Breakout: What happened when one church dared to 'think outside the box'

If you had to close your church for refurbishment, would you decant the congregation into other buildings and try to maintain 'business as usual?' Or would you do something completely different? Breakout is the story of what happened when a church was prepared to think 'outside the box'.

Written by Mark Stibbe and Andrew Williams, Breakout tells the story of how St Andrews Chorleywood has moved from a 'come to us' model to a model centred around lay-led mission-shaped communities (MSCs), leading to dramatic growth through evangelism and the release of spiritual gifts and leadership within its members. In doing so it provides inspiration for church leaders and members prepared to take a risk and see their church grow.

At the end of 2003, the small groups at St Andrew's Chorleywood were inward-looking and disbanding faster than they were forming. Then the church adopted a 'mid size community' approach, in groups of up to fifty people. In doing so, people were released to follow the particular vision they felt God was giving them.

"I recall an early evening meeting with some of our new MSC leaders," said Andrew Williams, co-author of the book with Mark Stibbe. "When I came to leave, every new leader around that table approached me privately and told me that they had been carrying the vision for what they were now a part of for many years - some of them for as long as twenty years."

When the main building closed for refurbishment a year later, church members met in MSCs on three Sundays out of four in coffee shops, school halls, community centres, Scout headquarters and other venues. Rather than go back to a single central meeting every Sunday once the building work was complete, they took the brave decision to continue the 'gathered and dispersed' model.

"Today, when I look at St Andrew's Church I see an inspiring picture," said Mark Stibbe. "We have 440 people meeting at the centre every Sunday. In addition we have 1,135 men, women and children meeting out in missional communities whose task is to serve the unchurched people they feel called to.

"They are highly mobile and focused on outreach," adds Stibbe. "They meet for two or three Sundays a month together, and on the fourth Sunday they come back to the church centre to be encouraged and re-envisioned. It is a remarkable thing that the Lord has done among us and we give him all the glory. This book is an attempt to tell the story - the Lord's story - in an honest way."


Breakout (ISBN 9781860245961) is priced £8.99, published by Authentic Media.