Josh Walters on Seacoast’s Missional Community Strategy

One of the most important group life trends right now is the development of missional communities.  One of the churches on my radar right now is Seacoast Church.  They ought to be on yours, too.  Here’s my conversation with Josh Walters, Seacoast’s Life Group Pastor.

Mark: I know Seacoast has been moving toward the missional community concept.  What have been the main reasons for this change in direction?

Josh Walters: Community, mission, and study have always been key aspects of group life at seacoast.  Focusing on these values has effectively allowed people to connect with others, impact the community, and grow in their relationship with Christ.  However, these values have not been the most effective blueprint for discipleship.  This transition has been a cultural shift, a DNA change for us that will impact every aspect of group life.  Instead of working to cast vision, convince and align people to fulfill our vision/mission, we are helping people identify, build community around, and commission them to fulfill theirs.  This allows us to focus on discipleship and ensure that our people are being led well.

Mark: From some comments that Geoff Surratt made to me in late 2010, I know you’re making some strategic moves in the new direction.  Can you give us some sense of the steps you’ve taken so far?

Josh: Strategically, we have been thinking evolution instead of revolution.  We want the fruit of this transition to reveal who we are more so than what we do.  It’s about people, not programs.  In order to ensure that we introduce change that is sustainable and creates culture, we’ve been intentional about modeling it from the top down.  This is the “Year of the Huddle” at Seacoast.  One hundred percent of staff members will be in a discipling relationship with a leader that is driven by relationship/calling and not organizational chart.  We have been intentional about drawing a distinction between our ‘Discipling Huddles’ and our ‘Operational Meetings,’ to ensure that our ministry flows from who we are and its not just something we do.  By the end of the year, we would like to see 75% of our staff leading huddles.  Those who are already huddling leaders have prayerfully considered who God was calling them to invest in, extended an invitation communicating their expectations, and entered into a discipling relationship where they calibrate both invitation and challenge.  Some key words to guide the process have been educate, expose, and immerse.  Begin speaking the language and casting vision to help identify persons of peace; once they are identified, exposing them to a taster and/or some of the resources and content, upon which they are invited into a huddle and immersed in a discipling relationship.

Mark: Seacoast has a long commitment to group life.  You probably had quite a system in place.  How much care are you taking to not blow up what you already have?  Or are you?

Josh: Over the last year, we’ve adopted several different approaches.  Initially, we thought we were building a new bridge alongside the old one, and once the new one was in place, the old one would be torn down.  Though this works well in construction, it's not the best approach for group life.  In that season, we didn’t ‘blow up the system,’ but we did allow it to atrophy a bit with the thinking that you water what you want to grow.  We couldn’t invite our key leaders/coaches into a huddle without releasing them of some of their current responsibilities.

Mark: You told us yesterday that you started the transition to a missional community strategy with the idea that you’d just “water what you want to grow” and allow the old system to atrophy.  But…you made some changes along the way.  What happened?

Josh: In the last few months, we’ve had to process through assimilation, which has brought us back to our old model.  If the new model is going to take 2-3 years to create, how do we assimilate people today?  Answering this question has made us take a good look at our initial strategy.  In doing so, we believe the best way to get from ‘here’ to ‘there’ is with everybody connected and engaged.  So essentially, we are going to keep our current system but restructure it so that it is based on relationship and not role.  Coaches will invite leaders into discipling relationships instead of being assigned a leader because they have completed training.  We are simply changing our focus; instead of focusing on raising up new leaders and multiplying groups for the sake of community, we are focused on making disciples who live out mission and experience community.

Mark: I like the sound of that!  And I like how you guys are keeping your focus on the end in mind of missional community and adjusting the tactics to keep moving in that direction.  How involved has Greg Surratt (Lead Pastor) and the rest of the leadership been in the move toward missional communities?

Josh: I believe Pastor Greg’s involvement will ensure that we make this transition towards missional communities and the making of a discipling culture.  He is leading the charge, as is the executive team and each of the regional/campus pastors.  Pastor Greg has started using some of the language in his messages, is currently huddling key leaders himself, and has committed a significant amount of time and resources towards learning and sending key leaders to visit and learn from other models.

Mark: Speaking of learning, what are you guys reading?  Who are you listening to or watching that has moved you in this direction?

Josh: We are in relationship with Mike Breen and his team from 3DM.  Over the last year, we have attended several Learning Communities, hosted a taster, and taken part in bi-weekly phone huddles led by the team from 3DM.  Their willingness to walk with and make a significant investment in us has been a key factor in our growth and learning.  We have been pretty faithful to their content and use of Life Shapes in the making of disciples.  Kingdom and Covenant, Building a Discipling Culture, Discipling Culture Huddle Guide, Launching Missional Communities Field Guide, and dozens of MP3’s from Mike Breen and Steve Cochram.  Additional content and people we are learning from are: Alan Hirsch, Forgotten Ways; Matt Carter from Austin Stone, Brandon Schaefer from Southland Christian Church, and Jon Tyson from Trinity Grace.

Mark: Josh, I know I speak for many when I tell you how much we all appreciate your openness.  We’ll be watching and would love to hear more as the evolution progresses.  

Mark Howell serves as Pastor of Discipleship Communities at Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas, NV. He founded SmallGroupResources.net, offering consulting and coaching services to help churches across North America launch, build and sustain healthy small group ministries. He spent four years on the consulting staff at Lifetogether and often contributes to ministry periodicals such as the Pastor's Ministry Toolbox and ChurchCentral.com.

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