TMC - Highlight #6 - Starting Transformational Churches
“We are starting a church because it’s the best evangelistic method ever created.” I read that on a lot of church planting prospectuses - it’s only half true. It is a fact, that church planting is the most effective evangelistic method ever - but that is not enough. We have been starting churches for that reason - and if that’s it we’ll never start the kinds of churches that are truly going to see lives and communities transformed. History in America has born it out, that it is an insufficient reason by itself. In the 50’s, we got all these boomer’s and others to pray the sinners prayer, but they were also the ones that opted out ten and twenty years later. We also grew churches, but failed to see the church make any difference in it’s community.
What is the kind of church that makes a difference long term - only a church that is transformational. This is the third wave of contemporary church that we’ve had since the 70’s, and also the third wave of “organic” “house” “simple” church as well. Once again, we are too obsessed with models and ignore history and what is even history in our recent past.
What draws us to this venture? How big is the Kingdom of God? What do we believe is really possible? It has to be to create a different kind of disciple. It has to be to dramatically impact the community in an Acts 17:6 sort of way. Where your starting point is, determines your behavior, metrics, and end game. In my book Transformation, I wrote “converts grow a church, but disciples change the world.” We’ll come back to that later - but for the time being the issue is where do we start. If I focus on conversion, that’s all I get. If I focus on transformation, I have to have a “convert” but then the question is where are we going - and it’s not just to church!
Yesterday in our worship I had two friends I’ve come to know that just happened to be in the US at the same time. One is from the West Bank who is raising money for a training facility for pastors in the Galilee area - where many of their churches are 20 in attendance. Another is from Nigeria with churches with thousands in attendance on Sunday. Both however, live for transformation and have seen it, and are in the midst of it. We all 3 had a blast. I had them come forward and we prayed over them and they shared their stories. How beautiful it was, 3 kinds of expressions of the church on 3 different continents by 3 different races but we were tightly united by what we believe the Gospel is and how it transforms. It’s not a church issue - it’s a kingdom issue. Get the kingdom, and you get the church. Go after the church, you don’t automatically get the Kingdom.
This is the network I want in, one based on engagment. Right now most of our American church networks are driven more by religious enculturation of tribal religious identity than they are by kingdom realities. When this happens, we will connect glocally and missionally. When this happens, it will be far beyond our tribe - it’s food, music, traditions, practices - it will be based around “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
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May 12, 2008 at 04:15 AM
so, i just started reading this blog. its fantastic. keep it up. i am a church planter, we actually launch in october...things are going absolutely great, and we did nothing like we were supposed to. good stuff.
May 12, 2008 at 12:47 PM
I think we can all agree that transformation takes time. And not just months, but sometimes years. Look at the disciples: three years with Jesus and in his last week they were STILL messing things up (ask Malchus!). The problem for us Americans is that we are incredibly impatient, we measure success the easiest way possible ("nickels and noses"), and tend toward a "bigger is better" theology. [Caution: eggshells ahead...tread lightly!] So, while I acknowledge that real growth (i.e., Spirit-driven transformation) can lead to institutional growth (i.e., bigger churches), I have to wonder if we shouldn't somehow intentionally limit our churches' numeric growth to those whose lives we see being transformed. Even in struggling through how to phrase that, I recognize so many of the inherent dangers: transformation looks different for each person; we can't have a certain "spiritual maturity litmus test" for attendance/membership; we have the whole question of whether the church ought to be an evangelistic venue (i.e., welcoming pre-believers) or solely for believers; etc. I also don't know how we would venture to limit numeric growth. Certainly we could "do church" in small spaces, never have enough seats, or ... (perhaps more Christlike) just keep teaching the true but hard stuff that caused people to walk away...like "sell everything and give to the poor" or "take up your cross daily" or the like. Okay, I have my shirt off...bring on the wet noodles!
May 12, 2008 at 03:06 PM
You don't have to intentionally limit - it limits itself Randy!
May 12, 2008 at 07:40 PM
I agree completely. And the key, of course, is "How do you get transformation?"
In Michael Frost's book "Exiles" he writes that after they started their church in Australia, some older Christians started coming "to take quick look at how we were doing and if it was working." He says that he "discovered that most of these older people were suriviors of similar community-building experiments from the 1970s" and had become jaded and cynical. They told Frost that his new community "wouldn't last" (p. 108).
He goes on to say that after studying the transitional nature of the early church in Acts, he realized that aiming for community is not a goal in itself, but is instead a by-product that is gained through aiming for a better goal - that of mission (p. 109).
I think that is basically what you are saying as well, right?
May 13, 2008 at 02:15 AM
It is Jeremy - without sounding too spiritual however - you're aiming for Jesus and how does that work it's way out. I love with two guys wrote - Katzanback and Smith in their book years ago the Wisdom of Teams - it said that people wind up finding community by a common objective, not relational building exercises like ropes, etc. Community is the shared result of mission - mission is obedience to what Jesus puts in front of your face.
May 13, 2008 at 06:17 AM
[...] Today I was reading a discussion over at Bob Robert’s blog about how getting conversions should not be the primary goal of church planting. Instead, we should aim for what Jesus tells us to aim for, which is making disciples. [...]-----
May 13, 2008 at 12:02 PM
It seems like we've gotta start INTENTIONALLY changing the language we use...not necessarily creating new words, but using the words and language we already have in their PROPER meaning as opposed to what we've thought they meant our entire lives...based upon what's around us, and tradition. This is NOT easy, and will take EXTRA "explaining away" in nearly every conversation we have. Neil Cole would call this "resetting our defaults". Example 1: the word church: default=building, place, service, gathering, institution. How did we get THOSE things from what we read about in scripture in reference to THE CHURCH? hmmmm....Example 2: Successful/Effective ministry: default=numerical growth at a weekly gathering. I suppose we gained this measure from what Bob referenced in his blog when the boomers prayed "the prayer"/got converted. So we pursue that as success. Something i'm learning from all of this conversation lately: A lot of things are GOOD, but GOOD is the worst enemy of GREAT. The question must be: ARE THESE THINGS A CATALYST FOR: A MOVEMENT OF THE SPIRIT/MULTIPLICATION/EXPONENTIAL GROWTH? If not, then we aren't pursuing GREAT, we are settling for GOOD. We must re-define (don't freak out by the use of the word re-define guys=) what it means to be a follower of Christ, and what "successful/effective ministry" looks like. This WON'T be easy, and WE (man) won't get credit for it; only God will. I am encouraged by reading all of these comments. It gives me hope that there are MANY seeking to pursue after this HARD regardless of the expectations of man. "Lord, PLEASE make our desire to seek YOUR approval greater than our desire for man's approval. Set us free..."
May 13, 2008 at 01:04 PM
Really good point Aaron
May 13, 2008 at 07:59 PM
Just to build a bit on Aaron's point about resetting our defaults and getting back to Scripture for our definitions...
We only see two cases in the New Testament where our western notion of success--specific numerical growth--are mentioned: Pentecost's 3,000 in Acts 2 (which, for a Jewish readership, would lead them back to the 3,000 deaths at Sinai), and the 5,000 men in Acts 4:4. That's it. The only other indications of growth are just that--a statement that people became Christians.
But what do we see in the rest of the Scriptures? Imitation of Jesus is success; imitation of leaders who imitated Jesus is success. I love Paul's opening words in 1 Thessalonians--these young Christians weren't praised for how many new butts were in the seats on Sundays, but for their "work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." Success is Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-empowered life transformation that is lived out every single day, in such a radical way that people notice and (as Acts 2:47 says of the new church's life), have favor among the people.
May 14, 2008 at 03:52 AM
Great dialogue! I have heard Reggie McNeal (and others) say we need to develop a new "scorecard". Much of what we measure are the aggregate (total attendance, total baptisms, total giving, etc...) without looking at the life transformation of the individual. Also, we tend to measure what happens "in house" with little consideration of the impact our churches are having in their community and around the world.
Albert Winseman's book "Growing an Engaged Church" is also a good read on this topic.
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