Our vision is to see Tasmania reached for Christ through the planting of as many churches as possible, so that there is a gospel witness in every city and town in the State. We believe that the planting of new churches is the best way to reach people with the gospel. We’ve made a good start, but a slow and small start. In the past the key limiting factor has been the lack of trained men for the work. We have seen a good number of trained folk and a continuing number of apprentices coming into the network. There will always be a shortage (the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few), and we will continue to need people who can take on new church plants.
I believe that structurally, what our movement needs is the implementation of 'Pauline Teams', along the line of the model we find in the Scriptures, so that the work can progress faster & further, by God’s grace.
Why team?
We have come out of an era in which the minister was appointed to lead and run the church, and despite our heritage for a plurality of leaders in the church, because he was paid there was an expectation that he did the work, and it tended to be a lone and sometimes lonely role with some support by the elders.
When Jesus trained his disciples he didn’t train individuals, he trained the team. He even sent them out in pairs. Paul, likewise always worked in a team including apprentices. He appointed teams of elders to shepherd the church. Is seems to me that Paul established a model of open, flexible teams in order to quickly spread the gospel through church planting. We see how this worked in the book of Acts, and we see the foundational theology for this in Ephesians 4.
In history, the Catholic church turned this into a hierarchy of ministry positions. This was not God’s design or purpose. The Reformation corrected this with its emphasis on every member ministry and a flatter organisation structure for the church, based on the pastoral epistles. However, we have yet to see this dynamic team approach to gospel ministry (apart from exceptions) generally used in the church.
The rise of church planting networks in Christian work recognises the need for like-minded Christians to be working together in different ways if we are to reach non-Christians with the gospel. Vision 100 network has in a way already in a limited way been operating in a type of Pauline Team.
What is a Pauline team?
A Pauline team is a number (two or more) of biblically qualified leaders and apprentices who
· Have a variety of spiritual gifts
· Are commissioned and appointed by local churches
· Have a clear vision of Christ’s mission through church planting and raising up leaders (including new elders)
· Are prayerful & responsive to the Holy Spirit’s leading
· Are willing to sacrifice all for the sake of Christ & the gospel (prepared to be tent-makers)
What would Pauline Team do?
· Reaching/evangelising new areas of Hobart for Christ
· Gathering converts and planting new churches
· Discipling/training new converts to be fully mature disciples of Christ, going on to serve him to build the church
· Identifying spiritually gifted people and raising them up to serve as elders / deacons and ministers of the gospel through training and accountable discipleship
· Operate as a network of leaders supporting and encouraging each other in the work of the gospel
· Celebrate in the local sending churches God’s grace in the winning of converts, establishing new churches and raising up new leaders.
So how do we move this forward in the Vision 100 movement?
Here are three Biblical precedents to ponder for action:
· Elders & teaching elders of participating churches are to take greater responsibility & leadership of the local church (eg. Acts 20:17ff).
This is a relatively easy step and the work of an elder is already well detailed in most church polities. In Vision 100 it is being practiced more and more with elders leading ministries and involved in teaching/preaching. Elders ought to continually consider the time they need to do the work of the Lord and look at changing their priorities (some elders in our network have reduced work hours to four days per week to give a day a week to their elders responsibilities).
· Key leaders need to be set apart by elders of key (Antioch type) churches to, on their behalf, lead Pauline teams to reach new areas of Tasmania (eg. Acts 13:1-3).
Increasingly the key leaders in the V100 network are providing support to local churches and church plants, but there is no mechanism in our respective church polities to enable this. We have yet to take the next step of setting apart and sending suitably gifted men and their teams to go and plant churches away from their churches. This will be needed if we are to reach more widely across Tasmania.
· Some trainees, especially those with evangelistic skills are to be attached to Pauline teams (eg. Acts 16:1-3).
Most trainees are connected to established churches. We need to be willing to release and support trainees to participate in ‘Pauline Teams’ that are actively engaged in planting.
Conclusion
Pauline teams drawn from a number of churches in the Network would be used to:
· Speed up the work
· Break new ground where we do not currently have people
· Change the ethos of an existing work by closing down an old work & opening up a new work
The move towards effective using Pauline Teams in the work will not be achieved on paper, but by experience, because such teams are flexible, changing as need dictates, led by the Spirit, and dependent on the Lord for all success. It will be have to be pioneered.
It requires much prayer and a willingness to work sacrificially together.
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