How Big Must Your Church Be to Plant a Church?

Phil Stevenson, Author of The Ripple Church, a book we have been giving to any church in the Texas District willing to explore the possibility of planting a church wrote the following in an article in 'The Pastor's Coach' available at www.INJOY.com several years ago:

"I want to address a myth about church parenting: the myth of attendance. It is the idea that only churches of certain sizes are able to parent churches. All churches need to be open to the opportunities to parent. It is not so much the size of the church as it is the size of the church’s heart. It is more about health than size. In fact, healthy churches naturally reproduce. Christian Schwartz in his book, Natural Church Development, states, "Hardly anything demonstrates the health of a congregation as much as the willingness--and ability--to give birth to new congregations."

Check your health, not your attendance sheet. Check your heart, not your numbers. Nothing can grow indefinitely. An elephant gets to a certain size and stops. A mouse grows and it stops. They are not the same size, but they are healthy. The only hope for the continuation of a species is not for a few to grow large, but for all to multiply. The same is true of churches. A few growing larger will not meet the need, but all multiplying can help sustain the species."

I am positive that Phil Stevenson is right! In Lutheran Churches in particular, there is this notion that big churches should plant churches. The truth is not many of them do either. I am thankful though, that more and more of churches, both large and small, in the Texas District, Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod are praying and pondering about when God might lead them to plant or partner to plant one or more new churches. Healthy organisms reproduce! The norm for Christ-centered, healthy churches is also to reproduce.

What ideas do you have for how this new surge in church planting energy might become a church planting movement in the Texas District? Please share any thoughts, no matter how random with us!

Taking off "four months more" lenses in church planting

Today, Reggie McNeil spoke about living missionally at the Texas District LCMS Professional Church worker's conference in Austin. Reggie talked about John 4:35 where Jesus tells his disciples "Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (NIV) The disciples were used to thinking of fixed and unchangeable times between sowing and reaping, so it was normal for them to look out at the fields and say "four months from now, the harvest will be ready." But Jesus is trying to get them to open their eyes to see that God's mission doesn't have a fixed, unchangeable mechanistic pattern of sowing and harvesting. He is telling them to see that the time to live missionally is right now because the fields are ripe for harvest.

Reggie said the "four months more" becomes code for not living missionally. It also seems to be code for why many churches never get around to church planting. The "four months more" lens causes churches to say things like We'll get around to planting a church when we

• get our new sanctuary built
• get a little larger
• complete the staff additions we have been planning for
• get our finances and stewardship in order
• have more spiritually mature members
• get past a few conflicts we are dealing with
• fill in the blank_____________

To those churches I think Jesus would also say "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." The truth is that Satan does not want to see new churches planted. He hopes leaders keep wearing those "four months more" lenses. Those lenses always lead folks to conclude that church planting is something which should come later...or even never for some churches. Those lenses have got to come off!

How can we start seeing mission opportunities through "ripe for harvest" lenses? What do you think?



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Lizards not Frogs...Rabbits not Elephants in Church Planting

Plant "Lizard" Churches and not "Frogs"
These metaphors come out of David Garrison's study of Church Planting Movements. They reflect what he has discovered about church planting movements throughout the world.

the problem with Frogs...Frog churches perceive themselves as ends in themselves, sitting fat and complacent on a lily pad (or main street), expecting the lost to come to them in search of salvation. Frog churches hold meetings in places where they feel comfortable and require the lost to adapt to their froggy world.

Lizard churches...Lizard churches are always pursuing the lost. Adaptable and ready for action, they move quickly into the world through cracks and crevices seeking the lost. Lizard churches penetrate their communities. They decipher the "missional code" of their community and people groups. They are willing to expend enormous energy, even lose their tails if necessary in order to bring the lost into the family of God.

Plant "Rabbit" churches and not "Elephants"
the problem with Elephants... An elephant reaches its full size in 3 years, however it does not mature sexually until 18 years of age and is not ready to reproduce until then (the male is not ready to sire until approximately 30 years old!) Once an elephant is pregnant it takes a full 22 months for gestation and has the capacity to bear just one elephant. It is another 5 years before the female is ready to give birth again and might bear 7 calves in her lifetime. Elephant churches always have a reason (building program, staff needs, internal growth, etc) for not reproducing a new church and once they do decide to reproduce (if ever), the gestation period is painfully long. After that they may not want to reproduce again for many years.

Rabbit churches... Rabbits are ready for reproduction at 6 to 9 months. They are continuously fertile. The gestation period is 31 days and they ordinarily give birth to 7 babies. During this time the adult rabbit is also growing and reaches its maximum size in 3 years (just like the elephant) In its lifetime, one reproducing pair, through its offspring, has the capacity of reproducing 476 million rabbits! Within the first three years, rabbit churches are thinking about when they might reproduce. They plant new churches as a regular part of their desire to carry out "the Great Commission" and they also build into the DNA of each of their "daughter" churches this culture of church planting reproduction.

Don't get me wrong -- God loves frog churches, lizard churches, elephant churches and rabbit churches all the same. But -- church planting movements that reach growing numbers of people from every culture, language and people group happen when churches function more like lizards and rabbits. What other metaphors help you consider healthy church planting movements?

Mission Outposts in a Postmodern World

Every church desiring to be missional must deal with the postmodern world. Many churches want to insulate themselves from the “evils” of postmodern culture. Some are intentionally seeking to reach people who struggle with postmodern worldviews. But, who or what are postmoderns anyway? Ed Stetzer, in his book Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age describes those who embrace postmodern philosophy this way. He says Postmodern thinkers know “that everybody has their own point of view and all are equally valid.”

Some are tempted to think that postmodern thought is specific to a particular age group. Stetzer tells us however, “The world view we identify as cultural postmodernity is not new in academia, the art world, or even in many major cities.” A 60 year old artist from Austin might be thoroughly entrenched in postmodernity while a 24 year old banker in Denton might hold modernist views.

Since most churches are still dealing with modernity, the postmodern world looks pretty scary. Many churches have not engaged postmoderns because they don’t want to have contact with the value system of the postmodern world. Stetzer says “it is much easier to deny its power than to acknowledge its influence.”

What if Paul and the other apostles had done the same with the 1st century pagan world? Paul wouldn’t have engaged the Greek thinkers of Athens in Acts 17. Paul and the traveling apostles did not accommodate the Gospel to pagan thought, but rather engaged that world with the truth of Christ. Thankfully, today, many churches faithfully are choosing to engage the culture with the truth of Scripture – “becoming missionaries in a culture they have not traveled to, but which has instead traveled to them.”

How are they doing that? Postmoderns find truth to be that which is expressed by a community of people rather than truth which can be rationally explained or proven. Churches reaching postmoderns emphasize the kind of “truth lived out” community found in the early Christian church of Acts. Cultural postmodernism rejects many of the lies of modernity: that happiness could be found in success, that peace is achieved through human progress, that man is inherently good. Churches reaching postmoderns find this pessimism healthy, and find in it a touch point for understanding the Law/Gospel principles which Lutherans particularly emphasize. Postmoderns utilize many vessels, styles and forms for sharing of thought and information. These include a rather eclectic range of musical tastes, electronic communication, and a return to the visual arts, an embracing of literature both ancient and modern. Churches reaching postmoderns use these styles in their worship settings, music, visual arts and communication of Scripture.

Stetzer says the 10 traits most frequently found in churches reaching postmoderns include:

1. Being unashamedly Spiritual
2. Promoting incarnational ministry (living in the culture)
3. Engaging in service
4. Valuing experiential praise
5. Preaching narrative expository sermons
6. Appreciating and participating in ancient worship patterns
7. Visualizing worship
8. Connecting with technology
9. Living community
10. Leading by transparency and team

Is your church engaging that culture? Are you ready to cross over to share the Good News? Check out the website of Austin City Church, a church actively engaged in reaching people in a Postmodern culture at austincitychurch.com
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What do you lose if your church plants a church?

If your church is one of those considering planting a new mission, you may be asking or hearing "What is the downside -- what will we lose if we plant a church? Phil Stevenson addresses this concern in the book The Ripple Church: Multiplying Your Ministry by Parenting New Churches.

Stevenson writes: "Churches that parent other churches don't lose money...they invest it into a situation that will result in a net return to the Kingdom of God. They do not lose people, they invest them in the work of gathering a harvest."

Church planting is costly, but it is an investment and not a loss. That isn't just semantics. If a local church views church planting through the lens of what it might lose, it will never plant. But, if it views it through the lens of more people being connected to Jesus for eternity, it will plant once, twice and more! It takes an unselfish leader and an unselfish congregation to look beyond one's own church and this year's budget or statistics to ultimate kingdom impact!

Churches Planting Churches Creates A Genuine Church Planting Movement

In his study of church planting movements world wide, David Garrison came to this conclusion: "In most Church Planting Movements, the first churches were planted by missionaries or by missionary-trained church planters. At some point, however, as the movements entered a multiplicative phase of reproduction, the churches themselves began planting new churches. In order for this to occur, church members have to believe that reproduction is natural and that no external aids are needed to start a new church. In Church Planting Movements, nothing deters the local believers from winning the lost and planting new churches themselves."

In order to plant 200 new churches (actually now 173 since 27 have been planted since 2004) in the Texas District over the next 10 years, a genuine church planting movement must occur and I believe it is already happening. It won't occur with an occasional plant here or there at the prompting of the Texas District, but it will happen as it bubbles up from the local church.

One of the greatest privileges I have as a Mission and Ministry Facilitator is to be invited into what feels to me like "sacred conversations" with pastors, lay leaders and mission planters as they pray, ponder and plan how God is going to use them to plant one or more new churches.

What's even more exciting is when a recently planted church is already engaged in or planning for its next mission start. My colleague Bruce Wurdeman uses the metaphor of a snowball rolling downhill to describe how a Spirit led church planting movement is likely to grow in Texas. At the top of the hill it may look small, but as it rolls downhill, it gathers mass and momentum. That's how I believe God is already acting in the lives of local churches all over Texas. What do you think? What's necessary for a church planting movement to become the norm for the way we spread the Gospel with more and more people in more and more places?

Facilitating Church Planting Movements #5 - 10 Factors in Church Planting Movements

Ten Common Factors in Church Planting Movements

Stetzer reported on a world-wide study done by David Garrison, Wiesbaden, Germany. Garrison studied common factors when a mission planting movement breaks out in developed and developing countries. He found that there are at least 10 frequently, though not universally, found characteristics. These are not listed in any particular order of priority or frequency, however, most if not all of these factors are usually present

1. Worship in the heart language
There are cases in which God’s Word has not yet been translated into the heart language of the people and worship is conducted in a trade language. Even in those rare instances, though, the heart language of the people emerges in their prayers, songs, sermon illustrations and applications. Worship in the common heart language keeps it accessible and within reach of all members of the community and allows everyone to participate in a new church’s formation. Missionaries who identify and embrace the heart language of the people they are trying to reach are well positioned to stimulate a Church Planting Movement. Nothing reveals a people group’s worldview as much as an intimate knowledge of their heart language. Missionaries who choose to work through a trade language begin their ministry with a curtain between themselves and the hearts of the people they are seeking to reach.

2. Evangelism has communal implications
Unlike the predominant pattern in the West with its emphasis on individualism and personal commitment, Church Planting Movements in developing countries typically rely on a much stronger family and social connection. Missionaries in CPMs have recognized this and urged new believers to follow the web of their own family relationships to draw new believers into the community of faith (see Acts 16:31-32). In many cases, the churches come to consist of family units and are led by the family’s head.

3. Rapid incorporation of new converts into the life and ministry of the church
In most Church Planting Movements, new disciples immediately become disciplers of others and even church planters. One elderly man who came to Christ in a Church Planting Movement in India planted 42 churches in his first year as a believer. In an effort to keep the movement growing outward, CPM-oriented missionaries typically encourage new believers to join or help start new churches, rather than simply adding larger numbers to existing congregations.

4. Passion and fearlessness
Church planting Movements are characterized by passion and a sense of urgency that attests to the importance of salvation and the necessity of conversion. New believers exhibit a boldness in the face of opposition. A spirit of timidity or fear quenches a CPM. Boldness may invite persecution, but it fuels a Church Planting Movement (see Joshua 1:6).

5. A price to pay to become a Christian
Church Planting Movements often emerge in difficult settings where conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a popular or socially advantageous thing to do. In some cases, conversion leads to severe persecution or even death. In the face of this persecution, believers find strong support in the testimony of Jesus and the New Testament church (see Matt. 10:17-25). Persecution tends to screen out the uncommitted and ensures a highly dedicated membership.

6. Perceived leadership crisis or spiritual vacuum in society
A country or people group that has experienced a loss of leadership or a spiritual void coming from war, natural disaster or displacement may create a ripe environment for a Church Planting Movement. Societal disintegration is becoming increasingly common in our rapidly changing world and bodes well for Church Planting Movements. The removal of long-held symbols of stability and security prompts individuals to reconsider matters of eternal significance.

7. On-the-job training for church leadership
With the rapid increase in the number of churches, effective leadership training is critical to the success of the movement. If new church leaders have to leave their churches for extended periods for theological training, the momentum of the movement will be diminished. At the same time, this vital component of church growth must not be overlooked. The most beneficial training brings education as close to the action as possible. Theological Education by Extension, with an emphasis on practical learning interspersed with ongoing ministry, has proven to be a strong complement to Church Planting Movements. The forms of this on-the-job training typically include a series of short-term training modules that do not impede the primary tasks of evangelism, church planting and pastoral leadership. Missionaries also attest to the importance of ongoing leadership training for the continued growth and strong development of a Church Planting Movement.

8. Leadership authority is decentralized
Denominations and church structures that impose a hierarchy of authority or require bureaucratic decision-making rather than serving as supportive catalysts are ill-suited to handle the dynamism of a Church Planting Movement. It is important that every church leader has all the authority required to do whatever needs to be done in terms of evangelism, ministry and new church planting without seeking approval from a church hierarchy. When denominational staff come along side planters to undergird and support, they can become vital links.

9. Outsiders keep a low profile
Missionaries who have been involved in Church Planting Movements point to the importance of keeping a low personal profile as they seek to initiate and nurture the movement. A key concern is to minimize foreignness and encourage indigeneity. Rather than waiting for new believers to prove themselves worthy of leadership, missionaries begin by drawing new believers into leadership roles through participative Bible studies and mentoring pastors from behind the scenes.

10. Missionaries suffer
A list of missionaries who have been engaged in Church Planting Movements reads like a catalog of calamity. Many have suffered illness, derision and shame. In some instances the suffering was due to their own self-destructive behavior; in other cases it came at the hands of opponents. Students of Church Planting Movements suggest that the affliction may be related to a higher spiritual price required for rolling back the darkness (Rev. 12:12). Whatever the cause, the disproportionate degree of suffering by missionaries engaged in Church Planting Movements is noteworthy. Missionaries intent on this course of action are well-advised to be on their guard, to watch, fight and pray.

Facilitating Church Planting Movements #4 - Factors for Higher Attendance in new church plants

Stetzer has done significant research into factors that contribute to higher attendance in new church plants. Here is what he found

Factors for Higher Attendance

• Meet in a school for first year
• Meet in a school or theater in subsequent years
• Conduct special children's' events (e.g. fall festival)
• Mailing invitations to services, programs, events
• Conducting regular new member classes
• Use a membership covenant signed by new members
• Plant at least 1 daughter churches within 3 years of initial church plant
• Having a proactive stewardship development plan enabling the church to become financially self-sufficient
• Having multiple staff members (can be volunteer or part-time) rather than a single staff member at beginning of church plant
• Financial compensation for planter (from a variety of sources)
• Planter receiving health insurance, whereby majority of premiums were paid by church plant, sponsoring church, and/or denomination
• Conducting block-party as outreach event (in neighborhoods)
• Working full time over part-time or half-time as church planter
• being assessed prior to planting the church as the church planter
• Having the church planter's expectation realized

What Stetzer says does not work: You do not get a church planting movement by creating non-reproducible models. i.e. - you can't reproduce a plant in which you invest $500,000. The denomination can't do it and the planted church can't do it. Planters and churches reproduce in the way that they were produced! If the investment is too high – expectations for next plant are so high that reality can never match (Ed Stetzer has planted 5 churches and never received more than $20,000 from the denomination)

Probably no church plant has all of the factors that Stetzer has found contribute to higher attendance. Some of them are out of the control of the planter or planting congregation. But, many can be done no matter what kind of plant is being pursued.

In the Texas District, LCMS we have been saying that the right person, the right place and the right plan need to be in place in order to receive funds from the Board of Mission Administration. Stetzer's list affirms those three criteria.

Facilitating Church Planting Movements #3 - Eight shifts in church planting

8 Shifts in Church Planting

In his research Ed Stetzer has identified shifts in the way new churches are being planted. These are shifts which have been happening over the last few years. The bulleted list are Stetzer's words. My observations and thoughts follow each bullet.

• From Programs to Processes

Not even great programs worked every time in the past. It is most important to understand the people we are trying to reach and develop processes to accomplish that purpose. So, if the issue is discipleship, planters may use existing programs and materials (e.g. The Alpha Course, The Purpose Driven Life) or they may create their own process which fits the community they are working to reach with the Gospel.

• From Models to Missions

For many it was easy to copy models of others because planters wanted to copy others' success in their own context. In this way, planters didn't always do the hard work of unlocking the missional keys to their own community. Planters certainly continue to learn "best practices" from other church planters, but they are also doing the hard work of connecting with their community. They carefully look at where God is working and with their lay leaders they are fearless in trying new ways to plant seeds of the Gospel in their community regardless of the risk of failure.

• From Attractional to Incarnational

Attracting people to a church with slick advertising, better programs and good strategy is not necessarily bad, but today it is not enough. Some attractional churches have led to a
non-participatory Gospel as an unintended consequence. The attractional approach is a come and see approach.

Leaders that "break the missional code" are recognizing that non-relational evangelism is a contradiction. Leaders that move from attracting prospects to incarnating the Gospel are the ones that break the code. Result of the attractional approach? We spent 30 years fixing up our churches and 30 years later our culture is more lost and our churches are filled with people who are less committed to Christ's mission. The incarnational approach is more interested in the harvest than in the barn!

• Professional to Passionate

1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

Stetzer says that "each one" really means "each one"! He points out for example that the "house church movement" is gaining traction as well as many alternate forms, and it is being done by gifted lay people as well as professional ordained.

We need to lower the bar of what it means to be planting a church and we need to raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple. i.e. You can’t reproduce a church that took a million dollars to plant, no matter how successful it is. If can't even reproduce it self because the bar for what success looks like is too high!

• Seating to Sending

Many new church starts begin conversation in their first two years about when they will plant a new mission themselves. Planters in those churches don't hold so tightly to their "members" that they are fearful about sending some of them off as a launch team to start a new church. They believe that God will continue to bring new people to "fill the seats" of those who are carrying the mission of Jesus to a new location.

• New members to Disciples

It is not that the concept of membership is unimportant, but rather that the concept of discipleship is so much more important. Membership process has a beginning and an ending point - when the person is officially "received." Discipleship is ongoing.

• Mission by addition to Exponential Planting

All healthy things reproduce. In order for the LCMS to become a mission planting movement mission planting must again become one of the fundamental marks of a Lutheran church – not the oddity or the exception. There is never a "good" time to send money, people and energy somewhere else. But - as they say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago -- the second best time is right now!

• Monuments to Movements

It seems that every pastor really wants to get into mission if only his church was a little bigger! Buildings, space and property do matter, but many new church planting pastors spend much more time praying, thinking and teaching their people about being involved in God's mission than they do working on buildings. Buildings are only a means to accomplishing the purpose of the Great Commission.

Facilitating Church Planting Movements #2 - Biblically Faithful and Culturally Relevant churches

Stetzer shared he following about Bibically Faithful and Culturally Relevant churches.

If we are going to see church plants succeed, we will have to have churches that are Biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter cultural communities that reproduce.

It is long, hard and difficult work to create reproducing churches. Reproducing is like having a baby. It is painful, bloody, smelly but glorious!

1. Biblically faithful – centrality of Christ's cross and resurrection
2. Culturally relevant – almost every denomination selects a "culture" and feels it is their duty to reproduce that culture and call it "the kingdom of God." For Southern Baptists that looks like low church Protestantism from the 1800's singing Fanny Crosby hymns. For Lutherans it may look like 15^th – 17^th century Northern European church hymnody, liturgical forms, etc. If that is all we can reproduce, we will have poor results. In dealing with issues of culture: Our Christology must inform both our Missiology and our Ecclesiology. Question ultimately is "What expression of a Lutheran New Testament church works best in this culture?"
3. Countercultural Communities – We need to look like the culture around us (language, dress, music, etc.) but we need to live radically different. Our 21^st century problem is that for most churches they look different then the culture but the people live the same as everyone around them!

Big question: How can we move from decline to evangelization and church reproduction?

I think his observation about how many local churches today look very different from the culture (in terms of music, vocabulary, use of technology, culturally) is true. Perhaps we get deceived into thinking that we are therefore living radically different than the world. But - Stetzer's observation is that in most ways we live just like the culture around us. People still use power to get their way in the church; marriages don't do much better in the church; racism and class envy are all there as well. The challenge for missional churches and new mission starts is how to live radically differently than the culture but be diligent in discovering the missional keys which can unlock the culture so that message of God's love in Christ can actually be heard and experienced.

Facilitating Church Planting Movements #1 - Contend and Contextualize

Recently I went to a learning event with Ed Stetzer, author of Breaking the Missional Code at the Center for U.S. Missions on the Concordia, Irvine campus. The event was "Facilitating Church Planting Movements." Stetzer talks about 2 fundamental tasks in church planting and being missional. Here is a summary of his comments:

Contend and Contextualize – We must do both!

Contend:

Jude 1:3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

Ed Stetzer does not believe in abandoning denominational distinctives but rather carefully defining them. The church that engages the culture while contending for the "faith once delivered to the saints." We must decide what is the essence of being Lutheran Christians so that we will know exactly what are contending for. By doing so, we will also determining what we will not contend for.

Contextualize:

1 Corinthians 9:22-23 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. {23} I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

"Contextualization is a delicate enterprise if there ever was one. The evangelist and mission strategist stands on a razor's edge, aware that to fall off on either side will have dreadful results.

Fall to the right and you end in obscurantism, so attached to your conventional ways of practicing and teaching the faith that you veil its truth and power from those who are trying to see it through very different eyes.

Fall to the left and you tumble into syncretism, so vulnerable to the impact of paganism in its multiplicity of forms that you compromise the uniqueness of Christ and concoct another gospel which is not the Gospel.

Whichever you are more afraid of – your temptation will likely lean toward the opposite.

I agree with Stetzer -- how to both contend and contextualize will be one of the biggest challenges new church plants will deal with in the years ahead. Congregations who will parent these new missions will also need to do much praying and thinking about how to faithfully share the Gospel in new places and with new people groups over these next few decades.