Tag Archive - Church Planting

Attractional, missional, exponential and many more "al" words

April 29, 2009 in Church Planting, Doing Church, Exponential Conference with 4 Comments

This post is somewhat of a follow up to this post and my experience last week at the Exponential Conference.

There has been this debate/conversation in the church world over a philosophy of doing church.  It typically is cast as an either or.  You can either be an attractional church or missional church.

I have always wondered, “But shouldn’t we be attractive to those not in church?”

And at the same time I have wondered, “Jesus certainly said to GO, so we need to live missionally as well.”

Two things really helped clarify a distinction that we have to be careful about:

In The Tangible Kingdom, Halter and Smay present there alternative church lifestyle as A way and not THE way.

The real meat of the book comes at the end where they describe the kind of life that creates incarnational communities.  They offer a different way because of the central question to the book (in my words):

Does the way we typically do church where so much focus is on the Sunday service prohibit or limit our ability to actually be with and minister to people?

Their answer a lot of the time is yes.

So, their focus has been on getting their faith communities to be with people and use Sunday mornings mainly for the purpose of vision casting and encouragement but not outreach. Outreach is what happens when life touches life in a conversation or an act of service.

Unlike so many books that advocate this, they do not tell everyone that is involved in an attractional form of church to leave do what they do.  Instead, they encourage anyone that resonates with what they say to experiment within their context.

And then a second clarifying thing: This past week at the Exponential Conference, Alan Hirsch said something that really turned a light bulb on for me.  He said that a better word for “attractional” is “extractional,” because that’s the danger of only focusing on Sunday morning.  People are extracted from their mission field to spend more time at a church building.

If I’ve learned anything in planting Suncrest-East it’s that people naturally want to make church about a building or place, and it’s not!  So the tension I wrestle with is this:  How do we gather for the sake of cooperate worship and teaching without making it all about Sunday morning?

And this: “How do I as a pastor, not just work in the church and on the church but live missionally?

Exponential takeaway #1

April 27, 2009 in Church Planting, Exponential Conference with 4 Comments

I’m writing this several thousand feet above the earth. It’s an appropriate place to be as I am trying to capture in a few words a bird’s eye view of my Exponential Conference experience. For me the ultimate question is, “What am I taking away?”

I have a ton of notes.

I have several specific statements I wrote down as “takeaways.”

And one reinvigorated desire to join Jesus in transforming the world.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily grind…even as a pastor…and lose sight of my calling.

Church planting has increasingly become a part of that calling. 4 years ago I came to Suncrest with a desire to get closer to the church planting world. 2 years ago I started on a track to launch our East campus (a hybrid of church planting). 6 months ago we launched Suncrest-East.

I believe that church and campus planting is the most significant evangelistic effort the church can undertake. By starting life-giving churches and campuses in communities that desperately need them Jesus will transform lives. And when he transforms lives he transforms communities. And when he transforms communities he will transform nations. And when he transforms nations he will transform the world.

Bob Roberts at Exponential

April 22, 2009 in Church Planting, Exponential Conference, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

He ran out of time, but said he would post the rest of his notes at his blog:  www.glocal.net:

The best way to learn how to plant a church is to look at what is happening around the world.

Most important questions:

What is the church? What is called God me to plant?
We argue over forms and philosophies why the world is going to Hell?

If he was going to plant a church he would:
-Get 10-20 people to praying for him.
-Read the book of Acts, Matthew, Luke
-Go off and spend some solitude time with God and ask God, “What do you want me to do?”

1. It’s the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
–Does it bother you we can grow a mega church and our communities are not any different?
–Kingdom – Disiciple – Church – Community

2. It encompasses the reconcilliation of all things.
–the grid is the society

3. The focus is on the disciple, not the preacher.
–Every believer is a church planter

4. All religions are all places which makes for a naked public square and thoughtful communication.
–If Paul would have treated Jewish leaders like most American Christians treat Muslim leaders, the Gospel would have never spread.

5. Knowing other religions isn’t just for the experts but for everyone who would communicate who Jesus is.

6. Risk is seen in life and death not nickels and noses.

7. Never vilify another religion.
–Paul didn’t do this.

Craig Groeschel – Session 2 at Exponential

April 22, 2009 in Church Planting, Exponential Conference with 1 Comment

What I believe about church determines how I do church.

Do not be conformed to the pattern of the American church.

1. A movement will never be safe, predictable and clean.
–the church must become dangerous again.
–We are unintentionally inviting people to a better life. When you read the NT you see this die to your self, hardcore faith.
–Preach a dangerous message, the full Gospel. Not necessarily edgy, but challenging. Preach Christ crucified.
–We must invite people to experience the power of Christ.
–It must never be about the package. It’s about HIS presence.
–Just because you believe in Jesus does not mean you are following Jesus.
–Let the church become dangerous again.

2. A movement will never be about your ministry but about His kingdom.
–build your church on what it’s about, not what it’s not about.
–build it on what you are, not what you are not.

3. You will not lead a movement on the old measurements of success.
–The scorecard has changed.
–Old – attendance, offering, baptisms, small groups – these are still important but…your identity can’t be wrapped up in the numbers
–Don’t blame yourself for the declines because you will be tempted to take credit for the increases.
–You will be tempted to preach messages to bring people in. You will be tempted to beg them to stay instead of blessing them by giving them permission to leave.
–”When you think of 4 billion people who need Christ, we can’t say we are ‘big’.”
–If you think you are big you will start moving slowly.
–People don’t want to know how many people you are going to bring in. They want to know how many people you are going to send out.
–3 levels of buying into the Gospel:
—believe enough in it to benefit from it – line #1
—believe enough to contribute comfortably – line #2
—believe enough to give my life to it – line #3

–as God gives you success you are tempted to fade back

Dinner with Ed Stetzer and Alan Hirsch

April 21, 2009 in Church Planting, Exponential Conference with 1 Comment

So I had dinner tonight with Ed Stetzer and Alan Hirsch…along with about 50 of my closest friends.  Actually Mary Beth, Tim, Kevin and Andy are here in beautiful Orlando for the Exponential Conference.  We had an opportunity to attend a dinner put on by the Upstream Collective and hear from two great thinkers and practitioners in the church planting world.  Here’s a few highlights from Ed and Alan:

Ed Stetzer:

  • A lot of people fall in love withtheir model before they fall in love with their mission.
  • The how of ministry is determined by the who, what and when.
  • Does our model create spectators?
  • Watching a great communicator is good, but we need to reproduce the great communicators as well.
  • The term “missional” has become a theological junk drawer. We see in the word what we don’t like about the current church.
  • Missional in our context, mission minded in the global context
  • Every culture has things we can:

-adopt
-adapt
-reject

Alan Hirsch

  • Plant in the hard places.
  • Live missionally and let the church come from that.
  • You have to unlearn and then relearn before you can plan.
  • Question about what he specifically would do if he moved into a new neighborhood:

-Find where the social hotspots are and hang out.
-Make friends outside the church.
-Get the church out of the comfortable zone and into public places.

  • 3 keys in living missionally:

-Proximity
-Frequency
-Spontaneity – to invite them to your home

  • You become a chaplain to the system if you can’t challenge it.

Great stuff and this was just a little precursor.

Rhode Island Project

March 18, 2009 in Church Planting, Rhode Island Church Plant, Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I’m standing in the Manchester, NH airport, heading home after the Rhode Island church plant partnership team retreat.  This was a great two day experience getting to know the church plant and partnership team.  This is a first for me so I’m really excited on two fronts.

First, I love church planting.  My time at Suncrest has lit a fire under me for church planting.  I believe that church planting is the very best evangelism tool we have as churches.

Second, I have always wanted to get to know Restoration House Ministries (RHM).  RHM is the church planting group for New England sponsored by Christians Churches around the nation.  With only 1 independent Christian church per 876,390 people (as compared to 1 per 50,000 people in other areas of the United States) it is easy to see why they are needed.

The newest plant and the one I will encourage through the partnership team participation on behalf of Suncrest is going to be in Providence county, Rhode Island.  Less than 18% of all residents in Rhode Island attend any Catholic or Protestant Church.  This is prime territory for a new church.

The launch will be October of this year, so pleae pray for this new church work as there is huge potential for hundreds upon hundreds of people coming to Christ as a result.

Impact is magnified by Ownership

December 22, 2008 in Didn't expect from launch series with 0 Comments

“Things I didn’t expect from launching Suncrest-East” series

I am writing a series of posts related to launching Suncrest-East. I have no plan for how often or how many. There are just things that I have discovered that I want to share and things that we have done that could be helpful to others. I in no way think I am an expert. These are just some things I’ve learned.unloading-1

Perhaps the thing that has both surprised and excited me in launching Suncrest-East as been the ownership that the launch team developed.  Somtimes a leader’s job is to motivate his team.  This was never really an issue in launching the campus.  Our launch team developed such a love for the mission that it was not Doug’s campus, or Suncrest’s deal it was OUR campus.

This has been such an inspiration to me as well as many who have witnessed it first hand.  It is something that is so hard to put into words yet so essential to accomplishing our mission.  I know you can talk about it but you can’t make it happen.  I know you can encourage it but you can’t give it to people.  I think it happened for us and happens for anyone when God’s people get on God’s agenda in God’s timing.

unloading-2I say all this with the full knowledge that the pre-launch excitement of launching the campus has waned with the campus actually being launched.  We are making adjustments to prevent burnout, but it’s their sense of ownership that has given them the determination and tenacity to accomplish the mission no matter what.

The ownership of Suncrest-East was so clear yesterday when those scheduled for setup and serving showed up yesterday at 6:30am with a temperature of 7 below zero.  My wife commented that it really separated the men from the boys.  No offense to the ladies that were there.  You were very manly as well…you get the point.  It was simply amazing to see.

I’m blessed to serve with an awesome team.

What I didn't expect in launching Suncrest-East

December 16, 2008 in Didn't expect from launch series, Multi-site, suncrest-east with 1 Comment

I want to do a series of posts related to launching Suncrest-East.  I have no plan for how often or how many.  There are just things that I have discovered that I want to share and things that we have done that could be helpful to others.  I in no way think I am an expert.  These are just some things I’ve learned.

dsc_2981One of the things I didn’t expect and perhaps could not have expected was how launching Suncrest-East would affect my family.  This has been a family affair to say the least. For one, it would not have been possible without my wife being totally on board to do it.  It made our schedules crazier than they ever were.  It turned our home into THE meeting place on many occasions.  And it has made Sunday mornings an early morning for the whole family.

Sunday mornings will never be the same.  Every Sunday our alarm goes off at 5am.  That isn’t really too bad for us adults but the 5:30 wake up time for the kids is a bit tougher.  All that so we can be at the theater by 6:30 to help with the setup.  Now I know what you are thinking.  Does my family really have to be there that early?  The answer is no, they don’t absolutely have to be every Sunday.  But here’s the deal.  And this is what has affected our family the most.  Sheila wants to be because this is not MY ministry, this is OUR ministry.  She is as much sold on the idea of East campus as I am. She is as committed to seeing people find hope in Jesus in our community as I am.  So this is not about what she HAS to do but rather what NEEDS to be done.

These things that have affected my family may appear like a negative.  But in all honesty they really are not:

  • having our schedules messed up only meant we needed to communicate even more;
  • opening our home has been a blessing because after all, it’s all God’s anyway;
  • and the early Sunday mornings…okay they stink for the kids but everything can’t be great!

I value how this experience has brought our family closer.  While there are still days my 5 year old asks if she can go back to our “old church” this Sunday, all of my kids are beginning to see the theater as “real church” and it feels like home.