FEIC SUMMIT / 2013
innovate
embrace the chaos, create the change
Welcome To The Mountain ... And To Our 2013 FEIC SUMMIT We are delighted that you are here and we are anticipating great days together! Our SUMMIT has become a very special gathering place for us! Our theme this year is “INNOVATE! Embrace The Chaos, Create The Change” which we know is essential if we intend to release the full potential of our churches and redeem the full impact of our endeavors. Discerning the real opportunities and daring to take them will require us to develop a “culture of innovation” where we can “embrace the chaos and create the change.” We will do our best to engage you in meaningful discussions that will nurture these possibilities! These days are intentionally crafted to give priority to the best of what we as a relational network have to offer - great relational connections, which will enable you to gather great resources that we trust will bring great renewal to you in every way! We have purposefully created ‘white space’ so that you will have time for all of this to happen! We want to extend a warm welcome to all of our special guests! They are here because they are friends of FEIC who want to share the journey with us. You will be spiritually enriched by their commitment and strategically enhanced by their contribution. Special thanks to Vienna Christian Center for being such gracious hosts! Their dedicated team has done so much to make everything ready for us and are committed to serve us in any way they can. So enter in, enjoy all that has been prepared for you and embrace these ‘mountain moments’! Terry & Ruthanne The Summit Planning Team
www.feic.org
As a relational network, Fellowship of International European Churches (FEIC) offers: Supportive relationships that provide meaningful connection Sharing of resources that are specific to international ministry Strategic church renewal and leadership development opportunities
www.feic.org
SUMMIT Schedule MONDAY 1300 - SUMMIT Registration Begins 1730 - SUMMIT Forum 1900 - Dinner 2030 - SUMMIT Gathering 2200 ‘SUMMIT Smorgasbord’ Fellowship/Coffee
TUESDAY 0800 - Breakfast 0900 - SUMMIT Devotions 0930 - SUMMIT Session 1 1100 - Coffee Break 1130 - SUMMIT Session 2 1300 - Lunch Statement of Income 1730 - SUMMIT Forum 1900 - Dinner 2030 - SUMMIT Gathering 2200 - ‘SUMMIT SNACKS’ Fellowship/Coffee
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
0800 - Breakfast 0900 - SUMMIT Devotions 0930 - SUMMIT Session 3 1100 - Coffee Break 1130 - SUMMIT Session 4 1300 - Lunch 1730 - SUMMIT Forum 1900 - Dinner 2030 - SUMMIT Gathering 2200 - ‘SUMMIT SURPRISE’ Fellowship/Coffee
0700 Breakfast Departures Begin
FEIC ... relationally connected and committed to doing life together
Connecting Serving Growing Engaging
Sharing Celebrating Expecting
Our Summit theme this year is “Innovate: Embrace The Chaos, Create The Change.” We recently asked you to share one or more examples from your church about how you have successfully implemented change in your church. Here are your responses…
“We have a number of new Filipino believers in the downtown Helsinki area and wanted to create a special focus to help them grow in their faith. So we launched a Filipino Bible Study with key materials and worksheets available in Tagalog.” Arto Sädeaho Vantaa International Christian Fellowship Vantaa, Finland
“We have gone through a leadership transition where part of the team was back in the states for a year at a time. We used video greetings to stay connected and to introduce new people to those in leadership who were absent at the time. It really helped when they returned because there was a familiarity. Staff members leaving the church left holes in the worship team, general office tasks & children/youth ministry. Shifting more responsibility towards lay leaders has worked well in most cases. We’ve changed the model of how we do the kids ministry (i.e. combining kids for worship, then splitting into age/language appropriate small groups.) Still a work in progress!” Todd Tyson The Bridge Paris, France
“Over the last year, we have had several refugees coming to our church looking for a place to worship. While we have to be careful not to help them too much, lest the government think they are too well off; we do help them with their paper work, introduce them to special social services, provide translation, and introduce them to local doctors. The key word here is ‘spontaneity‘. People help each other spontaneously. They see refugees and bring them to church and the whole procedure is triggered. Years ago, we transitioned from an Italian-speaking church to an intentional international ministry. One of the positive things about this was the impact it had on our local people. It is funny to see our children, who are not yet able to read, sing in English. Our multicultural gatherings have touched
some of the adults by revealing the beauty of the “others”. That is, the joy to find that other people can have great value, talent and hearts. In a region that has been very closed to the “other” for generations, to be able to fellowship, sing, talk and eat with other cultures has been a great eye opener. “
“ministry champion”. This year we have been blessed with a new volunteer from New York who is a former children’s pastor from an A/G church. We empowered her to lead this area of ministry and she gathered a good team of volunteers, new passion and ideas as well as the structure and planning.
Donato Anzalone Living Word Christian Center Lugano, Switzerland
Despite the good things that happened in some of our small groups, overall we were not happy with how things went with this ministry last season. To improve our small group ministry, we started planning in order to be able to offer more variety and consistency in this important area of ministry.
“We are committed to working with a national church and being influential in their vision development process. It is a long & ardent process but to have the opportunity to shape the international initiative of a national church movement is huge. We are committed to building our own preaching team & are now seeing that provide increased stability. We are committed to assuring that we remain a relevant Christ-presence in our city and seek to identify emerging realities in our city, nation & beyond!” Terry Hoggard International Christian FellowshipMalmo, Sweden
“We have been implementing changes that we learned at the Church Life Cohorts. Our assimilation team was redeveloped and now is doing a great job. Following up on newcomers has been a great boost in seeing people return to the church. The church has grown from an average attendance of 125 to 185 on Sunday mornings. As a result of the growth, we had to rent an extra facility upstairs. We now have eight classrooms, and have turned our fellowship hall into an overflow room with closed-circuit television since the sanctuary can only seat 125.” Steve Gray International Christian Fellowship Padova Padova, Italy
“We always gave attention to children and their holistic needs, but in recent years it has been hard to see a dynamic and cohesive ministry offered to this important age group (5-12) due to the absence of an available and trained
church. Some examples would include: •
Re-wrote School of Leaders curriculum to implement an intentional comprehensive plan from the pre-Christ seeker in the Alpha course to a New Believers class, to Encounters and connecting individuals to an appropriate Life Group, to School of Discipleship and School of Leaders. This structure gives us specific tools to not only disciple and offer leadership training, but to better connect each individual to the Body.
•
Established clearer policies for use of facilities and equipment.
•
Initiated wedding liaisons to walk couples through pre-marital counseling and planning all the way through the wedding ceremony and reception.
•
Resolved conflict of room bookings between nine congregations by implementing calendar deadlines.
•
Received recognition as a church in Austria, which opens doors that were previously closed.
•
Developed a simple assessment that our congregations use to make sure our behaviors fulfill our core values. It’s not a report but an assessment to help them evaluate themselves internally, then implement action steps to help bring alignment to mission, vision and values.
Some of the specific steps we made: •
Prayer
•
Encouraged brainstorming between leaders, new ideas from congregation.
•
Increased number of small groups offered based on individual circumstances and spiritual journeys.
•
Approached new believers and new people in our church about committing to small groups.
•
Developed a survey form to find out more about individual needs and time availability.
•
Increased communication and performed ongoing evaluation.
Cristi Soimaru Bucharest International Church Bucharest, Romania
“This year we were accepted by the Canarian Food Bank which has given us an opportunity to not only share our faith in Jesus, but also to reach out in a practical way to those outside the church. We serve 30-40 people, of which 5 have made a commitment to Christ and are now growing within Calvary. Praise God!” Baz and Bettina Eatwell Calvary Assembly International Church Tenerife, Canary Islands
“We are constantly implementing change at VCC as God leads us to shape the future ministry of this great
Larry Henderson Vienna Christian Center Vienna, Austria
Congratulations to Vienna Christian Center and International Christian Fellowship of Rome Celebrating their 25th anniversaries in 2013 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
¨Diversity surrendered really becomes supernatural! We’ve seen it as we shape the future ministry of VCC.¨ Larry Henderson
Resources One of the values of belonging to a relational network like FEIC is the sharing of resources with one another. We recently asked you to share the resources that have touched you this year. Here’s how you responded… Websites:
Podcasts:
www.thehardygroup.org
“The Leadership Answer Man” Hans Finzel
www.markbatterson.com
“Purity For Life” purelifeministries.org
www.kotterinternational.com
David Wilkerson
www.vergenetwork.org
Carter Conlon
www.nuevavidaencristo.org
Andrew Womack
www.allworship.com
Andy Stanley’s “Your Move” podcast for quality sermon ideas.
www.geert-hofstede.com
Purity For Life
www.thehardygroup.org
Circle
Maker
Learning to Follow Jesus
Books: “Learning to Follow Jesus” by Daniel McNaughton for interactive one-on-one discipleship. Great natural, conversational model. “Circle Maker” by Mark Batterson on praying big, focused prayers. “The Gate Church” by Steve Fry “Courageous Leadership” by Bill Hybels “The Next Generation Leader” by Andy Stanley “Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth” by Alister McGrath “The Making of a Leader” by Frank Damazio “Strategic Church: A Life-Changing Church in an Ever-Changing Culture” by Frank Damazio “Maintaining Balance” by Dick Iverson “The Bait of Satan” and “Undercover”, both by John Bevere. “Center Church” by Tim Keller
“The Blessed Church” by Robert Morris “Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code” by Samuel Chand “The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make” by Hans Finzel “Empowered Leaders” by Hans Finzel “Broken Windows of the Soul” by Dr. Arnold Fleagle and Dr. Donald Lichi (great counseling resource) “Visioneering” by Andy Stanley “Cigars, Whiskey and Winning Leadership Lessons” from General Ulysses S. Grant by Al Kaltman “The Greatest Words Ever Spoken” by Steven Scott “Conversations for Change” by Shawn Kent Hayashi (great resource for counseling and dealing with relational problems) “The Servant” by James Hunter “Switch” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath “Steering Through Chaos” by Scott Wilson
“Innovate Church” by Jonathan Falwell “The Disciple-Making Pastor” by Bill Hull “The Normal Christian Birth” by David Pawson. “Leading on Empty” by Wayne Cordeiro “Crossing Over” by Paul Scanlon
www. allworship .com
Cracking Your
Church’s Culture
Code
your move
The Leadership Answer Man
Strategic Church: A Life-Changing Church in an Ever-Changing Culture
CENTRAL (6 COUNTRIES/15 CHURCHES) Austria Czech Republic Germany Hungary
Liechtenstein Poland Slovakia Switzerland
NORTHERN (6 COUNTRIES/13 CHURCHES) Denmark Finland Greenland Iceland
Ireland Norway Sweden UK (Scotland)(Wales)
SOUTHEASTERN (7 COUNTRIES/7 CHURCHES) Albania Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo
Macedonia Montenegro Romania Serbia Slovenia
SOUTHERN (5 COUNTRIES/15 CHURCHES) Canary Islands Italy Malta
Portugal Spain
WESTERN (4 COUNTRIES/14 CHURCHES) Belgium France
Luxembourg Netherlands
FEIC TOTAL 28 COUNTRIES 64
Creating a relational connection for a global network of international churches For more information on churches and ministries contact:
Africa
Europe
Asia Pacific
Latin America/Caribbean
Asia Pacific
Northern Asia
Charles Porter charles.porter@hqmail.agmd.org
Dave Kenney dave@iesjakarta.org
Paul Pierquet paul.pierquet@agmd.org
Terry Hoggard toppif@gmail.com
Nelson Lugo nelson.lugo@hqmail.agmd.org
Jonathan Davis
Established & Emerging Churches Coming Together
Potential Is Incredible
Possibilities Are Limitless
Movement of Dynamic Influence
www.globalicn.com Over the past year, we’ve interviewed several of our GICN regional coordinators and published these on the GICN website. We’d like you to get to know these men who are championing international church networks in their regions of the world. Check on the following page for an interview with Charles Porter.
Global ICN has churches in six regions; Africa, Asia Pacific, Eurasia, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean & Northern Asia. Each region now has a ‘champion’ whose role it is to help gather international churches into the network and create connection. Here, in a ‘Question & Answer’ format, we feature Charles Porter, the champion of our Africa Region, and his church, The Ocean International Community in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he serves as pastor. Meet Charles... Q: How long have you been involved in international church work? A: You might say I’ve been involved with international churches my whole life. My dad planted a church in Luxembourg city in 1982 that was home to dozens of nationalities. Our current ministry began in 2008 when we planted the Ocean International Community Church, or the Ocean for short. Q: Is Tanzania your first mission assignment or have you served elsewhere? A: Previously, we served in the Sudan and for a short while in Kenya. Q: How old is your church, about how many members do you have and about how many nations are represented? A: The Ocean is officially a little over 4 years old. We don’t know all the nations represented, but a quick count was over 25 nations. One Sundays, we run a little under 500 people between 2 campuses and 3.5 services (one is a live video/live music service). Q: What do you feel makes your church special or unique when people are looking for an international church? A: Internationals in our city love the community emphasis. There is a commonality of discomfort and loneliness among internationals. There is also a common experience of struggle with cultural adaptation that brings an immediate bond. The ability to make Tanzanian friends in a non-stressful environment like work is also a huge draw. Most internationals not trained as cross-cultural workers but want to make a difference. Then, there is a large contingent of our community that is Tanzanian, and they relate more to the urban, international culture than their parents village culture. Our uniqueness is the international nature, but the local missional flavor. The Ocean isn’t a refuge from local culture. Its a missional community trying to present Jesus and shape the surrounding culture with Kingdom values. We use media particularly to stand out from the crowd. We do theater, train in the marketplace with media, and we do business trainings. Our current project is a coffee shop and media lab. Its fun! Q: What are your thoughts about Global ICN and how it will help
you and other international churches/pastors connect? A: The world is a very fluid place, and people end up moving quite a lot. Having a resource to advise people on possible places to connect spiritually will be very valuable for thousands of people who find themselves in the expat community. Everyone knows it´s nice to have someone to talk to who understands your unique stresses. For pastors, that makes them a little less unique and a little more bearable. Q: What are the challenges of serving in international church ministry in Tanzania? In Africa? A: Certainly communication. Trying to communicate without easy access to common metaphors is sometimes tough. Thank goodness for soccer and TV shows that everyone knows. But we aren’t just communicating cross-culturally, we are communicating multi-culturally every single time we have a gathering. And oftentimes communication is non-verbal. Who leads? Who stands up front? Who gets featured in ads, brochures, videos? Being a local church, we face all the usual challenges of a large gathering of people every week. Nursery, Kids ministry, staffing areas, etc but without the free access to all the local resources because our use of english limits our pool of qualified people to serve in certain areas. We are now like many other churches facing space issues. We are dealing with 2 campuses and multiple services. I think the challenges we face are honestly more urban than african. Land is expensive in urban areas. Locations for rent are limited, especially as you grow. Remaining close to the heart of Jesus while keeping the message fresh and relevant are challenges we all face. Q: Do you have a favorite resource (book you are currently reading, website you visit frequently, etc.) that you’d like to share with the group? A: I don’t have one resource, I’m a pretty fanatical self development guy. The best resource would be a Kindle, then second an iPod. Books and podcasts keep me fresh. I follow lots of people on Twitter, and browse interesting links from there. I ask questions and look at the business bestseller lists on Amazon, and try to see what people I respect are liking and referencing, then find that. If people want to contact me, I’d love to suggest a whole bunch of stuff.
Contact Information: Charles Porter +255 786 97 28 21 Facebook: life.cartographer twitter:lifecartography Skype:Lifecartographer or (651) 222-9357
www.theoceanindar.net
FEIC ... relationally connected and committed to doing life together
innovate
embrace the chaos, create the change
The “big reach” of international churches is required from us and it does make great demands of us. The reality of the need to nurture a “change culture”and to provide a pathway for innovative development is something that we must embrace! Our churches will remain dynamic, diverse and determined to make a difference in our rapidly changing world! We know that we are called to “embrace the chaos and create the change!” and we remain diametrically opposed to any thought or notion that would propose a lesser call or commitment! (Terry Hoggard)
FEIC DEFINITION STATEMENT The Fellowship of European International Churches [FEIC] is an expression of an Assemblies of God World Missions [AGWM] mandate that calls for strategic European International church ministry development. FEIC will continue to build on that mandate & work in full cooperation with AGWM & our national church partners to accelerate the work of the Gospel among Europe’s diverse population. Fellowship of European International Churches [FEIC] is a relational network comprised of congregations that minister to the unique opportunities, needs and challenges of international communities in European cites. Our network churches are a tapestry of cultures and traditions, races and people groups, languages and nationalities united under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
MISSION STATEMENT Accelerating the work of the Gospel among Europe’s diverse international population.
FEIC VALUES/PRIORITIES * Supportive relationships that provide meaningful connection * Sharing of resources that are specific to international ministry * Strategic church renewal and leadership development opportunities
FEIC PLAN OF ACTION * Plant new churches * Position existing churches for strategic development * Partner with national churches to do international ministry
FEIC NETWORK MEMBERSHIP PROCESS FEIC is a relational network of churches that are accountable to an organizational network and identify with a national network with which Assemblies Of God World Missions [AGWM] is a partner.
The process of joining includes: * Recommendation from FEIC member * Approval from both organizational and national network * Commitment to walk in agreement with FEIC
FELLOWSHIP OF INTERNATIONAL CHURCHES CONNECTING LEADERS BECAUSE RELATIONSHIPS MATTER
www.feic.org