Reality #1
Hello. I’m J. D., and I’m a pastor in your community.
Really? Where is your church?
Oh? Um. Our church has not started yet…
Reality #2
Hello. I’m J. D., and this is my family. We’re with a new church in town.
Really? Where is your church?
Oh? Um. Our church has not started yet, but we will soon…
I thought you said you were with a new church.
Reality #3
Hey J. D.! I loved your web site, announcing the new church in our city, and your Grand Opening!
Yeah! I’m excited. The church is going to start on February 29!
And what will you be selling at your Grand Opening? The new Target store just had a Grand Opening last week.
Biblical Reality
In the New Testament…
we don’t read about wandering pastors without a flock to shepherd.
we don’t read about apostolic teams announcing they are with a new church.
we don’t read about anyone declaring a local church’s existence before she is birthed from the harvest fields.
The most critical issue facing North American church planters is an ecclesiological identity crisis.
What is the local church? Where does she come from?
Who is a church planter? Who is a pastor? What do they do?
The way to overcome the identity crisis is to return to the Book that provides our definitions. But, be warned. Once you start down that path, culturally preferred definitions, tribal expectations, personal comforts, and organizational infrastructure will push back with a great force.
Good post J.D.
Another thing to be discovered once venturing down the path of digging into scripture for axiomatic normatives, there is no command to “plant churches” but rather “make disciples”… I discovered this overlooked point when overseas with an org that promoted the generation of CPMs (church planting movements) and something didn’t seem right about the “numbers” aspect of this so I asked God and He told me to look at what Jesus did say. I found that Jesus’ use of the word “ekklesia” was only recorded 3 times, but talked a lot about His Kingdom. Seemed strange so I went a step further and looked carefully to see if we were even charged with a focus on planting churches at all. I couldn’t find it in scripture. The birthing of churches is certainly mentioned but if we take Jesus’ Words seriously that He said He would build His “ekklesia”, and His command to “Go and make disciples and proclaiming His coming and present Dominion” then we can only conclude the accurate cause and effect is that churches are “birthed” through the Body’s focus on making disciples of Jesus Christ. It may seem like semantics but try pushing a cart with a horse and see how it goes. Look around us and see how it’s going in the disciple-making task we’ve been charged with…
Thanks Guy! Good word!