Hybrid Church

The Fusion of Intimacy and Impact

Dave Browning

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780470880814
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Église chrétienne

A hands-on resource for both large and small churches

It has been predicted that in the twenty-first century extremely large churches would emerge in America that resemble neither an elephant nor a field of mice. Which is better? At one time the answer would have been either/or. Now it's both/and. We want both the intimacy of smallness and the impact of bigness-we want a hybrid of the two. Hybrid Church is a practical guide for clergy and leaders who want to have the best of both church worlds: the intimacy of small "house church" groups and the impact of very large mega-churches.

• Offers a guide for churches who want to capitalize on their strengths to build intimacy with impact
• Written by the pastor of one of the "fastest growing" and "most innovative" churches in America with thousands of members organized in small house groups
• Outlines a vision for how the church of tomorrow could look like the early church. Given that the trend is toward very large and very small, with few churches in the middle, this book will be a welcome resource for both large and small churches.

1
THE EXTREME WORLD

Kristyn, my wife, after talking with her sister Robyn, asked me if I had heard about the Extremely Focused Church conference in Colorado (her sister was going to it). I told her I hadn’t heard about it. After some research, I realized she was talking about the Externally Focused Church conference (which I had heard about). But of the two conference names (one made up, one real), I like the sound of the Extremely Focused Church conference better, and that’s saying a lot, because the idea of being externally focused resonates with me a great deal. There is something to be said for being extreme, particularly in our new world, which is filled with well curves and hybrids.

It’s a Well-Curve World

The bell curve is a statistical distribution pattern showing how the majority of people in a study of a particular social phenomenon will gravitate toward the middle of a range of outcomes. For example, most people have families of moderate size, are of moderate height, and get average grades. Because there are fewer extremely large families, and fewer extremely tall or short people, and fewer people who earn A’s or F’s, the data pertaining to these phenomena, plotted on a chart, take the form of a bell. Figure 1.1 shows a typical bell curve.

For decades, American business and culture have been formed to meet the needs of the middle range of consumers. The mass media have also been pointed toward the center. We have loved the word general in business—General Mills, General Motors, General Dynamics, General Electric. Mainstream culture has been organized around the general masses.

Figure 1.1. A Typical Bell Curve

When it comes to churches, however, mainline denominations do not command the position they used to. Over the past decade, a bimodal pattern has been emerging as sociological gravitations have moved toward the ends of a surveyed range and away from the middle. Pink has used the term well curve to describe this new trend: “Although bell curve distribution is still considered normal, a surprising number of economic and social phenomena now seem to follow a different arc. Instead of being high in the center and low on the sides, this new distribution is low in the center and high on the sides. Call it the well curve” (see Figure 1.2).¹

The well curve describes a world that is getting bigger and smaller at the same time. And the middle is falling out (for example, the middle class and middle management), and the extremes are becoming even more extreme (the lower and upper classes). Homes, television sets, and media are all getting larger and smaller at the same time. Bell-shaped curves are giving way to well-shaped curves, where the middle is not the high point but rather the low point. The extremes are the high points. The middle is a tar pit. Examples of the shrinking middle abound:

Figure 1.2. The Well Curve

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value. The “well curver” concept was described in the following article: Pink, Daniel H. “The Shape of Things to Come,” Wired. May 2003.

• The rise in sales of either very big TVs (60-inch plasma) or very small ones (incorporated into cell phones), and the severe decline in the sale of midsize ones (such as the old 27-inch TV)
• The release of more automobiles of the extremely small and big varieties, and the decline in popularity of midsize vehicles
• The growth of organizations through mergers and acquisitions, or their shrinkage through spinoffs
• The rise in huge multinational federations (NAFTA, the European Union, and so on), with the simultaneous multiplication of independent states and secessionist movements
• Increasing or shrinking portions at restaurants
• The rise in the number of students scoring in the highest and lowest ranges on standardized tests, and the drop in the number of students scoring in the middle ranges
• The increase in the number of people earning at the top and the bottom of the income scale, and the decrease in the number of people earning a middle-class income
• The increase in the number of consumers flocking either toward high-end products or toward cheap products while fleeing products in the middle ground
• The rising popularity of extreme sports—and of golf
• Increasing polarization of politics toward the left and the right, with movement away from the center
• The proliferation of megaretailers as well as of niche boutiques

The middle may still be where most people are, but it is no longer the place where most people desire to be or plan to stay. Words like average, medium, and middle have fallen in popularity. And whereas companies used to gravitate to the word general, they no longer do. The slogan for today’s culture is “Wherever you end up, don’t end up in the middle.”

As a basketball official, I can tell you that the worst place from which to see the play is the middle of the floor, right under the basket. You are much better off at one side or the other, in order to get a wide-angle view of the court. In fact, officials are taught to imagine the area below the basket as quicksand. You don’t want to find yourself there, and if you do, you want to get out of there as quickly as possible and go wide.

Even popular music has shifted away from the comfortable middle to a more dynamic range. When I was young, I was coached in how to set the equalizer on my stereo. My equalizer had sliders from low to high frequency. For best effect, I was encouraged to create a bell-shaped curve with these sliders, with lower settings of highs and lows and a greater midrange. This would not tune to the modern ear, however. Old-school pop has given way to modern jazz stylings, with a lower midrange, higher highs, and lower lows (see Figures 1.3 and 1.4).

Figure 1.3. Pop Settings for a Stereo’s Equalizer

Figure 1.4. Jazz Settings for a Stereo’s Equalizer

Where is the worst place to be assigned a seat on an airplane? The dreaded middle seat. What is the worst kind of drink you can be served? The room-temperature, lukewarm, “spew you out of my mouth” kind. It is much better to be either inside or outside, hot or cold.

Today the middles are in trouble, and the edges seem vital. According to Sweet, who explores this model in the realm of a chain of coffeehouses, one of the keys to the success of Starbucks is the company’s gravitation toward giving the consumer an extreme experience—extreme comfort, extreme tastiness, extreme hotness.² Maxwell House, by contrast, is stuck in the middle. The days of the happy medium (and of a related word, mediocre) are gone.

How does the well curve apply to the church? Relationships are one of the areas where I don’t think you can go partway and be successful. If you are going to make your ministry about relationships, then really make your ministry about relationships. Don’t go halfway. You can’t “kind of” make community a priority. You have to go full-on.

And how does the model of the disappearing middle apply to the church? Here are three of the many ways, according to Hall:

• Membership. Some congregations are raising the bar and giving membership greater emphasis; others are dropping membership.
• Money. There are fewer “average” givers.
• Manpower. There is a shrinking role for moderately involved volunteers.³

But I think the greatest application of this model to the church is in overall positioning. The medium-size church of a few hundred people, once prized, now doesn’t seem attractive. It is neither big enough for impact nor small enough for intimacy.

And yet the brighter the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• More Praise for Hybrid Church
• Title
• Copyright
• Leadership Network Titles
• Dedication
• List of Tables and Figures
• About Leadership Network
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction to Both
• 1 THE EXTREME WORLD
• 2 THE FALLACY OF EITHER/OR
• 3 THE BEAUTY OF BOTH/AND
• 4 THE EMERGING BLENDS
• 5 THE CONVERGENCE OF INTIMACY AND IMPACT
• Notes
• The Author
• Index
• Other Books of Interest
• End User License Agreement