I have had a number of opportunities to share with people about my vision for a gospel-centered church plant and a movement of church-planting churches. Some people have seemed interested and responsive, others seem appreciative for the information and content to go their own way. I haven’t put much thought into trying to categorize the various responses that I might receive, which is why a recent blog post by Todd Bumgarner has been so helpful. In it, he presents “six categories into which someone falls.  Evaluating people through this grid is helping me to determine where to focus my time and energy as well as wake-up to the reality that I don’t want to face which is that some people, despite their excitement and interest, simply are not on-board.” I will definitely be using something like this in the future.

Family

The first category is what I call “family.”  These are the folks that are all-in.  They’ve caught the vision and want to help in any way possible.  They are servant-leaders and their commitment is apparent via a verbal conversation in which they express their commitment.  It is important to realize that simply showing up at things does not make someone part of the family (consistency does not necessarily equal commitment).  A better gauge is to combine their consistency with their language.  Folks who are in the family use phrases with first-personal plurals like “our church” or “we can do this…”.

Fence

The second category is what I call the “fence.”  These are people that are interested in what we’re doing, excited about what we’re doing, have come to one or more of the vision meetings, or expressed their interest/excitement over coffee or lunch.  People in this category require patience.  Often times people on the fence are plugged-in to other church communities and asking them to up-root from that to join what we’re doing is a complicated decision and process. I tell these people all the time that we are not in the business of stealing people from other churches, but that my role is to cast the vision and trust that the Holy Spirit will do his job.

In a church plant, people on the fence ultimately have to be called by the church planter to commitment.  A church plant consisting of interested and excited people (but with no commitment) will fail.  This is the category where the most time and prayer is to be spent.  In addition, a prayerful ear to the Spirit’s prompting of when to call them to commit must be discerned.  The goal is to move people from the fence to the family or discern if perhaps they are simply a “friend.”

Fans

On Facebook, having a lot of fans is great.  In a church plant – not so much.  Fans love what you’re doing, express their excitement, follow you on Twitter, meet you for coffee, let you buy them lunch, but never come to anything that you organize.  Fans are typically podcasting Driscoll, reading John Piper, and can give you the latest update on Chandler’s cancer faster than it takes for you to find it on the web.  Fans will suck the energy out of you.  Often times people in this category are another “F” word I like to use – “floaters.” Meaning they don’t have a church home, they float from one church to another, avoid commitment, and really see themselves as getting “fed” from guys they podcast.  Fans love to talk about the terms “gospel-centered” and “missionally-focused” but fail to ever translate their talk to their walk.

Fans need to be quickly moved to the fence or the farm or they will consume your time and distract you from the mission.

Friends

Friends are typically gospel-centered people that are playing in the same league but just on a different team.  They are interested in what you’re doing, realize the importance of it, want to support you in ways they can, but in the end are plugged-into and committed to another church.  Friends are brothers and sisters in Christ.  Friends are great, but they’re not family.  You can call on friends for practical help and outside advice, but when you’re trying to build a family, sometimes you have to limit your time with friends.

Farm

The farm is made up of people that were on the fence that turned out to not be in the family when you called them to commit or else folks that were fans that you simply had to move to farm as they were much more interested in hanging out in the grandstands than ever making it onto the field.  Instead of being “all-in,” they’ve verbally or non-verbally stated that they are “all-out.”  As much as it can sometimes hurt, the sad reality of a church planter is that once people are on the farm, it is typically a distraction from the mission to continue to pursue them.  Call them like you see them and move on.  If they want to rejoin the fence – trust that they will on their own.

Foes

Foes are the critics.  These are the opposite of “family.”

From Bob Thune at the Coram Deo Blog. Not much to argue with

Here’s my “working definition” of church planting which provides the skeletal outline for this series:

Church Planting is:

• Planting the SEED of the gospel
• in the SOIL of a culture
• and trusting the SOVEREIGNTY of God
• to bring forth a THRIVING CHURCH.

We like this definition for a number of reasons: it is organic; it sees a visible church as the end rather than the beginning (people living as missionaries in their culture is the beginning); it involves both hard work and patient, prayerful dependence on God. The definition attempts to capture four important elements of any missional endeavor:

• gospel proclamation and demonstration (planting seed)
• contextualization (understanding the soil)
• prayerful dependence (resting in God’s sovereignty)
• gospel renewal (goal is a thriving church – Acts 2:41-47 – not just any church)

Elders lead the church. The main Biblical passages about their qualifications are 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-10. Specifically, 1 Timothy 3:6 reads

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil

Since an elder must not be a recent convert, it stands to reason that elders must be tested and examined. This something many churches do not do when they appoint as elders good speakers or good business vs. holy Christians. Some churches have an examination process for elder candidates. Some of my bros in my Re:Train cohort are going through elder training at Mars Hill Church and I think it’s a year-long process. Coram Deo in Omaha, Nebraska has a  “6-month course of study and discussion” towards becoming an elder that “culminates with the examination phase.” Here’s the description of that phase written by Lead Pastor/Elder Bob Thune.

• Written essays outlining spiritual history, practice of spiritual disciplines, theological influences, leadership strengths and weaknesses, and understanding/articulation of the gospel
• A 3-hour written exam testing Bible comprehension and pastoral wisdom. For example: “What is the significance of Colossians 1 and 2 to our understanding of Christology?” And: “How would you comfort and encourage a couple at Coram Deo who just miscarried 9 weeks into pregnancy? What biblical passages would you take them to?” And: “A non-Christian in your MC asserts that he is a pretty moral person and, to his knowledge, has never broken one of the Ten Commandments. What Scripture passages would you take him to in order to show him that sin does not consist merely in outward acts?”
• A full review of stewardship, budget, debt and family finances by the CD Financial Team
• An oral assessment that tests “on-the-spot” Bible knowledge, theological acuity, and pastoral discernment
• A husband/wife interview assessing family health, marriage and parenting practices, conflict resolution, etc.
• A major theological position paper interacting with some current topic in church life (Coram Deo’s current position papers on Poverty and on Divorce and Remarriage are the fruit of past elder examinations)

It’s our desire to raise up men who 1) meet the biblical qualifications for eldership in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and 2) have the full faith and trust of the entire Coram Deo community. This examination phase is a key step toward that end. Please pray for the men who are in the midst of it right now. And pray that God will raise up many more!

I’m very grateful that Bob posted this. It’s an excellent model to follow as I look to plant and raise up elders. It’s also very close to the same material that my Acts 29 application included, which makes sense, since every elder should be qualified to plant a church.

It’s a shame, and a sin, that more churches are not planting churches and “holding the rope” for the pastors of those new works. Here’s what holding the rope means, as told by Michael McKinley

Last Sunday Humberto Perez, one of the church planters that our congregation has sent out, thanked the congregation for “holding the rope” for him as he worked among Spanish speakers in the next town over.

The reference was lost on me, so I followed up Humberto afterward.  He told me that the phrase originated with William Carey and Andrew Fuller.

Michael Haykin explains more in his “A DULL FLINT”: ANDREW FULLER— ROPE-HOLDER, CRITIC OF HYPER-CALVINISM & MISSIONARY PIONEER.

In fact, when Carey went to India, Fuller later said it was as if Carey had found a rich gold mine. Carey himself was more than willing to descend into the mine, but would Fuller and his other friends hold the rope that lowered him down? Fuller and the others in England vowed to hold the rope until they quit this earthly scene. Whenever God has done a great work in the history of the church it has always been through a team of men and women. (italics mine)

That is a great mental image, of a team people providing a physical lifeline to those who are doing kingdom work. Julie and I have been praying that God will bring alongside us a church, or multiple churches, and people who will “hold our rope” as we seek to contribute to the gospel-transformation of Ann Arbor through the planting of 25 churches in 25 years, all to the glory of God.

I realize this is old news, but it’s a great note from Grace Driscoll, wife of Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church) and daughter of a pastor, on why it’s a good thing that John Piper is taking a sabbatical.

I am thankful for the precedent and example that Dr. Piper and Noël are setting because:

1. It frees up wives and children to be priorities (1 Tim. 3:4; Eph. 5:28).
2. It allows the church and ministry to not be idols (1 Tim. 3:5).
3. It can give wives a new freedom to have this honest discussion with their husbands (I have seen many wives silenced or unsure of how to have this conversation when they have genuine concern) (Prov. 19:14).
4. It can give children a new freedom to have this honest discussion with their dads (I have seen so many kids of pastors feeling last on the list with the church at the top) (Prov. 17:6).
5. It urges us all to examine our priorities and make sure our Jesus, our marriage, and our children are the top three, in that order (1 Tim. 3:1–5).
6. It challenges the church to give their pastor the freedom to examine his own life and take a break if needed (Mark 2:27–28).
7. It challenges us to not idolize pastors or think of them as sinless, but rather see them as gifted, called men (under immense pressure) who need to be free to repent and be redeemed like the rest of the church members (Heb. 13:18).
8. It challenges wives to examine if they have enabled their pastors-husbands to become islands unto themselves (Gen. 2:18; Prov. 31:12).

#4 on Forbes list of America’s Most Livable Cities

If you’re looking for a great city to live in that is in desperate need of the gospel, look no further.

Among the many admirable attributes of Bethlehem Baptist Church is its commitment to church planting. On January 31, 2010 Pastor John Piper preached on the necessity of church planting and that God alone will build the church. Pastor John opened with statistics that demonstrate the necessity of planting churches

There are about 200 million non-churched people in America, making America one of the four largest “unchurched” nations in the world.

Each year about 3,500 churches close their doors permanently.

Today, of the approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.

One American denomination recently found that 80% of its converts came to Christ in churches less than two years old.

He followed with a discussion of Bethlehem’s past, and future, church planting efforts and an exposition of Matthew 16:18. You can read the manuscript here and watch the video here.

Here are some ways to become a church-planting church From Jonathan McIntosh at Rethink Mission. Even though we’re very new at Grace Bible Church, I praying that the elders and the new senior pastor get a vision for Grace to become a church-planting church. Ann Arbor needs many more gospel-centered churches that seek to missionally engage the lost.

• Meet area planters
• Do a study
  • Read Tim Keller’s paper, Why Plant Churches
  • Read Glenn Smith’s article Does the U.S. Need More New Churches?
  • Quote from keller “The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city.”
• Budget appropriately
• Vision from the pulpit
• Join a church-planting network
• Begin a church-planting internship
  • Have interns raise their own support
  • Assess potential interns well
  • Mentor interns well
  • Send them out with money & people
• Show your congregation

From David Putman and Shawn Lovejoy

1. Rushing ahead (without meeting milestones)
   • Vision is clear and communicated.
   • The staff team has been recruited.
   • The core group is in place.
   • Worship leader and team have been recruited.
   • The meeting place has been secured.
   • A marketing plan has been implemented.
   • Pre-school and children’s ministry plans have been made.
   • A small group and volunteer system is in place.
   • An assimilation strategy is in place.
2. Underestimating the cost
3. Violating the Sabbath
4. Hanging on too long
5. Not having a coach

As I look to plant a church, I’m very upfront with my plans and vision so that people don’t think I’m trying to poach members from Grace. I’ve also reached out to all the evangelical pastors in town to initiate dialogue about any way I can serve them in their efforts to plant churches. So far, only Kirk at 2|42 has responded, but I am committed to working to build up the other evangelical churches in town while I look to plant a new church.

J. D. Payne recently posted proposed Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters, which are quite helpful. These guidelines touch on issues like transfer growth, church unity, long-term commitment to planting, family care, personal spiritual disciplines, and integrity.

• Guideline #1: Since the global need for the gospel is so great, unless God reveals otherwise, we will begin our ministry among people with the greatest need andwith a high level of receptivity to the gospel.
• Guideline #2: Since the world consists of four billion unbelievers, with two billion who have never heard the gospel, our strategy will involve the use of highly reproducible church planting methods.
• Guideline #3: Since biblical church planting is evangelism that results in new churches, we will not prioritize transfer growth over conversion growth by designing ministries that will primarily attract believers.
• Guideline #4: Since unity among churches in a geographical area is a powerful witness to the gospel, we will be concerned with other evangelical pastors laboring in the same area as our team, and will take the initiative to meet with them to share our calling, vision, and ethic.
• Guideline #5: Since we desire to respect other evangelical pastors in the area, and desire sanctification in the lives of any transfers from local churches, we will have a systematic plan to respond to the transfers who want to become part of the new church.
• Guideline #6: Since our calling to this ministry, people, and location is from God and not based on money, we will not end our church planting ministry in this area simply if our financial support ends, but rather will make appropriate plans for the future of our personal finances.
• Guideline #7: Since the biblical model for church planting is a team approach and many liabilities come when working as a solo church planter, a team will be developed before the work begins.
• Guideline #8: Since one of the most critical issues in missionary circles is that of the stress on the family, we will not neglect our families for the sake of church planting and will begin our work with a strategy for nurturing our family life while serving as church planters.
• Guideline #9: Since we are Kingdom Citizens, we will not neglect our daily devotion time with the Lord by allowing ourselves to be distracted by the numerous tasks to be accomplished in the ministry.
• Guideline #10: Since the task of missionary work involves effective communication, we will work diligently toward contextualization rather than bringing our preferred church traditions to the people.
• Guideline #11: Since integrity and accuracy are important when reporting statistics related or our missionary labors, we will strive to report only those numbers and descriptive details which are truly reflective of what the Holy Spirit is doing in our context.