Breaking the Church Plant Model

Daniel Melton (MDiv '95) wears a lot of hats: he is a pastor, church planter, and North American missionary. Five years after graduating from seminary, he and his wife, Julie, accepted the unique mission to start a church in suburban Maryland without a core group of believers. "It was like a parachute drop. There was no parent-daughter relationship as in most Presbyterian church plants," says Melton. "So we began simply by building relationships with people. We spent time meeting our neighbors in nearby parks, at the pool...even at bars on Friday nights! In hearing their stories and learning the narratives of the community, we sought to demonstrate the power of incarnational love."

Melton gathered a group of people seeking to learn more about Christ and started an Alpha course with them. "Alpha is a positive, dynamic representation of the gospel message. It is simple, user-friendly, and accommodates people from so many backgrounds," explains Melton. "We didn't have a church building so we would meet in a home, share a meal, watch the video, and divide up for discussion. People began practicing Christianity even as they were learning about it. One woman came to Alpha to 'write off' Christianity; but she didn't know enough about it to do so at that point. But by the seventh week, she asked us to lay hands on her and pray for her fibromyalgia."

The group then multiplied through a word-of-mouth, grassroots effort. Families began gathering in homes for worship, inviting their neighbors and friends. People came and gained a new perspective on Christianity. "Our goal is to live the Christian life in an attractive way," says Melton. "We're trying to get at what it means to manifest the Kingdom of God on a daily basis."

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church evolved from these home groups. Because of its name, the church now draws many from a highly liturgical background looking to involve their families in a church, but who would otherwise be skeptical of a communal worship approach. Melton employs a diversity of styles in worship, using songs from the Vineyard, multimedia in messages, and illustrations from the church fathers like St. Augustine. "It is relational and organic, has a missional focus, and is not committee-driven," he says of St. Andrew's.

Melton uses ministry teams to work on important needs of the church as they arise, rather than assigning people to committees. His approach, which he calls "just in time leadership," empowers members to follow God's direction. "If we sense that the Holy Spirit is leading us in a specific direction, we begin brainstorming as to how we can organize our ministry to follow. It's my job to pastor the moment as we step out in faith," he explained. "Our junior high ministry began that way. We didn't have a budget or a staff, just a need and a call. So we prayed for lay leaders to materialize. They did. Soon we had junior high students in the basement of a home reflecting on the message of Napoleon Dynamite while their parents met and prayed on the first floor as to how they could encourage their kids in their faith. By the end of the evening, the entire group, parents and teenagers, were mixing and enjoying themselves together."

Melton utilizes a relational approach in his church because he believes that relationships are the key to creating an effective ministry. Church members are encouraged to build and maintain missional relationships with their neighbors, in order to positively impact the community. "We don't pretend to be perfect practitioners of our faith--but we are striving toward a lifestyle that reflects God's Kingdom. That's why we drew our mission statement, 'Life as it's meant to be,' from Dallas Willard's Spirit of the Disciplines. We want our lives to reflect what we say we believe," Melton says.

The years Melton spent at Fuller and in Young Life were particularly helpful in shaping his approach to ministry. He learned how to balance book learning with the practice of ministry, to liberate lay people, organize them, and empower them to use their gifts, rather than having a pastor-centered church. "The people I meet ask intelligent questions and want intelligent answers," he says. "My experience at Fuller gave me the ability to do thought-provoking exegesis, and taught me how to reflect on real life issues with theological integrity."

Other lessons from Melton's ministry so far are that Christ must remain the focus of church life over and against the minutiae of church work, and that renewal can indeed occur within a denominational context. "The work of renewal is difficult but it does happen," he noted. "It happens when we invite people to 'become new' in Christ. Certainly, the cynicism we face as Christians in North America is intense. The people I meet simply do not believe that denominational 'franchise' churches or glitzy 'designer' churches are believable. But when we are honest about our shortcomings and failures, when we admit that faith is tough as well as wonderful, we become believable. Then we have the opportunity to explain what the Kingdom of God is about."