Here’s are two thoughts I keep having as I attend a Church Planting Movements training in Dallas this week:
1. We’ve had false starts in our ministry. We make mistakes and continue to learn from them (the best way). One thing that stands out to me is this: God plants churches, not us. We plant the gospel and train people in obedience-based discipleship. But the Holy Spirit convicts hearts and transforms a group into a church.
2. Another is this: Can the CPM approach be done in the West? At the CPM training event they said to do no more “extraction evangelism.” Don’t extract people from their existing communities by pulling pull individuals who don’t know each other together to form a new social unit and call it church. Rather go to their existing social units (households/affinity groups) to plant the gospel among them and they will become the new churches as they discover who God is and learn to listen and obey him. To read a story about how this CPM approach being done in a communal culture, read here.
I can see the wisdom in working with natural/existing communities. This way they aren’t dependent on me/an outsider to get things started. Natural communities already have long-standing relationships that can withstand the stresses of learning to obey Christ and live out costly discipleship. Groups learn better than individuals – they have group memory and accountability. Existing communities already have some form of group accountability (however dysfunctional) and leadership in place, and these structures can be redeemed as groups learn to follow Christ together.
What other advantages can you see to working with natural communities (vs pulling individuals out of their relationships to come “worship with us”)?
But I’m yet to see it working well in the U.S. Has anyone had experience with this in less communal cultures? Can it be done in a fractured, individualistic Western society like the U.S?
Any concerns or potential disadvantages you see with this approach?
What questions does it raise for you?
Categories: the how
1 Comment »