians who speak English and want an English-language church. I’m more of a facilitator of ministry rather than a pastor. Challenge: you also have to have English language children’s church program. We’re thankful that we’ve been able to do that.
Tony Ibarra, Frankfurt, Germany
Seven churches we oversee. We pastor Frankfurt International Church. We’re strong on the Word. Our services are interpreted from English to German. I can relate with our Germans; strong in Word; pillars of reformation. Added Pentecostal pillars: Holy Spirit, Kingdom of God. One of the strengths we’ve had….first thing we focus on when someone gets saved is that they get filled with the Holy Spirit.
Comments on interpretation techniques
Tony: I talk to my interpreter a lot so when I preach he knows what I’m thinking.
Mario – IES Kelapa Gading
Best practice we do is that we feed people. Taking care of them. Monthly newcomer’s lunch. I want to make people look good – if they experienced a miracle or went on a missions trip I want them to speak on the platform and share. Celebrate people.
What is the lid that’s keeping your church from going over 200?
Lew – Indonesia
Lid is me. I didn’t have a leadership team for five years. We do now.
We share another facility with another church. Our service starts at 11:30 and goes to 1:00 pm, which is the lunch time. If we had a 10:00 service we’d probably have more people come. We have a beautiful sanctuary and we’d have to leave that and go to another building.
Donato
Lack of our people reaching out.
Christopher – Indonesia
Our lid is finances.
Mario’s wife – IES Kelapa Gading
Because we meet in a movie theater, we can’t do a lot of fellowship with our people. We spend time with our staff. Biggest struggle is to communicate to them that we do care how they are doing during the week. Facility is our lid. Before we were in a Chinese restaurant. We didn’t rent there but had to buy lunch there in order to meet. So we spent time together then.
Tony Ibarra
We use Lutheran churches because most are empty and we can rent them for a good price. Paying 500 euros rent for a month. What was the lid?
Inder – IES Jakarta
Describe growth you saw. We started with four founders and few people that would get together. #1: We calculated everything and the core group put the money together for the upcoming 2 years. #2: In Indonesia it’s not customary to pay volunteers. But we do. So they would come to practice on time, send to good music school, put our resources into our people. #3: You have to share your vision and mission. We tell them ‘we are a mission church’. Everyone has to be a part of that.
Jeff
Part of the power and growth of IES is that the people bring other people to church.
Dave and Carol Ellison – Argentina
Our context is different. We planted Argentine churches. From the beginning we did Spanish. Would go in with the Argentine who would be the indigenous pastor. Argentina is a place where things are happening spiritually fast. The spiritual battle is great no matter where you are. We’ve ad people throw rocks, threats, government officials try to shut us down. Official church will come against us, press make false accusations. Gave great emphasis to worship; the altar; the Word of God; evangelism. When we hit the lids like finances or facilities, we refused as a leadership team to believe that anything could stop us.
Terry Hoggard
#1: It is about clarity. ‘You can’t die on every cross.’ You have to decide what God is calling you to build. The clearer you are the more piercing you are in communicating that to other. Not necessarily strength of the leader but the clarity of the call. When it’s not clear you have an atmosphere of confusion. Doing something for everybody but nothing for God.
#2: Capacity is always going to be a problem. In the areas of: Facilities, team, finances, what you know to be the most immediate possible opportunities. I never wanted to be blocked because I wasn’t thinking about capacity.
#3: Creativity – collaboration. The fact that I don’t have an idea doesn’t meant the team doesn’t have one.
So in simple terms, that’s it – great clarity and be able to communicate it. To think capacitiy ahead of time. Pray for creativity ‘Lord help me to think in the capacity of your Spirit.’