On
any given Sunday, there are more people outside the walls of the churches that within
and few of these will be in Christian worship at any other time during the
week. Some leaders see starting new
churches—new communities of faith or worshipping units--as one way to address
this situation.
Church
consultant Eddie Hammett pointed out in a recent Facebook posting that although
he is an advocate of starting new churches, he is “increasingly
concerned about the amount of money denominations are putting into the effort
that is not bearing fruitful results in reaching a new generation.” He goes on to ask what are other options that
might be pursued that are “a better stewardship of our time, energy and money.”
North
Carolina pastor Jack Glasgow responded with this comment (shared with his
permission):
“I believe our
efforts will not be fruitful focused on clergy to be church starters. We need
to focus on a core group of laypersons who want to create, or have created, a
spiritual community and invest in them. When they are ready, they will call
clergy leaders to service. Across the board we must shift our emphasis from
clergy to laity in denominational work if we want to have relevance in what God
is doing.”
This
is a novel approach for today although it certainly has valid biblical and
historical roots. Modern church planting
movements tend to focus on finding, placing, and equipping gifted individuals
who can start a new church. We can identify
many examples, however, of faith communities created by the work of lay
leaders. Although I am not ready to give
up on committed church planters, Glasgow’s idea merits some thought.
If
we believe that churches start other churches (and I will proceed based on that
assumption), then what steps would the pastor or staff of an established
congregation do in order to implement a lay-led church start strategy or “incubate”
a core group for a new church or faith community?
First,
the minister must regularly and forcefully present the challenge t0 laity to
accept the responsibility to start new faith communities. You can call them faith communities, cell
groups, house churches, or new church starts, but the idea is that a committed
group of lay people can do this without clergy leadership on site.
One
approach would be to ask church members to think about their own experience and
where such a new faith community might be needed. This may be a geographic area like a
neighborhood or an apartment complex.
Perhaps someone will have a calling to reach out to a particular people
group—an ethnic group, for example.
Church members may be aware of the need to work within a particular
institutional setting—a college or university, a military base, or a health
facility—in a creative and transformative way.
The call may be some mix of the above; for example, developing a
worshipping community of international students in a local university.
Second,
the minister must find and present examples of where this has happened. This might be hard to do initially, but there
are groups of lay people who have done this successfully. Give them the opportunity to tell their
stories in person, by video conferencing, or by recording.
Third,
pray regularly in worship services and other meetings that God will place this
burden on the hearts of persons to lead such an effort. The call to this challenging work may be
articulated by pastoral leadership, but the empowering to undertake the task
comes from the work of the spirit of God in the hearts of individuals.
Fourth,
ministers in established congregations can provide the training that is
necessary for a core group to grow spiritually, in community, and in ministry
skills as they undertake this task. The
first step is for the core group to develop the spiritual and relational rapport
in which gifts can be affirmed and encouraged.
Only then will the strategy to begin the work emerge.
In
all of this, the incubator church should invest very little funding so that the
core group will not become dependent on outside finances. The initial stages will require a commitment
of time by church leaders to encourage and equip the group, but actual funding
should come from those who are called to do the new start. One of my seminary professors repeatedly said
that an indigenous church can be started with ten tithing family units. With some creativity, a new faith community should
be able to prosper with that kind of funding.
Although
the cliché is over used, we do need to “think outside the box” when it comes to
reaching unchurched people. Tom Ehrich recently
commented, “Mainline
churches have missed two consecutive generations of young adults – because they
never came, they never found a reason to attend Sunday worship. If something
else had been offered, who knows? But as it is, churches have remained
remarkably stubborn about ‘putting all their eggs’ in the one basket of Sunday
worship.”
Calling
out a group of committed lay people who are not bound by tradition, location,
or time impediments might be one way to address this concern. “Church” does not have to happen in a brick
edifice on Sunday mornings at eleven o’clock with a musical team and an
ordained minister. The Christian faith
grew as individuals were “called out” (ekklesia) to become part of the Kingdom
of God. Perhaps it can be so today.
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