Support teams
As we read through the exciting story of the early church we see in the Acts of the Apostles and in the New Testament letters, we see tantalising glimpses of the stories of individuals who got to play their part in God’s purposes in planting, watering and sustaining a family of healthy churches.
The movement of people throughout the early church seemed to sustain a sense of being part of a wider movement, a concern for each other’s wellbeing, and a desire to see good foundations established in every place. In this pre-internet, pre-globalisation, pre-airmail era (who remembers those funny blue self-folding letters?) the movement of messages and money was only achieved by the movement of people. And the early church made use of this physical movement to foster a spiritual movement.
In Salt & Light Advance, we’ve been exploring how to make good use of teams to support churches in moments of development, change or crisis, and we’re leaning into the NT example we see in Timohthy, Titus, Tychicus, Pheobe, Priscilla and Aquila, and others.
Timothy and Titus
We know most about Timothy and Titus, who we meet as Paul’s ‘spiritual sons’, sent by him to put things right in various situations:
Having first accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, Titus was sent to Corinth to help move money to another church in need, but also he is described as having expressing same earnest care for the church as Paul himself has. Titus is accompanied by an unnamed evangelist presumably to help the church with evangelism.
Later Titus was sent to Crete to appoint elders, and we read about that in the letter to Titus. Later again he moves on to Dalmatia.
Timothy was a young ‘trainee’ who first worked alongside Paul, and was then sent to Ephesus, where we read quite a lot about Paul’s instructions to Timothy through the pair of letters bearing his name.
Later we see Timothy returning from Thessaloniki, where he had been sent by Paul.
Lots of others too
There are some lesser-known characters too, but scholars have pieced together some of their stories through careful attention to some of the words used. To pick three:
Tychicus was sent by Paul to Ephesus, Colossae and Crete to encourage them to bring news, but is also described as a ‘brother’ and ‘faithful minister’, so it seems that he may have been more than just a news-carrier.
Phoebe appears as someone who carried another letter, this time to Rome, but the study of the words Paul uses to describe her (‘sister’, ‘deacon’, ‘patron’) suggest that she was much more than another letter-carrier. (Interestingly we don't know if she married, single or widowed. Either way, being married didn't seem to be a factor in her being involved and described in these ways.)
Priscilla and Aquila are a married couple that play a significant role in churches in Rome, Ephesus and Corinth, first moving with Paul, and then being left by Paul or and sent by him to sort various things out.
In all these vignettes we see practical service, the sharing of news which fosters mutual affection between churches, and acting as ‘apostolic delegates’ to sort certain things out on behalf of the apostolic team.
Supporting local churches to thrive
As we’re moving into a new season in S&L Advance, determined to support all of our churches well, we’re seeing in this NT example a way of working that deploys lots of people, working in teams, serving in and out of local churches, working with local leadership and local people to help each church thrive.
Let me make a bold statement: Almost no local church has all the gifts internally that it needs to thrive. As we often say, “everything healthy is part of something bigger.”
Part of that is for each church within Advance to be healthily connected to the Advance apostolic teams. Where churches are well-established, with healthy functioning leadership teams, a simpler point of connection will suffice: a named person, the ‘apostolic delegate’, who will ensure regular connection, and act as a ‘door-opener’ for other gifts.
For church plants, churches in transition or struggling, there will be times when establishing a team for support will be super-helpful. We’re simply calling these ‘support teams’ as ‘apostolic delegates teams’ needs too much explanation.
Support teams are a recognition that one person can’t/shouldn’t do everything when overseeing churches and will want to draw others in to
spread the load
ensure breadth of gifting
ensure good relational connection
for training and development
Support teams will have
a clear point/coordinating leader (‘an apostolic delegate’)
an adequate diversity of gifting and gender on the (core) support team
draw in others as required by the needs of the church (e.g. worship leaders, preachers, pastors, younger adults, evangelists…)
establish appropriate networks for communication and prayer
accountable to the Advance apostolic team
understanding their role to be for a limited period, with the aim to see local leadership appointed and thriving
As we move forward as Advance, into this new season of shared life together, we're looking forward to fresh clarity about how we support churches, including in these ways.
Share as www.advancechurches.uk/supportteams