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AEC 1999
Record of the Proceedings
Second Anabaptist Evangelism Council
Elgin, Illinois – February 20-21, 1999
Theme: An Anabaptist Look at Natural
Church Development
recorded by Ronald W. Waters
Saturday, February 20
Welcome & Announcements – S. Joan Hershey
Introductions – Ed Bontrager
Opening Worship and Focus of Theme – Marilyn Miller
Miller reported statistics on the number of unchurched persons: in Canada,
85% believe in God but only 20% are in church; the United States is the third
largest unchurched nation in the world with 195 million unchurched; likewise,
North America is the only continent in the world where Christianity is not
growing faster than the population, and no county in the United States has
more churched people today than it did a decade ago.
Acts 3—Peter and John on their way to the temple. She noted the natural
church development (NCD) qualities in this passage.
She expressed a desire for those who are already involved with NCD that
they might be invigorated; for those who may not favor NCD, that they may be
able to help us discover what we may be able to do instead
[break]
Participants chose one of the following sessions:
What Is Natural Church Development?: An
Introduction – Ronald W. Waters
Implementing Natural Church Development – What
Are We Learning? – Noel Santiago and other natural church development
consultants shared some of the results from Anabaptist churches completing the
profile. (see report below)
4:30 p.m. Plenary. Reports on "What We Are Learning"
Noel Santiago—6 churches in Franconia Conference of the Mennonite Church
(average scores for each quality characteristic: 44.5, 41.3, 34, 33.5, 27.6, 26,
32.5, 27).
Chris Arney—13 churches; Mennonites in British Columbia are "all over
the map"; across Canada, scoring is substantially lower than US churches;
Schwarz has renormed Canadian figures; results in 5-17 point shift. Example:
style is not a factor. What was thought at first to be a "Mennonite"
factor was actually more a "Canadian" factor.
Ed Boschman—Mennonite Brethren US; 30+ churches, with that many more
currently in process. Leadership is everything. Vision is indispensable. Natural
resistance in churches to doing this sort of thing (offered at bargain price to
160 churches). Averages: fairly high. Boschman reminded participants that
analysis is not the same as therapy. It will be hard work to address the issues.
Paying the price is very hard for either growth or health. Relevance is
overarching—prechurched people say the church is irrelevant in form &
style, requiring us to contextualize of message.
Ron Waters—in The Brethren Church, 9 churches have completed profile; so
far, no consistent patterns, but sample is still too small; plans to conduct
denomination-wide study as part of doctoral dissertation and hopes to use NCD
profile to assess common/divergent health characteristics
A period of questions and answers followed
[Dinner break]
Natural Church Development and the New Testament:
Comparison and Assessment – Tom Yoder Neufeld
Small group discussions—bouquets and red flags identified:
Worship – Art McPhee led the closing worship
for the day, focusing on interpreting the parable of the soils.
Sunday, February 21, 1999
Morning Worship – Tara Hornbacker
From John 7:37-38, she noted that out of the believer’s heart flows
living water. We want to drink deeply from that living water and be able to
offer it to others in a parched world. Noting passages on temptation from the
lectionary for this date, she asked, "How is our study here tempting? Are
we attempting to find a fix-all plan?" There is always an element of good
in evil; that’s what makes evil so tempting. Is it good or is it evil merely
masked?
The great good—is this according to the will of God? Where is God working
in our own narratives? The Holy Spirit can reveal to us further light, even
when we are in the wilderness. When was Jesus led into the wilderness?
Immediately after his baptism.
When we see something, we metaphorically baptize it. What happens if we
take it to the water and the water (metaphorically) refuses it?
The significance of baptism is a defining image for Anabaptists. She does
not want to "throw the baby out with the bath water"; we are trying
to decide what is "baby" and what is "bath water," what is
explicit and what is merely implicit in natural church development? There is a
difference between loving relationships and loving our enemies!
Looking at other water passages in Scripture reveals two basins: Jesus used
one to wash the disciples’ feet; Pilate used the other to wash his hands of
the whole thing about Jesus.
She asked participants to turn to two or three others, share a passage of
Scripture that has helped bring growth and connects you with God, followed by
prayer together.
She noted that God is ever near and cited Revelation 22:1ff.
[break]
"Strut Your Stuff" –
Two
participants shared about their ministries: Fred Finks, Ashland Theological
Seminary, on Church Planting Seminar and Assessment and Church Renewal and
Redevelopment Seminar, both part of the Center for Leadership Development;
Dick Benner, Shalom Foundation, reported on Together and other
publications.
Listening Committee Report – Steve Clapp, Tara
Hornbacker, Fred Finks
[Jack Suderman noted that nine denominations are represented and six academic
institutions]
Marks of the Faithful Church—Marks of the
Successful Church: A Response to Natural Church Development from a
Missiological and Ecclesiological Perspective – Lois Barrett
Interaction with Tom Yoder Neufeld and Lois Barrett
Small Group Discussions and Plenary Feedback
Participants were reminded that the next council meeting will be held at
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, Elkhart, Indiana, next year.
[lunch break]
Response to Natural Church Development: A
Strategic Comparison – N. Gerald Shenk
Questions and Answers, Comments and Observations
Observations from the NCD Consultants –
On
behalf of the natural church development consultants, Antonio Ullao gave an
impassioned presentation on the basics and value of NCD. He shared an overhead
transparency that showed how the various parts of NCD fit together:
Four building blocks:
1. What? – eight quality characteristics
2. When? – minimum strategy
3. How? – six biotic principles
4. Why? – a new paradigm: a different way of thinking for Christians
The key: God has given potential to every congregation—they are alive:
releasing God’s growth automatisms (Matthew 6:28; Mark 4:26-28)
Natural church development’s solid conviction: genuine quality will
ultimately positively impact quantitative growth.
If you eliminate one of the four blocks above, you will not be successful
in using NCD.
Also, churches without a vision will not be able to grow. Example: family
going on acation, but no one knows where they are going—different
expectations.
Listening Committee Report
[break]
Where Do We Go from Here? –
Jack Suderman,
facilitator.
Suderman attempted to answer the question, "What precipitated this
conversation?" It was a desire to learn more about how to resource
congregations. People are looking for practical, hands-on materials with an
Anabaptist name on it (example, the LIFE process). He noted that some
conferences already well on the road of using NCD. People asking if they
should use NCD, is it better than LIFE or is LIFE better than NCD? New Life
Ministries wants to receive discernment from this council before deciding
whether to emphasize NCD or to recommend it to congregations. He noted that
the New Life Ministries Management Team and the Board of Trustees "value
this council as our counsel."
He posed several questions which were discussed in small groups. The
questions and many of the responses follow:
1. Has a weekend like this made a contribution to you and your work?
If so, what is that contribution?
 | Favorable response but concerns: appreciate time together; role of
presuppositions; frustration with the "how" but not with the
presuppositions: biotic principles and Anabaptist core values—how does NCD
fit with us? Some questions about ecclesiology we might want to send to
Schwarz for response. |
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| Helpful to supply list of attendees with e-mail addresses |
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| Send complimentary copy of booklet to Christian Schwarz and request his
response |
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| Helpful, especially bring more persons from seminary; networking also very
good |
2. Does the council process encourage us in our agencies to be more
available to God’s coming kingdom and energize us for the task?
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| Helpful to hear ideas, new energy to hear them, to think through them;
resourcing, networking |
3. NCD has moved us from focus on quantity to health? So what?
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| First things are first; confuse congregations if we don’t address
systemic needs |
4. Are we encouraging the use of NCD? Would you like your
denominational office to use it more intentionally with congregations in your
denomination? Or for your educational institution to connect with it?
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| Mixed response—might be fun to try it |
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| Conditional yes |
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| Lay NCD along side of LIFE congregational profile and GOCN implications:
it is possible to address concerns from an Anabaptist bias |
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| LIFE profile has questions on context, so better than NCD in some ways |
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| Church of the Brethren Congregational Life Team members could possibly use
it to help congregations |
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| Some not sure they could use it because of questions about assumptions
raised in Lois Barrett’s presentation |
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| Request a deeper face-to-face meeting with Christian Schwarz for real
dialogue; three presenters |
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| Honorable to meet Christian Schwarz on his turf—send a delegation to
meet with him. |
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| Publish more formal document after getting his response |
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| Has opened our eyes to possibilities; though we have brought critique, not
discouraging |
5. If concerned about church life and development, is there a call
for additional resources from this group? Do we need something beyond NCD,
LIFE, etc.?
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| Draw on resource persons to give leadership with Anabaptist perspective |
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| Have resources persons available to go to congregations rather than
resources; training those resource peoples together |
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| Helpful to have an Anabaptist introduction to NCD if not too lengthy |
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| Diffusion of resourcing (CoB); variation of resourcing levels at the
conference level (Mennonite)—how best to resource congregations is still
not fully defined; without New Life Ministries, resourcing may not be as
strong as it is now and concerned about this |
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| Confirmed working together on creating resourcing materials |
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| Consider an Anabaptist evangelism chat room or listserv for e-mail
interaction |
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| Revitalization/renewal resources |
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| Discipleship process for mentoring new believers; an Anabaptist
distinctive that needs to be brought back—people not just making "a
decision" but being nurtured in the faith |
6. What would it look like for Anabaptist groups to construct a
possibility tree for our congregations?
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| Create a federation—this council |
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| Mennonite Church/General Conference—denomination-wide study on missional
church for new denomination: how congregations connect with the reign of
God; who to gather the stories |
7. Should we begin to think in terms of church planting together?
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| Might be more possible since we know each other |
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| Perhaps start a group of churches together; use same resourcing center,
training, etc. |
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| Have to start with why—explore it; gather potential church planters,
training and resourcing |
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| Have some already; why not do more |
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| Let’s explore it; draw on various successful models; emphasize people,
not programs |
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| Bring in church growth people next year to tell stories |
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| Select well-trained people who want to do church planting; not focus on
institutions |
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| Revisit church growth models/emphasis |
Suggested topics for future council meetings
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| Church planting/people who have done it. Also on church parenting |
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| What have we done in the past that brought growth (pockets of growth) |
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| Evaluate the latest fad |
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| Take one quality characteristic and look at it in terms of biotic
principles |
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| Gather for prayer and fasting |
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| Bring in a social researcher—someone with feet grounded in the world and
compare with what we are doing, how the two compare |
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| Invite principles from the Gospel and Our Culture Network to resource
meeting next year |
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| Discussion with other ethnic groups/multiple tracks |
Closing Worship – Bob Kettering
He noted that one Scripture we do not often associate with evangelism is
John 12:32 where Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all people
to me." If Jesus is not lifted up, most of our efforts will be in vain.
We must examine ourselves to see how we are doing. But if we never get off
focusing upon ourselves, we may become victims of the "paralysis of
analysis." For example, processed food has the nutrients rung out of it.
Perhaps we have done that with evangelism.
Matthew 4:18-22—Jesus’ called his first disciples to be fishers of
persons. He read an extended story from Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm,
about going fishing as a boy but being prevented from doing so because of
cold, windy weather. "When those who are called to fish don’t fish,
they fight. . . . When those who are called to fish fish, they flourish."
Kettering closed by singing "People Need the Lord."
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