Thanks for making last Monday a huge night.  I wanted to post maybe a few highlights or reflections on what I was hearing and see if anyone else wanted to.

I think 56 people is a great turnout.  Most of our cell leaders were present.   I thought for the most part people brought some stuff that they had prayed through and thought about.  It showed.

Some big themes I was hearing:

1.  We do not want to do “whatever”, or become something other than what we have agreed to do and have a sense of calling about it.

2.  We want to bang out this building completion and are willing to talk about sharing a lot.  We’re looking for new partners.

3.  The next planting is gaining gravity.   It is in theory as natural as cells multiplying.  If we do not learn how to multiply we will turn into some other kind of beast.

4.   We need to free up out Children’s Team, they are and have been held back by incredible lack of space.

5.  We may want another time like this one.

Our 5th Challenge that I want to bring up at the FN Stakeholders meeting on Monday is about the next church planting. We have already given ourselves (in the 2009 Map) a goal of having a planning team and proposal by June.  The team, we’ve agreed, needs to be primarily made of people from FN.

We say that healthy cells, like healthy cells in all organisms, grow and eventually multiply. The same concept applies for congregations.  We have a passion to see the Kingdom of God breaking into the world and expand while also wanting to see the community that fosters the new life.  There is a sociological rule that a normal person can only really know about 200 people, so we think keeping congregations not much bigger than that gives the group a chance of having genuine sense of connectedness.

As our network approaches 600 people, the FN congregation has 275 Regular Attenders.   We’re bending our rule, and if we keep growing at this rate we will soon turn into a different animal. This is the size when the BW congregation (then called Center City-meeting at 239 S. 10th st) sent away a group of around 50 of us to “hive off” and begin a new congregation in Jan of 2004.

Reproduction is never painless but it is inspiring and can be very generative for all involved.  Can you remember a time when your cell felt really great and multiplication may have even seemed like a threat because you didn’t want it to change?  The reality is the cell will change one way or another.  If we try to control it and lock it down, it will eventually shrink and turn into something else.  If it multiplies when it is too small or fragile, the offspring cells are also weak-at least for a while.

Part of coming up with a plan is going to be finding answers to some basic questions:  where will they go? who is going? and how will we pay for it? who will lead them?

Where: There was recently a cell leaders poll that asked about where the next congregations might be.   Some of the answers were quite visionary like Lagos, Nigeria (a city of 14million) and some were a bit more realistic for right now.   I think when we’re thinking about “where”, the big thing to pay attention to is “where are the cells multiplying?”.

We will likely not have the identical people movement buying homes and relocating to the neighborhood in the same way as we did during the last 5yrs.

Who will go? Some people have already self-identified as being up for planting the next congregation.  I think there needs to be a sense of purpose develop and even maybe some sort of “application” to join the team-so we don’t just hemorrhage people over the next year towards whichever congregation seems cooler that day or seemingly meets the needs better of partners.

I think a group is already informally forming through prayer and conversation.  When will be the time to get them together and give the process more dignity and focus?

How will they pay for it? Previous challenges also had financial needs, this is no different.  At our current rate of sharing in the common fund, if 50 people left next week they would likely not be able to afford to live for more than a few months-and the FN group would not be able to afford her goals, either.  I think a nice guideline number would be sharing another $5,000/mo.  We’re already transferring the sharing with the “Building Fund” into the common fund to try to ramp up this kind of capacity.  It is going to require more than people who already give being taxed-we need to find new givers, new people who will respond to the call with both their heart & their wallet.

Who will lead them? We gained a lot of experience and wisdom after the last Apprentice Pastor process.  I wouldn’t want to do it again in the same way, but we have several leaders who have been processing their vocation, calling, gifts and limitations for a while.  There are people from that group from all 3 congregations.  Ther may be some possible leaders emerging from FN over the past year who could lead.

I think we have a lot of talent and capable people.  I hope we are generating enough leaders to be 10 congregations.

What are some of the ways you think we are meeting/can meet this challenge?  Do we have viable options to answer the big questions of who?  where?  how?

Thanks for leaving comments on here.  We’ll have more time face to face Monday night to dialogue, for now some brainstorms to prime the pump would be helpful.

Before we can move on to the next thing, we need to finish our building renovation.  It’s been a long journey, and God has carried us through much danger and much joy along the way.  Our congregation grew  our space on the 2nd floor seemed to shrink faster than we anticipated. We need more space for mission-we have a lot of different meetings, events, playgroups, classes that we’d like to be able to accommodate simultaneously, and we need enough room to have a Public Meeting without a ton of people sitting on the floor!  For at least the past few years, we’ve had some different ideas for how that could work.

At the Council Meeting in 2006, after not being able to purchase the building next door (Germ Books), we approved the idea to re-imagine the entire 2nd floor of 2007 Frankford.  While we were making plans, Circle Thrift came back from near death (can you believe it was close?) and was starting to flourish.  The possibility opened up to have a space at Kensington & Boston, and at the mid-year Council 06 we changed our plan to move there.  After months of work and tens of thousands of dollars, relations with the landlord deteriorated and we were locked out of the building (it has since sold for $750,000).  After much effort to work it out or at least recover our investment, we began an intense search of the area between Front & 8th Streets, Girard & Lehigh Avenues.  The block by block search was a lot of work (Tim & Sarah actually got robbed at gunpoint during a block survey!) but we ended up finding a way to get the owner of 2233 Frankford Ave to dramatically reduce his asking price.  We purchased that building (which took a lot longer than we would have preferred) and after a whirlwind rehab-moved Circle Thrift with the human chain.

We’ve been stocking away money for the rehab for more than 3 years, and after jumping through many bureaucratic hoops with the City, are underway with the renovation.  When we changed the primary use for the building, there are a lot of upgrades that came with it such as bathrooms and beefed up fire-rating of ceilings and walls.  We decided to change the basic footprint of the building, which wasn’t the easiest or cheapest way to do it-but we think it will be better in the long run.

Today might be the day that we are finished with all of our electrical and plumbing rough-in (even the outlets in the 2nd FL front now work!).  We would say goodbye and thanks to Clarence for his work.  Andrew Honess and the gang have been sheetrocking and taping/mudding with volunteers helping almost every day!  We are less than $20,000 away from realizing our goals! In the next couple weeks, we could finish the drywall, paint, install the kitchenette, plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, and get all the doors we need.  This still could wrap up by Lent if we have enough money.

There has been a great grassroots movement lately to sharing.  It seems that there are a lot of people who have in the past not understood how crucial they are, even sharing small amounts of money.  We are not a small group (currently 275 Regular Attenders just in our congregation, approaching 600 as a network).  We need to not just get excited for a month, we need to propel this kind of generousity and sense of ownership so we can afford to take over the entire building (we sent our main income-generating tenant up the street) and send a group off to plant the next congregation.  After this week, we will no longer be raising money for any “Building Fund”.  Rather we will share with our common fund, and the amount that we’re over our basic goals each month will be used to finish the renovation.

If we don’t “show up” for this final push in February, some costs will have to be deferred and some renovations delayed until we have the money.  It would be better for us to do it all now, although it may not happen.  That is up to our dependence on God’s will and our abilitiy to share the vision with people in our cells and other friends.

Do you think we have what it takes to:  finish this rehab quickly so we can get on with mission?  To transform short-term enthusiasm into mature disciple-making?  To actualize as a group who would dream to be generative and creative amidst an uncertain global economy?

Once complete, we’ll be able to use a rather awesome space in a strategic location to share God’s love with our neighborhood.  Once not preoccupied with such things as construction, who knows what we’ll be capable of!

So far I think this experiment with the blog is working okay.  I think there are people who are having trouble figuring out how it works, others who have glanced at it once, and a number of people who are leaving comments and reading other people’s.  Let’s keep trying.

Our third challenge is part of a larger Network goal about parenting in community and refining our mission to parents, kids, and teens.

One of the biggest temptations that we face, especially when we have children is to build the church in our own image.  It seems like a good time to cool out with the mission (to others) and improve the goods & services that are available to us.  Is there a way that we can acknowledge the trend and follow the Spirit through the danger without isolating growing families, going on missional hiatus, or having lots of fights about which color the new bookshelf for the toddlers might be?

As a church called to the Next Generation, we care especially about young people.  This aspect of our mission also highlights our desire to stay on mission whether we continue to identify ourselves in that age group anymore or not.  We care about who’s next.   We’ve gone from 2 kids when we began to around 2 dozen now.

Here are some of efforts that are in progress:  a Children’s Team Brochure that lays out some theology and offerings that we have.  We’ve been expanding space for sundays (2nd FL front) and hopefully in a few weeks we’ll have the 2nd FL rear ready to go.  Marni has put out one letter from the Children’s Team and is working on a second.  We’re talking about hosting a forum for Parenting in Community so we can get some agreements about how to “be a village” and “use the village”, as well as several summits of Network children’s team members, caregivers, parents, and teachers.  Brooke  continues to bring her students to PMs.  The baby & toddler playgroup on friday averages between 15 and 30 people each time-the core of that group is figuring out how to have more opportunities for people to make the connection to the church and another group will start soon on Wed.

Do you think parents can still be on mission?  Do you think we can teach our kids to be on mission?  How do we connect to teens who badly need people to extend to them Christ’s love?  Can we grow into our own skin as a congregation with

We have always relied on the generosity of a relatively small number of people to sustain what we do.   We have never been flat-out broke, and so far have always been able to meet our sharing goals.   If you consider yourself a stakeholder, part of that no doubt is that you put your heart in the mix and certainly you share money.

Our second challenge for this year is going to be growing enough financial capacity to sustain our expanded site and prepare for next planting.

Our goals for sharing have grown somewhat in proportion to our size as a congregation.  One thing that increases disproportionate to our needs is the amount of people who share nothing.  We have a lot going for us, and a lot of partners who have made huge efforts to see our dreams become reality.  Those are usually the first to feel the weight of our need, and I hope that people who share get bogged down with the feeling that they aren’t doing enough or something.

Our Common Fund goal for 2009 requires $9,000 per month to be shared.  We have 264 Regular Attenders at this point, you can see that our baseline is about $36/person/per month.  That is a piece of cake if we are all on the same page…even if there are people (such as children or the chronically homeless) that may not be able to do their part.

One of the practical things that will hold us up from leading the charge of the next planting is lack of financial capacity.  If we shared another $5,000 per month than it wouldn’t be an issue ($53/person/month total).  We would be able to stay in our newly renovated site (which costs more than it did before).  After Feb 15, we are closing down the “building fund” and will rely on monthly Common Fund overage to finish the project.

Rather than just raising taxes on those who already share, how can we find people who aren’t there yet over the hump?  Our bread and butter has been making disciples-not just elaborate speech making at PMs, guilt-inspiring mailings, or some other coercion.

When we feel like the Spirit is leading us and we are doing our part to follow Christ together we’ll see these goals realized.  When the vision is clear, people are able to sign up.  We have to invite people into it.

How are we going to grow enough financial capacity to see God’s direction for us realized?

baptisms at the Wissahickon

Growing the Network.

Circle of Hope has always dreamed and dared to be a network of cells forming congregations.  We are small and big.  Perhaps the most genius and uniqueness of our church is that we also exist as this Network.  We are one church in many locations.

One of the driving forces of our congregation over the past 5yrs was a social movement-people and their friends coming together.  More than a hundred people relocated to the Kensington/Fishtown area to be this community on mission.  We have a great reputation and have always maintained a buzz about how cool it is to be part of us (like the Current TV pod or the PW Article for examples).  God is doing a great thing, and it is really exciting to be part of it.

This social movement also has it’s problems.  It can be easy for people of our dominant age group and such an eye for community to be into themselves and their own relationships.  Certain kinds of people connect, and it’s easy to bounce off the tight relationship web.  Being tight-knit is good, but we need the larger sense of who we are as a circle of hope to live more fully into our calling.

Our first challenge for this year is going to be to more fully realize the Network.  We already are the Network.  How are we going to be of one mind with the 300 or so other people that belong to the same covenant, lead by the same Cell Plan, Feast the same Love, and serve with us on our mission teams?

There have been huge developments over the past year with Circle Venture as we hired Jeremiah.  New mission teams have been forming-some with a larger vision than just our congregation and others are expanding.  The Refugee Team, for instance, began with members from multiple congregations.  The Urban Farm Team is imagining how to have multiple farm/garden sites.  People from 3 congregations form the Core Team to generate compassionate service.

Another major development has been the early stages of the Circle of Hope Operations Team (CoHOp), led by Liz.  Site Mgt, Technologies, Common Fund, and Human Resources/Offices have been the initial teams that their Core Team energizes.  Many of the teams have local leaders and Network leaders, people from 3 congregations are on the core team.

So our big question…how do we be a Network?  How can FN be integrated more fully without watering down the passion and sense of mission to a particular place?  How do we help our people get over their coolness?  What can we do besides social activities to span perceived gaps?  Mission Teams serve.  Being a Network of Cells forming congregations takes a lot of love and a commitment to the vision.

Over the next week or so, I want to get 5 needs out there-1 per post-that are more specific to what God is doing at FN in 2009.  some might be 1. finishing our building renovation, 2. our mission to all these new children and their parents, 3. the next circle of hope planting, 4. growing enough financial capacity to sustain our expanded selves, 5. growing more fully into the Network…

Are we missing one?   Can you think of any specific things we need to get on the table for the stakeholders meeting?

It’s still a pretty new concept, and we’re so far relying on word of mouth.  The Cell Leaders are about the only people invited so far.

Here’s a cute pic of Amiri & Helena when they were probably 3yrs old.

Here we are in 2009.  January 25th was the 5th anniversary of the Public Meeting at 2007-09 Frankford Ave.

You cannot reduce what God has been doing down to a photo or a building-this image might inspire some gratitude for how far we’ve come!

"before"

This blog will be used to prime our engine for the FN Stakeholders meeting on Mon, Feb 16 at 7pm.  Look for a few posts a week.

First question…what was a memorable moment in our congregation during the past 5yrs?