There is a difference between launching a church comprised of Christ-followers and launching a church service. It’s far easier to do the latter.

The Fulcrum Community launch team has been having some discussions about when would be the right time to launch Cafe Fulcrum as a weekly worship gathering.

Here is how Fulcrum currently convenes. We meet weekly in home groups where we eat, pray, share communion, and have a Bible discussion. We meet twice a month at the Star Co. Coffee house for Cafe Fulcrum. I’ve described what happens at a typical Cafe Fulcrum in a previous post. We also throw periodic parties whenever we can find an excuse to do so (Super Bowl, Oscars, etc).

From the start, our approach has been to begin gathering and forming followers of Jesus without putting so much emphasis on the “main event” of a worship service. That’s why we started out with home groups and why we have put our foot in the pool slowly with monthly and then bimonthly cafes. One of the big issues existing churches are facing is the question of “How do we engage the people we have showing up for our services in a process that will help them become more like Jesus?” The reality is that simply attending a weekly worship service doesn’t necessarily lead to spiritual formation. It plays a role in the process, but its importance is not equal to the emphasis placed on it by most Christians in America.

Because of the way we have started, we have a golden opportunity to experiment and explore other structures and methods that might help us grow to become more like Christ without having to expend most of our energy putting on a weekly gathering. It seems to me that a lot of new churches launch their weekly gatherings before they have their structures and strategies for spiritual formation in place. Too often, the weekly gathering ends up consuming so much energy that they never get around to developing effective discipleship structures and practices. It’s even more dangerous if the weekly gathering picks up some momentum and starts growing. How many church planters find themselves having done quite well at drawing a crowd, but struggling to actually make disciples?

With the bimonthly Cafe, we’ve stumbled on a frequency that allows us to develop our public presence without making it the “main event” of the Fulcrum Community. Right now, I can say to anyone who asks about weekly gatherings that our weekly gatherings happen in homes. I love being able to do this. I hope it is helping us to establish in our DNA that Fulcrum is not just about a Sunday morning worship gathering.

Personally, I miss teaching/preaching every week. There are few things in life that give me more joy. However, I also know what it’s like to teach a crowd of people where many aren’t engaged in an intentional spiritual formation process outside of the gathering. I find few things more depressing.

My guess is that we’ll eventually launch a weekly gathering. But what if we don’t? Is a weekly worship gathering necessary to making disciples of Jesus?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.