Movement & Momentum

What did we all learn in high school physics class? An object in motion will stay in motion, unless acted on by an equal and opposite force? If I remember correctly, this is called momentum which maintains the movement already happening. Our momentum is prayer and for that I am grateful for all of your prayers both past and future. Please continue to create more momentum—praying—for the Gospel and its impact in Chicago.

Tom and I did meet this morning. He had many positive things to say about the proposal and I was continually waiting for the "but". "If a stranger had handed this to me, I would think it was a good plan." But? "It shows that you've done your homework." But? "It's clear that you have a Biblical approach and know your context." But? "Your goals and timelines are reasonable." But? The "but" never came. 

There are two things that we are looking at for next steps. 

First, Assessment. Sometimes a dirty and scary word; however, it is a necessary process that most, if not all, church planters go through. It shows exactly where my strengths and weaknesses lie. It will help to tell me where on the spectrum of church planters I lie—am I solely a church planter and every 3-5 years I will be planting a church, or am I more of a planter/pastor where I stick around a lot longer before moving on, if at all. Where are my blindspots? Things like, my numbers and budget is not exactly nailed down, which isn't a strike against me—Tom said, most church planters that are good with numbers aren't exactly good at planting churches—so I'll need to make sure I have those types of people around me. This will take place by the end of September. 

Second, Presbytery approval. The regional body of elders over Chicago for the EPC is the Rivers and Lakes Presbytery. They have final approval of the plan and proposal. Tom has a lot of influence and sway. Hopefully, there will be no unseen roadblocks. Rivers and Lakes has expressed interest in planting a church in Chicago. The R&L Presby. meets in September, which may be a little soon to get the plan approved, so it may be pushed to January 2013. Obviously, we would prefer September, but everything in God's timing. Once the plan is approved, I can receive my call and be ordained. 

And about ordination, I can take all my ordination exams before I receive my call. I will begin the long hours of study for the written and oral exams which should be completed in October at the MidAmerica Presbytery (with whom I am currently Under Care). 

Tom and I are scheduling our next meeting for the week of August 20th (my birthday, ehem). Stacey and I are moving forward with readying our house for sale and looking toward Chicago. It feels a bit like Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, when Indy goes to cross the invisible bridge.

We will continue to take steps forward in faith as we see God leading us.

Please continue to pray for the process and our faith in the process. Please continue to pray for the hearts and minds of those in Logan Square that God is calling to himself. Please pray that the Spirit would be stirring up their hearts for their ultimate longing which is only satisfied in Jesus. Please pray that God would provide an excellent employment opportunity for Stacey that would help accelerate our move. 

Jesus tells Peter in Matthew 16:18, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." As we pray, we find our way into God's movement and momentum which cannot be stopped. For it is only an opposite force exists (the gates of hell), not an equal and opposite force. It's high school physics. 

"For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD, a God greatly to be feared...and awesome above all...?" (Ps. 89:6, 7)

Check out: thetablechicago.org for more information.

Context is King

My hermeneutics professors in Seminary repeated this as mantra as we would study different passages in the Bible. "Context is King," they would say, meaning the immediate paragraph, chapter and book would first determine the meaning of a word or phrase, long before a completely separate passage would.

What does context have to do with church planting? It has everything to do with it. When missionaries go out to different countries they learn the culture, the mannerisms, and the language. All of these can be summed up in one word: context. When we go plant churches, we cannot ignore the context that we plant in. The context of the city will look very different from the context of a small town. A suburban context has different cultural factors than a rural context. Even different neighborhoods hold different contexts than other neighborhoods in a city because of the demographic diversity that resides in them. Logan Square, for instance, is roughly 44% Hispanic, while West Town is about 77% White. These demographics will help shape the church that is planted there.

Hard data, like demographics, is great and essential to getting to know the context, but how, as the church, do we learn the language, the values, the hopes and dreams of those we want to reach? Or is it safe to assume that as Americans we all hold the same values? I don't only believe that it is unsafe, but would be damaging to do so. We must go into our context, Logan Square, for us with the posture to learn from the people that are there. If we don't, not only will we be seen as arrogant, we will not reach people for Christ there. We must learn to contextualize. So how do we do this?

Tim Keller, in his Redeemer Church Planting Manual, says we must be doing ethnographic research as well as demographic research. To do this, we must talk to people–not just do research on the internet. While demographics answers the "Who lives there?" question, ethnographics answers the "What are they like?" question. Keller gives several questions to ask people in order to get to know the people in your context: 

• What brought you to [this place] and how do you like living here?
• What are the dreams for your family?
• What kind of church does [this place] need? What would it look like?
• If you could ask God one thing, what would it be?
• What's the toughest thing for you when you consider faith and spiritual things?
• What are people's hopes, aspirations and pleasures?
• What are people's greatest fears and problems?
• How could a new church serve your needs?
• How do people spend their free time? What do they do for fun?*
• How is this neighborhood unique from others near it?*
• Who is Jesus and what is his significance to you?*

It's only through personal interactions with those who live, work and play in the neighborhood, do we get to know how to speak the heart-language of those who live, work and play there. We do this research because it gives us a vision for the neighborhood and people who live there; it reinforces the conviction that you and the gospel are needed by the city and its people; and it removes our blindness and gives us the conviction that we need this city and people to teach us much.

And finally, in praying through the answers to these questions, we seek to have God's eyes for community to which we are called. Our goal is to love the city as God loves it, to recognize its brokenness and sin, and see how the Gospel heals and brings hope to the people who live there.

Stacey and I are headed up for a quick visit to Logan Square this weekend. We want to continually get to know our context and pray for it and learn from it. Please pray with us. Pray that God would give us a vision and hope for the neighborhood. Pray that we would be humble and learn from those there. Pray that would we be bold in asking these questions and truly hearing their answers.

*These questions I got from Dan Breed's Fox Cities Church Plant Project.

Who is a Church Planter?

What makes a church planter different than a [church] pastor?

This is really a good question. If we don't, we may assume that there is no difference, or that the differences are very minute?  There are certainly a lot of overlaps. Scripture doesn't distinguish with a list; in fact, we affirm lay leaders and professional pastors need to have lives that reflect 1 Timothy 3:1-7. But ultimately what sets lay leaders from pastors is what sets pastors from planters apart: gifting and calling.

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ"

Ephesians 4:11-12

One is no better than another. We need all for the "building up" of the body of Christ.

So what specifically sets apart a church planter? Ed Stetzer lists several qualifications that planting organizations and denominations look for in his book Planting Missional Churches.

1. Visioning capacity–the ability to imagine the future, to persuade other persons to become involved in that dream, and to bring the vision into reality.
2. Intrinsically motivated–that one approaches ministry as a self-starter, and commits to excellence through hard work and determination.
3. Creates ownership of ministry–one instills in other a sense of personal responsibility for the growth and success of the ministry and trains leaders to reproduce other leaders.
4. Relates to the unchurched–develops rapport and breaks through barriers with unchurched people, encouraging them to examine and to commit themselves to a personal walk with God.
5. Spousal cooperation–a marital partnership in which church planting couples agree on ministry priorities, each partner's role and involvement, and the integration and balance of ministry with family life.
6. Effectively builds relationships–the skill to take initiative in meeting people and deepening relationships as a basis for more effective ministry.
7. Committed to church growth–congregational development as a means for increasing the number and quality of disciples.
8. Responsiveness to the community–abilities to adapt one's ministry to the culture and needs of the target area residents.
9. Uses the giftedness of others–equips and releases other people to minister on the basis of their spiritual giftedness.
10. Flexible and adaptable–adjusts to change and ambiguity, shifts priorities when necessary, and handles multiple tasks at the same time. This leader can adapt to surprises and emergencies.
11. Builds group cohesiveness–one who enables the group to work collaboratively toward common goals, and who skillfully manages divisiveness and disunifying elements.
12. Demonstrates resilience–the ability to sustain himself emotionally, spiritually, and physically through setbacks, losses, disappointments, and failures.
13. Exercises faith–translates personal convictions into personal and ministry decisions and resulting actions.

A pastor may have some of these and even all of these giftings, but a church planters must possess all and to a higher degree than one who is called to the non-planting pastorate. No. 12, for example: a pastor certainly has to be resilient to the congregant who doesn't like the pace of the hymns sung on Sunday–and never does–but a planter has to be faced with the reality that though he may have been good friends with a neighbor, gym partner, drinking buddy, that person may never come to church after a year, or maybe two or three. But the planter loves him just the same.

Oh and no. 14, in my case at least, have a beard.

Ten Reasons to Plant Churches

David T. Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, provides ten reasons to plant churches in his book The American Church in Crisis:

1. New Churches lower the age profile of the American church, increase its multiethnicity, and better position the whole church for future changes.
2. New churches provide synergistic benefits to established churches. Research shows that denominations that many strong churches have more healthy, growing, established church than those who plant few churches.
3. The continued growth of new churches will extend up to 40 years after their start. The grown that occurs in years 10 to 40 is critical for creating a strong base of churches for the future. The mainline denominations have lost the influence of a complete generation of new churches.
4. New churches provide a channel to express the energy and ideas of passionate, innovative young pastors. Church planting encourages the development of expansionist gifts of ministry and leadership. Denominations that plant few churches unintentionally focus on training pastors in stabilizing gifts. A denomination needs both stabilizing and expansionists gifts to be both healthy and growing.
5. New churches are the research and development unit of God's kingdom. New churches create most of the current models and visions for healthy church life. Healthy cultural adaptations and theological vitality occur more often in a denomination that excels at church planting, because the ferment of new ideas and ministry solutions is more robust.
6. New churches are the test laboratory for lay leadership development. Because top lay leadership positions are usually already filled in the parent church, new churches provide a new group of emerging lay leaders the opportunity to grow and develop as primary leaders. In new church plants that do well, most lay members report that being part of the beginning of the new church was one of the defining spiritual events in their life.
7. New churches are historically the best method for reaching each emerging new generation. While many established churches have the ability to connect with the younger cohort, each generation also seems to need their own new type of churches that speak the gospel with their own cultural values and communication style.
8. New churches are the only truly effective means to reach the growing ethnic populations coming to America. Every people group needs to hear the gospel in a way that makes sense to their culture. It is difficult for established churches to become diverse. Church planting can effectively create both ethnic-specific and multiethnic congregations.
9. New churches are more effective than established churches at conversion growth. Studies show that new churches have three to four times the conversion rate per attendee than established churches.
10. Because the large majority of Americans do not attend a local church, many more new churches are needed. In 2005, 17.5 percent of Americans attended a local church on any given Sunday. Seventy-seven percent of Americans do not have a consistent connection with an orthodox Christian church. The best and most effective way for the Christian church to keep up with population growth is to start new churches.

The Chicago Plan::Logan Square

Last Wednesday morning, I awoke early to hit the road and head to Naperville.

Not quite Chicago, but close. I was headed there for a church planters connection conference put on by the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America). From noon on Wednesday till noon on Friday, I listened and interacted and prayed with church planters, planting-minded pastors. We discussed church planting strategies and the deep need for prayer to run through all our work. To state plainly prayers is not just a devotional practice, something that we do while we brush our teeth or run (I'm preaching to myself here), but it is the work of ministry and especially church planting. I remember listening to a talk from Tim Keller years ago when he listed out the top 5 or so things a planter must do. Prayer wasn't one of them. At the end of the list, he took a step back and acknowledged his "oversight." But, he said, if he relegated prayer to just another of the things one must do in order to plant a church, then he was downgrading it. Prayer is the work of planting. It's priority goes well before any written list. It is essential and primary and runs through every aspect of church planting.

Please join with me in praying. We need a lot of it.

What are we praying for you ask?

Well, at the end of my time in Naperville, I continued in to Chicago to spend time with my friends and walk and pray the neighborhoods I was considering: West Town, Logan Square and Lincoln Square. I lived in West Town just before I was exiled to St. Louis. I grabbed a sandwich at Fiore's, the Italian deli across the street from my old apartment before heading over the Dominic's roof to eat it and stare at the skyline. I met up with Mark Bergin, pastor at The Painted Door, and we talked about West Town. I really enjoyed our time, but left thinking maybe West Town isn't for me.

After an evening with friends, I ate at Lula Cafe in Logan Square with more friends and we talked about planting and my vision for Chicago. I had a few minutes left on my meter, so I walked Logan, took photos and prayed. I wasn't too sure of what I should be praying for, except that God would give me eyes to see the neighborhood clearly, to see it as He sees it. I saw a lot of dogs, some couples walking to get their morning coffee, and a few parents with their young children. But mainly a lot of dogs and fixies.

I headed north to Lincoln Square. Parking halfway between the Brown Line and the expansive Welles Park, I walked along Lincoln Ave. Not as many gates infront of houses, two and three generations of families walking together. Many, many, many strollers. Youth baseball throughout the park. As I stood and watched the game and prayed. It occurred to me that we would need kids to reach this neighborhood. Don't get me wrong, we want kids, but we should have had them a couple years ago.

On to Binny's. Tasting and thinking and praying. Wishing my wife was able to be with me. Wondering what ministry would be like in any of these neighborhoods.

I was exhausted.

I decided it was nap time.

I don't know how to explain how naps usher in the Spirit; I don't have a fleshed out theology on this point. However, when I woke up it was clear to me that God was calling me to Logan Square.

Pray for Logan Square.

Pray for us as I begin to vision and write up a plan.

Pray that the Gospel would be out in front of us, moving and stirring the hearts of those who need the Gospel for the first time and the forty-first time.

Pray that God would fund his mission and work in Logan Square (right now, I'm estimating this around $450,000 for 4 years).