JD Payne has started an interesting series of articles on the missiology used in North American church planting. His question: are we primarily coming from a pastoral missiology, or an apostolic one?

I’m one of three church planting missionaries in my family. My brother Steve works with new churches among the Oromo people in Ethiopia with CMF International, and my wife’s twin sister and her husband are planting church in rural Paraguay with SIM. Our strategy when we planted our church in Bakersfield in 2003 was definitely pastoral, and theirs was definitely apostolic.

Since then, we’ve shared some interesting conversations, and I’ve come to agree with JD Payne that we need to rethink not just our strategy, but the missiology from which that strategy flows. That’s led me to an ongoing dialogue with colleagues who are planting churches internationally.

As part of that dialogue, I’m helping coordinate a workshop track on church planting at the National Missionary Convention, and am working with Doug Lucas of Team Expansion on casting a vision for 1000 new church plants in the US and 1000 church planting movements worldwide between now and 2020.

Meanwhile, our church in Bakersfield has participated with Stadia in the launching of two other congregations — one Anglo and one Latino — as well as starting a small missional community in a low-income apartment complex a few miles from our Sunday morning campus. I’m still wrestling with the issues, but that hasn’t stopped us from planting churches while we wrestle!

If you’re a church planter, how would you describe your own missiology — pastoral or apostolic? What thoughts do you have on how this has worked in your context?

 

Posted via web from Notes for the Journey

I was privileged to have a lunchtime conversation with Alan Hirsch, an Australian missiologist and author of the recent book The Forgotten Ways, during the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida yesterday.

Our church has been engaged in a missional outreach to a low-income apartment complex for the past three years. The poverty is overwhelming — 85% of the families have less than $10,000 per year in income, and the family structure is overwhelmingly single-parent households led by women (just 12 married couples in 200+ apartments).

We had a family move into the complex three years ago and engage in the simple ministry of loving their neighbors. Their incarnational presence has been amazing, and they’ve done a tremendous job of connecting with teen-agers and elementary-aged children. Along with others in our church we’ve engaged the community in several outreach and service events, all of which have been well-attended by community residents.

Our biggest challenge has been connecting with adults. We’ve tried an Alpha group, other forms of small groups, and the simple act of inviting neighbors over for dinner, but have not yet seen community develop. In my conversation with Alan Hirsch, I asked him for advice and counsel for our situation.

In his wisdom, Alan didn’t provide us with any answers. Instead, he provided us with something better — a set of penetrating missionary questions that would help us exegete the culture. He encouraged us to look at the complex with missionary eyes, observe carefully, and ask three critical questions. Here they are:

What gatherings exist in that culture?

The first thing he encouraged us to observe was the gathering pattern of people, specifically, where, when, and how often people gather. In his Australian context people gather around sports, and he pointed out that although Australia is a small country, they routinely place fourth overall in the summer Olympics. People regular gather to watch sports, cheer on their team, and so forth.

What are people searching for in those gatherings?

Another participant in the discussion calls this “the need behind the deed.” What existential issues are people trying to meet through these gatherings? Alan shared the example of people who gather for gambling, many of whom are women. Rather than focusing primarily on the sin issue (whether the activity is right or wrong), we need to look behind it to see what need people are seeking to meet through this activity. In the gambling example people are often lonely (in need of companionship) and also financially-strapped and without resources (in need of hope).

What could the church do to redeem that?

This third question helps us understand how Jesus is good news to this culture. Alan quoted C.S. Lewis who said, “All our vices are virtues gone wrong.” (Which reminded me of another writer who describes the seven deadly sins as “disordered loves”). He also quoted another person (whose name I missed) who says that idolatry is better than atheism because people are still worshipping something.

What would community look like among that community?

To me this was the hardest question to get my head around. It’s the second part of Alan’s two step processing of seeding (being missional) and embedding (incarnating the church in that culture). The idea is that church might look very different than we expect — taking a form that fits the gathering model of the local culture, but still being a covenant community centered on Jesus Christ and practicing communion with Christ, growing as disciples, and engaging in mission together. 

More on the topic of Attractional and Incarnational Church Planting track at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida.

The Question:

At the same time that church attendance is increasing overall, the number of megachurches is growing and the size of those churches is growing. What does that mean?

The Answers:

Neil Cole: "Walmart has come to town and the mom-and-pop businesses are closing down because they can’t compete."

Greg Hawkins: "Our research revealed that…the number one thing people said is that they wanted to be challenged to grow spiritually and take my next step, to know the Bible in greater depth, and to have a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ…not dumbing it down….People are hungry for a relationship with God, and some churches are getting it right."

Alan Hirsch: "We cannot miss the issue of consumerism and the church…You can’t consume your way to discipleship."

The Discussion:

Whether your church is attractional or incarnational, are you seeing this deeper hunger for God and a relationship with Jesus in your context?

Defining Attractional

Alan Hirsch: “It’s not that you shouldn’t be attractive — all Christianity ought to be attractive. Instead it’s about a missionary stance towards culture.”

Neil Cole: “We live in a capitalistic culture with a consumeristic church… the idea is that the church and the people of God are sent into the world to bring the message of God.” Attractional is “trying to draw people to the church ministry by trying to impress people that Christians are strong.”

Sally Morgenthaler: “Is it image-based?”

Neil Cole: “The approach is symptomatic. We’re driven and led more by our definition of church — a event which takes place on Sunday morning…the whole premise [of attractional approach] is built on a faulty understanding of church.”

Darrin Patrick: “You see things as buildings and technology as things in culture which can be used, and that people like to come and corporately worship, both Christian and non-Christians…and that those who have gifts of teaching, that God can use those in large groups. You see that in church history….[What is incarnational?] Christians live out the gospel in their context. Just as Jesus tabernacled among us.”

Greg Hawkins: “If you’re just trying to attract to get big, that’s nasty — that’s weird to me.”

I’ll be blogging this week from the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida — the largest gathering of church planters in North America.

Today and tomorrow I’m attending a panel discussion on Attractional and Incarnational Church Planting with Sally Morgenthaler, Alan Hirsch, Greg Hawkins, and Neil Cole.

But the best part of the interview was bragging about our team’s outreach ministry to the Emerald Glen apartment complex. 85% of the residents there have a household income of less than $10K a year, and one census showed just 13 married couples out of 240 units.

Life Journey has been active at Emerald Glen for several years now — participating in food distributions, running a Vacation Bible School, and hosting several outdoor parties.

But in August of 2005 that ministry grew exponentially  when a family from Life Journey intentionally moved into that apartment complex as incarnational missionaries. It took a while to figure out the most effective way to reach people, but last Easter we started a small group for children, which soon became two groups, and has since extended into a third group aimed at junior high students.

We’re also in process to start an after-school program in the complex — offering academic mentoring and life-skills mentoring in addition to our current focus on spiritual growth.

Every time I share this story I get excited! I love what God is doing through our people to serve “the least of these,” and, in so doing, to serve Jesus.

This is, of course, no startling revelation. In his book Pour Your Heart Into It, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz describes the conscious decision the company made in the 1990s to change their focus. No longer would they try to move as people through the store as quickly as possible. Instead they would focus on increasing the time their customers spent in the store. Their goal was to transform Starbucks into the  ”third place” that Ray Oldenburg describes in his book The Great, Good Place. Yes, people would still come for the coffee. But they would come back — again and again — for the community.

Here’s how this works in my own life. I visit the same location of my local Starbucks about three times a week, almost always at the same time of day. I’ve subscribed to the unlimited T-Mobile HotSpot service so I always have access to the Internet, but most of the time instead of surfing the web, I end up talking to the same group of guys, also Starbucks regulars.

In fact, one guy named Daniel (who is there every day) is a connector — he’s constantly introducing me to different people as “Pastor David.” I jokingly tell my congregation that I actually pastor two churches: Life Journey and “St. Arbucks.” And thanks to Daniel, that joke is becoming more of a reality.

There’s a McDonalds within a few hundred feet of this particular Starbucks. Their premium coffee is actually quite good. They also have unlimited Internet access. And, since I’m already an AT&T Yahoo! DSL subscriber – I can get that wi-fi access at 1/10th of the price I pay for my HotSpot service.

But here’s the thing. While I’m at Starbucks three times a week, I’ve probably been in this McDonald’s three times — ever. When I show up at Starbucks, the barista not only knows my name, she knows my favorite drinks. When I show up at Starbucks, I’m greeted by guys who know my name and a little bit of my story. I know a little bit of their story, too. Sure, we enjoy our coffee. But we enjoy our community even more. None of that happens at McDonalds, and I’m pretty confident it wouldn’t happen no matter how many times a week I came in for coffee.

I hope that my church is more like Starbucks than McDonalds. The reality is that people can get a lot better “coffee” from online sermons, TV, and the radio then they can get from my messages. And while I work hard each week to make sure the “coffee” is freshly-brewed (sometimes too hard!), I think that the Spirit is often whispering into my ear, “David, it’s not about the coffee…”

We've been going just 12 weeks, and we already have over 45 kids attending the new children's small groups that we have started. What started as just one group expanded this week to three — K-2nd, 3rd-5th, and a new group for junior high that started on Tuesday.

The whole thing started when one of our families moved into this community as incarnational missionaries. They left behind a well-paying job in the oilfields, a house on several acres of land, and their kids left the best high school in the district. Now they live in a small, low-income apartment in the complex.

The place is in a pretty rough neighborhood — there have been a couple of fatal shootings in the area in just the last year. And the complex is filled with really poor people — about 90% live on less than $10,000 a year. That's not much by any standards, but it's particularly difficult in California.

This ministry, which we call Trailblazers, isn't just a few evenings a week. This family has become a magnet for the children there, providing a safe place, and safe people for kids who don't have much of a sense of stability or safety.

We dream of what it would like for the Lord's Prayer to come true in this place, that God's will would be done in this apartment complex as it is in heaven. It's a big dream, but we have a big God…

I was visiting one of my fellow church planters in a different city yesterday. He’s done an absolutely amazing job of building relationships within the community — so much so that he has people coming up to him and asking when they can come visit his church (they launch worship later this fall).

Anyway, one of his community connections was with the local Kiwanis group. Now, I’ve heard of the Kiwanis, but had very little idea of what they actually do. Sadly, after spending an hour at one of their meetings, I still had no idea of what they were about.

What I did experience was a set of unfamiliar routines, rituals and language. I was more than a little surpised when, after the pledge of allegiance, they pulled out the Kiwanis songbook and we started singing (acappella!) some tunes from the 1950s.

Pretty soon people were standing up and fining each other — dropping $1 bills into a bucket. Later on, the same thing happened with things called “happy dollars” and “sad dollars.”

Early in the meeting, the President set a few pieces of chiclet-type gum in front of each person’s placemat. Later in the meeting she began to call out those in the room who had a green chiclet in front of them. I looked down at my own chiclet and saw that it was, indeed, green! Now, I’m a pretty outgoing guy, but I was definitely hoping that I would not have to participate in whatever green-chiclet ritual was about to happen next. (Wisely, they knew I was a guest and skipped over me.)

The whole meeting was filled with jargon — from the roles of the different officers to the names of other groups (something called the Kee-Wins?). Only once did the youngest member of the group (and the only other person in the room under the age of 50) attempt to explain these terms for my benefit.

The point of this post isn’t to pick on the Kiwanis Club. I asked my friend after the meeting, and the group really does some good work in the community.

What I learned is how easy it is to exist as part of a sub-culture that is completely foreign to outsiders. And all of that made me wonder how much we do the same thing at my church. We want to be sensitive here, but it takes a lot of conscious energy and effort to avoid becoming a subculture — even a friendly one that has a very real, very needed role in our community.

So, thanks to the Kiwanis, and to my friend, for opening my eyes to how the unchurched see my church.

• When it comes to evangelism, we need to be after people’s hearts and not their behavior.
• Regarding discipleship, the focus needs to shift from information to transformation.

He writes, “The only way we will ever be different is if the practice of Christianity is more important than the instruction. The gauge is not how much a person knows but how that person lives.” (Pg. 68, emphasis mine)

He says that the secret to this is not more information, but more imitation. In his church, they integrate the Sunday morning teaching with both small groups and people’s personal worship. He doesn’t say it specifically, but my guess is that reducing the content of instruction to just one thing per week almost automatically shifts the focus to application.

He closes this chapter with a strong focus on the role of the Holy Spirit in real transformation, and suggests that we settle for conversion because we don’t really expect that much from Jesus — that we’re content with what Dallas Willard calls the “gospel of sin-management.”

This chapter closes the introductory material of the book. The rest of the book focuses on the how of transformation, both for individuals and the world.