TMC - Highlight #12- Start A Church Starting Center in Your Church
I know it’s Saturday - but I leave next week for Kenya and am not sure I’ll have access to a computer or internet given where I’ll be. I’m trying to finish these highlights before I go. I will be meeting with about 15 pastors from around the world - I’ll be the only white dude from America - the rest are from every major part of the world. We have in common the fact that we have all started our churches, albiet different kinds of churches - house, buildings, theatres, etc. We have also planted churches out of our churches and have a heart and are involved in engaging the world. We’re going to visit to discover what it would look like for us to partner as equals. We are not coming together in the name of a denomination or missions agency - just pastors. I’ve never been in a meeting like this and am excited.
One of the key highlights that a lot of people miss is that when we train our planters we don’t teach models. This is HUGE - in America we think the key to starting churches is finding the right model and promoting it - that’s Americana not Biblicia! Furthermore, some are arrogant and cocky enough to think that for a movement to happen it will be just their tribe and their form - WRONG! When a great move of God takes place it will be because every tongue, tribe, nation, method, expression, and format of the church unites. The center is Jesus not the form. It’s - as pop theology is going - Christology - missiology - and then ecclesiology. Christology is missiology - or as I would Kingdomology! This is why I’m so passionate about not focusing on forms of the church. Focus on engagement and let the form emerge and be secondary and you’ll have a healthy church.
House, traditional, contemporary, emergent, what a BRAINLESS and WESTERN conversation. The rest of the church around the world is laughing at us. We need a pioneer spirit - not a reformation spirit. We don’t need to reform the church, we need to plant the Gospel of the kingdom and the church will emerge. This is why I’m proud of Mitch, Aaron, Doug, Andy, and Tim - all 4 radically different expressions of the church but radically focused perspectives on what the kingdom is.
We teach the kingdom - not just church planting. But, let me be quick to say - we teach something and we teach someone. It’s not enough to just talk about planting churches. We must plant them. Ed Stetzer is right, networks are merely an emerging form of denominations. Networks can help start churches - but CHURCHES START CHURCHES - don’t abdicate your responsibility to start churches to a network. Start churches - then network with those churches and denominations and networks that share your passion and you get traction.
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May 25, 2008 at 12:15 AM
May I comment from darkest Cornwall, UK? The reason we need to continue to have planting conversations here that refer to forms of church is because the gulf is so huge between the mindsets of the different generations, and there are relatively few young people in our churches - many have none at all, so few young planters as well. Hence we do need to keep doing reality checks with one another to ensure we are not thoughtlessly influencing what forms into models that we are instinctively comfortable with and that are inappropriate for anyone in a younger mindset than ourselves. This has been a mistake people have made in the past here. So not all the conversation is brainless, it depends on your context and certainly the rate and impact of ongoing cultural change across generations. I know I'm trained, for example, to let the people who form the church decide on its form rather than my imposing one, but I need also to be aware of how my (and others) unconscious assumptions are feeding into the picture. For this I need 360 degree feedback, dialogue, and challenging conversations. And lots of coffee and encouragement!
May 25, 2008 at 03:08 AM
Point well taken.
May 25, 2008 at 03:42 PM
One of the most important things you've taught me from the get-go is NOT to focus on a model, but to MOVE forward. To LIVE the Gospel, and pursue fruit. Ironically enough we realized from day one how arrogant it would be to think that WE had come up with something so special as to be the "Right Model". Ha! How can anyone claim that!? I think as followers of Christ we forget that things look different everywhere. They are situational. Something works well for us so we blanket it over the entire body of Christ like some sort of universal answer to "the problem". It's tragic. We do this with our convictions as well. Example: one man has deep convictions that drinking is wrong for him to do. He passionately pushes that conviction on others. (One of MANY examples) In the church planting world: Mega-models, or house models work for some guys so they blanket that over everyone pushing everyone to do that....ahhhH! Models are not the answer. Networks are not the answer. Churches are not the answer. (We have a JUNK LOAD of ALL of those, and we're moving VERY SLOWLY)....hmmmm....guess we better get back to focusing on the disciple....like Jesus commanded before we complicated things. =) Good stuff Bob, and great to see you today.
May 26, 2008 at 04:42 AM
Proud of you Aaron - hey man, like the haircut - you're looking a little more "human!" Morgan - keep him honest and humble.
May 26, 2008 at 07:47 AM
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