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There is so much pressure to deal with in church planting. Pressure to get you target audience down, pressure to meet assessment guidelines, pressure to prove your call, pressure to win people to Christ, pressure to raise money, pressure to grow the church well, pressure to preach like a celebrity, pressure to serve your family, pressure to stay on top of culture, pressure to cultivate communion with God, and oh, the pressure of dealing with your own sin and inadequacy. Add to those items the weighty demands of shepherding eternal souls and the warlike attacks from Satan, and it is evident that church planters are faced with an incredibly diverse and inordinate sense of pressure. What to do?
Well, I am learning that I have to sort out my sources of pressure, the good from the bad. Some pressures must be rejected. “Grow your church” for example. I will never grow our church. Only God in Christ through the Spirit can do that. Yes, I am joyfully responsible for sharing, discussing, preaching, teaching, living the gospel, but I am not sovereign over the hearts of men. Only God can give new, believing hearts to old, broken, sin-encrusted men. So, while I should not bear the weight of regeneration, I am to carry the pressure of responsible, joyful witness. I must cast out negative, ungodly, christian cultural pressures and invite positive, godly, biblical ones. This requires prayerful reflection, cutting off my impulse to relieve the pressure through immediate action. Instead, I pray, confess, and receive grace to do what God has called me to do and repent from doing what God has not called me to do, like grow his Church.
My earlier critique of Alan Hirsch’s book, The Forgotten Ways, was incomplete and imbalanced. Though there is too much self-coined jargon to wade through, making it a frustrating read, after the first half of the book there are some real gems. So while my earlier praise and critique stand, Hirsch is due more praise, especially from a church planter’s perspective.
The chapter on “Organic Systems” is very helpful. He nicely sets traditional churches in contrast to organic churches:
Planting a new church, or remissionalizing an existing one, in this approach isn’t primarily about buildings, worship services, size of congregations, and pastoral care, but rather about gearing the whole community around natural discipling friendships, worship as lifestyle, and mission in the context of everyday life. (p. 185)
Hirsch then proceeds to lay a theological foundation for why Organic, which is primarily rooted in allusions to the biblical doctrine of creation, especially as it pertains to the church. Noting organic metaphors such as living temples, vines, bodies, seeds, trees, etc. he argues that this imagery is not haphazard but latent with are intrinsically related to the essence of the church (180). Next, he rightly tethers this creation imagery to the triune Creator noting that “an organic image of church and mission is theologically richer by far than any mechanistic and institutional conceptions of church we might devise” (181).
After laying this foundation for Organic church, Hirsch develops insights based on his research and reflection on the nature and function of organic systems. I will briefly list them here: 1) Innate intelligence: trust the organic nature of the church 2) Life is interconnected: follow this impulse in community 3) Information brings change: free and guided information flow is vital to growth. 4) Adaptive change: constantly adapt and react to your environment.
In turn, he advocates building relational networks that have “viruslike growth.” More to come…
Phil Taylor of Terra Nova, an Acts 29 church in New York, recently wrote an incredibly helpful article regarding resources for Executive pastors. In it he points pastors to books, online assessments and practical wisdom in being and selecting an executive pastor. Both Lead/Vision and Executive pastors will want to read “Top 5 resources for executive pastors and those who want one”.
Here is the My Space page for Nate Navarro (formerly of Wide Awake), the worship pastor for Austin City Life. Listen to one of his songs, “Where I Belong,” from his forthcoming album Broken Becomes Beautiful.
My church planting coach, Mark Moore, recently recommended the following books (w/disclaimer that he doesnt agree with everything in them). I’ve read a couple and now have more to read! I’ve linked a couple to personal blog reflections/reviews.
The Shaping of Things to Come (Frost, Hirsch)
The Forgotten Ways (Hirsch)
Radical Renewal (Snyder)
Houses that Change the World (Simson)
Organic Church (Cole)
I am very encouraged by the grassroots formation of an Austin Church Planters Network. Ben Overby recently compiled a directory and asked me to write an introductory blurb (below). If planters in all cities could come together across denominational lines to seek the good of the city and the glory of God, Christ-centered movements of social and spiritual renewal could spread quickly!
Church planters are often their own best resource. Just as anecdotal information is critical in our attempts to understand culture, so also shared Austin church planting stories can serve to strengthen and refine our church plants. This community of church planters has formed and is forming with a common understanding that we need each other, not only for our individual ministries but also to catalyze a citywide movement of churches planting churches. Though far from formalized, the Austin Area Church Planters Network is attempting to network, resource, and encourage church planters in the Austin area in order to facilitate a Christ-centered, context sensitive church planting movement for social and spiritual renewal of Austin and beyond.
PeopleGroups.info is a great people group resource to find the numbers and ethnicities of various people groups in your zip/city/state.
The latest Austin City Life newsletter is now online.
I will be taking a break from blogging this week. Among other things, I will try to finish up The Mission of God, by Chris Wright.
Check out good discussion on the terms missionary, mission, and missional from here.
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