“Let us go to the house of the LORD.” (Psalm 122:1)
Launching into the third segment of the clergy renewal program – learning from other congregations, I took this past weekend and Monday to do an in-depth visit with Third Reformed in Pella, Iowa.3rd’s brief story: Rev. Kevin Korver is the Senior Pastor and he has been there 11 years. Before he came, the church had made the decision to relocate to what was then the edge of town (it is not anymore). Bathed in prayer and visionary leadership, the congregation has grown to around 2,000 worshipers.
What I observed: I spent all of Sunday morning on TRC’s campus, sitting in on most of every worship service, seeing the children’s areas, and just soaking it in. I spent all of Monday absorbing from the staff in their prayer meeting and in extensive conversations with Jason Nelson (Executive Director for Ministry) and with several other key staff people over lunch, including Bev Brand (Shelly Nelson’s mother).
Here are some blog observations:
Place
Third’s building seeks to foster a “Third Place” in people’s lives. Everyone needs place to sleep and call home (1st place), place to work (2nd place), and place to develop meaningful relationships and experiences (3rd place). The entire campus is laid out to be such a place.
Worship space is broad and shallow. Seating around 750, the intent is not to worship any larger than that number, so people can see each other and connect better. Thus, they have 3 services – see below – to accommodate 2,000 people. The space behind the sanctuary is wide and open for both overflow and fellowship. There is a small chapel for smaller gatherings.
Varieties of nooks around the church have couches and end tables to provide incidental space for conversation and prayer.
A coffee and café provides space for food and fellowship on a small scale. You can drink free coffee during church fellowship, or head to the coffee bar for espresso, latte, smoothies, and light menu fare. By the way, the free coffee is the best church coffee I’ve ever had!A book store and small library are nearby giving space to engage your mind and ideas and vision.
The children’s area is in a window-less basement, but full of light and creativity. It’s both fun and interactive – engaging the senses of the children.
The third phase of their building is now under construction (12 million dollars) and will provide more spaces for adult education, prayer, a smaller worship auditorium, and a specific area dedicated for 24/7 prayer.
As Trinity proceeds, it may be wise for our planners to take a walk through this facility. I am most grateful to Casey, the leader of the facility ministry team, for taking me around the facility. Casey is a life-long member of Third and has seen all the changes. While admitting some times were hard, he is extraordinarily blessed to be part of what God is doing and would welcome any of you to visit him.
Pace
One of the things I wanted to observe is how Third does a morning worship schedule with 3 services. I expected it to be a rush-rush morning, but the pace was surprisingly pleasant, with no over crowding and no crammed spaces. Here’s their morning schedule:
8:10 Blended Worship (mostly hymns, sometimes with a praise team, occasionally with an organ).
9:30 Contemporary Worship
11:00 Contemporary Worship
During the school year, Sunday School takes place during both 9:30 and 11:00 worship. This alleviates overcrowding in children’s areas. Families are asked to generally commit to one of the two Sunday Schools.
For a long time, I have wanted to maintain the one Sunday school hour format, but I really probed their staff about concurrent Sunday school (do children come to worship? Do adults go to Sunday school? What about teens?, and the like). They all agreed that while there are trad-offs, this model works well.
In Trinity’s case, both our size and facility limitations may cause us to consider three morning services. Perhaps there is something to learn from Third’s morning schedule.
I also watched how Kevin walked through the morning. Instead of going to the back of the church to have a quick handshake with everyone, he stayed up front. People who wanted to come could, and he spent time with each one, staying until the sanctuary emptied, often praying with each person. I really enjoyed observing his pace with the congregation – “walking slowly through the crowd.”
Prayer
When you ask the staff people about what they attribute Third’s experience to, they all resolutely return to prayer. Bev Brand told me the stirring story of how a group of people prayed fervently for 10 year for revival and for the Holy Spirit to come on Third in a powerful way. The land was prayed over. The building was prayed over. Even in their new building, people wrote out prayers that are tucked into the foundation, ceiling joists, and wall studs. Everywhere you look there were neon scraps of paper with prayers written on them. The new addition will feature a 24/7 prayer area with varieties of focus.It confirmed some of the things we have been trying to do at Trinity and re-energized my own commitment to prayer.
Missions
One of the chronic concerns about larger churches is that they lose their focus on missions. At Third, this is not the case at all. In fact, it has spurred deeper involvement in mission. Their aim in missions is to develop long-term relationships with the places they serve with. So they have build a school in Haiti and send two or more groups a year to help. Over 200 people just returned from two different weeks in Mexico, where they worked with a housing agency to help build homes and bless the people. Another place of deep involvement is central America. Over 15% of their worshiping body will be out of the country this year on international service projects. And, before embarking on the third phase of building, they dedicated the first 25% of the project to missions – well over $1 million.
Governance
Perhaps the most significant new piece of learning for me was the time spent with Jason Nelson. He walked me through Third’s governance. This might sound boring, but it was absolutely energizing to me – how do you unleash the church for growth without getting bogged down in the minutia.
Third transitioned to a system similar to Trinity’s in some ways – a smaller leadership team and an expanded consistory. But they chose to use a very clear style of governance, known as “Policy Governance.” This is way too technical for some blog readers, but our leaders will be interested in seeing their handbook on it, which they were most gracious to share with me. It is the same system that the RCA has been encouraging churches to consider. It uses a style of policy governance known as the “Carver Governance.” A couple of main themes include the chief role of the top leadership group to focus almost entirely on what the “ends” of the church are (goals) and then unleash the ministry areas and teams and consistory to utilize “means” to accomplish those ends.
What this has meant for Third is an effective structure that gives great freedom to develop new ministries, but within clear guidelines.
Next up….
Indepth visit with David Izenbart and Living Springs Community Church (multicultural), and with Bob Bouwer and Charlie Contreras of Faith Reformed (church growth without losing focus on service to others).
