Apostolic Ministry in the post-Postmodern CollapseAlternative Futures?

Viv Grigg, hesitant voiceMarch 2013

Liquid Modernity - Baumer

Successful…in the Wrong Direction?• Called and successful as a local

pastor? (Well as much as one can

be!!)

• Hungry to move to the Apostolic?

Beyond pastoring how do I get to be

what I am meant to be?

• Aware that the culture is leaving the

church behind?

• Perplexed. Is God doing something

different to what I am doing?

Beginnings of burnout?

Theologically disjunct?

• Jesus commanded us to make disciples?o He did this relationally?

o He lived outside the synagogues, going to people?

o He died outside the walls?

o The disciples went and reproduced a lifestyle and value system – multiplication

of grups

o The Holy Spirit kept touching people

• Christendom: I am trapped in church systems?o Developing buildings and programs?

o Running worship services where people are invited to come

o The people are good people but culture bound

o The Holy Spirit comes but rarely

o Growth is by addition into pastoral care groups

Take a grain of wheat and a chess board

• Put one grain on one square two on the next, four on the next…

• How much wheat by the time you get to the 64th.?

• Alternativelyo Put 100 grains on the first square

o Put 100 on the next

o How much by the time you

get to the 64th

You have 64 more years of ministry. Which approach will you use?

God’s method is men Dawson Trotman – birthing the Navigator movements, now many millions

• Without resources or buildings and few salaries

• In power of Spirit

• Preaching outside the walls

• With clear alternative value system and community life

Apprenticeship• Skills of

preaching, theology

Suffering, rejection• Healing in a

safe place, anointing

Pastoring/Preaching• Failure or

burnout and restart

Apostolic• Start small• Train in an

alternative value system

• Lifelong fruitfulness

• Mobility• Multiplicat

n

Personal Expansion of Gifts Timeline

Modern Period

Postmod-ernism

Collapsed

Postmod-ernism

Loss of a Civilization

Christendom Extended• Rural

Confusion Experim-entation• urban

Alternative Communities• Mega-city

Response to the Loss

Change in Church Culture

RURAL IN CITY URBAN POST-MODERN

CHRISTENDOM SECURLARISM, 20% MAX IN CHURCH

CHURCH IS CENTRE OF COMMUNITY

CHURCH IS ONE ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY

UNITY OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

MULTIETHNIC

MODERNIST SENSE OF WHAT IS RIGHT

MULTIPLEX TRUTHS

LOKING BACKWARDS LOOKING FORWARDS

Will you lead in the future?

Alternative Structure

Pastor as preacher Pastor is recruiter/teambuilder

Community of Care Multiplying small communities with values systems

Maintenance of Buildings Holy Spirit/Word/Start a cell per month/Multiply in 9 months

Monthly larger gatherings in school halls

Add a few per year Multiplying revival movments

Leadership in Traditional Model

Pastor

Pressure to fulfil Church Growth Pastors

role Pastoral

small groups

BurnoutBuilds status Quo

Salaried Staff

Preacher

Apostolic Leadership

Apostle

Team Builder

Start an evangelistic

cell each month

Leader of breakthro

ughs

Creates an

alternative value system

Trains Lay staff

Preacherbecomes trainer

Self-supportin

g till mutipicati

on

Embracing the Future

• Remain within declining 2% per year of institurional

Christendom

Or

• Create seeds of Multiplying revival movement out to

10,000

Radical Rejection of Past• Step out of

Security• Step out of

preaching as calling

Relocate to City• Walk with

other pioneeers

• Mike Breen network?

• New City?

Live by Faith• Build

community around your values

• Suport self till multiolcaiton comes

Cross Cultural Barriers• Start small• Train in an

alternative value system

• New values, vision, structure

• Mobility• Multiplicat

n

Learning Curve: Embracing the Future

PreachingLay it aside for now inside the walls

Go to the dispossessedOutside the Walls

To thousands after you have multiplied the movement

Readings

• Breen, Mike (2011). Building a discipling culture : how to release a missional

movement by discipling people like Jesus did. Pawleys Island, SC: 3DM

Publishing. ISBN 0-9846643-0-0.

• Hirsch, Alan; Catchim, Tim; Breen, Mike (2012). The permanent revolution :

apostolic imagination and practice for the 21st century church. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-470-90774-6.

• Hirsch, A. (2006). The Forgotten Ways : Reactivating the Missional Church. The

Forgotten Ways. Grand Rapids, Mich., Brazos Press: 295.

• Tom Beaudoin. (1998) Virtual Faith: the Irreverent Spiritual Quest of

Generation X

• Kimball, Dan. (2007). They Like Jesus but not the Church. Grand rapids., MI, Zondervan.

• Dear, Michael. J. (2000). The Postmodern Urban Condition. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers.