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:
Talks were given each year to assess the learning of the experiment: