GlocalNet

I’m writing a book on a particular dimension of starting churches. For the past month, I’ve been gathering resources, studying, reading, and examining what we’ve done at NorthWood, and other places. I have four months to get this sucker done with tons of lectures, studies, etc. before me—please pray for me! Twenty years ago when I started NorthWood, it was more of a denominational approach.  Fortunately, a year into our plant, I stumbled on to Rick Warren who was a part of a whole new way of me seeing the church. Then the Purpose-Driven Model became the “alternative.” It was like there was a new way to start churches and that was it! Not anymore. There as so, so, so, so many ways to start churches—so many kinds of churches—each promising to be the messiah to the church in the West. Frankly, the greatest contribution Rick Warren gave to church planting was his ability to open the door to new ways of starting churches so that multiple models would emerge—which has happened, not his Purpose-Driven model. Sometimes it may seem like a curse to a young guy figuring out which format, model, yada, yada, yada to use, but it’s really a blessing.

I was going through a notebook I used in 1994 when I taught my first church planting conference called “Planting High Yield Churches—half of it I threw away today! Two things I started with. First, new churches reach lost people better than established churches so we should start churches to reach lost people. The first half of that sentence is true. The second half is only partially true. I used to believe if I could just get them converted it was a done deal. I’ve learned that is not true. The second thing was learning to think. There were 3 questions you should ask, and did you think you’d always be relevant and be able to design your church where you are opposed to mimicking someone else. I then came up with these principles of design—most are still relevant. Some are not.

Bottom line, nothing has changed more, or is in more of a state of flux, than church planting. Today, it is more crucial than ever to learn to think critically, read broadly, evaluate carefully, study others, and travel extensively if you have any hope of doing something that will last (which is the point after all—as Jesus said, “fruit that remains”). Church planting, in some instances, has become a herd mentality for specific “parties” or “models” within the broader church. I’m convinced the people who have done, and will do it best, will create their own model, having learned from others. We need a sort of “best practices” approach—lessons that apply to all, but then the freedom to do specifically what God calls us to.

Another thing to think about. So, so much emphasis on starting a church, but the reality is that’s only a 2 to 3-year process. How does what we teach enable someone, not just to start a church, but to “complete” it? Maybe we should change the term to “church finisher” rather than “church starter!” The goal cannot be to inspire lots of people to start churches.  The measure cannot be the hype, the conference, the launch, but the measure is the church ten years after it is planted. If that were the case, I promise you, it would change how most people teach and how we plant churches.