# Model for Ministry

"We don't think so much in terms of model," responded Pope. "We think in terms of mission." The model of an extended geographical parish is a servant to the mission of reaching many people for Christ and impacting the secular culture. Pope went on to say, "We would not let our mission dictate our theology, but in everything else, mission dictates." Traditionally, Presbyterian heritage has not allowed for the geographical extended parish church. However, the PCA has been supportive of what Perimeter Church has done and Pope is committed to the PCA, "While the model is not traditional, the vision is compatible with the PCA."

As Pope looks at his model for a local church he feels, "We stay within the heritage of the Presbyterian Church and we see our model as more biblical as any model in the contemporary church."

In the early days, approximately 50 people came from another Presbyterian church that was having difficulties. Pope met with the people, and asked them not to come to Perimeter Church because it was progressive in style, they were traditional people. His concern proved true. Most all of them returned to their church, and a few remained in Perimeter Church. He says even today, "We are not well suited for traditional thinking church people. We are too innovative. We are geared for the unchurched person."

The church had one elder board, with at least three representative from each local congregation. Each congregation has its own pastor, they all meet with Pope once a week. He states, "I am the CEO, but I don't dictate to them policy and ministry." They meet together for correlation, total planning, and major budget approval.

As Perimeter Church continued to plant new churches, Pope said, "I found each new church more difficult to start. I found myself putting off beginning a new church thinking I don't want more kids." About this time Carl George, Director Charles E. Fuller Evangelistic Association, consulted with the church. His advise was that they could not fulfill their vision with the model of many congregations in one church. Pope began to re-think his model, and decided that the vision would not be completed without this model, and vision is more important than model. They decided to change the model, not lose the vision. They decided on a new organization, but recommitted themselves to the original burden. All of the congregations will become, "particularized," that is, each congregation will become an organized church, separately constituted, and indigenous (self supporting, self organizing, and self perpetuating). Each church will give 5% to a new organization called Perimeter Ministries, Inc. (PMI). Pope is the CEO of the new organization but will not run it. "It will have a COO (Chief Operating Officer) and I will continue ministry at the parent church. The main purpose of PMI will be church planting, city-wide "mercy ministries" and church resourcing.

Pope was asked, "Isn't this starting a denomination?" "The PCA is our basis of fellowship and we will stay there. PMI will be functional for ministry of church planting and mercy outreach, but will not replace the functions provided by the PCA." Pope responded.

Randy Pope communicates his vision to his church through worship forms, but also through their Inquirer's class. The primary thing he communicates is his vision for the church and when new members agree with the vision, other matters fall into place.

Perimeter church is innovative and non-traditional. Pope tells people in the Inquirer's Class, "Change is our friend, not our foe." He goes on to say, "While other churches change in theology and polity," the Perimeter church is different in model and methods. Pope goes on to explain that if new members come in expecting to change, they will not fight the model or methods.

When new members attend the Inquirer's Class, they are not required to join the church, just to discover the nature of Perimeter and to access its offerings. At the end of the class they are challenged to do more than join a church, they are asked to become part of a ministry. He explains that 90 percent of those who go through the class join the church.

Under the former organization of one church and many congregations, Pope was asked "Do you control the other pastors and the other congregations?" He answered that he does not dictate, but used his influence for direction and quality of ministry. Pope indicates, "All the pastors met once a week, I moderated the meetings." He explained that he influences the congregations by values, not by programming. Not all of the churches follow the same weekly program.

Pope considers each pastor as teaching elders or leaders of leaders. Following the traditional Presbyterian model, the elders are the ones who have the final responsibility for the church. Pope indicates, "We don't take programs to elders for their approval. We take "people situations" for them to handle. It is shared problem solving and shared leadership. The ruling elders establish the policy of the church, the shepherd elders (pastors) pastor the congregation. Each one of the ruling elders has a sphere of ministry for which he is responsible for communication of information, ideas, and problems. As an illustration, the elder in charge of the home fellowship groups will phone his leaders every month to see how they are doing.

# New Strategy of Leadership

Pope considers his new model of pastoral leadership as one of the more innovative planks in the Perimeter platform. He explains that in the traditional church model, the pastor does ministry, and the lay people receive ministry. In other churches a second model of pastoral leadership is used. This is where the pastor and his staff are responsible to recruit, train, deploy, and evaluate all lay people in the ministry. The primary thrust of the pastor or the pastoral staff is to assign lay people to serve in the church. The problem with this model is that the staff cannot know the ministry to which God is calling each person. Perimeter believes in a model in which God is calling each person. Perimeter believes in a model in which the staff is the equipper of ministry, not the assigner of ministry. In this model, Pope sees the pastor as those who equip everyone in the church ministry. He refers to the staff as leader-equippers. To explain the concept of the pastor-equipper model, Pope tells the illustration of a man who came into his church, and did not become active in ministry until he found out he had an incurable cancer. At the same time, another situation developed. A pastor from a like-faith church outside Atlanta phoned to tell of a parishioner who was coming to Emory University Medical Center for a special operation, he asked Randy Pope to visit the person from out of town. Randy contacted his member who had incurable cancer, asking if he would make the pastoral call and assume pastor responsibility for this person at Emory University Hospital.

"I don't know how to do that Randy," the layman explained to his pastor.

"I have failed," Randy explained, "because I have not equipped you." Then Randy explained, "I will train you to make pastoral calls in the hospital."

The lay-person who had extra time visited the patient and came back to Randy and said, "This man is not a believer, and is about to die. You'd better go to the hospital and witness to him before he dies." Pope responded, "No, you've got to witness to him before he dies." When the layman explained that he did not know how, Randy said, "That's my fault I haven't equipped you." And he immediately taught the man how to share his faith and sent him onto the hospital. This illustration shows how Randy Pope sees himself as equipping people for ministry, not doing all the ministry. The aim is using every person in the church for ministry.

# Change

"I used to sell change dramatically," said Randy Pope. He explained how he previously challenged the congregation to accomplish dramatic things in an innovative way. But he found out that even some who went through the new members class, were opposed to change, simply because it is change. "Many fear change," he says.

"Don't flag change," he said. " I tell people as little as possible about what is going to change. Obviously, I tell them what they need to know, and when they need to know it." Pope found that he was agitating "overconcern, simply because people have difficulty understanding change. "Now I just explain why we do new things and how we do them."

"Five years ago I would have brought charts into my people and had a big meeting to explain why we were selling our location and moving the church to another piece of property. Now I explain that the pastors have dealt with the issues, the elders have examined the issues, and this is what they need to know. I'd rather deal with the problem of lack of information, rather than the emotional response of people who get too much information and don't know how to deal with it." Randy went on to say, "People are not concerned about church business, as they are about good preaching, good teaching, and how they fit into ministry."

Over the years, the style of worship has changed at Perimeter Church. Originally it was very similar to a Presbyterian liturgical service, i.e. doxology, hymns, choir, etc. However, the style of worship has drastically changed. They no longer use hymnals, they sing praise choruses and learn music that is introduced by the overhead projector. They have changed from a sanctuary choir to ensembles. They no longer have a chancel up front with communion table and pulpit, rather the platform is open and Randy stands before them without a pulpit, just an open Bible in his hand. They have changed from a piano and organ to an orchestra, also they have added drama.

Randy indicates one of the reasons for change is that he has become "unchurch oriented." "I used to think of traditional Christians and how to get them into the church. But now I try to remove obstacles and eliminate needless barriers that keep us from reaching the unchurched person." He feels that the hymnal, the doxology, the chancel and the choir are elements of worship for the Christian, but not the unchurched. "People don't pay to hear a choir, but they go to concerts to hear solos and ensembles." He went on to say, "What fills their ears during the week is the way to reach them on Sundays."

But at the same time he has not eliminated the traditional heritage of the church. Once a month on Sunday evenings they have the traditional communion service for Christians. The hymnals are moved from the storage closet, the pulpit is brought to the front of the church, and a traditional Presbyterian worship service is followed.

When asked about his preaching he related, "My style of preaching has remained casual." Someone made the observation that Randy does not preach "at" his congregation but talks "with" them. While this is called conversational preaching, Pope says, he is a communicator. He used to think the purest form of preaching was expositional, which is verse by verse explanation. But he has changed his opinion. Now he has a balanced approach to preaching with an explanation of Scripture as it relates to issues and topics. I want to begin with the needs that concern the unchurched person and take him to the Bible for answers. The church regularly puts on contemporary outreach shows designed to reach unchurched people.

Recently Perimeter Church sold 3,000 tickets to a musical entitled "Back In Time." The people were taken back in time to analyze the music of the sixties - the music of the baby boomers. As they sang the secular songs that moved the Boomers in the sixties, the needs, hurts, and motivations of the music were explained. At the end of the show, Randy Pope talked about what people of the 60's were looking for and how even today Christ is the ultimate answer. He explained, "I didn't give them a 'pray-along' prayer, but I told them how Christ relates to their needs." After the show, people took their friends to a restaurant that had been reserved for desert and conversation. Babysitting was not provided, because the pastor said, "This time is designed for our people to be the evangelists. I don't want them to feel they have to run by the church to pick up their children, but rather that they have time to spend with the unchurched people. As a result, they sat in restaurants and talked to their friends about Jesus Christ. Over 200 came into the church because of this innovative approach to evangelism.

# Summary

Randy Pope began an innovative church (a geographical parish ministry model) yet followed a traditional worship model. But over the years there have been continual changes. The traditional worship model has evolved into a creative form of worship. The innovative idea of one church with 100 campus congregations has evolved back to a traditional model of church connectionism. The message has not changed, but the model continues to emerge