Vision for Reaching the City of Calgary PDF Print E-mail

Vision for Reaching the City of Calgary
Summary of Long Term Church Multiplication Strategy
RockPointe Church ~ Fall 2009

We believe that the development of new, healthy, reproducing congregations is a strategic and foundational component to reaching our city for Jesus Christ.   Our vision therefore is to become a church multiplying church.  We are intent on spawning new, healthy, fruitful congregations as quickly as possible.  This will require a DNA change at RPC, a systemic plan and God’s sovereign enablement.  We would love to learn how to start a new congregation every year.  We would love to learn how to partner with churches that may not have the resources to be missional on their own.  We would love to partner internationally/cross culturally to start churches in other regions and ethnic groups.

In simple language, here is what we are doing:

  • Vision – one church, many locations
  • Motto – “extending beyond ourselves to better reach our city with the life and love of Jesus”
  • Means – starting worship services/essential programming @ new locations & delivering all other programming at shared locations
  • Communication Picture/Metaphor –The Banyan Tree
  • Location – Jointly defined demographically by proximity to members of current congregation (to be a launch group), addressing the ‘least reached’ areas of the city (receptivity & opportunity) and availability of suitable rental sites 
  • Frequency – we are now preparing to launch our fourth in the fal/winter of 2009….and thereafter hope to launch additional sites annually

Our approach is ‘Multi-Site’

  • We are currently one church, three locations. Bearspaw Site, In the NW in between Calgary & Chochrane. Our Bowridge Site which is across from Canada Olympic Park and in October 2007 we, together with Strathcona Christian Fellowship and other partners, launched a new congregation in Westhills of SW Calgary that our other two campuses support.  
  • Our latest site will be opening Fall/Winter of 2009, which will be in the heart of downtown Calgary. Our goal at MetroMercy is to put our faith into action and to meet God through the lives of the poor and the hurting people we are intentionally building relationships with.
  • Our intention is for all RPC congregations to be interdependent communities, sharing resources, strategy, mission/vision/values.  
  • Dynamic mutuality and linkage will be maintained as long as is mutually beneficial and effective in Kingdom advancement.  If and when that is not the case, we will change the relationship from interdependent/connected to more independent.  Our goal is that each of our sites/congregations will mature to become reproductive congregations themselves. 
  • We have no desire to establish a struggling congregation. Our goal is that our new site will ‘hit the ground running’; that the people have sought God, that their mission is clear, and that the vision of what they believe God wants to create is clear. 
  • In particular, we will seek God to establish within us (and the people at the new sites) the characteristics of a healthy site. We believe He has shown us, that to be healthy, the people within this site must be:
  1. Passionate about God - ‘ that I may know God and the power of His resurrection’
  2. Ministering according to giftedness with every leader having an apprentice
  3. Deeply committed to serving one another
  4. Relentlessly focused on lost people (presenting Christ in a culturally relevant way and many are regularly making decisions to walk with Him)
  5. Selflessly releasing people to become part of future new extension sites reaching un-reached people (i.e. establishing new congregations throughout Calgary)
  6. Modeling growth and multiplication
  7. Intentional in everything – Mission, Vision and Programs are clear, focused and purposeful – a clear Directional Plan 
  8. Engaged in the sharing of leadership and resources (i.e. values, programs, strategies and methods) with other sites, but being intelligent and flexibly distinct in the unique methods and strategies needed based on differences in geography, and personality and demographics.
  9. Developing new leadership from within the each congregation as they mature into full functioning churches.
  10. Emphasizing the 8 critical success factors identified in Natural Church Development (NCD) for a continuing measure of health.
 
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