Tag Archives: church planting

JD Payne in New England

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Today I was a part of a training event for church planters hosted by the Baptist Convention of New England. The guest speaker was JD Payne, author of “Discovering Church Planting: An Introduction to the Whats, Whys, and Hows of Global Church Planting” (Affiliate Link). Everyone in attendance received a copy of the book so I’m sure I’ll be reviewing it here at ChurchETHOS soon.

JD Payne is a national missionary with the North American Mission Board and is an Associate Professor of Church Planting and Evangelism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY where he also directs their church planting center. He has written two other books and is the founder of northamericanmissions.org.

Here are a couple of insights from JD Payne’s research and missiology from today’s talks (and also from some blog posts and other data I’ve gotten from him in months past):

There are 29 metro areas in the US with fewer than 5% of the population who are evangelical.

When I looked through this data, I discovered that 11 of the 29 metro areas are in New England and I’m living in one of them! Here are some more nuggets:

The way we are planting churches in North America must change. There are 4 billion people around the world who are not following Jesus and 2 billion who have never even heard of him. Our methods need to change if we are going to reach them with the gospel.

Payne’s definition of church planting: evangelism that results in new churches. Question: can you plant a church without evangelism?

If you have a shaky theology then your missiology will be shaky, if your missiology is shaky then your missional practices will be on shaky ground. Our theology informs our missiology informs how we do mission.

Suggested ethical guideline for church planting practices: Since the global need for the gospel is so great, unless God reveals otherwise, we will begin our ministry among people with the greatest need and with a high level of receptivity to the gospel.

Another suggested ethical guideline: Since the world consists of four billion unbelievers, with two billion who have never heard the gospel, our strategy will involve the use of highly reproducible church planting methods.

I couldn’t agree more with JD about these guidelines and some of the thoughts he conveyed at our meeting. I will be sharing more of his insights and my responses in the weeks ahead, but for now I thought I would share some of the highlights!

What are your thoughts to some of his research and insights about church planting in North America?

Embodying Our Faith by Tim Morey

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Embodying Our Faith:
Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church
by: Tim Morey
Paperback: IVP Books, 2010.
Buy now:  [ Amazon Affiliate Link ]

Tim Morey (D.Min., Fuller Theological Seminary) is a church planter and pastor. His church, Life Covenant Church is located in Torrance, California. He is also on the national church planting team for the Evangelical Covenant Church and is an adjunct professor teaching practical theology at Talbot School of Theology.

Tim Morey asks the following question in his introduction to “Embodying Our Faith”:

“How do we bring the message of Jesus to a culture that is deeply skeptical about truth claims, rejects metanarratives (such as the gospel), considers the church a suspect institution, takes offense at moral judgments and believes any religion will lead them to God?”

When put that way, our task seems a bit overwhelming. However, Morey does a great job of developing a philosophy of church planting for those of us who are church planters while simultaneously making evangelism in a postmodern context a simpler concept to understand. This book is a must read for church planters but it’s also a must read for anyone in the church who seeks to understand how God is moving in our post-Christian, postmodern culture of relativism and how we can join Him in showing love to our neighbors.

Embodied Apologetics

At the root of this book is the concept of “embodied apologetics”. He writes

By this I mean an apologetic that is based more on the weight of our actions than the strength of our arguments.

I underlined this sentence 12 times in my copy of Morey’s book. He’s not saying that we abandon our logical understanding of Truth. In my head I envision a person standing on two feet. One foot represents logical arguments for the gospel. The other foot represents our experience of the gospel. In today’s society, I believe Morey is suggesting that the weight is shifting from one foot to the other; from the logical foot, to the experiential foot. However, we still stand on both feet. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” We need to maintain our understanding of the truth but realize that many people need to see our faith in action before they will ever consider the truth. Morey spends a lot more time explaining an embodied apologetic than most others who have talked about the concept and I appreciate his ability to take an abstract concept and make it concrete.

More from Morey concerning an embodied apologetic:

The Christian life is not meant to be an objective pursuit of orthodox doctrine but is embodied in those who follow a Person rather than a dogma.

Seldom do you find [in the book of Acts] a proclamation of the gospel without an accompanying experience of the gospel.

Contextualization

From describing an embodied apologetic, Morey then turns to contextualization in the chapter entitled, “Same Wine, Different Skin”. Again, he is able to succinctly describe a vision for the present about how we should contextualize the gospel. Morey wants the church to start being on mission. As church members, we are missionaries in our own neighborhood. He writes:

The task of every missionary is to understand the culture to be reached and to bring the undiluted gospel to that culture in a form that will be understandable to the hearers. This process is known as contextualization.

His point is that we shouldn’t think that this process is only for the missionary in Japan who wears a kimono or the missionary in Ecuador who learns to speak Spanish. In our own communities, we need to begin to grasp the “language” of our neighbors and begin to think more missionally about how to share our lives with them. He quotes Eddie Gibbs:

The contextualized church “represents a serious attempt to engage with the cultural setting in which the local church is endeavoring to bear witness,” whereas the market-driven church “signifies a church that tailors its message and employs any gimmick in order to attract a crowd.”

Clearly, Morey believes we should be more relationship-driven and he calls this “the contextualized church”.

Disciplemaking

Evangelizing baby boomers is like picking fruit from an aging tree, while evangelizing postmoderns is like fertilizing the roots in hope that fruit will one day appear.

Agree? Disagree? In chapters 3 and 4, Morey talks about what it means to make disciples in a postmodern context. In Morey’s mind, we shouldn’t be separating evangelism from discipleship. Jesus didn’t seem to reserve spiritual practices only for those who were “members”. Here’s what Morey says:

Jesus seemed largely unconcerned with who was in and who was out (“You do not want to leave too, do you?” [Jn 6:67]), but simply called all to follow regardless of where they were at in the process, always inviting them to go deeper.

In other words, Morey believes that we are seeing a shift in how people come to Jesus and it may not be a one time event…it might be a process. He describes several shifts for us to consider today:

  • Evangelism as an event to evangelism as a process
  • Impersonal evangelism to personal evangelism
  • Rational apologetics to an embodied apologetic

Too often we present the gospel as a set of truths we must subscribe to, as opposed to a relationship with Jesus.

Elements of an Embodied Apologetic

Throughout the book, Morey is developing a way of thinking about the needs of our postmodern neighbors and how the church naturally meets those needs through an embodied apologetic.

An embodied apologetic must be experiential. Our worship gatherings are, by nature, experiential. Especially when we include elements of communion, prayer, silence,  music, food, Psalms, ancient writings, story, giving, art, meditation, preaching, teaching, and benediction as Morey suggests. This experiential worship resonates with postmoderns who have a need for transcendence.

An embodied apologetic must be communal. This happens through our small groups, hospitality in our homes, mentoring, accountability, confession, etc. These practices really meet the needs of postmoderns who are longing for authentic community.

Finally, an embodied apologetic must be enacted. The church should be active in compassion and justice both locally and globally. This meets the needs of postmoderns who are trying to find their purpose.

These three elements of an embodied apologetic – experiential faith, communal faith, and enacted faith – are the subject of the final three chapters of the book. These last three chapters are extremely practical and helpful. Notice also that all three of these expressions of our faith are extremely natural and Biblical. They may not be easy, but this is the essence of how God wants us to live. There is nothing new about the gospel or even about how to share the gospel, Morey simply does a good job of matching the needs of our postmodern neighbors to the fulfillment of those needs in Jesus as we live, share, and practice our faith in front of others.

Church Planting is People Planting

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There’s a lot of imagery in Jesus’ parables of sowing seeds. We use the same imagery when we talk about “church planting”. The essence of church planting is simply sowing seeds of the gospel into our neighbors lives. This becomes harder and harder for established churches as the outward focus shifts inward.

But that’s okay! The good news is that anyone can be a people planter!

Regardless of whether or not we are starting a brand new church or are a part of an established church we can be involved in people planting. Every church leader can invest in people. Every church member can invest in people too! Another way to say that is, we are all called to obey the Great Commandment and fulfill the Great Commission.

Plant a seed. Pray! Water it. Pray! Watch it mature. Pray! Repeat!!

Our neighbors need to know about the good news and all of us are called to share it with them. People planting is about investing in the lives of our neighbors. We need church planters to be people planters. We need established church leaders to be people planters. We need church members to be people planters.

He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (Psalm 1:3)

Are you a people planter? Are you equipping others to be people planters?

Marketing Your Church Plant: Biblical Foundations

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Does marketing play a role in the Great Commission? Now that we’ve looked at the philosophical foundations for marketing your church plant, it’s time to consider what the Bible has to say on the matter.

But, does the Bible say anything about marketing? After all, modern marketing techniques didn’t exist when the Bible was written. So, maybe we should ask, “Would Jesus create a website? Would Paul? What about a direct mail campaign or creating a logo? Would they have invested money in spreading the Gospel? Or would they just invest time? Is one more holy than another?

Since there were no facebook ad campaigns in Jesus’ day, we first have to ask, “what is accomplished through a marketing campaign?” I’ve come up with a few reasons why we should use modern marketing concepts to help us reach our neighbors.

1. Church Marketing is Creative

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” As His image-bearers, we are creative creatures. God’s children enjoy using their creative abilities to glorify God and it’s no different for those who are versed in graphic design or are able to create a catchy slogan for an invitation. Just because we aren’t using paint or marble, doesn’t mean we can’t use our creative juices to do our best on a website or a postcard.

This is also an argument for bringing excellence to everything we do whether it’s a bulletin, a website, a banner, or a banner ad, but that’s a different discussion. In short, let’s use our creativity as we reach out to our neighbors!

2. Church Marketing is Proclamation

The purpose of sending a mailer, creating a website, or hanging door hangers is to get the word out. We had a new family come to our church this week just because we have a website. Of course, those are the ones looking for a church, but you never know when someone is going to start looking, right? Would we have reached them eventually? Who knows, but we definitely reached them through our website.

Romans 10:14-15 says, “But how can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How welcome are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!”

Do these verses only apply to word of mouth? Or can it refer to sign language, billboards, semaphore, braille, html, and ebonics? Somehow, I get the feeling that we are to use all means at our disposal to reach our neighbors with the gospel! Didn’t Paul say something about that?

Which leads us to the next point…

3. Church Marketing is Contextual

Paul did indeed say that he had become all things to all people that he might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:19). Most people in my community work from 7 to 7 so that they can afford the homes they live in. People are more and more anti-social. We want the church to be a communal gathering where we can fellowship but most people don’t know what that’s like.

Modern marketing methods are a form of contextualizing the gospel. My neighbors don’t want to answer the door, but they will watch TV for 3 hours each evening. How will we reach the people who are withdrawn in their own homes, isolated from society except the occasional beer buddy? Well, if they are going to be online, or watching TV, or checking their mail, isn’t it reasonable to find ways to reach them so that we can develop a relationship?

The church should be about relationships, but sometimes people need to be given permission to have relationships. When we use our creativity to love and serve our neighbors, and when we use our creativity to get the word out about what God is doing in our community, we are using contextual methods that work here and now through communication sources that are recognizable and embraced by our neighbors.

4. Church Marketing is Responsible

Church marketing can be creative and contextualized proclamation, but it is also an exercise in stewardship. In “philosophical foundations” I talked about how time and money should both be seen as resources we have been given to use wisely. There are some things that well spent money can accomplish and there are others that can only be accomplished through time. Then there are still other things that use a mixture of both resources. It’s important to note that not all marketing campaigns are a wise investment, but I’m simply making the point that just because it is marketing doesn’t mean it’s not biblical.

In the Parable of the Talents, we see Jesus teaching a spiritual truth using the example of money. The first servant is entrusted with 5 talents and he wisely “puts them to work” and makes 5 more. The second servant is entrusted with 2 talents and he makes 2 more. ”But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.” (Matthew 25:18)

Want to hear his reasoning? “Then the man who had received one talent also approached and said, ‘Master, I know you. You’re a difficult man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed. So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. Look, you have what is yours.’” (Matthew 25:24-25) This man didn’t take a chance with the money entrusted to him and the master returned and called him evil and lazy and suggested that he should’ve at least put it in the bank so that he could’ve collected interest.

Do we believe that our money and our resources will multiply just like we expect our time to multiply? Good stewardship of time, money, and resources in an effective marketing campaign can be blessed by God and bring glory to Him. This is being responsible with a portion of our resources to announce an event, a Bible study, a sermon series, etc.

5. Church Marketing is Seed Scattering

Jesus also tells the Parable of the Four Seeds. I was always frustrated at the less than economical way that the sower goes out to sow. Why didn’t they just put all the seeds in the good soil? In this parable, really only one fourth of the seeds that were sown were effective. The rest were eaten by birds, scorched by the sun, or trampled under foot. Seriously, was it that hard to keep the seed off the path?

On the other hand, I wonder if part of the imagery is just to get us to sow the gospel as broadly as possible. Jesus taught huge multitudes and from those crowds, some became disciples. Sure, he also focused a lot of energy on His twelve closest followers, but there were hundreds of committed followers because Jesus sowed broadly. People need to hear and it’s not our job to limit that to just the ones we think want to hear. After all, Matthew 9:38 tells us that we are to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into “His harvest”. It’s His harvest and we are simply sowing seed. Even the seed that falls on the path, among the thorns, or on rocky ground serves a purpose.

As I consider the seed that fell on good soil, I sometimes wonder what it would be like if the sower had spent all his time checking every inch of ground in advance to make sure it was good soil. Would that have been a better use of his time? I believe this parable is giving us permission to use our resources to rapidly and broadly sow the seed so that all of the good soil is found and all of the bad soil is at least invited.

Do you think that some marketing methods today can be a creative, contextual, and responsible way of announcing and broadcasting the gospel?

Plant a Church. Yeah, That Means You!

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So, if you’ve read much of my blog, you know I am a church planter in Boston. I didn’t know much about being a church planter before I started, but I have learned a lot in the last two years. I now realize that there can never be a professional church planter. I also now realize that every follower of Christ should be involved in church planting.

That’s hard to understand because there are a lot of things that every believer should be encouraged to do: caring for the homeless, looking after orphans and widows, having concern for the nations, loving our neighbors, promoting love and non-violence, etc. How can we have our hand in every one of those things? Honestly, there are only a few homeless people near Boston University and I don’t know where to begin with orphans and widows. In reality, some believers, using their strengths and passions are involved in different things. One believer might open a homeless shelter, while another believer owns a business and is ethically responsible. We give to our communities in different ways. We express our love by our involvement in the community.

Church planting is different. I always thought of church planting as a vocation. A team of people see a need in a specific community where there is no church and they work together to meet those needs. The church planter is the guy. He’s the leader. He’s the guy with the vision and the direction. Recently, I was teaching about church planting to a group of teenagers in Chicago. There was a guide that I was supposed to follow as I taught over a period of five days. The guide said that most church planters have three things. They have a definite call from God. They are called to a specific people and they are called to a specific place. True, there is a vocation for people who want to lead new church growth in an area, but that’s not all church planting is meant to be.

It’s ironic because my move to Boston was after a long time of frustration with how the church sets it’s pastors up as the ministers. My view shifted along time ago to realize that everyone in the church is meant to follow Christ and serve their community. Not just the pastor. And here I was allowing the same deception to creep in to my view of a church plant. Sure, we were basing our church on the idea that we were all there to serve each other and serve our community, but I still had the concept that the church planter is the man. He calls the shots.

I’ve found the truth. You may have found it already. I have a definite calling from God: to love God and to love people, and, to make disciples of all nations. That’s my call, but that’s not my call as a church planter, that’s my call as a follower of Christ.

I have been given a specific group of people to reach out to. For me it’s college students and young adults, but for you it might be a family member, a co-worker, a classmate, a roommate. It’s whoever God has placed in your life. That is your specific group of people.

I have been given a specific place. Boston. I had to move from where I used to live and from what was familiar to me, but that’s not the case for everyone. You don’t have to go to another nation to make disciples of all the nations. You may not be called to move to another city.

My realization of church planting is that we all have a definite call, a specific place, and a specific people. Churches need to be planted in your community. They need to be planted in Boston. They need to be planted in Istanbul and in Chicago. And I need to be involved in planting churches. We just need to understand and apply the following:

I am the church and I have been planted with a definite call, in a specific place, to a specific people.

Spiritual Warfare Part 2

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Well, this week Satan has certainly been at work in the life of our church, but God has been victorious every time. I have heard dozens of reports of people in our church sharing their faith this week. Seven BU students decided to go and do surveys in the student center at BU on Monday. They talked to several people in depth about faith and what distinguishes Christianity from the other religions. Others have had conversations with people and sat down with friends to be intentional about their conversations. Still others have told me about some sacrifices they had to make in their schedule or in their comfort levels, etc. just to do what they knew God was asking them to do.

Another great victory that we are seeing happen has to do with discipleship. Disciple-making is our church’s approach to reach the world for Christ and almost all of our leadership team have found someone to disciple and someone to disciple them and some of those relationships have formed in the past few days and weeks. Many of those that are being discipled by our leaders are unbelievers who value the time they can spend with an authentic believer. I don’t know what you might call it: friendship evangelism, lifestyle evangelism, relationship evangelism. I just call it being intentional about the relationships God has brought us and we are seeing it happen.

This week has been extremely productive in every way. Our team prepared for a mission team from New Orleans that just arrived tonight. ESL and an Alpha course are both picking up steam on campus. I have been able to get a lot of things done on my to do list and at the same time have some quality time with a few people that I needed to spend time with.

On the other hand, there have been some major things come up that are obvious attempts by Satan to destroy what God is doing. Satan wants to steal the seed that was emphasized Sunday night when we talked about sacrificing EVERYTHING for the message of Jesus Christ. A couple of people in our church are even going through some things this week that would have been difficult for Job.

Sunday night I developed a head cold because I couldn’t sleep all that night. My concern for our church was heavy and oppressive. I knew the storm would come in light of the gravity of the message and the amazing response from the church to sacrifice all for Jesus. I had trouble sleeping that night but Monday was a really good day (despite the cold that I was developing). Tuesday morning was HORRIBLE. I have never experienced so much frustration and for a couple of hours I was completely defeated and angry at life. Glory to God that He pulled me out of that and helped me to see that the circumstances of the morning were the spiritual forces that wanted to bring me down. They were succeeding too until my Father rescued me from it. The rest of the day was spiritually and logistically very fulfilling and productive.

Finally, I am encouraged by something that I thought was a negative thing at first. I have been traveling a lot and I have another trip this weekend (in 4 hours I head to the airport). However, God is doing a great work in my absence. Our leaders and others in the church are stepping up and taking responsibility for a lot of things while I am gone. Jessica will be leading worship completely on her own other than the instruments this Sunday. Josh is going to serve as my co-leader for the team we will be taking to New Orleans next week and he will be hosting the team meeting this Friday. Trisha, Anne and Dena will be doing most of the hosting of our current mission team (something TJ and I usually do). Others in our church will be spending time with the mission team and will serve alongside them. Others are planning upcoming events and my heart is overwhelmed at the things God is accomplishing through our church.

What a victorious week. I am encouraged. I am challenged. I am overwhelmed by God’s amazing leadership and guidance and His beautiful presence here in Boston. This round fought here in Boston between Satan and God, as always, goes to God Almighty.

Boston (42° 21′ , -71° 7′)

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Spiritual Warfare