Busting 6 myths about church planting
Is 2023 the year you’re planning to plant a brand new expression of church? Where should you start? We asked spiritual entrepreneur Rich Robinson to share his advice from Elim’s recent evangelism conference to help bust some myths about church planting.
MYTH 1: YOU NEED TO START BIG
If you look at Jesus’ parables, everything starts small, with yeast, mustard seeds, prayer and sowing. Our narrative is often the opposite – bigger is better, we need a big budget, a big launch team, a building and a platform. When Jesus sent the disciples out he didn’t tell them to gather a crowd but to stay with the one household which was open to them. So as pioneers, start with a core team that’s committed to the journey and don’t despise the day of small beginnings.
MYTH 2: JUST FOCUS ON THE FIRST YEAR
When planning to plant my advice is to start with the end in mind: what’s your target for five to ten years’ time rather than five to ten months? Don’t just plan for a plant, but a church planting plant, for example. Being a pioneer can be tough, so having the greener pastures of your long-term plans can help make the valleys worth it.
MYTH 3: PLUG IN THE RIGHT CHURCH MODEL AND YOU’RE GOOD TO GO
Micro-church? Food bank? Mentoring programme? We all love the security of an existing model, but you need to stop, look and listen to the community rather than plug in a popular idea otherwise you’ll just end up planting something nobody wants. We need to move away from models and embrace the mystery of what God wants to do.
What worked for Paul in Corinth was different to what worked in Galatia and again in Philippi, for example. How you pioneer should be determined by the missional context rather than the Christian community doing the planting.
MYTH 4: IT’S ALL ABOUT STEEPLES, PLATFORMS AND PRIESTS
A lot of young adults no longer fit in institutional church planting systems and don’t want to plant in traditional ways. They have a far more integrated worldview of work, rest, play, faith and finances, and their ideas are often very effective.
A 25-year-old might say they want to start a coffee shop which will also be a faith community that makes a social impact. To this, a 55-year-old might respond, “Well what is it? A church or a coffee shop?” To the young adult it’s both.
We’ve seen some amazing ideas with paddle boarding, coffee shops, online classes and a huge raft of other enterprises, charities and businesses that are faith- driven and are all having a spiritual and social impact.
Do what Jesus did
If you want to succeed do what Jesus did. He was a catalyst – disrupting, unlocking dreams, bringing change. He was a coach – providing on-the-job training. He was a challenger – shifting his followers from disciples to leaders to multiply his work. He was a champion – helping others win. He was the ultimate pioneer, entrepreneur and planter.
MYTH 5: WE NEED TO BE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL SERVICES
One of the big mistakes people make is to run service projects which do things at people rather than with them. They become Christian Social Services.
We’ve made that mistake too – in one place we did a community clear-up, doing people’s gardens. The problem was this created a consumer/client mentality and an expectation that we would just do things for people rather than be a partner within the community.
Work as members of the community, asking how you can change things together.
Plant in teams
We need to break the mentality of the solo heroic planter with great charisma and resilience because that’s not helpful or biblical. Instead, we need to plant in teams or families. Then we should ask how we’re training and supporting them.
MYTH 6: GOSPEL SHARING MATTERS MOST
The most effective church plants I’ve seen have been the ones where people have lived incarnationally and built trust and relationships before doing anything else. On the flipside, another common mistake is that people don’t integrate into their community, love and listen before trying to share the gospel.
Your plant should be marked by the way you love and your ability to win the right to be heard – people will listen when they know they’re loved.
Keep doing something new
If you’re seeing people saved and you have disciples and leaders who are really good news in your community, great! Keep going and developing along these lines. But i f not, do something new. Look for opportunities or leaders with huge potential. How can you invest resources for the greatest kingdom return? On the strategic side, ask what you have the capacity and time to do. On the prophetic side, ask how you can be faithful to who God’s called you to be.
Rich is the founder of Catalyse Change (www.catalysechange. org), an organisation which connects, trains and empowers church planters and leaders, entrepreneurs and organisations to equip them to fulfil God’s purpose for their lives and leadership. He pursues this mission through two main initiatives: www.creoventures.co and www. movementleaderscollective.com
This article first appeared in the March 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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