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!