How do we engage our communities? That is a huge question all churches, but especially church plants, need to answer. How do we ensure we are known? How do we reach out to the community? How do we meet people, invite people, disciple people?
The default from a previous generation is to hold evangelistic events, good quality events at which the gospel is spoken or which function as bridge building barrier breakers. Except this makes an assumption I'm just not sure we can make anymore; that our people are plugged into their communities. I'm not sure this is the case. Certainly in my experience it is the minority of church members that bring a guest. Many simply don't know anyone to bring, or their work is so distant a commute from their home and church that it is too far for people to consider coming, many of our churches contain a considerable number of commuters which makes inviting their friends harder because they are less likely to come (or we simply believe they are).
So how do we change this? We need to readopt the parish mentality, that the area around our church is our mission field. That ought to be reflected in a number of things:
1. Get people to live in the area where your church meets and work within a 15 minute drive. This creates a sense of shared mission. Put simply people will disengage from reaching the community if they don't live in it. (Evangelism is already hard to get people to do, I wonder if living like that is a short cut to not having to invite anyone without a guilty conscience?)
2. As pastors we must see the area as our parish and connect with it. I guess for some of us this is easier than others. Geography will define the limits of our patch naturally, but even where this isn't the case I wonder if it'd help to have an area we view as ours.
3. Pray for people in your parish by name. This is only possible if we've done the above.
4. Preach addressing the issues the parish faces. Not in terms of what passage or series we pick but in terms of some of the issues we address. What are the local fears? Where do people falsely turn for their security? What are the things they rely on? What are their hopes and dreams? And how does the gospel as revealed in the passage we are preaching confront, challenge and address those?
5. Connect your church to your parish. That is one of our challenges, for those who live out of area I need to be thinking through how I get them to connect with individuals in it. Because once they get to know and care about individuals they will pray for them and naturally want them to come to know Jesus.
Our area is naturally defined by geography, though that is changing as it grows through housing development. But I know my parish. I walk it everyday with the dog. I do everything I can in that parish, play football twice a week, send my kids to school, and so on. That means I am getting to know people and am getting known by people. At the school gates every morning and afternoon there is the chance to speak to the same people, to listen, to care, to break down some barriers. We've even had some parents approach us to ask out of the blue for pastoral help because they just need someone to talk to. Those people we meet are the natural people for me to invite to any and every evangelistic event we run. For some people these events have become a yearly staple, they put them in their calendar before they are invited, often asking about it before I've even done the invites.
And it gives me a wealth of people to pray for. As a leader I need to lead in evangelism. If I haven't got out of the office and gone fishing for men why would anyone else? If I haven't prioritised meeting those who desperately need Jesus why would anyone else? And if I'm not meeting these people and listening to them I won't preach in such a way that their deepest need and pressing issues are addressed in the gospel, and that won't encourage anyone to invite their friends.
Showing posts with label church planting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church planting. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
Thursday, 12 October 2017
Crossing cultures?
I was reading an historical fiction book last week based in India under the Raj, what stood out for me particularly was the position of those who were half Indian and half English. They were accepted by neither and suffered quite badly from both parts of society they lived in.
It made me stop and think about the challenge of middle class planters planting into working class and deprived areas. I struggle to place myself in terms of class, I guess I'm middle class, but I'll let you decide. On one side my Grandad was a farm labourer he lived in a tithe cottage until he and my grandma died paying I think 50p a week rent. They were never wealthy, none of their children went to university. My maternal grandparents were very different, landowner farmers and clearly quite wealthy, at least back when that was possible in farming. Added to that my dad had a management job, we were encouraged to do well at school, college and then go to university. I then trained as a teacher and taught for 5 years before entering ministry. So far so very middle class, though with working class roots.
Then we came to Yorkshire and then planted Grace Church into an ex-RAF base, with lots of social housing and some more affluent areas, in many ways we have all the divisions of a town in a more compressed area. It was an area intensely segregated along base housing lines. And with a slightly unique former forces feel. It is a hard place to plant, we have seen fruit, but it has not been low hanging, but hard graft. And increasingly I find myself not quite fitting in in either social class. I've discovered I've quickly adopted the same chips on my shoulder as those we work predominantly alongside, though perhaps with the added zeal of the converted ex-smoker, in terms of class. I see so many privileges that are taken for granted by so many Churches and Christians who don't stop to think about who they are not reaching in how we do things, who we are reaching, accessibility, funding ministry etc... Who swallow the media line about the undeserving poor and the feckless welfare spongers. When reality is far from that for the vast majority.
But I also find that I don't quite fit with those we work alongside, we have some shared experiences but so many that are different. My assumptions and theirs about childhood, food, bills, schooling, parenting and so on are so very different. But and here's the key we listen and learn and love. And we seek to apply the gospel again and again in our actions and our conversation committed to people and the area.
One of the fallacies in the UK church scene is that you need people with working class and deprived backgrounds to plant into those areas. In some ways it would be a huge advantage, but in another it ways it comes with some big potential drawbacks. What these areas need is people of whatever class who will love and listen and serve in humility. It needs people who don't assume they know the answers but come with compassionate determination to listen and empower not assume and solve. We need people who love Jesus and show that by loving people, who cross divides, who accept differences, who don't confuse gospel values and cultural or class values. Who will commit to discipling those who are very different from them and train up leaders over the long term from any and every social background. We need people who are prepared to be between cultures for Christ.
It made me stop and think about the challenge of middle class planters planting into working class and deprived areas. I struggle to place myself in terms of class, I guess I'm middle class, but I'll let you decide. On one side my Grandad was a farm labourer he lived in a tithe cottage until he and my grandma died paying I think 50p a week rent. They were never wealthy, none of their children went to university. My maternal grandparents were very different, landowner farmers and clearly quite wealthy, at least back when that was possible in farming. Added to that my dad had a management job, we were encouraged to do well at school, college and then go to university. I then trained as a teacher and taught for 5 years before entering ministry. So far so very middle class, though with working class roots.
Then we came to Yorkshire and then planted Grace Church into an ex-RAF base, with lots of social housing and some more affluent areas, in many ways we have all the divisions of a town in a more compressed area. It was an area intensely segregated along base housing lines. And with a slightly unique former forces feel. It is a hard place to plant, we have seen fruit, but it has not been low hanging, but hard graft. And increasingly I find myself not quite fitting in in either social class. I've discovered I've quickly adopted the same chips on my shoulder as those we work predominantly alongside, though perhaps with the added zeal of the converted ex-smoker, in terms of class. I see so many privileges that are taken for granted by so many Churches and Christians who don't stop to think about who they are not reaching in how we do things, who we are reaching, accessibility, funding ministry etc... Who swallow the media line about the undeserving poor and the feckless welfare spongers. When reality is far from that for the vast majority.
But I also find that I don't quite fit with those we work alongside, we have some shared experiences but so many that are different. My assumptions and theirs about childhood, food, bills, schooling, parenting and so on are so very different. But and here's the key we listen and learn and love. And we seek to apply the gospel again and again in our actions and our conversation committed to people and the area.
One of the fallacies in the UK church scene is that you need people with working class and deprived backgrounds to plant into those areas. In some ways it would be a huge advantage, but in another it ways it comes with some big potential drawbacks. What these areas need is people of whatever class who will love and listen and serve in humility. It needs people who don't assume they know the answers but come with compassionate determination to listen and empower not assume and solve. We need people who love Jesus and show that by loving people, who cross divides, who accept differences, who don't confuse gospel values and cultural or class values. Who will commit to discipling those who are very different from them and train up leaders over the long term from any and every social background. We need people who are prepared to be between cultures for Christ.
Monday, 4 September 2017
Reflections 10 years in...
If you'd asked me where we would be ten years into planting if I'm honest it is not where we find ourselves. I'd have envisaged more people joining us, more people coming to faith, and probably us preparing now to plant again. Many of those ideas were born out of the conferences available on Church planting and having discussions and reading books written by other planters. Most of the speakers at the conferences were those whose churches had grown quickly, most were either from the US - let's be honest a whole different ball game to the UK in so many ways - or from towns or cities with university populations.
Ten years in seems good point at which to reflect on a few things because we aren't where I'd envisaged us being and I'm not disappointed with that, I am grateful to God for his undeserved grace. Maybe these reflections will help some of those thinking about, or about to, or who have just, planted.
Seek out those who have planted in situations like yours, listen to their stories, ask them honestly to share the joys and hardships not just the headlines. Planters feel a great pressure to talk about the positives and the successes, those coming along rather than those who have left the plant team after a few weeks and so on. In our experience planting has been hard, joyful, exhilarating, exhausting, heartbreaking and God glorifying, often from one day to the next, sometimes from one hour, or moment, to the next. In non-university towns planting is hard graft, it is low and slow, it is gradual and sometimes it feels as if it has stalled or gone backwards. Seek out those stories and people and learn all you can from them. Gospel Partnerships may be a good place to start looking for such people rather than big conferences or books about church planting.
Pray for your daily bread. Reflecting on ten years this is perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned. Jesus doesn't teach us to pray for 6 months time, and he wisely tells us each day has enough trouble of its own. That has certainly been true in our ten years. There have been times when the church has felt secure and stable but also many times when it has felt fragile and weak, when the fear has been will we still be here in 6 months. And in such times I needed to pray for my daily bread, to deal with today not worry about tomorrow or March. That isn't saying we don't plan or dream we do, but I'm learning - too slowly - to pray for my daily bread in a church context. Planting is hard.
Reach the lost with the gospel. We don't plant churches to recycle God's sheep. We don't plant churches to give believers in Bible teaching churches another option, or we shouldn't either as individuals or denominations. There's a great temptation to welcome such people, especially because of the pressure we too often feel about numbers, about growth. But we plant churches to see the lost saved and discipled. As a church we need to keep that at the top of the agenda because it too readily slips down the priorities.
Pastor believers with the gospel. I think this has been one of the things I most frequently made a mess of during our ten years. I wanted to reach the lost and yet on day one, 2nd Sept 2007, we were a church with all the pastoral problems involved in that, and to be brutally honest I took too long to see that and so we weren't set up for robust pastoral care. We spent hours talking about how we would reach the lost; reading, dreaming, engaging with etc... but we invested little time as a launch team preparing means of and planning to provide pastoral care for believers. Naively I assumed teaching the Bible would be enough, along with some pastoral visits, and that in a small team I and the other leaders would see, know and respond to needs as they arose. It meant pastoral care was too patchy, depending on how much you would reveal, how quickly, and to whom, who you knew and how well you knew them. By God's grace it has been a thrill to see the church grow in this area over the years, to see people grow in visiting and loving and pastoring those around them in the gospel. Though often its still feels as if our needs outweigh our resources.
Buildings matter. If I could suggest three things to a church looking to plant this would now be one of them; find a building for your plant to call home. We meet and have always met in a school. There are lots of positives with that, and we are very grateful for the good relationship we enjoy with the school. It has opened doors and provided many opportunities. But if I was planting again I'd look for a building from the beginning. In the area we meet entering homes is fraught with social complexity, meeting in a school provides challenges in terms of running things mid-week among other things. And I think having a permanent premises gives you a footprint in the area and makes a statement about permanence and commitment, especially important in an area like ours where children's centres and other community outreach initiatives have proved short lived and simply left people feeling let down again.
Partner with others. Perhaps the most significant thing in our making 10 years both as a church and with me here as pastor have been gospel hearted partnerships. Bessacarr Evangelical Church has been an incredible blessing to us; generous with both the time of their staff and their money, and also being forgiving of me in a way parents often have to be. Other partnerships have provided financial support and encouragement at key times, maybe sometimes when those involved haven't realised how crucial their partnership and encouragement has been. God given partnerships are a blessing and planters and planted churches need to to do all they can to cultivate them before, during and after planting.
God is good and his grace has sustained us, his plans and purposes have been far beyond our imagining and we pray that as we move into year 11 God would bring others to taste and see his goodness through his people.
Ten years in seems good point at which to reflect on a few things because we aren't where I'd envisaged us being and I'm not disappointed with that, I am grateful to God for his undeserved grace. Maybe these reflections will help some of those thinking about, or about to, or who have just, planted.
Seek out those who have planted in situations like yours, listen to their stories, ask them honestly to share the joys and hardships not just the headlines. Planters feel a great pressure to talk about the positives and the successes, those coming along rather than those who have left the plant team after a few weeks and so on. In our experience planting has been hard, joyful, exhilarating, exhausting, heartbreaking and God glorifying, often from one day to the next, sometimes from one hour, or moment, to the next. In non-university towns planting is hard graft, it is low and slow, it is gradual and sometimes it feels as if it has stalled or gone backwards. Seek out those stories and people and learn all you can from them. Gospel Partnerships may be a good place to start looking for such people rather than big conferences or books about church planting.
Pray for your daily bread. Reflecting on ten years this is perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned. Jesus doesn't teach us to pray for 6 months time, and he wisely tells us each day has enough trouble of its own. That has certainly been true in our ten years. There have been times when the church has felt secure and stable but also many times when it has felt fragile and weak, when the fear has been will we still be here in 6 months. And in such times I needed to pray for my daily bread, to deal with today not worry about tomorrow or March. That isn't saying we don't plan or dream we do, but I'm learning - too slowly - to pray for my daily bread in a church context. Planting is hard.
Reach the lost with the gospel. We don't plant churches to recycle God's sheep. We don't plant churches to give believers in Bible teaching churches another option, or we shouldn't either as individuals or denominations. There's a great temptation to welcome such people, especially because of the pressure we too often feel about numbers, about growth. But we plant churches to see the lost saved and discipled. As a church we need to keep that at the top of the agenda because it too readily slips down the priorities.
Pastor believers with the gospel. I think this has been one of the things I most frequently made a mess of during our ten years. I wanted to reach the lost and yet on day one, 2nd Sept 2007, we were a church with all the pastoral problems involved in that, and to be brutally honest I took too long to see that and so we weren't set up for robust pastoral care. We spent hours talking about how we would reach the lost; reading, dreaming, engaging with etc... but we invested little time as a launch team preparing means of and planning to provide pastoral care for believers. Naively I assumed teaching the Bible would be enough, along with some pastoral visits, and that in a small team I and the other leaders would see, know and respond to needs as they arose. It meant pastoral care was too patchy, depending on how much you would reveal, how quickly, and to whom, who you knew and how well you knew them. By God's grace it has been a thrill to see the church grow in this area over the years, to see people grow in visiting and loving and pastoring those around them in the gospel. Though often its still feels as if our needs outweigh our resources.
Buildings matter. If I could suggest three things to a church looking to plant this would now be one of them; find a building for your plant to call home. We meet and have always met in a school. There are lots of positives with that, and we are very grateful for the good relationship we enjoy with the school. It has opened doors and provided many opportunities. But if I was planting again I'd look for a building from the beginning. In the area we meet entering homes is fraught with social complexity, meeting in a school provides challenges in terms of running things mid-week among other things. And I think having a permanent premises gives you a footprint in the area and makes a statement about permanence and commitment, especially important in an area like ours where children's centres and other community outreach initiatives have proved short lived and simply left people feeling let down again.
Partner with others. Perhaps the most significant thing in our making 10 years both as a church and with me here as pastor have been gospel hearted partnerships. Bessacarr Evangelical Church has been an incredible blessing to us; generous with both the time of their staff and their money, and also being forgiving of me in a way parents often have to be. Other partnerships have provided financial support and encouragement at key times, maybe sometimes when those involved haven't realised how crucial their partnership and encouragement has been. God given partnerships are a blessing and planters and planted churches need to to do all they can to cultivate them before, during and after planting.
God is good and his grace has sustained us, his plans and purposes have been far beyond our imagining and we pray that as we move into year 11 God would bring others to taste and see his goodness through his people.
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Church Planting: Bring your coffin...
Church is about relationships. The story of the universe is about the relationship we were made for it's ruin, it's redemption and it's final perfect realisation and enjoyment. It should therefore be no surprise that relationships matter. But it should also be no surprise that the ruin of the fall marred relationships and continues to mar relationships. It should also be no surprise that church is about relationships. Every "one another" in the Bible is predicated on relationships which are significantly developed and committed enough to enable that one anothering to happen.
But our society is increasingly moving away from relationships, certainly on anything more than a superficial level. Ask yourself honestly how many people are you truly friends with? How many are committed deeply to your well being? So deeply that they will put themselves out for you in times of crisis? Who rejoice with you, mourn with you, sit with you, listen to you? Whose very presence brings comfort even in silence? How many of your friendships are like walking through a puddle rather than swimming in the depths of an ocean? If we're honest these relationships are few and far between. Increasingly sociologists tell us they are becoming scarcer, the number of those deep committed friendships we experience has reduced some suggest by as much as half. We settle for superficial friendship whilst longing for something deeper.
There is another facet of this change. As our society has become more fluid, more temporary, more mobile so our commitment to a place, to people, to community and to church has shifted. In the 1960's many people would attend 1 or 2 churches in their lifetime. Now many of us have attended more than that before we leave home because we have moved with our parents work. That mobility subtly influences the way we think of church and in turn impacts the churches we plant and their effect on the area evangelistically.
When we planted I asked people who were coming with us to commit to a minimum of 5 years. How do you feel about that? About right? Too great a commitment? I now think that was a totally wrong expectation to set. Instead I should have said bring your coffin with you. Come with me for life. Missionaries in earlier times often took their coffins with them because they didn't expect to return home, it was a sign of their commitment to the people they were going to reach with the gospel. How about us?
Pastor is that your expectation about your current pastorate? How long do you plan to be there? 5, 10, 15, 20, years? Is that a biblical expectation or a worldly one? Is that careerism or calling? Church member is that your expectation? Are you there until something better comes up or until the next promotion comes available? Or are you called too?
I particularly think that in working class and deprived communities being there for life matters. Committing to that early on matters because you will want to give up. You will experience push back, you will experience set backs, you will experience slander, you will experience unexpected barrier after barrier to the gospel. You will find that the slightest perceived slight or failure will bring the shutters that have taken so long to raise up crashing back down. You will find preconceived misconceptions about church, that surface and have to be refuted again and again. But you will also find a harvest field that is ripe for harvest amid the hardships and hard hearts. So church planters bring your coffin.
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Why Mission and therefore Church Planting matters Part 3
The final part of three on why mission and therefore church planting matters from Acts 1.
So the mission of God to glorify himself by bringing people to know and enjoy him as they were made to do has not changed. And the need of men and women to know God through Jesus and be saved from a lost eternity has not changed either. I wonder how that makes you feel?
Do you see the significance of this? This isn’t mission impossible, the message doesn’t self destruct in 10 seconds. The Apostles aren’t sent out alone. Neither are we, but unlike them we don’t need to wait. When we trust in Jesus for forgiveness, when we repent of our sin and ask him to be our Lord he promises and gives us the Holy Spirit. And by that empowering God equips us to be his witnesses; to take on his mission for his creation to delight in and enjoy life lived with Father, Son and Spirit. God doesn’t give us a character transplant to make us extroverts! He calls, equips and empowers us to witness to him as he has made us. We are to witness to who he is and what he has done for us and in us.
The mission can seem vast, it can seem overwhelming, if we take our eye off who God is and who he has given us.
Only one power exists on this planet, in this town, in this community that can bring lasting change. Only the love of Jesus Christ that conquers sin, wipes out shame, heals wounds, and reconciles enemies can change the world one life at a time. And God has given that message to his church, to us, filled with his Spirit to bring others into his kingdom while we wait for that kingdom to be fully realised.
And notice one last thing. (10-11)The angels come and prod the disciples, don’t stand around waiting staring up into the sky, he’ll come back, yes, but don’t wait for it. Live in the light of it. God’s unchanging mission is for his people to witness to him. To break new ground with the gospel, see the lost saved and churches planted to disciple new believers.
So the mission of God to glorify himself by bringing people to know and enjoy him as they were made to do has not changed. And the need of men and women to know God through Jesus and be saved from a lost eternity has not changed either. I wonder how that makes you feel?
It's both thrilling and terrifying? But ‘I can’t do it’ we think, ‘it’s too big’, ‘where do we start’, ‘how do I choose who I share this good news with’ ‘where would we as a church seek to reach and how’? ‘I’m not an extrovert or a public speaker...’ Jesus anticipates and demolishes every potential excuse the Apostles and we might make in(v8) of Acts 1.
Jesus says two things to them regarding timing of this massive mission: Wait and Go.
Wait
The disciples aren’t sent out straight away, they’re commanded to wait(4). They’re to be Jesus witnesses but they can’t do it themselves, and Jesus doesn’t send them alone. What are they waiting for? (5)“you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” (8)“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses...”
Often we think wrongly about the Apostles and the early church. We read the stories and assume they were rocket fuelled extrovert types, naturally charismatic powerful speakers, who were brave and fearless and loved living life on the edge. You know the sort; adrenaline junkies who in their spare time relax by base jumping, free climbing or snowboarding. By thinking of them like that we excuse ourselves from witnessing because that’s not me, so we limit witnessing to Jesus as just for the extrovert or the adrenaline junkie.
But Luke in his gospel has shown us they aren’t like that. They‘re just like us; prone to avoiding confrontation as they slip away from the mob in the garden, prone to worry and anxiety in the face of a storm, prone to want their comfort as they try to send the 5,000 away rather than feed them, prone to saving their skin rather than standing up for Jesus round the fire in the courtyard.
So what changes? How come these men and women turn the world upside? God doesn’t change their personality type, if you’ve been praying for that you’ve been praying for the wrong thing. These men turn the world upside down because Jesus keeps his promise and he sends them the Holy Spirit. They aren’t alone as they go to witness to Jesus, God the Holy Spirit fills them enabling them, and us, to know God and enjoy new life in Jesus. He helps us know we are loved and share in the Father, Son and Spirit’s joy and delight in each other. And he causes that love and delight to overflow into our words and actions as we witness to Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.
He says wait for that to happen and then GO.
Often we think wrongly about the Apostles and the early church. We read the stories and assume they were rocket fuelled extrovert types, naturally charismatic powerful speakers, who were brave and fearless and loved living life on the edge. You know the sort; adrenaline junkies who in their spare time relax by base jumping, free climbing or snowboarding. By thinking of them like that we excuse ourselves from witnessing because that’s not me, so we limit witnessing to Jesus as just for the extrovert or the adrenaline junkie.
But Luke in his gospel has shown us they aren’t like that. They‘re just like us; prone to avoiding confrontation as they slip away from the mob in the garden, prone to worry and anxiety in the face of a storm, prone to want their comfort as they try to send the 5,000 away rather than feed them, prone to saving their skin rather than standing up for Jesus round the fire in the courtyard.
So what changes? How come these men and women turn the world upside? God doesn’t change their personality type, if you’ve been praying for that you’ve been praying for the wrong thing. These men turn the world upside down because Jesus keeps his promise and he sends them the Holy Spirit. They aren’t alone as they go to witness to Jesus, God the Holy Spirit fills them enabling them, and us, to know God and enjoy new life in Jesus. He helps us know we are loved and share in the Father, Son and Spirit’s joy and delight in each other. And he causes that love and delight to overflow into our words and actions as we witness to Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.
He says wait for that to happen and then GO.
Do you see the significance of this? This isn’t mission impossible, the message doesn’t self destruct in 10 seconds. The Apostles aren’t sent out alone. Neither are we, but unlike them we don’t need to wait. When we trust in Jesus for forgiveness, when we repent of our sin and ask him to be our Lord he promises and gives us the Holy Spirit. And by that empowering God equips us to be his witnesses; to take on his mission for his creation to delight in and enjoy life lived with Father, Son and Spirit. God doesn’t give us a character transplant to make us extroverts! He calls, equips and empowers us to witness to him as he has made us. We are to witness to who he is and what he has done for us and in us.
The mission can seem vast, it can seem overwhelming, if we take our eye off who God is and who he has given us.
Only one power exists on this planet, in this town, in this community that can bring lasting change. Only the love of Jesus Christ that conquers sin, wipes out shame, heals wounds, and reconciles enemies can change the world one life at a time. And God has given that message to his church, to us, filled with his Spirit to bring others into his kingdom while we wait for that kingdom to be fully realised.
And notice one last thing. (10-11)The angels come and prod the disciples, don’t stand around waiting staring up into the sky, he’ll come back, yes, but don’t wait for it. Live in the light of it. God’s unchanging mission is for his people to witness to him. To break new ground with the gospel, see the lost saved and churches planted to disciple new believers.
Mission matters and therefore church planting matters as we establish disciples in every city, town village and suburb that are reaching out to others with the gospel. The church is the visible embodiment of our mission to witness to Jesus.
Monday, 13 March 2017
Why Mission and therefore Church Planting matters - Part 2
This is part 2 of 3 posts on why we should be engaged in mission and how that necessitates church planting in all its forms from Acts 1.
The kingdom is both now and not yet. The kingdom has come because Jesus is God’s anointed king, the Messiah. His people enjoy living under his rule as a result of his rescue. But (10-11)he’s going away, and his kingdom will only be fully realised when he returns. The disciples (7)live in the now but not yet time of the kingdom.
It’s a bit like pregnancy. When you’re pregnant you know you’re having a baby, you’re waiting and getting ready. Things have changed and are changing and yet the real change is still to come. Until the moment when the child is born are you a mum or a dad? Well, both yes and no. You are already a parent but you haven’t yet realised your parenthood.
We live in that same time, between Christ’s comings. We live in the kingdom, preparing for it, enjoying the reality of it, but awaiting the full realisation of it.
And Jesus gives his disciples a task between times; to be his witnesses. To tell others about him, as they stake their lives on who Jesus is and what he’s done. Luke 24:46-48 tells us what they witness to “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” Jesus will bring about the kingdom through them, as they go to the nations and tell others who Jesus is and what he’s done because otherwise they face a lost eternity.
You might be thinking ‘yes but that is the Apostles’ job, it’s given to them.’ As you read through Acts we see that they teach and witness to others who come to faith and automatically start teaching and witnessing to others, who come to faith and automatically start teaching and witnessing to others, and naturally churches gather and are formed. Acts isn’t just about the Apostles, this isn’t just their responsibility. For every Peter and John there’s a Dorcus, Cornelius or Philip. For every Paul there’s an Apollos, Priscilla or Aquila.
Acts 1:8 isn’t just the Apostles’ mission it’s the mission of every believer. Turn to Acts 28:30-31, read it, (yes you right now, unless you've memorised it that includes you, read it) it feels a bit unfinished doesn’t it? Paul is witnessing in Rome, lots of places have heard the good news about Jesus, but it hasn’t yet reached the ends of the earth yet. We are left thinking what happens next? It is deliberate because the mission still stands. When we trust Jesus as Saviour he becomes our Lord and his mission becomes our mission, his glory becomes our concern as we enter the family business, the world needs to hear the truth about Jesus.
Someone, I don't remember who, said the world needs the gospel because for believers this world is all the hell we will ever know, but for unbelievers it is all the heaven they will ever experience. The sheer lostness of the lost must compel us to take the gospel to them.
There’s no-one the gospel is not for. It is for all classes, all races, all genders. And it isn’t just about leaving wherever some is and going to the ends of the earth, though it may mean that for some, it’s about witnessing where we are. Will you be a witness right now right where you are? And in Acts we see the Apostles strategy for doing this is through the church. Not lone ranger evangelists, but believers gathered together on mission to reach and disciple the lost together. It’s about churches looking at the places around us where the gospel doesn’t currently reach and thinking creatively and boldly and outside the box about how we witness there. It’s about looking at where churches are struggling to reach out and witness and revitalising and re-energising them with the gospel so they can witness.
As you think about your city, town or village this morning, where are those unreached places? Is it the council estates that are bounded by neighbourhood relationships? Which we drive past but at the moment aren’t reaching? Is it some of the surrounding towns or villages which are very much self contained units?
Only one power exists on this planet, in this town, this community that can bring lasting change. Only the love of Jesus Christ that conquers sin, wipes out shame, heals wounds, and reconciles enemies can change the world one life at a time. And that message has been given to God’s church, to us.
There’s no-one the gospel is not for. It is for all classes, all races, all genders. And it isn’t just about leaving wherever some is and going to the ends of the earth, though it may mean that for some, it’s about witnessing where we are. Will you be a witness right now right where you are? And in Acts we see the Apostles strategy for doing this is through the church. Not lone ranger evangelists, but believers gathered together on mission to reach and disciple the lost together. It’s about churches looking at the places around us where the gospel doesn’t currently reach and thinking creatively and boldly and outside the box about how we witness there. It’s about looking at where churches are struggling to reach out and witness and revitalising and re-energising them with the gospel so they can witness.
As you think about your city, town or village this morning, where are those unreached places? Is it the council estates that are bounded by neighbourhood relationships? Which we drive past but at the moment aren’t reaching? Is it some of the surrounding towns or villages which are very much self contained units?
Only one power exists on this planet, in this town, this community that can bring lasting change. Only the love of Jesus Christ that conquers sin, wipes out shame, heals wounds, and reconciles enemies can change the world one life at a time. And that message has been given to God’s church, to us.
Why Mission and therefore Church Planting matters - Part 1
I'm going to post three short posts about why mission and church planting matters from Acts 1.
Part 1: The Unchanging mission of God(1-8)
When you remove the key leader often companies or movements struggle. Think of Manchester United since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, or the concerns about Apple without Steve Jobs.
When they crucified Jesus the Jewish leaders hoped that’d be the last they heard of him. That his disciples would drift back to their normal lives and Jesus and his works would become a fading memory. But on Easter Sunday Jesus rose again, death wasn’t the end, (Luke 24:46)just as the law and prophets promised. Jesus proves it conclusively to his followers(3). But now, here in Acts1, Jesus is about to go away, (2)he’s going to be taken up to heaven. The question is what will happen to the disciples without him? Will they go back to their fishing boats and tax booths? Will Jesus become a forgotten footnote in history?
Fast forward 30 years after Jesus’ ascension and the good news of Jesus has turned the world upside down. Jesus who never left the area surrounding Judea is known, worshipped and followed across Asia, Europe, Africa and elsewhere. How and why did that happen?
That’s the story of Acts. The explosion of the gospel from the backwater of Palestine across the world. And in his opening verses Luke wants Theophilus, and us as we read over his shoulder, to see why. (1-2)“In my first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day he was taken up...” Luke’s gospel is about who Jesus is and what he did before he ascended to heaven, Acts is the account of what Jesus does after his ascension. Jesus isn’t done when he ascends; Jesus is alive and reigning at God the Father’s right hand. And he isn’t distant; an isolated, pampered prince. He reigns and intercedes on behalf of his people and Acts will show us how. Acts isn’t the Acts of the Apostles. It’s the continuing Acts of the risen reigning Jesus at work by the Spirit in his people.
And that hasn’t changed. What is true in the first century is true this morning. Jesus is alive and reigning right now at his Father’s right hand. That’s the lens through which we view the world. All the chaos; the fractures caused by sin, the pain and hurt which is the result of rebellion against God, the evil which comes from wanting to rule ourselves is painfully real. But Jesus Christ is reigning over all. It doesn’t knock him off his throne. That’s our confidence, just as it was the church’s confidence in Acts as they faced external persecution and internal challenges, as they went to a hostile world with the gospel, Jesus reigns and rules. He is still on mission.
Jesus reigns, right now this morning, he will be reigning tomorrow as you go to work or school or home. And he is at work, it may be small and hidden, but he is at work.
You can imagine the disciples’ excitement can’t you? Like Christmas, birthday and bonfire night all rolled into one. Jesus is alive, raised to life again by God so now he’ll bring the kingdom he’s been teaching about into being. His rule will begin, his enemies will be defeated and everything will be amazing. So they ask “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” You can imagine the excited glances, smiling expectantly, like children waiting for the cake at a party as they ask the question.
They expect Jesus to bring his kingdom right now. But (7-8)Jesus wants them to understand the nature of the kingdom, the timing of the kingdom and their role in bringing the kingdom.
They ask about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. But God’s plans have always been much bigger than one nation. Jesus has been teaching them about (3)the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom has never been exclusively to one nation. Father, Son and Spirit have planned from eternity to reconcile, redeem and reunite all humanity. Jesus says “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
God’s plan has always been to reach and win the world. In Genesis 12 as an embryonic Israel is in promise form, the promise is of people, place, and protection but also God’s plan that “in you all families of the earth shall be blessed.” Throughout the Old Testament we see glimpses of that plan as Joseph blesses the nations by providing food, as Solomon’s wisdom impacts nations beyond Israel’s borders. As Rahab, Ruth, and others join God’s people by faith, as Jonah and Nahum are sent to the Assyrians, as Daniel and friends witness in Babylon. As the prophets cast a vision of God’s people as a light to the nations who flock to know God.
God’s plan has always been for people from every nation to enter his kingdom through faith in Jesus. To know the king, follow him and live enjoying his rule. And God invites, no he commands his people to share the family values. Mission not an option it is a necessity. Therefore planting churches, communities that hold out the gospel - not are inward looking and naval gazing - is an absolute must if we are to play our part in God's mission.
Part 1: The Unchanging mission of God(1-8)
When you remove the key leader often companies or movements struggle. Think of Manchester United since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, or the concerns about Apple without Steve Jobs.
When they crucified Jesus the Jewish leaders hoped that’d be the last they heard of him. That his disciples would drift back to their normal lives and Jesus and his works would become a fading memory. But on Easter Sunday Jesus rose again, death wasn’t the end, (Luke 24:46)just as the law and prophets promised. Jesus proves it conclusively to his followers(3). But now, here in Acts1, Jesus is about to go away, (2)he’s going to be taken up to heaven. The question is what will happen to the disciples without him? Will they go back to their fishing boats and tax booths? Will Jesus become a forgotten footnote in history?
Fast forward 30 years after Jesus’ ascension and the good news of Jesus has turned the world upside down. Jesus who never left the area surrounding Judea is known, worshipped and followed across Asia, Europe, Africa and elsewhere. How and why did that happen?
That’s the story of Acts. The explosion of the gospel from the backwater of Palestine across the world. And in his opening verses Luke wants Theophilus, and us as we read over his shoulder, to see why. (1-2)“In my first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day he was taken up...” Luke’s gospel is about who Jesus is and what he did before he ascended to heaven, Acts is the account of what Jesus does after his ascension. Jesus isn’t done when he ascends; Jesus is alive and reigning at God the Father’s right hand. And he isn’t distant; an isolated, pampered prince. He reigns and intercedes on behalf of his people and Acts will show us how. Acts isn’t the Acts of the Apostles. It’s the continuing Acts of the risen reigning Jesus at work by the Spirit in his people.
And that hasn’t changed. What is true in the first century is true this morning. Jesus is alive and reigning right now at his Father’s right hand. That’s the lens through which we view the world. All the chaos; the fractures caused by sin, the pain and hurt which is the result of rebellion against God, the evil which comes from wanting to rule ourselves is painfully real. But Jesus Christ is reigning over all. It doesn’t knock him off his throne. That’s our confidence, just as it was the church’s confidence in Acts as they faced external persecution and internal challenges, as they went to a hostile world with the gospel, Jesus reigns and rules. He is still on mission.
Jesus reigns, right now this morning, he will be reigning tomorrow as you go to work or school or home. And he is at work, it may be small and hidden, but he is at work.
You can imagine the disciples’ excitement can’t you? Like Christmas, birthday and bonfire night all rolled into one. Jesus is alive, raised to life again by God so now he’ll bring the kingdom he’s been teaching about into being. His rule will begin, his enemies will be defeated and everything will be amazing. So they ask “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” You can imagine the excited glances, smiling expectantly, like children waiting for the cake at a party as they ask the question.
They expect Jesus to bring his kingdom right now. But (7-8)Jesus wants them to understand the nature of the kingdom, the timing of the kingdom and their role in bringing the kingdom.
They ask about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. But God’s plans have always been much bigger than one nation. Jesus has been teaching them about (3)the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom has never been exclusively to one nation. Father, Son and Spirit have planned from eternity to reconcile, redeem and reunite all humanity. Jesus says “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
God’s plan has always been to reach and win the world. In Genesis 12 as an embryonic Israel is in promise form, the promise is of people, place, and protection but also God’s plan that “in you all families of the earth shall be blessed.” Throughout the Old Testament we see glimpses of that plan as Joseph blesses the nations by providing food, as Solomon’s wisdom impacts nations beyond Israel’s borders. As Rahab, Ruth, and others join God’s people by faith, as Jonah and Nahum are sent to the Assyrians, as Daniel and friends witness in Babylon. As the prophets cast a vision of God’s people as a light to the nations who flock to know God.
God’s plan has always been for people from every nation to enter his kingdom through faith in Jesus. To know the king, follow him and live enjoying his rule. And God invites, no he commands his people to share the family values. Mission not an option it is a necessity. Therefore planting churches, communities that hold out the gospel - not are inward looking and naval gazing - is an absolute must if we are to play our part in God's mission.
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
The power of simply sticking at it
Will you still be here in 6 months? A year? 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? That is a question churches need to ask leaders and congregation as they plant and are planted, especially in less affluent areas. In many working class and deprived areas people have been let down again and again by those who have promised commitment but then upped sticks and left when things got hard. Social workers, GP's, teachers, other support and caring professionals are no longer rooted in a community and often move on (fairly frequently in the case of social workers) meaning that support changes, new relationships need to be built and often previous progress and shared history is lost.
The same has been happening with help offered to families from children's centres and the like. The initial promise looked good but then the funding was cut, the case load piled up, promises were made and broken simply because there was so much to do. And now many of these centres have shut with nothing realistically in their place within the locality. Another promise of support that was no more than a promising castle quickly washed away by the tide.
The church must be different. It must both launch, learn, and relaunch but also anchor itself within such communities and commit for the long term. It must both change and adapt and yet stay and remain. We must expect suspicion about how long we will last, we must be careful to promise no more than we can deliver, and we must commit to loving no matter the initial rejection (which so often is just a fear of being let down again when you move on).
Gospel ministry, especially in hard to reach or Yorkshire places, needs stability and that stability starts with the leadership. Pastors are you called to ministry within that area or just to the ministry? Will you still be here in 15 years or be off when a bigger church comes calling? That's a question I would ask all pastors, not just planters. Elders, are you committed to the area and the people? Will you move here and commit your family to living in and among this community? Will you turn down a promotion if it means a move across country away from the church or are you only here until something else comes along (if so I'm not sure how that fits with biblical eldership)?
I wonder if there is also something else we need to think through in terms of planting off the back of this. If neighbourhood based communities need long term stickability I wonder if they need churches that are planted into permanent buildings rather than rented accommodation. Rented accommodation does not say commitment and stability it says short term and changeable even if that is not what our plan is. I wonder if, in those communities, having a building would go some way towards making a statement about commitment and perseverance? Almost saying I'm all in.
So what does this mean for church planting? It means we need to plant where we can into buildings. That raises the bar in terms of resourcing church plants if we need to buy a building or it means we ought to look for where existing gospel resources are. Either revitalising an existing but dying church or entering into a coalition with us that gives us use of the building. Both of those have their struggles and complexities but they also come with the bricks and mortar that offer opportunities and permanence.
Tuesday, 17 January 2017
CiYP: Church in Yorkshire Places
Contextualisation is vital. Missionaries spend time learning a language and a culture so that they can share the gospel effectively and plant God honouring churches that disciple people well given their particular context. I wonder sometimes whether we tend to forget that lesson in the UK. Simply assuming because something worked somewhere else it will work here in just the same way. But such an approach is dangerous and flawed because our regions have distinct flavours, histories and influences.
In fact it is one of my concerns as I look at the church in Yorkshire, the county with the lowest church attendance in the country, a church attendance on a par with Japan. We simply haven't spent enough time thinking about how we reach Yorkshire people with the gospel. We have tended to just do what everyone else is doing. Partly that is skewed by church planting in university towns where the majority of students and a significant chunk of the general populace are not from Yorkshire. Sheffield, Leeds, and York are not the norm in Yorkshire, though I wonder if even there churches are reaching the indigenous Yorkshire men and women or just the interlopers?
So what would it look like to contextualise? Yorkshire is not the South of England. Yorkshire people don't think like people from the home counties. So how do we reach them with the gospel? What would it look like to contextualise? To do Church in Yorkshire Places? Here are a few thoughts:
A Passion for Jesus
Middle Class (Southern) Evangelicalism tends to prize rational argument over passion. Yet spend time with Yorkshire people and you realise they are passionate and driven. A raised voice in conversation is not a sign of anger or loss of control or rationality but of concern and love and commitment. Our passion for Jesus must match that of the fan for his club, or the Yorkshire man for his county. Preach and proclaim the gospel with passion.
Working class mentality
If you ask a Yorkshire man what class he is he will look at you like you've gone mad. What class would you want to be, 'Of course I'm working class I'm from Yorkshire.' Being a Yorkshire man or woman defines your class not your occupation and it is historical not changeable. Many have been to uni and have traditionally middle class jobs but still define themselves as being working class, in fact many will resent the implication that they are middle class. They have working class values and virtues and we need to address those and think through how they have been shaped by gospel values, and how sin has warped them not simply value, assume, address and preach to middle class issues.
Local not national
Yorkshire people are passionate about being from Yorkshire, what other county devised it's own medal table for the Olympics. They care passionately about local issues. It is not that national or international issues don't matter but that local comes first. How do we in our engagement, evangelism, preparation, and preaching reflect that?
A suspicion of interlopers
There is an ingrained suspicion of outsiders, especially if you speak with a posh accent (unless you are from Harrogate). We have to work hard to overcome this, how? By accepting, loving and engaging with Yorkshire and it's quirks and eccentricities. And we must commit to long term listening engagement and friendship with our communities if we are an interloper. Listening matters, otherwise we reinforce the idea that we arrogantly presume to come in with all the answers. We don't. We have loads to learn and value and we will be richer for it.
Defined by hardship
Many communities in Yorkshire have had it hard. Do your research? Read local history about the miners strike and the loss of other traditional industries and understand how this has shaped, and is still shaping, communities. Read local history and talk to and listen to local people about the church in that area. People tend to define themselves by struggle and hardship. Which in turn can produce a can't do attitude and or a resentment of others who have 'had it easy'. In some cases we will find church has added to this hardship. We need to wrestle with how the gospel addresses and reshapes this? How do we plant and pastor churches that reshape this with gospel realism and thankfulness?
Mistrust of big project/society/organisations
Many have been let down by big promises made by big organisations or left disenchanted by unfulfilled promises and visions. This leads to a sense of mistrust of the big and of grandiose visions and plans. We need to plant and pastor churches that overcome this by being realistic, only promising what we can do and by being quick to admit mistakes if and when we have let people down. Working hard to win back trust through sheer love and commitment.
This is only scratching the surface of what is a very complex issue but one we need to face and think more deeply about as we pray and plan to evangelise Yorkshire for the glory of God by planting churches across this great county.
In fact it is one of my concerns as I look at the church in Yorkshire, the county with the lowest church attendance in the country, a church attendance on a par with Japan. We simply haven't spent enough time thinking about how we reach Yorkshire people with the gospel. We have tended to just do what everyone else is doing. Partly that is skewed by church planting in university towns where the majority of students and a significant chunk of the general populace are not from Yorkshire. Sheffield, Leeds, and York are not the norm in Yorkshire, though I wonder if even there churches are reaching the indigenous Yorkshire men and women or just the interlopers?
So what would it look like to contextualise? Yorkshire is not the South of England. Yorkshire people don't think like people from the home counties. So how do we reach them with the gospel? What would it look like to contextualise? To do Church in Yorkshire Places? Here are a few thoughts:
A Passion for Jesus
Middle Class (Southern) Evangelicalism tends to prize rational argument over passion. Yet spend time with Yorkshire people and you realise they are passionate and driven. A raised voice in conversation is not a sign of anger or loss of control or rationality but of concern and love and commitment. Our passion for Jesus must match that of the fan for his club, or the Yorkshire man for his county. Preach and proclaim the gospel with passion.
Working class mentality
If you ask a Yorkshire man what class he is he will look at you like you've gone mad. What class would you want to be, 'Of course I'm working class I'm from Yorkshire.' Being a Yorkshire man or woman defines your class not your occupation and it is historical not changeable. Many have been to uni and have traditionally middle class jobs but still define themselves as being working class, in fact many will resent the implication that they are middle class. They have working class values and virtues and we need to address those and think through how they have been shaped by gospel values, and how sin has warped them not simply value, assume, address and preach to middle class issues.
Local not national
Yorkshire people are passionate about being from Yorkshire, what other county devised it's own medal table for the Olympics. They care passionately about local issues. It is not that national or international issues don't matter but that local comes first. How do we in our engagement, evangelism, preparation, and preaching reflect that?
A suspicion of interlopers
There is an ingrained suspicion of outsiders, especially if you speak with a posh accent (unless you are from Harrogate). We have to work hard to overcome this, how? By accepting, loving and engaging with Yorkshire and it's quirks and eccentricities. And we must commit to long term listening engagement and friendship with our communities if we are an interloper. Listening matters, otherwise we reinforce the idea that we arrogantly presume to come in with all the answers. We don't. We have loads to learn and value and we will be richer for it.
Defined by hardship
Many communities in Yorkshire have had it hard. Do your research? Read local history about the miners strike and the loss of other traditional industries and understand how this has shaped, and is still shaping, communities. Read local history and talk to and listen to local people about the church in that area. People tend to define themselves by struggle and hardship. Which in turn can produce a can't do attitude and or a resentment of others who have 'had it easy'. In some cases we will find church has added to this hardship. We need to wrestle with how the gospel addresses and reshapes this? How do we plant and pastor churches that reshape this with gospel realism and thankfulness?
Mistrust of big project/society/organisations
Many have been let down by big promises made by big organisations or left disenchanted by unfulfilled promises and visions. This leads to a sense of mistrust of the big and of grandiose visions and plans. We need to plant and pastor churches that overcome this by being realistic, only promising what we can do and by being quick to admit mistakes if and when we have let people down. Working hard to win back trust through sheer love and commitment.
This is only scratching the surface of what is a very complex issue but one we need to face and think more deeply about as we pray and plan to evangelise Yorkshire for the glory of God by planting churches across this great county.
Thursday, 22 December 2016
A mistake we might regret
We need to do everything we can to ensure that the church does not lose its buildings. As I drive round Doncaster I see former churches everywhere, some are glaziers premises, some are carpet show rooms, some are houses, some are derelict. All of them would be better, as would the area they are in, for a thriving gospel witness in them. And so that leads me to think that we ought to be looking, and planting, so as to ensure the church does not lose buildings.
This is especially the case as it is predominantly in the less affluent and middle class areas where we are losing them. I can think of three places off the top of my head in Doncaster, gospel needy places, where churches either have or look like they are in danger of shutting their doors in the next 10 years. Once that land and those buildings are lost how will we plant into those areas again? How will we get a permanent foothold and presence in those areas?
As a church we've been looking for premises for a while and it's not easy, there is not much around an the prices, where we are, are astronomical. We'd love there to be a derelict church building to run things in and use as a base to serve the community. Yes, there would be draw backs and compromises, but old wooden pews are nothing a quick prayer and a flamethrower couldn't solve. In too many areas churches are struggling and will close and building and land will be lost, and this seems to disproportionately be the case in the more working class and deprived areas. And once lost how will we reach those areas and those people. Location matters more than ever in those sorts of communities because the community and connections are built around neighbourhood not network.
I think all this needs to impact our church planting strategy. How? We ought to be asking where are there buildings we could plant into? Where are the gospel needy areas in our towns and cities where we could run an afternoon service in an existing church building whose congregation meets in a morning? Where are the areas which we cannot reach from our network churches because they are neighbourhood areas which can only be reached with a neighbourhood church? Where are the churches that are on their knees, not in prayer, but in despair and in terms of numbers which we can approach about revitalisation or a replant? What networks can we build so that if the worst happens and a church has to close its doors they approach others who can start a work there so the land and building and gospel witness are not lost?
This is especially the case as it is predominantly in the less affluent and middle class areas where we are losing them. I can think of three places off the top of my head in Doncaster, gospel needy places, where churches either have or look like they are in danger of shutting their doors in the next 10 years. Once that land and those buildings are lost how will we plant into those areas again? How will we get a permanent foothold and presence in those areas?
As a church we've been looking for premises for a while and it's not easy, there is not much around an the prices, where we are, are astronomical. We'd love there to be a derelict church building to run things in and use as a base to serve the community. Yes, there would be draw backs and compromises, but old wooden pews are nothing a quick prayer and a flamethrower couldn't solve. In too many areas churches are struggling and will close and building and land will be lost, and this seems to disproportionately be the case in the more working class and deprived areas. And once lost how will we reach those areas and those people. Location matters more than ever in those sorts of communities because the community and connections are built around neighbourhood not network.
I think all this needs to impact our church planting strategy. How? We ought to be asking where are there buildings we could plant into? Where are the gospel needy areas in our towns and cities where we could run an afternoon service in an existing church building whose congregation meets in a morning? Where are the areas which we cannot reach from our network churches because they are neighbourhood areas which can only be reached with a neighbourhood church? Where are the churches that are on their knees, not in prayer, but in despair and in terms of numbers which we can approach about revitalisation or a replant? What networks can we build so that if the worst happens and a church has to close its doors they approach others who can start a work there so the land and building and gospel witness are not lost?
Monday, 5 December 2016
Reminded of the Gospel need
I've been reminded again of the gospel need of Doncaster. A family connected with our church, who has shown considerable interest in the gospel at various times and have many questions but who are yet to come to faith are about to move. Not by choice but because they have to. Due to the nature of rehousing their home will by some 9 miles away on the other side of Doncaster. They don't drive so driving half an hour to meet with us isn't an option, there are no direct buses, and a round trip of over an hour to pick someone up for church is impossible when we already transport a number of other people. So I've been desperately trying to find a Bible teaching church for them where they will hear the gospel and be loved, but so far I've drawn a blank.
It reminds me again of the gospel need of Doncaster. It drives me to pray that God will raise up people who see the need and come and help us reach Doncaster with the gospel.
It reminds me again of the gospel need of Doncaster. It drives me to pray that God will raise up people who see the need and come and help us reach Doncaster with the gospel.
Monday, 14 November 2016
Is there a place for strategy in the church?
Strategy - does that word and all that it means have any place in the church? I hear a lot about strategy in the evangelical world. Planting into strategic places, doing strategic ministry among strategic people and so on and so on. My big question is how much of this is unhelpful and worldly, how much is simply a cover for our desire for comfort and how much is genuinely driven by an awareness of a lost eternity for thousands now?
This post has been percolating away in my mind since we spent a gospel group pouring over, thinking through, understanding and wrestling with the implications of James 2. Then today as, on my morning off, I drove from Doncaster to Rotherham past community after community without a vibrant gospel teaching church I couldn't help but think about it again. At what point does strategy do more harm than good? Where are the churches doing strategic thinking about planting into these communities - Mexborough, Conisbrough, Warmsworth - as well as the student areas of Leeds and Sheffield? Where are the churches willing to fund such unsexy church plants that will grow slowly and need financial life support for a considerable time?
The Bible is not without strategy, in fact it sets out God's strategy. The great commission is our strategy - go make disciples of all nations. Acts 1v8 shapes it for us geographically - Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and then the ends of the earth. Revelation gives us a picture of what success looks like; a multitude no one can count from every possible ethnic and socio-economic background gathered together and united in praise of our God and Saviour.
Interestingly people often talk about Paul's strategy of going to a key town and setting up a church there from which the gospel will naturally be carried to the outlying towns and districts. Yet the world has changed, areas have changed. Can we just assume that happens now? Where are the studies that prove such? Can we really reach the surrounding areas from the cities in the UK? Where are the churches who are planting out of cities into the surrounding gospel poor towns and areas? [Excitingly Gospel Yorkshire is getting churches thinking about just that - why not visit the link on the side bar to hear more]. Why are churches in cities in the UK generally getting younger and growing whilst those in towns age and shrink? Why is nothing being done to reverse that?
Secondly no one seems to mention Paul's other strategy. "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation." Paul takes the gospel to where others are not working, to communities that have no gospel witness. Imagine how different the church scene would look if that happened today, no multi-denominational church plants clustered in a student/young professional area already well served by churches but a vibrant gospel preaching church for every town, and every significant populace across every area of a city.
It seems to me that often when we talk of strategic ministry we are thinking in worldly terms, reaching the influential and affluential. I hear talk of deploying people where they can be most fully used. I hear of the significance of student ministry, or planting churches in student areas, for raising up future leaders for the church. And let me say I think there is some truth in some of those. But I also think there is a great big gospel hole in our thinking - it leaves great big parts of the UK unevangelised and are we really achieving our aim if they stay clustered in those student churches well into their twenties and thirties whilst their home churches shrivel and die?
Less than 1/3 of 18 year olds go to university, so how are we going to reach the other 2/3s? 45% of the UK population is working class and yet little strategic thinking has gone into reaching them and few churches are planted into those areas? Is it because we think in worldly strategic terms of influence and likeness rather than in gospel terms of lost souls to win and cross cultural and class churches united in the gospel?
I wonder if it's time to review the strategy we have often held to. Your strategy is only strategic if it achieves the thing it is designed to do otherwise it is just another failed attempt. I'd love to know what percentage of the leaders being trained up as students go on to serve in churches outside of student towns and cities? I'd love to hear of churches in the South who see the gospel needs of the North of England and think strategically about partnering with churches there to reach vast areas without gospel witness. I'd love to hear of more and more young men and women willing to sacrifice themselves for the gospel in hard places rather than serving in a church where there are 'people like them' or where they can 'fulfil their potential', or play a strategic role in training up and sending the next generation (If you're not willing to go why would they? People follow leaders not un-modelled ideas - Ezra and Nehemiah provide a helpful model).
There is another strategy I see at play in the Bible, costly self-sacrifice that dies to self for the gospel. That goes where there is most need not most ease. That sees a town or community with no gospel witness and cannot but weep over it and be moved at cost to self to want to take the gospel there, or to facilitate it going there.
As I drove back this morning I felt a burning desire to see churches planted in those places I drove through, in fact I'd love to be involved in planting those churches and see people come to know Jesus. They won't be strategic in worldly terms, they won't win a platform at a national conference, or a board seat on an organising committee, it will be low key, hard labouring, gospel grunt work. But in God's strategy there are those who have not heard the gospel who need to hear it and his strategy is for us to be moved by compassion for the lost and to go. How would that strategy transform our thinking, our planting, our training, our giving, and our going?
This post has been percolating away in my mind since we spent a gospel group pouring over, thinking through, understanding and wrestling with the implications of James 2. Then today as, on my morning off, I drove from Doncaster to Rotherham past community after community without a vibrant gospel teaching church I couldn't help but think about it again. At what point does strategy do more harm than good? Where are the churches doing strategic thinking about planting into these communities - Mexborough, Conisbrough, Warmsworth - as well as the student areas of Leeds and Sheffield? Where are the churches willing to fund such unsexy church plants that will grow slowly and need financial life support for a considerable time?
The Bible is not without strategy, in fact it sets out God's strategy. The great commission is our strategy - go make disciples of all nations. Acts 1v8 shapes it for us geographically - Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and then the ends of the earth. Revelation gives us a picture of what success looks like; a multitude no one can count from every possible ethnic and socio-economic background gathered together and united in praise of our God and Saviour.
Interestingly people often talk about Paul's strategy of going to a key town and setting up a church there from which the gospel will naturally be carried to the outlying towns and districts. Yet the world has changed, areas have changed. Can we just assume that happens now? Where are the studies that prove such? Can we really reach the surrounding areas from the cities in the UK? Where are the churches who are planting out of cities into the surrounding gospel poor towns and areas? [Excitingly Gospel Yorkshire is getting churches thinking about just that - why not visit the link on the side bar to hear more]. Why are churches in cities in the UK generally getting younger and growing whilst those in towns age and shrink? Why is nothing being done to reverse that?
Secondly no one seems to mention Paul's other strategy. "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation." Paul takes the gospel to where others are not working, to communities that have no gospel witness. Imagine how different the church scene would look if that happened today, no multi-denominational church plants clustered in a student/young professional area already well served by churches but a vibrant gospel preaching church for every town, and every significant populace across every area of a city.
It seems to me that often when we talk of strategic ministry we are thinking in worldly terms, reaching the influential and affluential. I hear talk of deploying people where they can be most fully used. I hear of the significance of student ministry, or planting churches in student areas, for raising up future leaders for the church. And let me say I think there is some truth in some of those. But I also think there is a great big gospel hole in our thinking - it leaves great big parts of the UK unevangelised and are we really achieving our aim if they stay clustered in those student churches well into their twenties and thirties whilst their home churches shrivel and die?
Less than 1/3 of 18 year olds go to university, so how are we going to reach the other 2/3s? 45% of the UK population is working class and yet little strategic thinking has gone into reaching them and few churches are planted into those areas? Is it because we think in worldly strategic terms of influence and likeness rather than in gospel terms of lost souls to win and cross cultural and class churches united in the gospel?
I wonder if it's time to review the strategy we have often held to. Your strategy is only strategic if it achieves the thing it is designed to do otherwise it is just another failed attempt. I'd love to know what percentage of the leaders being trained up as students go on to serve in churches outside of student towns and cities? I'd love to hear of churches in the South who see the gospel needs of the North of England and think strategically about partnering with churches there to reach vast areas without gospel witness. I'd love to hear of more and more young men and women willing to sacrifice themselves for the gospel in hard places rather than serving in a church where there are 'people like them' or where they can 'fulfil their potential', or play a strategic role in training up and sending the next generation (If you're not willing to go why would they? People follow leaders not un-modelled ideas - Ezra and Nehemiah provide a helpful model).
There is another strategy I see at play in the Bible, costly self-sacrifice that dies to self for the gospel. That goes where there is most need not most ease. That sees a town or community with no gospel witness and cannot but weep over it and be moved at cost to self to want to take the gospel there, or to facilitate it going there.
As I drove back this morning I felt a burning desire to see churches planted in those places I drove through, in fact I'd love to be involved in planting those churches and see people come to know Jesus. They won't be strategic in worldly terms, they won't win a platform at a national conference, or a board seat on an organising committee, it will be low key, hard labouring, gospel grunt work. But in God's strategy there are those who have not heard the gospel who need to hear it and his strategy is for us to be moved by compassion for the lost and to go. How would that strategy transform our thinking, our planting, our training, our giving, and our going?
Monday, 18 January 2016
Classist - It's easy to be blind to our church prejudices
Sometimes it takes leaving your culture and country behind for a while to give you new eyes when you return to it. I'm just back from a few days in New York, a surprise present for my big birthday (so others tell me thought I though 21 was no big deal). It was a great time of relaxation and rejuvenation. It wasn't massively restful in one sense - we often walked 15+ miles in day neighbourhood rambling and seeing the sights and the less well seen areas of Manhattan and parts of Queens. I'm not going to make any observations about America because a four day visit doesn't qualify me to do so, beyond saying New York is one of the friendliest places I have ever been to.
But it did make me realise something on my return. We are blind to our own prejudices, because we have grown up with them or because they are just part of the fabric of the society we grow up in, part of the air we breathe. If you've read anything of my blog you will know of my concern that Christianity in the UK is a middle class faith, it is a religion of the comfortable. Now, don't misunderstand me, the middle class need the gospel as much as anyone, and it is hard work because they often don't realise it. But you only have to plot churches on a map, or chart where churches are closing or struggling in a city or town to see that Christianity is a middle class faith and as such it has swallowed middle class prejudices that prevent it reaching the working class and deprived with the gospel. But my time away has made me realise that we are more blind to that than ever.
With a few notable exceptions where is most of the church planting taking place in the UK? In middle class or student centres of population. It is among the affluent and educated. Why? Because we are blind to the need on the council housing estates and the working class areas, or because we want to plant churches that grow into independent congregations so we can plant another, or so we look successful and that's harder to do in deprived areas. I love pastoring the church I am privileged to pastor with it's very mixed congregation and it's working class and estate links. There is a richness about the diversity in our church family. There is a sense of barriers being bridged, though we still have so much more to do.
But there is so much more for the church in the UK to do in terms of reaching the working class and estates. And what has struck me again is that quite simply most churches don't even see the need. We all tend to want to see those we know - our friends, family, and colleagues - saved. That is only natural and it is right, in one sense. But it is also wrong if like Jonah we are not prepared to go to those who are not like us. For Jonah it was nationality that limited his compassion and grasp of grace, for us in England is it class?
I've had a few conversations recently that have deeply saddened me. One where someone has struggled to find someone willing to be mentored and coached to pastor a church on an estate desperately in need. Another where someone else has spoken about reaching the working class and deprived being a generation or two into the future, where we almost need to gradually work our way down to reaching those areas. Both of those conversations have broken my heart and left me discouraged and angry.
So my prayer as I return to work is that the church in the England would wake up to the millions who are sleep walking into a lost eternity in our estates and working class areas in towns and cities in England. That God would stir up in us compassion for the lost, that he would destroy barriers as he had to for the early church and the Apostles (Acts 10) and that he would give us a heart for the lost and a belief in the gospel and his spirit that emboldens us to leave the comfortable in order to win the lost. In short that the gospel would break through our prejudice - class.
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
When is a church plant not a church plant?
Grace Church is 8 years old this week. Eight years ago a small group of people left Bessacarr Evangelical Church to start a new work, initially in Hatchell Wood, but for the last two years and a half years in the Hayfield part of Auckley. As is usual at times of anniversaries or birthdays we muse about where we are and where we dreamt we would be. Have our hopes and dreams been realised? If so why? If not, why not? Just as I think about those things one of the big questions that struck me was the question above.
In one sense Grace Church stopped being a plant when we launched in September 2007. Because we were a functioning church, with our own leadership, quickly we established our own ways of doing things more suited to the people we were trying to reach. That process has continued to happen, with our move to Hayfield we have tweaked things again as we seek to make Jesus known to what was and is primarily a disadvantaged community. A church plant in one sense ceases to be a plant the moment it begins functioning as a church, so on day one.
But as evangelicals we seem to have a curiously myopic slant on when a plant becomes a church. So often I hear it spoken of as being when a church becomes "independent". I'd love to know what that means and how those who advocate such an understanding, or even think it, square it with what the Bible says. As I read the letters to the churches in the New Testament I don't see "independent churches", I see interdependent churches. Churches where the wealthy support those in hard circumstances, where the rich give to enable gospel preaching among the poor, where churches blessed with those able to teach send and give away their BEST Bible teachers to other churches because they recognise they are building God's kingdom rather than their own kingdom.
I wonder if our preoccupation with independence means that we've lost some of that - interesting that we seem to value that as it has increasingly been valued in our society. Eight years in one of my convictions is that Grace Church has always felt 'fragile'. I've debated using that word because it seems negative, it feels like a badge of failure. Maybe there is a better word, but as yet I haven't found it. We've experienced times of growth and shrinkage. We've seen people come to faith and others drift away. We've faced, from my perspective far too many, pastoral crises. We've faced a financial crisis and by God's grace come through it. We've seemingly had too few leaders and then by God's grace seen new leaders emerge. We've had an assistant pastor and then with joy been able to send him on to pastor another church, with all the challenges that loss brings for us. But throughout the eight years whilst feeling in many senses established Grace Church has always felt fragile. Or maybe that is just my experience of it as the pastor, knowing what is going on, sometimes dealing with the fall out and maybe feeling the highs and lows more than others. Maybe it is just that I have found myself living on edge more, more aware of my responsibility and culpability, experiencing sleepless nights due to pastoral crisis, financial concerns, building issues, relational struggles, mistakes I have unintentionally made, and therefore more aware of my utter dependence on God.
What that has taught me eight years in is that no church should be an island and definitely no pastor can be. We as a church need others and we are grateful to God for the partnerships he has helped us foster, without them simply we wouldn't be here. As a pastor I am grateful for the partnerships I enjoy with both leaders within the congregation and a band of brothers without. I wonder if it's time to do away with that "independent" label when we think of churches whether they are plants or not, what would it look like if we developed co-dependent churches? What would the advantages be? How much more would we learn of the wonder of grace and our need of it as we partnered with others, sharing their sorrows and joys, being invested in the kingdom there rather than just seeing it and caring about it here?
In one sense Grace Church stopped being a plant when we launched in September 2007. Because we were a functioning church, with our own leadership, quickly we established our own ways of doing things more suited to the people we were trying to reach. That process has continued to happen, with our move to Hayfield we have tweaked things again as we seek to make Jesus known to what was and is primarily a disadvantaged community. A church plant in one sense ceases to be a plant the moment it begins functioning as a church, so on day one.
But as evangelicals we seem to have a curiously myopic slant on when a plant becomes a church. So often I hear it spoken of as being when a church becomes "independent". I'd love to know what that means and how those who advocate such an understanding, or even think it, square it with what the Bible says. As I read the letters to the churches in the New Testament I don't see "independent churches", I see interdependent churches. Churches where the wealthy support those in hard circumstances, where the rich give to enable gospel preaching among the poor, where churches blessed with those able to teach send and give away their BEST Bible teachers to other churches because they recognise they are building God's kingdom rather than their own kingdom.
I wonder if our preoccupation with independence means that we've lost some of that - interesting that we seem to value that as it has increasingly been valued in our society. Eight years in one of my convictions is that Grace Church has always felt 'fragile'. I've debated using that word because it seems negative, it feels like a badge of failure. Maybe there is a better word, but as yet I haven't found it. We've experienced times of growth and shrinkage. We've seen people come to faith and others drift away. We've faced, from my perspective far too many, pastoral crises. We've faced a financial crisis and by God's grace come through it. We've seemingly had too few leaders and then by God's grace seen new leaders emerge. We've had an assistant pastor and then with joy been able to send him on to pastor another church, with all the challenges that loss brings for us. But throughout the eight years whilst feeling in many senses established Grace Church has always felt fragile. Or maybe that is just my experience of it as the pastor, knowing what is going on, sometimes dealing with the fall out and maybe feeling the highs and lows more than others. Maybe it is just that I have found myself living on edge more, more aware of my responsibility and culpability, experiencing sleepless nights due to pastoral crisis, financial concerns, building issues, relational struggles, mistakes I have unintentionally made, and therefore more aware of my utter dependence on God.
What that has taught me eight years in is that no church should be an island and definitely no pastor can be. We as a church need others and we are grateful to God for the partnerships he has helped us foster, without them simply we wouldn't be here. As a pastor I am grateful for the partnerships I enjoy with both leaders within the congregation and a band of brothers without. I wonder if it's time to do away with that "independent" label when we think of churches whether they are plants or not, what would it look like if we developed co-dependent churches? What would the advantages be? How much more would we learn of the wonder of grace and our need of it as we partnered with others, sharing their sorrows and joys, being invested in the kingdom there rather than just seeing it and caring about it here?
Friday, 22 August 2014
Seven years in...
So continuing on from yesterday I want to continue to share a few of the lessons we/I have learn't from planting Grace Church.
1. Launch, learn, plant. Then learn, relaunch and replant.
No matter how much preparation you do in terms of area studies, interviews with key people, none of it will ever prepare you for the reality of serving/living in an area. You only really learn about the area, the need, the barriers to the gospel, the community DNA as you live day by day within that community. That means you need to be flexible and be ready to adapt as you relearn things. It also means you need to be clear on what the things you will flex on are and what you will not flex on and why.
There is a second area where you relearn and relaunch and that is in the church, as the church grows (whether in number or maturity) its needs will change too. There has been much joy in being in a church where there are few traditions, where people are keen to flex and change. I pray that God will keep us flexible as we look to take the gospel to a changing community and as we continue to change as a church in terms of needs, gifts, and comprehension of the gospel.
2. Area matters
There would be some debate on this but for me in our experience area matters. I know people talk about us living our lives in networks but in planting a church area trumps network. I think network functions more in cities but in our area community is key. God in his grace has overruled mistakes we made early on as a church in meeting in one location but living in another. But that made it impossible for us to reach the people who attended the school we met in. Whereas since we moved Sunday mornings to the area we live in, where our boys go to school, where we shop, where we play, we have seen the benefits of being connected and plugged into the day to day of the community we love and long to see come to know Jesus.
If I had my time again I would insist that all those who were coming to plant lived in the area or sent their children to the local school we were going to meet in. Why? Because nothing says we care about people like presence, like committing to live our lives alongside them. My prayer for Grace Church is that more and more of our congregation would move into the area we now serve, whilst we wait for that to happen in God's timing we need to provide the opportunities for connection between our church family who live out of area and our friends in area. I think this living alongside of is vital, it's one of the most important things we have learnt.
3. Commitment matters
Planting a church is hard, however, you do it. The excitement and adrenaline rush of day 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on give way to the more mundane service 156, 157, 158. Growth is often slow after an initial buzz. In our early days people who weren't happy at other places of worship came to join us as did some who hadn't been anywhere for a while. Some stayed, some didn't. That loss was felt keenly by those committed and excited by what seemed like early growth. At other times people new to the area and looking for a church came along to taste test the church, each one felt like a potential cause of rejoicing or discouragement depending on what decision they made. I think looking back I'd want to say to myself don't put your hope in growth, and take more time to teach the church to trust God long term.
When people leave it should hurt. If it doesn't hurt something is wrong. Family leaving home is painful, even more so when we feel we have failed them, or don't understand why they've left, or when we later hear hurtful things that we didn't realise at the time. Don't give up, persevere, keep going. I'm not saying put your head down and ignore criticism, or don't stop and think about the situation. But don't despair and give up, there have been times over the 7 years when that's been a temptation; big budgetary holes, personality clashes, family fallouts, and my pastoral failures have all led me to endure nights when sleep is hard won, when I've had to recognise my failings and ask for forgiveness from those I've failed. Commitment matters in those times, a conviction that failure isn't final but that there's grace for our mistakes and that God will teach us through the pain.
4. You are a church from day one with all those pressure, joys and struggles.
In some ways this is the biggest lesson and the one I've been slowest to learn. I wanted to plant a church which would reach those who didn't yet know Jesus, I wanted to be out there, to be building gospel capable friendships, defeating defeater beliefs, finding the wandering sheep, seeing the lost found. But on the very first Sunday we met, we met as a church not a church plant with all the pastoral needs and care necessary to pastor a church. I have been slow to recognise that, keen to keep on doing the out there, the building bridges in the community, when I needed to better balance the out there with the in here. Pastoral care has been patchy because of that, others often stepping in to pick up what I've been too busy/distracted to do. But when God calls us to plant he calls us to plant a church.
If I could go back 7 years I'd tell myself to spend more time on pastoral care, to feed the sheep well on Sunday yes, but also to take time to show them how to feed themselves during the week, to take time with them to water them, lead them away from danger and so on. I'd spend as much time setting up a pastoral care team as an outreach team, because God's call was to set up a church.
Thursday, 21 August 2014
Seven years in
On the first weekend in September it will be seven years since Grace Church was planted. Over those seven years we've known ups and downs, joys and sorrows, but through it all can testify to the grace and goodness of God. It has in many ways been the hardest seven years that I have ever known. I had no grey hairs 7 years ago, and certainly more hair and fewer wrinkle! If I had known then what we would face together as a church family I probably would have run a mile. But my recent sabbatical has given me time to stop and think about some of the things I would do differently, some of the lessons we have learned and re-learned and relearned because God is a patient teacher. I'm not sure these'll be of any use to anyone else but they have helped me as I think about them, here's some of them with more to follow:
1. God is great and gracious
I know that goes without saying. But looking back I am amazed at where we are. We began in one area and then moved to another. We started with one leadership team and God has graciously brought us another as others have moved on or stood down. We have grown and shrunk and grown and shrunk but we are still hear. Above all God has time and again led the church to be patient and gracious with my leadership with all its flaws and failings. And despite our imperfections and failings God has led people to new life in him and many others to hear the gospel.
2. Local context is key
Before and as we started out I visited many planters and many church plants as well as reading many books. It was helpful up to a point but I was slow in recognising those limitations. When we read of a great model we tend to want to put it into practice. Here is the problem with most of the literature on Church planting: it is either American or if it is from the UK it tends to be focused on University cities. That isn't to say there's nothing we can learn from these but rather that we need to work hard at differentiating between the principles that are transferable and the other things that are not. There are very few churches planted into a context like ours - most of our young people will leave and go to university and not come back. We will not have many young twenties, people in our community aren't asking questions that young twenties ask. We will not have the man power that a student/young twenties church has and that is God's will for us because he has called us to this context. Our growth will be slow not spectacular, our funding will likely have to be part external for a long time.
That context needs to colour the lessons we learn. I've found it helpful to think carefully about our area in the following ways:
County - we are ministering in Yorkshire and that means we need to be a church that is for people from Yorkshire with all their God given uniqueness! Yorkshire is a unique county with a unique people and history, that must be reflected in the way we do church and share the gospel. City churches are more cosmopolitan than we will be, with people from across the country in more of a melting pot than our local area will be. We need to be a Yorkshire church for Yorkshire people in everything we do.
Town - What is unique about our town? What does it celebrate? What does it do well? What are its aspirations? What is its history? How does it feel about church? What barriers are there to hearing the gospel and following Jesus? Answering these questions has been immensely helpful and insightful. It has also helped me to love where God has put me.
Community - We minister in a community, it is a smallish community with a unique history even within Doncaster. That history is important to understand in order to connect with people. For us where we are the days of the area being an RAF base still has huge influence. It influences where people live and how those areas are thought of. It influences many of those who live here who have some past connection with the forces. Involvement in the community has been key for us, listening to peoples stories, building friendships, defeating defeater beliefs one at a time over years, serving people without strings, committing for the long haul, and loving the community not bad mouthing it have all been important lessons we have learnt.
3. Love tenaciously
To be tenacious is to cling tightly to something, to refuse to let go of it, to steadfastly resolve not to give up. Peter writes this: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins". We are a broken people and we make mistakes, we sin and others bear the consequences, others are broken and they sin and we bear the consequences. In that context ministry tales place, in that context a tenacious love is essential. A love that doesn't cut and run at the first, second, third, fourth or seventy seventh sign of trouble or sin. Love that forgives and welcomes. Love that keeps building relationships even with those who initially want nothing to do with the gospel. Love that humbly enables us to recognise and repent of our mistakes and to receive forgiveness for them. Love that motivates us to visit, to rebuke, to challenge, to comfort, to rejoice, to mourn, to act.
There are times we have got this right as a church and times we have got it wrong. There are times I have got this right and others when I have gotten it wrong. But tenacious love doesn't allow itself to be shunted aside by past failure. It doesn't say I got it wrong then so I can never do it again. Tenacious love doesn't allow us to say I was hurt then so I'm not doing this now, or I'm not loving them now because of the past. What enables us to love tenaciously? Because that is how we have been loved:
"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
1. God is great and gracious
I know that goes without saying. But looking back I am amazed at where we are. We began in one area and then moved to another. We started with one leadership team and God has graciously brought us another as others have moved on or stood down. We have grown and shrunk and grown and shrunk but we are still hear. Above all God has time and again led the church to be patient and gracious with my leadership with all its flaws and failings. And despite our imperfections and failings God has led people to new life in him and many others to hear the gospel.
2. Local context is key
Before and as we started out I visited many planters and many church plants as well as reading many books. It was helpful up to a point but I was slow in recognising those limitations. When we read of a great model we tend to want to put it into practice. Here is the problem with most of the literature on Church planting: it is either American or if it is from the UK it tends to be focused on University cities. That isn't to say there's nothing we can learn from these but rather that we need to work hard at differentiating between the principles that are transferable and the other things that are not. There are very few churches planted into a context like ours - most of our young people will leave and go to university and not come back. We will not have many young twenties, people in our community aren't asking questions that young twenties ask. We will not have the man power that a student/young twenties church has and that is God's will for us because he has called us to this context. Our growth will be slow not spectacular, our funding will likely have to be part external for a long time.
That context needs to colour the lessons we learn. I've found it helpful to think carefully about our area in the following ways:
County - we are ministering in Yorkshire and that means we need to be a church that is for people from Yorkshire with all their God given uniqueness! Yorkshire is a unique county with a unique people and history, that must be reflected in the way we do church and share the gospel. City churches are more cosmopolitan than we will be, with people from across the country in more of a melting pot than our local area will be. We need to be a Yorkshire church for Yorkshire people in everything we do.
Town - What is unique about our town? What does it celebrate? What does it do well? What are its aspirations? What is its history? How does it feel about church? What barriers are there to hearing the gospel and following Jesus? Answering these questions has been immensely helpful and insightful. It has also helped me to love where God has put me.
Community - We minister in a community, it is a smallish community with a unique history even within Doncaster. That history is important to understand in order to connect with people. For us where we are the days of the area being an RAF base still has huge influence. It influences where people live and how those areas are thought of. It influences many of those who live here who have some past connection with the forces. Involvement in the community has been key for us, listening to peoples stories, building friendships, defeating defeater beliefs one at a time over years, serving people without strings, committing for the long haul, and loving the community not bad mouthing it have all been important lessons we have learnt.
3. Love tenaciously
To be tenacious is to cling tightly to something, to refuse to let go of it, to steadfastly resolve not to give up. Peter writes this: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins". We are a broken people and we make mistakes, we sin and others bear the consequences, others are broken and they sin and we bear the consequences. In that context ministry tales place, in that context a tenacious love is essential. A love that doesn't cut and run at the first, second, third, fourth or seventy seventh sign of trouble or sin. Love that forgives and welcomes. Love that keeps building relationships even with those who initially want nothing to do with the gospel. Love that humbly enables us to recognise and repent of our mistakes and to receive forgiveness for them. Love that motivates us to visit, to rebuke, to challenge, to comfort, to rejoice, to mourn, to act.
There are times we have got this right as a church and times we have got it wrong. There are times I have got this right and others when I have gotten it wrong. But tenacious love doesn't allow itself to be shunted aside by past failure. It doesn't say I got it wrong then so I can never do it again. Tenacious love doesn't allow us to say I was hurt then so I'm not doing this now, or I'm not loving them now because of the past. What enables us to love tenaciously? Because that is how we have been loved:
"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!"
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!"
Phil 2v5-8
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
How do you choose what type of ministry to do?
I've been reading Tim Keller's 'Every Good Endeavour' a really biblical, helpful, and thought provoking book on work which is well worth a read. This morning, however, I read something in it which got me thinking not about work per se but about ministry trends in the UK.
"...many college students do not choose the work that naturally fits their abilities, talents, and capacities, but rather choose work that fits their limited imagination of how they can boost their own self image. There were only three high-status kinds of jobs - those that paid well, those that directly worked on society's needs, and those that had the cool factor."
It made me think about why people choose the ministries they do in the UK, do we have cool ministries? I can't help thinking we do, the previous 7 or so years have seen lots of conferences raising the profile of Church Planting and oddly enough lots of young men and women wanting to plant churches. I am not knocking that, especially as someone who greatly benefitted from that in our preparation and planting 5 and a half years ago. But I am wondering if in it being the 'cool' ministry it has led lots of people to value it more highly than other ministry, and whether it has become one of THE ministries to do.
Potentially that will have tragic consequences for the church in the UK especially as many pastors of established churches are nearer retirement than the start of their ministry. Pastoral vacancies seem to be on the rise with many younger men wanting to plant churches. Britain needs pastors more than it needs planters (and yes I do think there is a difference).
But the other interesting question concerns suitability to plant. If I am brutally honest the past 5 and a half years have been incredibly tough, (OK the first year was brilliantly exciting, but since then it has been slow, hard work). Sleepless nights about finances (and that's with an incredibly generous and supportive sending church behind us), all the pastoral workload of an established church plus the extra of having young Christians who need nurturing and face very real immediate gospel issues in their lives, the discouragement of key people and leaders moving away leaving seemingly un-fillable holes, conflict which needs reconciliation, new relationships to build in a community which is suspicious of a new church, relationships to maintain with existing church leaders and networks and or a sending church and so on...
We normally hear of church plants who are flying, growing quickly, starting new ministries and so on. But we need to balance that by hearing from plants where the work is hard and slow. One of the most helpful things I ever heard was from a man who courageously shared the story of a church he had planted but which he then took the decision with the leaders to close for various godly reasons. I can't help wondering if that would help some potential planters think carefully about whether planting is for them.
But we also need to change our value system, we need to value all ministry not just the coming fad. We have a hierarchy of ministry that may go something like this in terms of priority, coolness, and perceived value: 1. Overseas mission, 2. Church Planting, 3. Ministry on estates (though this may be about to usurp 2), 4. Working for a para-church organisation, 5. "Normal" church ministry.
But the danger with that is that many young people and potential ministers will not choose the ministry that naturally fits their abilities, talents, giftings, and capacities, but rather choose the ministry that fits their limited imagination of how they can boost their own self image. Where ministry is chosen because it has the cool factor. We must redress the balance and value all ministry, thinking strategically about the need not just of new areas but of existing congregations and sustaining and developing the outreach they already have established.
"...many college students do not choose the work that naturally fits their abilities, talents, and capacities, but rather choose work that fits their limited imagination of how they can boost their own self image. There were only three high-status kinds of jobs - those that paid well, those that directly worked on society's needs, and those that had the cool factor."
It made me think about why people choose the ministries they do in the UK, do we have cool ministries? I can't help thinking we do, the previous 7 or so years have seen lots of conferences raising the profile of Church Planting and oddly enough lots of young men and women wanting to plant churches. I am not knocking that, especially as someone who greatly benefitted from that in our preparation and planting 5 and a half years ago. But I am wondering if in it being the 'cool' ministry it has led lots of people to value it more highly than other ministry, and whether it has become one of THE ministries to do.
Potentially that will have tragic consequences for the church in the UK especially as many pastors of established churches are nearer retirement than the start of their ministry. Pastoral vacancies seem to be on the rise with many younger men wanting to plant churches. Britain needs pastors more than it needs planters (and yes I do think there is a difference).
But the other interesting question concerns suitability to plant. If I am brutally honest the past 5 and a half years have been incredibly tough, (OK the first year was brilliantly exciting, but since then it has been slow, hard work). Sleepless nights about finances (and that's with an incredibly generous and supportive sending church behind us), all the pastoral workload of an established church plus the extra of having young Christians who need nurturing and face very real immediate gospel issues in their lives, the discouragement of key people and leaders moving away leaving seemingly un-fillable holes, conflict which needs reconciliation, new relationships to build in a community which is suspicious of a new church, relationships to maintain with existing church leaders and networks and or a sending church and so on...
We normally hear of church plants who are flying, growing quickly, starting new ministries and so on. But we need to balance that by hearing from plants where the work is hard and slow. One of the most helpful things I ever heard was from a man who courageously shared the story of a church he had planted but which he then took the decision with the leaders to close for various godly reasons. I can't help wondering if that would help some potential planters think carefully about whether planting is for them.
But we also need to change our value system, we need to value all ministry not just the coming fad. We have a hierarchy of ministry that may go something like this in terms of priority, coolness, and perceived value: 1. Overseas mission, 2. Church Planting, 3. Ministry on estates (though this may be about to usurp 2), 4. Working for a para-church organisation, 5. "Normal" church ministry.
But the danger with that is that many young people and potential ministers will not choose the ministry that naturally fits their abilities, talents, giftings, and capacities, but rather choose the ministry that fits their limited imagination of how they can boost their own self image. Where ministry is chosen because it has the cool factor. We must redress the balance and value all ministry, thinking strategically about the need not just of new areas but of existing congregations and sustaining and developing the outreach they already have established.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Facing up to our weaknesses
I think for me that is the biggest think that I have learnt in planting and pastoring SDCC. Someone once said when I started as Assistant Pastor to enjoy it because it was the best job I would ever have. I wasn't sure what he meant at the time but I think I have realised in the last 5 years. Planting a new church is not easy, there are lots of pressures many of which are the same as for any pastor but some of which are unique. Through the last five years God has been gracious, faithful, loving, forgiving, patient, and amazing, and the greatest thing is that we know our God does not change.
Planting has continually reminded me that I am saved by Jesus and his work not by mine. Thank God that we are not saved by ministry success or condemned because of ministry failure. Planting is a steep learning curve of planning, launching, living, relearning, re-planning and relaunching. What you were so convinced would work doesn't, what you were so sure you were equipped to deal with you quickly find out that you are not. But God is good his word is true and he is faithful and forgiving, even if at times we struggle to forgive ourselves for our failings, or others struggle to forgive us.
It has also made me aware of the almost constant temptation within myself to want my ministry to seem significant, or to be valued by others. God has really taught me again and again that I serve for an audience of one, not for the gallery. It is a lesson that I am still so slow to grasp but which he graciously keeps on teaching me.
I think ironically one of the things I have learnt is that I am not cut out for lone-wolf ministry. I need other people to bounce ideas off, to train, to be trained by, to share things with. I function best in partnership and in a team. Yet ironically most planters seem to plant alone. I think one of the biggest things I would do differently if i were planting again would be to make it more of a team, maybe have 2 members of staff, or regular ministry brainstorming sessions.
Any ministry exposes our weaknesses, the things we can't do and that is God's grace because it must drive us to him. He can do what we can't and it is his gospel and his mission that we are called to partner in with him for his glory not ours.
Planting has continually reminded me that I am saved by Jesus and his work not by mine. Thank God that we are not saved by ministry success or condemned because of ministry failure. Planting is a steep learning curve of planning, launching, living, relearning, re-planning and relaunching. What you were so convinced would work doesn't, what you were so sure you were equipped to deal with you quickly find out that you are not. But God is good his word is true and he is faithful and forgiving, even if at times we struggle to forgive ourselves for our failings, or others struggle to forgive us.
It has also made me aware of the almost constant temptation within myself to want my ministry to seem significant, or to be valued by others. God has really taught me again and again that I serve for an audience of one, not for the gallery. It is a lesson that I am still so slow to grasp but which he graciously keeps on teaching me.
I think ironically one of the things I have learnt is that I am not cut out for lone-wolf ministry. I need other people to bounce ideas off, to train, to be trained by, to share things with. I function best in partnership and in a team. Yet ironically most planters seem to plant alone. I think one of the biggest things I would do differently if i were planting again would be to make it more of a team, maybe have 2 members of staff, or regular ministry brainstorming sessions.
Any ministry exposes our weaknesses, the things we can't do and that is God's grace because it must drive us to him. He can do what we can't and it is his gospel and his mission that we are called to partner in with him for his glory not ours.
Monday, 3 September 2012
5 Years and still going
Yesterday was South Doncaster Community Churches fifth birthday, on the 2nd of September 2007 about 30 of us met for our first service as a planted church. I guess looking back there are a number of lessons we have learnt as a church and which God by his grace has taught me about myself and ministry.
1. You are planting a church. That sounds ridiculous except that the focus as you prepare to plant is on outreach, reaching a new area, ongoing mission, loving a new community, making inroads, raising your profile etc... But on day one you are a church with all the admin, preparation, pastoral needs etc which go with that. This means you need to plan deliberately to balance those things and take a team that is balanced with those giftings reflected across the team.
2. Churches need leaders. Leaders are key. Church planter types tend to be dynamic, decisive characters who are adaptable and prepared to take risks. But churches need a balance of leadership skills and a depth of leadership potential so that the needs of new converts can be met and discipleship occurs and so that as the church grows the pastor/planter and their capacity to work doesn't become the bottle neck. They also need a series of strong leaders so that the church is not dominated by one person and so that they stand firm on the nature and purpose of the church when this is questioned or challenged.
3. Grow grass don't steal sheep. New things are exciting and when new churches are planted people may well want to come and see, it may seem more vibrant, more on the edge and so the temptation is for people to jump on board. But we always wanted to be clear we grow grass we don't steal sheep, we don't want to actively poach people from other churches because that is not growing the kingdom. But we do want to teach the bible well so that sheep who aren't being fed can find somewhere to be fed.
4. Keep clear on the goal. We had a clear mission statement "to equip God's people to be grace in the community to the glory of God". Its not perfect but I think for us that has been helpful, it reminds us in a nut shell what we are about, of the core biblical values which we stood for and which convicned us of the need to plant. We believe God has called us to equip and train people to live as disciples of Jesus by grace where he has placed them, both situationally and geographically, to make him known. This has proved a helpful anchor when the temptation or opportunity comes up to do this or that or the other, often good things, but things which woudl have distracted us from our purpose.
5. Programmes serve people. One of the greatest advantages of being a church plant is that you can change things quickly to meet the needs of teaching and discipling those in your congregation. Programmes aren't fixed people aren't used to them. Our make up as a church is now very different that when we started, we have way more children and young families, all of our founding leaders bar myself have retired, stepped down or moved away for various legitimate reasons. But the flexibility we have means we can flex the things we do, the times we meet, in order to still seek to equip people to live by grace for God's glory.
6. God is faithful and true. Five years of planting have reaffirmed our conviction as a church that God is faithful and true to his word. In both hard and good times God is good and sustains.
I'll share some more personal reflections tomorrow.
1. You are planting a church. That sounds ridiculous except that the focus as you prepare to plant is on outreach, reaching a new area, ongoing mission, loving a new community, making inroads, raising your profile etc... But on day one you are a church with all the admin, preparation, pastoral needs etc which go with that. This means you need to plan deliberately to balance those things and take a team that is balanced with those giftings reflected across the team.
2. Churches need leaders. Leaders are key. Church planter types tend to be dynamic, decisive characters who are adaptable and prepared to take risks. But churches need a balance of leadership skills and a depth of leadership potential so that the needs of new converts can be met and discipleship occurs and so that as the church grows the pastor/planter and their capacity to work doesn't become the bottle neck. They also need a series of strong leaders so that the church is not dominated by one person and so that they stand firm on the nature and purpose of the church when this is questioned or challenged.
3. Grow grass don't steal sheep. New things are exciting and when new churches are planted people may well want to come and see, it may seem more vibrant, more on the edge and so the temptation is for people to jump on board. But we always wanted to be clear we grow grass we don't steal sheep, we don't want to actively poach people from other churches because that is not growing the kingdom. But we do want to teach the bible well so that sheep who aren't being fed can find somewhere to be fed.
4. Keep clear on the goal. We had a clear mission statement "to equip God's people to be grace in the community to the glory of God". Its not perfect but I think for us that has been helpful, it reminds us in a nut shell what we are about, of the core biblical values which we stood for and which convicned us of the need to plant. We believe God has called us to equip and train people to live as disciples of Jesus by grace where he has placed them, both situationally and geographically, to make him known. This has proved a helpful anchor when the temptation or opportunity comes up to do this or that or the other, often good things, but things which woudl have distracted us from our purpose.
5. Programmes serve people. One of the greatest advantages of being a church plant is that you can change things quickly to meet the needs of teaching and discipling those in your congregation. Programmes aren't fixed people aren't used to them. Our make up as a church is now very different that when we started, we have way more children and young families, all of our founding leaders bar myself have retired, stepped down or moved away for various legitimate reasons. But the flexibility we have means we can flex the things we do, the times we meet, in order to still seek to equip people to live by grace for God's glory.
6. God is faithful and true. Five years of planting have reaffirmed our conviction as a church that God is faithful and true to his word. In both hard and good times God is good and sustains.
I'll share some more personal reflections tomorrow.
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Do we need more churches?
I was interested this last week to read of Saddleback and Rick Warren's initiative to plant churches in twelve major cities worldwide including London, it has also provoked an interesting reaction and discussion about the need for such a thing. Will a new church just weaken existing churches? Will it be done in consultation? Is there a need? Why not just support existing churches? etc...
We need to recognise a two things about the UK and ask a fundamental question about church planting in the UK; firstly the UK is now a largely unreached people group with the gospel. Secondly the UK church-going population in general is both ageing and in decline. And thirdly we need to ask the question do most church plants win new people to Christ or do they simply recycle the flock thus weakening the church?
I think all new church plants would say that the two facts about the UK and the gospel are what drive them to plant, but I wonder if many church plants fail to reach new people and instead recycle the flock, thus weakening existing churches either because people move from one church to the new church because it is young and vibrant, or because it is simply something different, or just that it is a brand of church that better fits their needs (consumerism), or by simply spreading out the pool of Christian students coming to a university city or town more thinly.
Now I want to say right away that some churches need people to leave them, if they are not teaching the gospel, if they are not growing disciples, if they are not encouraging people to serve, and if they are striving to reach out to the lost around about them. Those are churches I want people to leave, if they cannot reform them and the leadership and membership continue to resist and refuse biblical change! But what about those people who leave good bible teaching but small churches to go to the new church, thus weakening the gospel work being done at those churches? Does church planting then help to reach a town or city or undermine the reaching of a town or city? Is there any point planting a church to reach an area if in doing so we shut another or disable a church which is gospel centred and bible teaching?
I wonder if those who plant ought to have a stringent interview process with any newcomers who are from existing churches? Why do they want to leave? Why do they want to join? Are those gospel motives or merely consumerism? Ought we to seek to meet with existing churches and their leaderships to discuss this and how we can minimise the impact on existing churches?
I know that people will instantly say that you can't force someone to go to one church and not another, and I'd agree but we can not make it easy for people to church hop, we can make people stop and think. After all no-one church plants because they want to recycle the flock, or because they want to damage existing gospel centred churches.
We need to recognise a two things about the UK and ask a fundamental question about church planting in the UK; firstly the UK is now a largely unreached people group with the gospel. Secondly the UK church-going population in general is both ageing and in decline. And thirdly we need to ask the question do most church plants win new people to Christ or do they simply recycle the flock thus weakening the church?
I think all new church plants would say that the two facts about the UK and the gospel are what drive them to plant, but I wonder if many church plants fail to reach new people and instead recycle the flock, thus weakening existing churches either because people move from one church to the new church because it is young and vibrant, or because it is simply something different, or just that it is a brand of church that better fits their needs (consumerism), or by simply spreading out the pool of Christian students coming to a university city or town more thinly.
Now I want to say right away that some churches need people to leave them, if they are not teaching the gospel, if they are not growing disciples, if they are not encouraging people to serve, and if they are striving to reach out to the lost around about them. Those are churches I want people to leave, if they cannot reform them and the leadership and membership continue to resist and refuse biblical change! But what about those people who leave good bible teaching but small churches to go to the new church, thus weakening the gospel work being done at those churches? Does church planting then help to reach a town or city or undermine the reaching of a town or city? Is there any point planting a church to reach an area if in doing so we shut another or disable a church which is gospel centred and bible teaching?
I wonder if those who plant ought to have a stringent interview process with any newcomers who are from existing churches? Why do they want to leave? Why do they want to join? Are those gospel motives or merely consumerism? Ought we to seek to meet with existing churches and their leaderships to discuss this and how we can minimise the impact on existing churches?
I know that people will instantly say that you can't force someone to go to one church and not another, and I'd agree but we can not make it easy for people to church hop, we can make people stop and think. After all no-one church plants because they want to recycle the flock, or because they want to damage existing gospel centred churches.
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