The Full Paradigm
A few weeks ago I shared a paradigm for our church called The Table, The Pulpit and the Square. Though each picture represents a different environment of church life (the home, the gathered church and the public square) and encompasses all we do as a church, all I shared at the time was how it relates to outreach. Here is the paradigm fleshed out. Steve McCoy was very helpful to me in this. We went back and forth discussing the best ways to explain the whole thing, and it is better for it. Thanks brother!
When I draw this out for people I include the circle, triangle and square, and the words and arrows surrounding them. I talk the rest of it out, rather than writing it all. I wont go over everything here. This is a summary.
The Table is the context in which our families practice hospitality. All families are encouraged to regularly welcome outsiders into their homes.
The Pulpit is the gathered church where the teaching of God’s word is central. This works itself out in three ways: 1) gathered worship, 2) small groups and 3) our discipleship system. 1 and 2 are clear enough. 3 (discipleship system) is the process by which we teach our people beyond the small groups and corporate worship. This will look different in every church. For us it is (and will develop to include) membership/gospel classes, periodic midweek classes (”Midweek Midrash?”) that will address specific issues, men and women ministries, etc. Outwardly the church is encouraging unbelievers to seek God with us, inwardly we are leading believers into maturity.
The Square is the church engaging the culture in four basic ways: 1) Participation, 2) Restoration, 3) Conversation and 4) Multiplcation.
Participation is our presence in the community we value and are a part of. We shop, eat and meet locally and are considered “regulars” in local establishments. This is the first and easiest level of entering the Square.
Restoration relates to mercy ministries where the gospel is giving birth to works of healing in the community. For us at present this is seen in our widely known Clothes Closet and our ESL classes.
Conversation is our dialog and evangelism in the community. Our neighbors are asking questions that the church can and should be addressing. We, as the church of Christ, hold the message of redemption and bear the privilege and responsibility of sharing the gospel with all who will listen. This includes everything from individuals meeting and talking with strangers, to public ministries of the church where conversation is happening outside of the Pulpit.
Multiplcation is the work of planting, restarting and strengthening other churches. This includes both our direct efforts as well as the networks we have partnered with. Think – our own plans to plant and Acts 29 (planting/restarting), and ministries like IX Marks and Founders Ministries (strengthening).
The three environments of our church life boil down to the home, the church (gathered) and the city. All of our people are encouraged and expected to be active in each environment outwardly and inwardly. Specific direction will be given to our people in our context, but the principles are universal.
This paradigm works well for us because it is simple enough to pass the napkin test, allows for both attractional and incarnational ministry approaches, and regularly brings Christians and non Christians together. You can download a PDF of the paradigm here for a closer look.
Check it. [...]
I think this is some wonderful thinking and I plan to spend some time reflecting on this. It is similar (but different) to something we ran in a church I used to be a part of which we called Lifeshapes. This was birthed by Mike Breem at St Thomas Crooks in England, The principle is one of UP-IN-OUT and is similarly ‘napkin-like’. He has since moved to the US and has written ‘The Passionate Church’ and ‘The Passionate Life’ which you may find interesting. Anyway, thanks for this.
Great job Joe – love it! I particularly like the 4 aspects of engaging culture and the ability to flesh it out so simply on a napkin.
I’ve been brought back to our call to love (which your paradigm fleshes out beautifully):
LOVE GOD. LOVE ONE ANOTHER. LOVE THE LOST.
Joe,
I love your ideas and will probably steal them and give you credit.
I do have one question that may be significant:
How does the Lord’s Supper fit in if you call hospitality ministry ‘the table’ when the LS is typically referred to by the same term?
Thanks guys. Yeah, it’s not perfect that way Luke. But our people don’t seem to be confused by it. The LS fits in under Pulpit (gathered church). In fact, biblically the Lord’s Supper is as much a pulpit as it is a table.
I like this. A lot. Memorable. Easily presentable. I don’t think anything is missing. Great stuff.
I plan on stealing it and using it unattributed.
I think this is great. So accessible and easily explained. I’m glad I read this just before driving home — now I have something to think about.
Excellent stuff Joe. I’m really excited to see how this is going to be fleshed out at Redeemer. Do indulge us in more commentary and rationale when you have time.
Thanks Joe – this is helpful stuff…I am doing doodling with “Wells” and “water” to teach similar ideas. Have you read Total Church out of England?
Thanks guys. I’ll put up the papers that help explain it all as they are available (it’s all in note form now).
Reid, I am somewhat familiar with the book, but I have not read it. Sounds like great stuff though.
thank you for sharing this
Much respect for the clear presentation.
Hoping to steal the idea and develop it a little to our culture/style here, which is slightly different.
Post of the year!
Simpliest church plan I have seen in a while. May God bless it.
This is very helpful and memorable. However, I think there’s an essential element left out in the way the square is unpacked — we ought to be engaging the culture in terms of our ordinary callings as teachers, brick-layers, policemen, engineers, and so on. “Participation” is more than being involved in leisure activities and shopping; it involves exercising dominion in our everyday lives. “Restoration” is also addressed to some degree by ordinary callings as we seek to remedy the effects of sin and sinful thinking in our areas of service and influence.
The image is so small that I can’t make out the fine print, so it’s possible that some of this is covered there. I look forward to seeing more detail.
Joe:
Love the way you’ve fleshed this out. The four areas of engagement in The Square are awesome.
How do you see flow happening between the three components?
And I guess I’ve been in a traditional church too long, but…. where would Sunday School fit in?
Rob
Rob,
In terms of flow, everything stems our of the Pulpit. For us our weekly gathering for corporate worship is critical to who we are. It is our most important gathering. (I know we are so old school). We gather together as God’s people to glorify him with one voice through the word, the sacraments, singing, etc. From this gathering we return to our homes to practice hospitality and are sent into the world as bearers of good news.
We don’t do Sunday School, but if we did it would fall under our Discipleship System in the Pulpit (triangle). All of our classroom settings as the gathered church fit there.
Joe:
Thanks for the quick response….I didn’t know if would you put it there or categorize it as a small group.
What do you see the purpose of Sunday School to be?
Do you see it functioning as an open group or a closed group?
How are you distinguishing between Discipleship System and small groups? By where they meet? or by their purpose?
I’m really anxious to read the various papers you reference. (I’d even be interested to see your notes at this point.)
Thanks for sharing all this here! And for letting us bug you with questions.
Rob
The Discipleship System is the organized teaching/instruction of the church. This is more of a classroom setting.
Small groups (”home groups” for us) are different from Sunday School in that they typically meet in member’s homes, are intentionally smaller than many SS classes, and not only include teaching, but extended times of prayer, sharing of life etc. Small groups are about building community as much as they are about teaching. The Disc. Sys. is about instruction.
Stan, thanks for the comment. Sorry my spam catcher caught your comment.
Good word brother, and I agree with your thoughts. Our work would be included in “Participation.” I could have included that here specifically, and much more is explained on that subject, but I tried to keep it paired down for the sketch. I may wind up including that in an updated sketch. Also, download the PDF to be able to read the whole thing in detail.
thanks for sharing your work, Joe…you’re an inspiration. are you willing to share the papers listed in the diagram?
a belated welcome to Club Mac. what are you using for bible software?
see you in a couple weeks…look forward to meeting you at long last.
Thanks for your hard work, and yes, I will be stealing your ideas too. Don’t worry, I will give you credit.
I noticed that you refer to some specific papers in the outlines. Do you plan to publish them too, or do we have to wait for the book?
I love this Joe. Thanks…
Joe,
You’ve done something very well here that is very difficult: you’ve made the simple understandable but did not make it simplistic. “Doing church” on one hand is very simple…love God and love others…but the “how” to do that gets very complex and often messy fast. Your diagram does a great job of not only answering “what” but “how” and “why.” Again great job.
Quick question…on the diagram you refer to ‘papers’ in each of the big boxes. Where can those be found?
Thanks!
Mike
Excellent Joe! On a fairly mundane note, what is the font used that looks like hand writing?
Marc
Marc, the font is “James Fajardo.” You can find it at dafont.com.
The papers currently exist in outline form but will be available as papers soon.
Joe, this is such helpful, thought provoking stuff. I was looking it over and asked “what would I call table, pulpit, square for Jacob’s Well – then I though “the home, the church, the city” then I looked down and saw your small labels already there.
Anyway, I appreciate you guys’ work. One thing I thought might be worthy of making the napkin is the sacraments/ordinances…
Thanks again
great pardigm, very stimulating; I particularly enjoyed the fact that the redemptive approach was included (restauration)in the mission of the church.
Pastor Jean-Luc Tabailloux, Grenoble, France
where are those papers you mention in the full paradigm sketch ? I d like to read them.
JL Tabailloux