The Local Church Experiment was launched in 1970 as a six-year experiment. The proposed structure of the experiment was to engage four congregations in given geographic areas, ideally of different denominations to work together as a corporate pastorate, sharing ideas and building structures of care for the surrounding community as well as for the congregation. This configuration was called a Galaxy. In order for the experiment to have validity, the Galaxies needed to be spread across the continent and to represent ethnic, economic and social diversity, and yet operate from a common structural form.
The LCX was organized into the cadre, congregation and parish dynamics and provided programs for both laity and clergy focused on renewing their churches. A tactical system was designed of comprehensive actions in worship, study, life together and mission to enable the congregation to transform itself. Spirit life practices were created to enable personal images of possibility and access to God-conciousness. Tactics for church renewal include areas of action for the cadre congregation and parish. All emphasize
1) contextual reeducation to replace abstract learning with concrete human images,
2) structural reformulation to reshape social forms, and
3)spirit motivation to train leadership.
Many papers and models were developed to shape its development during those years:
- As early as 1969 The People of God Triangles were developed to discern the role of the religious in social change. Later the Local Church Triangles were developed; this paper describes the Local Church Triangle Function.
- The Introduction to the Tactical Model of the Local Congregation was given by Joseph Mathews at the Order Council, March 1970. 500 participants helped create the Tactical System, a comprehensive set of tasks for a socio-spiritual experiment in the reconstruction of the Local Church, encouraging weekly actions to renew workshop, study, discipline and mission in the life of a congregation. In January 1971 The Priorities of the Tactical System were described and over time 36 tactic booklets were created to give practical arenas for training and action. . (link)
- A Comprehensive Experiment in the Reconstruction of the Local Church was the first paper, giving a prologue to the experiment.
- The Inclusive Design is the fourth of five papers that describes the preparation of the congregation to participate, and the galaxy and regional clusters.
- The Role of the Auxiliary was described and an Auxiliary Manual created to support it.
Talks were given each year to assess the learning of the experiment:
- The State of the Local Church Experiment suggested that after four years of experimentation the time was right to turn to the parish, Global Priors Council, 1974
- Morrill, Justin, The Local Church, Chicago Social Methods School, December 1974
- Grow, Nan, The New Church, November 1974
- Poole, Mark, Statement of the Local Church Experiment, March 17, 1972
- Bengel, John, The State of the Local Church Experiment, Local Church Training School, December 1971
- Steinle, Don, State of the Movement Address, Presidium December 1971
- In Summer ’70, the first summer of the experiment, talks were given about working for local church renewal, including:
- Barley, Ken, The Congregation: Ecclesiola Dynamics
- Mathews, Joseph, Four Principles of the Local Church Strategy
- Galaxy Study Manuals: Quarter Two, 1970