Back in March I blogged about "What You Celebrate You Become." I wrote about meetings I led in Los Angeles, Dallas and Nashville with the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

I said:

At the beginning of the meeting, I was introduced by Bishop Chris Thompson. He mentioned a pin he was wearing. Actually, he asked some of the other denominational leaders, "Where is your pin?" (For the record, my friend Rick Fountain did not have his pin. You are welcome, Rick.) 

Anyway, I was intrigued by the pin comment. You see, in their movement, if you plant a church they celebrate it. And, one way they do that is that those who have planted a church get a pin. And, those who sponsor church plants get a pin (and if you sponsor several church plants, you get a cooler pin!).

That might seem trite, but let me tell you why it is not. In many denominations, when you plant a church you get scorned. I have seen and heard it, particularly in stagnant or declining denominations.

Denominational leaders are suspicious, other pastors are critical, etc. And, the result is that the church planter does not feel welcome.

These pins are a symbol of recognition, welcome, and appreciation. And, most denominations could use more of that when it comes to church planters.

I tell denominational leaders regularly, "What you celebrate, you become." For too many years, my denomination was focused what we were against (though I see that changing). Other denominations did the same. And, it should not surprise us, that when we did not celebrate church planting, we were not strong in church planting. What you celebrate, you become. There are things to be against, but we must be FOR church planting.

On the other hand, the last two decades have been the best decades for the IPHC. There are many reasons, I am sure, but one is perhaps symbolized by a couple of pins: for planters and for those who sponsor them.

Now, I am glad to see others jumping on the idea and learning from others. My friend Tom Cheyney is doing the same in a Baptist context. Go, Tom and Orlando Baptists, go.

I hope your movement is encouraging planters and churches toward planting.

We recently hosted another meeting of the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship here in Nashville.

One of the speakers for the event was Neil Cole. I've written about Neil on the blog in the past as well as in the book 11 Innovations in the Local Church (with Elmer Towns and Warren Bird).

Neil's strategy for church planting is one that runs countercultural to the typical American model-- large start, rented facilities, band, etc. Instead of duplicating Sunday morning worship experiences, Neil advocates the creation of simple, organic house churches that can multiply rapidly. His focus is not on the weekly worship experience as much as it is on daily disciple development.

For Neil, that simplicity boils down to having the right DNA in a "church":

D--Divine Truth
N--Nurturing Relationships
A--Apostolic Mission

This method of church multiplication and church planting has been very successful overseas, but it not as well known (or impactful, I think) here.  I think one of the more likely places that organic churches might take root is in the urban centers of the U.S.

So, I thought it interesting to find former megachurch pastor Francis Chan now engaged in planting such churches.

Many of you know of Francis through his books Crazy Love, Forgotten God, and Erasing Hell or through his BASIC DVD series.

He served as pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, Calif., until just last year. After taking some time off in 2010 and 2011, Francis has landed in San Francisco and is working to start a church planting movement in the inner city through organic communities.

Chan may use different terminology than Neil Cole, but the premise is the same - to bring life-change through small, organic communities that live out the gospel daily with a focus on discipleship rather than large worship gatherings.

You might find interesting a panel I moderated with Chan, Cole, and Dave Gibbons that touches on these issues:

In his book Organic Churches, Cole writes:

Instead of bringing people to church so that we can bring them to Christ, let's bring Christ to people where they live. We may find that a new church will grow out of such an enterprise, a church that is more centered in the life and the workplace, where the gospel is supposed to make a difference...What would it be like if churches emerged organically, like small spiritual families born out of the soil of lostness, because the seed of God's kingdom was planted there? These churches could reproduce just as all living and organic things do...We must take Christ into people's lives, and it must be in the context of relationships.

Relationships matter to God. They matter to people as well. And in a multihousing context where relationships can be easily formed and quickly grown, organic churches sown with gospel seeds and watered through gospel-centered discipleship can produce gospel fruit even in the hardened soil of urban population centers.

Steve Murrell is the senior pastor of Victory Metro in Manila, Philippines; a director of the Real Life Foundation; and the cofounder and president of Every Nation, a worldwide family of churches and ministries. Victory Metro Manila meets in thirteen different locations and has planted churches in forty other Philippine cities and a dozen nations. The Real Life Foundation is a social and educational advocacy organization that exists to serve the poor and improve their lives through educational assistance, character development, and community service. Steve is the author of The Reluctant Leader, and is a regular contributor to Evangelicals Today, a monthly Philippine publication.

His new book, WikiChurch: Making Discipleship Engaging, Empowering, and Viral is out, and I wanted to chat with him about it and what he wants the church to learn from it.

Steve, let's start at the beginning. What is a 'WikiChurch'?

The "wiki" part of Wikipedia is from a Hawaiian word meaning "quick," as Wikipedia's format allows for the quick and widespread dissemination of information online. While it may be an imperfect source, Wikipedia has made information widely available by simply empowering volunteers. However, it did not begin this way. In 2000 Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger started an online encyclopedia called Nupedia whose contributions were written solely by experts. Before an article could be posted, it had to go through an extensive scholarly review process. When Nupedia unplugged its servers in 2003, only twenty-four articles had been posted, with seventy-four still in the review process. In 2001, one year after Nupedia launched, Wales and Sanger started Wikipedia as a feeder system for Nupedia. The idea was to allow non-experts to write articles that the Nupedia scholars would review. By the end of the year, volunteers had submitted more than twenty thousand "wiki" articles. At the time of this writing, contributors from around the world have submitted more than nineteen million Wikipedia articles, and according to an independent survey, most are as accurate as traditional encyclopedia entries. Unfortunately, many churches today function more like Nupedia than Wikipedia. They allow only credentialed professionals to lead evangelism and discipleship efforts while volunteers are expected to show up and pay up but not engage in serious ministry. Imagine if the church functioned more like Wikipedia. Imagine if every believer, not just paid leaders, were empowered to minister. That's a Wiki Church.

In your book, you talk about Victory-Manila, a church you and your wife planted in 1984 which began with 165 university students and has grown to over 52,000 members. Tell us about that journey and what it looked like as you became a "Wikichurch."

Since 1984, all our efforts, all our mistakes, and all our successes have been in pursuit of figuring out how to make disciples. We became a WikiChurch not by bouncing from revival to revival or from strategy to strategy but by making Jesus' last command our first priority. We have found that if we simply focus on making disciples who are equipped and empowered to make other disciples, then health, strength, and growth happen naturally. Though we are still evaluating, refining, and constantly rewriting our discipleship materials, the underlying principles of the disciple-making process at Victory are firmly fixed. For twenty-seven years, we've sought to compassionately engage our communities, intentionally establish biblical foundations, strategically equip believers, and continually empower disciples. Just the same ole boring strokes year after year: engage, establish, equip, and empower.

The church talks a lot about discipleship, but you identify several 'discipleship myths' which hinder the church's call to make disciples. Talk to us about a few and why are they so problematic.

There are a few popular discipleship myths that have been propagated by thousands of well-meaning pastors and professional religious leaders. One is the Myth of Mentoring--that my pastor's job is to minister to me. This myth causes church people to demand that pastors spoon-feed them, care for them, and meet all their spiritual needs. It turns pastors into spiritual superheroes and regular Christians into passive spectators at religious shows. Another myth is the Myth of Maturity--that no one should minister until they are mature. This myth convinces people they don't pray enough, don't know enough Bible verses, and are too young to engage in ministry--leading Christians to believe that only after another discipleship course or leadership seminar or seminary degree would they possibly be mature enough to be used by God. The sum effect of these myths is an ineffective church with overworked ministers, overfed members, and unengaged communities.

You argue that a WikiChurch is a multigenerational church." What has been your greatest challenge in trying to build multigenerational churches?

Every church, denomination, and missionary organization faces the challenge of what to do with the next generation. Many embrace the traditional "pass the baton" analogy where one generation has the baton and runs the race, while the next generation watches and waits for their turn. However, the challenge is learning how to empower and lead together with the next generation--to run the race together. We need to involve emerging leaders now because if we do not empower the next generation, we will lose them. Leading together is difficult because they are not like us--they think differently, problem solve differently, and apply their faith to social needs in new ways. However, I've found that they usually understand and engage their culture much better than I do. Therefore, it is crucial for established leaders to make room at the table for emerging leaders, learning how to make constant adjustments and improvements while maintaining a deep commitment to a common vision.

What should pastors and leaders NOT take away from reading your book?

Do not copy our church. On numerous occasions I have had people from the United States approach me to deliver their happy news--that they are doing small group discipleship in their church exactly the way we do it in the Philippines. Instead of the expected congratulations and a pat on the back, my typical response is, "Why in the world would you do that?" I live in a city of twelve million people. Most of them live in poverty, very few have cars, and the religious and family structures are totally different from that in the West. The world you live in is totally different from Manila. Why would you copy us? Developing your own strategy for making disciples takes time, prayer, and some trial and error--just as it did with us. We can learn from one another, just as the Victory team is continuing to learn from other churches around the world, but only after we contextualize to make sure the strategies make sense in our culture and community.

In your conclusion, you argue that not only should churches make disciples but that they should disciple nations. How do we "disciple nations?"

While it may sound over-simplified, I believe that the inevitable fruit of making disciples is that eventually those disciples will impact their communities and their culture. In the 2004 national election in the Philippines, sixteen Victory members ran for office. Fourteen won. As a result, we have church members who are senators, congressmen, mayors, governors, and city councilors. Their membership at Victory is not the result of an outreach to politicians but rather the result of a discipleship culture which equips and empowers believers to engage culture and make disciples in every sphere of society.

Feel free to interact with Steve in the comments today.

This week, I had the privilege to once again host the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship (CPLF) here in Nashville.

The CPLF exists to help denominational leaders connect around church planting learning and serves as a place for peer learning. We've done this for three years now, and you can also read the recaps from 2010 and 2009.

The CPLF consists of national church planting leaders from denominations, districts, state conventions, adjudicatory levels and church planting network leaders. We meet in August and November for formal meetings, and also connect during an Exponential Conference pre-conference.

All in all, we had more than 120 leaders from 60 different organizations. Some of the groups in attendance included:

• Evangelical Free Church of America
• The Wesleyan Church
• The Anglical Church in North America
• Baptist Missionary Association of America
• International Pentecostal Holiness Church
• Assemblies of God
• Southern Baptist Convention
• Presbyterian Church in America
• PLNTD Network
• Sovereign Grace Ministries
• and many others

One of the great things about the total membership of CPLF is that the groups involved represent approximately 75% of church planting in North America. It is a great place for mutual learning.

We met over two days to cover two main topics--leadership development and the missional, organic, incarnational forms of church planting. We did this through both large groups for plenary sessions and through affinity groups for processing the information taught.

This format gave each participant an opportunity to hear from some leaders like Bob Logan, Hugh Halter, Neil Cole, and Alan Hirsch and then break into groups of their peers to discuss how the content related specifically to their structures and ideologies.

As for the content of the conference, here are some quotes from the speakers (taken from tweets):

Alan Hirsch

• Your budget is a theological statement. It says what you value.
• Worship is offering your world back to God. If it isn't, then you've domesticated God.
• What motivates and stirs God's heart burns on the prophet's heart and gets exhibited in his/her words.

Alan is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the co-founder of shapevine.com an international forum for engaging with world transforming ideas. Alan offers multiple missional assessment tools on his website theforgottenways.com.

Neil Cole

• If you dumb down your teaching, all you'll do is just multiply stupidity.
• We need to stop aspiring to leadership and just start serving people.
• Better trained pulpits isn't the key to preventing heresy, better trained pews is.

Neil is the author of Organic Church and blogs at cole-slaw.blogspot.com and travels around the world sowing the seeds of God's kingdom, catalyzing the development of organic church networks and coaching leaders. 

Bob Logan

• Never say money is your limiting factor, leadership is.
• You don't need any training to be a witness because a witness simply describes what they experienced.
• The job will get done as we start empowering ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

If you'd like to connect with Bob Logan, he blogs daily at his website: www.loganleadership.com. He offers resources for missional incarnational living at both that site and at www.journeytogethernow.com. If you'd like to connect with Bob directly his email is bob@loganleadership.com.

Hugh Halter

• If we're going to do missional anything, we have to live like missionaries.
• You can consider a person a friend, when they will invite you to hang out with their other friends.

If you'd like more info on Hugh Halter or the Missional Church Apprentice Practicum, visit him online at hughhalter.com. Hugh's direct email is hughhalter@gmail.com.

Both Bob and Hugh will be doing a Missio Intensive January 18-19, which you can find out more about at http://www.missio.us/store/missio-intensive.

Any groups interested in joining the CPLF can contact us at research@lifeway.com for an application.

Recently, a friend emailed me a question about church planting I thought I would share. I have edited the content and dropped names and denominations.

Earlier this year the team at Exponential and I issued a report on the Top Issues Church Planters Face. We listened to over 40 national leaders who have over 600 years of cumulative experience working with 100's of planters. Individual planter interviews, online surveys, and volumes of real world experience were included in the discovery process. I did a multi-part blog series on that report that you can read here. You can download the full report here.

The Top Issues we found are:

1. Leadership development and reproducing culture
2. Financial self-sufficiency and viability
3. Team development and volunteer mobilization
4. Systems, processes and cultures
5. Vision casting and avoiding mission drift
6. Evangelism and discipleship
7. Spiritual, physical and mental health of planter and family.

Church planting is a great challenge-- we are living that again at Grace Church and it is never easy. It's normal to experience discouragement, loneliness, frustration, uncertainty, and to even question one's calling during planting.

The results of this research and the difficult realities facing planting families have shaped Exponential's focus for the coming year. The 2012 Exponential Conference Theme of Sifted deals directly with the spiritual, physical and emotional health of the planter and family as key aspect in catalyzing healthy reproducing churches.

This fall, Exponential is also coordinating over 40 One Day Events meeting in various locations across the country that are designed to encourage church planters and their families.

Highlights of the One Day Events are:

• Local Church Based
• 9:00 am to 3:00 pm to avoid overnight travel expenses
• In as many major metropolitan areas as possible to minimize travel expenses for families
• Childcare provided where possible so husband and wife can both attend
• Inexpensive so finances are not an issue ($29 per planting couple - includes lunch!)
• Filled with conversation, connections, interaction and ENCOURAGEMENT for church planting couples
• I appreciate the approach that the Exponential team has taken on these One Day Events. They started with the end in mind asking, "how can we create an environment to encourage church planters and take away as many barriers to participation as possible?" So they removed the barriers, including cost, childcare, overnight travel, etc. There is also great value in having these events on a local church level, as the host churches have struggled through the same issues as the planters and the relationships formed during the one days can continue well after the events.

I encourage planters to attend an "Encouraged One Day Event" near you. See www.onedays.org for more information and a list of cities.

Right now there is great energy toward forming networks for stateside church planting and I applaud those efforts. Denominations have been cooperating like this for a long time. However, now we have church planting networks forming. You would know the names: ARC, Stadia, Acts 29, Vision 360, The Infinity Alliance, Plntd, etc. When churches cooperate together in missional endeavors, I am encouraged. Yet, I am also a little concerned about a missing part of that missional focus.

Since some of those networks that are non-denominational, they often do not have a global "arm" with which to cooperate for international missions. So, it is often easier to just say, "well, we are just planting here." But, I say you are missing out on God's global mission.

So, I am encouraged when I see some groups take initial steps toward global mission engagement. For example, Acts 29 (or Atos 29 in Brazil) has an international focus where they seek to partner and plant churches globally.

In a document used by Acts 29 for international church planting, they explain:

Acts 29 International plants missional, gospel-centered churches that continue to plant more churches and produces disciples for the mission of God in the world. There are no specific methods that Acts 29 endorses, but we are based on clear pastoral/elder qualifications and theological foundations (See Non-Negotiables). Subsequently, we believe that every cultural context determines the proper missional methodology to preach the gospel in their context. So we commit to one another doctrinally, but not methodologically. A29i works with many different denominations and non-denominations.

If you are forming a network, and do not have a denominational international agency with which to connect, don't forget about the nations. Your only engaging in part of the mission of God-- he's on the move through the whole world. God has sent us to the nations, not just our nation.

Here is a photo (for more visit Jay's blog) from our day in Rio with pastors connected to Acts 29 there. Jay Baumann, who cofounded (with Chan Kilgore) an Acts 29 church in Orlando (CrossPointe), moved to Brazil and founded Restore Brazil and is the Acts 29 country leader there. We spent a few days together and I was deeply impressed with his passion and love for Brazil. I am glad that he (and Acts 29) are there.

Next week, I will be meeting with leaders from denominations across North America for the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship. This is a closed meeting (you have to be approved to get the secret handshake) for heads of church planting for denominations and networks.

As always, we will share lots of resources, etc. Part of those resources will be strategic missiology tools. Here is one I plan to share on assessment, with a video for potential church planters at the end of the post.

_________________________

One of the greatest responsibilities of any church planting organization is the evaluation and development of potential church planters. Church planting organizations who take seriously the stewardship of church planters, their families, and church planting resources understand the need for a formal assessment processes for these candidates. When I look at assessment for paid church planters, I see five basic phases: recruitment, initial screening, initial assessment, in-depth screening (theology, character, chemistry), assessment meeting (1-4 hours), and assessment center (3-4 days).

Good assessment is a question of stewardship on several levels:

·The Assessment Process stewards the life and ministry of the planter--helping the planter gain clarity of life and mission. Vocational church planting is not something to embark on without great consideration.

·Initial Screening provides the early conversations to help set and direct the potential planter on the right path.

·Initial Assessment stewards the resources of the organization. If every potential planter has a four-hour interview (or a four-day assessment at a center!), too many resources are poorly expended.

·In-Depth Screening helps your organization go deeper--to be sure that the initial indicators are correct and that there is theological alignment with the organization.

·Assessment Interviews are the first step where a greater amount of time is spent with the candidate--prior steps should have screened some out. At this point, you are looking at screened and eager candidates.

·Assessment Center Experience--this is the final step to be sure that vocational planters have the ministry skills, planting wiring, and interpersonal ability to plant a church.

It is important to note that we are talking about paid church planters with a plan toward vocational ministry. It would be counterproductive to apply all of these to, for example, house church planters; where ordinary people lead small and reproducing churches in their home. In that case, I would leave out the assessment center, but the other steps would, with modification in some cases, be appropriate.

Neil Cole's new book, Journeys to Significance: Charting a Leadership Course from the Life of Paul, is out and aims at helping us understand the Apostle Paul and what he learned on the field as a missionary. This is really a book about the process of leadership development, and it is worth your time if you are leading in any capacity. Neil is the author of numerous books (many of which you have probably read or heard of), and is serving a group of rapidly multiplying organic churches that meet in homes, campuses and places of business all over the world.

Neil was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new book for us on the blog, and will be hanging out with us to answer your questions in the comments section.

Can you describe how this book is different than your other books?

My previous books were all written to do two things, expose some unhealthy patterns in the way the church does ministry and reveal a more organic and healthy manner. These books all focused upon four areas that are part of my mission statement: to reproduce healthy disciples (Search & Rescue, Cultivating a Life for God), leaders (Organic Leadership, TruthQuest), churches (Organic Church and Beyond Church Planting) and movements (Church 3.0).

Journeys to Significance, while also addressing leadership, is written in a narrative form following the life of one of the greatest leaders to shape history-the apostle Paul. It is easy to read because it tells a dramatic story. It is also a leadership book because it draws principles of how God matures a leader from the story.

There are a lot of books written about Paul and leadership, why write another?

I found that in spite of the volumes written on Paul there wasn't a single one that brought to light some of the observations in this book. Most of the books on Paul's life view his missional strategies as being the same approach varied only by circumstance. What I found was that he is a great example to us of a missional leader who is willing to learn and improve with each venture.

I also was able to offer some plausible explanations for some long standing questions regarding the book of Acts, such as: why would Paul and Silas receive a beating in Philippi when they were both Roman citizens? Why did the Holy Spirit forbid Paul and his team from preaching the gospel in Asia on the second journey? There are a lot of simple explanations that make sense within Luke's narrative.

One thing that this book does as well is it gives a solid biblical framework for the expansion of apostolic mission-- and why it works.

What was the process you went through to write this book?

I have this value that I can't write a book on a subject that I haven't experienced myself. This book is about how a leader matures through the various phases of life, so I had to learn the ideas of this book first hand. It literally took me 16 years to write it. There is evidence of this on the internet where you can find early editions of articles or sermons I would give that touch on these ideas. Even my first publication with Bob Logan in 1995 (Raising Leaders for the Harvest) has a fragment of this idea in it. Even though I had these ideas about Paul and the book of Acts, I needed to walk some of the paths of maturation that Paul went though before I could write this book with any authority. Not that I have arrived at maturity mind you. I still hope to have many more years of learning, but I have experienced enough to back up my observations and not sound like a kid who doesn't know what he is talking about. Over the last 16 years, not only did I learn more about how a leader matures, but I also gained experience in mentoring others through various phases of growth and all of that adds substance to the book.

I calculated that I have read Acts at least 100 times in those 16 years as well. I have studied other people's works on Paul and Acts and stand on the broad shoulders of some great scholarship as well.

What is the big idea of the book?

Most see Paul as an expert teacher. I see him first as a great learner, and that is why he is such a great teacher...and missionary. The idea of this book is that God brings all leaders through some similar phases and processes of development, and Paul is no exception. So the main idea of the book is examining how Paul was prepared by God to change the world, and how each time he learned something he got better...as a person and as a leader. He is the one who challenges us to follow him as he follows Christ. Too often people immortalize Paul as a saint who can do no wrong, but when we do this we steal from him one of his greatest qualities-his ability to learn. We learn, along with Paul in this book, how to become a leader whose influence spreads further with each life-lesson until we finish well as he did.

What are some of the missional lessons Paul learned that we may also need to learn?

There isn't the time or space in this venue to explain all of them, but one that is very interesting is how Paul learned to do more by doing less. On his first journeys he did the majority of the evangelism work and left behind weak and immature churches susceptible to error (such as the Galatians). Near the end of his second journey he was instructed by Christ to stay in a place longer and find future leaders in the harvest fields. After this lesson he stayed a year and a half in Corinth and then 3 years in Ephesus. While in Ephesus Luke tells us that every person in all of Asia heard the message. Wow! Paul stayed in one place, did less and less of the actual work, but empowered others to carry the work on where he could not. It meant he stayed in one place longer, but after he left the church was not just viable and indigenous, but had already proven it could do the work without him. They were not dependent upon him. That is a leadership lesson that we definitely need today where so much is done by our leaders while the vast majority of the congregation simply receive and do little. Paul learned to do less so that others could do more.

Be sure and pick up Neil's book, Journeys to Significance. Until then take the opportunity to join the conversation below.

Last week Caleb Crider wrote a guest post on the blog talking about our experience in Turkey and the Church in Ephesus during the Vision Tour with the Upstream Collective. Today, I wanted to talk a little about our experience in Smyrna.

There's really nothing left of the ancient city of Smyrna but a sad, crumbling wall in a city park on a hill overlooking the Turkish metropolis of İzmir. Yet our stop at the second of the 7 churches of the Book of Revelation was spiritually charged.

We had been warned by our tour guide not to expect much of the ruins here. He didn't want us to be disappointed that there wouldn't be any ticket booths, restaurants, or souvenir stands. Of course, we didn't care about that sort of thing. But we could sense that the longer we traveled together, the more anxious our guide became about traveling with a bunch of Christians.

İzmir is the third largest city in Turkey. It's regarded as the country's most progressive and dynamic. You see a lot more women and children out in the streets here, and far fewer veils. In fact, it is this modern mentality that, in just the last couple years, has sparked a backlash against Christianity.

In 2007, two Turkish Christians and one German citizen were attacked, tortured, and brutally murdered in the Christian publishing house where they worked. The assailants organized themselves as ultra-nationalist defenders of an Islamic Turkey.

Since then, Turkish believers across the country have lived under the constant threat of social and political persecution. We met a few such Christ-followers during our vision trip, and it was an honor to hear their stories and fellowship with them.

The persecution of Christians is not new to this land. In fact, the walls of ancient Smyrna were the site of Polycarp's martyrdom at the hands of the Romans in 166 A.D. Legend holds that the elder of the church at Smyrna refused to worship the Roman Emperor and was burned at the stake.

It was there that I taught from Revelation 2:8-11, the passage that addresses the church at Smyrna. In it, Jesus commends the church's faithfulness, but warns them of impending persecution. An ominous forecast of spiritual trials that continue even today.

Dr. Sean Benesh is planting the Ion Community in Vancouver, BC. He leads urthTREK, an outdoor adventure non-proft focusing on lower income and the marginalized. Sean is an adjunct professor teaching in the area of theology of the city, community transformation, and cultural engagement in urban contexts. He also leads the Epoch Centre for Urban Renewal offering classes and lectures on church planting, community transformation, and ministry in urban contexts.

Sean's new book, Metrospiritual: The Geography of Church Planting, is now available and he's on the blog today answering some of my questions, as well as some of yours. Leave your questions or comments below and Sean will be interacting with us throughout the day.

What does Metrospiritual attempt to address?

I wrote the book to address what I believe are overlooked issues in church planting, in particular, the where's and the why's of site selection. How does a church planter decide where to plant a church? What then are the motivating factors in this decision-making process? This all came crashing in on me one day while I served as a church planting strategist in Tucson, Arizona. After a couple of years I noticed one day where most of our church plants were located and where most potential planters wanted to start churches and that was in the suburbs. I didn't have any preconceived ideas or theories at that point. It wasn't even on my radar. I simply then asked, "Why?" and that set the course for research for my dissertation which led to the book.

Continue reading Metrospiritual: An Interview with Sean Benesh.

Thanks to Aubrey Malphurs for coming by yesterday to talk about his new book, The Nuts and Bolts of Church Planting.

On that same note, in January and February of this year I blogged about the "7 Top Issues Church Planters Face" in several posts. That information was the result of partnering with my friend Todd Wilson, Director of Exponential, to do quantitative research alongside some of the better-known church planting practitioners in America. I was happy to hear from so many of you who are benefitting from the research.

Today I am making 2 reports available on the "Top Issues Planters Face" The first we are calling the Long Version. It is a source document of sorts. If you want it all, download the "Long Version."

The second report is the "Short Version," which is an edited compilation of my 9 posts featured here on the blog.

Download the Top Issues Church Planters Face: Long Version Report

Download the Top Issues Church Planters Face: Short Version Report

Dr. Aubrey M. Malphurs is Senior Professor of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary, and the author of several books you should own. Dr. Malphurs is a visionary with a deep desire to influence a new generation of leaders through his classroom, pulpit, consulting, and writing ministries. He is involved in a number of ministries ranging from church planting and growth to leadership development. Currently he is the president of the Malphurs Group and is a trainer and consultant to churches, denominations, and ministry organizations throughout North America and Europe. His newest book, The Nuts and Bolts of Church Planting, is now available and will certainly become a standard for all preparing to plant a church. He was kind enough to answer some questions for the blog.

I've known Aubrey Malphurs for several years. He has been a great influence on me and my ministry. When I heard he had a new book out, I wanted you to know about it... So here is an interview with Aubrey.

I've been working through some idea about researching a city in order to reach a city. You can read part 1, part 2, and part 3 at the links.

In part 2, I introduced a case study of church planting in Baltimore / Washington. This study is an unpublished report on the current state of church planting in the Washington DC and Baltimore Corridor focuses on identifying the church plants and who is planting them.

I found it fascinating and one helpful element to understanding what God is doing in a city.

Here is more from that study. See my comments (and leave yours) at the end.

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Church planting has continued to expand over the last five years.

• 274 churches were identified that have started in the last 5 years
• It is estimated that as many as 70 churches or a quarter of the total of the new churches have not been identified. These churches are usually independent, non-English speaking, small denominations, or house churches, etc...

Last week, I started a new series on city research and analysis. I will be taking several approaches, with examples and case studies along the way. And, feel free to suggest resources in the comments that would be helpful to include.

Part of knowing a city is knowing its churches. I will share more on that later from three separate studies, but knowing a cities church plants generally requires a different approach. Recently, Todd Wilson shared what I think is one of the best studies of its kinds-- looking at church planting in a region.

A week ago today we began a discussion on missiology around the definition of mission. The main essay was written by Chuck Van Engen and included responses from Keith Eitel, Enoch Wan, Darrell Guder, Andreas Köstenberger, and me. It was an amazing conversation, and approximately more than 6000 people watched the dialogue online.

In the last post, Keith Eitel (one of the contributors to MissionSHIFT) weighed in with an article and with more information in the comments. Be sure to read his thoughts (and dialogue about them) here.

On last Monday's post, I received a lot of responses and shared excerpts of some responses in a separate post. A lot more came in after that post, so I'm putting up a few more here. Be sure to read each response in its entirety by following the links back to their own blog posts or comments. These are not all of the interactions, just a few highlights.

Brad Jordan expressed a similar concern to mine. As a conservative evangelical, my views of scripture line up very well with Eitel and Köstenberger, but I am challenged by some of the missiological views written by some of the others. Brad explained:

I find myself in much the same position as Ed, while theologically I fall in line with Eitel and Köstenberger, missiologically I align in many ways with Van Egen and Guder. I fully believe that biblical authority is the basis for all that we do, that without retaining the complete gospel as presented in the scriptures, we are failing those and are as Jesus says of the Pharisees "twice the son of ghenna". At the same time, based on the biblical scriptures I believe that it is imperative to be contextual relevant. We need to be prepared as Paul was at the Archipelagos, to be relevant to them, to personalize the gospel so that in all areas it is clear, biblically based and complete.

This year's FBC Jax Pastor's Conference (Jan. 28-Feb. 1) features a conference within a conference. One specifically designed for church planters. Registration is only $100 and is limited to 150 planters, so you need to register ASAP. You'll hear from a diverse group of men who will address issues of particular importance to planters, and you'll some great books in addition to what everyone else will get for the pastor's conference.

Saturday looks at Leader Planter and leadership issues with a panel featuring Dr. Kevin Ezell, Tullian Tchividjian, and me. My understanding is that we will actually dialogue with the planters present.

Monday will focus in on Pastor Planter and pastoral issues in planting. That panel has Eric Mason, Larry Grays, and Mark Edworthy on it. Mark will actually even get into some international planting talk at the end.

Tuesday looks at Visionary Planter and the way we plan our church plants. That panel is Matt Carter, Mark Dever, and John Worcester.

On top of that the planters will have full access to the Pastors Conference and everything that goes along with it including the 13 books they will get at registration. It really is a great deal for $100! There is even financial assistance available if needed.

Head over to the website to register and for more details

In my last post in this series, I unpacked the leadership development and reproduction issues faced by church planters as reported by our "panel." Todd Wilson, Director of Exponential, his team, and I looked at responses from some of the best-known church planting practitioners in America and the issues flow from their observations. We hoped to discover the top issues in the ministries of planters that work with these leaders.

We discovered that these experts believed that leadership issues were the greatest challenge faced by church planters. Now, let me say that this is not a scientific quantitative survey, but rather an informal qualitative survey, now combined with our (Todd, me, and the Exponential team) advice and input but flowing from their responses and in the contexts of their plants.

Now, I should not have to add this to every post, but since I am about to talk about funded church planting, there is always someone who comes by and says, "But you don't have to do it with money, you could be a house church." Yes, I get that. I'm for that. I write about that probably more than you have (unless you are Neil Cole or Felicity Dale), and I invite others to talk about that.

But, during small church week, I am asked if I'm anti-megachurch. During megachurch week at the blog, people complain that I don't like missional-incarnational communities. Then, I talk about bi-vocational ministry and "clergification" and people ask if I am against paid ministry. You get the point. So, consider this "contemporary church plant week" and thank God for what He is doing in those kinds of churches. And, if you are in a different setting, listen in and learn about a different way to do things than you are. It will be good for you. ;-)

In surveying these leaders, leadership development was the first issue, but finances were a close second in frequency.

In our conversations, the financial issue was a big concern for many planters. We found that money management in the church, and personally for church planters, are ongoing concerns. Internal giving (and the lack thereof) and external fund raising are other concerns. Often these issues are not confronted but avoided, which can lead to all sorts of personal and ecclesial disasters for the planter. And, put on top of all that, for most planters the administrative/financial part of ministry is what they enjoy least.

The financial strains of planting represent one of the most significant challenges for planters. Many planters come from a relatively safe and stable job (including pay) into an entrepreneurial, risk-taking endeavor with an uncertain future. Often planters are thrust into fund-raising for the first time in their lives with little or no training. Many plants take years to become financially self-sufficient, relying on other churches and donors. The journey to financial self-sufficiency often places a heavy burden on the church planting family.

In Viral Churches, Warren Bird and I talked about the need for financial self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is almost always assumed as a goal (and rightly so, from a missiological perspective). For centuries, it has been a missiological axiom that churches should start and get to the point where they support themselves (and, among other things, reproduce themselves). But, as this chart shows, it can take awhile.

The chart shows the percentage of church plants that reported they were self-sufficient at each year mark (assuming they were still in existence, with about 2/3 of those started in year one still existing in year four). (You can see Viral Churches for all the research info.)

So, what are the big considerations? Here are a few based on the interviews and observations. There are several things to consider, but here are five ways to break this down.

1. The BiVo Challenge - The financial realities of planting leads many planters to be bi-vocational. Let me say that I am a big proponent of bi-vocational ministry. But, that is generally not the goal of most church planters (though I think more should consider it, but that is not this project). Employment presents a unique set of challenges for planters and families. For many bi-vocational planters, fulfilling the work for their full-time position becomes the necessary priority-- you need to be a faithful employee. Outreach, ministry, and service, however, are also important and are limited as a result. A fully-funded lead planter is generally assumed to be the goal and most would say that it is best for the church and the planter when possible. I would say it this way: if the plan is to have a full-time pastor, it is best to start with a full-time pastor, if you have a plan and resources to get to full-time status before running out of full-time funds. We have some good statistical evidence that there are some positive outcomes with full-time pastors starting churches using this approach.
2. Tension Over Talking/Teaching About Giving - Tom Nebel and Gary Rohrmayer tagged this one as "Church Planting Landmine #7" in their helpful book, Church Planting Landmines. Often with good intentions, they overreact to the perceptions of lost people. No doubt, money issues need to be handled differently in church. So with those concerns they avoid talking about money at all (which robs people of the giving experience). Conventional wisdom is that people new to church do not give much during the early years. But you have to wonder if one reason they are so slow is because church planters overreact on this issue.
3. Limited Budget Experience - Most planters lack training and experience in budgeting. While many have been involved in preparing a budget for an individual ministry in a previous job (e.g. student ministry, worship ministry, etc), few have been responsible for an entire church budget including the process of turning vision into a financial plan. Some planters become paralyzed and have trouble moving forward while others blindly move forward without a budget. For bi-vocational planters, the budgeting process is often simply allocating salary to their part-time planting work since there are little to no additional funds to be budgeted.
4. Flow of Funds Trap - Related to consideration #3, the lack of experience causes another issue. Planters who raise considerable funds for a large launch face a common trap-- misunderstanding the difference between cash flow forecast (i.e., having the right funds at the right time) versus total cash commitments, which are not limited to a specific schedule. The result is that some planters over commit funds at specific times even though they've raised enough total funds.
5. Personal Financial Impact - Like many who start new initiatives, planters often drain their savings and retirement accounts to pursue their dreams. Putting start-up costs on personal credit cards is also more common than you might believe (and a really bad idea). Not only does this cause incredible stress for the planter and family, but good strategy can be sabotaged. Planters know that the ultimate answer to the financial need is in the harvest. So, launch day is often hurried with an eye toward generating offering to offset personal investments and ministry needs.

"Conclusions and Observations" are coming in the last installment of this series. But for now, key questions about the handling of money, fund-raising, teaching, and offerings should be considered for planters and planting support personnel. Issue #3 for the next post will cover core team building and volunteers.

Do these concerns resonate with you and how you have handled them?

In my interactions with denomination and network leaders, I often come across helpful resources or ministries worth your consideration. Recently, I received some information from the leadership of the Presbyterian Church in America's Mission to North America.

I'm impressed with how the PCA focuses on ministry in North America. When I walked the floor of their recent General Assembly, I saw a strong focus on North American ministry and church planting.

I've become increasingly acquainted with Jim Bland, coordinator of Mission to North America. He spoke at our recent multi-denominational Church Planting Leadership Fellowship and we've been exchanging some emails about their ministry for church planter wives.

The majority of church planting is done by entrepreneurial young men. And, let's face it, when I was younger and planting a church, I was not always the best husband. And, something like Parakaleo would have been a great help and encouragement to my wife (and, I could have used a group to help me BE a better husband, but that is another story).

Parakaleo was started in 2005 as a ministry in the PCA to come alongside the wives of church planters during those intense first years of church planting. Just as a church planter greatly benefits from an ongoing coaching relationship, Parakaleo provides coaching for the wives of church planters who often feel isolated in those early years of a plant-- even in the midst of a thriving church experience.

I remember being contacted about research on church planter wives-- and finding very little out there. You can read the results of their research here.

The Parakaleo resource explains:

Since very little was being done in any denomination or organization to sustain women in church planting 5 years ago, we knew even the smallest step would be a huge leap forward. However, we each knew from experience that support in a stressful and often isolating job wasn't the biggest need. We wanted somehow to unpack the confusion we as women face in ministry.

It's not just learning that the gospel is for Christians and those we are trying to reach, but unpacking why we don't apply that good news to our own lives! It's one thing to believe we are somehow a part of God's greater purpose by joining our husbands in church planting, it's quite another to begin to see how this calling might be fleshed out uniquely for each one of us. It's not only discovering and confessing our idolatries, but also understanding why we are drawn to certain ones in the first place. We unpack our stories of wounding and begin to discover that they are still impacting us today! And then we get to the nitty-gritty: The glory of doing this in the community of our families and the new communities of faith we are building! We delve into stages of community, handling conflict, relational styles, ambiguity, boundaries and the list goes on.

We do this in our retreats, in our local networks, in our group consults, and in our one-on-one coaching. We do this with each person on our staff and each woman we train in leadership. And it's not stopping there. These women are passing on what they learn to their children and others in their churches!

Parakaleo is being asked to launch 23 new locations. Four of those requests are from leaders in other countries-- Mozambique, Cuba, Brazil, and Argentina. But instead of simply sending in new leaders, they plan on training and coaching leaders already in place and in need to start their own networks that will provide ongoing training and coaching.

You can read the December Parakaleo Newsletter here for more information. You can also contact the director, Shari Thomas, after reading the research here.

Also, be sure to check out the interview with Shari Thomas in By Faith magazine. (Even if you are not PCA, By Faith magazine is a great resource also filled with thoughtful articles-- what other denominational magazines has a section on "arts and culture"-- gotta' love Presbyterians. Dick Doster does a great job and the magazine is worth your time.)

Take a look at the resources and then come back here to discuss. Does your network or denomination provide any kind of coaching or support for the spouses of church planters? How great do you believe the need is for this kind of ministry in your context?

In the month of December many church in my denomination take a special offering for international missions called The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. 100% of the contributions goes to mission work on the global mission field. Our family commits to give our largest Christmas gift to this offering each year (since, after all, it seems appropriate to give a gift to Jesus on the holiday around his day of birth).

But, I am guessing that many of you are asking, "What's a Lottie Moon?"

Lottie Moon was a missionary to China in the mid to late 19th century. She was born to wealthy parents, well educated and left a teaching career in America to serve as a missionary in North China in 1873. She shared her finances and food with those in need and eventually died as a result at the age of 73. A friend of mine, Dave Clippard, recently shared a quote from Lottie Moon that I had not come across before. She said,

When the gospel is allowed to grow naturally in China, without forcing processes of development, the "church in the house" is usually its first form of organization. God grant us faith and courage to keep "hands off" and allow this new garden of the Lord's planting to ripen in the rays of the Divine Love, free from human interference!

- Lottie Moon, Pingtu, September 10, 1890

I don't think Lottie Moon is arguing for a House Church model as the end, or goal. I believe she is encouraging the natural development of smaller missional communities experiencing "church in the house" as the natural expression for new local churches. But, I think it is interesting either way... particularly considering how the Chinese church has developed (and the interest in the house church in North America today).

Share your thoughts on the quote in the comments.