Tag: bob hyatt

Good Advice on Church Planting

This article contains more insight about the nature and practice of the church than video venue wisdom. Bob’s comments regarding community, missionaries, and preaching. Here are some of them:

Preaching: “Some churches grow faster than they can find, train, and send church planters who have the same teaching talent as the “main guy.” But what if instead of asking “Can he preach as well as me?” you ask, “Can he or she, with a team of others, lead a Christ-centered community that starts small and grows, reproducing itself before becoming unmanageable and outgrowing the gifting of its leadership?”

Missionaries: “I know, a lot of people love your preaching and want to hear it. Let them get saved and discipled at your community, or spend a season there, and then point them to your pod/vodcast, sending them as missionaries to reach their local communities.” I would add that instead of pointing them to your cast, point them Christ, their community, and their mission. We have made preaching too central in the Ministry of the Word. Tim Chester has made some great points on this subject.

Churchplanting: “One of the main justifications for video venues is that upwards of 70 percent of church plants fail. Giving people a “brand name,” proven communicator makes more sense. But do church plants fail because of the planter? Or is it because of unreasonable expectations, unsustainable “big launch” methods in which thousands of dollars are pumped into new churches in an effort to make them big, fast… because of the consumer mindset…” I would agree and add that plants can flourish when the bar of church is lowered and the bar of discipleship, community, and mission is raised. Convert people to Jesus and in the same breath, to Jesus-centered communities on mission to the city, world, not to your preaching.

HT: Judd Rumley