Should we plant more churches? Let's dispense with the obvious: Jesus is not optional and we want more people to worship him in spirit and in truth. That said, is church planting the answer? May I be forthright at the risk of being offensive? Perhaps we shouldn't plant churches that are just like the churches we have if those churches are not reaching their communities and the cultures that surround them. Your church may be small and struggling because it is faithful, but more likely it is small and struggling because it is not connecting with the culture that lives outside its building. Putting up another building won't help.
George Hunter III wrote about the difference between Celtic and Roman evangelistic efforts ("The Celtic Way of Evangelism"). The Romans built a building and preached a system. You could belong to that group only if you came to their building and bought into their system. You had, in short, to look like the Romans. The Celts moved into an area and, instead of building a chapel, looked for ways to serve the community. They protected travelers, provided health care, helped mend fences both physical and emotional, and worked their way into the hearts of the people so effectively that the people belonged to the community before they even believed.
Here is a quick question, the answer to which will help you determine whether you are a Celtic or Roman style church. Is your church a redeeming force or a sacred outpost? The Crusaders held territory but didn't change hearts. Is your church a crusading church or does it transform the hearts of the people in their culture? Our churches are called to be pivot points of a movement working to reform the cultures of the present day; to engage the people who ARE around us rather than the people we WISH were around us. We must be like the first century Jews who were admonished by Paul to sit in peace with the Gentiles.
Hold the line? Stay the course? Three thousand churches in the US close their doors each year (source: George Barna). While they wanted things to change, they were not willing to change. they held to their traditions and programs, answering questions the culture was no longer asking. We baptize a lot of people, but none of them are baptized because we won an argument with them about their church, their baptism, or their worship. They are baptized because people of this faith community engaged them, befriended them, served them, loved them, and cared for them until they found themselves part of the community; willing to do anything to belong to the Jesus that had found them. I don't preach against the denominations. I try to out love them, out serve them, out Jesus them so that anyone who watches can see the difference. It works.
Mark Driscoll (read "Reformission" and "Confessions of a Reformission Rev") says that the church is called to love the gospel, the culture, and the church but most churches only love two of the three. If we love the gospel and our culture but not the church, we form a parachurch organization that tries to connect people to Jesus without connecting them to each other. If we love our church and our culture but not the gospel we become a liberal, mainline denomination without power to change the world. If we love the church and the gospel but not the culture, we become isolated and our churches slowly die (it can take a century or two), prone to legalism and irrelevance. We have determined that Rochester will be a church that reaches up, reaches in, and reaches out. We will fulfill all three parts of our calling.
We are launching a multi-site in the spring of 2007. We have Soul Space reaching out to the Goths, pierced, tattooed, and addicted. We have every support group known to man using our building every week -- AA, Al-Anon, NA, NarcAnon, etc. We have missional orders -- groups of people with special callings or gifts sent out to reach people wherever they find them. One such group is a prayer group that we encourage to go door to door and ask -- in a non-threatening, sweet way -- if there is anything the people there would like for them to pray about. You would be shocked how many people say "yes" and then express a willingness to pray right then (we don't push that. We offer to put it on a list to pray about, but if we sense that they are open, we make the offer to pray immediately). We form small groups in every community and in every culture around us. While some in those small groups will never feel comfortable coming to Rochester, we consider them a church where they are and encourage them to grow up, out and in. And they do. We expect our small groups to "birth" within six months.
One of our young men used "The Passion of the Christ" as an opportunity to bring the gospel to his neighborhood. He purchased tickets for everyone in his area and personally delivered them to each home, asking them to see the movie and, if they felt comfortable with it, to visit with him about their impressions, positive or negative. We plan to have a congregation built out of his work, his patient foundation laying, in the near future.
When artists were locked out of their venues, we opened our building. Once a quarter we have an Emerging Artist night where bands can play (secular music. We ask them to keep it clean), poets can display their work, photographers and painters can place their work so that all can see and enjoy them, and those who love the theater can put on short plays for us. When the Rochester Symphony Orchestra was priced out of their venue, we offered them our building in which to practice and for a couple of concerts.
Hear that sound? Those are walls coming down. People who never considered Jesus now consider Rochester their home... and are becoming believers. People who would have shuddered at the thought of going into a church building are loved so much that they now come and go without fear. When there are incidences of domestic violence, fire, or other tragedy the Sheriff's Office calls us because they know our doors are open and we are ready to serve anyone, anywhere, anytime.
God's Helping Hands, our warehouse full of food and clothes, takes care of hundreds of people every month.
But what if the people are scary or smelly or weird? Remember Jonah. He was sent to reach Ninevah even though he didn't like those people. He was infuriated that they received the grace he was so happy to receive from the hand of God. The Jews understand this book. Each year they gather on the Day of Atonement, read this book, and declare, "We are Jonah." What if we had the heart towards the people around us that mirrored the heart of Jesus towards Jerusalem, and not that of Jonah towards Ninevah?
Shall we plant? Not if what we are already doing isn't working. Plant the gospel in the hearts of those around you -- especially in the cultures you have been avoiding -- and where it blooms into faith, THAT is the base of your church plant.
Afterwards we gathered in the foyer and exchanged high 5's and laughter. The Sacred Ink tattoo shop should open in the next few weeks. We are waiting for a contractor to put an extraction fan in the bathroom and we'll be up to code! You can follow along as Pete, Rudi, Josh, and Lance bring this work to reality by clicking on the Sacred Ink link on the right.
