|
| ||
 | | |
© Trinity Community Church 2007 — All Rights Reserved
Next Wave Unlimited
next wave - unlimited/may 2006
blessing
I think we would all agree that God has poured out a huge blessing at Trinity over the years. So much so, that we have found our container for His blessing has been too small. Whether it was our old buildings, the school or even our new facility, God has outgrown our expectations every time.
Even when we unveiled our proposed Next Wave expansion from November 2004, it became clear within six months that it was too small. We had made no provision for adult space in that proposed expansion, and it became clear to us that to proceed to construction for the Next Wave vision without accommodating more adult growth would be irresponsible.
What is God doing? What is He saying? That’s the question we’ve been sincerely asking over the last twelve months as elders, staff and leaders.
drive
As we’ve grown in size, we’ve also grown in scope. People now drive up to two hours to come to Trinity on Sunday mornings. Attempts to send them to churches in their communities – even great churches in their communities – are met with the phrase “but it’s not what God is doing through you.” We simply try to create an environment where all people can move into life-change in Jesus Christ, even if they have no background. Clearly, that is having an impact larger than we expected.
vision
As we have puzzled over what God might be saying to us, we have come to believe that God is elevating our vision to a kingdom of God level. What if we extended our passion for God’s people beyond people we knew and communities near us? What if God was calling us to care about people we may never meet in places we may never visit?
What if God was actually calling us to play a part in leading a generation of people into life change in Jesus Christ? What if God’s vision was bigger than ours? What if God was sending us people from Toronto and Muskoka and North Bay to show us that his passion for people goes way beyond normal geographic boundaries that restrict congregations.
opportunity
Over the last decade, a new type of ministry has emerged called “multi-site’” ministry. The premise: using technology, one congregation, can have several sites. The idea is to have one church, but multiple locations. As the elders have studied this idea, we have become convinced that this is an opportunity that God is opening before us.
In addition to building onto our current campus in Oro, if we opened a Toronto location or a Muskoka location, we could also reach the people of those cities using our current ministry model.
Unlike a traditional church plant with a local site pastor who preaches and local elders who lead, a multi-site church keeps leadership and communication centrally vested. Sermons would be video-cast to locations, and there would be one government out of the original church governing all sites. This helps address a major factor among church plants today. Eighty percent of congregations that begin today fail because of a lack of leadership and lack of communication.
Through technology, Trinity becomes a “reproducible” experience. Like Starbucks, through multi-site the other campuses would have the same environment, the same experience and even the same message.
While worship, small groups and many things would be live at the local site, the teaching would come from the main campus as would decisional leadership.
exponential
While we will expand the local campus as planned and beyond the original plan of Next Wave, adding multiple locations exponentially expands the Kingdom. Even if we were to build a ten thousand seat auditorium in Oro, it would not reach people in North Bay, London or Toronto. They wouldn’t drive to us. By going to them, not just hundreds or thousands in Oro could be reached, but hundreds and even thousands in different communities can see lives changed too. Multi-site answers the question that hundreds of people have asked us over the years: how come I can’t have a church like this one in my community for my family and my friends?
challenges
No vision worth embracing comes without risk or cost. We would need to discuss this honestly with our denomination. No one has ever done this before, and it would test the boundaries of Presbyterian culture and polity. They may embrace it, or it may become clear that multi-site within the PCC is not viable.
Since the denomination owns our building and our assets, that could mean a whole new beginning for us, one our leadership team is willing to risk for the sake of the Kingdom of God. We believe in eternity, we will look back and wish we had done more, not less, even for people we never knew in communities we might never visit. The Kingdom of God is just too important.
As we dialogue in person, a more thorough picture of what multi-site involves and its potential benefits and costs will unfold.
unlimited
We believe the future should contain the only limit the Kingdom of God imagines – the limits God Himself sets on things. We pray you will join us on this journey and embrace a new Next Wave – only this time, we’ll ask God to set its limits.
If one of you had a hundred sheep, and one of them strayed away and was lost in the wilderness, wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it? And then you would joyfully carry it home on your shoulders? When you arrived, wouldn’t you call together your friends and neighbours and rejoice, because your lost sheep was found? In the same way, heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away. Luke 15. 3-6 nlt
“..till I declare your power to the next generation...” Psalm 71.18
