Observations about Church Planting

Recently, I have engaged in a conversation with my Acts 29 brothers regarding the challenges of raising up indigenous leaders to start new churches. Many struggle to find the men, the resources (many reference the high costs to plant) and the means to identify, equip and release for the starting of new Gospel works.

Here are some of the observations/questions I shared with them as well as part of our (my wife and I) story:

First of all, I want to state that I realize that I speak from my perspective, experience, upbringing, training, particular gifting, etc... I am becoming more and more aware that each of us is unique and see things differently. Therefore, what I say I say with conviction, but I realize it is not the only way - I don't mean to imply that anyone who isn't doing what we're doing is wrong OR that others should do what we're doing.

With that said, I will share some observations/questions as well as our experience with planting in the NW South Puget Sound region.

Some observations/questions:

1. The Bible doesn't command us to plant churches, but "plant" the Gospel and make disciples. Churches grow up in that soil as Jesus builds his Church - So...Are we making disciples as Jesus defined disciples (Able to do all that Jesus commanded and trained his disciples to do – make disciples who make disciples)?

2. It seems that the large costs (referred to above) has a lot to do with planting services (the costs of buildings, supplies, equipment, a preacher, a worship leader, a children's ministry, etc...) and not making disciples who make disciples - Is it possible that Planting Churches could be a lot less expensive if our focus was on Making Disciples and not mainly on starting services? (I am not against the gathering, but my experience has been that making disciples cost less money and produces greater generosity to support the mission).

3. It seems to me that Paul didn't have much problem getting new works started and having sufficient leadership to put in place before moving on to the next place (granted it was hard work). I continue to hear a lot of talk about the lack of leaders and the difficulty of raising up leadership. So, I wonder: Do we have a non-biblical description of elder/leaders for the church? Is it possible that our description of who can lead a church is connected to our present model of Church (not the Biblical model) and therefore only "super-apostles" can lead? I have recently been asked to consider taking the position of lead pastor of a mega-church and as I read the job-description I was amazed at how far it had strayed from the Biblical requirements of an elder (Only Superman, Jesus, Donald Trump and Obama combined could have fulfilled this job description).

4. Ephesians 4 (And the testimony of Luke from the Acts of the Apostles) tells us that some of us are given to the Church (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelist, Pastors and Teachers) to equip the saints for ministry so that each member is ministering and eventually the Body is being built up not only/mainly by the Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, etc.. but by the saints equipped by them. Paul goes on to say that the Body connected to Christ builds itself up in love as each part is doing it's part. I have wondered for some time...Is it possible that some of us have been given to the Church (Big C) to start new churches and help others start new churches, then equip the saints to do the ministry, appoint elders, etc...and move on...while others are called to shepherd and pastor these new churches? What if those with mega-churches were never meant to mainly have one big church built around them, but rather to be released to continue doing the work of starting new works, equipping the saints and then appointing elders to oversee these new churches?

5. Lastly, if we were to start with the Bible and come up with a picture of the Church, what would we come up with? I have a feeling more people could lead that picture of a Church AND that we all have some of those leaders within our churches today. So, maybe we need to teach a Biblical picture of the Church to our churches and then equip and call our people to help lead these.

At our last NW regional, we talked about some of this and Dan Braga said something like this: “I think we all could equip and release people from our churches to start new churches if the definition of Church was more in line with the Biblical definition.” He went on to ask: “If we release people to lead smaller churches 20-50 people, does it count in A29?” To which I responded: “It shouldn’t matter to us whether it counts for A29. The ultimate goal is the spread of the Gospel in our region, not tallying how many count for our own records.”


Now, our Experience in the NW South Puget Sound region:

My wife and I started reaching out with Gospel Hospitality a little over 5 years ago. As God brought some to faith and others who were already Christians to join us in the mission, we began training a few to make disciples and lead others in the mission of the Gospel in their neighborhoods. When we "launched" Soma we didn't launch a service, we commissioned these disciples/leaders to begin leading people on mission with them in their neighborhoods out of their homes. At that point, we were about 40 in number. We continued weekly gathering for equipping, encouragement and exhortation in the Gospel. Along the way, we encouraged ongoing multiplication and release of leaders to start new works. Our second comission took place about 2 years in while we were about 200 (we release 50 people to the next work just 2 miles away). Our third commission took place about a year later (15 miles away). And each subsequent commission to start a new work has taken place in 6-12 intervals.

After 5 years we have 7 new “expressions” of the Church (that is our language for a new community of believers gathering together on the Gospel mission in a particular region under the leadership of elders) and over 40 missional communities led by 2-4 people trained and being trained to do the work of an elder over a household. We also have 2 more “expressions” ready to be released in the next 6-9 months. The equipping and releasing of more leaders/elders to start new works is growing now at exponential rates (faster and more each year) due to the nature of discipleship multiplication versus growth by merely attractional addition AND to the fact that what we are doing is not built mainly around the gifts of a few “stand-out” leaders. Instead those gifted more apostolically are giving themselves to equip the saints to live out the Gospel Mission and Preach the Gospel Message in their context faithfully so that everyone in the Church is participating in the mission.

As far as costs: The initial plant cost us the most ($150K over three years – half came from us cashing in our retirement and the other half from outside support) because I parachuted in and needed financial support for my family with no disciples in the context to fund the work. Now, most of our new starts are led by unpaid volunteers who have access to the “apostolic team” (our paid staff that is committed to the ongoing equipping and starting of new churches) to help them get started. After some time, each local expression begins to fund their own lead elder (most of whom are being raised up from within the context).

Our apostolic team gives most of it time to equipping leaders to start new works AND assisting them in the early stages of a new start-up. For instance, I spend 60-75% of my time weekly in leadership development, equipping and working with new core groups.

I am becoming more and more convinced that there are some guys, like myself, who are given to the Church at large to serve the ongoing equipping and multiplication of new Gospel works AND our local churches need to free us up to serve the larger context. Why else would God have given me such a strong entrepreneurial/pioneering skill (some would call it an apostolic calling/gifting)? To start ONE church? OR, to keep getting new ones started over and over again?

I believe I and many others have been given to the Church to equip for ongoing Gospel work and the starting of new churches through Gospel Discipleship.