Friday, December 30, 2005

What Kinds of Churches are We Planting?

This was in Steve Sjogren's Servant Evangelism e-newsletter this month. I thought we might want to interact with his observations.

What Kinds of Churches are We Planting?
by Steve Sjogren

A few years ago the idea of planting a new church was a novel thing it seemed. When Janie and I first came to Cincinnati there were maybe 3 or 4 guys around the city of Cincinnati – with a total population of close to 2 million – trying to plant a church at that time. Today – about 20 years later – there are several dozen in the trenches trying to make a go of it in the church planting game. I find this both great and not so great.

It is great in that new “wineskins” are emerging to meet the needs to new people who are coming along with a desire for new values, a greater desire for more of God’s presence, more practicality, new assumptions that the old wineskin just didn’t get in many cases.

I personally watched for a number of years a very gifted, nationally known pastors, speaker and author in the 70s (I know – you weren’t born yet…) try to reverse the trend of his Southern California denominational church and “renew” it – to see the Spirit of God fill his church with newness, a sense of expectation each week, etc. I watched him work tirelessly week after week. When I arrived on the scene of his weekly services, he had been tireless working away at renewing his congregation for over a decade. It was obvious to me – as a rather intuitive person – that his people resistant to the message of walking in a life of the fullness of the Spirit, of giving their lives away to others, of being inviters. It was heartbreaking. After seeing this patter up close over a prolonged period of time I made a couple of good, long-term decisions: 1. It would be a waste of a good life to devote myself, my ministry call and strength to that approach considering my desire to see change come upon a congregation (I’m not wired for a snail’s pace change over decades of ministry), and 2. That the idea of “renewing” a congregation was debatable – if it was really possible both according to church historical observation and the teaching of scripture (namely Jesus’ teaching about the message of the “new wine” needing a “new wineskin” – that just makes sense and of course it is inspired scripture).

All of that to say, that the trend toward church planting is a good thing at one level. I have helped plant approximately 40 churches in the past 20 years – 24 of which were a part of my denomination, the rest were other groups. I’m a fan of all that God is doing. However, it isn’t the mere fact that new churches are being planted that excites me. In fact, the planting of new churches could, in the long run, be problematic if those new congregations are of the right quality. That is, if they aren’t practicing new things that bring the kingdom of God to bear upon the earth, if they aren’t bringing to bear new assumptions about the life of Jesus lived out by all of us who are a part of the Church – the list goes on.

My concern, and it is a growing concern as I continue to travel the world (last year – 2005 – I spoke at over 100 locations around the world – all over the US, Canada, Europe and the UK). It is only natural that as one travels patterns start to emerge. The vast majority of the places that I spoke in this past year were churches that have been planted in the past 20 years or less – so they have been a part of this fever to expand the kingdom through church planting.

A couple of things have troubled me and a couple of things have encouraged me.

First, I have seen that many of these churches, contrary to the story that they tell publicly, have grow “laterally” – in other words, they have simply absorbed the majority of the people from their congregation from neighboring churches. They put on a better show for already-believing people who were looking, essentially, for something new. That is sad to me. I believe that is sad to the heart of Jesus too. What do you think?

Second, at the majority of the churches that I have been at, as I have snooped around it is apparent that the ongoing message that is preached week in and week out is some derivation of “Cute sells.” Or another way to put it, “If we can be more clever than the guys down the street in putting together our message series then we will grow numerically.” If I see one more message series based on a TV show that is popular I don’t think I can be held accountable for the actions that I will take! In other words, Jesus didn’t base his ministry on cute, or clever. The Pharisees were clever and cute. Jesus was PROFOUND. Encounter after encounter in the Gospels Jesus was absolutely, knock you off your feet profound in his dealings with person after person. What people are dying for is an ounce of profoundness to be both spoken and done by the leaders of the body of Christ.

To the bright side: As I reflect on my travels of ’05 I see that the Holy Spirit is amazingly consistent, throughout the world. Wherever I go – and I mean everywhere – he is on the move with what I call the “spirit” of outreach, evangelism and ministry to the needy. People all over are picking up on that. That makes Jesus happy. When we draw near to these people we are getting very close to the heart of Christ. Like never in my history as a follower of Christ, people are hearing the call of God to pursue those who don’t yet know God in a personal way.

One last point on the bright side: There seems to be a glimmer of hope in the leadership level of things around the globe – the people of the Church have been aching and crying out for this for the longest time – to become authentic. There is an increasing move toward openness – to sharing from the heart – toward sharing the real stories of what is really happening in leader’s lives from the pulpit. Again that makes Jesus happy. That style of communication causes people to want to come to church and to want to follow the leadership of those who share those kinds of stories on a regular basis.

8 Comments:

Blogger Mike Clawson said...

I definitely get what he means about overly "cute" sermons. I often cringe when I get the postcards from other local churches announcing their latest sermon series, or drive past churches that put the "cute" little sayings on their signs.

But sometimes I wonder if the shallowness of our churches is merely a reflection of the shallowness of our society? Do people really want profound? It seems sometimes that most people prefer Christian sub-culture kitsch and spiritual self-help to real spiritual depth. I mean, it's certainly not "profound" that is packing thousands into stadiums in Houston each week to hear Joel Osteen preach about the power of positive thinking.

Don't get me wrong. I agree that we need to preach profound truths and avoid "cute". But I'm not sure whether profound is a sure path to church planting success. If we were just all about the numbers I'd say cute is the way to go.

But maybe that's just my cynicism showing through. ;)

-Mike

12/30/2005 10:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow Brain, thanks for sharing Steve's observations. Very insightful and we should take to heart what Jesus told us about putting new wine in old wineskins.

12/31/2005 12:19 AM  
Blogger dan said...

I generally thought this was a good article from Sjogren - especially the points about churches growing laterally, and the 'cute sells' thing. I suppose there are those who would say that's just 'good marketing.' ;)But...

I have a little trouble with his statement that "the idea of renewing a congregation is debatable." To me that sounds a lot like, "Why bother with that person, you know they'll never change." Doesn't that completely go against the whole idea of life transformation?

I am certainly not against change (unless you're asking me to change - oh wait, I didn't say that). But the truth is, if someone hadn't been darn patient with me, and had given up on me because I wouldn't change my ways according to their timetable... well, I don't know.

I am definately not against church planting, but I happen to think the Good News of Jesus is pretty profound in-and-of-itself. And maybe Steve is saying the same thing. Sometimes I think we can get so wrapped up in trying to create a new wineskin that we forget about the wine.

1/02/2006 7:37 AM  
Blogger bill Sloat said...

I'm with you, Dan, on every point you make.

I understand the question that Sjogren and many other have about the possibility of renewal, but, yikes!

Almost the whole Bible is a record of God's attempts at renewal. Moses was essentially God's renewal pastor to Israel.

The prophets were nothing more than God's agents of renewal.

Jesus Himself intiated a renewal movement.

The Epistles of Paul are renewal documents.

If as Sjogren says, "...the idea of renewing a congregation is debatable," then God really blew it when He revealed Himself in the Bible.

Certainly, renewal's not easy. Ask Isaiah or Jeremiah or Jesus or Paul. But, renewal is what ministry is all about.

1/02/2006 8:07 AM  
Blogger Brian said...

Sjogren seems depressed to me. He is pointing out the obvious difficulty in renewal. As I look around, I haven't seen a ton of success in renewing churches. Then he blasts plants for lateral growth, which I agree is happening.

He blasts sermons based on TV series but if they didn't communicate, preacher's wouldn't use them. Jesus often used popular stories and themes to communicate his ideas.

Sjogren said, "The Pharisees were clever and cute. Jesus was PROFOUND. Encounter after encounter in the Gospels Jesus was absolutely, knock you off your feet profound in his dealings with person after person. What people are dying for is an ounce of profoundness to be both spoken and done by the leaders of the body of Christ." I think I have too much desire to be profound, to say something that hasn't been said, to blow people's minds, but I do think that you could couch profound in "Deal or No Deal." People are not terribly deep thinkers, at least about anything other than their main focus in life, which is not usually God. This is not a critique. But if we aim too profound, we aim beyond most people.

Here are some random thoughts for 2006:

1. Dump all programs and disciple people to follow God in teams.

2. Go overseas and take as many people with you as possible. Don't go to the missionaries camp, go out into the local community. Don't see the Christian transplanted culture. See the culture.

3. Go into your local community and take as many people with you as possible. Again don't see the Christian culture. See the local culture.

4. Focus the Christian culture that surrounds you back to the core pieces -- communion and baptism, and even feet washing if you like. Notice about these core pieces that they all speak of vulnerability not defensiveness or offensiveness, but in fact all celebrate the death of the individual.

Whether renewing or planting, maybe it is all the same. But it is in may ways easier and requires less patience to plant. God bless those who renew and will come and renew my plant in 25 years.

1/02/2006 9:20 AM  
Blogger phil said...

The older I get the more I prefer comfort to style. I see this in churches. Sometimes we are so caught up in comfort- this is the way we've always done it- that we forget why we do it.

I like Sjogren's statement that wherever he goes he sees one thing, that the Holy Spirit is consistent always reaching out, to get us to be authentic.

Few Christians today have a sound foundation. Comes from poor preaching, teaching and other things, probably a lot of other things. I agree that "cute" stories may draw crowds but are spiritually useless unless we tie them in with scripture. It is my desire for people to know actually know from first hand experience they are loved by God.

New churches do experience rapid growth but many die an early death. The Holy Spirit can and does renew lives in new and old churches wherever the person is willing to leave comfort and trust God.

1/02/2006 12:06 PM  
Blogger dan said...

Do you think we have misunderstood "profound"? I agree with Mike's assessment that it's not 'profound' that is packing stadium venues; and I think Brian was absolutely right about many of us in that we are desiring to be TOO profound. What was the profoundness of Jesus' message? Is it not helping people learn to deal with their sin: getting over ourselves... learning to love... to share... to forgive... to help... to care... to admit, etc., etc.?
Sometimes I think I've read so many books and become so out of touch that I forget how absolutely profound these things are. I can still remember the first time I realized I could just forgive somebody instead of getting even; or that I could love my wife regardless of what she had done; or the first time I didn't measure value based on what someone did "for" me; or the first time I realized I just needed to 'admit' that I sinned, rather than try to make up for it.

Hmm. What's that saying Sjogren always uses... "Small things done with great love can change the world."

1/02/2006 12:50 PM  
Blogger Brian said...

I agree Dan. I'm almost finished with Blue Like Jazz and it feels like my life and yet if feels extremely profound, but mostly he is just being authetic. Why does authentic sound so profound? Even when comedians make observations about every day life, it often feels profound.

1/02/2006 5:01 PM  

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