Church Planting Option C
While at Origins there was talk of two options of Church Planting. There was option A in which church planter (and spouse) would go off to destination, make phone calls and connections, and host services at their home until the “congregation” grew to the size of being able to rent a facility. Option B was quite different. Learn to throw a killer party once a month. Invite people over, have live music, and create an inviting atmosphere. In between each party follow up with coffee dates, lunches, and dinners and grow the friendships of those who came. At some point this turns from a party to a planted church.
I wonder if there is more though. Its not like Option A or B are wrong or bad. I just wonder if there is option C or D or Q for that matter out there.
My wife and I are about to launch on a Church Planting endevour and we are full of joy and anticipation. We have no idea what this looks like but that doesn’t mean we don’t have ideas. In fact when people ask us about it our typical answer is we probably have more answer now then we will when we actually launch. I could go on but I want to share what I would like to call option C and get some feedback, insight, and questions.
Option C
What if you sent more then a church planter? What if you were connected to a missional church that wanted to see the Kingdom Advance and believed that planting churches is one of the best ways to be apart of this? The mother church would recruit a church plant pastor who would assemble a team/staff which consisted of full time, part time, and volunteers. The mother church provided a place for the vision and mission of the church plant to be voiced to the congregation. Then many were asked to move and be a part of the vision. Not just the church plant pastor and not just a staff but others as well. Example number being 50 or so. This group would all move to a new location and start services, make friends, and invite others in.ÂÂ
Thoughts on option C?
May 30th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Great idea. The hard part is getting the 50 people to move with you. Like you said in your article, there aren’t any just wrong answers, but many different ways to promote the Gospel of Jesus. You can pick any and it will work with prayer and support from your “family”. If your heart is in it and it is in His will, you will ultimately succeed.
I really like your plan “B”. If you have a great time and can share Jesus at the same time, that would be great. If you and your wife went to an area, you can find some believers to help establish your presence and then create this wonderful, fun enviornment to intiate contact and Bible study.
Good luck and keep posting your ideas on the site. I would love to hear how it all works out and what God has in store for your family.
May 30th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
I agree that 50 is alot to have all on the same page for a beginning plant.
I do think that if you can have 3,5 maybe even 10 people though all on the same page then you have a great launching pad. Starting w/outreach, parties etc…
You are wanting to reach those folks who would normally not set foot in a “church” because the “church” has seriously let them down, or they have a preconceived notion of what “church” means.
There is great power in meeting people where they are, not in a church building. Suddenly everyone is on the same footing and the conversation is easier.
Somehow we’ve gotten away from going out to the crowd and we just expect them to wander in a church someday.
If we spend our lives giving ourselves away to others in love, esp. w/a group of likeminded people, that can’t help but MOVE and be attractive to those we are trying to reach…
May 31st, 2006 at 10:36 am
Kenny -
Thanks for your words. I would agree that the 50 people is a bit ambitious. Currently I have 20+ seriously considering the move and we haven’t yet made any formal ask. Each time I am approached by someone who is considering my heart jumps.
I wish I could take credit for the Party idea but I got that from a friend. The party possibilities are endless though. As believers we should be the best at it!
Bryan -
You touched on one of the complexes I have had for quite sometime. How do you balance the desire to reach with the call to grow. In my mind I have Sundays as the time to connect with the “church” who is actually out in the area the rest of the week. A couple of ways in which they would out during the week is an after school education program and a meal program. Choosing to serve the community during the week instead of the programs of the church.
May 31st, 2006 at 10:42 am
One of the things I enjoyed about Origins was the divergence of models I saw there . . . Mosiaic LA, Voxtropolis, The Spring, so many others - It’s awesome to see the different options. I’m guessing it’s a case of
Shape the ethos
Unleash the creativity
See models A - Z emerge
I like your model, and would love to see others emerging as we focus on shaping as opposed to following!
May 31st, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Last year we opted for the missional business approach to church planting. We purchased a cafe at a location where we would be able to meet people from all over the world. We wanted to build relationships with them and be an influence for Christ among them - coming alongside them as friends. In this approach we don’t need 50 people to move, just our own family. We haven’t made this a ‘Christian cafe’, because that would scare away those who are already biased against Christianity. There are a plethora of avenues around for those who ‘would’ go into a clearly Christian venue, but not many places that are subversively Christian. We realize that it will takes many months (years) of relationship building with many of our customers before we have built the kind of trust where Christ can be discussed. Meanwhile, we have aligned ourselves with Christians in surrounding churches who frequent our cafe and keep our work lifted up in prayer.
May 31st, 2006 at 11:01 pm
I don’t think there is “the way” to plant a church. It should be organic. If the whole mothership theory works for your context and you feel like God is breathing into it, go for it. I think that the trust level between you and the sending church needs to be high.
There may be strings and baggage attached going that route, but there will be baggage either way you plant a church.
I think you god with what God has put in your heart. We are currently doing just that at my Church in Erlanger, KY.
June 1st, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Great thoughts. I’ll also be church planting in the near future. For the two years I’ve been planning to go your ‘option c’ route. It’s still an option, but I’m staying open for other possibilities as well. It’s a very popular approach actually, and it helps when you’re partnering with a church that already has a vision for church planting… that way you can get right into things with a base.
If you know Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan with Rob Bell, I’ve heard they actually took like 700 people from an existing larger church to launch theres.
Mark Driscoll of the Acts 29 planting network suggests we should never get out of a church planters mentality and as the church grows we should just consider it a larger ‘core group’ to work from… whether that’s 10, 50, or 5000.
Keep posting on where you’re going with all of this.. it’s all very exciting to me. I’ll be sure to be tuning in.
June 1st, 2006 at 4:21 pm
forgot to subscribe.
June 1st, 2006 at 5:53 pm
One of the issues we have considered - after 25 years as a senior pastor of denominationally based churches - is whether or not a church plant would actually accomplish its goal - to make disciples. Many church plants have as a goal numerical growth, regular attendance at programs, political power in their community, etc. But, are these the correct measurements of success? From what I have observed over the years - no! Though the majority of people (Christians) don’t seem to mind or even realize it, much of our church ‘growth’ work merely ‘warehouses’ Christians. As a Christian, I believe God has called us to much more.
Thus, when I think about options for planting a church I am looking not for numbers or the usual methods for measuring success. I am looking for ways to mentor others as effective disciples of Christ. That takes a lot of intentional time together. Discipleship never happens in an hour or two spent listening to someone teach or preach. Lord knows, if that was Christ’s method of discipleship, he would still be at it with his 12!
Through the missional cafe I’m looking for those who are looking for God. I get an opportunity to visit with them over coffee 3-5 times each week. This is a more organic approach to building church. We get to ‘travel’ through life together over a long period of time. Interestingly, it seems to me that I have been doing more effective ministry through the cafe than I ever ‘really’ did from the pulpit or through merely teaching large groups of people. I don’t think we should eliminate preaching or classroom teaching. I just think we have put all our eggs in one basket for a millenia or two too long.
June 14th, 2006 at 1:54 am
the new thing network is a church planting network based out of naperville, il and more specifically community christian church. they recently sent a team of 40 families to boston from their church with two full-time guys and before that sent several families to brighton, michigan; several families to new york city; a dozen or so families to bakersfield, ca; and 60 families to colorado. your option ‘C’ very much resembles the way in which this church is consciously and missionally sending out people and pastors to plant churches all across america… and even around the world as they are looking into planting a church in paris, france.