LIFE IN A FLIP CHURCH

LIFE IN A FLIP CHURCH 

“A call to membership is a call to discipleship.” — Dhati Lewis

Assimilation often refers to a church’s membership process and answers the question, “How do you move a person from being a guest to being an active, fruitful part of the community?”  The assimilation process of Wellspring.Live Church is simple and, after the first step, it becomes very decentralized.  We’re not about making members.  We’re about growing disciples, and disciples are equivalent to leaders because they are intentionally influencing the world around them.  So we refer to our assimilation process as “Leadership Development”.

 

First Time Guest

  1. When people first visit, they spend their first breakout sessions with the senior leadership.
  2. If they decide to continue with the church, they’ll be placed in a breakout group in the future.
  3. From this point, assimilation is equivalent to leadership development.

 

Leadership Development for Apprentice Leaders

  1. Vision & Values:  Who are we & where are we going?
  2. Foundation:  What do we believe?
  3. Ministry:  How do we serve and operate in the Holy Spirit?
  4. Practical Guidelines & Processes

Just like the corporate meetings, much of the education behind the assimilation and leadership development process is available online.  Meetings are for interaction and practical application.  This means that “Foundation” may be six short teachings, but may only be accompanied by one actual meeting with a mentor leader.  Also, at the same time a person is going through the leadership development, they’ll be gaining valuable practical experience as an apprentice leader.  So during the four steps of leadership development a person is considered an apprentice and:

  1. assists a mentor leader in leading a breakout
  2. is doing a series of video classes on their own time
  3. is meeting with a mentor leader outside of congregation meetings for direction and discussion

 

IS FCM SCALABLE?

FCM (Flip Church Model) is not intended to create “mega-churches” with thousands of people in ever-increasing buildings.  It’s not to raise up platform, celebrity leaders.  It exists to immerse people in God-centered, disciple-making communities.  In FCM, two leaders (one mentor leader and one apprentice leader) are required for every ten participants (congregants); therefore, if we have 100 participants, we’ll need 20 leaders.  If we have 200 participants, we’ll need 40 leaders.  Leadership and leadership development are core values of FCM.  Our goal is to treat each leader as a future Flip Church planter and to provide the training and tools necessary.