Oakes Ministries

INTRODUCTION

When we received the assignment for Developing a Missional Church, James Davis and I decided that we wanted to truly learn and understand how to create one.  As we began to choose the church we would study, we were looking for two basic criteria to be met.  First, we wanted to study a church that was supposedly missional (from an outside perspective); and second, we hoped to find a Nazarene church to study.   Using those criteria, there was one church which immediately came to mind. 

In a northern suburb of Denver, the ThornCreek church can be found.  Planted less then 10 years ago, this fast growing church provided all that was needed to study a missional-Nazarene church.  However, there were two concerns that surfaced from this choice, the first one being that we would have to travel rather far to study this church.  But James and I understood the importance of studying a firsthand account.  In all, the three hours on the road that day was worth it. 

However, the second concern was much more important.  You see, I was once a district licensed minister in the Colorado district until a group of men stripped it away from me.  The penalty seemed harsh at the time, but it has transformed me into a stronger leader and follower of Christ.  Anyway, the loudest voice in this group of men was Ruben Villarreal, (the pastor of ThornCreek Church).  That meeting was the first time I ever met Ruben, and I left the meeting with much bitterness toward this man who seemed to strip away my joy in serving the Lord.

Time heals most wounds.  As I heard more about ThornCreek church and the authentic faith that Ruben possessed, I was able to forgive Ruben for the pain he caused me and began to learn from my mistakes.   In the same way, Ruben was very hesitant to allow me to study his church for this reason.  Could I have truly forgiven him, or was I coming to be a thorn in his ministry?  Thankfully, after some initial conversations, Ruben gave us the green light to study his church.

This paper will revolve around the 14 aspects of a missional church that we have developed or learned about in class.  Even though I spent an entire day saturated in this ministry, I will try to jam-pack all of my findings within the 10 main interview questions that cultivate these missional aspects.  The actual interview took place on Monday the 13^th of October 2008. 

ASPECTS OF A MISSIONAL CHURCH

Missional churches hold their members accountable in ministry. 

A missional church creates high expectations for membership.  As for ThornCreek, the church provides two ways to accomplish this.  One way is in the creation of the churches’ “Seven Habits of a God Driven Life.”  This is a scriptural base of habits that every member strives for in their personal walk with Christ.  Every tangent of ministry that is connected with ThornCreek revolves around these habits.  Interestingly enough, they were created from scratch and can be visibly seen all around the church. 

Second, they internalize these habits in the completion of their membership classes which are called the “ThornCreek Trail Runs”.  Contextualized to Colorado, this series of classes are portrayed as hiking trails.   The three trails provide an increasing awareness about the church and discipleship.  The “Blue Run” informs people about the church and its ministry, while the “Green Run” focuses on how to get involved in the church.  Finally, a person is ready to take the “Red Run” which is more focused on discipling the individual.  Pastor Ruben is very passionate when expounding on this topic.  He states, “Your membership class communicates to your people how important it is to engage in your church.  Therefore, a one-hour membership class shows an individual that your church will not expect considerable commitment from them.”

The “Seven Habits of a God Driven Life” and the “ThornCreek Trail Runs” create a high expectation for membership at this church.  This has created a huge influx of volunteers and accountable members.  Ruben went on to explain that because of this, they will soon be hiring a Volunteer Development Director for the recruiting, assessing, training, placement, and follow-up of volunteers.

Missional churches strive for an authentic faith.

A missional church strives for an authentic faith.  Starting with the individual, an authentic faith quickly spreads to others.  In ThornCreek’s case, it started with Ruben.  Anyone who knows him can feel the love and grace of God.  Every aspect of his life is centered on a continuing attempt to be more Christ-like.  Ruben stated, “When you are real as a pastor, people catch on to that, and then it flows to your staff and to everyone around you.”  He went on to explain how he wanted to minimize the gap between the church and the real world.  He was animate when he declared, “We are not here to play church or go through the motions.” 

I was impressed when I arrived to attend his weekly staff meeting.  Every week around 9:30 am, the entire staff meets in the sanctuary to pray and worship God.  As I listened to their petitions and glorifications to God, I could only sit and hope that my future staff would do the same.  Obviously, ThornCreek Church provides fertile soil to grow an authentic faith.

Teaching in a missional church is applicational.

A missional church does not focus on the accumulation of biblical knowledge; rather it focuses on applicational and relevant methods of teaching that are biblically sound.  I believe this is because knowledge does not transform.  One of the main goals at ThornCreek is to prepare individuals for transformation in their lives.   Ruben believes that people do not want to remain the same; they are looking to experience God.   Surprisingly, the congregation has come to expect this during the service.  They are prepared to be challenged and are open to spiritual renewal.  However, Ruben reminds us, “None of us have it all together.”  In-fact, this attitude is why so many non-Christians and even atheists can be found in the church on Sunday.  Ruben’s method is to speak the Truth in love and to communicate that Truth in a fun and relevant way.  Ruben proclaims, “We talk about sin here, but there is a way to do it in love. And when people catch that, they receive it…Once they know your heart, they will receive the message a lot better.”  No matter if it is from the pulpit or in the classroom, ThornCreek church is applicational and transformational in its teaching.

Worship in a missional church constantly changes.

A missional church strives for “freshness” in its worship service.  This assists the congregation in retaining the message that is being presented.  When we arrived at this question, Ruben spent a considerable amount of time talking about his creative arts staff member.  I found myself pleasantly surprised to hear that this staff member (Dawn) even created a mission statement for her own area of ministry.  The mission of the ThornCreek creative arts department is “to creatively communicate the gospel in a memorable and transformidable way.”  Driven by the Word of God and working up to 35 hours a week, Dawn lays out the entire service.  As the production manager, she employs: dramas, skits, songs, props, and lighting to effectively portray the “big idea” for that service. 

In the same way, Ruben was excited as he shared about his worship team.  He shared, “We want to provide a worship service that makes it easy for the Holy Spirit to move.  When there are no distractions and the message is engaging, a casually-intentional feel allows the Holy Spirit to move more freely.”  I believe the worship at ThornCreek church is “fresh.”

Missional churches are outward focused.

A missional church is outward focused, and the ministry can identify tangible results.  The ThornCreek church decided early on to be outward focused by starting a pre-school.  Started solely by volunteers, these “ThornCreekers” (as they are called) sacrificed many months to effectively start a self-sustaining program.  Although the pre-school currently generates some income, that was never the primary intention of the church.  It is a way that the church can interact with the community.

Partnering with many businesses and ministries, the ThornCreek church does quite a bit of community projects.  Instead of holding a festival where people just come for the food, Ruben has taken the approach of directly meeting people’s needs.  Whether it is helping someone move their home or mowing a lawn, this biblical model for ministry is key in a growing church.

I believe that if a church is truly missional, then transformation should be taking place.

At ThornCreek, people are getting saved, baptized, and sanctified on a regular basis.  The way this information is tracked is by personal discussions and by an insert in the bulletin.  Ruben humbly proclaims, “People accept Christ just about every week.”  He goes on to share that the church averages around two baptisms a month.  As salvation is preached in every message, ThornCreek is outward focused in its ministry.

Missional churches “expect” to create positive change.

A missional church has a deep expectation to change the world for Christ.  Ruben has identified a simple method to inspire others to expect change.  He teaches, “We believe that transformation first happens in the individual and then it happens in their home.  By focusing on the lives of children, their experience of positive change will spill over into their home.”  ThornCreek church understands that it can impact the world by starting with the individual.  As change works from the individual to family, the family to community, and the community to world, God is then able to accomplish unimaginable things.  I believe that ThornCreek church not only expects to change the world, they are already doing it.

The actions of a missional church are driven by vision.

In a missional church, the decisions are all geared toward completing the purpose or goal of that ministry.  More often than not, when you ask a pastor what his church’s mission is, he will likely need to go to his filing cabinet and proudly pull out a dusty file.  Surprisingly, when I asked Ruben what the mission of ThornCreek was, he immediately declared: “The mission of ThornCreek church is to transform self-sufficient people into God driven people.”  Furthermore, he went on to explain how his ministry goal is to bring transformation to the hearts of those in his care. 

Ruben believes that transformation is not just a one-time occurrence, rather a continuous event.  He shares how he had a deep conviction for the many Christians who receive only a one time transformation during conversion and then go on to live in bondage to sin.  As for ThornCreek church, every decision and ministry is solely geared toward the continuous spiritual transformation of the individual.

Missional churches measure growth by their capacity to release.

A missional church is able to give away resources and people for the expansion of the Kingdom of God.  This includes planting new churches and supporting other ministries without expecting any return.  ThornCreek accomplishes this as they plan to sponsor a (third world) village.  Unlike many churches that send money periodically or a rare work-and-witness team, ThornCreek plans to make this village an extension of their ministry.  He goes on to say, “We will work with the Nazarene church in that village, and come along side them as a partner in ministry.  All of our work-and-witness trips will focus on assisting that church.  We will help them spiritually, educationally, in business, medically, and will help to plant churches around this foreign community.”  

Just by attending their staff meeting, I came across an example of how they are able to give to other ministries.  The church is in the process of providing many Thanksgiving meals for the families in a nearby elementary school.  Since the majority of the students are Hispanic, the church is inviting the local Hispanic church to participate in handing out the meals.  Truth be told, the Hispanic ministry will benefit greatly from this event. 

Although the plans are not in stone, ThornCreek will also plan on “birthing” a church close to home.  It will come forth from within the congregation and feel “ThornCreekish” in nature while intertwining the new unique culture.  The plan will be to train the new ministry staff by placing each member with their corresponding ThornCreek staff member.  This will grow the Kingdom and multiply the quality of ministry in the church plant.  

On a personal note, this would seem to be the weakest area of this missional church.  If they started with the concept of planting a church from the beginning, they may have already been able to plant a church.   Concedingly, every ministry cannot be perfect in every aspect of ministry; therefore, church planting would be a good area for this church to reflect on in their next leadership meeting.

Missional churches partner with different businesses and ministries.

If a church is going to impact a community, it must interact with that community.  ThornCreek accomplishes this by partnering with multiple businesses and ministries in the surrounding area.  The most effective business relationship that the church has is with a local printer.  As basically an extension of the ministry, this printer provides for all of the printed needs in the church.  This includes many billboards and postcards as well as the exquisite weekly bulletin.  Ruben shares about some of the mentorship that the church has received from larger churches.  He goes on to say, “You need to have a teachable spirit, and remain humble throughout your life in ministry.”  As for the local ministry partnerships that the church is developing, ThornCreek is working to develop a strong relationship to the Hispanic Nazarene church.  In all, this church provides a good example of how to partner in ministry.

Missional churches strive to contextualize their ministry.

A missional church is able to communicate the unchanging message in a language that the current culture can understand.  Ruben states, “The last thing I want is people to come to church and feel like there is this gap between who the church is and the world they live in.”  Therefore, ThornCreek church attempts to contextualize every area of ministry so that people can understand the message of God through the preaching, the worship, and the fellowship of the church.

On a side note, Ruben shares a great insight as to how he contextualizes his messages.  He challenges, “Write your sermon at Starbucks and look up to see the people that are there.  Ask yourself, ‘Would they listen to this?  Why would they stop and listen?”  He went on to share how it takes a lot of energy to contextualize your ministry on a weekly basis.  However, as the growth of the church reveals, it is worth it.  Not only that, I would dare to say that God demands it from all who share the Gospel.  ThornCreek is a church that contextualizes its ministry on a weekly basis.  The only stable concept in the entire church is that of the unchanging message of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Missional churches are led by the staff rather than the church board.

The ministry of a missional church is administered by the ministers in the church.  This concept may be hard for many church boards to understand.  Ruben states, “We are a staff-led or driven church that is accountable to the church board.  If the many decisions that need to be made went through the board, the church would not have experienced the growth that has happened.”  He continues, “This concept was intentional and was decided from the beginning.  It gives the freedom to risk, which many board members would never want to do.”  After this, Ruben goes on to share that this will only work when you do it from the conception of the church.  In a new church it seems natural because the church has never done it differently.  ThornCreek church is a staff-led church.

Missional churches depend on God as they take risks.

A missional church is able to take uncomfortable risks because they have faith in God that His plan is greater than our understanding.  ThornCreek provides a great example of how they have been able to take risks in the past.  When they hired their staff, they had nearly no one in that specific area to minister to.  They had five kids when they decided to hire a children’s pastor and eight teens when they hired a youth pastor.  As I chatted with Ruben about this concept, he spoke great words of wisdom.  He said, “Capital always follows vision, vision never follows capital.”  In reality, Ruben understood that to grow is to risk.  Once a church stops taking risks, the church starts the process of ending its lifecycle.  The ThornCreek church is a church that is able to take risks for the expansion of the Kingdom of God. 

Missional churches have no shortage of transformational testimonies.

A missional church has a continuous supply of fresh testimonies of spiritual renewal and transformation in the lives of the congregation.  Ruben is visibly joyful of the resources that his church provides him in ministry.  ThornCreek engages these testimonies in the morning service.  With video editing and a wonderful staff to compile the information, the giving of testimonies is seamless in the service.  I believe the first biblical method has always been the most effective method wherein broken people sharing their experiences of life-altering experiences with God.  ThornCreek is a church that shares the transformation of others on a consistent basis.

A missional church has an effective weekly meeting.

A missional church invests in the importance of preparing for ministry.  This is best accomplished in a weekly staff or leadership meeting.  I was amazed at the efficiency and intentionality of the staff meeting at ThornCreek.  Four main questions were asked and discussed.  First, “What did God do this week?”  Second, “What new people do we need to be aware of?”  Third, “What are the needs that we need to be aware of?”  Fourth, “What do we need to improve on?”  In my opinion, any church that begins to answer these questions on a weekly basis will begin the process of growth.

After these questions were discussed, the staff focused on leadership training and other orders of business.  Overall I was very impressed and excited when this meeting was over.  A group of people working toward the same goal as a unified body is beautiful to behold.  On a side note, the church invested in a wonderful database that is integrated into their website.  This powerful tool is indispensible to a growing church.  ThornCreek is growing in part because they have an effective weekly meeting.

CONCLUSION

If I were to choose the three most important things in creating a missional church, I would choose the following.  First, the church must hold to an authentic faith.  This initially begins within the leader.  As it spreads to the rest of the church, everything else begins to fall into place.  Second, the church must empower its laity.  Everyone is called to proclaim the message of Christ.  Maybe not on a professional level, but all followers of Christ should be involved in ministry.  If they are not, they are not following Christ; they are just sitting around.  And third, the church must contextualize its ministry.  If we are to reach the lost, we must understand the ever-changing culture of the lost, and reveal to them the un-changing Message. 

On a personal note, this situation has really convicted me on leading an authentic Christian life.  By spending any time around men like Ruben, the presence of the Holy Spirit and a love for others is revealed.  His faith is not a manufactured faith, but one of humble service to God.  As I continue my journey through sanctification, I pray that one day I will have such an authentic faith.  For now I understand, if I am to have an effective/growing ministry in the future, it will deeply depend on my personal life.

When the interview was done, I asked Ruben one final question.  I asked, “What have you taken away from this experience?”  He answered, “I am learning to have faith and believe that people can truly change and forgive one another.”  I knew that he was talking about me.  Well I can wholeheartedly say that I have forgiven him and the rest of those involved in the removal of my license.  The great part is that I could not have learned any of the wonderful insights that were taking place at ThornCreek without this forgiveness.  Praise be to God that He gives us the grace to change and the Spirit to guide us on our journey.  I can honestly say that I have learned more about ministry while completing this assignment than in all of my other studies.  I pray that I will one day be able to implement some of these basic missional concepts in my future ministries.  Thank you, ThornCreek church, for the opportunity to share in your ministry.