Archives

To be clear, the Rev. Dred Scott knows that this is not the normal way of starting a church. Biblical, yes; but not what contemporary Christians might recognize as “church.”

It’s all about making disciples, not churches.

“We’re creating a discipling culture,” said Scott, “where disciples make disciples who make disciples who make churches. It’s counter-intuitive to the present church culture, which maintains that churches make disciples. That doesn’t work too good.”

Scott is working with a small group of disciples — a “huddle” — in the Dundalk area near the Port of Baltimore. In the shadows of large shipping cranes, huge boats and more cars than you can count sitting in massive parking lots, the group is small but growing.

“If you look at churches today,” said Scott, “they might make a disciple or two. But if you use Christ’s model, where disciples make disciples who make disciples who make churches, you’re always going to get the church. So, if you make a disciple, you’ll get the church; if you use the church, you might get a disciple.”

Scott is convinced that in today’s church culture, people say they are Christian, but the concept of being a “disciple” never comes up.

“Jesus never said that,” said Scott. “Jesus said, in response to Peter, ‘I will build my church...’ he didn’t ask for architectural support systems or church programs – he didn’t ask for any of that. Jesus said ‘I’ll build the church; you make disciples.’ That’s what we’re focusing on.”

What Scott is doing is a unique — to say the least —way of church planting. There is no building the church calls “home;” no mortgage; there is no worship, per se; there are no bulletins. This is not a “parachute drop” form of starting a new church.

What this is is small group ministry with high involvement and high commitment expectations.

Scott said the idea for this gained traction in the United Kingdom as an attempt to revive the church there and across Europe. Mike Breen, an Anglican priest, brought his ideas to the United States. Breen, said Scott, saw that the book of Acts provided the blueprint for building church, that of understanding the culture and building community.

“You start with the understanding from Matthew,” Scott said, “where Jesus gives two commands: One in the fourth chapter, where Jesus says ‘come, follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men.’ And in the 28th chapter, he says, ‘Go into the world and make disciples of Jesus Christ, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and teaching them.’”

Scott said that he is using this “come and go” matrix to make disciples.

Last September, Scott started a “huddle.” This small group of four people is the mechanism for discipling, he said. “It starts with recruiting, then we train, then we deploy, and then we review,” said Scott. ”That’s how we do leadership development.”

“The huddle is leadership development, but it’s not based on whether or not a person is saved,” he said. “If you carefully look at (Matthew 28), discipling goes on with folks who are not yet believers. Most people just read the 18, 19, and 20 verses, but verse 17 says, ‘Many worshipped him, but some doubted.’ This was the disciples they were talking about; they weren’t yet believers, but he was still discipling them.”

And as the huddle grows, it becomes a missional community of about 20 to 40 people. Scott said when it gets that big, it creates a new one.

Scott’s current missional community meets Thursday nights at Dundalk UMC. At a recent gathering, about 25 people gathered in the church’s Fellowship Hall.

“We seek to bring in the local community,” said Scott, “and give them the foundation for what happened in Acts, which is ‘oikos,’ a Greek word that means ‘family,’ or ‘extended family.’ That’s kind of our mantra.”

You could see that as soon as the gathering began. One woman interrupted at the start to share an announcement: “I’m pregnant,” she said.

The group applauded.

Scott used the moment to teach, noting the wonderfulness of life and what an amazing God we have that brings forth newness.

He then turned to the Bible, reading the text aloud while interspersing comments and observations while welcoming questions.

“We use story form,” Scott said, “where you have abbreviated stories of Scripture, and you start with the beginning. You read the story –- only one narrator – and let it inform the group.”

The group listened intently, learning about Moses, Pharaoh and the Exodus.

“We’re not asking people to do anything extra,” said Scott.  “We’re asking people to be intentional in being a disciple. You see, most people eat 21 times a week. So, for example, during several of those 21 times, you become intentional – you eat with a bunch of people; that’s what we do here; that’s why we come here.”

Scott said that these huddles and missional communities are not “microwave” fast.

“This is crock-pot ministry,” he said, meaning this way of doing “church” takes time. “We have the support of our bishop, my district superintendent, the Cabinet, and Andy Lunt with Vibrant Communities, giving this an opportunity to gain momentum. Because right now, we’re failing. I’m talking about the church universal... we’re failing. And so, this is a biblical standard and model. All we’re doing is incorporating what Jesus said... high invitation, high challenge.”