By Dennis McCallum

33. Planting Celebrations - Once or twice a year, Xenos holds a very popular and unusual meeting called the "Open Servant Team Meeting." This is one of the monthly meetings of the Xenos Servant Team, but is open to the public. On these Friday nights, all home groups call off their meetings if they have any, and the auditorium is jammed with people. The purpose of the meeting is to celebrate the planting of new home groups, and the induction of new members into the servant team.

Just as most churches celebrate personal conversion through baptism (as do we), this meeting celebrates the other end of the growth continuum. Instead of merely celebrating the beginning of Christian growth, this meeting celebrates the relative completion of the process. It's really a celebration of successful discipleship. We define successful discipleship in our church as helping people qualify for the Servant Team. Likewise, we teach home church leaders that the goal of their task is to duplicate their group, leaders, workers, and all.

At the meeting, one of the lead pastors delivers a short lecture on where the fellowship is, or on a related motivational topic. Then the leaders of each group that has successfully planted itself comes up on the stage along with the leaders of the new group. An elder briefly interviews one or two of the leaders, and shares a short history of their group, or human interest story that happened during their journey. When the group is congratulated, the standing room only crowd goes crazy with applause and cheers. Most open servant team meetings introduce 4 to 10 church plants, which means leaders of 8 to 20 groups are assembled on the stage. After the introductions, the elders of the church come up and lay their hands on the whole group, praying for their mission like the elders in Antioch prayed for Paul and Barnabas. (Acts 13:3)

After all the new home groups are introduced, the new inductees to the Servant Team are brought up to the stage, along with the person who nominated each. This could amount to 50 to 150 people. Each new member's ministry roles in the church are itemized, and they are personally welcomed by one of the lead pastors, to loud cheering. Powerpoint slides for each person list their accomplishments with a picture. After the introductions, the entire board of elders come up and pray over the group, thanking God for answering our prayers for successful personal duplication.

Xenos leaders have been amazed at how popular these meetings are, and how edifying people consider them. Members talk for days afterward about how exciting the meeting was, and how motivated they feel to finish the job in their own home group, or their own lives. We are convinced that the meetings have stimulated house church planting and redoubled efforts at personal discipleship. We only started holding the meeting during the past few years, but wish now we had been doing it all along.

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