Want to be a superhero? Have you thought about becoming a church planter? To read some of the literature out there, the average person can forget about applying for the job. You need the combined skills of a brain surgeon, rocket scientist, Wall Street financier, marketing expert, computer programmer, life coach, and motivational speaker. What does the typical North American church planting strategy look like for most denominations and various independent evangelical ministries or networks? It goes something like this:
You give us the next couple of years of your life. Do the demographics research, select your target group, raise the money, put together a team, set a launch date, and fly our flag over all of it. We want you to launch “big” or “hot” or “high yield,” and we’ll put your name up in lights if you’re successful. Plus we’ll give you just a tiny fraction of the financial support that you really need to pull off such a plan, but only for three years. And before you get any money, you just have to pass muster on a highly subjective, four-hour-long, spouse-intimidating, gut-spilling, behavioral interview—we call it a “church planter assessment” for short—and you must also NOT be a Calvinist or embrace any other controversial doctrinal views that might upset the people who fill our denominational coffers.
Here are a couple of links for the type of complicated systems I’m referring to. Please recognize that I’m not picking on anyone in particular, but I want to give you a brief sampling of what’s out there:
- The Virginia Baptist Mission Board Church Planting Strategy
- The Evangelical Free Church of Americ: Seven Systems Strategy
- The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board: Seven Steps to Planting a Church
- The North American Mission Board, SBC: The Church Planting Process
- The Orthodox Presbyterian Church: Planting an Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Have you ever talked to a foreign missionary about how they plant new churches? You really should. Ask them what they think about the typical North American church planting strategy and I can almost promise you this: they will either laugh out loud, roll their eyes, break into a big grin, or all the above. Many of you have Southern Baptist connections, so just call the International Mission Board and ask them for a list of missionaries that are home on furlough. Place the call and ask them.
Once your missionary composes himself/herself, then ask them what sort of approach they use in places where the name of Jesus is virtually unheard, where people have little interest in the Gospel, and where you can’t gather a big crowd by sending out a four-color brochure or postcard. Listen very carefully. Compare the North American version of church planting with the international approach. Ask yourself how much money it takes, whether it’s simple enough for a new Christian to duplicate, if it results in true disciples, how long before each church multiplies into another one, and which system is more faithful to Scripture.
I know one very prolific Southern Baptist missionary blogger, Guy Muse, author of the M Blog. Go read his stuff and see how God is doing some incredible things with ordinary people in Ecuador. His best articles include, “How house churches get started in Guayaquil,” plus “The church in your house,” and “What kind of churches are we planting overseas?” I think you’ll see my point, but feel free to check with others who plant churches in other cultures.
The question is, “Why don’t we plant churches the same way in North America?” Why does it cost $250,000 and require a team of seminary-trained people three years to plant one church? I’m just asking. What’s with all the rocket science, smoke and mirrors, hoopla, and razzamatazz? Is church planting complicated or so simple that it’s like falling off a log?
Heh heh. I definitely resonate with parts of this post. As a guy pursuing urban North American church planting, I’m still trying to figure out what approach to adopt. The process sometimes seems overly complex to me, and I find myself wishing for a more straight forward approach.
Bill,
Great post as always.
Jeff
Hi Bill,
I’m new here. Just happened by. I don’t have a long time to sit and read everything you’ve got here (mom of 5) , and I need to ask a question. Please don’t take this with ANY degree of cynicism or negativity because none is intended. I figure you are a great person to ask because of your background in church planting. I know what I’m hoping your answer will be but I would like an HONEST answer more than anything.
In your years of church planting, have you truly seen churches planted with new believers or is what you generally end up with a majority of believers that have left their churches to come to your plant? There are SO many churches in the U.S. today and within a block or two in any of the suburbs you might see three different variations on the same denomination. So why do we keep planting? I don’t ask this to denigrate what you do…..I’m just curious what a church planter’s take is on this. You can perceive a little more about where I’m coming from if you give a glance at my blog.
Thanks, and have a lovely day!
Karen: Thanks for visiting! It’s always great to have new people dropping in, so please make yourself comfortable.
I believe that much of what is being passed off as “church planting” in North America is nothing more than what I would call “Christian franchising” or to use a really old Southern Baptist phrase, “church extension.” I once worked as a church planting missionary with the SBC, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “Well, we don’t have a SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH in such-and-such a town or county.” The attitude seems no different than opening up a McDonalds franchise in many respects: people like the menu, the prices, the amenities, and the parking. It’s comfortable. It’s what they know.
But it wouldn’t be fair to paint everyone with such broad strokes, because I have met many church planters who made it their aim to reach lost people, to the extent that they actually discouraged people joining them from other churches. However, they still labored under the illusion that church planting was supposed to be complicated, a special calling for God’s elite, and an opportunity to do things a little differently than the traditional church down the street. You know, “we’re the cool church that serves lattes and cappucinos while we watch video clips and sing the latest CCM music.”
Both groups, I think, miss the simplicity of New Testament Christianity, where people simply shared their faith within their present network until others joined them as disciples. When their home became too crowded, they met in two homes, then three, and so on. But it seems that we have become too sophisticated for such a simple, reproducible Christian model of church.