Alan Hirsch in New Orleans

June 18, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, church planting | 8 Comments

This past weekend two friends and I drove to New Orleans to attend a one day seminar with Alan Hirsch. In addition to the seminar Alan spent the majority of the previous day meeting with the staff of Journey Christian Church. Rick Grover the pastor of the church invited us to come down early and join in the discussion. It was a very profitable time and well worth the 15 + hour drive.

In addition to discussing key ideas from both “The Shaping of Things to Come” and “The Forgotten Ways” we spent a significant amount of time talking about how to cultivate a missional mindset within existing communities that are heavily influenced by church growth principles and preoccupied with church activities.

This discussion dealt with the importance of the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer and how every follower of Christ must see themselves as missionaries sent into their local context. The dialogue was especially helpful for the work I am currently doing on a dmin project which focuses on assisting churches in the reallocation of resources in a missional direction.

Another very helpful discussion dealt with fostering new missional communities in a post-Christendom context. One example that Alan shared that I believe illustrates good missional practices for church planting uses the acronym INCH, which I believe Alan said was utilized by Christian Associates International. The basics of the acronym were explained like this:

Initiatives — This is the very lowest level of missional-incarnational practices. These are simple steps taken by individual people of God who carry the word, life and deed of Jesus into the lives of others.

Networks — These are formed when groups of 10-15 people get together to share what is taking place and to participate in missional-incarnational practices as a community.

Clusters — These are basically networks of networks. There is a bit more structure/organization at this level. There may be certain types of training/resources provided within clusters that might not be available in smaller groups.

Hubs — This represents some type of larger gathering for corporate worship, training and larger missionary engagement. Hirsch argues that hubs are probably necessary in certain American contexts.

What do you think about INCH? What applications do you see for it in your ministry? In church planting?

Lastly, a topic surrounding most of the conversation over the two days was recognizing that the lowest common denominator in all of the missional-incarnational practices is discipleship and the difficulty of discipling people in the midst of a consumerist culture. The story of the middle class in America is one of safety, security, comfort and convenience. In other words, American Christians have overwhelmingly chosen the story of the American way rather than the way of Jesus. Hirsch refers to this as living the story of the Kingdom as opposed to the story of the Empire.

How do you model and/or speak of living the principles of the Kingdom vs. Empire?

Church Planting Meanderings

June 5, 2008 | Filed Under church planting | 1 Comment

Here are several good church planting links:

Pat Loughery’s “Things They Tell Church Planters That Are Simply Wrong”

From Eden to Zion and “Five Questions For My Missional Community Friends”

AJ’s series on “Church Planting and Small Groups”

Two links to cafe church planting, one in Welwyn Garden City, UK and another in Leiden, Netherlands

Here are two links that I posted last year that are worth visiting once again: “Six Reasons Not To Quit” by Andrew Hamilton and “Be Prepared to Lose” by Pernell Goodyear

6 Reasons Not To Quit

December 7, 2007 | Filed Under church planting, missiology, missional | 5 Comments

Earlier this week I read an outstanding article by Andrew Hamilton titled “6 Reasons Not To Quit.” Andrew is the Director for Forge Western Australian as well as the team leader of Upstream Communities, a missional community in the Perth suburb of Brighton.

I have included the entire article in the post but you can also find the link on Andrew’s blog at backyard missionary as well as here at the Emergent Village Weblog.

While this article will not resonate with everyone, I think it will for those who have a missional/missionary focus towards connecting with those uninterested in the church. I have sent the article to dozens of pastors and church planters and many have responded with strong affirmation to Andrew’s encouragement. The following is the article in it’s entirety.
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Tim Keller and The Growth of Christianity

November 19, 2007 | Filed Under church, church planting | No Comments

“Isn’t evangelical Christianity growing—at least in North America? Look at all the megachurches spouting up! But we must remember that the new situation Lloyd-Jones was describing has spread in stages. It was in Europe before North America. It was in cities before it was in the rest of the society. In the United States it has strengthened in the Northeast and the West Coast first. In many places, especially in the South and Midwest, there is still a residue of more conservative society where people maintain traditional values.

Many of these people are therefore still reachable with the fairly superficial, older evangelism programs of the past. And if we are honest, we should admit that many churches are growing large without any evangelism at all. If a church can present unusually good preaching and family ministries and programming, it can easily attract the remaining traditional people and siphon off Christians from all the other churches in a thirty-mile radius. This is easier now than ever because people are very mobile, less tied into their local communities, and less loyal to institutions that don’t meet their immediate needs. But despite the growth of megachurches through these dynamics, there is no evidence that the number of churchgoers in the United States is significantly increasing.”

Tim Keller, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World
(HT: Sets ‘n’ Service)

Cutting Edge Magazine

November 1, 2007 | Filed Under church planting | 1 Comment

Last week I received the Autumn 2007 issue of Cutting Edge, a church planting magazine published by Vineyard USA. This issue is the ten year anniversary of the publication. In it they revisit many of the best interviews over the past ten years, including Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Jim Wallis, Phyllis Tickle and others. While this newest issue is not yet online you might enjoy the over 20 back issues that are available here.

David Fitch on Missional Church Planting

October 10, 2007 | Filed Under church planting, missional, new monasticism | 2 Comments

Here is a very good post by David Fitch over at Reclaiming the Mission. If you are not familiar with Fitch he is author of The Great Giveaway and pastor of Life on the Vine. I have a short review of the book here.

In this post Fitch discusses the struggles of planting missional communities and the importance of cultivating certain practices in the life of the community to ensure health and longevity. This leads Fitch to reflect on the development of a missional order. Something several of us have been discussing for sometime, therefore I find his common commitments particularly intriguing. Here is a sample of the post:

In chapter 2 of his book Simplicity [Richard Rohr] talks about the pain of seeing so many missional communities start up and then fold within two to three years of starting. He blames various societal pressures and internal character weaknesses that come with the territory of planting missional communities in North America. I too have seen many missional communities fold in the third year of their existence. I have witnessed burn-out, depression, and disillusionment among the leaders in the 3rd year (sometimes sooner but mostly by the end of the 3rd year).

Part of where this comes from is that certain swimming against the stream that every missional community organizer knows. It is the everyday grind against making people happy that comes with engaging the consumerism and narcissism of the average cultural American. But then even worse, there are these expectations that come from denominations and Christian institutions that derive from a Christendom mentality of church planting. Here numbers and attraction become the measures of success and when these things are subtly communicated, the self-worth of the church planters takes a dive. Even if the institutions are supportive (which mine has certainly been), the pressures and expectations of the past age haunt the average missional church planter. It is imperative therefore to have practices that support missional community cultivation!

Go & Plant Churches

September 29, 2007 | Filed Under church planting, missional | No Comments

Here is a link to a good article by Tim Stafford on church planting in the latest issue of Christianity Today. Here is a sample:

Perhaps most important, studies show a consistent difference between old and new churches. George Hunter of Asbury Theological Seminary says, “Churches after 15 years typically plateau. After 35 years, they typically can’t even replace those [members] they lose. New congregations reach a lot more pre-Christian people.” Those who study churches say established congregations tend to turn inward, no matter how hard they try to resist the trend. But new churches must look outward to survive. Richard Harris, vice president of NAMB’s church-planting group, says that established SBC churches report 3.4 baptisms per 100 resident members, whereas new churches average 11.7. It’s not hard to conclude that more new churches would lead more people to Christ.

Change or Die?

July 26, 2007 | Filed Under church, church planting | 6 Comments

When discussing church planting issues the question of revitalizing existing churches will often be raised. In fact just this week I had a guy ask if I knew of any “dead or dying” churches in our network that were open to making changes to be more “externally focused” and “evangelistic.” I shared with him that in most cases there are good reasons why a church is dead or dying and often it is simply because the church has no real desire to change. The church may say they want to change and experience spiritual and numeric growth, but their actions and behaviors prove otherwise.

Well today David Wayne linked to an interesting article discussing research on our resistance to change in a 2005 issue of Fast Company magazine. The article was reference by Ed Stetzer in a conversation that he, Drew Goodmanson, and David had over lunch at the GCA North America Church Planting Seminar. More>>

Engaging Neighborhoods Where We Live

July 23, 2007 | Filed Under alan roxburgh, church planting, dmin project, gospel, incarnational, missional | 1 Comment

Here is a link to the latest podcast of the Roxburgh Journal interview with Pete Akins titled “Engaging Neighborhoods Where We Live.”

Roxburgh highlights a creative lay church planting movement taking place in the towns and villages in the UK. I would highly recommend taking 30 minutes to listen and be encouraged by what God is doing through the lives of His servants there. As Roxburgh states on his blog when reflecting on the interview: “I was struck by the power of what God is about in quiet, sustained forms of on-the-ground fresh expressions of kingdom life in rural England.”

Missional Church? Be Prepared To Lose

June 29, 2007 | Filed Under church planting, missional | 2 Comments

There is an excellent post on how differently we must think about measuring success in missional communties by Pernell Goodyear, a leader at The Freeway in Hamilton, Ontario. (Thanks Paul) There is much here to consider if you are a church planter as well as someone who is in the position of coaching/mentoring planters.

I would recommend reading the entire post here and be sure to check out what The Freeway is doing in Ontario. But to wet your appetite here is just a bit of Parnell’s post as he shares six realities of what it means when a community truly moves toward missional living. More>>

Things I Wish I Had Known About Planting

June 24, 2007 | Filed Under church planting | 4 Comments

Chris Elrod, pastor of Compass Point in Lakeland, FL has a very practical article in the latest issue of Next-Wave Ezine where he discusses lessons learned from planting a church. Those of you who are planting or are thinking of starting a new work should consider these insights learned the hard way. More>>

Why Plant New Churches? #3

May 10, 2007 | Filed Under church planting, ecclesiology | No Comments

Do we really need to plant new churches? Aren’t there enough churches already? Why don’t we focus on the existing churches that are struggling to survive?

Here is reason number three:

Reason 3: Church Planting is a Good Way to Reach Different Cultures and Sub-Cultures

I believe that when we allow our Christology (the Person and work of Christ) to determine our missiology (the way we attempt to connect with people who are far from God) which in turn determines our ecclesiology (the form and function of the church) we will see a wide variety of new churches planted that will connect and reach people groups that would otherwise be un-reached. Simply put, we need all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people; and that happens best when we plant new communities of faith.

Mosaic and a Missional Ethos

May 4, 2007 | Filed Under church planting, gospel, missional | 1 Comment

I returned from Origins yesterday. I found the majority of the time to be profitable on several fronts. I definitely have a new found respect for McManus. While I had read three of McManus’ books in the past there were times I wonder just a bit about their philosophy of ministry. I have to admit that the metaphors of wind, water, wood, fire and earth used for Mosaic’s core values didn’t “click” for me in the past. However, after hearing McManus and others from the Mosaic community describe each of their five values I began to understand better the what and why of Mosaic’s ministry. The high level of risk-taking that the Mosaic community is willing to take to connect and share Christ with unbelievers is impressive and inspiring.

A few thoughts (or quotes) that resonated with me through the week included the following: More>>

Why Plant New Churches? #2

April 26, 2007 | Filed Under church planting | No Comments

I shared in an earlier post that when I discuss the topic of church planting people will inevitably ask if there is a real need for more churches. I usually respond with a list of reasons why we need to be involved in planting new churches. Here is reason number two:

Reason 2: The Decline of the American Church

The decline of the church can be observed both numerically and in regards to influence. The church-to-population ratio based on statistics from the U.S. Census for the past century are as follows:

In 1900, there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 1950, there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2000, there were 12 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2004, the latest year available, there are 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans. More>>

Why Plant New Churches? #1

April 25, 2007 | Filed Under church planting | 1 Comment

I have many opportunities to speak to individuals and churches about church planting. One question that inevitably comes up each time there is a discussion about church planting is “Do we really need another church?” Sometimes the question is asked this way: “Why don’t we invest resources in the existing churches that are struggling rather starting new ones?” In the coming days I plan to share seven of my top reasons for planting new churches. Does it mean that we don’t care for or do not focus attention on existing churches? Of course not, we need to strengthen existing churches, but at the same time we must plant new churches that connect with a diverse and ever changing culture that is obviously not connecting with today’s church.

Reason 1: Church Planting is Biblical
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