No one in the New Testament church launched or maintained a ministry on their own.
Soma Churches is a movement of ordinary people living out gospel identities in the everyday stuff of life.
Our desire is to connect, equip, and mobilize disciples so that every man, woman, and child will encounter Jesus through His people. Since 2009, I’ve been part of the Soma movement, and I currently serve Soma Churches as executive director.
Because we want to declare and display the gospel to our cities, we launch and sustain micro expressions, which can be described as “Groups of followers of Jesus who adopt a mission in a neighborhood or city for the sake of the city.”
Soma Churches call these groups missional communities, gospel communities, micro-churches, or various other names. Regardless of what these are called, we believe that followers of Jesus need an everyday setting to live out their Gospel Identities of family, servants, and missionaries.
I am writing this article for Christian leaders who are trying to reach people who resist coming to your Sunday service. I’m writing for leaders who are trying to display the gospel as well as they declare the gospel. I’m writing to leaders about the essential relationships that make launching and sustaining micro expressions possible.
Relationship 1: The Holy Spirit
Acts 1:4-5, 13:1-2
Launching and sustaining micro expressions is difficult work, similar to how starting an interdependent family of churches in the Roman world was hard work. Therefore, before the disciples went about their work, they were told to wait for the Holy Spirit. Paul and Barnabas followed this pattern and did not leave on their apostolic journey until the prophets and teachers in Antioch were certain that the Holy Spirit had spoken.
I’m not sure we wait and listen long enough before we launch new works. This means that we often eloquently ask God to bless our ministry, but do not patiently wait for God to give guidance, team members, and power.
After years of launching and sustaining micro expressions, Soma can confirm that “ready fire aim” is a guaranteed way to miss the target. Hurrying off before God has provided clear direction, mentors, and team members is a great way to have a limited, short-term effect on the city. Truthfully, how can we go if we are not sent? How can we expect a powerful effect on our city if we wander off before the powerful One points us in the right direction?
Before my core team launched our church, we prayed and listened and prayed and asked other leaders to listen. Before we joined Soma and asked for mentors and converted our small groups to missional communities, we prayed and listened to the Holy Spirit with every household in our congregation. Before we began to host weekly community dinners, we prayed for direction and team members and asked God who we should invite. Every baptism, every changed life, every good thing we saw happen in ministry happened because the Holy Spirit moved in our midst.
Signs that I see of not listening to the Holy Spirit include:
- Appointing untested or ungifted (for that role) leaders
- Micro expressions forming without a clear mission
- Micro expressions that launch without a sending organization of believers
All of this hurry may display lack of intentional time asking the Holy Spirit to lead – and then waiting for that answer. Without the Holy Spirit’s direction and power, our efforts are likely to be short-lived.
Questions to consider:
- Who could you ask to join you in praying for the Holy Spirit’s direction and then listen for the response?
- What practices could you begin with your leaders in order to demonstrate your dependence on the Holy Spirit and develop your ability to listen to His direction?
Relationship 2: Mentors
II Timothy 3:10
Launching and sustaining micro expressions take specific skills. The ancient practice of apprenticing leaders needs to be rediscovered. Paul and Barnabas (and team) displayed a pattern of making disciples that was passed on to leaders like Priscilla and Aquilla, Timothy, Titus, and others. If you don’t have a mentor, your work is going to be more difficult than it needs to be and shorter term than it could be.
One of the benefits of belonging to a network like Soma is that you have opportunities to be mentored by world-class disciple makers. The success that our churches in very secular places are having at the moment are a beautiful example of how much difference quality mentoring can make. The reason that I joined Soma in 2009 was because I needed help displaying and declaring the gospel to my neighbors who lived in the very secular suburbs of Seattle.
I had successfully launched a Sunday service, but we were not living out our faith in the ordinary stuff of life. Most of my neighbors were not interested in a Sunday service, nor were they interested in “special events,” or classes on parenting. Fortunately, my mentor – Jeff Vanderstelt – had great experience with making disciples in community. He listened carefully to my challenges and walked me through the process of thinking through my gospel Identities of “Family,” “Servant,” and “Missionary.” His mentoring moved us from a congregation of two inward-focused groups to 15 missional communities serving our city and seeing people come to faith.
Signs of not having an adequate mentor include:
- Deep loneliness
- Being perpetually stuck, discouraged, or settling for much less than you should
As Paul taught Timothy to follow a cycle of “Evangelize, Equip, and Empower,” he reminded him that Timothy had seen his life, heard his doctrine, and knew the purpose behind it all (II Timothy 3: 10-17). In order to do the hard and beautiful work of launching and sustaining micro expressions, we need to have mentors who are walking a few steps ahead of us.
Questions to consider:
- Who is mentoring you at the moment?
- What issues do you need help with?
- Where might you find a good mentor or coach as you tackle difficult ministry issues?
Relationship 3: Team Members
Romans 12:6-8
The purpose of launching and sustaining micro expressions is to bless those in your circles (this can include your neighborhood, friend group, or co-workers). This is a highly relational work. It is much more than beginning a study or holding an open house. It is an intentional choice to live your life with and for others. This is not something you can do on your own. We have found that you need other Christians with different gifts in order to launch and especially sustain micro expressions.
In our micro expression outside Seattle our team included those with the gift of service, networking, and giving. These gifts complemented my gift of leadership/evangelism and my wife’s gift of prophecy.
As my wife Kathryn and I began to prayerfully wade into this intentional life, we began with inviting neighbors over for meals. The table is a central setting in Christian scripture and tradition, and my mentor encouraged me that this would be a logical next step.
So, we prayed, listened, and intentionally began to invite others into the everyday stuff of meals together. This started with block parties in a shared green space. Our team members helped us with (serving) setup/teardown and (giving) bringing food. Others (networkers) invited other neighbors to join. When the Seattle weather turned dark, wet, and cold we moved things into our small house. At the end of one particularly successful full-house dinner, I proposed to our neighbors that we intentionally share one meal together each week. The pitch sounded like this, “We’ve all enjoyed our time together in these block parties and I often hear you say – we should do this more often. So, I propose we share dinner every Thursday night. After all, we all eat 21 times a week, we might as well share one together. We will have the door open at 6, bring something to share, stop by quickly for 5 minutes or stay for a few hours.” This step was daunting, but made this community dinner part of the regular, intentional, part of our weekly rhythm.
Slowly God transformed our community dinners into a neighborhood that knew each other. Each dinner finished with highs and lows – and we slowly got to know each other’s story. As the Holy Spirit led, we talked about Jesus in ordinary conversation. As the Holy Spirit enabled us, we helped each other through trials. Those who were interested started a Bible study on Fridays. Others joined us for a Sunday service.
Through all of this we saw the Holy Spirit do amazing things. My mentor helped me walk through difficult situations (drunk neighbors, rowdy kids, boundaries for time and energy). And our team members jumped in and helped so that we were not perpetually overwhelmed. We saw 10 households in our neighborhood become part of our community, many deepened faith or found faith and became followers of Jesus.
Signs that you do not have an adequate team around you:
- There is no one that knows you deeply and has time and ability to help.
- You do not display the Gospel well because you always do things by yourself.
- You are perpetually exhausted as you serve others.
- You tend to start more things than you finish.
Questions to consider:
- Who is God sending with you as you start and sustain micro expressions? (even someone as competent as the Apostle Paul – Acts 13 – had a team)
- What are their gifts? (Romans 12:6-8 is a good place to start)
- How can your team better display the Gospel by how you treat each other and share leadership of the group?
Call to Action
If God is calling you to launch and sustain micro expressions, I encourage you to depend on the Spirit, find a mentor, and assemble a viable team.
No one should do ministry on their own. No one has to do ministry on their own. God doesn’t expect you to do ministry on your own. No one in the New Testament church launched or maintained a ministry on their own.
