Why Then Do We Church Plant?

**Let me start off by saying that I am part of 3 year old church plant. I was also a part of another church plant that was put on hold after being open for a few months. I am NOT leaving my church. Church planting is a weird phenomenon and I just had some questions and thoughts about it.***

Here’s something that I’ve been stewing on a bit lately: Church Planting.

Why do people plant churches? Having been a part of a church plant, I know why we planted – we were asked if we would like to and we did. But having talked to various church planters and having read their “manifestos” or their ideas for a new beginning, I wonder why people plant. Here are a couple reasons that I’ve heard of or seen that disappoint, make me question, or make me think about church planting.

Reason #1 They are doing it all wrong or We are going to do things differently. First off, this language has a very splitting tone to it. People tend to talk like this and it can come across as divisive (Suffice to say, this is probably the worst reason to plant a church). Some church plants (not all) seem to have go about it with the idea that they are doing what is right, and the other churches have it wrong. This is an idea that I’ve seen come out of my own heart and mouth, and I admit it. But the thing is, one day I came to the realization that God speaks to everybody in different ways. I’ve met people who met Jesus through TBN programming or what some may consider shady televangelists. Even myself, a man who came to know Christ on a Greyhound bus while reading a book called WWJD.  God speaks to people in ways that only He could, so this idea of I can do it better is not only offensive, but it is wrong. Nobody does it better than God. 

Another part of it is the idea of we do it differently because this is how the early church did it. Alot of churches seem to plant under the premises of Acts 2. They share meals, do service projects together, meet at home churches – the live, learn and love together. I admire this idea. We do a bit of these at our church. But I wonder if sometimes people focus more on trying to be different and have different approaches to church rather than sharing the gospel at times.

Reason #2 The church needs a jumpstart. This is an interesting idea. It may go the route of Reason #1, but hear me out. I believe that the church does need a jumpstart at times. Sometimes the church may seem stale and in need of some refreshing. The fault though, is that these jumpstarts sometimes come out as simply a smaller version of where they came from. We hear the term of “cookie cutter” churches and I think this might be the fault in these jumpstarts. Sometimes what they are doing is being done in a bigger, better, more attractive way around the corner, and they are simply reinventing the wheel.

Reason #3 This is the direction that the church is headed. Unfortunately, I’ve seen and heard a bunch of stories of churches who plant for this reason. When I was at Trinity Western University, I met a few people who were planting based on the book, “The Shaping of Things to Come” and the ideas that it produced. After this book, (and well before it) there were a slew of books that began to be published centered around this idea. Right before the missional movement in the church, there was the emergent movement which was preceded by the postmodern movement, which was preceded by the mega church movement, etc, etc.  So to plant based on the movement of the church could prove to be a little strange.

Reason #4 We need to reach the unchurched that aren’t being reached! I have people telling me all the time that Whatcom County is the least churched county in the Nation! I haven’t seen or read this statistic anywhere for my own eyes, so I don’t know the validity of this charge (if you have a link please send it to me). I don’t really know if this is a valid reason to start a church. Sometimes when we plant like this, we may give off the impression that we are there but we want them to come to us. If this was the reason, then why didn’t we stay at the other church in the first place. Another thing that happens is that when we try to reach the “unchurched” we may be trying to fit a square peg in a circle. In other words, we plant without knowing the culture. All we know is that unchurched people live there and God calls us to go and make disciples. But sometimes we take this great commission over the greatest commandment and we forget to love God and our neighbor. Simply making them disciples without even knowing them.

Again, I am not bagging on Church Plants. I have seen many church plants do amazing things! I have just been thinking of them a little more. Your Thoughts?

Serving a Sex Offender

It’s interesting how relationships change when we find out the dirtiest part of someone. I have a customer who comes in everyday at Starbucks. They get the same drink and pastry, we have extensive conversations on the day or our week, and we talk about things we have in common (i.e. music). The other day, somebody told me that this customer was a sex offender. I didn’t write them off, but I did wonder. Am I supposed to treat them differently? As a Christian, I’ve come up with the answer of no.

I look to the thief on the cross and I remember that we don’t know his crime or what he did, and Jesus treated him no differently than the other guy mocking him on the other side. I think that this is a challenge that faces us as Christ followers, is accepting the person (that clich’e of loving the sinner and hating the sin fits well here). Though the crime is utterly repulsive, and they may deserve death in the eyes of society, what are we to do in the eyes of the Kingdom?

We Christians are a funny bunch of people

isn’t it funny that we Christians condemn Christian artists for not talking about Jesus enough, but when an artist who wasn’t thought to be christian talks about the Divine we claim them as our own…

The Value of the Homeless

Here’s a question: What is the value of the homeless in our church today. If we are to do to the least of these, then what value do we place on the dirtiest of these? I once worked at a church where a pastor said, “maybe we could bus the homeless over to the video venue…they might be more comfortable there, don’t you think?” No joke, I was not happy about it. To give this story context, we were talking about the homeless program at the church bringing people in and how they disrupt the service or make people uncomfortable.

So, I ask again: What value does  the church place on a dirty, no money having, probably still drunk, disrupting the service bum?

I Will Not Let You Grow Old (An Open Letter to My Friends)

This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!

2/27/09

Dear Friend,

I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.

Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.

Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.

Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.

So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.

Sincerely, Your Friend,

The Brown Kid

Snow Day(s) and the Church

Baron and I were talking about snow days before service yesterday. Here in bellingham, if you go out on a sunday and there is a foot of snow on the ground then the gas stations are still open, grocery stores and starbucks still tread on, and even little ceasars pizza still open there doors. Usually, the first people to close their doors on a sunday are the churches. Wierd, huh?

At the church I used to work for and attend, if there was even over 6 inches on the ground, they would shut down services. I wonder if maybe it was because they worry about the congregants coming in from all over the county. I began to wonder also if this is another example of the disadvantages of the “Come and See” attractional church. Not many of the congregants of that church live within a mile or two of the church.

Maybe it’s just cabin fever I am getting being holed up with Loa and Cynthia, but I wonder if you have any thoughts on this?

St. Arbucks Jumps on Board

…two years too late.

Starbucks announced that they will give money this holiday season to the (red) campaign. Seriously, didn’t this happen already? Isn’t everybody done with the (red) campaign? Of course, it’s a good thing, as St. Arbucks will donate .05 cents from every holiday trio sold (Gingersnap Latte, Peppermint Twist Mocha, and the Eggnog Latte), but what if instead they said they will donate all procedes from the holiday trio sold on one day? I am sure more people would be on board for this. Maybe Uncle Howie should have been on board two years ago when the (red) campaign was relevant.

My Job Description

As a staff at Roosevelt Community Church, we have been asked to write out our job description and what we do at RCC. Below is what I have so far.

“I am an artist who is in love with Jesus. I want to inspire others to see this love through my expressions and in themselves, and in turn allow them to find new and different ways to express this love through the arts.”

This is what I have so far for my job description, but it is also my personal mission statement for my life. Do you have a job or “mission” statement for what you do? It doesn’t have to be spiritual or anything, I just want to know, if somebody asked you what is your personal mission statement for life what would it be?

Is it me…

or did McCain come off a little snarky last night? That’s right, I said snarky. To tell you the truth, it was a bit of a turn off. Now I know that Obama had his times of side comments, but I felt that McCain was really overdoing it.

just another reason I’m not going to vote for “that one over there”, and by “that one…” I mean McCain.

Here is a positive though: For a drinking game, someone can watch the debate and drink everytime McCain says “My friends…” or mentions Ronald Reagan, or when Obama says “rather I say out loud…”.

Regarding Community

The idea of community is wierd. What is community really? Is it the place that you live in? Or is it the company that you keep around you? We have a strange community emerging within the last five years or so with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and even as you read this blog entry we are engaging in some sort of faux community.

We have our home community in which we live in a neighborhood. This is our direct community. Sometimes we try to block out this community by building fences around our homes, to which only those who are invited may enter. This home community is quite tricky, because none of us truly want to invite others into our lives usually. Sometimes I find myself inside of my home with the blinds drawn and the lights off so that nobody thinks I am home. We seclude ourselves so that we never have to speak to others, but really we are missing out on the community that we crave.

We also have our work community (neighborhood) in which we go and punch the clock. Sometimes we get so caught up in how much our job sucks that we forget the impact that we might have on people. Sometimes when working at the church, I feel like a jukebox playing the songs that people like or dislike. I feel like I am there to play the hits, but then something changes. I see somebody standing and truly worshipping. Those are the moments that my work community is at its best: when I’ve led somebody to a place of happiness, or they are touched by Jesus. The same thing happens when I work at starbucks. Sometimes I see people who are regulars coming in as I am leaving and they say things like, “you can’t leave, who will make my drink for me?” Though they may not be complimenting me, I feel that I am touching their lives in some way. Though I leave somedays hating people more than one man should, I know that Jesus loves them even more than I hate them.

I think this is the purpose of community. True community is the effect that you have on other people’s lives. Whether you are living around them, serving them at your job, or even seeing them on the same bus everyday, true community is formed when they notice you aren’t there anymore. When people start to miss you, then you know that you have formed community.