Quality Characteristic Two: Gift-Oriented MinistrySwarz noted “The gift-oriented approach reflects the conviction that God sovereignly determines which Christians should best assume which ministries. The role of church leadership is to help its members to identify their gifts and to integrate them into appropriate ministries. When Christians serve in their area of giftedness, they generally function less in their own strength and more in the power of the Holy Spirit.” If people are flowing in the Spirit, there is a greater possibility of signs and wonders happening.

A. Remember that God works with people within their own culture and worldview.B. God is often willing and adept at working in less than ideal situations.C. Pay attention to the social structure of the people using are serving (Ill. Joanne Shetler among the Bulangao).D. Ask questions like “who are the respected teachers in this community?”

E. Pay specific attention to gender roles.F. Pay specific attention to age roles. G. Be careful about making changes to their natural social structure within the church. It is better to give the new believers time to grow in their faith and allow them to make whatever roles changes are needed as the Holy Spirit guides them.

H. Help people discover their giftedness within their roles. For example, if a young woman discovers that she has a gift for teaching and her society limits her to teaching girls, help her organize a Sunday school class for girls!I. Try not to import your cultural values and ways of “doing church” into your missional situation.J. Pentecostalism, with its emphasis on the spiritual gifts, has a natural and distinct advantage here.

K. Social studies on Pentecostalism (i.e. Doug Petersen’s work) reveal that the baptism in the Holy Spirit empowers the laity, who are mostly poor, giving a voice to the voiceless.L. Pentecostalism gives new definition to Martin Luther’s concept of the priesthood of all believers.

What parts of the 4 point power paradigm might be important here? What tenets of animism does this characteristic address?

Quality Characteristic Three: Passionate SpiritualitySwarz, p. 26: “The point separating growing and non-growing churches….are the Christians in this church ‘on fire?’ Do they live committed lives and practice their faith with joy and enthusiasm?”(Ill. Truth on ice truth on fire—David DuPlessis)

A. Passionate spirituality involves living for Jesus all day every day.•Committed to a lifestyle of practicing the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible reading and study, fasting, etc…

•Committed to grow in our relationship with God.•Committed to serving God by serving others, regardless of the cost.

B. Most animists perform rites and rituals only when necessary. They try to ignore the spirit world the rest of the time. When these animists, become Christians, they can easily become nominal Christians, thinking that as long as they perform Christian rites at the right time….

C. Passionate spirituality is reinforced by doing life with other believers.•Praying together•Studying together•Serving together•Encouraging one another•Holding one another accountable for our lives•(Ill. BEEF)

D. Passionate spirituality provides an atmosphere for signs and wonders to take place.•Passion is contagious—when people see us on fire, they will be “Fired up” as well.

•Passionate spirituality within the church as a group provides numerous opportunities for Johnson’s 4 point “encounter” paradigm to operate.

How does the 4 point paradigm relate to spiritual giftedness?Tenets of animism?

Quality Characteristic Four: Functional Structures

What Swarz is talking about here is the organizational setup of a church and/or missional or denominational structure. A detailed discussion of this would go well beyond the purpose of our course. We will focus our few thoughts on this subject on the local church.

A. Study biblical models of leadership and become the leader God wants you to be. The model of organizing a church is not nearly as important as the leaders in those positions following the leadership of Jesus in thought, word and deed.

B. Know and consider adapting elements of the receptor societies model of organization in the communities where you live. (Ill John Maxwell and Claude)•(In my opinion, the NT allows flexibility for various models.)

C. Make sure that whatever model of church organization you adopt is one that meets peoples’ needs and one through which ministry (i.e. the 4 point paradigm) can be multiplied.D. Be willing to change your model if the one you are following isn’t working! If it’s dead, bury it!

4 paradigm here?Tenets of animism here?

Quality Characteristic Five: Inspiring Worship ServiceA. Swarz, (pp. 29-30) “Is the worship service an ‘inspiring experience’ for the participants?” So remember to be sensitive to the culture you are in. What is inspiring back home, may not be inspiring to people where you serve. (ill. Hymns)

•By the word “inspiring” he is talking about the inspiration that comes from the Holy Spirit. He goes on: “Whenever the Holy Spirit is truly at work (and his presence is not merely presumed), He will have a concrete effect upon the way a worship service is conducted including the entire atmosphere of the gathering.”

•One would think that Pentecostals would have something to offer here.

A. Pray over each aspect of the service, seeking God’s direction for what should be done.B. Be open for surprises by allowing the gifts of the Spirit to flow. When the Spirit of God is moving, expect miracles to happen!C. The Holy Spirit can expose the reality of animistic practices and the need to be free of them.D. When the Spirit is moving, people can be set free of bondages and fears that are so much a part of animism.

E. Seek to keep things fresh•Inspiring worship services contribute to people feeling warm and welcome.

•This is critical to building a sense of community.

•When people are inspired by the worship, they will want to return and bring their friends.

•No church has a right to be BORING!

4 point paradigm/Tenets of animism

Quality Characteristic Six: Holistic Small Groups

•Swarz, p.32, there “must be holistic groups which go beyond just discussing Bible passages to applying its message to daily life. In these groups, members are able to bring up those issues and questions which reflect immediate personal concerns.” Swarz felt that this was the most important of the 8 Quality Characteristics.

A.This is a great opportunity for believers to serve others, including non-believers, with the Spirit imparted gifts.

1.Praying for people’s needs with the resultant miracles. (Story, old prayer book on the ship.)

2.Patiently and gently confronting people with the truth of the word.

3.Lovingly meeting the practical needs of the group members.

4.Helping people maintain their allegiance to Christ.

5.Mutual accountability.

B. Small groups can easily be multiplied with Quality Characteristics 1 and 4 are in place.•The larger a church grows, the more important these small groups become in order for people to feel a sense of warmth and community in the Body of Christ.

•As the church grows, the number of small groups should multiply.

C. House churches can also fall under this category.

4 point paradigm/Tenets of animism?

Quality Characteristic Seven: Need-Oriented EvangelismA. Some are more gifted by the Spirit in evangelism (as in verbally sharing the gospel) than others and this must be taken into consideration.B. However, all can use their Spirit given gifts to serve unbelievers, reaching out in love to others.

C. Encourage people to reach out to unbelievers with whom they already have a relationship, i.e. neighbors, office mates. If you are church planting in a new area, it might be wise to establish relationships before beginning to share the gospel.D. Find out what these people need and find a way to serve them. 1.Find a need and fill it. (Tommy Barnett)2.Find a hurt and heal it. (Tommy Barnett)

four point paradigm/Tenets of Animism?

Quality Characteristic Eight: Loving RelationshipsA. Pastor should know the needs of his flock. In larger churches, this responsibility can be shared with the pastoral staff. In all churches key lay people.B. Love must be genuine.C. Love must be expressed in culturally appropriate manners•(Ill. America, having people over for dinner)

4 point paradigm/Tenets of Animism?

All characteristics are equally important •Schwarz, p. 38, concludes: “Our research tells us that there is no single factor which leads to growth in churches; it is the interplay of all eight elements. No church wanting to grow qualitatively and quantitatively can afford to overlook any one of these quality characteristics.”

•Succeeding in these eight characteristics involves much time, prayer, studying the community as well as the Bible and patience. There are no shortcuts.

Bringing It All Together1. Animism encompasses all of life and is a religion focused on spiritual power.2. Levels of animistic involvement vary from one society to another.3. Missionaries must understand the patterns of culture and that change, to be effective, must happen at the worldview level.4. Know your culture’s worldview and that of your host culture and know them well.5. Get a deep understanding of animism in your context.

6. Know your Bible well, especially as it relates to God’s response to animistic practices.7. Know the four point paradigm for Pentecostal ministry in an animistic context. (If you come up with a better one, please let me know!)8. Know the 8 characteristics of a healthy church in an animistic context.