If there were such a thing as a Hall of Fame for '80s movies, Back to the Future would have to be there. Michael J. Fox is in his heyday, wearing his iconic red, puffy vest, riding his skateboard through town, carrying the role of Marty McFly beautifully. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, Marty is playing electric guitar at his parent's 1955 "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance. What starts as a crowd-pleasing, "Johnny B. Goode," ends in a confusing climax when Marty rips into an intense guitar solo straight from 1985. The 1955 crowd just can't relate to the music of the 80's, and Marty awkwardly leaves the stage.

In a very small (and humorous) way, the "Enchantment Under the Sea" scene exemplifies the challenge of creating an indigenous expression in a foreign environment--sometimes our expressions just don't fit.

I just added a new event in the NY area. Well, it is actually not that new-- I had been planting to speak at a denominational meeting up there for a while. However, we decided to add a church planting event, open to folks of all denominations, the next day.

Multiply! September 28, 2010

The Multiply! Conference asks what would it look like if a multiplication movement swept the Northeast?

The morning session (8am-12:30pm) is open to all, and will feature a muti-denominational presentation & discussion from Viral Churches. I will be sharing about what a church multiplication movement looks like and what it will take to see one in North America, particularly in the Northeast.

Everyone is also welcome to the afternoon session, but the conversation will be geared more toward church multiplication movements in the SBC denominational context.

This is a FREE event. However, your registration is greatly appreciated so that we may accommodate your meal needs well. And, if you are among the first 100 registered, you get a free copy of the Viral Churches book.

To register email Kathy at kaubrey@bcnysbc.org. You can download the brochure for more information here.

See you there...

Warren Bird and I have an article up at the The Foursquare Church website. It is an adaptation of a section of our new book, Viral Church: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers. In light of the significant hurdles that remain before missional multiplication will take off in the United States, we offer some thoughts of what has started to happen, but must continue at a higher and more widespread level to see the multiplication of missional churches in the United States. Below are the highlights.

1. Driving DNA Passion for Church Planting
People will need to consider church planting as one of their ministry's core values. Church planting cannot be an afterthought, someone else's ministry or a department. Churches will live, eat and breathe it. The widespread expectation that people will be sent out must become normal rather than exceptional...

2. New Measures of Success
Churches will always have a scorecard. A change of measures changes the current peer pressure and also creates positive peer pressure toward accomplishing the goal. As in all instances, scorecards can either press toward the goal or become a source of pride or depression...

3. More Roots in Historic Biblical Discipleship
Too often a church can't multiply its leaders because it has too few robust disciples. Instead it has lots of dependent believers who take a consumeristic approach to their faith and ultimately are shallow in character development...

4. Less Facility-Driven
Future churches will be less tied to the construction of buildings. The multi-site movement is helping our culture accept the idea of "de-building" large church facilities...

Churches will not cease from having facilities. But we can drop the hyperbolic reliance on the "if you build it, they will come" mentality...

5. Non-Anglo Leadership
Churches in the United States have heard that the growth hub of our faith is both south and east of us--such as South America, Africa and Asia. Now that North American Christians are understanding the reality of God's movement in other churches around the world, however, it is time to for us to assume a position of learning from the global Christian community. We can learn much, for example, from the worldwide church planting movements...

6. Less Permanency
To many of us, the idea of churches forming, flourishing and then going away, all somewhat quickly, seems to be a bad thing. We need to get a sense that God's people will last for eternity, but our facilities can be far less permanent. In fact, lots of churches died 30 years ago, but no one turned out the lights...

7. Multiple Pacesetters
"Historically all movements have begun because of the charismatic efforts of one lone individual who touched a nerve among a host of people. Who will step up to be that person?" asks Bill Easum, a prolific writer and co-author of Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts.

We think we're seeing multiple people step up, all sharing the same stage. Lots of good things are happening--but for a church multiplication movement to happen, the small stream has to become an unstoppable rushing river. If more people can decide to learn what God is up to in church planting movements, then we may be blessed to see them populate the continent in the next decade...

Head over to the Foursquare Church website to read the entire article, and then come back here to discuss.

I was sorting through my pictures on the flight home from London. I tend to take photos of the places I go and post them on Twitter. Looking at the photos while on the plane got me thinking.

I speak to probably 100,000 pastors and church leaders a year. They come in big and small venues. In some cases, we can gather 2500 youth pastors in Orlando for Student Leadership University.

Or, 10,000 students in convocation at Liberty University.

Or an interdenominational strategy session with pastors in Austin.

Or even a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada denominational meeting in Canada.

But, a meeting of pastors in Paris can fit in a church basement... In London, they can fit in what is a mid-sized church facility in the states. Now, I know that when someone famous comes they can pack out a place, and I am small potatoes, but the numbers are interesting.

It kinda' makes me think... Is God not good at math? Does He calls everyone to pastor and plant churches in one place? What about places farther away than London and Paris? There could be a math problem here, or maybe we just aren't listening well.

Interested in London or Paris? Let me connect you with leaders there... Just post a comment here, send me a direct message via Twitter, or contact the Upstream Collective.

Greater Europe Mission began with a handful of North Americans in 1949 who were given a passion and vision to see the gospel spread through Europe. Though their work began in France just 60 years ago, it has expanded to about 300 people serving throughout Europe. From the GEM website:

GEM missionaries focus on being disciples, reflecting Christ wherever and however they serve. They're ordinary people doing extraordinary things in order to make disciples. This takes place through relationships and service in the name of Christ. It happens in the context of community and, in some cases, through Business as Mission.

As Christ-followers disciple all peoples of Europe through rapidly reproducing churches, God is expanding His Kingdom through those peoples to the world.

Here I talk to Charles Cross who heads up the work of GEM in France:

That same evening, Marshall Dallas (from, ironically, Texas) reflects on why we are here learning about Europe:

People have been living in Paris, before it was "Paris," since 4200 BC. Today the capital city of France is the most populated city of Western Europe. It counts over 2 million inhabitants and is the center of the 13 million people Paris region.

Paris has for centuries attracted many of the brightest writers, composers, artists and thinkers the world has ever known. It's obvious that Parisians love art and music-- which is both reflected in and cultivated through their many museums, theaters and opera houses. As I have walked through the city it has been amazing to see the convergence of ancient and modern cultures blend together so beautifully. I can understand why 45 million people visit La Ville-Lumière (The City of Light) annually.

Despite its nickname, this "City of Light" is a spiritually dark place where conversions tend to come along slowly through gospel witness and relationships.

The largest percent of Parisians claim to be Catholic (67.7%), but only about 10% participate in the Catholic faith regularly. The next largest group consider themselves to be non-religious (19.7%). Only around 2% of Paris is Protestant, and another 1.5% is Jewish. The fastest growing religion in Paris is Islam claiming 10% of the population.

I got the opportunity to talk with a pastor in Paris and to see how this cultural context shapes church planting:

In about 15 minutes, I am heading to a meeting with Steve Timmis, a very busy and prolific brother.

Steve founded the Crowded House - an international group of church planting networks. Partnering churches with The Crowded House maintain the priority of the gospel, value community, seek to carry out the mission of the church through community, and continue to plant new churches. He is also co-director of The Porterbrook Network which trains and mentors church planters.

While on this Upsteam Collective trip, we have intersected a couple of times with Steve and Acts 29, which Steve serves as director of Western Europe. Several of the leaders on the trip are in Acts 29 related churches. Also, we did the Saturday Dwell Conference in partnership with Acts 29.

In the video below Steve shares why the western European cultural context is relevant to Americans, how the entire church is God's mission strategy, and how you can get involved in church planting abroad.

A "global city" is a large urban center that exerts great economic and cultural influence beyond its own region.

Wikipedia explains it this way:

A global city (also called world city or sometimes alpha city) is a city deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies and rests on the idea that globalization can be understood as largely created, facilitated and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.

The most complex of these entities is the "global city", whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socio-economic means. The terminology of "global city", as opposed to megacity, is believed to have been coined by the sociologist Saskia Sassen in reference to her 1991 work, "The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo" though the term "world city" to describe cities which control a disproportionate amount of global business dates to at least May 1886 to describe Liverpool by the Illustrated London News.

I've written quite a bit about my friends at the Upstream Collective. Their goal is to help churches "think and act like missionaries." One of the ways they do this is by leading vision trips to urban centers in Europe and beyond. These trips allow church leaders and planters to see first-hand the needs and opportunities for direct church involvement in God's global mission. I've had the pleasure of helping to lead several of these trips, teaching practical missiology and providing running commentary as we interact with missionaries, pastors, and national church planters. This week, we're in London and Paris with a group of more than twenty.

Many people won't consider Europe to be a mission field, but the veneer of nominal religion is wearing thin as once-packed Cathedrals are turned into museums, restaurants, and even mosques.Only 4.2% of the population profess to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, as per the European Spiritual Estimate. According to the Upstream Collective, a trip to Europe can provide a glimpse into the cultural future of the United States.

These stats should get our attention, but of course there is hope. God is calling men and women from all over the world to plant their lives in Europe for the sake of the gospel. Unreached peoples are being engaged, the gospel is being proclaimed, lives are being transformed, and churches are being planted. Churches are learning to think and act like missionaries.

In the following video, Upstream Collective co-founder, Caleb Crider, introduces the concept behind their "Jet Set" vision trips. To learn more about how your church might be more directly involved in missions, visit theupstreamcollective.org

As you read this, I'm heading off to London with Daniel Montgomery and a team of pastors for the next Upstream Collective trip to London and Paris. It's a week long interaction with different European cultures and churches in order to see what God is doing and how American Christians and churches can get involved.

From the Upstream Collective blog,

The Eurobarometer Poll 2005 indicates 20 and 33 percent of the United Kingdom and French populations, respectively, does not believe a spirit, god or life force exists, while 40 and 27 percent do. On average, 38 and 34 percent of the polled audiences believes in a god.

Less people are attending churches in Western Europe. Forty-seven percent of the French population claims agnosticism, according to 2003 studies. Other predominant religions on the continent include Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism. Of these, their largest populations are found in the United Kingdom and France.

You can follow the happenings of the Jet Set Tour here, and at the Upstream Collective blog as well as at @edstetzer and @TheUpstreamC on Twitter.

I am glad to take several weeks each year in partnership with the IMB to connect pastors with global mission opportunities. Stay tuned at the blog this week for more information.

Back in August of '09 I shared a bit about the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a new conservative Anglican organization that broke away from the Episcopal Church (The U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion) over controversies related to the authority of Scripture and homosexuality. But this is not just a group of conservative theologians who are trying to maintain orthodox theology, they are also working hard to stay on mission, which has led them to set a lofty goal for such a young fellowship of churches; to plant 1000 churches in the next five years! I have the privilege of speaking at the Anglican 1000 gathering, February 22-23, in Plano, TX.

I don't have any special speaking engagements until 2010 (wahoo!) and am enjoying being home with my family. But I wanted to give you a heads up about the Anglican 1000. No, it's not like religious Nascar. If it was, I wouldn't be going since I have no clue why people drive around in circles for fun.

But, I will be preaching at Christ Church in Plano and then staying over on Monday to open the Anglican 1000 gathering, February 22-23, in Plano.

The Anglican 1000 is a church planting plan initiated by Archbishop of the ACNA, Bob Duncan, that seeks to plant 1000 Anglican churches in North America in the next five years. "Planters and congregations would form a movement from every Anglican jurisdiction and within all 'three streams' of the Anglican Church in North America."

The ACNA was founded in 2008 in Wheaton, Illinois, and has around 100,000 members in 742 parishes. From Wikipedia,

The Anglican Church in North America finds inspiration in the Christian Gospel, faith, morals, and the Anglican tradition of worship, and emphasizes the unchanging nature of the Gospel. Leaders of the new group believe that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada have moved away from traditional Christian teaching.

I have had the privilege of working with the Anglican Mission in the Americas for a while and spoke at one of their early national meetings. (I have written about these folks here and here if you are interested.)

They are good people who have stood up for biblical beliefs and have often lost buildings and credentials because of such. But, their churches are some of the stronger in the Anglican tradition. For example, Christ Church in Plano is the largest Anglican church in North America. And, I had the privilege of preaching at another thriving Anglican church about two years ago in Winter Springs, FL (Church of the New Covenant) to encourage them in their church planting and evangelism efforts. In other words, these Anglicans are seeking to get on mission and I am glad to encourage them in some small way.

On Feb 22-23, at Christ Church in Plano, TX the Leadership Team for the Anglican 1000 Movement will host a church planters summit. "Church planters, students, young church leaders, bishops, and committed laity from around the continent will gather together for intensive learning and networking sessions."

I'm looking forward to sharing with these passion believers and watching what God accomplishes through their vision for church planting.

J. D. Payne is a National Missionary with the North American Mission Board and an Associate Professor of Evangelism and Church Planting in the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he directs the Church Planting Center (and, in this pic, he looks quite professorial).

He has served as a pastor of three churches in Kentucky and Indiana and has worked with five church planting teams. Over the years he has also served as a coach and mentor to numerous church planters. He is the author of three books: Missional House Churches: Reaching Our Communities with the Gospel, The Barnabas Factors: Eight Essential Practices of Church Planting Team Members , and his newest, Discovering Church Planting: An Introduction to the Whats, Whys, and Hows of Global Church Planting.

J.D. and I have been friends for a long time (he was once my grader when I taught at Southern) and later was my successor in that role. I know him well enough to tell you that his first name is "Jervis," which is pretty weird if you ask me. ;-)

His new book is very helpful and I now use it as one of my required textbooks when I teach church planting. So, I asked J.D. to talk about his new book and the state of church planting here on the front end of the 21st century. Read the interview, buy the book, and be sure to jump into the comments where J.D. will respond to your questions and comments.

With all of the books out there on church planting, what is the purpose of this one?

The purpose of this book is to provide a single, practical, work that addresses the biblical/theological foundations, several critical missiological principles, a few historical perspectives, and many contemporary issues related to church planting in the 21st century.

I have been involved in church planting in the U. S. for the past decade, including almost twelve years of teaching in the classroom. While there are many excellent books on church planting which I use, and will continue to use in the classroom (especially Planting Missional Churches J ), I wanted a book that was a good introductory work written for both church planters and other church leaders. Since there are many church planting books available, I had the benefit of drawing from the wisdom and experience of others when writing. The subtitle summarizes the book: "An Introduction to the Whats, Whys, and Hows of Global Church Planting"

I'm assuming that there is something significant about the words Global Church Planting. Am I correct?

Absolutely! This book is not a model-specific book for one particular context. While I have included a chapter on models of church planting, the focus is on understanding the principles that can be translated to cultures and societies throughout the world and how to make appropriate application of those principles to the field. While acknowledging my pastoral and church planting experience has been exclusively connected to the U. S., I worked hard to write with a much wider audience in mind.

What is unique about this book?

In addition to being a church planting book not specifically about a methods or models, but rather on the application of principles and contextualization of methods, there are two other unique aspects. First, I begin by ironically writing that ultimately the book is not about church planting, but Kingdom expansion through disciple-making. While there are many ways to plant churches, biblical church planting is evangelism that results in new churches. Therefore, a heavy focus of this book is about Kingdom growth through the multiplication of disciples, leaders, and yes, churches. As the gospel transforms lives and churches are planted, those new Kingdom citizens must set out to expand the Kingdom by living according to a Kingdom Ethic, thus transforming their societies with the gospel.

Second, this book is a call to understand that the primary biblical expression of the church planter is that the church planter is a missionary, doing evangelism, gathering new believers together to be the local church, and raising up elders from within (e.g., Acts 13-14) the community. In the western Church, especially in the U. S. and Canada, we have lost the New Testament understanding of the apostolic functions of church planters. For example, the majority of the church planting books and conferences geared toward a North American audience expect the person who plants will also pastor that church. While I'm not opposed to such a model (my experience has been with such a model) and support it in certain contexts, the weight of the Scriptures is on the church planter functioning more after an apostolic pattern--as a missionary who raises up pastors.

Can you give me a quick overview of the content?

Certainly. The book is divided into four major sections. The first, and most important section, is "Discovering Biblical and Theological Foundations". In this section, I spend much time addressing ecclesiology, the Holy Spirit, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, Evangelism, Discipleship, and Leadership development as related to church planting. Section two is "Discovering Missiological Principles," and includes chapters related to multiplication strategy development, receptivity, contextualization, role of partnering churches, and church planting teams. The third section, "Discovering Historical Paradigms," examines the church planting activities of the Moravians across the globe and the Methodists and Baptists on the American frontier. The final section looks at several contemporary issues that church planters are facing. Chapters are devoted to family matters, church planting models, overcoming objections to church planting, urban church planting, tentmaking, the apostolic understanding of church planters, and church planting movements.

This is a massive work. Is this book just for the scholar?

I know. It can choke a horse! I use my personal copy as a stepstool when I change light bulbs!

Seriously. No. It is not just a textbook for the scholar. Prior to his death, Ralph Winter graciously wrote an endorsement for the book that relates to this matter. He wrote, "Books about on church planting. Few go into such sweeping and helpful detail. This is not a book written by an ivory tower scholar but by a true scholar activist." While comprehensive, this book is practical by nature. As I note in the book, church planters must be both outstanding theologians and missionaries. To be one without the other is a liability to the Kingdom. While much of this book involves a heavy amount of the theology and missiology undergirding church planting practice, I keep pushing the reader toward practical application of the book's contents. I partially make this push by concluding each chapter with several application-related questions for individuals and groups.

Church planting has really come into the spotlight in the last several years. Are we getting better at it? If we are, what do you think has been the key to that success. If we aren't, why?

I think we are improving in some areas and in other areas we are missing the mark. We have made great progress in the area of training guys to be pastors of newly planted churches. And I believe we will (and must) continue to advance in this area. Many church planting conferences today are not so much about church planting, but about how to lead the church you just planted. I believe such training provides very important information. I know that having served as a pastor of established churches and as a pastor in new churches the ministry contexts are very different, with each having their own unique challenges. I am very excited about what I am seeing in the area of pastoral training. I also think we have made great progress in the area of networks. We are now seeing church planters networking together for accountability, encouragement, and resourcing in ways that were not taking place ten years ago. A third advancement is in the area of raising the banner for the family. Today, unlike a decade ago, church planters are being strongly encouraged to guard their families. The reason I believe we are making significant progress in these areas is because church planters are approaching their ministries as both learners and as leaders. They are eager to learn from one another (believing that they do not have all the answers), while at the same time desire to share what they have personally learned in their journeys (believing that the Lord has given them some truth to pass along to assist others).

While we have grown in many areas, in other significant areas, we have made little progress. Even with all the discussions about being missional since the late 1990s, we still do not think and act like missionaries in our church planting endeavors. First, in the United States and Canada, in particular, we have an ecclesiology problem. There is too much of our cultural Christianity affecting our understanding of the local church, and not enough of the Bible. The greatest problem in church planting today is an ecclesiology problem. How we answer the question, "What is the local church?" will affect everything we do in church planting. We are attempting to plant churches that reflect too much of our cultural preferences and pragmatic tendencies, rather than biblical churches that are contextualized to the people. Second, and closely related to this problem, is the fact that we still do not understand that the primary biblical model for the church planter is that of a missionary who will plant churches and raise up pastors for those churches. There is little room for the missionary at the church planting table in the United States and in Canada. Third, and closely related to these other two challenges is the fact that biblical church planting is evangelism that results in new churches. What I mean by this statement is that church planting, as described in the Scriptures, is about conversion growth and not transfer growth. With approximately 75% of the United States and Canada not having a relationship with Jesus (and another four billion people across the globe), we must stop praising and rewarding transfer growth church planting strategies/methods and begin to focus on highly reproducible, multiplication strategies that lead to the making of disciples from out of the harvest fields. I write extensively about these concerns in the book.

What are a few other books on church planting that you believe are important to understand?

There are several excellent books out there today. I'm sure I'm going to forget some of them here. . . . Your book is a very good book-- and I promise I did not write this because this is your blog. I use and recommend Planting Missional Churches to many people. My guess is that most of those reading this blog are familiar with your work. Tom Steffen's book Passing the Baton: Church Planting that Empowers is an excellent resource. Of course, if there ever was a "classic" in church planting literature, David Hesselgrave's book Planting Churches Cross-Culturally would be at the top of the list. Aubrey Malphurs' book Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century and Bob Logan's Church Planter's Toolkit have influenced countless numbers of church planters over the years. While not a book, Bob Logan and Neil Cole wrote the outstanding resource Beyond Church Planting a few years ago. The most influential book on my thinking has been Charles Brock's book Indigenous Church Planting: A Practical Journey. Of course, I'm a little biased, but I also think my other book The Barnabas Factors: Eight Essential Practices of Church Planting Team Members is also important to read.

J.D. will be hanging around the blog today interacting in the comments, so be sure to hit him up with all your church planting questions.

We are looking to connect with churches that fit in two categories in order to gather some fresh examples:

1. De-clergified Churches. OK, we made up a new word. Basically, we are looking for several churches that are utilizing the gifts and talents of people in their local church body to lead in ministry areas that were previously, or might typically be, paid staff positions.

2. Comeback Churches. We are looking for 15-20 churches that have started growing again (by conversion growth and worship attendance) after a significant period of plateau and/or decline.

If you know of churches that fit in either of these categories, and please specify if these churches are restarts (with new name and identity and relaunch). You can email their contact info back to us as soon as possible here: Research@lifeway.com

Of course, you can also post the information in the comments.

Do you remember the playground game Red Rover? You know, where school kids stand in two lines facing each other and take turns yelling out, "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Suzy right over!" Then little Suzy would have to leave her line and run as fast and hard as she could to break through the other line of kids holding hands. If successful, she would take one member from the other team back with her to her line. If unsuccessful, Suzy had to remain in the opposing team's line and then another child would be called to come over.

The game has seemed to lose some steam in the last few years. Maybe it's due to the development of "cooler" games. Perhaps it's due to the number of kids with neck injuries from nearly being strangled trying to break through. Whatever the case, it seems for the most part that Red Rover has gone to the playground cemetery along with King of the Hill. We'll have to hope for a resurrection.

It has occurred to me that we often to adopt a kind of Red Rover Strategy in church planting and pastoring. Like Paul in Acts 16, we hear the call, "Come over and help us!" and we react with a violent attempt to just break through the line. We have a dream in our heart to plant or pastor a church and we become so consumed with this vision that we barrel right into a new town looking for the weakest link in the chain before ever getting an honest and clear picture of the people that live there. We start plowing into a community with strategy, plans, and really great books written by "cool" church planters and pastors without ever considering the group of people into which we're being sent. And before we know it, we find ourselves strangled, trying to break into a community that is not ready or able to receive the church we have planned.

So, let me say this; before planting or pastoring a church, it's vital that we have a vision of the people to whom God has sent us. This was the crucial step that happened in Acts 16.

Paul and his companions are setting out to minister to people and they're running up against barriers along the way. The Bible says, "Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia, went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us!" The "Come over and help us" ends with a little dative case pronoun: "us." And, it matters.

Here was Paul, sure of where he wanted to go, never stopping for directions, but being stopped at every turn. Until he received God's vision for ministry. And in the vision, he met a person, the man from Macedonia. We can learn a clear lesson from this story. Do not go plant or pastor a church if all you have is a vision for a particular kind of church, or because you think a particular city is "cool." You can only plant or pastor a church when you have a vision for the people. Part of being missional is to recognize that we are to go into a culture, engage the people of that culture, and plant a Biblically faithful church for those people, all the while acknowledging that culture matters in the way we do ministry. In many ways, the how of church ministry is determined by the who, when, and where of culture.

So, when we "come over," it's important to remember that we are going into our own community, not someone else's. It's so easy to hear an incredible speaker at a conference and say, "I'm going to be just like that pastor!" That is not the right goal, nor is it what God is calling you to be. Too often, we get so excited by someone else's church that we get a vision for their church before we get a vision for our people.

My challenge is, don't plant or pastor a church in your head. Plant or pastor a church in your community. When you are there, that's when the Gospel transforms real people who are living real lives. When we are in love with someone else's community, we fall prey to community lust and demographic envy. We begin thinking, "If I could just be in this part of California, or this part of Seattle, or this part of Manhattan... then, my church would be incredible." Know and live in your culture, not someone else's. Don't just bring a model, bring the Gospel. Create a church. Don't create a plan.

Most importantly, we must bring Christ, not just a church, particularly a way of doing church. Sometimes, I think we get too excited about the fact that we're leading a church. That's great, as long as we remember that we're planting the Gospel that creates a church, not a church that's known for being the best church or the most trendy or the most relevant. We're planting the Gospel and so we bring Christ and not just the church. Being missional has to be tied into the mission of Jesus, which is to seek and save the lost.

Unlike the in the game Red Rover, we win when we get to stay with our new "team" and begin leading it in a new direction. Planters and pastors must first take the time to listen to the Spirit, responding appropriately His call to the particular people He assigns to us. Then, we can best respond to the call to "Come over" and win them for the kingdom of God.

I am on my way to Canada right now, and it reminded me of another international trip-- just a few days ago. Let me recap my Upstream Collective vision trip to Taiwan and ask you to consider partnering in mission there.

We were blessed to be able to worship with Taiwanese believers on Sunday Morning. The beauty of the church was apparent when they invited us to join them for a meal. Afterword, I interviewed Taiwanese Pastor Chen and Michael Carpenter interviewed a student who attended church with us that morning.

The next day, I related a little Chinese history to the group in front of the Chaing Kai-Shek memorial. In the back of a Taipei cab, I interviewed Marshall Dallas of Second Baptist Church, Houston. I later interviewed Los Angeles area church planter and pastor Ray Chang of Ambassador Church, an Evangelical Free congregation, about multi-ethnic church. Ray also posted about it on his blog, Transformission.

Phil and Irene Nicholson led us through a Temple as people worshiped ancestors, Buddhas, territorial gods, and idols. It was a telling illustration of the spiritual state of Taiwan. We walked through some of the rougher parts of Taipei, where we saw the trafficking of women. We were encouraged by OMF's ongoing ministry there, including work among single mothers,shopworkers, prostitutes, and the homeless.

Then we lost Rodney Calfee in the Red Light District. Literally lost him. We found him later, though, and he learned his lesson.

Later in the week, we heard from Robert, a Taiwanese believer who eloquently explained the need for contextualization. I then posted "Five Reasons Missional Churches Don't Do Global Missions" which was, according to one commenter, "by far the best work I have ever produced." I'll let you be the judge, but it is an issue about which I am very passionate.  We need to put the "missions" back in "missional."

Finally, from atop the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, I interviewed missionary "Garth" about church planting in Taiwan.

We're thankful for several blogging friends who kept up with us during the trip. Their participation helped add a "virtual" element to the trip that allowed others to participate from home. Among the virtual trip commentators were:

• Tall Skinny Kiwi, who was reminded of his first experience in Asia.
• J.D. Greear was kind enough to give us a shout from his blog as well.
• Todd Littleton pointed out the trouble with superimposing American methodologies.
• Grady Bauer also followed along, and highlighted the trouble of importing American culture along with the gospel.
• David Jackson picked up the fundamental differences between religion and relationship.
• Bob Hyatt mentioned our trip and someone named Caleb Crider.

Our hope for this trip is to help shape the ongoing conversation about all things missional  (especially in the international context). I'm convinced that the best way to have a missional perspective here at home is to be actively engaging unreached people groups with the gospel in other places-- where it's much easier to see the need for things like contextualization, indigenous expressions of church, and biblical missiology.

I'll be leading another Upstream Collective trip, this time to London and Paris, with Daniel Montgomery of Sojourn, Louisville,  in the Spring of 2010. Sign up for more information on the Upstream Collective website.

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to visit Java Joe's / Matthew's Table in Lebanon, TN. (The church gathers for worship in a coffee shop they own and operate.)

Part of the design is that they are trying to create a "third place" community. From Wikipedia:

The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

Oldenburg calls one's "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace -- where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs. Oldenburg suggests these hallmarks of a true "third place": free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars - those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.

They describe their church on their website.

Matthew's Table is a church stripped of its formality. At every Sunday gathering we prepare food and all eat freely. During the meal we engage in a simple liturgy that we call a Weekly Rhythm:

BLESSING - The word "blessing" means "to empower to strength." We seek God's blessing and pass that blessing on to others. As we gather we intentionally speak words of blessing and affirmation over each other.

EATING - Sharing food has always been central to a shared life of community. We want to place worship and communion back where it began: as a delight in the middle of the shared table. We eat and drink in remembrance of Christ - looking back to the cross and forward to his return.

LISTENING - We believe that God is capable of speaking to us. We do not confine him to any particular medium, but we try to be attentive to his voice, wherever and whenever it speaks. We provide a period for reflection, meditation and listening to the voice of God.

LEARNING - We desire to take on the image of God and to participate in his plan. We seek out knowledge about God to help us to do this. We gather around the Scriptures and learn together, discussing issues that confront our world.

SENDING - We are ambassadors who bear God's image in the world. We remind ourselves regularly that we are sent to participate in God's activity in both our local and global cultures.

I thought is might be helpful to share some of the setting with you. Instead of a church starting a coffee shop, this is a coffee shop with a church.

It looks like a regular coffee shop from the outside:

My friend Michal Carperter looks like your average emerging church pastor (grin):

But, when you look up close you can see the church info:

The signs around the church speak to what happens on the weekend:

The place has an open feel that invites fellowship and community:

During church, the kids go in the back:

There are few places where you will find Rolling Stone and Christianity Today on the same table:

Michael is planning to open more coffee shops and, with them, more churches. As they grow, they plan to multiply, and not enlarge-- creating more spaces for coffee, community, and churches.

Since church planters are often entrepreneurs, this is a way to create business-as-mission opportunities.

This seems to me to be a reproducible model that creates new way to plan churches and do mission in many different settings.

What do you think?

Occasionally, I list things of interest inside my denomination that may be helpful to readers of this blog. I will continue to do that (as I am today), but I will be moving my denomination-specific blogging to a new blog. My blog has become a place to discuss mission, culture, and research. So, I have decided that, with a few exceptions, I will move my denominational content to Between the Times.

A few weeks ago, Richard Harris and I sent out an email indicating that the North American Mission Board (NAMB) task force, of which I was a co-facilitator, had been disbanded with the resignation of NAMB's president. We mentioned in the email that we would be releasing the "list" we made at that meeting since it had been reported in the news.

I think the list might be helpful to people both inside and outside of my denomination. But, before we get to the "list," let me tell you a little about the group. Here is a picture of the meeting. If you follow on Twitter, you have already seen this pic.

The group had a mix of people:
• Four state execs (staff leader of the state convention from where they came-- the closest is Terry Robertson, from NY, up close and on the right)

• The president of the Woman's Missionary Union, Kaye Miller (way back on the left side)

• Seminary professors (you can see Chuck Lawless from SBTS on the right and Gus Suarez from MWBTS with a big smile and also on the right)

• Directors of missions (George Dean is in a stylish green on the left, you can't miss it)

• Several pastors and church leaders from diverse contexts, races, and church sizes (you can see Charles Roesel, who always wears a suit, on the near left-- the other pastors were suit-less!)

And, yes, that is my Mac in the front, right next to former co-facilitator Steve Reid. My Mac is (predictably) open to Twitter, which is where I originally posted this picture.

Let me say how thankful I am that these men and women took the time to come to Atlanta and talk about North America. Why?

Well, I believe that my denomination is at a crucial point: will we recapture the evangelistic passion and missional impulse we have seen in the past? As I have written about over the past several years, if the 50-year membership change trend continues, we will enter a protracted period of decline.

The task NAMB has been given is both big and essential: if our churches are not effective here, none of the other agencies (including the IMB) will have much of a future.

Initially, the members of the group were asked, "What are the big issues we need to address?"

We talked for over an hour about the things that needed to be studied and discussed. As we talked, Rich Carnie wrote them all on a big whiteboard. We wanted to narrow them down to a group of issues we might be able to address.

Here is an actual picture of the board (sorry about the erased section on the top left, but you can still see it all). I snapped a quick picture just as they were erasing it.

Here is the list in text form:
1- Understanding/engaging ethnics

2- Church planting/effectiveness (methodology)

3- Discipleship - fill church with more robust passionate disciples

4- Urbanization/cities

5- Next generation issues

6- See and engage NA as a mission field 

7- NAMB funding issues

8- Partnerships

9- How we do church

10- Prayer/spiritual awakening
 


Tammi Ledbetter, who was part of the committee and also an excellent journalist, sent me the list. Thanks, Tammi.

Note: Although they are in a numbered list, they are not in order of priority. We just put numbers on the list to focus in on ten.

We discussed how to release these items after I mentioned to the members of the task force that we would be doing so. We considered a release from NAMB, but it seemed odd to release something from a dissolved task force. So, after talking it over with the NAMB communications team, we agreed for me to blog about it here.

Tammi suggested, and NAMB communications agreed, that I should try to explain what a few of these mean since they are not self-evident. Keep in mind that these are my descriptions, not those of the entire group, though I think they are reflective of such. But, I just don't feel authorized to speak for a group of people that no longer exists. (Well, the individuals still exist, just not in group form--you know what I mean.) The list is in the picture; my descriptions are my own.

I think that numbers 1-5 seem self-evident, so I'll keep my explanations to the latter five.

6. See and engage NA as a mission field 

Number 6 specifically addresses the issue of the need to think and live in mission-focused ways in North America. There was some discussion about the word mission/missional. Mine and Tammi's notes both say "mission," but what was on the board was "missional." Either way, the point was we need to help our churches see and engage our immediate contexts like we do the rest of the world-- like a mission field. The mission is now "from everywhere and to everywhere."

Now, let me make a personal comment: I think it is encouraging to see the shift in thinking about North America as a mission field. Ten years ago, this was considered controversial. Some of the voices talking about "thinking missiologically" and talking "missional" today were actually opposed to the idea a decade earlier. I'm glad that this idea has now become mainstream, but I will be "gladder" when the idea becomes a mainstream practice.


7. NAMB funding issues

Number 7 addressed issues of funding. The main question here seemed to be: are we directing NAMB funds to the appropriate locations for the best strategy?

We specifically discussed NAMB and the "Cooperative Agreements." Though most of you have never heard of these, it is these agreements that are the basis for the partnerships NAMB has with state conventions. NAMB only works in and through these "Cooperative Agreements." (More info about that in the next point.)


8. Partnerships

Number 8 addressed how partnership works. Why? Well, here is something most people in the denomination do not know: NAMB has the convention assignment for planting churches but does not plant churches. Ever. Anywhere.

Most church planters NAMB helps don't receive checks from NAMB, but NAMB helps out with their paychecks through funds sent to state conventions and to sponsoring churches. More assistance comes from NAMB for outreach and other planting startup costs. And NAMB funds pay church planter strategist missionaries who help multiple church planters in an area. Training, research and other resources are also made available to church planters through NAMB. But it's all done through partnerships that sometimes mask NAMB's involvement by the time money and resources reach the front lines. 

It's an approach that values local churches and local state conventions. You cannot talk about church planting and NAMB without talking about partnerships.

9. How we do church
Number 9 addressed the issue of HOW we do church. There seemed to be several issues at work here as I listened.

First, there was the ecclesiology question: what is a biblical church in our confessional understanding?

Second, there was the missiological question: what is the best way to plant churches that leads to a church planting movement?

Again, a personal comment. NAMB addressed the ecclesiology question years ago and has a statement on ecclesiology. Richard Harris, who is acting interim president at NAMB right now, commissioned the project.

My friend Stan Norman wrote the statement. I had the privilege of being the "editor" and argued with Stan on many occasions (something for which Stan thanked me in his ecclesiology book, so I felt good about our arguments!). I think by always asking, "what is biblical?," not just our tradition, helped shape the document.

10. Prayer/spiritual awakening
Although this was last on the list, it was not last in priority. The group was passionate about the fact that what we really needed was God's people praying for (and receiving) a fresh outpouring.

Conclusion

I emailed the (former) task force about releasing this list and how we might share it with others. I also forwarded the list to Ronnie Floyd, chair of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. I let him know that these were the issues we considered important as we move toward the future.

Again, thanks to the members of this task force. Although we only had one meeting, I believe that our time was not wasted--this can help inform conversations about the future and even some of the research we are doing at present.

Yesterday, we finished up a meeting in Nashville with denominational leaders from over 20 denominations. More than half of the churches planted in the U.S. each year were affiliated with the denominations represented in the room.

You might find my opening words of some interest. In some ways, they relate to comments I made at the Advance09 panel.

It is a bad idea theologically, with bad results historically, for us to partner and jointly plant churches. But, it is a bad stewardship and irresponsible missiology for us not to find ways to learn from each other.

When it comes to church planting, it is not really the same as evangelism. In church planting, we need to plant our own gardens. But, we will consider this an agricultural co-op where we learn to do it better by learning from one another.

So, that is why we are here: to learn and share best practices with other Christian denominational leaders committed to plant churches.

We had a great meeting with much helpful interaction.

Here are the presentations that each of the speakers shared:

Ed Stetzer (LifeWay Research), The State of Church Multiplication and the Causes that Hinder It (no PowerPoint)
Thom Rainer (LifeWay Christian Resources), Twelve Axioms for Leading a Christian Organization
Ron Sylvia (Next Coaching Networks), Church Planting Coaching Networks
Larry McCrary (The Upstream Collective), Creating Church Planting Recruitment Systems for Denominations
Steve Pike (Assemblies of God), Influencing Your Denomination for Church Planting
Bob Harrington (Church Coaching Solutions), Understanding and Harnessing Networks: Part 1, Part 2
Chris Conrad (Wesleyan), Church Planting Assessment (no PowerPoint)

We are also undertaking two research projects with different denominations participating in each. One will focus on urban church planting and the other is on church planting assessment. Drop a comment below if you are interested in being a part of either one.

This meeting is the beginning of our leaders fellowship that will meet three times a year: November 18-19 is the next meeting. This is not an open meeting, but if you are the denominational head of church planting, you can leave a comment here and we will send you a network application. (Feel free to email this page to others who you think might be interested.)

Here is a pic from our first meeting (courtesy of Ron Sylvia).

We look forward to more to come.

I just received my copy of the Assemblies of God Enrichment Journal. It contains what must be the longest article I have ever written. ;-)

I've posted the introduction here. If that interests you, be sure to read the entire article right here and then share your comments at the blog. The Enrichment Journal is always a well done resource and I don't know any other denominational "journal" quite like it.

Introduction

I have always been struck by the first few minutes of the movie Saving Private Ryan.The Americans have landed on the beach. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) sees an opening for the men with protection on the other side. He says, "That's the route." Immediately, he sends six men through the gap and they are brutally killed.

The sergeant, who is more experienced, warns Miller with a stern look, "That's a ... shooting gallery, Captain."

Miller/Hanks responds, "That's the route." Miller commands another group of six -- "Go." They obey and are brutally cut down.

Miller turns to the next six and says, "It's the only way ... you're next." The third group of six loses several but finally breaks through the German lines. It is hard to watch. Many people close their eyes, unable to stomach the harsh realities of combat.

That is what church planting looked like when I started in the late '80s. Planters and their teams, unprepared for the challenges, quickly ran into harvest fields that soon became killing fields. They were excited for the task, but they were not ready to face the realities.

When I came to Buffalo, New York, to plant my first church, eight of us began with great enthusiasm. Now, 20 years later, only one of our churches remains. Four pastors are out of the ministry; three are out of their marriage and faith.

My interest in developing ways to change some of these brutal realities started in a conversation in St. Louis, Missouri. My denomination wanted to stop the carnage, so they brought our church-planting leadership together and asked, "What systems can we create to change the tide?" I was determined to be a part of the solution. I later wrote my Ph.D. dissertation focusing on how church-planter support systems impact church plants.

The past 20 years have produced radical changes in how churches are planted. Success rates are increasing. A 2007 North American Mission Board study assessing multidenominational church-plant survivability rates shows how 99 percent of church plants now survive their first year, 92 percent survive their second year, 81 percent survive their third, and 68 percent survive their fourth. These are encouraging statistics, especially in light of pessimistic reports that "80 percent of church plants fail in the first year."

We are doing many things better and much of this is due to the emergence and development of church-planting systems. This article will explore church-planting systems, their components, and the impact they currently have in church planting. I will address church-planting systems in three ways: who uses them, how effective they are, and what we have learned about them.

The rest of the article is here.