Don’t Neglect the Gift
December 18th, 2008 Categories: Church Planting
“Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” (1 Timothy 4:14-15
If you’re anything like me, you get discouraged from time to time. I’ve received prophetic messages about my future from leaders in the church having laid their hands on me. I sometimes think that the vision of where I’m supposed to go is too big for me to handle.
We have to learn to strengthen ourselves in the Lord, as David did when his family was led into captivity and the mighty men talked of stoning him. We have to give ourselves wholly to the preparation phase, however long it may be, so that when it’s time to run we’ll have the appropriate stamina.
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Surprising Church Plant Statistics
November 16th, 2008 Categories: Church Planting
I was reviewing some research from the Church Plant Survivability and Health Study and I was surprised to find a few interesting facts that affect higher attendance:
- Churches who meet in a school the first year tend to have higher attendance than those who do not.
- Those who meet in a theater in subsequent years tend to have higher attendance.
- Church plants with full-time compensated Pastors have larger attendance.
Not that it matters. When God calls you to do something, statistics are purely academic. Still, it’s interesting that a corellation exists between meeting places and attendance. It’s also interesting that only 68% of churches planted survived beyond their fourth year.
One of the major factors for church survivability is church plant expectations. What it means is that people often get involved with church planting thinking that they will quickly explode in attendance and have a quick ride to the top. The reality is that church plants encounter significant opposition from entrenched denominations, tend to grow more slowly, and often require up to five years to become financially self-sufficient. It’s good to know these things before jumping in with both feet.
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The Whole Seeker-Sensitive “Thing”
November 15th, 2008 Categories: Church Planting
Pastor Greg wrote this post over on the Grace Community Fellowship site a while back which got me thinking; is a church falling into the “trap” of being seeker-sensitive simply because they participate in culturally relevant times of corporate worship?
In the post linked above, the term “seeker-intensive” was coined with the following definition:
A give-it-all-you-got, worship with all your heart, dance, sing, praise, shout it out, fall on your face, love God loud, offend the devil and all other religious spirits, passionate, expressive time of corporate worship!
I like the concept. I think it’s necessary. I also think that it’s almost never executed with any sort of power and authenticity. Morningstar does it quite well. So does IHOP. Everybody else seems to be trying to clone the worship experiences of places like IHOP and Morningstar without much success. I’m not passing judgement, I’m simply making an observation.
I think the root issue in the entire debate centered around the seeker-sensitive church is “what has God called me to do?” The entire purpose for the emergence of the seeker-sensitive model was to keep people coming back long enough to soften their hearts, and then to engage them with the uncompromised gospel. The basic thought was that it takes people several exposures to the gospel before they typically respond. Being culturally relevant, modern, hip, and generally agreeable is the common methodology for accomplishing that end.
I also think that seeker-sensitive models tend to produce me-centric quazi-disciples. So, this creates a conondrum of sorts: I need people in order to make disciples, but if I do just anything to keep people coming back, people will think that it’s all about them. What to do?
The answer might actually exist in a mixture of the program and purpose-driven methodologies. Culturally relevant worship times are not necessarily bad, as long as they serve as a starting point for engaging people who will eventually become rabid, world-beating praise animals. My hypothesis is that people, when continually submerged in the power of the Holy Spirit and given opportunity to enter into structured discipleship, will make the transition over time.
In other words, if you can create a culture of discipleship, then it’s not necessarily bad to devote some energy to filling the seats. What say you?
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The Gently Evolving Blog
November 12th, 2008 Categories: Church Planting
I started this blog as a business. I had the intention of building blogs for churches and Pastors. While I still retain the ability to do that, I’ve since learned that most churches are not willing to spend the money required for excellent design on a blog. It’s a return-on-investment issue for them.
Next, I decided to write about Christian Business. I have a perspective on the topic since I am a Christian and I function in the business world every day. It’s not much of a stretch since I can build blogs for Christian Businesses as well.
Now, I find that I want to write about church planting, Pastoring, Worship, etc. I still have the interest in technology that will grow churches and engage people, but I feel that call of God in my heart to begin the process of preparing myself to become a church planter. It’s weird how things change. Since it’s my blog, I feel as if I can do what I like. Focus is not as important on a personal blog as it is on a business blog. I have a hodge-podge of interests, and therefore a hodge-podge of categories.
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