church planter Archives - Passion for Planting

FRIENDLY FIRE

Patrick Bradley — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 10:00:46 +0000

Over the years, New Breed asked a bunch of planters if they could do something different, what would it be? Without any hesitation, almost all of them will say that they wished they’d reached out better to the pastors of established churches before they’d launched. In dealing with criticism with other pastors, I’ve found this to be the case as well. I’ve unintentionally hurt Pastors whom I’ve respected and were like Fathers to me. I’ve scoured an area and absent-mindedly missed a guy there who started a campaign in my honor, complete with effigy’s and piñata sticks.

I would have to agree that reaching out to the pastors in your area is the best thing that you could do. Most of the people that we spoke to were gracious and understanding, even if a little nervous. Once, I had a guy start in on me two years after we started up, but I found that we were simply misunderstanding each other on the phone. He practically called me a liar, and I told him he was carnal. In the end, it’s never worth stooping beneath the level of graciousness even if the person on the other line should’ve known better. The truth is, they don’t always, and neither do I. You will always regret making a carnal response in the face of the relentless volley fired head-on into your visor.

There was a Pastor in Swansea whose father, who was also a pastor, failed to hear from me regarding my intentions to plant in the very beginning. Rather than picking up the phone to courteously ask me about it, he gossiped to the other pastors in the city about me. His son followed suit. I let it lie. I had a policy from Nehemiah 6:8, “I’m building a wall, and I’m too busy to come down and talk to you”. Unfortunately, the guy kept circulating vicious rumors. Again I let them lie, until one day I received a phone call. After attacking me for some time, I humored him, answering graciously, and pointing him back to the cross, the grace of God, and the love of mercy, to no effect. Our second round, I felt that he needed to be rebuked for his lack of graciousness as a minister of the gospel, and after he’d avoided a face to face meeting, I let it go. I’ve learned over the years that there are simply people out there that will either feel threatened by what the Lord is doing in your neck of the woods as they curiously defend “their patch” with a pitchfork. I’d imagine that when this post comes out, he’ll continue to speak about me from his pulpit. When you plant a church, you have to be prepared for the pettiness of other ministers. They will have their blind spots as you will have yours. After one or two attempts to live at peace with all people, you will approach the threshold of what Paul expected, “as far as is possible with you”.

Don’t be surprised if there are arrows in your hide, and knives in your back. Just as in any war, you must expect a certain degree of ‘friendly fire’.

On the other hand, don’t be surprised if you end up finding new partners in the work who’ve been praying for somebody just like you to parachute into their territory. They’ve been outnumbered, outgunned, and outmanned, and now you show up as fresh reinforcements to turn the tide of battle.

Buy Peyton’s newest book “Reaching The Unreached: Becoming Raiders of the Lost Art” over on Amazon.com. You can also download a free chapter and watch a cool trailer for the book HERE or click the image below.

Source: FRIENDLY FIRE

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Episode 425: Transitioning from Traditional to Missional

Sean Cronin — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 09:00:06 +0000

by NewChurches.com: In Episode 424 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Ed discuss the challenges in transitioning a church from traditional to missional for a serial church planter.

“I am a serial church planter working to transition a traditional church toward a missional mindset. How do you stay patient in this situation?”

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

Tools to help with the transition
Advice for a serial church planter to help them stick

Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“As we looked at all the different ways to transition Beulah from a traditional church to a missional mindset, the BLESS acronym was one of the best tools we had to do that.” – @danielsangi
“You need a church revitalization strategy.” – @edstetzer
“You could just teach and preach about John 20:21, but you’ve got systems that are probably broken and relationships that are probably not thriving.” – @edstetzer
“If you are wanting to transition a church to a missional mindset, this is not a one year gig.” – @danielsangi
“Think in terms of what does it look like to be a pastor long-term and to be effective and fruitful in that ministry.” – @edstetzer
“Here you are fixing and retooling broken systems with people already in the systems.” – @edstetzer
“It’s harder to do church revitalization than church planting, largely because it’s easier to birth a baby than it is to raise the dead.” – @edstetzer

Additional Resources:

Check out Renewing Your Church
Read Comeback Churches by Ed Stetzer

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
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If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

This Episode’s Sponsor: You’ve probably heard about the movie OVERCOMER. But you may not know there are a few books and Bible studies inspired by the film. One is called Defined by Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick, which is a book and Bible study based on insights from the Book of Ephesians. You can find these books and Bible studies at LifeWay.com/Overcomer.

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Source: Episode 425: Transitioning from Traditional to Missional

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SABOTAGE

Sean Cronin — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 09:00:40 +0000

by Peyton Jones: In France, the efforts of the French Resistance were significant enough to make a significant impact on the outcome of the war. They dismantled tank treads, put sand in the grease of vehicles, and stole ball bearings.

Sabotage.

It’s the enemy’s oldest and favorite tactic. He sabotaged Eden. He infiltrated the children of Israel by seduction when Balaak’s army couldn’t defeat them in a head on confrontation. In the early days, his tactic is to sow tares among the wheat making it clear that “An enemy has done this.” He is trying to derail the carriage of the troop transport off course. In WW2, my grandfather who served in the 101st airborne was delayed from crossing the Atlantic, but the ship he was originally scheduled to be on was sunk by a German U-boat.

In the early days, you’ve got to chart a course, set your face like flint. Like Jesus heading towards the cross, set your face steadfastly towards Jerusalem…and lock your sights on Calvary.

ILL FITTING ARMOR

Launching with the right focus is essential if your plant is going to avoid defaulting just another big church after you’ve grown. If you’re using the New Testament apostolic model, then the solution is hard-wired into your church already. You’re not wired to grow big, but to reproduce. As soon as the tender shoots begin to grow, you’ll be splicing them to ready them for transplants. Outgrowing your building means that you’ve got to start assembling some new teams for planting outwards. Multiple services, outlying campuses, and other forms of ecclesiastical greed will make you want to vomit instead of causing you to salivate as you indulge your insatiable appetite for more. Getting your priorities right from the start involves setting a missional agenda that seeks to grow the church outward, rather than just upwards. It also details how to ensure that you’re starting by reaching the lost, rather than just attracting disillusioned Christians from other churches.

But starting out well isn’t a guarantee that all will end well. It is possible to start out a champion like Gideon earning the moniker of “Baal-slayer”, only to end up establishing your own form of idolatry in its place as people bow down to your sacred ephod. If people worshipped Gideon’s armor, rest assured that they will find ways to worship your success too… If you let them. The masses will flock to you and burst the fire capacity of your four walls, but at that juncture, you have a choice. If I had my way, most of you reading this would constantly be shedding the ephod like David, finding Saul’s megachurch armor too big and cumbersome. Instead, you’d be opting for a sling-shot, the Spirit’s power, and enough confidence in the Almighty to keep running at giants.

Source: SABOTAGE

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CORE TEAM VISION MEETING

Sean Cronin — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 09:00:12 +0000

by Peyton Jones: This is the night you gather up all the peeps that you think might be interested in your “crazy idea”. You invite them to your house, a Denny’s, where ever. It doesn’t matter on the first night. The point is that you’re gathering the people that you think might be interested in church planting. If it resonates, they’ll be back the following week.

Initially it’s best to tell them to come that night, and explain that there’s no strings attached, and you’re not going to make them sign in blood on the dotted line. At the end of the night, you let them go away without any talk of commitment. Instead you simply say:

“If you liked what I said, then I’ll see you next week.”

Some will, some won’t, but from there on, you continue to meet weekly, for about 9 – 12 months.

On that first meeting, you’ll paint the broad brush strokes for them, leaving them to fill in some of the detail on the canvas. They need to know what you’re thinking. If you turn up and say, “I want to plant a church” and leave it at that, they’ll yawn and fall asleep. You’re going to have to spell it out a bit more for them. If you’re the leader, then they’ll want to know where you’re going. Don’t be like the leader whose performance review read “his co-workers would follow him anywhere, simply out of morbid curiosity”.

If God has given you a vision, sing it loud, and sing it proud.

If they’re called to join you, something will resonate, and they’ll spark their lighters and hold their cell phones aloft shouting, “encore”.

During the next 9 – 12 months time, you’ll eat together, laugh, talk, get into the word, pray, and discuss the people that you’re trying to reach. For this reason homes work best for people to relax, let their hair down, and be themselves. Most of your bonding will happen naturally through prayer and over a plate of indian curry, or sweet barbecued pigs flesh. We over formalize team building in the West, yet the Mediterranean people know that if you really want to bond with somebody, you eat with them.

Some of the best team building was done by my youth pastor who was more apostolic than he ever knew. Without realizing it, he mentored me by taking me into his house after our late night outreaches, and feeding me anything he had which usually wasn’t much. Over the years, I’ve realized that I ate that poor guy out of house and home, but he will never know until eternity reveals all, how much he invested in me during those late night hours. We ate tacos, reviewed that night’s ministry, and laughed until we cried poking fun at low budget rap videos, and infomercials. Shadowing this man of God unwind on the downside of intense front line ministry I learned what it meant to be a disciple. I’m convinced it was no different with the Twelve.

It is extremely important during this time that you start sizing people up and getting a feel for them. For example, some people who come will be strange. Some will be the most amazing leaders and partners you will ever know. The really strange thing is that you won’t be able to discern the latter for some time. Just like you, they are developing into this vision, and God is going to take you, as well as them, to new heights. He may also sink you into heart-wrenching depths as well. In his sovereignty, however, God will bond you together as you share these sorrows, weep with one another, and carry each other to God in prayer. Laughter and tears have the bonding properties of super glue, and I’m sure that Jesus had this strategy in mind, when he lived with and carried these poor misguided youths for three years. I’m sure that their laughter was epic. I’ve traveled with groups of guys before, and one thing that they know how to do is laugh and cut up.

As Solomon said, enjoy these times, for dark times will come… soon enough..

But I know that some of you are already wondering how to be the hostest with the mostest. What does a meeting look like. What should you say? What should you do? What color apron should you wear?

Source: CORE TEAM VISION MEETING

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TEAM BUILDING FOR DUMMIES

Sean Cronin — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 15:22:21 +0000

By Peyton Jones: How will you recruit a team? I wish I could give you a formula, but I suck at chemistry. I also know that God invented Algebra to illustrate that sometimes there is an unknown factor in every equation. In church planting, He’s called the Holy Spirit. Mark him with a letter x, p, q, or whatever, but like the wind in your parachute, there are just some things that you can’t plan. Building your team is one of those things. I can remember God moving in the Starbucks that I planted my first church out of. It was obvious that the Spirit was moving, and that the lost were hungry for the gospel, but I had no team. I had already quit the ministry, telling God that church people weren’t for me and that I was tired of their games. Ministry, however, isn’t something that you can flick on and off like a light switch and before I knew it, the Holy Spirit was moving. At the time Pillar was just taking off in a Starbucks and lost people were enthusiastic. My wife and I stood out on the edge of a field on one of our hikes through Wales, and she said, “I don’t feel safe without a team”. Standing there in that clearing, we prayed. She for a team, and me for anybody else who could come along and be more suited to take this thing than me.

Within a month, we had a team.

I make no bones about telling people that if you’re going to church plant, then you’d better start expecting God to turn up. No more of this playing in the whitewash of human effort when he’s given us the powerful currents of the vast ocean in the Spirit. He’s like the wind, and He turns up and blows as He pleases. To this day, I’ve never seen anything like the team of my first church plant. They were “the team that God built”. It was just great that when I was so worn out, and crotch-kicked that I got out of the way and let him do everything. You know, it’s funny, I didn’t even try to build a team. I’d be making coffee on the bar at Starbucks, talking to a coworker about what I was starting up, and a customer would be waiting in line and overhear. Wham! Next team member. Or I’d be preaching at a different church every week and the same couple kept showing up at all the churches I was preaching at, both of us convinced that the other was stalking us.

They, new to the area, wanted to find a church and asked, “where is your church?”. “I’m like little Bo Peep” I replied, “I have no sheep. I’m going to church plant though. It’ll be called Pillar Community Church.” They turned and looked at each other with jaws hinged wide. The week before, God had spoken to them through a painting that depicted God leading his people as a pillar of cloud and fire. Wham! Team members three and four. We used to say that everybody at Pillar had a story to tell. It was as if we’d all been thrown together.

It’s sad to me that I have to tell guys who are ready to plant churches that they should rely on the Holy Spirit and pray for a team. What’s even worse is that when I tell them, I can tell that it’s not the answer that they were looking for. It’s not enough. They want me to tell them how to build the team. The closest that I can come to is to tell you again, that there’s no formula. Wait on God!

That said, there are some biblical examples of how teams got built in the New Testament in a few different ways.

Recruitment: You might specifically seek a team member out, as Barnabas recruited Paul in (Acts 11:25). It may be a friend, or an old ministry contact, seminary classmate, or somebody that you’ve heard about. Like a terminator, you gun for them, and don’t stop or give up until the laser dot is pinpointed onto their forehead like they were Sarah Connors.

The Quickening: There are times where it just seems as if God is drawing your team together like they were a bunch of immortals being irresistably drawn to the Quickening (minus samurai swords and decapitation). People may suddenly turn up with the same passion to reach the lost in your area, like when Apollos made his way through Corinth and Ephesus and collided with Aquila and Priscilla, who eventually, in turn, introduced him to Paul. Sometimes it’s people you know, people who know people you don’t know. Confused? A planter who is with you might suddenly say, “You know, an old friend of mine called me out of the blue asking me where I was going to church. We haven’t seen each other in about five years, but he’d be perfect for our church plant”…and then you go and grab your samurai sword.

Garden Variety: You make your own church planters. Paul himself seems to have preferred the homegrown variety that sprung up as converts out of the churches he’d personally planted, such as Timothy, Titus, and Luke. If you’re discipling people effectively, then you are raising up a future army of christians that love to live dangerously, and can’t wait to embark on the next adventure.

Source: TEAM BUILDING FOR DUMMIES

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YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR PETS TO WAR

Sean Cronin — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 09:00:49 +0000

“Where there’s light, there’s bugs”. After church planting I realize the importance of a good bug zapper. Everybody’s got an angle. Everybody’s got an agenda. People see a new church plant on the horizon and they think that it’ll provide an ideal place to make the sunshine on their favorite pets. Even among our own core team, there was a temptation to pull the church one way or the other into our personal preferences. But because what we all wanted was for people to see Jesus, we sacrificed our personal pets. If scrambling up over the trenches and barbed wire, and running covert missions into enemy territory, then we were marked for war. As planters for the kingdom, it was serious business, and our pictures were going to end up on the “Most Wanted” pin-up on the bulletin boards of hell. Therefore, we made a decision early on. We forbid people to bring their pets. I’ve never seen pets on the battlefield, have you? I mean, a pet terrapin on a leash would look pretty stupid while mortars shells are exploding all around me.

We all have our pets. Mine is preaching. In America, the circles that I was a part of preached for 65 minutes. Sometimes 75, but then people complained. A short sermon was 50. 35 minutes was unheard of. When I got to Wales, they all expected 30 minute sermons. I had to change a bit. Not that much, but I trimmed it down to about 40 minutes, and that was about the best I could do. My 65 minute pet had to be left home in America (sniff). But I wasn’t the only one. There were people from the more charismatic background who joined our team and were nothing but a blessing. Early on, we had a meeting in which we all listed what we’d like to see in the church, and talked it through. In that meeting we talked about what would fly and what wouldn’t in the establishment of Pillar. We all had to sacrifice some pets in that meeting.

As a leader, it’s important that you listen to the visions, ideas, and priorities of your team. It’ll save you some headaches in the future. Get it all out after a few months, after you’ve gotten to know and trust one another. I definitely wouldn’t do it before the six-month mark; you’ll prejudge each other too soon. Once you get to know each other, you’ll be able to listen respectfully to each other without alienating one another. So although one of your core team members has a great idea, you’ve heard him pitch it, and likewise, have given him ample scriptural justification for why naked Sundays is probably not going to fly. Setting the ground rules is something that you’ll need to do together as you talk through the reasons why things get the thumbs up or thumbs down.

Source: YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR PETS TO WAR

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WRITE IT DOWN

Sean Cronin — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 09:00:32 +0000

by Peyton Jones: When I’m coaching church planters, I like them to write the mission statement down on paper when they’re all hot and bothered about the condition of the church, the perishing of the lost, or their personal frustrations in leadership. Best to write this when you’ve had a bad day. The reason is that the raw, unbridled emotion will help to unpack some of what has been smoldering down at the core of your gut. Usually, when I read these, they self-destruct in flames before I’m finished looking them over. But the passion is there. There is a fire in the bones, and in prophetic fashion the planter uncovers the core reasons of what he or she really wants to do without couching it in polite, feathery language for others to critique. Don’t worry…you will always go back and put some yoghurt on it to douse the spice of the flaming curry so that it’s suitable for public consumption

In Habbakuk 2:2 the prophet is told “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.” By doing those three things, Habbakuk was told to make the vision permanent, clear, and transferable.

Write it down

If you’re a talker like most planters, you can winsomely persuade others to a cause. It’s part of the leadership bug. Often, when we’re done, people are left with an emotional impression and have decided whether they’ll come with us. Writing it down means that they can return to it repeatedly praying and pouring over it as they ask God whether he’s sending them with you. By writing it down, you’re putting something permanent in their hot little hands. They will forget the feeling they had with you, but every time they reach into their bible and grab that piece of paper and read it, those feelings come back and their ready to conquer and take no man’s land with you again.

Make it plain

The mission statement ought to be tinkered and refined until it flows with a singular clarity. You need to answer the W questions; what, who, when and how. The why question will be answered by the condition of the lost and the church’s reluctance, inability, or slowness in reaching them in a particular context. The who question will be answered by people you want to reach and the kind of team that you’re looking to build. The what question will be answered by spelling out exactly how your team is going to reach the lost. The when question will be answered by giving a timeline of how long your home study will meet; when your first outreach will begin; the date of the public launch. This is your plan of action.

You may think that you rocked their socks off and wowed them with your missiology, but the fact is, many of these concepts may have been first exposure concepts, and therefore they’re still coming to grips with your ideology. They’ll need to think these concepts through and filter them a bit. I’ll never forget when I left a church I’d planted and led for five years. My last Sunday there, a lady looked at me and said, “I think I’m finally beginning to see what you’ve been doing here”. Doh!

Make it transferable

You want them to share it with their friends. When Habbakuk is told that they “can run with it” if he writes it down plainly, the picture is of a messenger. You want this news to spread. You want them to be able to recruit and invite others to your core team.

Source: WRITE IT DOWN

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WHY THE WORLD NEEDS YOU TO HAVE A MISSION STATEMENT

Sean Cronin — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 09:00:48 +0000

by Peyton Jones: Launching with the right focus is essential if your plant is going to avoid defaulting into just another big church after you’ve grown. If you’re using the New Testament apostolic model, then the solution is hard-wired into your church already. You’re not wired to grow big, but to reproduce. As soon as the tender shoots begin to grow, you’ll be splicing them to ready them for transplants. Outgrowing your building means that you’ve got to start assembling some new teams for planting outwards.

Multiple services, outlying campuses, and other forms of ecclesiastical greed will make you want to vomit instead of causing you to salivate as you indulge your insatiable appetite for more. Getting your priorities right from the start involves setting a missional agenda that seeks to grow the church outward, rather than just upwards. It also details how to ensure that you’re starting by reaching the lost, rather than just attracting disillusioned Christians from other churches.

But starting out well isn’t a guarantee that all will end well. It is possible to start out a champion like Gideon earning the moniker of “Baal-slayer”, only to end up establishing your own form of idolatry in its place as people bow down to your sacred ephod. If people worshipped Gideon’s armor, rest assured that they will find ways to worship your success too… If you let them. The masses will flock to you and burst the fire capacity of your four walls, but at that juncture, you have a choice. If I had my way, most of you reading this would constantly be shedding the ephod like David, finding Saul’s megachurch armor too big and cumbersome. Instead, you’d be opting for a sling-shot, greater mobility, guerilla tactics, the Spirit’s power, and enough confidence in the Almighty to keep running at giants.

The world has had enough of churches that are out for themselves. Young people have already made up their minds that churches are no longer about people, but about the institution. They cynically analyze the million dollar money making machine from a distance and conclude that the church is out for itself. Their number one question is “Are you for me, against me, or for yourself?” In the end, a mission statement will help you safeguard that the church doesn’t become about “itself” as an institution, merely adding more programs to keep the machine running and the people happy. After all, if you don’t keep the people happy they’ll leave, right? Any church planter worth his salt always wants people to leave his church; either to plant more churches, or to stop distracting the rest of them from the mission. You know what the difference between a church plant of 50 people and an established church of 1000 people? The answer is 950 people. It’s up to you to make sure that your church has more to say when it gives that answer. There should be more difference between a church plant and an established church than numbers. It’s an issue of DNA, not size.

Source: WHY THE WORLD NEEDS YOU TO HAVE A MISSION STATEMENT

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AIMING FOR NOTHING

Sean Cronin — Sun, 17 Mar 2019 09:00:06 +0000

by Peyton Jones: So, you think you know what you want to do. Whereas Paul laid the foundation like a wise and Master builder, most church planters make a fundamental mistake at the foundational level. They’ve never defined what it is they’re going to do. They have more of an impression; a gut-feeling about what they’re supposed to do; an itch that can’t be scratched any other way. They want to church plant, but they’ve never been asked, who, why, when, or how. The truth is that they’ve probably not even asked themselves. When you’ve not been asked to formulate a vision into tangible,
repeatable, words that make sense, you can often take for granted the fact that other people will understand you.

The fact is, they won’t.

If you don’t understand what God is calling you to do, then nobody else will understand you either. True, you may be able to convince them to follow your leadership, but it’ll probably be from morbid curiosity rather than God-given vision. Before you can busy yourself gathering a core team, you need to be able to tell them what you’ll be doing.

Along these lines Paul said his ministry wasn’t like a boxer just beating at the air. He knew what he was swinging for. Inexperienced church planters suffer from a myopic vision that has failed to look beyond church launching the plant off the ground. As long as the bucket of bolts gets airborne they consider it a success if it doesn’t crash and burn. Filling a room with crowds of Christians is not a successful church plant. Numbers doth not successful a church plant make.

According to statistics, fourteen out of fifteen churches that significantly increase do so by transfer growth. The risk of modern church planting is that your plant may “grow” and appear to have been successful without reaching a single lost person. A mission statement will remind you that like the Blues Brothers, you’re getting the band together because you’re on a mission from God. The mission statement will bring laser focus in defining what your mission is.

Source: AIMING FOR NOTHING

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MEETING WITH THE MAYOR

Sean Cronin — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 09:00:21 +0000

by Peyton Jones: In the last Blog post we talked about COGs and catering your church plant to the community. But how do you find out what the community needs? I have a few suggestions.

MEETING WITH THE MAYOR

The easy way is to talk to the professionals. We met with the Mayor and asked her what the needs of the community were. Heck, pick up a newspaper. Have your team circle all of the needs in the city. Then, with a red marker have them circle the top two that they’d like to do something about. You’ve just pinpointed their passions. Once you’ve pinpointed somebody’s passions, their gifts are close behind them. There are far too many needs for you to reach, and you will have to select which ones you’re going to meet. Luckily for you, the Holy Spirit has already identified and targeted the needs for you, and equipped your team…if you’re listening.

PRAYER WALKS

Nehemiah did it before launching his rebuilding campaign in Jerusalem. Paul did it in Athens before preaching on Mars Hill. When overwhelmed with the task in front of him, the church planter puts on his combat boots and prays that God will give him every place that his foot falls as an inheritance for the Kingdom. It’s tantamount to dropping leaflets like America did in Vietnam saying, “there is about to be an attack here.” (my paraphrase). The reality is that you’re picking a fight with the enemy, and poking a spiritual finger in his chest. He laughs at all of our puny efforts, but he trembles when a team of believers hoofs the pavement with praise in their hearts, prayer on their lips, and a hunger in their eyes. (Use Benjamin’s blessing – wolf/blood)

HANG OUT

Start going there. Start meeting there. Start making that community part of the rhythm of your day. As you do, you will form relationships. You will visit the same coffee house or pub and start to recognize the regulars. As you converse with them, ask them two questions: 1. what do you love about living here? 2. Whats the biggest challenge about living here? You will begin to gather key data about the community.

INTERACTION

There is a lot of talk about being relevant. Like Iyego Montoya, I suspect that many people use that word a lot not knowing it doesn’t mean what they think it means. The word relevant comes from the word relate. Can we relate to people? When you read the gospels, you quickly realize that Jesus knew how to relate to people, and even more of a compliment to his witness, they could relate to him.

If we’re going to relate to people that means that we’re going to have to learn to talk to people. We often space ourselves out from people like they’re lepers. John’s gospel is the most evangelistic book of the New Testament. Have you ever noticed that it’s a collection of discussions between Jesus and people? The entire thing. What does that tell us about evangelism?

Sometimes I think that the church has always believed in drone strikes. For most of the history of military campaigns, armies have had to set foot onto enemy territory to take it. Nonetheless, the church sets up a base of operations and never leaves it. They hope that the enemy will simply walk in and surrender to it like it was a walk-in-enter. The drones aren’t coming.

When John Wesley and Whitefield rode the wave of the Holy Spirit during the Great Awakening, they established small groups throughout the country called “societies”. They were convinced that life change happened in circles, not in rows. They found conversions in the field, and discipleship in the living room. There were churches. Lots of them. But the churches weren’t reaching people, so Wesley and Whitefield went outside.

This took huge faith, and gumption. They had to exegete their culture. Whitefield went to the coal fields, because the miners worked seven days a week and couldn’t hear the gospel at church. The methodist preachers were soon down the mineshafts, “in the pits” taking church to the people. A mine seems almost built for a house of worship, and the revival spread.

Wesley originally thought it “a sin to preach in the fields” when he heard of Whitefield, but within a few months, he was preaching to crowds of 20,000 people. Our models often hold us back and keep the kingdom from expanding like the old wineskin that’s lost it’s ability to be flexible and therefore expand. In the Great Awakening, and in most times of revival, what God was doing happened OUTSIDE of the confine of the church walls. So did Jesus’s ministry. Did you realize that? He wasn’t found where religious people were. He didn’t have a church. The Son of God came and barely set foot inside the temple for three years. His ministry was OUTSIDE of the church. My first church plant was in a Starbucks. My second in in a public park. My third is getting ready to plant in a gas station in the inner city.

John Calvin noted:

“the Master did not will in outward discipline and ceremonies to prescribe in detail what we ought to do because he foresaw that this depended on the state of the time, and he did not deem one form suitable for all ages…because he has taught nothing specifically, and because these things are not necessary to salvation nad for the upbuilding of the church ought to be variously cadmoodated to the customs of each nation and gea, it will be fitting (as the advantage of the church will require) to change and abrogate traditional practices and to establish new ones.” Calvin Institutes p1,208 IV.10.30

In planting your church, keep in mind that the early church was planted in Jerusalem, but met “house to house and in the temple courts.” What most people consider “temple courts” is a big box with expensive speakers. I maintain that the temple was merely the city center, the place where the majority of people trafficked, and if it had been the temple of Zeus, the apostles would have continued to meet there. Temple courts is synonymous with “public space”, the watering holes, the proximity spaces, the market place, the cultural hub. The question is, are you willing to go there and set up shop? Or would you rather hunker down in the bunker?

Source: MEETING WITH THE MAYOR

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