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?

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…

Sunday Set List

Today, as we continued through the season of Lent, we looked at the idea of the filters that we see Christiansity through. I found myself sitting through the service thinking about the idea of the filters and what we see in the church today. This idea of filters really exposes the ideas that are stemming throughout the church today (i.e. missional, mega, whatever the trend is at the time). At RCC, our ethos is shown through our actions and our mission. We didn’t do this because we go with the flow of the latest chruch movement, or we read a book and really like what it had to say. We did this, because our filter of the gospel showed us that our mission is to Love God and Love Neighbor. So that being said, here is the Sunday Set List for this week (all the links are YouTube clips of vids of the song some are serious, some are to help you see what the song sounds like, and some are goofy or funny):

Yahweh – This is a U2 song off of their “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”. My favorite lyric is “take these lips, so quick to criticize. take these lips give them a kiss”.

Blessed Be Your Name - Everytime I pull this song I feel like it could be put to rest for a little bit. But then we play it and it feels like it speaks deeper and deeper to the congregation and they don’t really mind that we are singing this song again. Sometimes I sing the bridge (You give and take away) with the melody of U2’s “with or without you” (You give yourself away) so that it says: You give and take away/ and you give and take away/ and you give/ and you give/ and you give and take away. Usually leading into the hook of  “I can’t live/ with or without you” back into the Chorus of Blessed be…

Jesus, You’re the Light -  A new song that I introduced to the congregation. It’s a reflection tune that is a prayer for Jesus to shine light on us to reveal sin, not just to lead us to Him but instead to be closer to him.

Because of Your Love - One of my favorite Paul Baloche tunes. We took out the “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” part and put a bit of a Dave Matthews groove to it. This is a great song that helps to remind us what God has done for us and how we got here in our faith.

Trust and Obey – Love this hymn. A call for the church to be the church and trust God and obey the Holy Spirits leading.

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?

Dirty Talk in the Church

This past sunday we had “the talk” at church.  “The talk” was the money talk, and how we don’t have it. We didn’t meet budget, in fact we were several thousand dollars off. It was hard because of course it’s an awkward conversation, but in the end I think that the people walked away encouraged rather than guilt riden. We showed our budget and where the money is going (i.e. staff, insurance, RCC/NCC, bulletins, etc) and explained what we have cut and/or are cutting. The miracle is that last year we were able to give 20% of our budget away to non profs, benevilance funds, and other various people/organizations in need.

We, the church, make this money converstaion such a dirty talk. Have you ever noticed that when we talk about money, usually it is solomon who is quoted and not jesus. I think this is because Jesus’ words are a little harder (sell everything you have…). I’m not going to get into this right now though, because that is a whole other can of worms.

Anyways, after the talk I felt like we walked out encouraged rather than discouraged. We know exactly where money is going and what we do with it. Unfortunately we live in a time of economic crisis and our human nature tells us to keep it.  I saw this cartoon at ASBO Jesus a while ago that showed a pastor asking a person, “Do the birds worry?”  t o which the person replied, “Do the birds have a mortgage?” This is are human nature taking over our faith.

So I wonder this:

1. Who else has had this talk with your church? How did you handle it/HOw did they take it?

2. If you are a church worker (Pastor, director, etc), what changes have you seen in the church staffing and budget?

Bursting Your Christian Bubble

A friend of mine here on the blogosphere and in Tweetsville (twitter) made me think today. His name is Tyler. He is the “Man of Depravity” and he lives in Portland (my third favorite city on the west coast). He posed the idea of the Christian bubble. The Christian bubble is the seperation of the sacred and the secular in our lives. We see it all the time when christians go to christian stores to buy christian albums or christian books of christian artists written specifically for christians. This is the bubble that we live in. We live in it and when we do, we lose touch of the world outside of it.

When I was going to Trinity Western University, I saw this bubble first hand. I would drive on campus and see all of these students who knew each other, took classes together, had bible studies together, went to games together, and went to chapel and church together. The students were all stuck in the trinity bubble together, but had no need or even want to get out.

So Tyler had two questions:

1. Does this apply to you?
2. How can Christians avoid this happening (practical ways)?

I saw this happening in my life. It’s hard not to when you work in a church. I wanted to get away from the bubble. I wanted to have “normal” conversations. I say normal because christianity is such a sub culture that we speak a whole different language. I wanted to converse with my friends who spoke with a native tongue that I once spoke before I met Jesus.

I got a part time job outside of the church. I did this for two reasons. 1) we needed money and 2) if I taught guitar lessons part time instead, my only clients were going to be references from churches. and so I donned the green apron and began pushing caramel machiatos to the masses. This is the idea of the bi vocational pastor. Though I do not hold the title pastor, I do work inside of a church and am therefore thrusted into the bubble.

I think the bubble is a sad place to be at times. Non Christians (NC) are uncomfortable being there and Christians try to be hospitable but their language and culture is so foreign that the NC’s feel even more awkward. Another thing is I feel that the Christians sometimes feel that their job is to make sure that the NC’s must leave having made some sort of progress toward becoming a Christ follower. This is just wrong. Now they are a project not a friend.

But if the Christian has lived in the bubble for so long, they may have nothing to talk about. They have seperated themselves from the culture. They couldn’t talk about things that may matter to modern day culture. again, awkward conversation. The bubble must be popped.

Now I am not saying to join the culture and abandon all that matters to you. What I am saying is that if we are to pop the bubble, we must no what matters outside of the bubble. Have an opinion but don’t think that it is the only one that matters because God is on your side (this drives me bonkers when Xtians pull this one out).

thoughts on the bubble?

Sunday Set List 1/25/09

Today at RCC, we had an interesting time of musical worship. The “D” string broke on my guitar and when you are playing songs in the key of G and D, this can be a bad thing. Luckily we started in the key of E…oh wait, that didn’t make a difference at all! Anyways, I welcomed the church into worship and as I hit the first chord, my D string broke, but I kept on with mostly bar chords on the E and A string.

What I have to keep in mind is that I am there to teach and lead people in worship. Even though it killed me to do it, I felt as though I don’t need to play my guitar to lead, so I led simply with two strings most of the time. It is funny though, because as a musician, it killed me at times to lead this way but hearing the voices of our congregation really helped me to continue on. As they worshipped, my worship increased – almost as though they were leading me.

Here was the setlist from today as follows:

Our Love is Loud – David Crowder 

Let Everything that has Breath – Passion

Be Glorified – Chris Tomlin

Jesus, All For Jesus – Robin Mark

Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus - Traditional

As we continue on in the epiphany series, it is sometimes easy to find songs that go with the theme of Christ in Culture. The tough part is trying not to repeat the songs, because they all go so well each time.

“Jesus all for Jesus” has to be my favorite song. I love the simplicity of the words and the power that they project as you realize the simplicity of our relationship of Jesus and how hard we really make it sometimes. Isn’t that our way sometimes though? We seem to take a gift and try to explain it in more and more complicated ways. This song I feel explains the beauty of our gift that Jesus gave us.

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?

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Carols

Am I the Grinch who stole Christmas carols? I had some people ask me to do Christmas carols during our worship at Roosevelt Community Church. As a staff member of a church that practices and obeserves the Advent season, this brought up a few Questions for me:

What is the true job of the ministers of the church?

Is the true reason to appease the congregation? Should we say “give them what they want”, or should we liken our job as ministers to teach what, how and why we believe as Christ followers? As a staff member of a church which follows the church calendar, only to find themselves in the middle of Advent, then I believe this is a great teaching moment. What if we taught the idea of patience in the midst of the season of antcipation. otherwise, to put it semi-crudely, we experience the climax without the foreplay. It’s just straight to the money shot and we don’t realize what had happened in between it all.

As an artist, what am I to do?

Do I simply go with the congregation, or do I challenge them to think? Is that not the purpose of the worship leader – to help people think, see, and experience Jesus in different ways? Maybe we need to push people outside of their comfort zones. Instead of singing the familiar tunes of  “Angels We Have Heard on High”, we challenge people in experiencing the anticipation through the ideas of  “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”.

What tears me apart as an artist is I want to challenge people, but on the other hand I have to think about the feelings of the congregation. So what can I do? Do I feel like a sell out, or keep the integrity of the season? I opt for the later, myself. Which draws another question:

Why couldn’t there be more accesible ways of explaining the Advent season?

Really, in teh singing world, you are stuck with a handful of songs that describe teh Advent season…about three I believe – the two more recognizable being “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” and “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”. After those two you need to be creative. I’ve written an Advent specific song that we share as a congregation, and have allowed artists to share in teh past through visual arts of painting. I wonder if, you who are reading this, you have any ideas? If so, please let me know.

I would say that I am the farthest from being grinchy. I start my Corporate Christmas ways on November 1st. I listen to music and tour around Target looking at the lights and decorations that have been made by children and prisoners from foreign countries (that’s a topic for a whole other post). I just want to teach my congregation just a little bit of restraint. I want to have one place where they can reflect and not be sucked into what they are hearing outside of the walls of our little church. Somewhere where they can learn a little more about their faith. Call me crazy, but that just might be what the church service was designed to be.

It’s Too Early For Christmas in the Church

As a worship leader, we are to direct people into God’s presence. This is pretty simple thinking. The thing that we have to take into consideration is what we are teaching our congregation as we lead them. Case in point: I’ve had a few people ask me when we start playing Christmas tunes at RCC. To this I reply, “at Christmas”.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the corporate season as much as the next guy, and don’t think for a second that there won’t be posts about it! My favorite CD is the Charlie Brown Christmas. My favorite Christmas movies are Die Hard and Gremlins. But when we truly begin to remember the real season of Christmas, we must remember what is happening in the Church calender. Before we can rejoice, we must reflect. Before we can celebrate, we must anticipate. Before we can recieve, we must wait in expectation.

We know how the christmas story goes. We know that Jesus comes and is born in Bethlehem, and that there are shepherds and angels and three wise men, a star, a manger, etc, etc. But we must reflect going into the season. We must look at why this savior is coming. We must reflect what this savior is doing in our lives and those around us. We must anticipate the coming of renewal.

So, as a worship leader, this is why I don’t play any “CHristmas” tunes until Christmas eve (i.e. Joy to the world, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, What Child is this, etc). I even extend it into the epiphany season, but by that time corporate Christmas has shoved it all down our throats and we are sick of it. Oh well. The Church goes on, but we must be continually teaching people the proper way to worship – why we worship and how we worship – in order for it to make sense.