looking for the supercritical

I copied this from this week's church e-letter at The Journey Church. Who knows, it may do others some good.
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As we get closer to moving to our new location it's important that we're all on the same page and understand one of the most "critical" things about church planting: critical mass.

Critical mass: An assembly in which a chain reaction is possible is called critical, and is said to have obtained criticality. In a larger assembly, the reaction will increase at an exponential rate, and this is termed supercritical.

I'm no nuclear phyicist, but I do understand the basics of critical mass. OK, for those of you that know me really well you can stop laughing. I said I knew the basics of the principle. I also know that critical mass can be applied to church planting...or any other social context for that matter. (This isn't new information for people that run in church planting or sociology circles, so you folks can move on to the next part of your day now.) Let me put the principle of critical mass completely in a church start-up/church planting context, specifically The Journey Church context.

The social critical mass in a church setting is around 125 adults. How do I know that? Well, let's start with the Bible. When the early church was born, there were 120 adults in the upper room where they were meeting. Those 120 adults were fervently praying and asking God what they should do next. They had reached a spiritual critical mass. Spiritually "charged" believers that God was able to use. The church reached supercritical in a very short amount of time after that and the church grew exponentially.

That took place after three years of intense ministry by Jesus (God in human form). That took place after Jesus has spoken to crowds of at least 15,000. It took place after he had died and risen back to life. The supercritical happened after only 120 of the 500 that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection did what he asked and went to the upper room. (Just thinking out loud here.)

As a spiritual leader, I'm looking for the supercritical to happen. Some would say that I set my goals too high. I say that God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask or think. I understand that we live in a different spiritual/political milieu than that of the 1st century. But the fact is, God is still who he says he is. He actually wants his Church to grow and touch lives that are sick and living in hopelessness. The big question is when will supercritical happen at The Journey? Here's some thoughts...

The first step is to reach critical with critical mass. Based on the history of the Church and some modern day examples, that means that The Journey needs to be a spiritually healthy group of around 125 adults to reach critical mass. The Journey has become a spiritually healthy church, but we only have about fifty adults right now. That means the people that attend The Journey have to invite others to see what God is doing in their lives and in the lives of their faith community, the church.

The second step is to understand the social importance of critical mass in a church plant. There is a social comfort associated with being in a large crowd. For the extrovert it means there are more people to talk to. For the introvert a large crowd means a better chance of going unnoticed. Both introverts and extroverts attend church. If a church hasn't reached critical mass, first time guests will be very uncomfortable. The reason that most church plants don't survive the first year is that they don't reach critical mass. When people invite their friends, neighbors, and co-workers they have to help them understand the social environment by telling them what to expect.

The third step is interpret critical mass to first time guests. If critical mass isn't interpreted to the first time guest they'll leave thinking, "Somethings seems wrong there" or "That whole thing seems broken." It's the church plant attenders job to preempt the perception of the broken social environment.

First of all, authentic and genuine care for the guest has to be expressed. Ask guests things about their interests, where they're from, what their occupation is and then connect them with people in the church with similar backgrounds and connect them with others quickly.

Second, you have to interpret critical mass to a first time guest depending on what "language" they speak. To the unchurched guest, it's best to describe the principle of critical mass using entrepreneurial language. Using phrases like "We're a startup church" and explaining that "you have to like ground floor kind of things" will help them better understand the social environment. For the first time guest that is churched, it's important to let them know we're an independent church plant with no "mother" church. It's also important to let them know about the critical mass thing from Acts 1. Even churched people will need to have an entrepreneurial mindset. If they're coming from a highly progammed churched, don't be surprised if they feel uncomfortable. Don't worry about it. If they're supposed to be a part of the core that God uses to reach critical mass they'll stick around.

Here's the bullet point version:
- Critical mass is critical to our church.
- Know the Biblical and social reasons for critical mass and be able to interpret it.

Let's do the critical mass thing...
Ken