What They Took From Their Megachurch Experiences
Dominic’s understanding of the Bible’s emphasis on the priesthood of all believers comes from his time overseeing various training initiatives at Kensington Temple.
“Every person in the church is viewed as a potential leader—a missionary or potential missionary just needing to be activated,” he explains. The training was designed to give them the skills and knowledge needed to use their passions to honor God, from the media or arts to the business sector to all other spheres of influence. “It was hammered into me that there is no superstar leader,” says Dominic. “God’s people are not spectators!”
He carries this view into his pastoring, seeing his most important task as senior pastor as that of people development—making and maturing disciples and equipping and mobilizing them for ministry. Dominic says, “I often say to our congregation, ‘I’m not the only full-time minister here. You each have your own pulpit. What are you going to do with this sermon this time tomorrow?’”
This causes him to approach each assignment with big expectations of what a church can do. “The church is not weak and powerless—the church can set the bar,” says Dominic. “We saw that happen at Kensington Temple and Holy Trinity Brompton. Our experiences there gave us the vision and the tools to do the same here.”
Trusting God for a Great Harvest
Dominic and Catherine’s approach in Norwich is to take the best of what’s there and build on it. “With the new location on the horizon and having to build a new team and new infrastructure, we’re very much going into this with the mentality of a church plant,” he says.
But it’s not a shift to a blank slate. It’s a pathway to a dream that he’s seen materialize elsewhere. “To transform the nation, you need to transform the cities,” he says. “I saw a great picture of a multigenerational, multicultural, influential church at Kensington Temple, and those values have become part of my DNA.”
Warren Bird, an Outreach magazine contributing editor, is research director for Leadership Network and author or co-author of 27 books for church leaders. Bird oversees Leadership Network’s list of global megachurches at LeadNet.org/world.