The thought process behind how planning happens at theadvance can be grouped into three different categories: philosophy, principle, and practice. These three “P’s” have become a grid to help evaluate what we’re thinking and whether or not our practice is consistent with the values we claim to believe.
The first of these “P”s is Philosophy. Webster’s defines philosophy as “a system of values by which one lives.” At theadvance these are the values we hold that are non-negotiable. These are the beliefs that guide every decision we make.
The philosophies of a ministry are the values that are completely transportable: these values aren’t reliant on the culture the ministry finds itself in, but are able to be employed no matter where a ministry is. For example, if someone who subscribed to the philosophies of theadvance community suddenly found themselves being asked to do youth ministry in Romania, they would still be able to structure the ministry around these ideals even though the cultural context is completely different.
The second of these “P”s is Principle. One of the definitions that Webster’s gives for the word principle is “a fixed or predetermined policy or mode of action.” At theadvance the principles that guide our actions are directly related to the over-arching philosophies we hold. For example, as a philosophy we believe that part of the calling of the church is to help people encounter God in a real and tangible way. One of the principles that derives from this philosophy is that we believe worship needs to be culturally relevant and inclusive of the seeker on their quest for truth. It is also why we believe that worship should be experiential and involve more than simply our minds.
While philosophies are completely transportable, the principles of a ministry are a little more entwined within the cultural context of the ministry. There are elements at this level that could certainly be employed in various contexts, but there would likely be a need to tweak a few things to make it fit better.
The third “P” is the idea of Practice. It is here that we find the day to day out-workings of our philosophies and principles. To continue the example above, we believe that in our Ottawa culture pop and rock are king so the music and songs we sing are often more on the pop-rock side of the various musical genres.
It is this level that finds itself most connected with the cultural context of the ministry; it is here where theadvance community takes on a decidedly “Ottawa” feel.
As you make your way through this page you’ll notice we move around these various “P”s and at times even make reference to which “level” we’re at. This is not to be taken as hard and fast, but simply as a tool to help us as we seek God’s guidance for the future of theadvance.
theadvance Worship
On Sunday evenings we gather together to worship God, to be taught, to laugh, to cry and to grow closer together as a community. This is the gathering of the various groups that make up theadvance community, with students coming from Grade Nine all the way up to the 20-Something crowd.
theadvance Worship carries out many functions within our structure; so to help you understand why we do it, let’s look at the various areas it touches on.
Encountering God
Worship1 is a large part of the Sunday night gatherings, and we work hard to make sure that we bring the best we can as an offering of praise to God. We believe that worship can be entered into by both the passionate follower of Christ and the seeker looking for God, and we understand that everyone is in a different phase or stage of this journey. For that reason we work to create a flow of worship that allows anyone to engage and have access to God. We have found that some of the slower songs such as “Your Love Is Extravagant” by Darrel Evans can be a little odd and even a little strange for some, so we tend to focus more on the faster, “rockier” songs, especially near the beginning of the evening. We do realize that an important part of worship is declaring our love for God and for what he’s done, so we end the evening with a quieter set. This allows those who wish to stay and worship to do so; but for those who find it a little too different than what they’re used to, they are welcome to head out to the foyer at this point.
We have also tried to work at allowing students to engage with God in more ways than simply with their minds and mouths. We are trying to create an environment where students who wish to worship more with their bodies – in dance for example – are free to do so without feeling awkward.
Response Stations
We have also begun to involve what we call “response stations” in our worship. These stations are places where students can physically respond to the message and teaching of the evening. For example, after a message on the beauty of the Body of Christ and community we might invite the students to come and add their handprints and images to a large collage to illustrate that we all bring something beautiful to the Body of Christ.
Teaching
Another way we believe students can encounter God is through teaching. If Jesus really came to show us the way God intended life to be lived, then the way he taught must be the best way to live, and it must be something relevant to where we’re at in our daily lives. At theadvance we work hard to ensure that our teaching is not only relevant to the students’ lives, but that it is communicated in a way that is stimulating and clear to them. Each week it is our goal that students can walk away from theadvance not only learning new information about God, but also getting to know God better.
We also believe that life is not to be segmented. It is our belief that scriptures do not teach a duality between the material world and the spiritual world, or that life is to be segmented into our “home life”, our “work life”, our “school life”, our “spiritual life.” It is our goal to help students move from a segmented life to an integrated life and eventually to what we’ve begun to call an “authentic life”.
It doesn’t take long to realize that society has done a good job of chopping life up into little bits that often don’t have much to do with each other. One of the struggles we find in the ministry God has called us to is that students will often comment about what a great sermon it was and then go out and live in complete opposition to the values taught in that teaching. A student will say they believe in God, but then completely ignore what the scriptures say about sexual purity. For many students their spiritual life and their daily life have little impact on each other.
We believe that God has called us to come along side students and help them integrate the various segments of their lives: to help them work to connect the things they believe about God to the way they live. This is where our use of drama and video can be effective. We work hard to choose dramas and videos that take a “slice of life” and portray it in the context of the teaching for that week. This helps students not only wrestle with the concepts being presented, but also with how those concepts should affect their lives.
Ultimately we believe that a completely unsegmented life –a life lived entirely for, with and through God – is the most authentic life we can live. We believe this life is the abundant life that Jesus came to show us.2 It is this life we are hoping to lead students towards.
Community
Genesis 2:18 tells us that even before Adam and Eve fell God had already declared that it wasn’t good for people to live isolated lives. At theadvance, community is a big part of what we believe God has called us to do: to help connect people with other people and with God.
The foyer is one of the main places community takes place at theadvance worship. It’s here where students meet each other, talk, share, laugh; but it can also be here that a student may feel more alone than ever. For the quiet student the foyer can be very intimidating, so we’re working to make sure it is a place that assists those who struggle in making connection.
To begin with we have put a great deal of thought into how the foyer is set up. We ask ourselves questions like: does this setup encourage isolation or community? Will this help people meet and talk, or will it keep people separated? For example, we’ve moved the sofas into the chapel to make it more difficult for students to setup ‘closed circles’ in the foyer. We also are working hard to set up our foyer space to make it difficult for students to hide by drifting to the edges of the room.
We also choose video games that can be played by multiple players to create places where students can connect while providing something to make small-talk about. We attempt to connect the games in the foyer with the teaching series whenever possible. One of the things we’ve found is that having a focal point or a discussion item in the room, such as a video game, can do a great deal in lowering the level of awkwardness for first time visitors. We’ve also found that having one of the video games projected on to the big screen can give a real sense of action to the foyer, which creates a familiar atmosphere.
The Welcome Centre
In the centre of the foyer you’ll find the Welcome Centre. The Welcome Centre is the hub of everything that goes on at theadvance, from signing up for events, to purchasing books, to just simply getting connected with what’s going on. The staff at the welcome centre are trained to be able to answer questions about any one of our ministries, and to help connect students with leaders if they need someone to talk to.
Reading is a large value at theadvance so the welcome centre has a number of books connected with the series available for purchase. We choose just a couple of titles that were used in preparing for the series, or contain similar material or are a little more in depth on the particular topic or issue.
The welcome centre is also the hub for the theadvance ministry team. It’s here leaders can find out the schedule for the evening as well as the rotating schedule for theadvance Worship. It’s also here that leaders can get their hands on the various resources that are available to them such as seminar CDs from various youth conferences as well as our own training DVDs.
Foyer Activities
From time to time we will be holding events in the foyer both before theadvance and afterwards. Generation “Y” is a busy generation. They fill their lives with sports, school, jobs, and above all relationships and often find it very difficult to get out to church more than once a week. For this reason we are working to maximize the time we have with them on Sunday night.
These activities are again designed to foster a sense of community and connectedness, providing a way for those on the fringes of our group to find their way towards the core, as they slowly begin to live a more integrated life. This integrated life is not simply about integrating beliefs and actions, but also about breaking down the myth of individualism – that we are all islands in this world. It is our goal that as students begin to connect more with each other they will begin to realize they are more dependent on community and on others than they thought.
These events also provide a sense of action in the foyer as students are arriving. The student coming to church for the first time brings with them a great deal of misconceptions and preconceived ideas of what church will be like. For many of them these ideas come from either a catholic upbringing or the media. It is our desire to strip away many of these misconceptions and help them to see that faith is a vibrant, alive, celebratory thing: that the God we live for is one of dancing, feasting and celebration3.
Refreshments
Food plays an important role in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, we find God setting up a number of feasts to help the people remember him and all he’s done; and in the New Testament, we find some of Jesus’ most important dialogue happening around a table.4 For us at theadvance we want to continue the tradition that the Hebrews called “table fellowship”. So every week we make sure there’s coffee and tea available as students are arriving. It’s amazing to watch how much more confidence someone has when they can have something in their hands that’s familiar. We’re okay with people bringing coffee into the chapel; and often you’ll see students get up and leave in the middle of theadvance to get a refill – that’s okay with us. If having a cup of coffee in their hands will help them to relax and actually listen to what’s being communicated, then by all means, have a coffee on us.
Eating is an important part of community and theadvance has made it a priority to do whatever we can to incorporate it into our creative environments. The after-party is one way that give students the opportunity to connect over food. After theadvance worship the group heads out to Boston Pizza. This is a great time for connecting and getting to know each other and for new students to integrate into the group. For the leaders, this is a great place to hangout and connect with new students.
Prayer
Jesus told us that whatever we ask in his name he will do.5 For whatever reasons God has decided that when we pray things happen, so we’ve been working to increase the level of importance that prayer has at theadvance.
At 6:00 PM every Sunday before theadvance there are those that gather to pray for the evening. We understand that it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that anything for the Kingdom happens; it is the Spirit that convicts people of sin in their lives in order to see transformation, it is the Spirit that calls students to faith in God, it is the Spirit that empowers and enables us to do what God has called us to, and it is the Spirit who protects theadvance from those that want to see it fail. This time of prayer is not simply a ritual or custom to “go through the motions”, but is the most crucial element of what we do. If God is not in it, everything we do is in vain.6
This is an area of ministry that we are currently working to develop. We would like to see prayer continuing throughout the evening, with people assigned to pray in shifts for the entire night. This would provide us with the opportunity not only to pray generally for the evening but also specifically as various issues arise.
1 It is clear from passages such as Romans 12 that worship is to be the totality of our lives, but we have come to use the word to refer to the times we get together as a corporate Body of Christ to sing. Since this is the case we will use the term here to refer to that as well.
2 See John 10:10 NIV
3 Zepheniah 3:17 The word used here for “rejoice” finds its roots in the Hebrew word meaning “to spin around under the influence of violent emotion.”
4 See Leviticus 23; John 13-17
5 John 14:13
6 Psalm 127:1
Philosophy of Ministry
The thought process behind how planning happens at theadvance can be grouped into three different categories: philosophy, principle, and practice. These three “P’s” have become a grid to help evaluate what we’re thinking and whether or not our practice is consistent with the values we claim to believe.
The first of these “P”s is Philosophy. Webster’s defines philosophy as “a system of values by which one lives.” At theadvance these are the values we hold that are non-negotiable. These are the beliefs that guide every decision we make. We have attached these values to this page as an appendix for you to take a look at.
The philosophies of a ministry are the values that are completely transportable: these values aren’t reliant on the culture the ministry finds itself in, but are able to be employed no matter where a ministry is. For example, if someone who subscribed to the philosophies of theadvance community suddenly found themselves being asked to do youth ministry in Romania, they would still be able to structure the ministry around these ideals even though the cultural context is completely different.
The second of these “P”s is Principle. One of the definitions that Webster’s gives for the word principle is “a fixed or predetermined policy or mode of action.” At theadvance the principles that guide our actions are directly related to the over-arching philosophies we hold. For example, as a philosophy we believe that part of the calling of the church is to help people encounter God in a real and tangible way. One of the principles that derives from this philosophy is that we believe worship needs to be culturally relevant and inclusive of the seeker on their quest for truth. It is also why we believe that worship should be experiential and involve more than simply our minds.
While philosophies are completely transportable, the principles of a ministry are a little more entwined within the cultural context of the ministry. There are elements at this level that could certainly be employed in various contexts, but there would likely be a need to tweak a few things to make it fit better.
The third “P” is the idea of Practice. It is here that we find the day to day out-workings of our philosophies and principles. To continue the example above, we believe that in our Ottawa culture pop and rock are king so the music and songs we sing are often more on the pop-rock side of the various musical genres.
It is this level that finds itself most connected with the cultural context of the ministry; it is here where theadvance community takes on a decidedly “Ottawa” feel.
As you make your way through this page you’ll notice we move around these various “P”s and at times even make reference to which “level” we’re at. This is not to be taken as hard and fast, but simply as a tool to help us as we seek God’s guidance for the future of theadvance.
theadvance Worship
On Sunday evenings we gather together to worship God, to be taught, to laugh, to cry and to grow closer together as a community. This is the gathering of the various groups that make up theadvance community, with students coming from Grade Nine all the way up to the 20-Something crowd.
theadvance Worship carries out many functions within our structure; so to help you understand why we do it, let’s look at the various areas it touches on.
Encountering God
Worship1 is a large part of the Sunday night gatherings, and we work hard to make sure that we bring the best we can as an offering of praise to God. We believe that worship can be entered into by both the passionate follower of Christ and the seeker looking for God, and we understand that everyone is in a different phase or stage of this journey. For that reason we work to create a flow of worship that allows anyone to engage and have access to God. We have found that some of the slower songs such as “Your Love Is Extravagant” by Darrel Evans can be a little odd and even a little strange for some, so we tend to focus more on the faster, “rockier” songs, especially near the beginning of the evening. We do realize that an important part of worship is declaring our love for God and for what he’s done, so we end the evening with a quieter set. This allows those who wish to stay and worship to do so; but for those who find it a little too different than what they’re used to, they are welcome to head out to the foyer at this point.
We have also tried to work at allowing students to engage with God in more ways than simply with their minds and mouths. We are trying to create an environment where students who wish to worship more with their bodies – in dance for example – are free to do so without feeling awkward.
Response Stations
We have also begun to involve what we call “response stations” in our worship. These stations are places where students can physically respond to the message and teaching of the evening. For example, after a message on the beauty of the Body of Christ and community we might invite the students to come and add their handprints and images to a large collage to illustrate that we all bring something beautiful to the Body of Christ.
Teaching
Another way we believe students can encounter God is through teaching. If Jesus really came to show us the way God intended life to be lived, then the way he taught must be the best way to live, and it must be something relevant to where we’re at in our daily lives. At theadvance we work hard to ensure that our teaching is not only relevant to the students’ lives, but that it is communicated in a way that is stimulating and clear to them. Each week it is our goal that students can walk away from theadvance not only learning new information about God, but also getting to know God better.
We also believe that life is not to be segmented. It is our belief that scriptures do not teach a duality between the material world and the spiritual world, or that life is to be segmented into our “home life”, our “work life”, our “school life”, our “spiritual life.” It is our goal to help students move from a segmented life to an integrated life and eventually to what we’ve begun to call an “authentic life”.
It doesn’t take long to realize that society has done a good job of chopping life up into little bits that often don’t have much to do with each other. One of the struggles we find in the ministry God has called us to is that students will often comment about what a great sermon it was and then go out and live in complete opposition to the values taught in that teaching. A student will say they believe in God, but then completely ignore what the scriptures say about sexual purity. For many students their spiritual life and their daily life have little impact on each other.
We believe that God has called us to come along side students and help them integrate the various segments of their lives: to help them work to connect the things they believe about God to the way they live. This is where our use of drama and video can be effective. We work hard to choose dramas and videos that take a “slice of life” and portray it in the context of the teaching for that week. This helps students not only wrestle with the concepts being presented, but also with how those concepts should affect their lives.
Ultimately we believe that a completely unsegmented life –a life lived entirely for, with and through God – is the most authentic life we can live. We believe this life is the abundant life that Jesus came to show us.2 It is this life we are hoping to lead students towards.
Community
Genesis 2:18 tells us that even before Adam and Eve fell God had already declared that it wasn’t good for people to live isolated lives. At theadvance, community is a big part of what we believe God has called us to do: to help connect people with other people and with God.
The foyer is one of the main places community takes place at theadvance worship. It’s here where students meet each other, talk, share, laugh; but it can also be here that a student may feel more alone than ever. For the quiet student the foyer can be very intimidating, so we’re working to make sure it is a place that assists those who struggle in making connection.
To begin with we have put a great deal of thought into how the foyer is set up. We ask ourselves questions like: does this setup encourage isolation or community? Will this help people meet and talk, or will it keep people separated? For example, we’ve moved the sofas into the chapel to make it more difficult for students to setup ‘closed circles’ in the foyer. We also are working hard to set up our foyer space to make it difficult for students to hide by drifting to the edges of the room.
We also choose video games that can be played by multiple players to create places where students can connect while providing something to make small-talk about. We attempt to connect the games in the foyer with the teaching series whenever possible. One of the things we’ve found is that having a focal point or a discussion item in the room, such as a video game, can do a great deal in lowering the level of awkwardness for first time visitors. We’ve also found that having one of the video games projected on to the big screen can give a real sense of action to the foyer, which creates a familiar atmosphere.
The Welcome Centre
In the centre of the foyer you’ll find the Welcome Centre. The Welcome Centre is the hub of everything that goes on at theadvance, from signing up for events, to purchasing books, to just simply getting connected with what’s going on. The staff at the welcome centre are trained to be able to answer questions about any one of our ministries, and to help connect students with leaders if they need someone to talk to.
Reading is a large value at theadvance so the welcome centre has a number of books connected with the series available for purchase. We choose just a couple of titles that were used in preparing for the series, or contain similar material or are a little more in depth on the particular topic or issue.
The welcome centre is also the hub for the theadvance ministry team. It’s here leaders can find out the schedule for the evening as well as the rotating schedule for theadvance Worship. It’s also here that leaders can get their hands on the various resources that are available to them such as seminar CDs from various youth conferences as well as our own training DVDs.
Foyer Activities
From time to time we will be holding events in the foyer both before theadvance and afterwards. Generation “Y” is a busy generation. They fill their lives with sports, school, jobs, and above all relationships and often find it very difficult to get out to church more than once a week. For this reason we are working to maximize the time we have with them on Sunday night.
These activities are again designed to foster a sense of community and connectedness, providing a way for those on the fringes of our group to find their way towards the core, as they slowly begin to live a more integrated life. This integrated life is not simply about integrating beliefs and actions, but also about breaking down the myth of individualism – that we are all islands in this world. It is our goal that as students begin to connect more with each other they will begin to realize they are more dependent on community and on others than they thought.
These events also provide a sense of action in the foyer as students are arriving. The student coming to church for the first time brings with them a great deal of misconceptions and preconceived ideas of what church will be like. For many of them these ideas come from either a catholic upbringing or the media. It is our desire to strip away many of these misconceptions and help them to see that faith is a vibrant, alive, celebratory thing: that the God we live for is one of dancing, feasting and celebration3.
Refreshments
Food plays an important role in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, we find God setting up a number of feasts to help the people remember him and all he’s done; and in the New Testament, we find some of Jesus’ most important dialogue happening around a table.4 For us at theadvance we want to continue the tradition that the Hebrews called “table fellowship”. So every week we make sure there’s coffee and tea available as students are arriving. It’s amazing to watch how much more confidence someone has when they can have something in their hands that’s familiar. We’re okay with people bringing coffee into the chapel; and often you’ll see students get up and leave in the middle of theadvance to get a refill – that’s okay with us. If having a cup of coffee in their hands will help them to relax and actually listen to what’s being communicated, then by all means, have a coffee on us.
Eating is an important part of community and theadvance has made it a priority to do whatever we can to incorporate it into our creative environments. The after-party is one way that give students the opportunity to connect over food. After theadvance worship the group heads out to Boston Pizza. This is a great time for connecting and getting to know each other and for new students to integrate into the group. For the leaders, this is a great place to hangout and connect with new students.
Leader Assignments at theadvance Worship
Many of our leaders are assigned to various tasks on a Sunday evening, such as collecting the offering, selling tuck stuff, or working in the Welcome Centre. It is important that all of us understand that the positions or roles we fill on a Sunday night are not simply to plug holes, or to keep the machine of theadvance moving, but are to enable and to assist us as leaders to connect with students. Many of the tasks assigned to the leaders are very visible tasks. This allows students to begin to put faces with the leaders of theadvance so that when they need to talk to someone, they know who our leaders are.
Prayer
Jesus told us that whatever we ask in his name he will do.5 For whatever reasons God has decided that when we pray things happen, so we’ve been working to increase the level of importance that prayer has at theadvance.
At 6:00 PM every Sunday before theadvance there are those that gather to pray for the evening. We understand that it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that anything for the Kingdom happens; it is the Spirit that convicts people of sin in their lives in order to see transformation, it is the Spirit that calls students to faith in God, it is the Spirit that empowers and enables us to do what God has called us to, and it is the Spirit who protects theadvance from those that want to see it fail. This time of prayer is not simply a ritual or custom to “go through the motions”, but is the most crucial element of what we do. If God is not in it, everything we do is in vain.6
This is an area of ministry that we are currently working to develop. We would like to see prayer continuing throughout the evening, with people assigned to pray in shifts for the entire night. This would provide us with the opportunity not only to pray generally for the evening but also specifically as various issues arise.
1 It is clear from passages such as Romans 12 that worship is to be the totality of our lives, but we have come to use the word to refer to the times we get together as a corporate Body of Christ to sing. Since this is the case we will use the term here to refer to that as well.
2 See John 10:10 NIV
3 Zepheniah 3:17 The word used here for “rejoice” finds its roots in the Hebrew word meaning “to spin around under the influence of violent emotion.”
4 See Leviticus 23; John 13-17
5 John 14:13
6 Psalm 127:1
