Grace Bible Church of Rancho Cucamonga

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http://graceofrancho.blogspot.com/

I’m Excited!

This week we had our fourth Southern California Ministry Summit. I’m excited:

• About the core of pastors that are eager to work together for the sake of Christ-honoring churches. When we started Summit there were three or four primary churches: now there are about eight.
• About the connection with the National Church Planting Conference in Mentor and church planters all over the country. We were privileged to have Pastor Tim Potter with us this year. The “church planting friends” list on this blog stretches from Georgia to New York City to Colorado to California.
• About the opportunity our church has to help the Sneedens start Metro Baptist Church in San Diego. Since we’re just a little more than an hour away, I think we can play a key role in assisting them. This could be a great blessing to them and great practice for the Rancho plant.

If you’re not familiar with Ministry Summit, it is an annual pastor’s fellowship focused on helping church planters in the Southwest. If you hear of anyone interested in church planting in Southern California, Central California, or Las Vegas, we would love to have you point them in our direction. The men who gather at Summit each year are eager to encourage, mentor, and help new and prospective church planters. Summit is also a great learning experience for anyone interested in church planting, even if their target area is not in the Southwest.

CP Philosophy, Part 12: What Really Matters

One final post to wrap up this overview of some aspects of our church planting philosophy. Ultimately, what really matters? We know the right answer, but in the daily grind of church planting it’s easy to drift toward other things. Though we know the right answer, we need to preach it to ourselves over and over again.

So what does really matter? For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

This matters more than anything else: that the church planter might be changed into the image of Christ, that Christ might be exalted and God glorified. Then God will manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. But first things first.

We should hold on to ministry success very loosely. It is not really that important. It must not become our idol. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.

CP Philosophy, Part 11: Missionary Church Planting and Beyond

This series of posts has dealt primarily with traditional church planting that seeks to develop a self-supporting church rather quickly. But a vibrant church planting movement in Southern California would have two other significant aspects  beyond these traditional church plants.

Many places in Southern California need missionary church planters because it would be very difficult to quickly establish a self-supporting church. The residents in some areas have very low incomes; some areas have very high turnover, making it difficult to establish a stable core group; some areas are just especially challenging (downtown LA, downtown San Diego, Hollywood, ritzy beach enclaves like Malibu). Many of these areas need missionary pastors with longer-term support.

Southern California is also packed with opportunities for narrower outreach ministries. Here are a few examples:

• College ministry: There are over 300,000 students in the University of California and Cal State schools in Southern California (11 major universities, and that doesn’t include any of the private schools or community colleges).
• Military ministries: Southern California has about 15 military installations of various types, processing and training hundreds of thousands of soldiers each year. Major bases include Camp Pendleton, MCAS Miramar, 29 Palms, and Fort Irwin.
• Mercy ministries: Our area of Southern California, with a population well over 300,000, is just getting its first homeless shelter. I spent two years volunteering with youth in the state dependency system (children in foster care or group homes). There are nearly unlimited opportunities here.
• Senior citizen ministries: We have at least 15,000 seniors that live in Menifee.
• Substance abuse help.

Frankly, we have hardly begun to scratch the surface of these opportunities in missionary church planting and other outreach ministries. But we are committed to two basic concepts:

1. These ministries are an important part of a church planting movement.
2. These ministries are the result of a vibrant movement planting local churches.

We’ve already been talking to other pastors here about how exciting it will be when we see our first missionary for Southern California (ministering in one of those communities that needs a missionary church planter) from Southern California (discipled in one of our churches and supported by our churches).

What about foreign missions? First of all, there is a huge amount of “foreign” missions to be done in Southern California. Beyond that, another dream is to see a foreign missionary discipled here in Southern California and sent out with financial support primarily from Southern California churches. Church planting increases the support base for foreign missions.

We love church planting, and we believe that ministry in any community starts with planting local churches. But as you can see, a vibrant church planting movement involves much more than traditional church planting.

CP Philosophy, Part 10: The Facility

A facility is always a non-essential part of a local church. Important? Yes. Essential? No. For this reason, church planters have traditionally gotten pretty creative with their facilities. You’ve probably heard the stories of churches in train cars, the back of semi trucks, mortuaries, tents, and more.

A church planter should ask: “In light of our ministry priorities (what God calls a local church to do), and in light of our current church family, what facility situation would be best for us right now?” Then he should consider all of the options available. Sometimes church planters feel the pressure to do it one particular way, and in so doing they ignore a lot of other good options. We should encourage creativity and flexibility.

A lesson from the current recession also needs to be applied to young churches: “Just because you can get the loan doesn’t mean you should get the loan.” Many families confused the availability of credit with the wisdom of credit – and churches can make the same mistake. It is very difficult for a pastor to remain focused on the core principles of ministry when a $500,000 debt load hangs over his small church family. Do you preach that hard text that might drive some people away? Do you pursue church discipline on the family that contributes generously each month?

American city councils seem to be increasingly hostile toward churches for a simple reason: tax revenue. Fewer and fewer church planters are able to follow the traditional model of buying land and building their own church facility. Fewer city councils will grant conditional use permits to allow the leasing of commercial space. Fewer school districts allow the use of their facilities. This is not a cause for despair. The church of Christ grows in some places where church buildings are not allowed at all. There is actually something very exciting about depending on the Lord to provide a facility in a place where it seems humanly impossible (and in Southern California, that is nearly everywhere!). Weakness will be power when leaning hard on Thee.

There is a fine line between a facility as an idol and a facility as a wonderful tool. Let’s keep our focus on God and the ministry priorities He has given to our churches, trusting that He will provide what our local churches need.

CP Philosophy, Part 9: The Church Planter

As I suggested in the first post in this series, not every man called to ministry is supposed to be a church planter. Different types of ministry call for different skills, personalities, and experience. Which characteristics should mark a church planter? Here are some of my personal thoughts:

• Ministry motivation that flows out of personal love for God. Motives are tricky things to discern (praise the Lord for His discerning Word, Heb. 4:12!). I am sure that my ministry motivations almost always involve some bad mixed with the good. We should try to discern, however, what is really driving a prospective church planter. Is the dominant motivation personal accomplishment or love for God?
• Preaching. Like it or not, the pastor’s preaching is the dominant reason why people choose a church. A church planter must be able to help people understand the Bible, from the non-Christian who knows nothing to the seasoned Christian. He needs to have a solid biblical education and a good library of tools so that he can study fairly quickly. Personalities vary, but he must be able to deliver the message with both empathy and passion.
• Love for people. Church planting requires caring for people, listening to people, discipling people, pursuing people, calming people, confronting people. A church planter who is easily irritated by people just won’t survive.
• Administrative skills. A church planter does not have to be able to do everything, but he does have to be able to keep track of everything. If he does not, credibility issues end up undermining the entire ministry. (If you are weak in this area, pray for God to allow you to be one of those privileged few with a secretary or assistant pastor from the very beginning!)
• Ministry experience in a variety of settings. Church planting is not a good time to experience for the first time what day-to-day ministry with people is like. Ministry experience is important, but especially ministry experience with various ages in various settings. A man who has only been a youth pastor in a huge church or only preached to seniors in a nursing home will have a hard time handling the breadth of ministry in church planting.
• Patience. Church planting is a marathon, not a sprint. Impatient church planters overreact, making hasty decisions and big messes.
• Thick skin. It may not sound especially spiritual, but a church planter must not take himself too seriously. Laugh at yourself. Recognize that you will make a lot of mistakes.  Relax. You will face plenty of criticism in your ministry: listen to the criticism, learn what you can, love the people criticizing you, and relax. Power is perfected in weakeness (II Cor. 12:9).
• Humility and Teachability. You can kill yourself reinventing the wheel: good church planters are willing to ask for help. You can kill your ministry if you lash out at people who criticize you: be teachable.
• Drive. The motivation needs to be God-centered, as noted above, but the motivation has to be there. Because there is often lower accountability, laziness is a significant temptation in church planting. Good church planters tend to be men who are driven – yet that drive is tempered by humility and patience (otherwise they drive right over their family, their church family, etc.).
• Priorities. A church planter will face a constant struggle with expectations and priorities. He must choose to prioritize his own relationship with the Lord and the privilege of discipling his own family.

Caveat: God has already given us the most important requirements for a church planter: the qualifications of eldership in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Those qualities matter more than anything else.

Caveat: There is a tendency to have unrealistic expectations for church planters. As discussed in previous posts, the church planter (and his wife) aren’t supposed to be Christian superstars who can do everything, Lone Rangers who can tackle the world on their own. See Parts 2, 5, 6, and 7.

CP Philosophy, Part 8: Attracting People

Church planters get to start from scratch in deciding how to advertise their church (writing ad copy is not one of my favorite parts of church planting!). Brochures, websites, doorhangers, mailings, and newspaper ads all confront the church planter with a significant question: what words will you use to describe your church? It might not sound especially spiritual, but we really are seeking to “attract people” with our ad copy (otherwise, why exactly are you advertising?).

It is very popular to say that a new church should be built on new converts (“conversion growth not transfer growth”). Evangelism should be a central component of any church plant, and the fresh energy of new converts provides a helpful spark. We certainly don’t plant churches to siphon people from other good churches. But I haven’t met a church planter yet who turns down Christians at the door: “Sorry, only unsaved people allowed here!” There are many Christians languishing in terrible churches. There are many Christians not going to church at all. And there are many people who come to a church plant because they think they are Christian (they are unsaved, but they have some Christian background and make some profession of Christianity). Very few church plants actually build their entire core out of people who were freshly saved from an entirely non-Christian background.

Because of this, church planting ad copy often targets Christians, or at least people who think they are Christians. Let’s go back to the original question: what words will you use to describe your church? How would you describe your church for Christians in terrible churches, Christians who aren’t attending church, or people who think they are Christians?

This common axiom is helpful: you keep them with what you win them with. So be careful what you use to attract! We’ve chosen to focus on two primary “attractions”: clear, careful Bible preaching and a vibrant church family. Many Christians are going to church each week, but they aren’t getting fed. They are miserable because they are starving, and they are delighted to find a church where they get fed and challenged from God’s Word. In Southern California, many Christians go to church but they don’t have a church family. They pop in and out of a huge church each week. As one family said: “We knew what we were doing: we went there because there was no accountability. No one would ever notice if we weren’t there.” After sin nearly tore their lives apart, they realized that the lack of involvement in a biblical church family was much more serious than they thought. Others aren’t intentionally avoiding the accountability – they’ve just never experienced a truly biblical church family. They are delighted to see what it is like for “the whole body to cause the growth of the body” as the great Composer orchestrates a local church into a symphony for his glory. Ephesians 4:16 and I Corinthians 12:24f. have been core passages for our church.

You keep them with what you win them with. So be careful what you use to attract.

A final reminder: neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. (I Cor. 3:7)

CP Philosophy, Part 7: Independence and Church Planting Movements

I think the autonomy of the local church is important: we are seeking to plant another church in Rancho Cucamonga, not a satellite campus of Grace Bible Church of Menifee. That church will need to “stand on its own two feet.” But should it stand alone?

Church planters must avoid two dangerous lines of thought: 1) Mine is the only truly biblical church in my area. 2) I am the only one who knows how to do ministry the right way.

If this kind of thinking develops, there are several dangerous consequences. Opinion alert: Regarding #1, it seems that church planters feel motivated to prove to everyone that there are no other “good” churches in their target area. In the process, they often shortcut the research process (lest they come across another “good” church). It seems that if a quick glance at the target area finds no “good” churches, there is no need to look further. Because this is a deputation gold mine: “There are zero good churches in this area.” That may be a deputation gold mine, but it is often not true.

I think we should relax. Suppose there are some other good churches in Rancho Cucamonga. It’s a city of 170,000 in an area of a million. Do I really need to feel the pressure to prove that my church is the only good church in town?

Regarding #2, the idea that I am the only one doing ministry the right way leads to all sorts of unhealthy behavior. It leads to a dangerous isolationism. It leads to pride. Much time is wasted reinventing every wheel necessary for church planting. Because I’m the only person who can do it right! Really?

Another quote (in my own words) from Pastor Robert Potter: “Churches need to reproduce like cells in the body: they multiply, then stay connected for strength and further multiplication.” He is not calling for blind ecumenism, nor am I. But I am very thankful for a group of godly pastors that I can fellowship with and work together with in Southern California.

If we are to see a vibrant church planting movement in Southern California, the next church plant in Rancho needs to stand on its own two feet as an independent church. But it must not stand alone. It must stand together with GBC Menifee and these other like-minded churches and pastors here in Southern California.