Are you looking for a good church?

Are you called to plant a church?

Calling is a personal issue; discerning God’s will is the big deal here. Leadership begins with the leader and church planting begins with the leader.

There are unhealthy reasons to start a church:
1- To desire to plant a big church: Leighton Ford, and his generation went into parachurch to fulfill their Kingdom ambition;

2- Be wary of an unhealthy desire for size and achievement;

3- All of the authors are pastors and church planters---gets into the psyche (ego)

4- To be the next hero or celebrity….size, media, books, etc.

5- You just like the style of the church/ method; just want to have the freedom.

6- There is a difference between reaching the lost, and operating in a style you enjoy

7- To leave or escape a transition, or a failed attempt; starting a new church is the way around failure

8- Wanting to create a dream job, in a dream location, in a dream: means to an end for self, instead of doing selfish things for selfish reasons…creating my own Disney World

[Beginning: church planting is apostolic, structure grows over time, and by-laws are not even applicable until the second year of growth]
NOTE: Have structure planned at front end

Spiritual Gifts
Either alone / in team—for any seeker-targeted church
Vision
Resources all are needed
Motivation
Spiritual Gifts

Romans 12
1 Cor 12 listings are indicative, not definitive—the Spirit is not limited
Eph 4:11f.
1 Peter 2

Four essential gifts that are essential in the planter or in the team
1. (Creative) Communication: the point communicator MUST be engifted with communication Get consensus from a wide variety of sources as to the efficacy of your communication.
Small churches are small for a reason; usually the gift-mix is not in the leader; can be coached to the next level, if the gift exists; passion for communication for the gift of communication

2. Gift of evangelism: desire to reach the lost is different from the gift of evangelism; not personal evangelism, but mass evangelism—Billy Graham; specialist in wide-area evangelism. Specialization: curricular evangelism, personal, etc. Mass evangelization - ability to spread the widest net possible

3. Leadership: most leadership intensive; cast vision, impart cooperation; non-profit leadership is based on the altruism of others; strong catalytic leader is needed; Romans 12; spiritual gift of leadership, more dynamic than a strong personality,

4. Chemistry: There must be excellent chemistry on the team. That chemistry is created by koinonia, and protected by the team.

What kind of church are you called to plant?

Seeker-targeted is the default kind of church that is planted: not a style or a strategy, but it is a value. There are five choices:

1. Seeker-hostile: This is a seeker culture in America, right now. Illustration: “you’re not our type”
Dress, politics, worship service, rhetoric in preaching, music, modes of fellowship
[Looking at the Gospels, Jesus was able to speak uncompromised truth, and still was invited to everybody’s party]

2. Seeker-indifferent: Not thinking about seekers at all; seekers are not on the radar screen, don’t think of any other growth is transfer growth; evangelical are so good at being shielded that there is no other life; Christian cliques and holy huddles insulate one from the wider culture

3. Seeker-hopeful: Nothing concrete was done to guide the seekers in their decision-making process: very high on rhetoric, very low on reality. No intentional planning

4. Seeker-sensitive: clear changes in behavior, clear adjustment in contemporary forms, but the front-door client is still the believer. Announcements, Lord’s Supper, lingo, sermon topics are fitted to the believer (contemporary model)
Front-end customer is the transfer-growth of believers…..

5. Seeker-targeted: the mission is to turn irreligious people into serious followers of Jesus Christ. Main, front door, web page, direct mail, is directed to the outreach pattern of the newcomers. Starting points are where seekers are; orientation, value, results in intentional behaviors and changes to attract and keep seekers [as opposed to being seeker-driven]

Here is a "No man’s land" for planters: you think you are targeting the seekers, but don’t go all the way, but don’t go all the way in the entry points that reach believers. Until you know who is not going to like your church, you have not sharpened up who you are reaching. [Laser-beam vs. shotgun]
Audience is determined by the point communicator. If your vision is to be seeker-targeted, be that way. Be strategic. Assimilation must occur before discipleship begins….

Two foundational ministries for churches: CHILDREN and ARTS!

If you are seeker-sensitive, know that some front-door elements will be for believers!
These are not styles, but orientations…..
Context: Jerusalem, Mars Hill, Antioch, Ephesus, etc.
There is a greater experiential element in the culture, now than ever before. Does authentic worship touch the seeker? Yes, remembering the size, dynamics, culture, psychographics, etc.
Strategy doesn’t eliminate, but reprioritizes them at different times.
Most ministries have separated Evangelization and Edification. For example, weekend seeker services, mid-week New Community believers’ service.
The natural way for the depraved church is to move from mission and to the maintenance of need-fulfillment of believers. Disproportionate amount of time needs to be spent on evangelism…..mission must return in order for church to be real church:

Believers with a breaking heart about lost people
Sharing Christ, turning conversations around to spiritual things
Making invitations to individuals to a life-changing encounter with Christ.

Seekers seek a congregation from a consumer perspective; seekers questions and believers’ questions are growing more similar
Seekers want to experience before they believe.

You cannot plant a church until you understand your culture…how do you exegete a culture
What are the top radio stations?
Education level by strata (more important than income)
Blue collar/ White collar
Age
Married? Kids? Number of kids?

Vertical needs:
What is a spiritual life?
Nature of God
Apologetics
Ask the questions of your target group, then give them God: Raw and uncut

Horizontal needs:
Marriage
Parenting
Family
Self-esteem
Meaning of life
Listen to the hearts, then create an environment for life in at least one of these areas.


1950’s [___________________________________________________] Xianity
1 8 10
Acceptance of the deity of X
Basic knowledge
Built in sense of guilt and conviction
Understood role of membership

[____________________________________________________] Church
1 8
Understood moral value of the church
Outreaches
Revivals
Sunday school
Door-to-door
Bus ministry

Mid-1970-
Late 1980’s [______________________________________________] Xianity
1 8
Same understandings, but different praxis:

[_______________________________________________________] Church
1 3

Door-to-door was unlawful
Revivals /no longer amusement: church was no longer center of community
Sunday school: not a beginning for unchurched, small group meetings were in SBC, decline since 1971
Churches that grew (Willow Creek, Saddleback, and First Baptist Church in Houston) do certain things

R1--reason, approach to evangelism was a reasonable, critical to process in order to decide

R2--relevance, outline to use on Monday, preaching with life application, contemporary music, printing; décor was related to the culture of the day.

R3--real: turn off was hypocrisy, televangelist scandal, wanted authentic community, to connect with people; people born in 1963-1977 have no memory of the gospel, struggle with incarnation of Christ, vast majority do not believe in absolute truth, no confidence in truth or authority of the Bible, no idea of John 3:16, (must be a Web site), complete repudiation of the gospel, new unpardonable sin is saying that anything is a sin.
[___________________________________________________________] Xianity
1 3

[___________________________________________________________] Church
1 3


“The Great Divorce” ---it is the separation of religious experience, and the particular claims of a particular faith tradition.
Seekers are
Not interested in church
Not having time
Not a value

Shift: We are no longer preaching to Jews in Jerusalem; we are now talking with Pagans at Mars Hill.
[__________________________________________________________] Spirituality
1 8
Enormous spiritual interest: prayer of Jabez, DaVinci Code, Purpose-Driven Life
Spirituality, yes: church, no. Christianity, maybe.

Today’s people are mystics…..link the 3 R’s with the 3 E’s Leonard Sweet calls them "soul artists."


E1--Explanation: we need to help people to understand, before reason 50’s, 80’s facts,
o 00’s introduction to truth; “this is a Bible”----must talk to a truth source, not from a truth source
o 50’s “Does God exist”….
o 00’s “What kind of God are we talking about?”) old school apologetics ---reason

E2--Experience: encounter with the divine, sacred acts that brings feeling of spiritual---
o People need to belong before they believe, 80-90’s people believed their way into feelings, 00’s people feel their way into believing. ----
o no theological framework,
o no worldview to guide them into to good things;
o need classic frameworks of spiritual disciplines,
o Interest in the ancient, there is a thin line, need mix of new and ancient, wanted to touch the transcendent. Watch the culture, size, group dynamics…….50- 80/ 500-800 smaller
o the group is everything! Norms are established communally.

E3--Example: the effective churches of the 90’s worked very hard to appear real, now it is time to be real
o Relational examples of transformed life must be seen; the skepticism about the counter-culture must be disproven by real Christianity.
o Truth reigns supreme…..this doubt is applied across the entire culture….this is prime time for cults, because can see a true faith (in the wrong things)…..***people need to see good news, before they hear good news---

There is an evangelical sub-culture in which the church orbits, and has no knowledge of the needs and pain of unchurched people….we've got to jettison that.

Culture is flattening at an amazing pace: clothing, art, music, and lingo: the cultural Icons are worldwide---dissemination is immediate and global—Education, judicial systems, and media: values are communicated, so that cultural distinctives are less apparent.

Goal: a cybernetic, QI, systems approach to strategy, staying ahead of the curve, providing cultural environments that provide communities for nurturance, constantly responding to culture, doing evangelism, ministry, worship, training—becoming a loving and learning community….
Tradition is not orthodoxy, and the method is not the message.
The emerging church is not wed to the strategy, but to the VALUES


If you would like discover whether you are church planter or belong on a church planting team, email me at berachahleadership@gmail.com