People have been starting new churches for about 2000 years now, but as best as I can guess, our modern idea of what a “church planter” is and does can’t go back much earlier than the 80s.
I’m referring to the “Rick Warren” idea of moving into a new city and starting from scratch. A guy, usually a 30-something former youth and/or worship pastor takes his wife and their four kids to a new city. He puts out some ads, starts a small group in their home, and within a few years, they’ve got a big group singing christian radio songs in the auditorium of the local elementary school.
This is an over-simplification to be sure, and it gives no credit to the hard work that many have put in to launching such communities. But it does reveal a major problem with this model, sometimes referred to as “The Parachute Planter.” The problem is, the individual “drops in,” often has little or no relational connections to the city. This means they’ve never taken the time to learn what it is the city needs, how to speak to the city, or how to love your neighbors.It would be fair to ask how often such a model reaches people who don’t know Christ, as compared to simply rearranging people from existing churches.
Before I moved to Austin, I had lunch with a man who helped plant the church that I now call home. When I told him about my desire to be a part of church planting, he responded by saying something along the lines of:
“Sell your Christian Books and CDs. Unsubscribe from your blogs and stop listening to your podcasts. Move to our neighborhood. Then we’ll talk about it again in a year.”
This kind of made me angry. I thought I was ready to hit the ground running. But after a year (or two) I had detoxed from the christian subculture in which I had been embedded, and began to develop an idea of what “locally grown” church would look like. What I didn’t realize was that this is what every cross-cultural missionary must do, take a few years to learn the language, customs and lay of the land. Why would church planting in the U.S. be any different?
Here’s two suggestions for avoiding being a parachute planter:
1. Rather than looking for a cool city to move to, consider planting in a place you already know: near your hometown, or on the other side of the city you’re already in.
2. Take the advice give above. Spend a year doing nothing but getting to know your city.
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