Celebrity status of some church planters is killing some never-will-be celebrity planters. It’s not the celebrity planter/pastors fault. It’s our proclivity to enthrone and exalt a person other than Jesus.
Yesterday, I was at a church planting conference where some guys whom I know and admire spoke. They had some great things to say. God used them to minister to me. But here’s the deal. When given an opportunity to ask these leaders (whose churches are in the thousands) any question, the planter questions often revolve around “best practices” and how to “grow your church.” Why? Because we lack wisdom and experience. Because we need an outside voice. But also because celebrity planters have attained “success.” Because we want to grow big churches like theirs. Because we want a model or practice to implement to attain that level of success. Adopting a model that works is not planting a missional church.
Missional churches develop their missional practices and ecclesiastical models not by copy-cating but by understanding their own context so well that they become the expert on how to best be the church in their town, city, county. Instead of looking to the celebrity pastors, we should be looking to other planters in our own contexts, conversing, praying, and growing city-wide, region-wide strategies that are contextually birthed, not celebrity copied. And if we are going to understand the heart and culture issues of our peoples and areas, demographics will not do. We must listen carefully to the stories of unbelievers and believers and, with a gospel filter, allow their stories to inform our planting models and missional practices.
Missional practices must also be matched with a passion for Jesus-centered, gospel-adorning discipleship, counseling, preaching, teaching, and so on. And that comes from the Spirit of God who searches out all things, even the depths of God. Asking best practices questions are not the questions we need to be asking. Instead, we should be inquiring regarding: marriage, personal holiness, church discipline, faithful discipleship, missional-community tension, idolatry of the ministry, and so on. So, in addition to planting indigenous churches, we need indigenous practices and Spirit-led passion for Jesus Christ, who forgives our idolatry of celebrity planting and offers soul-strengthening passion for God.
God grant us grace to plant repentantly, contextually, and redemptively.
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 7, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Matt
this is a great post. I know the tension for me has just been faith against flesh. I know God’s call to plant a missional church and I desire to be faithful in my obedience. The flesh side comes in when you are, by default, compared to such pastors or even looked at through the business lenses of professionals that flood the suburban community. Missional church planting is tough… after 1.5 of planting I have so many more questions than I even thought I could have when this all began. It definitely creates an incredible dependence on God.
May 7, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Jacob Vanhorn
Jonathan! If it weren’t for the theme of your post, you would be my celebrity. I continually grow in respect for your theological understanding and steadfastness.
I think I got myself behind the game here for awhile by getting in the game that chased best practices, all the while not feeling like it was the right fit. While I feel that we are breaking free from it, I am trying to assess each piece again without just reacting to it.
We need to hang. I think I would be a better pastor for it.
May 7, 2008 at 10:59 pm
chrismarlow
Great thoughts bro..It’s quite frustrating to see super-stars dominate every blog, conference, and denom meeting. So frustrating.
I think asking “best-practices” questions are good. But they are not great. Learning local culture and understanding context and seeking God for ways to engage is so vital.
I want to learn from normal people. To me that is the best way to gain wisdom.
May 7, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Justin Anderson
Great post man. I think the problem is not so much the existence of “celebrity planters” as it is the questions those guys get asked. If we really believe this missional stuff, then those guys have been successful (for the most part) because they have tapped into the Missional Code (to use Stetzer) of their culture. So instead of asking them how they did the things they did, our questions should revolve around the “why”.
We should ask them questions like, “What kinds of things did you identify in your culture that led to that decision?” or “when you saw this idol in the culture, how did you speak into it?” or “Where did you get your black glasses?” Maybe not the last one but you get my drift. I think it’s on us to ask the right questions of these guys who are doing some good thinking about their culture. Instead of us considering their “ends”(the resulting program, sermon series, or ministry) we should be asking lots of questions about their “means” (questions they asked the culture, things they identified, sub-cultures they infiltrated).
Just some thoughts. Keep up the good work.
May 8, 2008 at 11:06 am
jdodson
Thanks for weighing in guys. Justin, I think you are spot-on in telling us that we need to be asking questions about means not just ends, getting to the whys of ministry and not just the hows.
May 15, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Jeff Doolittle » Celebrity Church Planting
[...] Celebrity Planting & Missional Practices [...]