Flippin Congregations and Flippin Cells

Flippin’ Congregation

When we begin to see the church in a city as one church then, at that point, we might be at the start of the journey where in reality the church is still made up of lots of local churches with all kinds of different internal structures and beliefs, or we might be a long way down the path where some of those churches have visibly come together and have recognised Ephesians 4 ministries as serving one church which has one vision, one eldership etc, but nevertheless still meet as one congregation in their local part of the city. Wherever we are on the road marked unity, we will be beginning to see that a city church is too large and too general to have any real connection to the people in smaller parts of the community. This is where we need to understand the dynamic of local congregations.

On Sundays congregations look much like any church would look now. They are the local gathering of Christians to worship and do the Sunday stuff. But they are also the expression of Christ in that particular housing estate or shopping centre etc. They would use existing church buildings or school halls or community centres or anywhere they could find to fit into. The difference is that they would be local people who shared a common location with all its needs and opportunities. What’s more the members of that congregation need not stay there if the expression of worship wasn’t accessible for them, because somewhere else within the same church in the city there would be somewhere where they could find a style of Sunday worship which was their cup of tea. 

Nevertheless, they could still serve the immediate community where they live and also be free to follow their calling and passion in ministry around the city if it wasn’t already embedded in that congregation.

The size of a congregation would depend on the density of the local population and available gathering space. However for the church to be represented in every part of the city, a congregation would probably not grow above a couple of hundred adults before it multiplied to another area where some of these folk came from or multiplied to another congregation which met in the same place at another time. 

The further factor we need to think about when it comes to size of congregation is the human need to belong and be known. I mentioned earlier that mega churches have difficulty in getting members motivated to serve and tend to see only 10% of its church active in this way. The other 90% are hardly known by most people. Church growth research shows that 250 adults is the optimum size for everyone to feel known and feel that they know others and therefore decide to invest themselves in serving in that body. Its also the size that can maintain a good youth and children's Sunday work, worship choir etc.

Lets look at this model of congregation from four directions, an individual Christian, the local community, the city authorities and the church.

For the individual Christian a congregation means that they feel they belong and can give and receive in that congregation where possible, but also in the city through the wider church ministries. 

Their family make local friendships in church and are looked after well with the benefits of a much larger team within the city wide church supporting the planning, teaching, financial matters, and legal requirements like health and safety, child protection, employment law, etc, as well as being able to receive Ephesians 4 ministries and have city wide church eldership. They feel that their tithes and offering are being used across the city and can they join in ministries, which they feel called to, without feeling that they are betraying their local church or offending their minister. They don’t have to travel very far to worship and the people around them are also all fairly local. This last point is worth expanding on in terms of environmental issues too. Christians often love to talk about being green, but we travel miles to go to church on Sundays and are back for mid week stuff too. Its not uncommon to find close neighbours of mine travelling for nearly an hour to get to church two or three times a week. A few years ago there was a petrol tanker driver strike which caused severe shortages of fuel. It was amazing to see who turned up at our church over that period. People who usually travelled long distances to worship came to us and liked what they found, but sadly went back to the Christian commute when the strike was over! Its far too easy for individual Christians and families to separate their working life, home life and church life. Often this disjointed pattern frustrates Christians in that they don’t feel that they are able to live out the calling on their lives in all three areas. However, there are also occasions when this divorce leaves a temptation to live three different lifestyles where only the church one is recognisably Christian! Whilst commuting to work is mainly unavoidable for most people, we should be able to help families to at least worship and serve where they live.

The local community around a congregation see a welcoming, vibrant group of Christians who have good lasting relationships with each other and with those in the community. The people are blessed by the local expression of church through the acts of kindness and which appear to have resources beyond the immediate congregation. This ‘church’ they experience knows them and blesses them and is them in many ways, especially when they see the building that is used by the church also being boundary-less for the immediate community. The church on their doorstep are not strangers driving in from miles away and blocking their streets on Sunday mornings, they are folk who they can relate to. 

Contact with this local congregation through one door leads to a wealth of other opportunities to be blessed by the ministries the church has to offer. They see the church as united and loving. In fact the church avoids the old cliche of shooting itself in the foot by talking about love and reconciliation, but not talking to the group of Christians in the next street. A recent example of this on a very small scale was the ALPHA course which was run in our local community a while ago. An Anglican church, a Baptist church with two separate congregations and our church’s two congregations got together to run an ALPHA course in 4 different venues and at 4 alternative times. Our evangelist spoke at our combined launch supper with cabaret from the Anglican church which was hosted by the Baptist church. Our evangelist taught at the first 3 weeks at all four venues and I was the speaker at the Holy Spirit day away. Regardless of which church the guest had been invited by they chose a course to attend and joined whichever church they wanted after the course was complete. As far as I know no one from that course joined either of our church’s congregations, but several went to the other churches. Everyone on the course and many observers from other local churches and in the wider community commented that this is the way that the church should be. We know it, but we just don’t get on with it and take it to its God given, and called for, conclusion.

The city authorities see the local congregation as a means to interface with the whole of the local community. They are volunteers, advocates, and neighbourhood glue. However, for the large organisations like local government and the police etc, they have known faces to meet with at a city level through the church who can speak with authority and assurance. Recently the Chief Executive of Croydon Borough Council moved on to another post elsewhere in London. Before he left we asked him to address church leaders on how he perceived them. Even though we are only a short way down the road to unity he said that he had wanted three things from the church in Croydon and was seeing them happening. The first was that we spoke the truth to the local community, second we acted decisively when the council told us of a need, and the third was that we acted without judgement on either those in need or the local authority etc for not meeting that need themselves. Without a doubt, the city not only needs a church but it actually wants one.

The church in the city see the congregations as different expressions of itself in varied community environments. They are the eyes and ears of the church in all areas of the city and are the salt where it needs to be and not stuck in a salt pot. They are gathered groups of the church living and serving the vision with the resources God has given the whole church, without being controlled by a headquarters. Often the congregation is a non Christian's first experience of a church gathering for fun, worship, fellowship or serving. The church knows that the congregations are where the day to day work of the church really happens.

Flippin’ Cells

Whilst a city wide church with congregations of 100-300 people meeting weekly in local communities is a great way to see the church functioning in ways that release it to be the ekklesia, it is well known that people need a few good relationships to feel that they are valued and loved. For years the church has looked for models which help groups of about 12 adults to meet during the week for a combination of worship, prayer, fellowship, serving, evangelism and teaching. But the reality is that the real benefit of these groups is that they give individuals a close group of Christian friends to meet with on a regular basis at a much deeper level. 

If congregations of the church meet in a fairly clear geographical area then cells can be formed of folk who can almost be at street level. I recently counted the families in my street who go to any kind of church. Of the fifty or so houses, I know of seven families who belong to seven different churches! 

In the part of Croydon where I live, the eight local churches use Lent as an opportunity to hold ecumenical study groups. One of the consistent remarks by those who have taken part in the Lent groups is how good it is to meet regularly with other Christians regardless of their denomination. Can you imagine the effect on a local street if seven out of fifty homes came together weekly to pray etc? An added bonus would be the change in that street’s community feel. Pot holes in roads repaired, street parties, gardening for elderly neighbours, shopping for sick friends, watch each others properties when away, all and more become a natural outreach from the local group. 

Of course one of the reasons that many Christians would not want a very local home group might be that its hugely challenging to practice our faith with those who live closest to us, who park across our drive or have noisy parties! But isn’t that where Jesus would want us to be? 

In the UK today we are facing the prospect of many local authorities running out of sufficient finances to do an awful lot of the things that they once did. The welfare state, including the National Health Service, has been a wonderful thing but a negative byproduct has been that we have developed a sense that the local authority should take care of everything. As the state finds it harder to provide, it leaves a wonderful opportunity for the church to step up and be great neighbours. 

Another way small groups can work is around a common interest. Someone with a passion for script writing, photography, or car mechanics taking a servant role in bringing together a few like minded Christians who then, in turn, serve others in the community who hold similar interests. Whether the cells are street fellowships or common interest groups they fulfil our human desire for good close relationships and are very intimate ways of being salt and light. They are also excellent vehicles for communication from the big city wide church to grass routes Christianity and vice versa.