Why YOU Should Plant a Church by Bob Hyatt
Bob Hyatt writes in
Next Wave:
Through my experience in church planting I have learned that there’s a hard way to do this and an easy way. The hard way involves plans and proposals, hundreds of thousands in seed money, denominational strings and a host of headaches. “Start with a bang!” they will tell you. “Mailers to every home in three zip codes!” they will advise you. A full band! Complete children’s ministry! Advertising!!!!
Don’t listen.
Start small. Raise some support, trust God for the rest and get a job at Starbucks if need be. Let your community be what it will be. Refuse to do for the people who come the ministry that they should do for themselves. Concentrate on laying a foundation of community and common core values and let your church grow organically without superimposing a grand “vision” on it.
When we were still in the dream phase of this thing people would ask me- “What will it look like?” I grew to love answering “I have no earthly idea.” All I could say was that if a bunch of cloggers and bluegrass musicians showed up, well… we’d be the clogging church. If a bunch of skate punks showed up, we’d be the skate church. I wasn’t out to niche target-market our community, and so felt great freedom to just sit back and watch what happened. I still feel that freedom…
Like I said, it’s not rocket science. You can do this thing. Just look at the guys Jesus started with…
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3 comments:
Very good. But remember- we may plant and we may water, but God gives the increase. And it is his work, so even if it looks like a failure in the "world's" eyes, it is still accomplishing His purpose.
Also, the message is salvation, and reaching people with the message is the goal. Maybe God will fly you into Ethiopia just to explain his truth to one in the desert or he may have you preach to thousands. The point is, are you willing to serve in both capacities. Are you willing to be used for his glory?
Interesting approach to church-planting, i've obviously been thinking alot about this and it sounds very familiar to how I feel about the whole idea. While i have lots of ideas and have talked with many people who "know something" about church planting you know what can happen with ... the best laid plans of mice and men... well i think you understand. This is actually something that i find refreshing because i'm becoming almost tired of using the word church-planting for what God is doing with me. I'm not so sure that this is the right word (church-planting), while i do believe that God might ultimately have it look like some form of a new church i'm not convinced that it has to start that way. If we can focus on God (and Jesus), living our lives together as followers of Jesus, and actively persuing the opportunities that God puts before us with others who don't know Him then maybe we'll have a chance to gather others around what God wants to do and not around some big hopla of our own ideas of what a cool church would be like. Oh and by the way, I'm planning on making my income by other means.
Maybe you would prefer to call it "disciple-making" (Mt 28)rather than church planting? God already has his church and we are the living stones of it. The term church planting has always left the impression in my mind of kingdom-building. Too many times it seemed to me to be men building little kingdoms for God that they called churches. God doesn't need my little kingdom, he needs my faithfulness to live for him and reach those around me with the message of His Kingdom. And when he chooses to form a community of believers he will form it in the size he wants, to fulfill the purpose he desires, and to be a community for as long as he deigns.
So let's go looking for more living stones to add to His Building, instead of places to "plant churches". And as God raises up communities of believers, rejoice at the light being given to a dark world- whether you were a part of that particular "work" or not.
BTW- although everyone uses "the workman is worthy of his labor" to justify compensation packages for those in "Christian Work", I applaud your desire to be like Paul.
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