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The Hybrid Church

In: Religion Topics

Submitted By Schuysmom
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Hybrid Church Dave Browning’s Hybrid Church, claims that those churches that emphasize community, togetherness, fellowship, and belonging are considered to belong to intimacy. The churches focusing on outreach and mission are related to impact. According to Browning, the discourse of the church is exclusive of the other where a new church should engage in activities of learning new things and later behave in a manner that cooperate with others. The hybrid church provides a new aspect for making discussions regarding the advantages of both big and small ministries (Browning 2010). This book also provides a better background on how people can understand the concept regarding intrinsic value of blends about the hybrid church. When focusing on the three chapters of the book, the author focuses on balancing by extreme. This is a means of achieving intimacy and impact.
Becoming a hybrid church has taken a different dimension as compared to the past church model. There is a spectrum of church ministry that has an intimacy on one side and the other side has an impact. Evidence shows that most modern churches are drawn almost magnetically in respect to either of one of the above concepts. Those churches that focus on togetherness, belonging, fellowship, and community aspect is said to belong to the intimacy spectrum. The group of churches that aim at mission and outreach are related to an aspect of the impact spectrum. In this case, it is essential in the first place to establish a ministry that understands the difference between the two and know where it stands in that spectrum. The church then takes the idea of stretching towards the other direction after it has managed to create a better foundation on the side it begins, (Lytle, 2013). According to the argument provided in the book, it is important for believers to have ministries that are both extreme in impact and also extremely intimate, and this will allow both the micro-church and mega church to be more of what they currently are in society. The two extremes in the current American culture include the mega-church and micro-church. The mega-church is considered as blessed with a name for itself and has the ability of impacting its community, while the micro-church is small and is usually overlooked as it carries a small impact in its community, but provides intimacy to its constituents (Browning 2010). Therefore, the hybrid church comes in between with the attempt of fusing the two biblical qualities.
According to Dave Browning, church leaders should engage in activities which are related to church and also personal. When church leaders do this, the entire congregation has the ability of being powerful and developing personal activities. In today’s society, people focus a lot on what is powerful and big and ignore what is small and personal. This is a union that has made it possible to create another picture regarding the modern church, which allows changes that differ with the traditional church that tend to confine certain aspects. Intimacy and impact can be observed in church activities where everyone appears to be interested in it despite not being able to get it. Intimacy and impact are what most people focus on and they may even behave in a manner that does not follow church teachings. According to Browning (2010), because people are not able to acquire both at the same time, they have to select one option and forego the other in order to establish a good foundation. The division in churches tend to be extreme; therefore, it is time that churches find a way to remove the conflict that may exist between the mega and micro-church.
According to Browning (2010), it is possible to develop a micro and mega-church in the same forum as the two have the ability to provide mutual benefit. Hybrid church is a guide for church leaders and clergy who want the best for the two churches. This is the intimacy of the small church groups and the impact of the large mega-churches.

Based on the findings of the new model church, it has been established that the discourse of the church is exclusive of the other where the new church must engage in activities of learning new things and then behave in a manner that cooperates with the other. The church is required to ensure that it can operate effectively without hindering a move towards the spectrum. Through framing the conversation based on the words impact and intimacy, it is true that the hybrid church gives a helpful new aspect with which to make the discussion on the relative merits of small and big ministries. This also creates a forum under which it is possible to understand and explain the concept of intrinsic value of blends about the hybrid church. A relevant concept that has been discussed in the three chapters is about the notion of balance by extremes. It is a way to achieve the best of both impact and intimacy. Based on the arguments presented by the author, the approach is not to head toward the middle but rather it requires being a little bit of both the impact and intimacy plus going to the extremes. It is true that we require ministries that are both extremely impacting and extremely intimate at the same time. This approach will free both the micro-church and the mega to become more of what they already are in society, (Mattson, 2013).
At first glance it does not seem logical to have a small church and a big church at the same time. Most of the mega churches began at a lower level up to the current state where they are large with millions of followers. So as to create community, evidence shows that these churches devote tons of resources, energy, and time so as to develop genuine ways for community to happen, ( Browning, 2010). The intentional establishment and maintaining a great network of small ministries and groups of churches where people can interact has managed to create the big and the small church at the same time. Small churches are the main components of the big churches that join together to create a network that results to the big or the mega church on the hybrid church perspective, (Neil, 2010).
In summary, the concept of hybrid is talking about implementing, embracing, and acknowledging the strengths of both the house church movement and the institutional movements in a way that creates transformation to people lives. It also connects the church foundation to teachings and beliefs that Jesus Christ teaches. Evidence shows that a hybrid church may have both the institutional movement of God and human movement based on personal power. In this case, it is with no doubt that it is both possible to have a small church and the big church based on the direction taken to develop and maintain the church, (Lytle, 2013).

References: Browning, Dave. (2010). Hybrid Church: The Fusion of Intimacy and Impact. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 97800470572306
Cole, Neil (2010). Church 3.0 Upgrades for the Future of the Church: San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass
Lytle, J. (2013). A. Faith Formation 4.0: Introducing Ecology of Faith in a Digital Age. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing
Mattson, S. (2013). The Mega-church vs. Mini-church: Do Popularity and Growth Really Matter? Retrieved from, http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/05/22/megachurch-vs-minichurch-do-popularity-and-growth-really-matter/ on 17th April 2014
Roberto, J. (2010). Faith Formation 2020: Designing the Future of Faith Formation. Naugatuck: Lifelong Faith Associates

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