BLeach

Why Plant Churches::Part 5

Thanks for following along this week as I've asked the question, "Why Plant Churches?" Obviously, this is an important question to me as I prepare to plant another church in Philadelphia. But my hope through this series of posts is that it will become an important question to you as well--no matter what your particular ministry assignment may be.

You can listen to the message from Tim Keller that inspired these posts. You can also catch up on part one, part two, part three, and part four.

Reason #4: Church planting is an exercise in Kingdom-thinking.

Keller says that the main problem that some churches see with church planting is actually the main reason to go ahead and plant a church.

If your the Lead Pastor of an established church, and you decide to mother a church or support a church plant in your community, you will probably have people from your church help start the new church. Additionally, fast-growing church plants will often attract some people out of existing churches. Even though that shouldn't be the goal, it's the reality. When this happens, existing churches are faced with a question. Will we rejoice over the hundreds of people who will be added to the kingdom, or resent the few families who were lost from our church?

I'd argue that's an important question for every pastor to face.

Of course, church planters have the responsibility of partnering with other pastors in the community in an ethical way, and developing healthy lines of communication. But even when it's done the right way, the tension still remains.

Church planting always means saying goodbye for the sake of the Kingdom. For Leah and I, planting another church required us to say goodbye to close family and friends. For our church in Michigan, it required saying goodbye to us. Fortunately, the pain serves to reposition the Kingdom of God in our hearts.

And I can't think of a better reason to plant churches than that.

Why Plant Churches::Part 4

This week I'm exploring a list of four reasons for church planting that was originally inspired by this message from Tim Keller. You can also catch up on part one, part two, and part three.

Reason #3: New churches help renew established churches.

This discussion isn't about church planting at the expense of church revitalization. It's about both. Here are four ways church plants benefit older churches in their community.

• New churches bring resource established churches with new, innovative ministry methods. Church planting is the resource and development arm of the Body of Christ. Established churches can learn from church plants as they experiment.

• New churches are an effective way of developing emerging, creative, and strong leaders. Some of these leaders will eventually move on to serve other churches in the community.

• New churches challenge older churches to examine themselves. Sometimes it takes the contrast of a church plant for an established church to really wrestle with questions of mission and vision.

• New churches are evangelism feeders for the whole community. Church plants produce converts that may end up worshipping and serving in other churches in the community. For example, the very culture of adventure and risk that initially connects a person to Christ may become a limitation to some people's spiritual growth. The characteristics that make a church plant great at reaching out may limit them from caring for people. As a result, some of these new Christians may eventually experience discipleship in a nearby church.

It's unfortunate that church planting and church revitalization are often seen as either/or activities. What if instead of conflicting with each other they could actually complement each other?

Why Plant Churches::Part 3

This week I'm reflecting on four reasons for church planting. The original list comes from this interesting lecture from Tim Keller. You can also catch up on part 1 and part 2.

Reason #2 (in my own words): Church planting is better suited to reach certain people.

Keller lists four groups that according to multiple studies, church plants reach the best.

1. New Residents: It takes longer for a new resident to break into community and leadership at an established church, simply because the people have been there longer. But in a church plant, new residents have been at the church as long as everyone else. 

2. New Generations: Young adults are often more involved in church plants simply because of the institutional challenges to change that an established church faces.

3. New People Groups: Keller gives this example. If a farming community begins changing so that young commuters begin moving in, an established church may be 75-80% farmers, while a new church plant is more likely to be 75-80% commuting professionals.

4. New Christians: Dozens of denominational studies have shown that the average new church gains 60-80% of their members from the ranks of the unchurched. On the other hand, the average American church over 10 years old gains 80-90% of its members through transfer growth. This makes sense. As a church ages, it naturally allocates more resources to taking care of the needs of current members. But a church plant is forced to invest into non-members in order to survive.

I don't see this argument as a bash against established churches. I pastored an established church, and in a few years I'll be pastoring another one! To me the moral of the story is for established churches to accept that there are some people best reached by a new church, and to prioritize resources to invest in church planting.

I hope you'll check back in tomorrow for reasons three and four. To me they were the most thought provoking.

What reasons can you think of for planting new churches? Or maybe you feel like pushing back a bit. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Why Plant Churches::Part 2

Yesterday I was inspired by a short talk from Tim Keller in response to the question, "Why Plant Churches?" This week I'm summarizing his four reasons. You can catch up on some of the common objections to church planting in part one.

Reason #1: We want to be true to the New Testament pattern of ministry.

Paul was many things, including a missionary, preacher, theologian, writer, tent-maker, and pastor. But I'd argue that he was primarily a church planter. He seemed to have a two-part strategy for changing the world.

To reach a region he'd focus on the largest city in the region. To reach that city he'd plant churches.

He told Titus to establish elders in every town. His instructions weren't to simply evangelize, but to setup churches. In fact, church planting was so foundational to Paul, that his criteria for leaving a city was often whether or not a church had been planted. He'd make sweeping statements about having finished preaching the gospel in a particular place. Obviously, he hadn't preached to every person. What he meant was that the church was established.

But church planting in the New Testament predates Paul to Jesus. Jesus never commanded his followers to make converts, but to baptize disciples. And baptism cannot happen in isolation. We baptize people into worshipping communities.

Many individual decisions for Christ at crusades or other outreach events result in a list of people we'll never hear from again. These decisions may not actually be conversions. A true convert to Christ enters into a process of discipleship that must be tied to a community of believers.

Some people push back at this point. You might argue, "Okay, granted, but that was in the very beginning of the Christian movement before churches actually existed. Why is it so critical now that we have all these new churches?"

Good question! I hope you'll check back in tomorrow.

Why Plant Churches::Part 1

This morning I listened to an excellent talk by Tim Keller responded to the question, "Why Plant Churches?" He argues that their are three groups of people.

• Group one believes that church planting is an unnecessary activity, especially in this country where we have so many churches.
• Group two is excited about church planting, but they're not sure why.
• Group three is excited about church planting, and know how to respond to the objections raised by group one.

If I had to nominate a captain for group three, it might be Tim Keller. In fact, he argues that church planting should be an established ministry for every local church in America. This week, I'll write a series of posts summarizing the four reasons he lists for planting churches.

But first, to be fair, here are the three most common objections.

Objection 1: We already have so many churches, and most of them are not filled. Shouldn't we focus on filling the churches that already exist rather than creating new ones?

Objection 2: Most churches in my community used to be more full than they are now. Won't a new church just take people away from churches that are already declining?

Objection 3: The churches that are already struggling need to be helped first. To see a new church get started is demoralizing to them. Isn't our real need better churches, and not new churches?

These are three important questions to be sure. If you've wrestled with any of them, I encourage you to follow along this week. I think you'll be challenged by Keller's thoughts.

What God Wants, How He Wants It

A Few Days in Michigan

We're enjoying a few days in Michigan this weekend. Samantha, Leah's sister, is moving this weekend from Detroit back to Pittsburgh. We drove Leah's parents into town so they can drive the moving truck back. Looking forward to adding yet one more person to Hotel Edwards!

It's also been a great opportunity to reconnect here. I stopped in at COTK and enjoyed catching up with Tal and several other friends. This morning I had coffee with one of our former interns, and current team member for the Philly Project. Jonathan will be moving with us to Philly. We enjoyed dreaming and planning for the church plant. 

Most of all, it's been a great opportunity to spend some time with my parents, grandmother, Betsy, Rob, and our fast-growing nephew and niece.

We also took some time to check on our house. Hard to describe my emotions. It felt a little like we were coming home after a month long ministry trip. It definitely sunk in again just much our lives have changed.

We'll be leaving tomorrow morning to drive back to Pittsburgh, where Leah and I are tag-teaming at North Way's youth outreach tomorrow night. We'll be talking about relationships. I'm looking forward to finding out what she has to say!

Emotional Endurance

 

In October, Leah and I started the Weight Watchers Online Program (thanks to Tory for the inspiration)!  It was great to lose some weight.  But I'm also enjoying the ability to push myself a bit harder in the gym, which is probably another benefit to being 20 pounds lighter.

Since College, I've rarely run more than three miles at a time.  This morning I ran seven miles.  I'm thanking God for His grace in giving me good health, and thinking about training for a half-marathon for the first time in my life.

This experience of building greater physical endurance is a metaphor for something God has been doing in my emotional life--something that is critical for the challenge of church planting.  Church planting is an emotional roller-coaster.  Because so much is constantly developing, I find myself experiencing almost daily highs and lows.  So God has been working on my emotional endurance.

God is constantly preparing us to grow into His plans for us, not only spiritually and physically, but emotionally as well.  Leadership demands that we live in the midst of tension, face conflict, and live through stress.  In the face of these realities, God builds our emotional endurance so we can stay on the leadership treadmill for a longer time, and at a higher level.

My recent experience physically illustrates two ways we can partner with God to build our emotional endurance.

• Eliminate Fat: We need to remove the obstacles to emotional health (sin, lack of sleep, unhealthy relationships, wasted time, etc).

• Overcome Resistance: In the gym, resistance is necessary for stronger muscles or longer endurance.  Likewise, in life, resistance isn't something to escape.  Instead, embrace resistance, lean into it, and overcome it.

As you eliminate fat and overcome resistance, God will build your emotional endurance so that you can experience greater longevity and effectiveness in life and ministry!

The Time It Takes To Plant A Church

 

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article last week titled The Time It Takes To Win It All.  The reporter estimated that an NFL team puts in 514,000 hours per season.  That's 100 hours for every yard gained on offense.  Coaches, managers, and players make a profound investment for the chance to win a Super Bowl.

I knew this from personal experience nine years ago, but preparing to start a church takes a lot of time.  It seems like a glamorous thing to do...for about a minute!

We're currently working on a strategic document that will outline all of our goals for the next 11 months, along with the tasks that will need to be accomplished to reach those goals.  It's an overwhelming list to look at.  By the time we launch a new church we'll also have thousands of hours invested in The Philly Project.

But it's worth it.  I absolutely believe that.  Every hour of prayer, every phone call, every meeting, every conversation, every day of research, every road trip, every sermon, every outreach, it's all worth it. Because one day we'll hold up more than the Lombardi trophy.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3.18).

If It Lingers, It Matters

Here are three words of encouragement for all creatives: Wait On It!

If you're a creative person, you probably have a surplus of ideas.  You've got ideas in your moleskine, ideas in your iPhone, ideas on napkins, ideas on sticky notes, ideas on whiteboards, and ideas swimming around in your head.  To see more of your ideas come to life, capture them in your file, and then wait a month. 

Does it still energize you?  If so, implement a plan to execute it.

If not, delete it.

I have an idea file setup in Gmail that I've been moving church planting related thoughts to for months. Now I have over 300 emails in that file. Most of the ideas sparked my curiosity in a moment, but have since faded. A handful of them still stir my imagination. I'm eliminating the former so I can put my energy into the ideas with staying power.

Here's a good filter to run your ideas through. If it lingers, it matters.