A Bob Roberts quote really caught my attention lately. He said, “We don’t plant churches in America. We plant worship services.” 

Ouch.

1. If your Super Bowl party last night was full of church people and small group holy huddles…you have planted a worship service.

**I know we are missional, incarnational, organic, blah, blah, blah. Jesus hung out with saints and sinners and an emphasis on the latter. So…gut check: Who are you hanging out with and spending the majority of your time with? We say we are about making disciples and reaching the lost…what did your party look like last night? And if you didn’t have something or go to something…you pretty much need punched in the throat.

2. If you spend the majority of your time, budget and energy focused on weekend services [or if you are anti-weekend since it is kind of popular to be: your missional communities for mostly saved people]…you have planted a worship service.

**Does your budget of time, talents and resources reflect that you are REALLY committed to MAKING DISCIPLES or crafting worship services? I once visited a great church with 200 staff…only 12 on staff were dedicated to spiritual development [disciple-making]. Worship is just as important as discipleship is and discipleship is just as important as worship. BOTH/AND!

3. If you can’t make a change in the weekend service or risk messing with “the formula” or some portion of it due to backlash…then you have planted a worship service and not a church!

**I just spoke to a great friend of mine who was called on the carpet [in his very not-church plant, but a very old, established church]…who thought he was getting let go due to a bad performance review. The problem? He turned his back on the audience to read scripture off the screen. Really. True story. So…people going to  Hell while we yell at you to please don’t turn your butt toward us whilst reading scripture?!

Or another friend of mine who was pretty scared because he wants to reach more “seekers” [make disciples] at his charismatic church by dialing back Sunday’s a bit and focusing more on the Holy Spirit side of things on a different night. If either offend your people, you have planted a worship service and not a church.

What are some other ways we plant worship services instead of churches?

There are a lot of new buzz words and strategies these days for planting churches. I must admit, I am from a small town and I need things to be simple in order to understand them. Studying through the book of Acts, it seems the first church planted new churches and “turned the world upside down’, and they used a simple 6 step plan:

1. They relied on the leading of the Holy Spirit as to where they should go.
2. They used local “common” & “ordinary” people with no special training to be leaders.
3. They multiplied leaders by personal relationships and instruction.
4. They allowed the planting process and the recognition of leaders to be an organic process.
5. They were able to move at an incredible pace because they listened to God, and empowered others.
6. They were not seeking control, but instead created a culture of honoring those who led.

I think God is calling us to “kick it old school.” The old Acts school that is. We need to begin a movement where churches are planted in Power, when simple, anointed and surrendered people do the miraculous for the kingdom, and because so many can jump in, the task is accomplished at break neck speed.

That is my heart! Do like they did it then, let God get the credit, let God choose the place and the people. And then let the Holy Spirit draw, convict & redeem.

That will set the church on fire with a passion for people. And release “every priest” of God free to fulfill all that God has in store for them.

Let it be done, quickly, Lord Jesus… Amen

About three years ago I met a middle-aged man who had been working as an art conservator during the former GDR (German Democratic Republic), the Socialist Germany. He had been fired after the reunification of Germany and was since then jobless. He had been through a hard twenty years, most of that time in the solitude as a divorced artist with two children who didn’t stay in close contact with him. This lonely man restored a painting and a nice plaster statue I inherited from my grandfather.

Two years after doing this work for us this man called out of the blue. He wondered how we were doing and gladly accepted an invitation do dinner. As he was with us he opened up and shared the secrets of his heart with us. Despite the fact that he called himself an agnostic, he started opening up to our story with God. He showed more than just a passing interest – he showed a real hunger and thirst for righteousness and for answers of life. He asked us if we would be ready to keep the contact and talk to him more.

This story may not seem too dramatic but it is for us. Just a day or two before this Georgia and I prayed that the Lord would bring open-hearted people to us so we could start another Alpha Course. We are, it seems, on track. Serving people and praying for them opens the most distant hearts and gives us the opportunity to see people come to the Lord. God is building his church even in hard areas like Berlin, Germany.

A few weeks ago, Georgia, my wife and I went to downtown Berlin to do some shopping. We had seven different stops to make. As we were leaving the house I told my wife that I wanted to “add value” to the employees of the places where we were going to shop. I prepared myself inside, prayed shortly, opened up my heart and approached the people accordingly. I asked how people were doing, complemented them, asked them some deeper questions and just added value to them. It was amazing how people reacted! They sucked in everything I had to say and received every bit of encouragement I brought.

As I was pondering what had happened that afternoon I realized that the Lord daily encourages us in the same way. He not only gave us his life, he gave us everything that comes with it. We are his children and he cares for us beyond our ability to comprehend! We are heirs of the kingdom with everything that includes to help us through life. He certainly is adding value to us.

Since that day I decided to always leave the house with that little prayer: “Lord, allow me to add value to the people I meet today.” How about adding value to the people in your city you are reaching out to this coming year? You will be surprised to see their response. People are hungry for even a bit of encouragement.

I’m a part of a church who has a heart for the poor. We also have a heart for our city. From the beginning, our strategy has been to connect the dots between social action and Gospel, knowing that somehow, together we become good news, as we seek to walk in the ways of Jesus.

While many church plants “target” a specific demographic for their outreach, we started with less of a target, and more of an affinity; to serve the poor. What we found is that this concern stretches beyond socio-economic, racial, political, and even faith boundaries. Thus, we’ve served shoulder to shoulder with non-christians, skeptics, athiests, and believers alike.

Because of this, and because of the location of our gathering, ANC has become a church of THREE distinct demographics (give or take): 1/3 urban. 1/3 suburban. And 1/3 semi-rural. Each committed to gospel community. Each committed to serving the least. And each deeply committed to worship and Word. At our gatherings you’ll see Tom’s shoes, cowboy boots, and flipflops. We’ve got tattoo’s and skinny jeans mixed with polo shirts and khaki shorts. We’ve got shaved heads, gray heads, and feaux-hawks. Honestly, it’s been pretty cool.

Since we’re a missional church, we’ve always had the heart to empower and release our people for ministry in their context. We hope that as missionaries to our culture, that we equip people to serve where they live. As a Christian leader, this has opened my eyes to a number of things. One of which is our perceptions… or better yet, assumptions… about the poor, who they are, and where they live.

I’ve always thought the poor were mostly inner city. That’s where we started serving, mostly because it’s where the homeless community tend to populate. But, I’ve seen the high-rise condo’s being built in downtown Austin over the last 10 years, the one’s I could never afford to live in. And I’ve wondered how anyone who owned a house downtown could resist a multi-million dollar offer to level their lot. The truth is, most don’t. And the poor are moving out. They are literally being pushed to the fringes.

The more we serve, the more we learn to SEE need, the more intuitively we see it in our own context. We’ve noticed a growing trend at ANC, people wanting to serve and engaging need wherever they live. We have structured to encourage this. Because of this, we’re learning a lot. We’ve learned that the rural poor have always been there, that the suburban poor are growing, and that we’ve still got a lot to learn.

Although I’m aware of the common observable cultural shifts, I’ve remained pretty oblivious as to the depth of demographic impact by the gentrification of city-centers, and it’s impending influential waves. What I forgot to consider was the where, why, and how it impacts BEYOND the city-centers themselves.

Linda Bergquist, a New Church Starting Strategist in San Francisco and co-author of Church Turned Inside Out, wrote a recent post on the LifeWay Research Blog about the suburbanization of poverty. Here’s just a taste:

“The stereotypical suburban community is becoming extinct in the United States. Today, a million and a half more poor people live in the suburbs of major metropolitan areas than in the center cities. It would be easy to blame the change on the recession, or to ignore the facts by proclaiming that the recession will soon be over, but that would be negligent. By 2005, when the economy was prospering, there were already more poor people living in suburbs than in U.S. cities. In 1970, only 20.5% of America’s poor were suburbanites, and by 2000, the number increased to 35.9%. Between 2000 and 2008, the poor population in the suburbs of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas grew by 25%, almost five times faster than in the cities they surround. At the same time, the suburbs are also becoming much more ethnically diverse.

Why the change? Here are a few theories:

a. Employment decentralization. Major employers in every sector have moved their bases of operation to the suburbs. Population sprawl followed job sprawl.

b. Immigration. Some new immigrants now select suburbs as their primary points of entry into the country because the jobs for which they are most qualified exist in suburbs rather than in city centers.

c. Gentrification. The status of status is changing, and the upper middle class is choosing high-rise city living over suburbia. There is a values shift from ownership (automobiles, large homes) to accessibility (public transportation, proximity to work, arts). As cities become more attractive to them, housing costs rise, thrusting the poor down into the streets and out into the suburbs.

d. Perceived cost of living. Sometimes poor people move to suburbs because it seems more affordable. However, while housing costs are less, there are hidden expenses, such as car ownership and less access to human services.

e. High unemployment rates. Certainly the recession economy is a factor. It has not brought the poor to the suburbs, but it is the reason why many middle class people are suddenly poor and in need of assistance.

The most challenging aspect of poverty’s suburbanization is that it has caught social sectors by surprise. Governments, nonprofits, schools, healthcare systems and churches lack the infrastructures to help the way they do in the cities. Funding agencies are prepared to help the “urban poor” but have no mental category for the suburban poor. Money and volunteers flow inward to the city cores. Many nonprofits have lost the grants they need to provide wages for employees, yet have long lists of newly poor who need their services. Suburban schools are also unprepared for new kinds of students who enter the system from non-English speaking or reading impoverished backgrounds. Health care providers are serving new constituencies that lack insurance. Likewise, some suburban churches are facing membership declines and their congregations can no longer help fund programs. They seek causes, but are often unaware of shifts in their communities.

In the face of radical change, it would be humanly understandable for suburban Christians to assume a defensive posture. However, for such a time as this, the church is being called to a proactively biblical, missional and ethical response. To begin with, most Christians are aware of God’s commands to care for the poor (e.g. Proverbs 17:5, 21:13, 28: 27; Ezekiel 16:49; Mt 19:21, 25: 31ff), but in the suburbs poverty is less dense and therefore less visible. God not only demands giving to hoards of visible poor, but to any one with need “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother…therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land (Deuteronomy 15:7, 11).”

As we discuss poverty, I can’t help but recall the teachings of Mother Teresa and her belief that there are three types of poverty in every community; spiritual, emotional, and physical.

Thinking this way will help us connect the dots between engaging need and Gospel. But it also exposes another part of this discussion.

My friend Vernon Berger, founder of His Voice Global, wrote a blog after watching a re-run of “The Wonder Years”. I thought it interestingly insightful. It reminds us that while physical poverty is increasing, there’s always been need in the suburbs. Here’s a quote from the close of the episode where Winnie just found out her brother died in Vietnam…

“When some “Blow Hard” talks about the anonymity of the suburbs, the mindlessness of the “T.V. generation,” we knew that inside each one of those identical boxes with its Dodge parked out front, and its white bread on the table, and its glowing TV…there were people with stories. There were people bound together in the pain and struggle of love. There were moments that made us cry with laughter. There were moments of sorrow and wonder.”

Here are some takeaways Vernon offers from the quote:

1. There are real hurts in the urban, suburban, and rural. None of them is “more strategic”.

2. If you live in the suburbs and minister in the suburbs, be encouraged, but don’t be lulled to sleep.

3. If you live in a rural context, yet think it’s some type of “second class” deal compared to the ‘burbs or an urban context, please stop that also. The rural context has just as much pain as the other two. Let’s not fool ourselves. Also, the rural has just as much victory!

Pain is everywhere. Victory is a foregone conclusion for those who are in Christ. Therefore, let’s just be people who want to faithfully see the Gospel of The Kingdom proclaimed everywhere no matter what the cost.

The death of outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens last week was mourned by both believer and non-believer alike. There was something about this man that people loved – even those whose faith he tried to destroy.

He wrote how “religion ruins everything” – pointing out excesses in various religious practices that were wrong. His attacks, for the most part, were drastically biased and philosophically flawed - yet at times were justified, especially when pointing out extremists blindly following ideologies that produced terror and death.

Yet, he met very competent and strong opposition when it came to the Christian faith. Debates with men like William Lane Craig, John Lennox and Larry Taunton showed that Christianity was not only rational but a more plausible worldview than atheism. Instead of assailing Hitchens, these Christians engaged in dialogue with him, showing  compassion towards him (especially after he was diagnosed with cancer) and praying for him persistently.

My friend Larry Taunton of the Fixed Point Foundation, who had debated Hitchens publicly, became a close friend of “Hitch” as well. Through their many debates in public and private, Taunton demonstrated patience and kindness as he consistently shared about belief in God and faith in Christ. At one point they took a car trip together from DC to Birmingham and studied the Gospel of John. Though they were worlds apart in terms of beliefs,  they were mysteriously joined together through the Gospel in friendship.

This is a critical point – the Gospel is our bridge to unbelievers.  So much of the current thinking surrounding evangelism is that we should build relationship first before ever bringing up the Gospel. In Hitchens and Taunton’s case, it was the Gospel that brought them together.

We all need this kind of a ”Hitch” in our evangelistic efforts, i.e. a meaningful dialogue and friendship with an unbeliever. After all, Jesus was called “a friend of sinners”. We must expand our efforts beyond those who already believe and intentionally seek and save the lost. Remember, it is those that seem the hardest to reach that many times are the most open to talk.

If we believe that salvation is real and found only in Christ, we should possess a sense of urgency in these matters.  In the end, we will deeply benefit as well as we are challenged to prepare more, pray more, love more, and reach out more.

May this coming year, 2012, be the year we have this kind of personal evangelistic breakthrough.

Woody Hayes is credited with this description of Ohio State football.  It really came from a sportwriter and was originally “Five yards and a cloud of dust”, then “Four Yards and a cloud of dust” and finally became famous as “Three yards and a cloud of dust.”

Regardless, the philosphy of attending to the basics of blocking, tackling and smashmouth football gave Woody Hayes and Ohio State one of the best all time records and propelled him into the Hall of Fame.  Three yards is not nearly as fun as watching a 50 yard flea flicker or a triple reverse, but it is effective.  The question is do you want applause or do you want to win.

Most of us are somewhat ADD.  We bore easily with the basics and want to do the newest and latest fad.  Church planting is all about the basics.  After two years and a plateau, most of us start looking for something new rather than attending to the  basics that we know work.

Dan Scates has written “Recalculating—8 Directional Changes New Churches Face”. Most new churches plateau in years 2 to 5.  Dan calls us back to the basics of evangelism, discipling leaders, assimilating inquirers and 5 other basic building blocks for surviving the journey of church planting.

A colleague, John Wasem, planted a very successful church.  John isn’t your conference orator or  clever new “idea factory” .  John is a faithful, competent leader who attended to the basics better than anyone I know and not only planted a succesful church that broke 1000, but also raised up leaders who succeeded him and took the church to continuing levels of growth.  That’s reason to cheer in my book.

I will never be a Francis Chan or  (fill in the blank with your favorite hero), but I can follow in the steps of John Wasem.  I call it successful church planting for the rest of us.

If you are plateaued, I encourage you to get Recalculating and start implementing it.  Better yet, find an accountability partner or a coach who will help you stay focused on the basics.  You don’t have to be clever or incredibly talented to lead a successful church plant.  You just need to be faithful and committed to the basics.

One last observation—Woody Hayes ended his stellar career getting fired for striking a player at the Cottonbowl game.   An incredible career with an ignomious ending because of one slip.  My church planting brethren,  Guard your hearts.  I want to hear God tell you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

On the road to Damascus, Paul had an encounter with Jesus and experienced a radical transformation in his life (Acts 9: 1-28). His view of God changed, precipitating a change in his view of himself. His mission in life changed from persecuting the church to building up the church. It is of interest that Jesus asked Paul in that encounter a profound question: “Why are you persecuting me?” First and foremost, Paul was an enemy of God, not primarily or exclusively an enemy of Christians. But that nemesis relationship with Jesus changed.

With this radical transformation, however, one area of Paul’s life did not change: his skill set. Paul had the skills, gifts, and graces necessary to lead a movement—a skill set acquired before he encountered Jesus. We can only surmise how effective Paul would have been in his crusade against the church. His record of planting churches and disciplining new Christians gives us some indication.

How many executives today of our denominations, networks, and tribes could conceive of giving someone like Saul of Tarsus serious consideration as a church planter? After all, his experience was inappropriate. After I developed the Church Planter Profile, someone pointed out to me that the Apostle Paul matched up against the profile. I had not previously made that connection. So Paul changed in his purpose and mission but remained unchanged in his skills.

What are some take-home points?

1. God can do amazing things. The sovereign God who transformed Paul is still in the business of transforming lives.

2. Some of our most promising church planters are in the harvest, not currently in the church. Therefore, we should redefine our pipeline for potential church planters.

3. The principle of behavioral consistency is relevant to selecting church planters. Patterns of behaviors tend to prevail over time, predicting how people will behave in the future. The key is to determine the appropriate skill sets needed for making selection decisions.

4. The principle of transferability is relevant to selecting church planters. Individuals may change vocations, but their skill sets transfer with them to new behavior settings. The key is focusing on the skills and not the experiences or settings.

5. Effective church planters are critical to fulfilling the Great Commission. In the first century, the gospel spread and Christians were born through the planting of churches. In the twenty-first century, the gospel continues to spread and Christians born as churches are planted.

The most important question any church planter can ask is “ Why am I planting a church?” I have had some conversations with some great guys lately who I think are really struggling with that question. All of us struggle with why we are in ministry on Monday morning, but we need to evaluate our motivation on a bigger scale.

Let’s look at what I think are some lousy reasons to plant a church and then share a great reason I recently heard.

First the lousy reasons:

“I want to reinvent church”

This one comes in a lot of flavors, but it always comes down to the bottom line, I have a better way to do church. More hymns, no hymns, pews, no pews, more art, more coffee, more beer, less structure, less formality. We’re going to be radically sold out. We’re not going to cater to Christians. We’re going to go deep. We’re going to go wide. We’re going to be a church for people who absolutely abhor the awful church that I’m currently drawing my paycheck from.

The church doesn’t need you to reinvent it. God may lead you to do ministry a little differently (though almost all of the “new, fresh, casual, relevant” churches tend to look exactly alike), but that is not a reason to plant a church. The church is not a canvas for you to express your individuality. The church is God’s idea and he’ll let you know when it needs to be reinvented.

“I’m looking for my next ministry job”

The church staff business is a tough gig these days. There have been a ton of layoffs and there are some amazing people who are no longer employed by a church or are looking for a new place to work. But that isn’t a reason to start a new church. The church is not a union shop and we don’t need more so we will all have a job.

“There are no good churches in the community where I want to plant”

I would bet that almost every community in America has at least one good church. If you want a humbling exercise search for churches on a map of your area. (Here’s a link to a search of Orange County, California where I currently live. The churches are the red dots that look like measles.) Not every church is life giving, but I bet at least one is.

So why would you start a church?

I was talking recently to a church planter in the Northwest. He said the reason he started a church was because his friends were going to hell and he couldn’t think of a better way to bring them to Jesus. He said that once all of his friends are saved (he’s personally led many of them to Christ in the six years since he started the church) he would probably go do something else. As he told me this story tears welled up in his eyes; he can’t stand the thought of his friends facing eternity without God.

We don’t need any more churches in America, but we are woefully short of life saving stations. If you just want to start another church please go somewhere that needs one. If you can’t stand the thought of people going to hell from your community, and you are convinced that starting a new church is the only way you can reach them, let me know how I can help.

If a rediscovery of mission will bring new life to the church in the west; then consumerism may be it’s death. The church, if it goes unchallenged will consume great Bible teaching; it will also consume community, serving experiences and even worship. But now an important question is emerging, “How do we keep churches from consuming mission?”

It is not a ridiculous question!  Who doesn’t like to be a part of a cause greater than themselves?  Don’t most people like to think they are making a difference?  Doesn’t being on a mission appeal to an intrinsic felt-need that is in all of us?  I believe the answer is “yes” to all those questions.  And beware – after mission is consumed, if it stops feeling good, worthwhile and meeting needs, people will quit the mission!

So back to our important question:  ”How do we keep churches from making mission one more product they consume?”  Two suggestions:

1. Missionary As Identity - If we want the people in our churches to engage in mission we must make sure they understand that being a missionary is not something you consume, it is your identity.  We must help them do the kind of spiritual formation that understands we worship the Missio Dei, and this missionary God sent His son, and His son sent the Spirit, and the Spirit of God sends us.  If we can help the people in our churches see that we are missionaries, then mission will not simply be another program to consume, it will become their identity.
2. Missional Practices - To reinforce our identity as missionaries every church needs to teach and hold their people accountable for simple missional practices.  At COMMUNITY, we are teaching our people five simple missional practices that are based on Genesis 12 that “we are blessed to be a blessing.”  These five missional practices are an acronym that make up the word B.L.E.S.S. (more to come on these practices soon).  These missional practices will not only reinforce our missionary identity but also create a missional culture within a church.

I believe that the church in the west must rediscover it’s mission; but at the same time we must be aware of mission becoming one more product for the church to consume!  What else do we need to do to keep our people from just consuming mission?  I would love to hear your thoughts!