Resonate Christian Church
Resonate
Christian Church was founded by Kevin and Amanda Bates amid the resistant and
marginalized people of the city of Sherwood. Bates was attracted to the
community of Sherwood due to its history. He shared the community’s experience
leading it to become resistant to the Gospel. He stated, “In a twenty-one year
period seventeen churches were planted in Sherwood and all but two of those
church plants have closed their doors. This created a very resistant community
that views church plants negatively.” He noted that there was a lot of hurt and
pain due to having such a large number of church plants fail and people felt
spiritually abused. Therefore, whenever a new church plant appeared the
attitude amongst the people was “how long will this one last?” The attitude was
one of distrust amid the community.
Kevin is tall,
rowdy and expressive as a person, yet very approachable. He impressed me with
his down to earth demeanor during the interview process. He consistently
brought theory back to the practical. The focus on being practical indicated to
me that Kevin has thought through his theology of the church. He shared that
the theoretical nature of propositional truth has its limitations in real life
application in the Kingdom of God. Kevin expressed that his passion is to
incarnate the presence of Christ in a tangible manner expressing the presence
of the Kingdom of God active in community. He said, “Christ is the center of
all our activities.” In the interview process Bates revealed practices and
strategies that would place Resonate Christian Church within the categories of
innovative and adaptive positive deviance process. Resonate engaged a process
of ecclesial contextualization with theological praxis by emulating the
Positive Deviance Approach.
Resonate Practices and Strategies
While
interviewing Kevin the four D’s (define, determine, discover, and design)[1]
of positive deviance process were described in detail within the planning of
this particular ecclesia. Kevin described an intentionally relational approach,
due to the contextual need of the community of Sherwood for a meaningful
presence amid the people in order to develop trust. Following the four D’s
allowed Bates and his team to fully exegete the community of Sherwood. His
familiarity with Leonard Sweet influenced him to follow the missional,
relational and incarnational lifestyle amid the people of Sherwood.
First,
the Resonate planting team engaged the culture of Sherwood. Bates and his team
had no problem fitting in culturally, but the issue was creating a culture of
trust for the team amongst the greater community. Having exegeted the community
Bates determined the main areas of cultural focus that would best create trust
was to engage family, education and business in the Sherwood context. The team
engaged the YMCA initially and assisted with the various programs offered to
families. By volunteering as coaches, referees and in the after school tutoring
offered at the YMCA the Resonate community created an initial positive presence
in the greater community. From there the team moved into assisting the school
district asking to help fill whatever their critical needs were. It turned out
that tutoring was their greatest area of need. The team provided teams of
tutors for the elementary and middle school students.
Availability to
fill the real needs of the community of Sherwood represents the greatest point
of impact by the RCC team. Bates then turned his attention to engaging the city
council itself and asking what Resonate could do for the city and doing
whatever menial task was available: tasks such as providing teams to refresh
the landscaping of the local educational facilities. Intentionally engaging
these three areas allowed the Resonate team to gain clout with the community,
thus developing a culture of trust. As Resonates’ culture of giving to the
community through volunteerism and service they began to experience growth in
the gathering. Creating cultural clout in this manner reflects the Positive
Deviance process by engaging the life of the greater community. In the
interview Bates told me of an encounter he had amid a meeting of the community
pastors and the mayor. The mayor had called the meeting to engage the faith
communities as a way to help meet needs in the city. The local clergy were interested
in presenting the Gospel and did not connect with how serving the community
related. Resonate turned this attitude upside down and made themselves
available to the mayors request. By connecting with the values of the city and
the city’s leadership Resonates’ practices and strategies reflect a positive
deviance approach, where as the majority of other churches in the community
were not engaged. By being present and available Resonate has created a new
perspective of church in its community.
Second,
the issue of long-term sustainability of the church plant was a concern.
Repeating the past would have been an unforgivable sin and would drive another
proverbial nail into the resistance of city to the Gospel. Bates desired to
support the ecclesia financially in an additional manner rather than just
depending upon church offerings for its sole support. At the same time the
desire of Resonate was to create a larger presence amid the community drove the
direction of the team to consider other options. The eventual solution was to
create a for profit business model[2]
to help support the church and give back to the community. Resonate created an
additional identity amid the community through the development and successful
launching of Symposium Coffee house[3]
near downtown.
The business
allowed for the employment of Resonate staff by creating an alternate income
source other than church offerings. It also allowed the presence and proximity
of Resonate to expand more into the community by creating a third space. The
creation of a third space, the coffee house, formed an additional community
connection point. The net result has been the creation of the most popular
coffee house in Sherwood and a broader recognition of Resonate. The intractable
problem of sustainability, which was the reason for the failure of church
plants in Sherwood, and securing a solid presence amid the Sherwood community,
was effectively solved through a positive deviance process of innovative and
intuitive thinking and problem solving.
Third,
the Resonate gatherings are characterized by the community identity. The pastor
is not up on a platform, but is down in the midst of the congregation. In
addition the sermon is interactive with the congregation. The interactive
nature allows for questions and clarification between the speaker and the
congregation. The valuation of the contribution of the congregation appears to
enhance the identification and the connection amid the community. In this
manner Resonate has created an environment where the community helps to create
its own identity through participation with the pastor. Wisdom and
understanding are not exclusive to the pastor, but is co-mingled from the
congregation with the pastor as a facilitator of truth. This practice is an
intentional activity practiced amid the pastors at Resonate as a strategy for
the purpose of creating connection with the community amid the ecclesia. It
also provides a level of transparency in favor of the pastor amongst the people
who associate pastors with talking heads who monopolize all that is shared.
Resonate
has applied a Positive Deviance Approach in creating a sustainable ecclesia in
a community that has experienced more failed church plants than success. Their
uses of the positive deviance process steps of engaging culture from within
culture, creating community identity and designing practices has allowed it to
follow a trajectory of successfully overcoming an intractable problem. Resonate
has successfully emerged as an adaptive, indigenous and innovative alternative
missional ecclesia through its presence and proximity and their consistency of
intuitive service that has become recognized within the Sherwood community.
[1] Pascale et al.,
The Power of Positive Deviance, 195.
[2] Eric
Bahme, MBE Mission-Based Entrepreneur Revolution (KingdomPoint
International, 2009).
[3]
Symposium Coffee House has become a success in the community employing five
employees, including some staff from Resonate Church, http://www.symposiumcoffee.com.
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