Book Review of Breakout

Breakout

One Church’s Amazing Story of Growth Through Mission-Shaped Communities

By Mark Stibbe (Vicar) and Andrew Williams (Associate Vicar)

“Breakout” is the story of St Andrew’s, Chorleywood from the time when Andrew joined Mark in 2003 through to Mark’s call to leave for pastures new in 2008: during this time the church grew from about 600 in 2005 to around 1400 in 2006.



Mark and Andrew’s view was that the church had become an Ocean cruiser taking its cosseted flock to heaven with little regard for the ‘lost’ struggling in life’s stormy seas; their vision was that church members should get into lifeboats and rescue them by “ministering the Father’s love and making disciples of Jesus in Chorleywood and beyond”, the catalyst was the renovation of St Andrew’s which required it to be closed for most of 2005.



In the months prior to the church’s closure they felt a strong call not to hire a large hall and meet as one body, but to give the church back to God and practise ‘every member ministry’ (1 Peter 2 v 9) by forming Mission-Shaped Communities (MSC) that would meet, in the parish and beyond, wherever they felt their mission was. Venues included: Starbucks, School Halls, Sports clubs etc – what the MSCs found was that people in the communities they were worshipping in came along and quite often stayed.



The book is at pains to point out that these were not church plants but followed the following guidelines:

• MSC’s remained integral to St Andrew’s through a monthly service that all would attend.

• The overall vision and bible teaching was set by the sending church – but the individual leaders were given the freedom how best to present this and encouraged to use interactive methods.

• The MSC leaders are voluntary and not paid, returning their “tithes” to the sending church

• Once an MSC reached 35 members it had to make plans on how to form another MSC when membership reached 50.

• The sending church was responsible for providing the MSCs with the necessary resources.

• People who felt an MSC was not for them continued to meet centrally.



Interestingly St Andrew’s had a number of successful groups e.g. Mothers & Toddlers who they did not want to force the MSC format upon, however, many of these existing groups felt that their ‘mission’ was the area that they were already working in and asked if they could form into an MSC!



It is worth noting that in the period leading up to setting up the MSCs Mark and Andrew felt that the church had huge potential, but was very fragmented, membership of small groups was dwindling and the leaders were struggling to carry on. Their solution was to offer an amnesty which allowed leaders to step down and rejuvenate prior to the MSC being formed.



Realistically a church going through this magnitude of change will have issues with its members, adjacent parishes and the diocese: the final chapters cover these along with the theology behind restructuring a church in this manner and how Mark & Andrew perceive St Andrew’s experience fitting into the history of revival.



This is an easy and enjoyable book to read which challenges not only the way we do church but also how we should expect The Holy Spirit to work in each of our lives.