The question is not, ”What will we do to keep ourselves from going extinct?”

The question is, “What will we do to show people what God is like?”

The first question is driven by fear.  The second by love.

Leaders motivated by fear are not the people you want working alongside you anyway. They may reach out to the community with you, but they will do it in a way that puts their own interests above the interests of the ones you’re reaching, and that is not Christlike.  That spirit is contagious.

Instead, appeal to people’s desire to show real love to the world.  It has been said that in all of our hearts is a God-shaped hole only God can fill.  We were made to be in relationship with our Creator.  We also were made to love like He does… wildly… sacrificially.  Find the folks who want to show the world what God is like by showing crazy love to their families and the hurting people in their community.  Then see what happens.  You can start by modeling crazy love yourself.  You may get fewer folks to join you in the beginning, but this spirit is contagious, too.  God’s kingdom grows from small beginnings and selfless acts of love.

Have you been asked to support church planting because of what it will do for your church or denomination (or your non-denomination as the case may be)?  I used to give these well-intended presentations, but now I’m skeptical.  They go something like this: “Our brand of church is in a state of decline compared to other denominations and the U.S. population growth rate. If we don’t do something, our brand is liable to become obsolete!  We’ll lose our identity.  Let’s not lose our slice of the Churched Population Pie. We need to reach more people to keep our brand of church from going extinct.  The way to do this is by starting more of our kind of churches!  We’ll get to know our neighbors and meet their felt needs.  They’ll see how caring we are and our brand of church will become more attractive.  When they come to our newly planted churches, we’ll win them to Jesus.  Imagine it.  Lost people will be saved, and our brand of church will stay relevant in the 21st century.  That’s why we need to plant churches!”

I get it, but then I don’t get it.  Really, why do we need to keep our slice of the pie?  Why focus our energies on preserving our brand of church?  Jesus Christ said the church he builds will not be stopped (Matthew 16:18).  He didn’t make this promise for your brand of church.  The Church will live on, but maybe church brands, denominations and non-denominations have life cycles.   

But even if your and my brands of church are here to stay, is preserving them really the goal of joining God in mission?  Our “bigger slice of the pie” presentations have emphasized a self-serving reason for Christians to engage their communities, and I think this will come back to haunt us.   Your community desperately needs you to show them the Selfless Savior, not the Self-Preserving Church.  So you want to introduce lost and broken people to the person and hope of Christ.  In the process, God may ask you to give up traditions dear to your heart to show His kind of love to your community.  Jesus’ teachings were full of such ironies.  Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and the humble will be exalted.  The last shall be first and the first shall be last.  Holding onto life leads to death, and dying to oneself leads to life.  For those of us who have grown attached to our ways of doing church, maybe the way to hold onto our church identity is to let go of it.  To borrow another analogy from Jesus Christ, you may be required to let the kernel of wheat fall to the ground and die so that new life can sprout where you are (John 12).  Are you willing to let go of finding your identity inyour church brand and find it in Christ alone?  What wouldn’t you give up so that others could know Him, too?

Go ahead, form new communities of faith, but do it out of sacrificial love.  And spur others on to do the same.  Live this way because you have wild love for God and people, not because church planting could preserve our brand of church and make us successful.  You are preaching Christ and him crucified, not your way of doing church.  The road to becoming a risk-taking, outward-focused church is not paved with self-preservation.

“Salvation” is about being delivered from something and to something!  From hell to heaven, you say?  Yes, but God delivers people FROM and TO stuff in the here and now, not just in the ever after.  Check it out!

In the early part of the biblical story, God sent his servant Moses to deliver the people of Israel from slavery and oppression in Egypt, which is a really BIG deal.  But the story doesn’t stop there.  God delivered them to something as well.  He delivered them to enjoy the promised land “of milk and honey” where they were meant to experience a good and lasting relationship (“covenant”) with him.  This deliverance wasn’t just about them.  It was about the rest of the world, too.  God delivered his people to be a “nation of priests” who would intentionally “be a blessing to all nations” intervening on the world’s behalf – thereby showing the world what God is like that all humankind would want to obey God, too.  That was the intent.  The Creator delivering all his created ones, not just Israel, from something and to something.  The first Exodus, the first deliverance.

To make deliverance truly possible for all of us, God eventually sent his Son (“another prophet like Moses” only better).  Through what he accomplished on the Cross, his Son delivered all humankind once and for all from slavery to sin (and delivered all of creation from the consequences of sin), which is a really BIG deal.  But the story doesn’t stop there.  God delivered us all to experience a good and lasting relationship with him.  This deliverance isn’t just about Jesus’ followers.  It is about the rest of the world, too.  Jesus’ followers are meant to love as he does, seek justice, and make disciples of all nations, showing all people what God is like that they would want to follow him, too.  God wants all the world to be delivered from something and to something.  That is the intent.  The ultimate Exodus, the ultimate deliverance!

What’s more, Jesus taught that his deliverence (a.k.a. the “abundant life”), while it will be more fully realized when he returns, begins now!  If that is true, then I am asking myself, what does a delivered life look like? 

Question: What did God deliver you FROM and what did he deliver you TO?

[A brother in Christ at the Hilltop Church in El Segundo, CA showed me the delivered from/to concept.]

If you are interested in reaching your community for Christ, go start watching some of those videos!  And if you start trying out this stuff in your own community, write to me through the Contacts Page.  I’ll be interested to know what you tried out, how it’s going, and what you’re learning.  We can learn from each other.

(*) “CPM” = church planting movement (I like to call it gospel planting movement).

I like that part of our story.  I like that our obedience was to a loving God, not to “the plan.”  As we’ve seen, visions will get refined, strategies will completely change, but our allegiance is to the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever (scripture reference here).  Oh, how we love him.  Do you know him?  He is wonderful.  Truly wonderful.

In last night’s village gathering we talked about how we’d rather make new mistakes than repeat the old ones.  Hopefully, some of you reading this blog will learn from the new mistakes we are making and have something even better to offer for it!

Something must change about the way we view and do church and missions in North America.

Planting the Gospel / Church Planting Movements
Mini-Workshop
January 9-10, 2009
East Hollywood, CA

Breakthrough Stories

Stories are coming in of breakthroughs in Central and South America, Europe, the USA, India, China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. We are struck by how the vast majority of the impact is coming from “normal” people, not the paid missionaries or pastors.

For example, God used David and Jan Watson to train indigenous leaders to start over 40,000 churches over the past 15 years in a place known as “a graveyard for missions and missionaries” in Northern India. Today there are over 2 million baptized believers thriving in that region. The Watsons’ experience and experiences similar to theirs are written about in David Garrison’s book Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming A Lost World (www.churchplantingmovements.com).

In each of these breakthroughs people are using simple Biblical principles and methods to see people become disciples of Jesus and groups of believers formed into churches that then reach new people and start new churches. We have invited Joe Hernandez, VP of North American Church Planting with CityTeam Ministries in San Jose, CA, who specializes in equipping people to use these simple Biblical principles and methods, to facilitate a workshop for those of us who are passionate about seeing breakthroughs in our regions of the U.S. Other presenters include Mark Hooper of Missions Resource Network and myself (in an apprentice trainer role).

About the Workshop

Not easy, but simple. “It is called Church Planting Movement training, but it could be called training on how Jesus gave all of us simple and effective ways to reach lost people so they can reach more lost people – if we could just avoid letting our traditions get in the way.”  – David Watson

“A lifestyle, not a program.” This workshop is not about developing a program or finding a ‘silver bullet’ for your ministry. It is about developing a lifestyle that reproduces disciples, leaders and churches as a normal part of being and doing church. Participants will walk away with practical tools they can begin using right away.

God-dependent. Only the Holy Spirit can produce a church planting movement! Humans can plant the Gospel which God revealed in Jesus Christ. This workshop equips participants with ways to become more God-dependent as we learn to effectively access and make disciples of people dying without Jesus.

Who Can Come?

WE ARE FULL!  SORRY, NO MORE SEATS AVAILABLE.

This workshop is for people whose primary motivation for starting new churches is to reach people without Jesus. They must have a missionary reason for starting new churches. We meet lots of people who start new churches because they are frustrated with their current one, and they fill their new church with mostly frustrated Christians. We are looking for people who are passionate for the harvest, are open to different (yet biblically-based) ways of doing church, and will put this into practice.  We will have 12 to 15 people (no more than 25) to allow for more dialogue and deeper learning.  Participants are strongly encouraged to bring a spouse or teammate to process this together.

Schedule

Fri., Jan. 9^th 5:30pm to 10pm (includes dinner and breaks)

Sat., Jan. 10^th 8:30am to 9pm (includes meal times and breaks)

Pre-Workshop Preparation Required

To get the most out of this workshop, we are asking all participants to do two things BEFOREHAND:

(1) SPIRITUAL PREPARATION:

Pray for God’s MISSING ONES that the workshop participants will lead to Christ.

Pray participants will be moved by the Holy Spirit to ACT as a result of the workshop.

Pray also for spiritual protection over the workshop participants and presenters.

(2) CONCEPTUAL PREPARATION:

During the month prior to the workshop, all participants must watch the free six-hour video series entitled ”CPM Awareness Seminar” by David Watson at http://www.cpmtr.org/?q=taxonomy/term/10. On this web page there are four sessions listed in reverse order: 4, 3, 2, 1. Watch them in order: 1, 2, 3, 4. You may want to set aside a handful of nights in advance to view and discuss this material with your teammate or spouse (we find it’s best to break it up since it’s lengthy). This will lay a great foundation for us before we meet together!

Thank you for keeping this weekend’s training event in your prayers!

“I urge you to be faithful.  Your Father wants that of you.  His Spirit in you is not just about you; it’s about our Father.  John Piper wrote that missions is not the goal of the church, but worship is.  Missions exist because worship doesn’t (yet).  And you are the jars of clay that eternal love is poured out of.  Be faithful as he is faithful.”