Category: Missional Church

When does Planting Stop and Pastoring Start?

Posted on October 13, 2008

Inevitably there comes a point in the life of a church planter in which you begin to pastor more than you “plant”. Is this bad? How do we continue to cultivate a missional church, while also attending to the growing pastoral needs of our communities? When does planting stop and pastoring start?

When to Pastor in a Plant?

An honest answer to this question will serve you well. Only then will a theoretical answer begin to bear fruit. Another way to get at this issue is to ask when does pastoring start in the life of a planter? I believe it should start immediately. Too many planters fail their churches because they plant not pastor. Planters are apostles but they are also elder-pastors. To be sure, not all apostles are static traditional pastors and not all pastors are church planting apostles. However, true apostles have the capacity to pastor, at least for a season. Check out Paul, Peter, Epaphras. They all planted and they all pastored. They loved the whole life of the church, not just birthing her. Pastors are called to shepherd apostolic—sent—communities, so they should be able to function missionally.

Equipping for Pastoral and Missional Community

As our communities’ needs grow, how do we effectively live, lead, and serve in the tension between pastoring and planting, between community and mission? JR Woodward offers some practical help in his forthcoming book Re-Sketching the Church. He argues for the centrality of “equippers” for effective missional church life. Ephesians 4 is his locus classicus for equipping the missional church, a good choice. In Ephesians 4 the various equipping gifts are laid out for the purpose of equipping “the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Though the purpose of these equippers for building up the internal church—community—is frequently noted, the external dimension of being the church—mission—is often overlooked in these roles. Woodward picks up on this absence of a mission. Quoting Frost and Hirsch, he notes that the five equippers are: “the very mechanism for achieving mission and ministry effectiveness as well as Christian maturity.” Alan Roxburgh makes a very similar point in his chapter in Missional Leader. Here’s the point—leaders are not only to be missional leaders; they are to equip and release missional leaders through, at least, five different roles with various missional “destinations” or expressions. In other words, if the success of your church being missional relies mainly upon you, then you don’t have a missional church.

Missional Equippers

Woodward has contextualized the five roles of apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist, and teacher, calling them: heart revealer, dream awakener, soul healer, story teller, and light giver. All sounds a bit new age, but Woodward stays pretty close to the biblical meanings. Noting a great insight by Marcus Barth, he points out that all but one of these roles had vocational equivalents in the Greco-Roman context. This means that anything but a prophet had a cultural outlet for missional expression. There was a socially accepted place for teachers, apostles, evangelists, and pastors. And so it is today. Consider your role and your equippers’ roles in this light. If you are a teacher, how can you teach in service of the city, as well as in service of the church? Run with it.

Perhaps the planting versus pastoring dilemma can be solved by raising up disciples who are pastors and missionaries, pastors who are missional and missionaries who are pastoral. This, of course, requires leadership and equipping. Taking Woodward (and Paul)’s cue, we do well to look for and cultivate the “five equippers” in our own churches to advance both community and mission. In short, cultivate missional equippers.

When does planting stop and pastoring start? Never. Planters should plant reproducing churches and planters should always pastor. How? Raise up missional equippers that “pastor” and “plant” your church, that lead in community and mission. Pastoring and planting should start and stop together, when you are regenerated and when you die.

Planters who Plant Too Fast

Posted on October 10, 2008

In this article, Mark Bjorlo lays out the danger of planting your church too rapidly or, better put, over-working as a church planter. Overworking is a real temptation and danger for planters, often an issue of unbelief in the gospel and, conversely, belief in their absolute necessity to effective church planting. The wreckage is everywhere—sexual failure, embezzlement, bitter wives, neglected children, failed churches, broken disciples, church splits, wrecked faith. No matter where you are on this, the article is worth reading. An excerpt:

The first year, I didn’t take a day off.  I didn’t work less than ten hours a day. I really didn’t know how to shut it off. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. More times than I am comfortable confessing, I went to sleep with the laptop open. Often, I would wake up several times a night to only pick it up and begin working again. I had breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings, evening meetings, and then would often work late into the night. Somewhere along the way all planters have to come to a conviction that God loves His church more than they possibly can.

Converge

Posted on October 10, 2008

You’ll definitely want to check out the new Converge website for church planting resources. Converge is the new iteration of Teamerica, a Church Planting Assessment organization that is group-based as opposed to behavior-based. With Gary Rohrmayer at the wheel of this new organization, you’ll get a lot of very practical help in planting, nuts and bolts. Gary is the author of First Steps, which I reviewed along with a few other CP manuals a while back.

Very helpful article on the Unsustainable Pace of many church planters.

Partners Class – I

Posted on October 9, 2008

Taught our first Partners Class last night. Here is an overview and an outline of the class. Before jumping into things I shared three reasons why we are having a Partners Class. Then, inbetween coffee and brownies in the Schwedland’s living room, we all went around and shared something that has shaped our story and how we got connected with Austin City Life. That was the best part.

Why A Partners Class?

1. Why Partners not Members? Some churches do members classes; we have a Partners Class. There are some really good members classes out there, but there are also a lot of jacked up ideas of what it means to be a member of a church, especially for de-churched or unchurched people. So, we decided to go with “Partners class” to clearly communicate that the church is a partnership of Spirit-led disciples who follow Jesus. The church isn’t a country club bound by exclusive membership; it’s a missional community bound together by the gospel. Everyone is invited to be a partner. It’s about responsible partnership, not exclusive relationships.

2. Three Reasons for a Partners Class

o Cultivate Community: lets us get to know one another more intimately, ask questions. It also allows us to shepherd you more effectively, so you aren’t just some random person in a seat (1 Tim 5:9; 2 Cor 2:6-7).

o Clarify the Gospel: allows us to communicate clearly the gospel of Christ and what we consider essential and non-essential doctrines of the church.

o Communicate Mission: fosters sense of mission through ACL vision and explore how you can fit into that mission.

3. What to expect: In addition to Gospel, Community, & Mission, we will:

o Share the History and Vision of Austin City Life.

o Upon completion of the class we will not issue certificates. We will ask that your City Group Leader indicate your participation in the life and mission of your community. Your participation is evidence that you are, indeed, a partner in our mission.