After having been searching for a long time, we finally found a church, and joined a month or two ago.  As of the first of this year, much of the church’s structure revolves around this “program” (not the most accurate word, but the best one I can come up with) that our pastor created.  At a glance, it may look a lot like many of those other, gimmicky programs.  (You know, the ones with more flash than substance.)  But it’s really just an illustrative means of describing the discipleship process and the various functions of the church.  (That’s why I say “program” doesn’t really fit – it isn’t really any one thing; it’s the whole overall picture.)  It’s actually pretty cool.

The church’s “slogan”  is “a church where faith lives from fire to trail.”  The basic imagery used is of camping/hiking.  Unlike easy “town” living, where everything can be predictable routine, living on the trail is unpredictable and dangerous – but somehow more “alive.”  (This is part of the background story, and it doesn’t have anything to do with real-life living in an actual town vs. the country.  As far as the “program” goes, ” town”  and “trail”  are figurative, not literal!)  There are four focal points to this program, separation (fire), family (pitch – like pitching a tent), relationships (trailhead), and community/ministry (trail).

Separation is a separation from the world, both in an ongoing, “we-did-this-once-and-we’re-still-separate”  sense, and also in the sense of a repeated action.  Program-wise, this is Sunday morning service, when we separate from the world to gather around the “fire”  of God’s power and holiness.

Family is not just the church family, but the individual families within the church.  A church with weak families will itself be weak, so the Church needs to be strengthening families!  So “Pitch” is the day-by-day family devotions, prayers, etc.  It’s also a once-a-month Sunday night meeting when we all share a meal, have a lesson, and just generally fellowship and enjoy one another.

Relationships are, essentially, small groups.  They are the deeper relationships that develop between individuals within the church that enable us to have accountability, keep one another lifted up in prayer, and so forth.  In keeping with the trail analogy, they are the “hiking buddies”  that “have your back”  – the ones who will treat your snakebite, make sure you don’t fall off a ledge, and encourage you to keep going when you’re exhausted and just want to quit.  Program-wise, “Trailhead”  is midweek small group meetings.

Community might better be described as “ministry,”  because it really doesn’t describe community within the church so much as reaching out into the community.  Families are encouraged to find their own “trail”  – that is, to do ministry together regularly, not necessarily waiting for the church as a whole to do some big ministry project.  But, program-wise, ” Trail”  is a once-a-month meeting where, generally, someone shares about a specific way that they have engaged in ministry.  We haven’t managed to make one of these meetings yet, but I think the general idea is for us to be inspired to find God’s place of ministry for us and our unique gifts, by seeing what others have done.  For instance, last month, a young lady shared about a trip she took to someplace in Africa.  (I forget what country she went to, specifically.)  She went on a medical mission.  Now, for us (my family, I mean), that’s not really doable.  But she’s in medical assisting school, so it’s perfect for her.  The church does also partner with specific ministries, specifically the local shelter and crisis pregnancy center.  (We’re part of the Southern Baptist Convention, so we also contribute financially to SBC missionaries.  But I’m specifically thinking here of ministries we partner with that we can actually be involved with in some way other than just giving money.)

These are all four separate things, but they also make up something of a cycle that the discipleship process fits into.

It’s pretty neat, and the visual illustrations make it easy to remember.  My seven-year-old can tell you what all of the parts are, because she can see them (each one is painted onto a banner) on Sunday mornings.  Considering we’ve not been there very long yet, I’d say that means they’re pretty “sticky.”