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Dave Browning is a visionary minimalist and the founder of Christ the King Community Church, International (CTK). CTK is a nondenominational, multilocation church that has been noted as one of the "fastest growing" and "most innovative" churches in America by employing the K.I.S.S method: "keep it simple and scalable." It involves 17,000 people in several countries. He is the author of Deliberate Simplicity: How the Church Does More by Doing Less.

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"A really well-articulated, organizationally insightful, insider's view of what happens when missional meets mega and when movemental forms engage best practice in contemporary church leadership and organization." Alan Hirsch director, Future Travelers; author, The Forgotten Ways; and coauthor, On the Verge

"Dave Browning understands that accomplishing big dreams requires small actions. In Hybrid Church you get practical first-hand experience in blending the megachurch and the microchurch into a consistent ministry philosophy...Hybrid Church is a must-read for leaders who want to hear from someone who is really getting it done in big and small ways!" Dave Ferguson lead pastor, Community Christian Church, and movement leader, NewThing

"Hybrid Church reinforces A. W. Tozer's idea that 'truth has two wings.' The truth comes in embracing apparent opposites...This is the delight and the strength of Hybrid Church...The strength of Dave's writing is that he is living in the intersection of these 'competing' models, and loving it! If you are open to a God who is never comfortable being placed in our small boxes, then you will love this book." Dr. Tony Dale president, House2House, and coauthor, The Rabbit and the Elephant

"In a day when people are strident about protecting their own methodology or perspective, Dave Browning puts forth a vital prescription for embracing the breadth of how God works through the church in all its various forms. This is not so much a methodology book as it is a way of being the church as God intended." Dr. Dan Lacich pastor for Distributed Sites, Northland Church

"Hybrid Church has something important to say to leaders of the emerging house church, as well as the largest megachurches in the world. You will appreciate the spirit of this book as much as its content." Steve Kim president, Ministry Direct (Church consulting and coaching for Korean churches)

Aus dem Klappentext

The church of the future is going to look a lot like the church of the past. The early church was both small and big. It met house-to-house and in the temple courts. Today we also have both forms, the mega and the micro, and the possibility of a hybrid that capitalizes on the best features of both.

Hybrid Church is a practical guide for clergy and leaders who want to have the intimacy of small "house church" groups and the impact of very large megachurches. Pastor Dave Browning should know. He leads Christ the King Community Church in the Seattle area, a nondenominational, multilocation church with thousands of members organized in small house groups. Based on what he has learned from Christ the King, which has been cited as one of America's fastest growing and most innovative churches, this groundbreaking book shows what it takes for a church to embrace the best practices, forms, and organizing principles of the mega- and micro church models to become a hybrid and capitalize on the unique strengths of both.

As Browning explains, the small church has the advantage of harnessing the power of prayer in intimate groups, focusing on Christ-centeredness, and offering comfortableness, while megachurches tap into the strength of faith, momentum, and creativity. By combining all these advantages into a hybrid church, leaders and their churches can reach more people more effectively. Ultimately, this vision of a hybrid church is not about numbers, it is about people. It is about fulfilling the great commission and bringing people out of darkness into God's marvelous light.

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Hybrid Church

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

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.

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).

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:

• 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).

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. 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.

But I think the greatest application of this model to the church is in overall positioning. The...