Stop Doing Nothing
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” This goes back to one of the best lessons I learned while serving in the United States Army, the first rule of a firefight is to remember to shoot back. All too often, we can become paralyzed by overplanning, fear of failure, and a general lack of confidence. Planning is good, success is born through failure, and for Christians, their confidence rests in the sovereignty of God. Over the last several years, I’ve heard more reasons why Advent Christians can’t plant churches, which drowns out the reasons and support for church planting among our people.
I am pleased to report that the time of inaction and indecision is over. The Advent Christian Denomination has a new Church Planting Coordinator and a renewed energy surrounding this call. Recently, The Eastern Region Annual Meeting recognized the ongoing work of Refuge Church. I’m the church planting pastor, and several Advent Christian churches, people, and conferences have decided to support us financially, through prayer and general support. I’m excited for the upcoming months as we launch Refuge Church, and I plan on sharing some of the details over the coming weeks and months to help others understand the insider perspective.
Let’s look at a few fundamental questions:
What is Church Planting?
J. D. Payne provides one of the simplest definitions for church planting when he writes, “Biblical church planting is evangelism that results in new churches. Another way to consider this concept is that it is evangelism that results in new disciples, who gather together and self-identify as the local expression of the universal body of Christ.”[1]
According to this definition, a church plant does not become a church until it’s reached new people with the Gospel of Christ; they gather together and identify as a church. In this sense, we often refer to church planting as more of a mission work that aims to become a church through evangelism and discipleship. Therefore, we must assess these works according to their missional vision when we look to support current and future church plants. Do they look to reach new people with the Gospel or simply reshuffle sheep? Do we support a church-planting pastor who likely won’t pastor for several months or years because they are doing the work of an evangelist in their community or do we support these evangelists as they seek to bring the hope of life only in Christ to their community?
Why should we plant churches?
“In church planting, the goal isn’t to plant the coolest church or do things that have never been done before, but it’s always to reach people, be on mission, and be about the kingdom of God.”[2] Although this is likely the aim of every church, not every church meets its stated goals. Why might that be? It could be mission drift, insular thinking, perspective, or other factors. However, countless studies show that new churches, on average, baptize more people than older churches.[3] That doesn’t mean your church can’t reach new people. It can and it should! New churches simply have more room for people to serve and reach new people groups immediately. Often, a new church has yet to fully form its personality, which makes it easier for new people to see themselves as members of the group.
How should churches be planted?
The church as a whole needs to reconsider how it views itself. Rather than a sanctuary of the saved, we should consider ourselves an outpost of missionaries seeking the lost with the Gospel of Christ. Not only should the church consider itself a collection of people edifying each other to the glory of God, but it should also be a training camp for missionaries. Hirsch and Ferguson point out that “If we persist with the current status quo, we are in effect asking the nonbeliever to do all the cross-cultural work in coming to church… we are the sent ones–not them.”[4] To their point, churches often desire nonbelievers to assimilate into their culture rather than the church learning to engage the nonbeliever in their own culture.
In other words, as Gospel missionaries, we should train in the art of cross-cultural ministry. We should plant churches by training missionaries to speak the language of the community they are reaching. We don’t send missionaries to Brazil without teaching them Portuguese or training them in cultural nuance. Why do we send people into a North American city where they’ve never lived and expect them to reach lost people without cultural training? The North American missionary needs to learn the culture of those they’ve been sent to reach so they can contextualize the Gospel in a way that is intelligible to this new community. As Keller points out, “Sound contextualization means translating and adapting the communication and ministry of the gospel to a particular culture without compromising the essence and particulars of the gospel itself.”[5]
Where should we plant churches?
Ott and Wilson suggest that “Wise stewardship will focus church-planting resources and energy on locations of greatest spiritual need and strategic opportunity.”[6] I suggest we consider what truly strategic opportunities are. In my church planting efforts, we are meeting in my home in the same town as another Advent Christian church. Why? We are seeking to plant multiple microchurches in our area. These churches would be unique from one another and include 10-30 people, depending on various factors. I live in the same town as this other Advent Christian church and have a great relationship with its leadership and congregants. We intend to work together in Gospel ministry while maintaining our different forms of ministry. Other factors include the lack of evangelical churches in the area and the neglect of new churches outside the city right next door.
The Time is Now
Churches send out missionaries to spread the Gospel. As we seek to plant new churches we must first adjust our vision of what church planting is. Let’s train missionaries who will reach new people with the Gospel in our communities. These missionaries are the Christians in our churches, some of which are called to evangelize in ways that will see new churches planted. Enough complaining about the past. It is time for us to envision a future where Advent Christian churches are missionary training outposts seeking the lost.
If you’d like to learn more about our church plant, you can visit our website at refugema.com.
If you’d like to support Refuge Church financially, you can set up a donation through ACGC here.
[1] Payne, 17-18
[2] Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Planting Churches That Multiply (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2016).
[3] Craig Ott and Gene Wilson, Global Church Planting: Biblical Principles and Best Practices for Multiplication (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2011). 29.
[4] Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson, On the Verge: A Journey into the Apostolic Future of the Church, Exponential series (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2011). 73.
[5] Timothy Keller et al., Loving the City: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, Center Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 26.
[6] Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson, On the Verge: A Journey into the Apostolic Future of the Church, Exponential series (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2011). 28.