Step 5 : From Monologue Teaching to Dialogue Teaching Just by way of preface, we need to say something important : Teaching must happen in the church. It’s not a church if teaching is not present. So before someone thinks of a small gathering as just a social “chit-chat” community, we need to make sure… Read More »From Monologue to Dialogue Part 2
The church needs to realise that the Western world has dramatically shifted. It has gone from a Central Culture to a Wide Margin Culture. This means that the way we do church is not the best and most missional, biblical, and disciple-making way of doing church. We have looked at 4 steps in becoming a… Read More »From Monologue to Dialogue
This session will continue on from our first part. The crucial Step 4 is for a church to go from a Clergy-led Ministry to a Laity-led Ministry. This one will continue on looking at another 5 points. 4. Laity-led Ministry is Family rather than Business One picture that constantly comes up for church is that… Read More »From Clergy to Laity part 2
For small independent house churches the inevitable question keeps coming up : Who is running the church? What about Pastors? Won’t it all fall apart? This is a legitimate question and one that we need to assess in two sessions. I believe this next step that the Wide Margin Church is to take is the… Read More »From Clergy to Laity
At the end of last session we were left looking at the church as a A Small gathering (10-20), Meeting in homes.But that just leaves one with a description of something called “Cell Church”. The Cell church model is this idea that you will have little gatherings that meet in homes, but they are collectively… Read More »From Centralization to Decentralization
We have seen that the western world has changed dramatically. It has become much like a Wild West, where many cultures have exploded into one location doing their own thing. Yet, throughout this change the church has continued to do church in the same way. This series, called Wide Margin, is to show a new,… Read More »From Halls to Homes
We have seen that the cultural field has changed from a Central field to a Margin field. The problem is that much of how we do church has been built into a central way of thinking. But instead of the church changing to connect with the culture of the day, they have continued in the… Read More »From Few to Many
The world has changed. The map is different. But the church will continue. Christ is still king. In this new Wide Margin World the church needs to figure out how to do church. In the West, we have been doing church a similar way. That may have worked for the last few hundred years, but… Read More »Create a Space
Even though the Western world has no more “centre” that doesn’t mean there are no more “central entities”. What do these entities want? They want to create a centre again. I call these groups “central wolves” In this session I will define the top 8 central wolves that still lurk in our fragmented culture. I… Read More »Central Wolves
The world has dramatically changed. There is no longer one culture, but many cultures in the same area. What does this mean? There is no central hub. No common sense. Welcome to the world we live in today : The Wide Margin. But how did we get here? We have been dealing with the culture… Read More »The Cultural Shift
Jesus told Christians to be “in the world”. We cannot leave it to its own devices. But at the same time, we are not to be “of the world”. We need to be separate from the culture but at the same time to be connected with the culture. How do we do this? How can… Read More »The 2 Parts of Culture