How Many Churches Have You Started in the Last Six Months?

”How many churches have you started in the last six months?" This is not a question you will hear among most gatherings of pastors in the US. But in Europe, this is a hot topic. I am spending the week with twenty-five groups that are planting churches across Western and Eastern Europe. I’m impressed.

Not long ago USA Today ran a full-page article asking the question “Is God dead in Europe?” It primarily dealt with the fact that in many countries in Europe, church attendance runs at about the 3-5% level. (Recent research by Baylor indicates the number in the US is 17%). Statistically, the article claims there are more alcoholics in the Czech Republic than people who attend church there. (Hmm…think there could be a connection?) Many of the most beautiful churches and cathedrals ever constructed have become more popular as tourist attractions than as places of worship on Sundays. But don’t write off the church in Europe just yet.

There is a new “Reformation” taking place in Europe. It is visionary and involves an approach to church that is being called “missional” (although I’ve been told that this word is already obsolete among those who are really in the know, but I’ll explain it anyway.) Over the last thirty-five years or so, the church in America has increasingly become a consumer-driven institution. The term used to describe the average church is “attractional.” Not unlike the message of “The Voice” in the movie Field of Dreams, this kind of church operates with the mind-set that “If you build it, they will come.” Although large buildings have often accompanied the more successful of these churches, the “it” is usually not a building, but a style of Sunday morning experience designed to draw people to church that might not come if they do not experience a certain level of performance from up front. The theory goes that the higher quality the performance, the more people will be “attracted” to attend.

The motivation to move in this direction was good. For many secularists in the US, the main reason given for no longer attending church was, “It’s boring.” The attractional movement sought to fight this complaint by making church more exciting or entertaining. It worked...sort of. People came. Lots of people came. But most of them came from other churches (I've heard statistics as high as 80%). Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago is a great illustration of this model. From a few hundred kids, meeting in a movie theater in the area of Willow Creek, a suburb of Chicago, the church grew to an attendance of over twenty-five thousand on a weekend. They were so “successful” that they began to hold conferences where thousands of pastors from around the country came to see “how it was done.” I know: I was one of them. With a good message tied into some contemporary issue, a high-quality band replacing the choir, and maybe even some drama or video clips, churches grew.

The missional model flips the philosophy of the attractional model on its head. It moves into the community instead of hoping the community comes to the church. Instead of getting bigger, the new model tends to get smaller, is easier to replicate, and multiplies attendance by creating of networks of smaller communities rather than by adding numbers to an existing church. Multiplying church-planting networks is part of the DNA of these groups. I’ve heard some of the leaders of this movement talk about “lowering the bar” in terms of what it means to do church, and “raising the bar” in terms of what it means to be part of the church.

It also is an equipping model instead of a consumer model. Members of these churches are trained to engage in ministry in the community. They expect to get mobilized. “Church” is not a spectator sport for missional communities. “Incarnational” is another word used a great deal among these leaders. Groups meet in coffee shops, bars, community centers, schools (where allowed) and homes. Community transformation and social action in the area where the group meets are viewed as normative to church life. “New” is probably the wrong word to use in reference to the model. It looks to me a lot like the New Testament church in the book of Acts.

Don’t get me wrong. I think there are a bunch of very good attractional churches. I helped lead one for many years. They work hard to turn their crowd into a church. But it is hard. It is also very costly to multiply and replicate the model. And if growth primarily comes from people who leave other churches to attend yours, do you really want that anyway?

When I first met these European leaders, my thought was that within twenty-five years what they had learned in Europe would be critical for the future of the church in America. I was wrong. In the last few years the missional model has already made significant inroads in the American church scene. Someday soon you might even overhear a group of these leaders sitting in your favorite coffee shop and asking the question, “How many churches did you plant in the last six months?” Who knows, maybe you will be one of them.

Dr. Bob Beltz
The Telos Project
This article can be found on http://www.examiner.com/
Bob@telosproject.org

Why Plant a Church in the City?

Many have asked me, “Why are you planting a church? Why in the city?” Their questions and the tone reveal that, generally-speaking, people see the city through negative lenses, believing that the city is too liberal and hardened to the Christian message. How can a new church exist, let alone thrive, in a liberal culture? Surely, it makes more sense to plant a church in the suburbs where it has a chance of expanding and thriving in a more conservative culture. They reason that suburban populations are more open to hearing the Gospel and belonging to the Christian culture.

Although I welcome these questions and understand that the assumptions are normal, the reality is that due to the explosion of technology and increased growth in populations (in the U.S. and globally), cities are becoming powerful centers of influence on American culture and throughout the world.

Think about it....where do we go to watch our favorite sports teams? Where are our government centers? Where are our laws created, discussed, and voted on? Where do our young adults go for university education? Where are the best hospitals located? Where do we attend venues of high culture (i.e. opera, plays, concerts, museums, etc.)? Where are the centers for advanced technology and medical research? Where are the communication centers for TV, radio, magazines, etc.)? Where do national and international commerce and trade intersect?The answer to all of these questions is the city. Cities are pace-setters for our society. The city is influential and critically important in shaping and directing our society, which could include advancing the Gospel and Christian values.

Why start a church in the city? If Christians (including myself) are able to reach our cities with the Gospel and impact the city for Christ, then we participate in influencing and impacting the city and culture nationally and even internationally.As Timothy J. Keller, pastor of a growing Presbyterian church in Manhattan, NY, claims, "As the city goes, so goes the culture." May it carry the gospel!

Pastor Bryan Craig
303.885.2861
denvermosaic@gmail.com
denvermosaic.org