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.]

My mind is blown by the exponential growth of church planting movements around the globe.  David Watson reminds onlookers that it took 2 to 4 years in India, for example, to get to the point where existing social units surrendered to Christ and began multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches.  I think it will take longer in the U.S. given other obstacles we face here.  (David Watson has written a brief article on the myth of rapid reproduction on his blog.  To read it, click here.)

The church planting movements around the world give the appearance of rapid growth because of the exponential growth, not the reproduction.  Laying a foundation for such a movement means years of investment in the training of leaders.  Reproduction therefore is slow.  With the exception of divine accelerations, it is always slow.

“Who should the church pay to serve?”  This is the question Neil Cole is thoughtfully addressing from a biblical point of view in his current series of blog posts. If you are considering a career as a full-time paid minister or missionary, PLEASE take the 10 minutes to read this first!   Lives will be affected by your choice. 

To read Neil’s posts so far on this important topic, click below:

Who Should the Church Pay to Serve?

Who Should the Church Pay: The role of the apostle

Who Should the Church Pay: The true widow

Who Should the Church Pay: Double honor to the preachers and teachers

Who Should the Church Pay: What about pastors?

Who Should the Church Pay: Start with nothing but God!

Gospel planters.  That’s what we are as Jesus’ disciples. 

Church planter.  That’s what the Holy Spirit is (among other roles). 

If we’re going to see church planting movements we need to faithfully assume the roles we’ve been given and let God be God.

We lay a foundation, yet it is Jesus Christ who builds his church. 

We plant and water the seed, yet it is God who makes it grow.

How audacious we are to call ourselves ‘church planters’ and claim we will do what Christ alone can do – that is, make people into a new creation. 

[Thank you to my friends for showing me our biblical role as Gospel planters.] 

It was 12 years ago.  Potluck Sunday at the Hollywood Church of Christ (the church who sent our families out as domestic missionaries).  The preacher at that time, Daniel Rodriguez, had asked us all to invite a friend to the potluck.  Using Jesus’ parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 15, Dan encouraged the church folks to invite people who don’t normally get invited to church parties.  For example, in Jesus’ parable the Master who is preparing a feast tells his servant to “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”  Later in the story the servant is even told to “make them come in.”    

So my newly wed wife said to me, “Phil, there’s some guys who look like they live on the streets hanging outside Radio Shack around the corner.  Let’s invite them to the potluck!” 

Nervous, I agreed, and we walked from the church building to go introduce ourselves to three men sitting on the curb.  One was flat on his back, passed out.  One I remember had a very swollen nose.  The other was old and feeble looking and went by the name Hollywood Al.  Hollywood Al and I shook hands – my first time touching someone I had labeled as “homeless”, and therefore feared.  God must have wanted me to overcome all my shock at once.  When I retrieved my hand it was covered in Al’s blood. 

Meredith and I took the three men into the church building and helped them get First Aid and clean up.   I scrubbed my hands.  A lady got really nervous at their presence and wrinkled her nose at the aroma they had brought into the church kitchen.  Boy she watched them like a hawk as they filled their plates with food.  It didn’t help that the passed out guy was now wide awake, incredibly drunk, and began singing his own rendition of the Star Bangled Banner at the top of his lungs.  (“Oh-oh say-ay-ay-ay, can you see-ee-ee-ee-ee, BYYYYYYYYYYYY the dawn’s early liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight….”)  I thought the lady was going to blow a gasket. 

That day was a beautiful day.  Friendships were formed.  News spread and more men from the streets came to church gatherings in the weeks and years to come.  One man named Kenneth became a brother in Christ and a dear friend, and was baptized there.  Another guy named Thomas liked to sit on the front steps and tell everyone how great the church is for loving people like him.  Today we are still friends with some of these guys. 

My whole perspective was altered from that one handshake and meal.  Something (or someone) that I had previously feared and averted my eyes from became a real person to me, someone I could learn from.  A human worthy of friendship not just my pity or my handouts.  I was forever changed. 

And it began with responding (or rather my wife responding) to a prompting from the Lord.  My wife simply took the Word of God seriously, and together we obeyed.  Fearfully, but we obeyed.  We loved.  My life hasn’t always been this way since.  But that’s what I keep getting called back to, and that’s what I want the rest of my life to be like.

Thoughts on strategy from a recent Way of Life Village gathering…

When we started out on this mission we told people why East Hollywood is a strategic place for us to share and demonstrate the message of Jesus Christ. People are closed to religion but open to spirituality.  Since so many people in E-Ho have relationships in other areas of the city and globe, as E-Ho residents discover the joys of surrendering to Christ they have the potential to share this new life with people in areas we could never touch ourselves.  For this reason, I still believe this place is “strategic.” (Only God knows what really will happen, though.)

But those of us in Way of Life Village also like to say that any place can become strategic as long as Christ’s followers are willing to arrange their lifestyles accordingly.

Does God call certain people to live and minister in certain cities and countries at certain times in history because “the fields are white for the harvest?”

If so, does that mean God has given up on the other places that aren’t “hot spots” right now in human opinion? 

Churches in the U.S. get excited about sending missionaries and church planters to foreign countries and our nations “inner city” neighborhoods. Yet many of these same churches lack zeal for missions done in their own communities where they could have the most influence.

God wants people to experience salvation in the United States and Asia. Outside the “10/40 Window” and inside it. In the bus stop of dusty Barstow (a small town in the California desert) and the urban ghettos of Los Angeles.

Paid missionaries and their sending churches and agencies will continue to ask themselves, “Is this a strategic place for us to be right now?” I support that thinking.

But I wish all Christians everywhere would ask themselves, “How are we living strategically in the place we’re in?”

The Great Commission as I understand it is not a divine order to send a few Christian missionaries away to a few “strategic places.” As I intrepret these words of Jesus, it is a call to live strategically and intentionally for the gospel, making disciples of all ethnic peoples as we go. Some of us will end up in other places of the world as we respond to this call. Others of us will stay right where we are. But for all of us, joining Jesus in mission will become a way of life.