You don’t have to deal with stuffy old churches. You can be creative and share the gospel with people who might otherwise be ignored.

Every week I hear about a new church planting conference or training organization. More and more individuals are considering “church planting” a realistic and important direction for their life. More churches and denominations are getting into the game.

I believe that Church Planting is so vitally important that in 10 years, it may be the only thing we have left. It’s also hard work. In fact, I can’t think of a single book, resource or speaker who doesn’t say “this is the hardest thing you’ll ever do.” The fact is that forming a community of Jesus followers in a certain time and place is full of normal, day-in and day-out realities, just like any other vocation.

Church Planting is also a long game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Those of us who embrace this vocation need to be prepared for five unsexy details.

Detail #1: Meetings

You can’t church plant alone. In fact, most of what you do will take place over lunches, coffee or drinks.

So, you spend a lot of time organizing meetings.

Sometimes, these go great. People come, get inspired and get to work. Sometimes they don’t go the way you want. Sometimes you get stood up altogether.

Detail #2: Space

There’s no scriptural justification for a church building. Many a movement has started without them. They cost a lot to maintain and keep up.

But they sure are convenient.

A lot of energy in Church Planting is spent finding a location to meet. Then, when you find it, there’s just a lot of setup.

Chairs. Sound. Schematics for chairs and sound.

Every Sunday.

Don’t get me wrong, set up is actually one of the unexpected joys of church planting. But it sure ain’t sexy.

Detail #3: Spreadsheets

You can’t plant a church without a spreadsheet. Somehow the Apostle Paul did it. This remains one of the great miracles of our faith.

We have spreadsheets for contact info, volunteering, hosting, attendance, allergies, events and budgeting.

Church planting isn’t limited to spreadsheets. The work of the Holy Spirit among us cannot be captured in a spreadsheet. There are just a lot of details.

We serve a God of order, not disorder. So make your spreadsheets and update them often.

Detail #4: Language

A few months back we’d tried to block out time to focus more on discipling conversations. Surprisingly, we got a fair amount of pushback.

At first this caught me off guard. “Here’s my brilliant idea! Why aren’t people embracing it?” Then it occurred to me: If you don’t come from a discipleship culture, of course, you’d push back against it.

This goes for everything we try to do. Following Jesus is a matter of constant, ongoing conversion. We are going from one version of ourselves to a better one.

A very necessary, and totally un-sexy building block of this is language. We need clear, concise and evocative terminology to describe who we hope to become.

In my writing work, I often sit down and write a sentence. Then I rewrite it again with a few less words. Then I rewrite it again.

Words make worlds. Our language will shape who we become. Finding those words is valuable, but it can be laborious.

Detail #5: Preaching

“Preaching isn’t sexy?!” you say.

Not for me, at least.

Don’t get me wrong. I love public speaking. I love telling stories about Jesus. I love crafting the perfect analogy to bring it home. I love improving my presence.

But preaching is a lot of work. It doesn’t help that many of us hold up the example of large church leaders who can spend 80 hours crafting the perfect talk.

I’m a part of a bi-vocational church planting team. This means (a) I don’t often preach and (b) I have to prepare in the midst of doing everything else. This means it’s going to be awhile before I ever get my “10,000 hours.” Preaching is work. You need a system for meditating and studying scripture, another system for collecting ideas, and a framework for organizing your thoughts. If you do the work, you can come across clear, thoughtful and even natural. Getting to that point will require some work, and it ain’t sexy.

What unsexy work does your vocation require?

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There’s the burden of maintaining a big, empty and often very dated looking building. There’s the ghost of happier days that seem constantly to haunt their memories and gatherings. There are the aging saints who struggle to make it out on Sundays, who seldom find friendship or support throughout the week.

Many churches feel stuck. This can be due to a lack of ideas or energized leadership. Sadly, it is often due to specific individuals, committed to maintaining their power or preferences.

Why do we sit around asking “why is my church dying?”

We need to remember that we serve a God of resurrection! If we are willing to die to ourselves, including our fond memories of the church that used to be, we can be resurrected to become something new.

Here’s are six bold moves I’ve seen or studied that  can be used by God to resurrect your church.

1) Foster a Fresh Expression

Have you ever seen a sapling growing off the side of an existing tree? It thrives because it can rely on the resources of the other plant.

A Fresh Expression is a new church or congregation that develops out of a new approach is used to share the message of Jesus with a different group of people. An existing church can foster a Fresh Expression by providing meeting space, finances, and friendship to men and women dedicated to reaching this different group.

In the U.K., the Fresh Expressions movement has brought new life to the many churches. It has led to planting 518 Fresh Expressions over the between 2002 and 2012. This has also led to the launch of Fresh Expressions US, committed to bringing the best ideas and practices from FXUK to the Americas.

2) Adopt a Church Planter

All around the country, there are missionally-minded, apostolically-gifted church planters that “parachute” into a new city.

These women and men have a strong calling from God to see new churches planted for specific cities, neighborhoods and people groups. However, they often are outsiders. They desperately need help finding their place in their new home.

Find a church planter to adopt. Invite them to speak on a Sunday. Buy them a beer. Ask them their story. Cover the cost for babysitting or for their kids to go camping. Be their friend.

Your church might never turn around. Which is okay, especially if you’re using your remaining time to help build something new. (Tweet this)

3) Re-Plant

A replant is the probably drastic, ambitious and the most difficult of all the options. Re-planting basically means pretending that your church is gone, and reorganize the remaining members into a church planting team.

You take down the sign. You stop meeting on Sundays.

Your goal is not to re-envision your church. The goal is to become a different church, with a fresh understanding of what it means to be a church and a new take on your role in the surrounding neighborhood.

Legend has it that Einstein said “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” You can’t do this without outside help and new thinking. Probably you would need completely new leadership.

If your church is brave enough to change and focused on their locality, this is the bold move for you.

4) Reboot

With a new version of Batman and Spiderman coming out every eight years, we all know what a reboot is. You take the most important features of a character and their story, and reimagine it for a modern day and place.

So how do you discover and revive these key elements of your church’s identity? Mark Lau Branson suggests the process of Appreciative inquiry in his book Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change.

AI is a change management technique that involves the entire body in the process of discovering what is best about a church,and building on that. Branson suggests that you should look over the history of your church and use these steps to form “provocative proposals” about what the church could become.

1. Focus on an area of the church’s life and mission.
2. Name the best examples of this in recent memory.
3. Name specific factors that contributed to the church’s ability to be faithful to this mission.
4. Building on the “best of what is/was,” envision “what might be.”
5. Write out a proposition of what is possible, express as it is already true.

Granted, this is more of a renewal process than resurrection process. Some churches maybe “too far gone” for it to help. However, the process is worthwhile no matter what, even if it only serves to bring back good memories of the church’s heyday.

5) Transfusions

Some churches may never turn the corner. That doesn’t mean they can’t have a meaningful kingdom impact somewhere else.

I’ve seen a few churches do this. My favorite example was an older church that merged with a new plant. The new plant had succeeded in reaching young adults and young families. The older church helped them even things out.

It’s sad that church transfusions don’t happen more. The reason is that it is hard, and one group will have to completely surrender their identity.

But we’re all on the same team here, right?

6) Retire

One of our supporters at Austin Mustard Seed is a small house church that used to be a much different church. As they got smaller, they sold their building. Then they began meeting in a home, and put all their money in a foundation. They’ve used the cash they have from selling their building to build up the next generation.

Retirement is one of my favorite options because it allows you to “choose how you end.” Instead of fading into obscurity or squandering resources, you get to be a blessing for untold generations to come.

The truth is, all churches have a beginning, middle and end.

But with Jesus’s resurrection power and the Holy Spirit as our guide, new life is possible.

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Six months ago, we launched Austin Mustard Seed. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting. This isn’t it.

It’s better.

An encyclopedia could be written about the difficulties of church planting. What gets lost is the unexpected joys along the way. Such as:

1. People who “Get it”

Recently I heard the term “church planter” defined as “the people who are willing to go where no one else wants to go and do what no one else wants to do.” It’s shockingly true. When we were recruiting for our launch team, it seemed like we heard an endless stream of “go, be warm and well fed.”

Then, by the grace of God, people started saying, “I’m in.” Our “early adopters” have been people of impeccable character. Most of them have been in church leadership roles before. A few have helped plant churches before. A surprising number of people on our team are professional counselors.

These people show up early, stay late and create opportunities to hang out. They know how to greet strangers and invite them into our life together. They are seeking God’s will for their lives and quick to join in with what is happening in our church community.

Church planting isn’t for everyone. Getting up on Sunday morning is hard enough. In Austin, there are dozens of great established communities with top-notch programming.

There are some people who just get it. The idea that “we need more churches and better churches for the sake of our neighborhood” seems natural. They don’t bat an eye when Sunday gatherings feel a little ad-hoc or there isn’t a clearly defined youth ministry.

It’s easy to relegate planting a church to regularly “pitching your idea” and hoping people will buy in. Finding a group of people that “get it” is not only personally refreshing, it’s incredibly inspiring. Who knows what God could do through them?

2. Set up time

The hour and a half before our Sunday gathering has quickly become one of my favorite parts of the week. Initially, it was a mess. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to set up chairs and get the sound system to work right.

We’ve finally got into a rhythm and have an unofficial checklist. From the outside, it looks like set up time is just lighting candles and grinding coffee beans. But it’s becoming one of the few unhurried moments in our week, where we can reconnect after a long week a part. We share jokes, adventures, fears and prayers.

It’s easy to understand why people sleep in and show up late on Sundays. When else would you be able to do that? But it’s too bad. It’s one of the best moments of the week.

3. When something doesn’t work

Not everything we try works. We’ve had events with no-shows. We’ve had technology fails. We’ve had really great people decide our church isn’t for them.

When these things happen, there’s always a little sting of embarrassment. Once that’s past, there’s also a great sense of relief. It feels really good to be able to say “well, that didn’t work” and try something new.

This is teaching me that we have a God who cares for sparrows, lilies and even me. Good ideas and hard work are no promise of success.

“Success” is notoriously difficult to define. The process of trying new things, whether they “succeed” or “fail” is also the process of articulating who we are. We’re learning exactly what we do and don’t do. Eventually, we’ll look back and be able to say “this is who we are.”

4. The Grapevine

It started with a truck.

One member of our community showed up driving another member’s truck. They had read their Bibles, and knew that churches are places where people care for eachother’s needs.

Every time we gather, I hear stories about unofficial, unprogrammed get-togethers. People are in each other’s home for dinner and babysitting each other’s kids. One guy, whose “road warrior” job keeps him out of town most weeks, sends text messages throughout the week with a few other guys. One woman realized her aged neighbor needed some help getting around town, and quietly organized others in our community to care for her.

The best things happening in our church community have not come out of official events or programming. They are happening because we have a group of people figuring out how to care for and love each other.

5. Potential Miracles

Our Sunday Liturgy includes a time called “the prayers of the people,” which is basically an open mic responsive prayer time. During this time, as well as in our small groups, we’ve seen people be incredibly vulnerable about their hopes, dreams and needs.

We’ve already seen some great things happen. We’re also developing a running list of “potential miracles,” that is, specific things we’ve asked for God’s help with. This had created a sense of expectation. We are excited to see what God will do among us. We are also excited to see how God will use us. This sense of anticipation fills both our official and incidental gatherings with a sense that anything could happen.

Church planting isn’t easy. It’s also full of joys that were unexpected. What unexpected things is God doing in your community?

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Kingdom Pants

Scot McKnight is on a tirade right now, trying to get people to slow down and think through what they mean when they say “Kingdom.” He pointed out two, somewhat generational definitions of the word.

For the “Skinny Jeans” crowd, there is “kingdom work” which more or less means doing social justice (ie – Tom’s Shoes, wells in Africa).

For the Pleated Pants crowd there are “kingdom moments” where something miraculous happens (ie – healings, reconciliation, victory over evil systems)

This can be pretty offensive to people giving their life for their definition of the Kingdom. But Scot has a point. Skinny jeans leave the church for their wells. Pleated pants use the church to manufacture experiences.

No Rule Book

McKnight went on to team up with Bill Webb (of Slaves, Women and Homosexuals infamy) to radically reenvision how we read the BIble.

Looking at the “divorce texts” they showed how the gospel writers and Paul each framed Jesus teaching a little differently. They made three points:

1. There is no “ultimate ethic” reflected in a single verse of scripture.
2. The Bible is full of stories of discernment, applying ethics to culturally bound circumstances.
3. You can see incremental movement throughout scripture toward a redemptive ethic, found most clearly in the teachings of Jesus and embodied in the Church.

In other words, the Bible is a great story, but it makes for a lousy rule book.

The No Pants Gospel

Mandy Smith answered the lingering question, “how then do we read the Bible?” Mandy’s answer: “let the Bible read you.”

If the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing bones and marrow, we should treat God’s Word like a surgical tool.

We cannot approach the Bible to justify our personal need to be involved in social justice.

We cannot approach the Bible to justify our personal need for an exciting, life-changing experience.

We must approach the Bible as the Word of God, carrying the authority of God. We must set aside our own agendas and approach it naked of our hopes and dreams.

How do we read the Bible? Only with the expectation that learning to live in the Kingdom where God reigns will hurt.

The post The No Pants Gospel appeared first on Chris Morton.

• What if we could hold an event that was free from the thrills and frills of other pastors conferences?
• What if we came together as epic failures instead of how-tos?
• What if we were reminded that we’re not responsible for being ‘successful’ in ministry?
• What if we had a conference that was led not by household names, but by scandalously ordinary ministers and leaders?

If you are a church leader you need this.  You need a space to be yourself, and hear from others in your situation.  If you are in the Chicagoland area, mark your calendar for a road trip to Northern Seminary on April 26-27.  If not drop J.R. a line.  He might bring Epic Fail to your neighborhood.  If that won’t work, he is also available as a personal coach.

The post Wednesday Spotlight: Epic Fail Pastor’s Conference appeared first on Chris Morton.