Expansion Plan Assessment & Action Points ~ Fall of 2014
Expansion Primer Task assist and spearhead the mission movement of The Crowded House Church among University students
Territory Sheffield, England
Timing Summer 2015 launch
Team Staff Team = 3 couples and 2 singles + 2 English City Team = 4 graduates
Teammates BBC + TCH + CO network
To Do’s Eldership Reporting and Consensus Team Selection & Development Proposal: Memorandum of Understanding Set-up Trip
The Task What obey and imitate Jesus Christ with respect to His Great Commission for the purpose of world evangelization -----------------Where The Univ. of Sheffield Univ. of Hallam Sheffield Univ. aged students in Sheffield -----------------Why to export students into the Crowded House who have impact in neighborhoods, nations, and the next generation ------------------How By building laborers on the Univ. campus in Sheffield to the glory of God -----------------Who Dedicated American-British CO team that invests relationally and intentionally into the unbelieving student populations
Task Explained According to the 2011 census the blue areas (where the Universities happened to be located) denote areas which voters recorded “no religion” while the areas in red denote adherence to religion (not necessarily Christian). The red areas are where the highest percentage of Muslims residents of sheffield reside.
“Evangelism and Discipleship is a process by which a growing believer commits himself for an extended period of time to a few individuals with the purpose being to win them to Christ, to aid and guide their growth to maturity, and equip them to reproduce themselves into a third spiritual generation.”adapted Allen Hadidian
The Territory The City Sheffield is the 4th largest city in England Has the highest graduate retention rate of any UK city population size of 2 million The Universities The Univ. of Sheffield - 23,000 (mainly from other cities) Univ. of Hallam Sheffield - 33,000 (many from Sheffield) Univ. aged students in Sheffield The Location Sheffield is within 2 hours of 6 other English Univ. towns Each town/city averages 59,000 Univ. students each Loughboro (an hours train ride south) is the premier sport Univ in England and is home to a TCH plant The Univ. of Sheffield fresher dorms was just devoted first among all fresher dorm experiences and accommodation Other Ministries There is 1 vocational staff ministry worker and two volunteers and only half of dozen church student worker’s who are trying to reach this 59,000 student population. Vision To overflow into Universities laborers filling key Acts 29 cities within a two hour radius of Sheffield
Territory illustrated
The Timing November 2013 first initial site visit and with exposure to Univ. towns and initial conversation with Steve Timmis January 2014 exploratory trip with Sara and confirmation with TCH over partnership in bringing a summer team + Sara and Andrew’s 3 month exposure/ evaluation trip May - July 2014 immersion into the TCH church life and Univ. ministry weekly talks and connection with elder Rowan Paterson 2 formal meeting with Exec. elders at TCH August 2014 process with Sara report back to BBC elders BBC and TCH elders support Expansion Plan trajectory and action points with date deadlines September/October 2014 Team Selection and Development BBC Final Reporting to Elders & Recommendation BBC MOU crafting and send November/December 2014 TCH consideration and confirmation TCH elder site visit to dialogue over/confirm proposal and timeline
Timing Categories Exposure Investigation Evaluation Interpretation Proposal Confirmation Assessment Selection Preparation Departure
November
2013
January
2014
May-July
2014
Aug-Sept
2014
October
2014
November
2014
December
2014
January
2015
Jan-May
2015
Jan-May
2015
Ignition conference Trip with Sara/CSM conf. 3 Month Knight Summer Eval Aug - Sept. report to BBC elders BBC elders extend proposal TCH elders accept CO team Team formation and evaluation staff team/city team selection staff team/city team development departure and arrival targets
The Team Team Make-up We are trusting God to bring the right-fitted team with the personality make-up, gifting, capacity, season-of-life, and character traits to best holistically minister among University students in the English context. Furthermore, we want a team that complements and expresses the Crowded House Church vision and values. We think these can best be accomplished through a blended team of current TCH staff or additional English graduates who can serve as teammates alongside us. Two Types of Teams We are aiming at providing TCH a student worker team and a city laboring team. The student worker team would be full-time and vocational staff members of TCH and would function as the official Univ. ministry of TCH. The city team would be a select group of individuals who live and work in the city with the desire to partner with TCH life groups and minister in strategic parts of the city. Team Considerations We are trusting God to provide a team of 2-3 couples and 2-3 singles to form and make the transition to England anywhere between 3-12 months after the Knights initially arrive. Marriages, child births, and support raising will all factor as to who joins the team and their arrival date.
Team Possibilities
from left to right: Steve Discher, Lindsay Discher, Sara Knight, Andrew Knight, Tim Devane, Ann Nelson
Tim is engaged to Cassie and they are to be married November 2014. We will make a decision in April about their transition readiness
Meg is using this summer to process her future and being evaluated for staff. She will need to complete at least one year on ministry in USA before transitioning internationally
Michael and Janet will marry in August 2014 and will then start aggressively paying off debt before transitioning to a staff evaluation period en route to joining the team a year in or so.
Teammates Bethlehem Baptist Church Bethlehem Baptist Church would be the sending church and would be responsible for sending and supervising the initial team formation, preparation, and finalization. They will also aim at transitioning the full authority of CO to TCH after a three year period.
Campus Outreach Network The Campus Outreach relational network is made up of 25 American church franchises and 5 international ministries. The CO network would be leveraged as a support/consultation resource to increase the teams preparation/competency in launching to an international/English context. The Crowded House The Crowded House is intent on reaching the lost on the University campus. The CO expansion would be the formal expression and extension of TCH on the University campuses in Sheffield. TCH would have day-to-day shepherding and supportive roles for the team on the ground that would combine with other TCH staff laboring among the Univ. ranks.
Teammate Roles SENDING
Sending Church cross cultural prep support development Support raising/receipting prayer network Global partner network Team Formation
AUTHORITY STRUCTURES
SHEPHERDING Receiving Church Shepherding the team Hosting the team/Owning Needs Accountability providing structures for team health/ ministry (meeting & admin space) expense/event budget for Univ. ministry
SUPPORTING Relational Network Cross-cultural consultation Team Evaluation Recruitment/Communication Pre-field Evaluation/Prep Peer Advisement network