Though the reason I came to New York is for a government job, I am convinced that one reason I am up here is for “church planting.” I won’t do this at work, of course! First and foremost, I will be a good employee.
However, after work, one of the things I want to do is plant a church. So in a sense, I’m church planting on the government’s dime! This kind of church planting does not require any fundraising. In a sense, since I am a government employee, all of you who pay federal taxes are technically supporting my church planting efforts. So thank you! I appreciate your generosity!
Anyway, I have already realized that it would be nearly impossible to plant a typical church in area of New York. In fact, as I meet more and more people, I am convinced even more that the only kind of church that will make any progress at all up here, is the type of church that most Christians would not consider “church.” It wouldn’t even be similar to what has come to be called “house church.” I doubt we would ever have a “church service” or have any paid “staff.” There will probably not ever be a “church building” or any sort of “church programs.” Definitely no bulletins, songbooks, Sunday school classes, overhead projectors, worship teams, or websites. We would not give ourselves a “church name.” I am convinced that the less “churchy” we are, the better we will do as the church in this area.
We would be so unchurchy, that most of the people in the church would probably not even know we are “church.”
Is that possible?
Right now, the church consists of five people (not that I’m counting numbers! ha ha): myself, my wife, and our three girls. This next year or two, we are going to focus on loving and serving each other, and loving and serving one or two of the families in our immediate neighborhood (within 100 yards of us). There will be no strings attached. We just want to love and serve.
Some people will say, “That’s not church planting! That’s just following Jesus’ instructions for believers!” Yep. I believe that if we follow Jesus, we will naturally be the church. And wherever the church is, the church gets planted. That is my entire “church planting strategy.” Simple. Organic. Reproducible.
Will this strategy result in a mega-church? Nope. But that’s not my goal. My goal is to change lives, and that gets done one person at a time.
How NEAT!!!
🙂
sounds like just want a church needs… focus, service, and love for not only each other but others. Looking forward to hearing more about it….
Jeremy,
So glad to hear you landed a job. Federal pay has a way of being kinda iffy in the pricier economies like NY; hope they’re taking good care of you.
I love your church planting strategy. It is essentially the same strategy we’ve taken for church growth out here, and it has, as you predict, not resulted in a megachurch. But I’m pleased to say that everyone God has brought us is growing, which is to say, the church is growing — no matter how many bodies might be in the room from week to week.
One thing I’d submit for you to consider as an addition to your strategy. I’m guessing that insofar as you’re even concerned with what to teach when opportunities arise, you’ll expect it to be dictated by the nature of the opportunity. I agree, but I would also suggest that you take a good, hard look at some of the chronological material from New Tribes (their Firm Foundations series) and the (similar, but vastly richer) Framework material from Charles Clough. The former is not, as is commonly assumed, an evangelistic method, but a comprehensive teaching strategy for church planting. The latter just defies description; I’d encourage you to listen to a lecture or two of it, or maybe his 3-part overview, and see what you think.
You might never formally teach anything to anyone in your underground church plant. But if you have the Story firmly in your head, with a good grasp of various biblical ways of telling it, what you teach by opportunity will, over time, exhibit a visible coherence that it wouldn’t otherwise have. In some ways it’s more a liturgical matter than a theological one — by modeling a predominantly narratival/typological rather than ahistorical/doctrinal approach to life, I’ve been able to pack a lot of teaching into relatively few moments. It’s just denser than other ways of doing it.
In addition, I’ve found that chronological teaching in my church has swept a host of inadequate theological notions and categories before it, casting down strongholds and laying low every conservative doctrinal scheme that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. (It would do the same with liberal theology, I’m sure, but in God’s providence, that’s not the garden I’m weeding.)
Just a thought to consider. God’s grace go with you.
His,
Tim