Cliques Within Church and Enfolding A Newcomer Into Church

Part 2A: Write a 400 - 500, word description of the positive and negative aspects of cliques in the church

A clique or a primary group within a church is a group that has a “significant and prolonging common history” – John Wimber, in other words; a group of people that have developed together and become a church, or the bulk of the church, that is sixty – eighty members in size.

The primary group’s main priority is control and it will become very hesitant if it grows beyond eighty adults in population per Sunday as it means that they do not have the control that they used to have. A primary group will continue to function even if there are spectators eagerly waiting to join into the group and the group is happy to stay together and stay secure, even if it has to deny members because they want total control.

A primary group can have a lot of information about each other giving off the idea that they are close; however they will not be intimately close as they are not able to get that information out of the person as there is very little intimate contact. They can get information about each other, but not from each other.

A primary group has a very strong territorial identity, and are heavily influenced by their culture of the community that they are apart of. This gives the member security, a great sense of belonging and acceptance, often held together by blood ties, traditions and friendships. Overall they are very strong, but hard to grow.

This great desire of security hardens the primary group. This often distorts the direction that they bare wanting to go. Inevitability the majority if the group does not want to move anywhere, their great desire for security and comfort has beached them, making it impossible for them to move with Jesus Christ as he moves. This contrasts to the “Centred Set” model, one that gives the idea that people, and the group, should moving with Christ, but rather it portrays the “Bounded Set”, one that has strict boundaries and has high priority on numbers and statistics. This sadly, means that if Christ wants to move in the church, the fact that they are so caught up in their clique of security means that they do not leave their hearts vulnerable enough for the Holy Spirit to work with, and therefore results in their group dying or disbanding: because being is more important than doing.

Another negative aspect of cliques is the fact that primary groups struggle to grow. This is mainly because they are uncomfortable with any growth into numbers that are out of their control. A Primary group is ultimately going to heaven, but presently, in the time now, they want to sleep. They do not desire to move and extend the Kingdom, something that Jesus sent us out to do: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”[1]. Consequently the Church does not grow, as the group is happy as they are.

But how can we help these groups? We have to educate them, show them that the way that they are running their church is stalling the growth of the Kingdom of the Father. We have to mobilize them, give them a direction and realign them to point towards Jesus Christ, and to follow him as a church in obedience to his words.

Part 2B: Write a 400-500 word description of “Enfolding Newcomers into a Church”. Include your reasons for choosing the topic.

The average size of a church worldwide is fifty-five people attending on a Sunday morning or evening, often thirty adults and twenty-five children. These churches are primary groups, cliques that form because the people within the group are comfortable with each other, secure with the number involved, and the relationships are strong so there is no need for another one. These ‘closed cliques’ often repel new visitors and careful consideration needs to be taken in a church in re-evaluating how they address a newcomer. One should also see it from the visitor’s perspective. First impressions really do count for so much and that is reason why I decide to study this topic.

Visitors notice faults and flaws in the congregation and service generally in the first three visits that they have. The faults may be very minor to the members but for the newcomer every mistake sticks out. Therefore it is very important to view the congregation and service from their eyes and see how welcome the service really is to a newcomer.

Newcomers always hang around the visitor books and the information\sale table. This is because they arrive early to make sure that they are not late and that they have a space, however the congregation hover in cliques and socially attract to their friends, this leaves the visitor alone and therefore they go to the table to do something with their hands. It is very important that the church employs a system for which there is always someone at the table to start conversation with the visitor, to make them feel welcome. A friend of mine Paul Arram said to me the reason that he loved Vineyard so much was that the first time he went to the Vineyard service three people introduced them selves to him and asked for his name, the next week they all remembered it. It was this welcoming and inclusion that attracted him so much. A visitor should not in any regard be ignored during the service, someone from the congregation needs to, at least once, strike conversation with the newcomer. However there is balance between ignoring and overwhelming the newcomer

God delivers gifts to benefit situations, and certainly he distributes gifts into people for the benefit of the congregation. One of these gifts is a warm and welcoming personality. It is important that the leaders of the church discover the people with these personalities and allow that gift to open up to the visitors. Use God’s gifts to minister to visitors.

The first six months are crucial for the newcomer as it is important during this period that they make at least seven friends. Either they need to be approached by someone, or the cliques within the church are too closed for the newcomer to gain any true friendships. Cliques are a part of human behaviour and cannot be stopped form happening, they can be good or bad. They are good when they provide a sound network of relationships through the church, one that welcomes the visitors and provides relationship building. However once they become closed to visitors they are dangerous and repel newcomers.

Personally the greatest priority that the congregation needs is too make sure the visitors know the values and beliefs that the church holds and to not impose a cultish behaviour onto them, that is; welcoming them with friendship and love and then have the teachings and beliefs introduced to them. A church has to be open with their beliefs, giving the visitor an honest choice whether to come back. Leaning into cult behaviour is a very dangerous thing for a church.

The reason I chose this topic is because lately I have become aware on the impact of the first visit from a newcomer, and I want to understand the mindset of the newcomer, so that next time one arrives at our church door I can introduce them effectively, hopefully to bring them to Christ through the help of a fellowship we create at the service.

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[1] Matthew 28:19

The Most Powerful Light

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, intended to collide opposing beams of protons (one of several types of hadrons) with very high Kinetic energy. That means it speeds particles up, in this case protons, to nearly light speed, and then makes them collide! BOOM! and apparently, make a scale version of the big bang, says everyone, WRONG! they are not making the big bang. how could that happen? the main purpose is to test the limitations of the Standard Model, a theory that describes three of the four known fundamental interactions among the elementary particles that make up all matter, that is, very small things that make up what the world is. They are looking for the missing piece of the puzzle that is currently denying their theory of the big bang. This little piece is called the Higg particle, also named the 'God' Particle

It's funny cause in my mind Physics doesn't answer the question for me, instead is proves the answer that i already know. That answer is God.

How many of you know that God said "let there be light"? probably most of you. Genesis 1:3, have a look. Now all this talk about the big bang has got me thinking. The big bang theory suggests that the universe expanded from a very hot and dense state, and is still expanding. Now coming back to God, lets have a look at what he did, he made light on earth, before anything else. not only does that suggest the metaphorical nature of light, but also the literal physical need for light to be made first. And it is those two things that i have been researching and has been on my heart for quite a while now.

I believe that God used his own laws of Physics to create the universe, not special God laws, but the laws of physics that we know and learn today. Now I'm not saying that man knows all these laws and is equal to God, on the contrary, there is numerous phenomena that Man and science cannot explain. Perhaps laws we don't know yet? This is why i believe this:

The First thing God said is "let there be light". We all now that, we understand that. Now what e=mc2 means is that energy is proportional to the amount of mass times the speed of light squared, hence the mc2. The speed of light is massive by the way: 299 792 458 meters per second... Now square that.. You see what I'm saying :D

This is the fundamentals of a nuclear bomb works: e=mc2. That is why it is so powerful! you're taking a heavy dense object and using the squared speed of light to make a massive amount of energy!

But what is energy? well it turns out that light has a direct relationship to energy!! Now take the equation e=mc2 and turn it backwards, say we had a massive amount of energy, what would happen? Would it turn into a very dense and hot state? huh? maybe it will, I think so...

...What I am saying is that God used the perfect amount of energy and his own perfect laws to create an expanding matter state that is our universe.. how do you prove that it's is still expanding? Very simple. You know that noise that happens when a formula-one car races past you? Do you notice the sudden change in the sound? like VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR -UUUUUM. That, my friend, is the Dopple effect, and it is also used to measure how far a planet or star is away from us by something called 'Red Shift'. Red and Blue shift is the change in Wavelength. That means that the length changes in the light wave. When a light wave has blue shift is means the wavelength is decreasing, so it is coming closer to you. However when a light has Red shift it means the wavelength is increasing, meaning that it is getting further away from you... However, it is more complex than that. The red shift is not directly proportional to the increase in distance, in fact the galaxies are not moving purely because of the speed they have, instead the space around them is stretching with them- The universe is expanding.

What i am saying is that God used the perfect amount of energy with his perfect physical laws to create the perfect universe, then he waited until he found the perfect planet that was the perfect distance from the closest star to create a perfect world with water, land, and animals.. Isn't God perfect?

Now what is the metaphorical significant of Light? The bible talks numerously about the light. The one fact that I hold very close to me is the fact that Darkness is the absence of Light. Dark only prevails when there is no light to overpower it. Light a candle in a dark room and the darkness does not at any point overwhelm the candle. For instance, the candle cannot be put out by the darkness, in fact the darkness is put out by the candle. This is why Jesus speaks about our "light" in the gospels. if we hide our light under a basket we are doing the Devils works for him. He wants our light to be extinguished and he cannot do that himself. Because light cannot be put out by darkness, but he uses other things to do that, like anger, depression, pride, and lust. Jesus needs our light to light up the dark places of the world, for as long as people are in darkness they cannot see God, they cannot see the true nature of what Jesus really means, they need the light of Jesus to open their eyes.

Jesus is the light and we are called to walk with him in that light: "But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus" - 1John 1:7. We all have darkness in us, to say that we have no darkness in us is deceiving ourselves and that is foolish and untruthful. Therefore because we have darkness in us we need the light of Jesus to come into us and remove that darkness, for as long as there is light there is no darkness, remember Darkness is the absence of Light.

Darkness cannot prevail if we have light in us, that Light is Jesus, and by walking with him we create a fellowship with the greatest, brightest and most powerful Light in the universe. The Light that created everything, and the Light that heals everything.

Just a thought
Shalom!

Shaun

Spiritual Gifts and Sociological Aspects

Part 1A: Outline some of the points in Gary Best’s and Peter David’s discussion of spiritual gifts in your notes that interest you most. Add in your own comments and thoughts on these points

Gary Best and Peter Davids, in “Theology for Spiritual Gifts”, produced sound points of the workings of spiritual gifts. The first important point in this message is the relevance of the message to the Corinth Church, one that is “largely Gentile with strong, recent pagan practice and ethics”; in 1 Corinthians Paul attempts to perform “radical surgery without killing the patient” to the Behaviour and attitudes of the Corinth community.

The first point that catches my attention, in “Theology for Spiritual Gifts”, is Gary Best and Peter Davids writings on the body metaphor that Paul talks about to the Corinthians. One point that I found significant in this is that Paul used a medium that was powerful to anyone hearing it: The Human Body. Paul uses the Body metaphor to impose the idea of “Diversity within Unity”, that all gifts are different but are “perfectly united” in the cause of Jesus Christ and extending the kingdom of God. Paul related this to the church by saying “A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial”[1]. This can be seen very easily in my own Youth group. For the past two years we have had interns that are great leaders within the church, however this year the intern is a great server for the church and has no will to lead. This shows that variety of gifts that God gives to the church. Paul also speaks of the necessity of diversity, for if all parts were identical there would be no body at all, this can be brought back to our intern; If the entire work force were leaders then there would be nobody to serve and the goal would not be achieved. The final point in chapter II “Diversity within Unity”, which grabs my attention, is point E which addresses the need of the Corinthians to “desire the greater gifts”[2] and that diversity should not discourage you to eagerly seek to gifts of God. This is very important within vibrant youth through which I work with; they desire new and more powerful experiences with God.

Another point that catches my attention is how the people of Corinth receive the spiritual gifts. Because there is two different views on receiving spiritual gifts: a) one member one gift, and b) gifts given in gatherings, the distribution of these gifts can range from manifestations of the holy spirit in a group (to assign different ‘roles’ in the group by sovereign choice of God), situation individual anointing (One-time gifts for the individual), and gifts resulting from ministries (gifts discovered and developed through ministry), this last one can be seen in my own life, as I discovered my gift for public speaking I developed it with God, through ministry, and have taken several sermons for our youth and communion at our Sunday evening congregation. It is important to note for each of these distributions there are three common factors that Gary Best and Peter Davids point out: Grace, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us”[3], Faith, “If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith”[4], and Co-operation, our hearts should be set toward loving and serving God and others though our giftedness.

In Conclusion, Paul relates the workings of spiritual gifts to the human body, an easy relatable comparison. Diversity within unity is necessary to make sure the body runs as efficiently as possible, and although there are different views and actions that the Holy Spirit takes to deliver these spiritual gifts, they all hold three things in common: Grace, Faith, and Co-operation.

Part 1B: Describe various sociological models of the local church

Sociological models aim to describe the group dynamics of a community and how an individual would see him/herself within that group. These models, hopefully, give us a clear indication on the different aspects on church life and the functions surrounding it.

The first model is the “Fuzzy Set”. This model is a free-for-all environment, completely “laid back” and at it’s worst some-what anarchic and out of control. In these models the people each do their own thing, and pull in their own direction, leaving no defined goal for the group. In church life, this model can be reflected on a congregation that has no, or very weak, leadership. Therefore there is no direction, no cohesion and no structure. It can be associated with the description of Israel in the book of Judges: “in those days Israel had no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes”[5]. These sorts of groups are often a reaction to an extremely autocratic church and while they might be appealing in comparison, they do not usually achieve much due to the lack of unity around a specific purpose.

The second model is the “Bounded Set”. This model represents the opposite of the “Fuzzy-Set”, it is strongly ordered, structured and control driven view of society, and because this model represents the way many churches are ‘run’, characteristics can be easily described. The leadership is centred on one leader, the pastors, whose style and ideas are usually dominant and often leads the congregation praising, and in extreme, idolising the pastor. Boundaries create an exclusivist policy, and everything is seen forma right and wrong perspective with low tolerance. This leads to a we/they and in/out mentality, inducing guilt and praising performance within the congregation. The Pastor and leaders of the church in this model have a parent child relationship where the children are to achieve the pastor’s vision. The people of the congregation (children) are identified from being in and right, the sense of wroth and value is from being a good member and hard worker within the church. This model places high value on numbers and statistics and not necessarily on the well being of the people within the church.

The final model is the “Centred Set”. This model is completely different form the previous two and is not a compromise in anyway, but a frame of reference that is responsibly liberating to the people. This model has no boundaries, rather a moving centre that people are either moving towards or away from. In a healthy church, the centre would be Jesus Christ. People are either drawn in by the values of the church or being repelled from them. The vision and value that is in the centre is lived out and not just spoken about. The leadership is a team effort not an individual approach, as

each leader leads by example, at the front lines, instilling the basic values into the church by modelling them. Relationships are adult to adult as the people are treated as individuals, whose identity comes from within, from his relationship with the Lord. This creates a relational environment from which evangelism can occur through friendship and relationship. This model is motivated by the love of the Lord, the acceptance of the people and nurturing the congregation in the Lord.

These three models each portray three different sociological models of community. The Vineyard Church takes pride in following the “Centred Set”, as we align Jesus Christ into the centre and are attracted by his values. We grow in the Lord as we take responsibility for ourselves, advancing as a church through simple acts of obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ.

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[1] 1 Corinthians 12:7

[2] 1 Corinthians 12:31

[3] Romans 12:6a

[4] Romans 12:6b

[5] Judges 17:6

Did You Know?

Authorized Chaos
It's all around,
Hollow leadership
Hidden Underground

The Choice isn't yours
Yet you will choose,
The better of Two Evils
You'll always Lose

Yet God has a Plan
A plan that Prevails
The Saviour that is pierced
By Three Undeserved Nails

Then one Virgin Girl
Gave birth one old Night
When three specks in dark
Shone out oh so Bright

As the world grows black
When man had no hope
Our Saviour came through
Just a staff and a cloak

Did you know?

That He died for us?
When the Crack-Whip-Struck
And Back-Bone Tore
As the Nails drove Through
While the Tears flowed Through
And our Sins flowed Through
Into the man that died
Not by blade or by nail,
Oh no sir, oh no...
...My Saviour died BY me,
FOR me

The Ball

Just came back from our Youth Ball for Shore Vineyard's Youth. it flippin' ruled!! you know it ruled cause there's a high chance you went to it..

It was sooo cool... it had a Mobster theme so Dan was walking around paying people to do stuff in his high class suit may i add.. but ye was really good. all the girls looked fantastic and all the guys looked super fly for white guys and everyone with bowler hats was awesome!!

one suggestion: More R&B, not cause it's cool. but it's fun laughing and making fun of it... and ne-yo's awesome.... *cough*

Come next year if ya didnt come this year and i actually cant wait till next year. gonna be mean!!! wasn't the prank on Dan's Joel's and Calv's car halierious. pretty funny ae... HAHAHA good times GREAT times..

But ye. was so much. flipping ruled..

Have a great one
Shaun

Problem of Evil

The "Problem of Evil" is a philosophical stumbling block for many people. Since the empirical evidence for creation, and therefore a Creator, is stunning, many atheists attack biblical creation on philosophical grounds because they look around them and see all of creation... The primary questions atheists ask are: "If God is real, and God created everything, why did He create evil?" "Why did a personal, loving God create a world in which evil exists?" "Why did God give man freedom to commit evil acts?" Atheists reason, "Surely, an all-knowing God of love would not allow evil to exist in His world."

The response to this often bind bending question is summed up in God's nature and His desire for mankind. Look at the logic: How could God allow for love without the potential for evil? God could have created robots that do nothing more than forever say, "I love you, I love you, I love you." But such creatures would be incapable of a real love relationship. Love is a choice, and the Bible says God desires a real love relationship with His creation.

Love is not real unless was have the ability to not love.

One of God's attributes is omniscience. God knew that in a world with choice, there would be much evil -- to choose not to love is evil by definition. However, there would also be the capacity for real love.

Philosopher Alvin Plantinga writes, "An all loving, all powerful, all knowing Being could permit as much evil as He pleased without forfeiting His claim to being all loving, so long as for every evil state of affairs He permits there is an accompanying greater good".

The potential for love out weighs the existence of evil, especially if evil can only exist for a time. Evil is a side effect of love. Suffering and death are a side effect of evil (Romans 5:12). God says in His Bible that this side effect is only for a time. Evil serves the limited purpose of establishing real love relationships between creation and the Creator, and evil will be done away with after that purpose is achieved. "And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever" (I John 2:17).

Just a thought...
Have a great one

Shaun