CP Philosophy, Part 6: Churches Are Planted By…

church planters? Well, yes. But maybe the first answer that comes to mind should be “churches”: Churches are planted by churches. Churches are uniquely equipped to provide the various kinds of support that we discussed in Part 5, especially if they are planting a church in their local area.

Suppose there is a particularly needy area in Southern California. What would be the best source of a church planter for that area? Churches in Southern California. What would be the best source of support for the new church plant? Churches in Southern California.

Years ago I came across a video about church planting. I’ll never forget one clip in which a hefty bearded Canadian said: “If church planting isn’t part of your DNA from the very beginning, you’re just not a New Testament church.” This has been our desire: that from the very beginning GBC Menifee would have reproduction as part of its DNA.

How do you know if your church is ready to plant another church? That’s a tricky question, because you can always find another reason why you aren’t ready. We need a few more people. We need more finances. We need more staff. We need our own building. If you start saying “We’ll consider planting another church once we get…”, you may well never plant another church! There will always be something else to get. We don’t want to be foolish, but it has been our commitment from the beginning to pursue reproduction as soon as we could.

When do you stop seeking to reach out and plant other churches? I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Pastor Bob Potter several years ago. He shared with me that in his opinion, many pastors reach a comfort level that is dangerous. They get a sufficient long-term facility, enough people to provide a comfortable salary for them, and a core set of ministries in the community. At that point it is very easy to get comfortable and complacent. Pastor Potter essentially said, “There are always more places to plant churches, even in our local area. As long as we continue to pursue that vision, I always have something to keep pushing me forward.” (I’m putting that in my own words) A few years later I was having a conversation with another godly man, and I asked him: “Why do you think pastors fall into immorality after many years in the ministry?” His answer startled me: “I think they get bored.”

Pastors, let’s press on. Churches are planted by … churches.

CP Philosophy, Part 5: The Right Support

Because it is risky and difficult, church planting requires a lot of support. “Support” means much more than financial gifts to meet the personal expenses of the church planter for the first three years. Three months into this church plant, I wrote this:

Preaching, evangelism, organizing events, and planning quality nursery and childrens programs are not a surprise. But there are so many other areas to learn about: financial controls and accounting, land and zoning, building permits and procedures, sound systems, websites, graphic design and printing, insurance, taxes, and risk management.

Church planting calls for support. Help may be recruited from near or far; help may come temporarily or permanently; but help needs to come. The pastor of a church plant needs help in practical areas like those mentioned above. He needs help in the discipleship of the people that begin attending. Even more importantly, he needs spiritual accountability. This is not just a personal preference – it is the clear biblical model.

Now I do not mean to suggest that there is a one-size-fits-all model here. The support can be provided in many different ways. Team members can move to the target area with the church planting pastor; the Lord may uncover mature Christians in the target area who can help; like-minded churches near the target area may get involved; a sending church or mother church may provide accountability and advice; experts in various fields may offer their expertise, even from long distance; college students may come and help for a semester or summer; mission teams may come and help for a week. It may come in many ways, but the support must come. Too many church planters have given up primarily because they were lonely and/or trying to do way too much on their own. Church planting is not a place for lone-rangers (though it attracts that type – a discussion for another time).

If churches will plant churches in their local areas, the support for church planting will be quick, local, and natural. More on this in the next post…

CP Philosophy, Part 4: Take the Risk

Here is another quote from Multiplying Churches that was helpful for me:

A refusal to undertake a gospel initiative out of a fear of failing is a far greater problem than a gospel initiative failing.

This should not condone rash decision making, or contradict the principle of preparation in Proverbs 24:27. However, the fear of failure can be a terrible master. Church planting is fairly risky, and many church plants have ended up “failing” because a congregation was not established within the expected time frame. This failure is often quite visible, especially to the churches and individuals that helped provide the necessary funding.

So with that kind of risk of public failure, wouldn’t it be better not to try at all? Of course not. We need to carefully rethink the meaning of the word “failure.” There are many ways that a church planter could fail: he could fail to walk in moral purity; he could fail to faithfully teach the Word; he could fail to shepherd his own family; he could fail to handle the church finances ethically. Those things could probably be appropriately termed “failure.” But is it appropriate to use the word “fail” if a church planter faithfully labors in a target area though a congregation is not established within the expected time frame?

In America, we highly value results and accomplishment. God highly values faithfulness and endurance. So take the risk: better to attempt the church plant and not succeed than avoid the church plant altogether because you wanted to guard your own reputation from any potential public failure.

CP Philosophy, Part 3: Strategic Cities

How do you decide where to plant a church? The driving concern must be the will of God – but this does not exclude strategic planning. In other words, a prospective church planter faces an essentially endless number of possible target areas. As he seeks God’s direction regarding a single target area, strategy should play a role in his decision.

For (an admittedly biased) example, The Economist noted two weeks ago that “California quietly plays a vital role in shaping American society.” If God’s fame is our passion, a place like California will be a strategic priority.

Within strategic areas like California, the important cities ought to be the priority. I won’t repeat the biblical material that has been discussed previously, but I believe there should be a strategic emphasis placed upon important cities. This might even mean that a church planter will turn down the holy grail of church planting (a growing suburban area) and instead tackle the more challenging city center. (OK, so Menifee isn’t exactly a “city center” for Southern California. I guess I’m not exactly one to be talking!)

Of course this does not mean that small towns are inappropriate target areas for church planting, or that strategy is the most important factor in choosing a target area.

I have often enjoyed playing “Risk,” a game that depends heavily on strategy. In the opening phase of the game, players are given a certain number of armies to place on the game board. Most new Risk players immediately spread their troops evenly across the board. Then they die quickly, and learn their lesson! The next time, they will probably not randomly scatter soldiers across the board, but instead group them in countries with strategic importance. This kind of strategic thinking needs to be factored in as we choose target areas for church planting.

CP Philosophy, Part 2: Church

Before we came to California, I was challenged by this quote in Multiplying Churches (Ed. Stephen Timmis):

If the church is at the heart of God’s purposes and Christ’s saving work, we need not be embarrassed about making it the heart of mission.

Those words accurately reflect the New Testament emphasis on local churches. A simple phrase like that in I Cor. 12:24 reminds me of the immense importance of church families: for God has so composed the body. Like the composer of a symphony brings together diverse instruments into a beautiful song, God brings together His people into church families for His fame. Unfortunately some Christians have never been a part of a healthy church family. They have attended services; they have listened to preaching; they have volunteered in kids’ ministries. But they have never been a part of a body where the whole body causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:16).

Church planting refuses to make a dichotomy between the evangelism of the lost and the gathering of the evangelized into church families for the glory of God. If we care about evangelism, we will care about multiplying churches.

CP Philosophy, Part 1: Caveats

Over the next few weeks, Lord willing, I will write a series of posts sharing some of the philosophy that has driven our church planting efforts here in Southern California. The countdown toward the next church plant has begun in earnest, and we should be announcing the target area soon. This is a great time to go back and refresh some of the philosophy that has driven us to pursue church planting in a strategic city with a team, with the goal of a vibrant church planting movement.

But before we begin, a couple of caveats (those of you who know me are laughing). First, this philosophy has been shaped considerably by our setting here in Southern California. In that sense, it might technically be more of a methodology than a philosophy. A church planter in Tokyo, Fargo, or Rio de Janeiro would probably see things quite differently. I do not want to communicate that our methodology is the only right way – that would be foolish.

Secondly, I want to admit that there are other important areas of ministry besides church planting. What about all of the existing churches desperate for pastors? What about campus ministries, camps, Christian schools and colleges, prison ministries, Christian music, seminaries, and a host of other important ministries? I love church planting, but it isn’t the only thing God is accomplishing for His glory. Every pastor isn’t called to be a church planter. Every seminary student doesn’t have to pursue church planting. Every musician doesn’t have to use her skills in a church plant. Every cent of our missions budgets doesn’t need to go to church planting. I used to think that taking the pastorate of an existing church was relatively easy – now I can see how naive that was. Godly shepherds are needed to face the challenge of filling the pulpits in those hurting churches.

So before I begin this series, I gladly admit that there is much more to the Great Commission than church planting, and that our perspective is somewhat limited and possibly even skewed by our own setting.

“Under the Tarnish, Still Golden”

The April 4 edition of The Economist has an excellent article on California (one of a series of U.S. state profiles they are doing). Here are a few favorite quotes or points, and their conclusion:

• California state politics is “dysfunctional” and “getting worse.” State legislators have a job approval rating of 11%.
• California “quietly plays a vital role in shaping American society.”
• Los Angeles “pioneered a motorway-oriented, low-rise, multi-centred urban model which has become the template for many other cities in the West and beyond.”
• “Los Angeles is now one of the best-policed cities in America.”
• “Hispanics and Asians are expected to account for nearly all of California’s population growth by 2020.”
• “California Asians have created a new culture by mixing Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese and American cultures.”
• “Although it has been extremely painful, the collapse of California’s property market has solved a major problem. It was largely thanks to overpriced housing that the state lost almost half a million residents to other states between 2004 and 2008.”
• “All rather messy, but this is how California works. The state is restless, chaotic and experimental. Few places make as many mistakes as California; fewer still have the capacity to recover from them so quickly.”

Praise the Lord that we get to call that little patch of His earth “home”!

Satisfied to look on Him and pardon me

I’ve been preaching on what the New Testament says about the Law. That probably doesn’t sound very exciting, but the passages that deal with the Law happen to be some of the same passages that defend the gospel with the greatest passion. So these sermons have been a delightful time of reveling in the gospel. Yesterday I came across this quote from John Donne (quoted by Paul Grimmond in The Briefing, March 09):

Of myself I have nothing to present to him but sins and misery, yet I know he looks not upon me now as I am of myself, but as I am in my Saviour.

Sweet music for the soul!

The Community College

Remember those posts several months ago about a facility possibility at the local community college? Apparently their lawyers were getting paid by the hour to decide if they should allow us to do it or not. : – ) They did give us the “OK” this week, but we still have to find out the final financial details and then decide whether we should take this step or not. It is not an easy decision. The building has some disadvantages – especially the wide rows of seats without a center aisle. But it has some significant advantages, and could free up the truck/trailer/chairs to be used for the next church plant. We would definitely appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s guidance – we only want what He wants.