One of my last classes at Southern is a class on Church Planting. I’ve been looking forward to this class for a long time. It has some great projects we’re thinking and working through in order to come up with a workable plan for any church to be able to get involved with church planting. I have been reading about church planting and studying some of the newer movements (Redeemer City To City Network, Soma Communities, Acts 29 Network, Sojourn Network, Sovereign Grace Network, etc) for the last four or five years.
The endeavor of church planting has much to do with the current health of the “mother” church (the one launching the new church). That “mother” church does not need to be perfect or running at full capacity in order to launch another church. In fact, that is one of the biggest misconceptions. Healthy churches reproduce healthy disciples who know how to make more disciples. Some of those disciples have giftings from God in preaching, teaching, administration, leadership, and other areas that fit well with ongoing movement and planting.
For the existing mother church, when they begin to talk about “planting” or “launching” a new church into a new area, there is something that occurs that brings forth new life in that existing church. There is a fresh flourishing and vitality that springs up where there may have been lack of vision or even decline over several years (or even decades) for the existing church. Many people in the existing church are passionately recharged with the excitement and hope of their lives being connected in seeing several new churches launched to new areas that have little gospel engagement.
Many church planting networks want to start in larger cities or cultural centers because that is where we find the highest volume of people. Cities, by God’s design, would be cultural influencers that trickle down to surrounding areas. At the same time, people in those cities (including disciples of Christ) may find themselves in a hurried pace of busyness. This pace has much to do with some of the obstacles to getting into relationships with people on a deeper level in order to share life and share Christ with them.
There are three poisonous, deplorable, and incredibly deadly sins that both the existing churches and these new church plants may be walking in. These are three of the deadliest sins a church can engage in—sometimes unknowingly!
- Consumerism (worst/deadliest) 2 Tim. 4:1-4
—Paul warns Timothy and the churches that a very dangerous time is coming when crowds of people will put before themselves leaders who deny the costly truth of gospel life, and offer words that “tickle the ears” of those listening. These false leaders will tell the people what their darkened hearts desire to hear—instead of what God wants them to hear from the mirror of His word. Think through these characteristics described in 2 Timothy along with this idea of “Consumerism.”
—They do not like nor want to hear sound doctrine
—They multiply teachers who tell them what they want to hear
—These teachers accommodate their cultural and sinful preferences
—They no longer hear truth, but instead believe false versions on what life is about
- It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that most cities are fast-paced, consumer-minded, instantaneously-gratifying (or frustrating) centers of expectation. For example, most of us get really frustrated when a drive-thru lane at Starbucks or a fast-food chain takes too long.
- Let’s be honest, when you have to start memorizing “Thou shalt not murder…Thou shalt not murder…Thou shalt not murder!!!” because the person in the car in front of you asks for a listing of all the new holiday flavors and then which ones come in non-fat—you may have a busy, consumeristic, instantaneously-gratifying expectation. The very idea of “drive-thru” is pretty convenient in itself, no matter how slow, if you really think about it.
- God forbid we have to find a parking spot, park, do the treacherous labor of getting out and walking into a building, standing in line, ordering (BTW surrounded by other annoying people taking up my time), wait for the drink while safely fixated to a 4 inch screen in order to avoid personal human interaction, get the drink, walk back to said car, and then leave. But maybe that’s just me. I’m the only one experiencing this type of suffering for the gospel.
The point is that we are a people with a consumer-pleasing mindset. We want it fast and furious. We want it with the most convenience and the littlest cost or sacrifice. We want “Easy-Button” everything. And that overflows into our spiritual lives as well.
Truth be told--we want that for our church experience as well.
Me: "Siri..."
Siri: "Yes"
Me: "Which church offers me the most convenient, fastest (nearly) drive-thru, low-commitment, self-indulgent, self-esteem-boosting experience?"
Would your church be the answer she lovingly offers?
Churches, both existing and new plants, must fight the temptation to allow “Consumerism” to dictate the message we preach and the methods of what we do.
- True following of this man, Jesus, brought with it the very idea of cost, death to self, and sacrifice (see Luke 9:23-25). None of those things are quick or easy.
- Following Christ means commitment and obedience to Jesus, His word, and His mission. Again, none of that is quick or easy.
So, when we recognize that many churches are simply trying to accompany “busy consumers” we are in a very dangerous place. And remember, this is not trying to point out specific church names or pastors, but is an overall perspective on the American church and how she is handling these cultural shifts. Add to that the concerns of planting churches who set their vision according to some of these false measuring preferences.
Do you see how dangerous a Consumeristic accommodation for churches can be?
- If a business owner realized his five employees were all stealing 80% of his cash profit out of the register each week—would he simply start providing them paper bags each shift in order to make it easier for them?
- We do not just give up and not set any kind of expectation in fear that people will reject any kind of high expectation. We trust God. We set the standard God has given us. We allow Jesus to reclaim what has been stolen. This requires hope, trust, and diligence on our part.
- When we are consumers without noticing it—we begin to focus on ourselves instead of the mission of God. It leads to Isolationism.
2. Isolationism (hate/indifference to different peoples) 1 Cor. 12:11-27
- We don’t really do well with people who are different from us. That may be different races, different nationalities, different socio-economic levels, or differences of preference.
- If we’re not careful, in pursuing our own preferred status or our own preferred ways—we never think of others. We don’t recognize we are trying to put distance/space between us and “people who are different” instead of MOVING TOWARDS those in need.
- Our children are going to inherit our separating mindset. They are going to inherit and internalize our isolating patterns.
Do your children learn to move towards people who are marginalized or are they learning to climb ladders of success in order to remove themselves from marginalized people?
- Are we spending all our time moving forward—that we truly begin to look down on people who 1) don’t make as much 2) don’t dress like we do 3) aren’t in our circles?
- How does that fit with Jesus who was always concerned about those who were marginalized?
- And this Isolation leads to the next step—Individualism.
3. Individualism (my/myself/I—bootstraps mentality) James 2:1-9
- When we’ve unknowingly become extremely BUSY CONSUMERS focused on PREFERENCES IN ISOLATION—we move from God’s desire of us being committed to a family of faith or a community of faith.
- Individualism, which is one of our highest virtues as Americans, is actually one of the most dangerous and deadly characteristics in killing Gospel-centered community.
- I remember several years ago at a family camp as we were eating our evening meal, two guys who were members and highly involved in our church body who sat down across from each other, paused in awkwardness, and then said, “Hello, I’m so-and-so, I know we’ve been sitting fifteen feet from each other for the last sever or eight years—but we’ve never met.” And this was a church of around 150 people including children. That is a perfect picture of many individuals in churches across America. People who sit extremely close together and pass by each other several times each week—but who never take the initiative to actually meet each other. This is a glimpse of how our individualism affects our ability to build true community.
- What allows us to think that we could be good at “loving our neighbor…loving one another…or loving others as Christ loved us” when we spend years 15 ft away from people in our own family—in our own congregation—in our own local assembly—and never move out of our individualistic freedom to meet them—much less care about them or serve them.
**What are the implications of being consumeristic in our approach to church?
**What are the implications of having churches who begin to cater to consumeristic, individualistic, isolated cultures?
Ask yourself:
**Am I a consumer in my relationship to church?
**Am I becoming more isolated or growing in many diverse relationships?
**Am I becoming more individualistic or am I growing in fellowship and community to the point of caring and serving others who are in my immediate space?
Sankie P. Lynch
sankie@nbchurch.info
