48 Hours

Published on July 20, 2008 by Damon

48 hours at home, then a plane back to Atlanta for “nRich.”  I am looking forward to talking with some of the other Strategic Partners of North Point.  For those of you just now jumping in, our core team (James, Julie, Cheryl, John and I) are going to a two day conference for Strategic Partners hosted by the Campus Expansion Team at North Point Community Church.

We are looking forward to sharing all that we have learned last month at the internship and what we are going to learn this week at nRich.  The last 7 weeks may have felt like a long pause—but it has been an incubation time for our core team.

A tidbit of what we have been learning:

We have said that the purpose of River Park Community Church is to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  When we say “growing relationship” we are talking about spiritual growth.  Spiritual growth is not a class or a checklist.  It is not even primarily a set of doctrines, beliefs or practices, though many may have grown spiritually by utilizing those tools.  We believe that spiritual growth is about three relationships: a relationship with God, a relationship with other believers and a relationship with people outside the church. We have defined spiritual growth as growing in greater intimacy with God, community with people inside the church and influence with people outside the church.

The Five Faith Catalysts

We believe there are five primary catalysts God uses to grow our faith. We refer to them as, you guessed it, the five faith catalysts. These five things are not listed anywhere in the Bible. We came up with the list by observing how God works in the lives of believers and even unbelievers. We are not arguing that these are the only five leverage points God uses. But we are saying that every time we hear someone recount his or her faith journey, at least one of these five dynamics is a part of the story. They are:

Practical teaching
Providential relationships
Private disciplines
Pivotal circumstances
Personal ministry

Practical teaching reveals where we are and where we need to go. Providential relationships allow us to hear from God through others. Private disciplines tune our hearts to God’s heart. Pivotal circumstances force us to look at God. Personal ministry enables us to experience God’s power. Each of these, in its own unique way, builds our faith in God. And at some point in your spiritual journey, each of these catalysts will intersect with your experiences.

I believe that these five faith catalyst point to why we believe River Park Community Church should do two things well: Sunday Worship Experiences and Community Groups.

Two things happen in our Sunday Worship Experiences: practical teaching and personal ministry.  This is where you hear practical teaching on a weekly basis and it is where you can use your gifts and talents in ministry.

Three things happen in Community Groups: providential relationships, private disciplines and pivotal circumstances.  Here is how it works.  Community Groups are simply the environment where people can build close personal relationships.  It is where people do life together.  The relationships that are built in community group become providential relationships when we experience pivotal circumstances in our lives.  During family tragedy, marital tension, the throws of parenting or a layoff our community groups are there.  It is where we say that care, accountability and belonging happen best.

Private disciplines are private, but they often require the accountability of others around us to become habits.  Community groups provide the close personal relationships with people who can hold us accountable to develop spiritual disciplines.  It is also these same close personal relationships that help us apply the practical teaching we hear in the Sunday Morning Worship Experience.

It is really only the person who is doing life with you, that knows the circumstances of your life best, that can layer God’s truth into your life in a relevant and often life transforming way.  I suppose that we can wait and hope that the winds of chance will place that one person in our life at the right time to speak the right words to us when we are experiencing one of those tough unexpected seasons of life, or we can be intentional and connect in a Community Group on a regular basis.

We believe that community groups are one of the most powerful ways we can leverage the five faith catalysts that God uses to change our lives. They are the five most common things God uses to help us continue in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  That is why we have made community groups the destination at River Park Community Church.  We see everything we do as a step toward that destination.  If a program is not a step toward that destination, than we don’t do it. period.