Three Inspiring Church Planting Stories (And Two Big Questions)

Posted by Chris on Jul 7, 2010 in Church |
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This past month I read three church planting books.  One of my goals in life is to be involved in planting new churches that reach those who established churches cannot.

Launch by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas tells the story of the launch of Journey Church of the City in New York.  The book is short, sweet, and aims at being intensely practical.  Searcy comes out of the Purpose Driven world and unashamedly presents a Saddleback-esque style of planting.  It’s all about launching big, or gathering a crowd for Sunday services.  The book gives step by step instructions on everything from finding a meeting place to raising funds.

Exponential is written by Dave and Jon Ferguson, the two brothers who lead Chicago’s Community Christian Church and the New Thing Network.  Two things stand out: 1) They say “anyone can do it!” again and again, and leave you excited about what God can do through you and your friends. 2) It describes the culture of apprenticeship that has allowed CCC to explode into a multi-site and church planting movement.  Every single position within the church is backed up with an apprentice, ready to take the reins at a moments notice.  This is necessary for any church interested in sending out people to plant new churches.

Church in the Making by Ben Arment is a totally different animal.  I often found myself cheering and turning the pages as quickly as I could.  He plays up his own failures and brags about other’s successes. Arment’s goal is to help Church planters really be prepared and understand what makes a church plant succeed.  What I found most important was his deep emphasis on cultivation of relationships before launch.  This encourages me that the time and relationships I am building now can have eternal significance.

As much as I enjoyed all three books, I find myself asking two questions:

1) Could there a simpler way? The financial and leadership burdens needed to plant churches as these books present does not seem reproducible.

2) Who will it really reach? Often, new churches just shift Christians away from existing churches.  When I look at my friends and neighbors, many of who are cynical dechurched types or frankly just don’t care about spirituality, I’m not sure they’d get up on Sunday morning to check it out.

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  • http://cthoward.wordpress.com Clint Howard

    Hey Chris,

    I’ll have to put one or two of those on my reading list.

    As for question 1)….I do think there could be a simpler way. From your descriptions I don’t see any of these models accurately reflecting Paul’s model recorded in Acts (except maybe Church in the Making). He went somewhere, preached the gospel, made some disciples, and got them meeting together in their homes. Then he left, guiding by letter, of course. Then he came back to establish the leadership, which was not really leadership as we think of it, but “servantship.” Essentially he picked the oldest and wisest servants (elders) and appointed them to help others be better servants. Then later I suppose the church picked the hardest-working servants (deacons) and appointed them to facilitate opportunities of service. Then they kept meeting for friendship and fellowship, and they kept serving.

    This model doesn’t take a lot of money (the church-planter needs some support or a vocation). This model’s leadership is reproducible….just keep teaching service and keep serving and servants will naturally be formed to take the place of former elders and deacons. This model does take a lot of sacrifice. But, that’s what Christ really wants from us, isn’t it?

    As for question 2)… I think this model would especially appeal to our generation and the following post-modern thinkers. This is a practical, hands-on, socially active, simple, genuine model. The brilliance of it is, of course, that it can appeal to all generations and cultures……..but I think it would work especially well today.

  • Scott

    I would concur that these approaches are best suited to the easily churchable. How to get the resistant, apathetic and even the hostile non-believer’s into a churchesque setting?
    Make an impact in their lives, personally. Sharing God’s love, sharing your life sacrificially, as well as the Gospel. I don’t think it’s a structure thing. I think its a relational thing.

  • http://chrismorton.info Chris

    Hey Clint,
    I agree to an extent, although our shared COC background seems to be forming a lot of your suggested model. Many churches create a model of government (eldership) and service (deacons) but do not have Apostolic leaders like Paul to drive the mission. I believe that there are a lot of ecclesiological models, and differing cultures makes this necessary, but without leaders like Apostolic leadership you just have maintenance. Check out the Forgotten Ways for more on this.

  • http://chrismorton.info Chris

    Scott,
    I definitely agree. However, don’t forget that structures do inform relationship. For instance, if we create a church structure that requires you to attend twice on Sundays, Wednesday Night, Small Group, Camp, Church Softball League, Men’s Breakfast, etc. when are you going to build those relationships? The key is a structure that aims to engage Christ-followers together through serving those around them.

  • http://cthoward.wordpress.com Clint Howard

    Hey Chris,

    We certainly do need leaders who are driving forces to move a church forward by example…..but I believe the elders can and should take up this role. And one of them can step out (or even a Spirit-filled deacon or other Christian) to plant the next church. Surely a planted church can begin very early in inspiring and preparing for the planting of other churches (house churches, again, would be financially and practically more feasible).

    But, you are right…….we need the church planter to kick it off in the first place…..or even a team of Christians, a few families/singles perhaps, willing to begin a community and invite others to join it. And that motivation/leadership IS often lacking because we are too busy with “life” or too involved in church maintenance.
    Clint

  • http://chrismorton.info Chris

    Good thoughts, Clint. I struggle to agree whole heartedly, because I just don’t see it happening. If the existing system you’re describing isn’t creating new churches, then we need to adjust the system. Is it possible, that part of our failure is starting with ecclesiology and never getting to missiology? Hirsch’s chapter on Apostolic Esprit in Forgotten Ways discusses this much more.

  • http://www.plantr.org/book-review-exponential/ plantR.org » Book Review: Exponential » Austin Church Plant Network

    [...] post was adapted from http://www.chrismorton.info.  If you have read a church planting or leadership book that you would like to review for [...]

  • http://www.largepot.net/large-pot/beautiful-design-makes-large-plant-pots-awesome/ Large Plant Pots

    This is the great blog, I’m reading them for a while, thanks for the new posts!

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