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CHURCH CENTERED MISSION
Transforming the church to change the world

Joel Holm Joel Holm Ministry Resources, 2004, 206 pp. ISBN 0-9748686-6-34
www.churchcentered.org

Joel Holm, an MK, has 2 masters degrees from Wheaton Graduate School and has
served as a pastor in two churches. He is the founder of PathFinders
International, a ministry that serves as a global broker connecting churches
throughout the world into strategic mission work. He teaches churches
worldwide how to discover and organize around a strategic mission vision.

When I saw the title, I thought this might be the book I have wanted to
write. Reading with a heightened sensitivity, I found myself both
applauding and frowning.

Some things I applauded: 1. A local church should be centered on, and
organized around, its mission. 2. The church should have its own individual
mission vision. 3. Every department and every individual in the church
should participate in its mission vision. 4. The arena for mission is global
in scope. 5. Partnerships should be organized to achieve a mission goal.

Some things that concerned me: 1. The "mission" of the church is nebulous
and undefined. 2. A church's particular mission vision seemingly can be to
undertake any problem in the world. 3. False dichotomies are set up between
'wrong' and 'right' ways. 4. The right way to build the church globally is
for your church to undertake mission directly through partnerships with
other churches. 5. Typical missions approaches are caricaturized as well as
criticized. 6. Implementation is described as a mentality but the 'how-to'
is very general and no models are cited. 7. The peculiar difficulties of
working directly in cross-cultural settings and in cross-cultural
partnerships are not addressed.

"...we have a tendency to see our church as the place for Christians and the
world as the place for mission. The conclusion we draw is that the church
and mission have little in common." [But] "God built His church to fulfill
His mission." (x)

"This is not a book about missions. This is a book about the church."
"...it is the church that Gods builds to reach the world." (xiii)
"Church-centered Mission is not so much a model as it is a mentality." (xiv)

"We should not define mission. It should define us." "Mission should be at
the center of our church's identity." (12)

"The world is in chaos. People's lives are in chaos. This chaos is global
yet it is also very personal." "Chaos reigns." "The truth is that the
gospel works best in chaos." "Everyone is looking for a way out of chaos."
"The church must recognize the chaos and respond in mission to it." (16-17)

"The idea of church-centered mission is just that-an idea that mission is
centered in the church." (17)

Chapter 2. The Idea of a Church Centered in Mission "Every church has a
center. It's the heartbeat of a church. It's what drives the church,
giving it energy and character. It is the label our church wears proudly."
"The center of the church describes that place that most reflects the
passion, identity and focus of the church." It is "a statement about
priority." (19)

"There are seven specific church-centered mindsets: Creativity, Strategic
Vision, Architect, Cause-oriented, Liability, Faith, and Movement." These
mindsets provide the outline of the book: (20-33) 1. God is creatively
building his church to fulfill his mission. 2. A church's mission vision
comes from its DNA. 3. Leaders see the church's purpose defined by its role
in the world. 4. Everyone contributes to the church's mission. 5. The
church's vision depends on discerning new seasons orchestrated by God. 6.
The church is product-oriented, producing for God's kingdom. 7. The church
works through peer-based alliances linked to the vision and the work.

"When the church sees mission as being ... for some other purpose than our
church being built, we remove ourselves from being used by God in a way that
will transform our church." (20) [Do we do mission for our own church? It
seems to turn mission on its head and pander to our tendency toward selfish
preoccupation with ourselves. dlm]

"This mindset of mission being 'there' rather than 'everywhere' disregards
today's global scenario...." The 'there' mentality leads to an 'us versus
them' identity where mission is not seen as the responsibility of the
church, but of those who have gone 'there' where the work is to be done.
Globalization means there is no longer a 'there' in the world." (20-21)
[True, but does this thinking reinforce the tendency of some churches to see
'here' as encompassing all of our responsibility? Dlm]

The church's particular mission vision comes from its identity, its DNA. "A
church should never engage a work because it is good for the Kingdom." "A
church should never engage a work because of a personal relationship...."
(23) [Never? Is there perhaps mission work that some churches should
undertake because it is important to God and has been neglected up until
now? Does not God sometimes lead churches through relationships with key
people? dlm]

"Most churches still do not have their own mission vision. ...they don't
actually have a vision from God for their work. Most function in a support
role that empowers other ministries to set the church's mission vision."
(23)

"A mission vision doesn't begin outside the church. It begins within the
church. A church discovers who God has created it to be and what God has
directed it to do." (24)

"Church-centered leaders measure their ministry by how their church and its
members change the world." (25)

"Church-centered mission means that mission is an integral part of each
church ministry. More than that, each ministry contributes to the
achievement of the overall mission vision of the church." (26) "All members
are contributing to the church's mission." (27)

"Leadership and mobilization teams (not missions committees) are essential
components to this new season of church-centered mission. Their primary
role is not to make financial decisions but to mobilize the church and lead
the mission work of the church." (29)

"A process orientation is when a church focuses on the operations, the
ongoing programs and people that the church supports. A product
orientation...emphasizes ...an end product." The switch is from
process/support to product/doing. (32)

Partnerships, defined by our work and shared objectives, are central to
accomplishing the mission. (33-34)

Chapter 3. Church-Centered Mindsets "A mindset is the filter by which we
see life and make decision. Mindsets shape our actions...." (37)

End preoccupation with managed growth and engage a God who is creating. (38)

"People need the right structure, not just more challenge... Strategy is
the plan we design to take us to God's future." (42)

"The church needs to stop seeing itself as a conqueror and begin thinking
like an architect...." (44)

Become cause-oriented. The cause drives the programs. Programs are
secondary. (46) Replace the support role with a mindset of leadership,
taking both responsibility and liability for the crisis in the world. (49)
Transition from a mindset of human effort and sacrifice to a mindset that
relies on God to lead and empower. (51) "Allow a movement to drive the work
rather than relying on structures to maintain a pretense of effectiveness."
(54)

"Great movements are usually chaotic. Great organizations are rarely
dynamic." (55)

Chapter 4. Building on the DNA of a Church "...churches can easily lose
their distinctiveness in replicating ideas and programs that have worked
elsewhere." Each church has a distinct identity. (57)

Mission for most churches is generic, formed by those outside the church.
But God invites us to change our world based on the identity he gives us.
"We identify our vision, we don't create it," based on who we are: our
heritage, fruit, leaders, spiritual season, resources and revelation.
(58-66)

Church-centered identity brings innovation, not improvement; embraces a
cause, not a program; and manifests substance, not promotion.

Chapter 5. Church-Centered Leadership "The primary issue...is one of
leadership. Everything the church needs is available." (72)

"Many churches have a one-dimensional vision,...size." (76) "Another
dimension of growth is the creation of the church in other regions of the
world...." (77)

"The more stable a church becomes, the more inflexible it grows. Small
means mobile...." "Growth can be a hindrance to our mission vision. The
bigger we get, the harder it is to change." (79)

Mission is not a department but permeates every part of the church. (80)

"Most church leaders are focused on retaining, not on releasing. The goal
is retention, for retention translates into growth even if the growth is
shortsighted." (83) "Church-centered leaders see the church as so rich in
resources that there is an eagerness to share, a passion to give it away."
(84)

Chapter 6. Mobilizing the Church for the World "Church-centered mission
believes that the church, all its ministries and members, is to participate
in God's mission." (93)

"The previous season did not allow the for the church to be personally
involved in global mission." "The global season has changed and tremendous
opportunities exist for all to participate without having to relocate."
"Church-centered mission positions each church, each ministry, each member
to fulfill His Commission." (94-6)

"When anyone attempts to get something from the church, they are working
against the concept of church-centered mission. Mobilization for them
becomes a means to an end that they have already established. Their
interest is not in the local church's identity and vision but in the vision
they carry." (97) "

"In church-centered mission, everyone gives to see the local church built
and thus the world saved. Church-centered mobilization accomplishes this in
specific ways. First, mobilization must come from within the church, rather
than from outside the church." "Second, mobilization must work toward
building the church's mission vision rather than taking away from it."
"Third, mobilization can only effectively take place when people are serving
the church so the church can give to the world." (98) [I'm not sure I
understand this. Is some of it contradictory? dlm]

"Mobilization is redesigning our existing departments to integrate mission
into their vision...." "Mobilizing our people means connecting them to the
ministries of the church." (104)

"A risk in envisioning church members as world changers can be that everyone
will have their own idea as to how the church can change the world.
Mobilization is not the empowering of members isolated from the
church-centered mission vision. Multiple visions arise only when there is a
void of a single church vision." (110) [I suspect multiple visions are
inevitable. dlm]

Chapter 8. Producing for God's Church Being product oriented means having
measurable, contextualized, faith-filled objectives. Productivity must be
measured within the context of mission. Character must be accompanied by
competence. The goal of partnerships is product. Assessment is a value.
Mission is approached as solving a problem related to the church's mission
vision, for example Christians with no Bibles in North Korea or prostitution
in Chicago.

Chapter 9. Partnerships Centered in Mission Partnerships are often thought
of as someone helping me [or me helping someone else].

"The two predominant models [of mission partnership] are the mission for
hire model and the stockholder model." "For smaller and smaller amounts, a
church can support a church planter, a child at risk or a bicycle that will
save the nations. Mission is having a blue-light sale." "The partnership
centers completely on money." (156-7)

In the other model churches invest $100 per month into a missionary or
agency. "Debates rage in churches about the stewardship value of investing
large sums into foreign missionaries when an indigenous worker can do the
same job for a much smaller investment. The debate misses the point." "The
tragedy of the stockholder model is that it removes the church from its
leadership role in mission." (159)

In church-centered partnerships, "everyone comes to the partnership with a
vision for the work and a role that gives them a genuine participation."
Partnerships do not originate from the need of any one partner, but are
based on need in the world. Each partner is a giver, giving to the mission
vision. Partnerships are not an end but a means. Partners share risk. They
are product oriented and there is expectation of a completion. (163-171)

"A partnership broker is one whose primary task is not related to the
mission work but the successful building of a partnership. [This is what
Joel Holm does for churches.]

"The building of Christ's church is too important to expend energy and time
in partnerships that don't produce. It's also too important not to expend
energy and time in partnerships that do produce." (175)

Chapter 10. Building a Church Centered in Mission Traditionally the mission
team did the mission work and then told the church what they had done. In
church-centered mission, the leadership team gets every person and every
department engaged in the church's mission vision. The measure of success is
the quantity and quality of church participation. (188)

Start with the end product in mind. What does God want to accomplish
through your church in the next 12-24 months? Where is God sending you?
Build a strategic plan and begin to carry it out. Develop a team to manage
the process.

"The greatest challenge in change is to maintain the old while creating
new." (198)

*****

________________________ David Mays ACMC http://www.davidmays.org