Little Revolutions Conference 2024
The Little Revolutions Conference was held in Wellington on 1 – 2 July 2024, organised by the Catch Network.
It was a national event drawing together a wide coalition of denominations and independent movements that share a common heart for renewal of the local church and the neighbourhoods we serve. There were several keynotes and workshops this year including from Underground Network from Tampa in Florida, Bree Mills from Micro Movements Australia and Archbishop Justin Duckworth.
Realign to true north
Justin Duckworth, Archbishop of Tikanga Pākehā in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia, shared how God is raising up local expressions of faith that are living a fruitful gospel which we can learn from. Throughout Christian history, there have been groups of Christians trying different expressions (Monastics, mendicants - urban missional orders of friars, Salvation Army, Vineyard). Each group helped the Church recall an aspect of the original church and helped it back into alignment in some way; choosing to live simply, living in community providing stability within an unstable society, loving your neighbour, signs and wonders. In our day, we should look to see what God is doing in our land and choose to realign to true north of his envisaged Church.
Justin shared four characteristics God uses to take new territory (from Steve Addison's books):
White hot faith: churches need to reclaim and cultivate high commitment; people who are completely obsessed with following Jesus.
Groups inhabit a particular gift (e.g. as mentioned above: live simply, community stability, love your neighbour, signs and wonders)
Need to be sustainable (well run so there is impact), multipliable (able to be done in 100 suburbs, not just one), others can learn from.
Be recognised and valued within the greater Church for its contribution to the Kingdom.
Justin also shared his thoughts: every forgotten community within NZ is special to God and needs reaching; that it is important young people are involved as well as mature Christians championing and enabling the new; the new revolution won't need social media to promote it as God is contagious.
Spiritual Warfare is a real thing. Pray for yourself and others.
Bishop Ana and Rev. Paul Fletcher shared how Ana’s health had been greatly affected when they stepped out in ministry and reminded us that spiritual battle is a very real thing. While one of the greatest tricks of the devil is to convince the world that he doesn’t exist, Jesus told his disciples (Luke 10) he had given them authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Ana reminded us to pray for ourselves and others, believing that our health is in alignment with God’s will.
Aimee Mai from the Wilberforce Foundation shared the findings from the NZ Faith and Belief 2023 study.
https://faithandbeliefstudynz.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/willberforce-report-2023-digital-2.pdf
1009 New Zealanders took part in the research undertaken by an independent social research organisation. These findings can promote a positive attitude toward sharing Christianity as people are mostly open to it, with only 6% passionately opposed. Christians can be confident that what Jesus and Christian community provides is what people are needing. People are desiring hope, a sense of security and personal identity, and are open to genuine relationships. People are particularly open when experiencing a change in life.
Some of the findings which can get our minds thinking about what God’s family has to offer include:
Religion provides hope and belonging: 56% believe religion provides hope for people; 49% believe religion provides a community for people; 45% believe religion has its place in society.
48% were of ‘no religion’ in 2018 compared to 35% to 2006.
31% Consider themselves Christian; 26% Warm towards Christianity; 13% Neutral towards Christianity; 30% Cool towards Christianity including only 6% being passionately opposed. (see pg 31 for explanations of what was included in each)
Areas of satisfaction: 53% Family and social wellbeing; 53% Personal relationships; 48% Spiritual wellbeing; 46% Sense of purpose; 43% Mental wellbeing.
Lowest areas of satisfaction: 35% Sense of community
Top longings in life: 58% Hope for the future; 52% An increase in wealth and prosperity; 47% A sense of security in a world of uncertainty; 45% Genuine relationships where I can feel known; 34% A strong sense of personal identity.
Top fears in life: 62% Losing a loved one; 53% Not having enough money to live; 47% Illness; 41% Crime; 37% Loneliness.
Top attractors to exploring spirituality: 75% Experiencing a personal trauma or significant life change; 68% Exploring different spiritual practices; 66% Seeing first-hand people who live out a genuine faith or spirituality; 63% Stories/testimonies from people who have changed because of their faith or spirituality; 62% Philosophical discussion and debating ideas; 61% Miraculous stories (healings, supernatural occurrences); 45% Hearing from public figures and celebrities who represent faith or spirituality.
Top repellents to exploring Christianity: 55% Hearing from public figures and celebrities who represent faith or spirituality; 39% Miraculous stories; 38% Philosophical discussion and debating ideas.
Nick and Sarah Field from The Way (https://www.theway.co.nz/) shared how they are heading up a collective of home churches. During lockdown, after 25 years of pastoring, God challenged them to go in a new direction. They were asking themselves, ‘Does it (church) really have to be this complicated?’. As they read Luke and Acts, they asked the question ‘If we hadn’t ever met the church and just read the Bible and lived like that, what would it look like?’ Their aim is to lead people to be missionaries who are on the Great Commission where they work, live and play. No buildings, no staff, no programmes. They are excited as they are seeing more people come to Christ and more Christians are discipling others per capita, than ever before.
Learnings they shared:
Energy is finite so refocus on the Great Commission. Do what is critical, not what is ‘nice to have’.
Teach people how to share the gospel. They were shocked at how many Christians have never shared the gospel. Most want to, but don’t know how, having relied on programmes or specific people to do so.
Teach people how to disciple others. They were also shocked that Christians don’t know how to disciple people. People need to be trained, not just inspired. It needs to be simple, replicable, scalable.
Pay attention to the patterns: What did Jesus do that the disciples then did and that the apostles taught others to do? How did Paul find people and interact when he went to a new city? How did Christians in different locations interact? How did the Holy Spirit work through people?
Mission is kept forefront throughout their collective: each group, at every gathering, has a time for people to share their God stories, and once a month the focus is specifically on mission. Everybody shares; there is never a ‘second row’.
Their leaders throughout the collective are supported through fortnightly cluster meetings, a monthly zoom for all leaders, a WhatsApp group, and once a year they all get together geographically.
Their advice to other churches: Relationship is huge, equip every person, and keep it uncomplicated.
Jeremy Stephens from the Underground in Tampa, Florida shared from their network’s 20 years. Be shy, be generous, and enable the priesthood of all believers. The Kingdom of God looks like normal healthy life, like having meals together. Some people have never experienced normal things like that as they don’t have a community to be part of. Christians can provide that for people – that is the Kingdom of God.
https://www.tampaunderground.com/
(Jeremy and Stacey Gaskins ran workshops too but I, Julie writing article, didn’t go to them as I had done 2 online courses with them previously.)
Hana Seddon from the Salvation Army shared wisdom from her experience of being part of the Tangata Whenua (Maori people of NZ) regarding the growing challenges of the cultural moment as the Church pursues renewal.
Christians of varying cultures can weave together and bring their strengths and values.
Learn to read the signs like Maori did when they came to NZ; they navigated by the stars, flight patterns of birds, cloud patterns and wave patterns. Be still and listen and look. Those who are considered ‘the drifters’ might actually be the ones who know how to navigate.
Value and make decisions for the mokopuna (future generations).
Position yourself well and become who God has called you to be. There is a Maori story of when you focus on the horizon and move towards it, it moves towards you. Similarly, focus on Jesus and move towards what you know he wants you to do, and it will likely come closer to you.
Remember that our whenua (land) is Aotearoa; we are grounded here, so let’s find answers that work for us in Aotearoa or make sure we adapt other nations ideas into what works for us (like the Maori did when the kumara was imported and they worked out how to keep the kumara warm so it could grow.)
Let’s value and utilise the strengths people have. Remember, Maori are creative and innovators.
It is also important for all NZ Christians to understand our country’s history, including The Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Waitangi, the land confiscations, and how Maori responded collectively to the gospel. Our history is an important part of who New Zealanders are so it is vital to know the history so you can walk into the future.
Spanky Moore, from the Nelson Anglican Diocese, shared some of the peculiarities of the NZ white Kiwi culture to help Christians understand themselves better so they can be more self-aware as they reach out cross culturally. It is important to be aware of how people from other cultures might be interpreting Kiwiness, and remove any rocks that interfere with mission. We can learn from other cultures to help us.
Some of white Kiwi quirks that can seem like a ‘secret language’ include
‘Be humble, understated and self-effacing.’ Be aware this can make you seem dispassionate and can be unintentionally misleading.
‘Restrained’ (e.g. tall poppy syndrome, quietly clap while other cultures dance to celebrate). Be aware this can be interpreted as conservative and overcautious.
‘Fairness to a fault’: Known for being highly principled and for integrity and impartiality. Be aware this can be seen as being righteous.
‘Ingenuity’: Known for doing a lot with a little (no. 8 wire) and being practical and resourceful. Be aware this can be seen as unprofessional and as having a ‘close enough is good enough’ attitude.
‘Informal’: Egalitarian (thinking all are equal), unpretentious (not attempting to impress others) and easy going. Be aware this can come across as disrespectful and provincial (unsophisticated or narrow minded).
‘Earthy’: dealing with things in a practical way, connected to the land, sporty, liking the outdoors. Be aware this can come across as unsophisticated, and rough and ready.
‘Hospitable’: While white Kiwis think they are being hospitable by asking people around for a meal, people wonder what they did wrong when they are not invited again. Be aware that your busyness can make people feel unloved. You need to have capacity with time and space to be hospitable.
‘Unteachable’: While we may invite others to share or provide leadership, often white Kiwis don’t actually want to listen to other people’s ideas.
‘Risk takers’: While we are proud of NZ’s risk takers, be aware of the inclination to actually being risk adverse, needing to know all the supporting details before undertaking a new adventure.
Reverend Bree Mills, an Anglican minister from Melbourne who is the director of Micro Movements, shared from her ten-year experience and shared some of her learnings from her Missional Leadership doctoral studies. She is a missional thinker and practitioner, passionate about transforming churches and empowering leaders.
Bree shared how churches in Australia have been successfully running dual systems with their pastors and boards overseeing both a congregation style church and a microchurch network reaching out into their neighbourhood. Following Change Management theory from John Kotter, they have not tried to change the whole organisation but have started with those who have opted in to try the new missional gatherings.
Within a church, the new network sits separate to and alongside, not under, the congregation church. There can be unity without uniformity; churches can work together for the evangelisation of the neighbourhood/city without having to do things the same way. They have found it is good to define the relationship between the congregational model and the microchurches model. They are separate entities who choose to work in partnership. They can share resources (including public liability insurance), people and vision but choose to live it out differently. It is always important to speak well of the other model. Thoughtful and regular communication including sharing of stories helps feed and grow missional energy. Training days can be made available to both those who are part of the congregation side of the church and those in the missional network side of the church. Shared events led by the missional network leaders are inspirational to the congregation participants.
Teams of people have led the cross over to networks, not individuals. A congregation model may need to consider shutting down programmes that have a low result rate which are led by highly missional leaders so those leaders can be freed up to lead in the missional microchurch network side of the church. You need to water what you want to grow; put your staffing, energy and time into missional areas. Microchurches only work when participants see their identity as being missional and understand that mission is a way of life, not one-off events. Prayer comes out of mission, as people desire to see things change. They have found that having codes of conduct and expectations (job descriptions) for leaders of microchurches is helpful as ‘clear is kind’.
Coaching leaders
When coaching microchurch leaders, the questions ‘What is Jesus saying to you?’ and ‘How are you acting on it?’ are used and they pray together about it. From her doctoral studies she has found similarities in mission leaders’ stories and shared her conclusions of how leaders can be nurtured:
Many participants had people encourage them early on to be curious and innovate so we should let people try things unless something is really unsafe.
A deep attachment to God was common so we should help people to develop their attachment to God by pointing them to Jesus in the midst of hard times.
Awareness of limitations was common; a growing awareness of self, limitations, and the need for support. Therefore, we should help new leaders to grow alongside others and help them to identify what giftings God has given them and connect them with people with similar passions.
The ability to see and follow; a willingness to see areas of need, follow Jesus, take risks, learn through experiment and failure. Therefore, we should help people experiment, support them through their failures – reframing it as learning, and help them learn from others’ previous experiences/failures.
Reflection and learning were common, therefore we should teach leaders the process of reflection.
Leaders need to be developed so they can help future leaders to be innovators. They have learnt that one leader can only give oversight to five microchurches.
Three to five years is a normal length of a microchurch: they multiply into more groups, or decide they haven’t been able to reach into the community as they would have liked and deviate, their systems aren’t able to sustain them, or they become inward looking and naturally stop. Some of the models of multiplication have been: dividing a large group into three, dividing into more specific passion groups, and closing one microchurch to birth new ones (this allows more people to become leaders). Some networks have the ‘rule’ that a person can only go to one microchurch so many people are reached, and energy and resources aren’t just being used up by a few people. It has been noticed that people talk better with food, so chatting around a table has been utilised rather than the ‘Bible study in the lounge’ feel. A typical gathering includes eating, sharing lives and doing a DBS (Discovery Bible Study) together. Kids are included, with activities available such as playdough, butchers paper/end of newspaper rolls, cut and stick, physical activities linked to the discussion. Parents purposefully help other people’s kids because, while they believe the parent is the primary discipler, they also believe it takes a village to raise a child.
Joseph McAuley, lead pastor at St Luke's Assemblies of God Church in Tauranga and a theologian, shared his thesis about Pentecostalism Re-imagined and how we should value the good that the Pentecostal revival brought to Christianity, and be careful to not ‘throw out the baby with the bath water’. Deconstruction and reconstruction are needed. While some of the things associated with Pentecostalism were of that era, such as the two step and hankie waving, let’s not forget what is still relevant for today. Some things need to be dialled up while other things can be dialled down.
Could dial up:
Pentecostalism birthed an expectation that God could be known and met through an unmediated experience (not needing a human mediator); we can still believe God can show up in a moment and shift something.
A missional energy grew with Christians desiring to reach the lost; let’s dial this up.
A simplicity of belief that if people experienced something in the Bible, then we can experience it today; this is still relevant while also valuing greater Biblical understanding.
Allowing the Holy Spirit to move, and through us!
Opportunities for people to respond.
Could dial down:
Some of the pragmatic structures that were developed for how to host the Holy Spirit.
Moving from high point to high point of conferences; do things that track more with normal life in the real world.
The mega, stage as the platform, celebrity culture.
Pressure to ‘land sermons’
Relational Tribalism: let’s be ecumenical for the sake of the kingdom rather than only hanging out with similar minded Christians.
Simple Kingdom was one of the songs sung at conference. It had some awesome words that we can pray. It was written by Bryan and Katie Torwalt, Cody Carnes & Paul Duncan.
Your Kingdom is simple, as simple as love
You welcome the children, You stop for the one
We wanna see people the way Jesus does
Your Kingdom is simple; Lord, teach it to us.
…
Your Kingdom is coming, Your Kingdom is here
Alive in our waiting, our work and our tears
So come to us quickly, forever our prayer
Your Kingdom is coming; Lord Jesus, come near