Mission Minded Church Planters Create A New Normal
Yesterday I had a
defining and enlightening conversation with a new church planting pastor. He and I were serving up our specialties to a
wonderful group of Christ followers and potential seekers of God. I offered a bible lesson and the planter
offered crisis management packages (clean socks, toiletries and more) at a
weekly outdoor service that benefits the poor in our city. The lead Pastora, Linda, has loved her city,
Henderson Nevada by providing church services, meals and practical assistance
here for at least 10 years. It is a joy to serve along side her.
As the planter and
I chatted this is the vision he shared: "I have a group ready to plant a new
church from my church here. I have my pastors blessing! We are going to focus
on THIS, like, what we are doing HERE! Serving the people of this community with
Jesus love and making a difference outside the walls of a building, everywhere
we go. Ministry HAS to make a difference to have real purpose and meaning for
God and people." All I could do is agree!
This guy is passionate and has street
credibility from years of hard work on mission in our city of Henderson. I know
he is going to plant a church that cares. He needs no money because he is a
volunteer for God along with his group. More people will get to know Jesus
because of his vision for planting the gospel through first century style
serving.
By observation these are the kind of people,
the church planters, which represent the new
normal for the American church. They aren’t
big shots, professional religious people or even charismatic. They are true New Testament apostles,
prophets and evangelists exercising their divine gifting by serving. The work
they do isn’t pastor-centric, organization-centric or teacher-centric as is often
the current (and mission crippling) normal in the American Church today. New
normal church planters are Christian centered and infused in their
community through service. Faith and works make new normal transformations possible.
New
normal pastors and church planters blaze new trails in the cultural
wilderness where many pastors or churched people won’t go. They willingly, lovingly
mix and mingle in the multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-status and spectral-gender
America we now live in. To put it pictorially, God has His hands in the mud of earth
(creating and redeeming) and these planting leaders do too!
It is important to state that any church can live the new normal too by getting their hands in
the mud of mission. The best-case scenario is when the pastor jumps in first to
serve, modeling Jesus style! Some of the members are soon to follow and the DNA
of new normal serving is deeply
planted in the church for life!
Church
denominations have made national news lately for the admission that they are
slowly dying and can’t find the answer to the problem. Thom Rainer, a student
of the church and denominational life has found this one thing in common in
churches and organizations in decline. He says:
“Simply stated, the most common factor in declining churches
is an inward focus.”
(There is a link to this website and
the rest of Thom’s article at the end of my blog.)
Organizations and individual churches are
consumed with their polity, management structures, comfort and image while
Jesus mission goes neglected and human suffering screams for healing care on
every front.
For denominations
and independent churches to grow again they should embrace new normal planters and individuals and their vision for mission and
help them with resources to increase their effectiveness.
For traditional
inwardly focused churches and organizations to grow again the senior leadership
can ask openly for help from God AND from their members and member churches. The grass roots servants who are daily doing
the work in their communities often already know the keys to opening new normal doors for mission and church plants.
One big responsibility of senior leadership is to humble
themselves and search for new normal leaders. They should open the gate to welcome
any people called by God to plant new normal churches and ministries in any
context, no matter how crazy it seems to the old administrative minds. I have
seen this work successfully again and again for over 35 years of mission observation. Humbly asking for help is the key to success and is very becoming of leaders of
leaders. Ask and it shall be given…!
All this being said, I was born and eternal
optimist. When there is a dung pile, I assure myself that there must be a stable
of plow horses nearby who are ready to break up the hard soil of the mission
field and get a crop growing and going! Hosea
10:12 baby! The inner cities, small towns and suburbs in America are starving
for thousands of new normal churches
to be planted.
New normal
church planters are the hope of a changing church culture in America. They
are the apostles, prophets and evangelists that get churches planted, work for
justice and healing amongst the suffering of all types and bring the fresh,
simple, smiling love of Jesus to their cities and towns.
New
normal planters represent the healthy outward movement of the gospel
message, as it has succeeded for over two millennia. New normal leaders function and serve seamlessly in a culture that
is changing rapidly, understanding that it is the people that are precious to God and who are ready to be loved into
a relationship with their creator through a new church plant.
http://thomrainer.com/2014/05/common-factor-declining-churches/
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