The Opposite Plant

It seems like it’s all the rave for young pastors to plant churches. And why not? It’s an exciting process, and perhaps God will soon call me to join my friends in the great work.

In all this time, I’ve had a chance to think a little about how I would “do things” if I were starting a church. One idea I had was to start a church that did everything completely opposite of what conventional planting methods seem to be. These might be really stupid, but at least they’re fun to think about!

1) No gimmicks. That’s not a great word to use, and I am by NO MEANS calling what other church plants are doing gimmicky. However, what if there wasn’t any eye-catching advertising, or crazy things in the newspaper to freak people out. And since I hate doing this (and can’t stand it when other religions/christians/girl scouts do it to me), I would not do door-to-door. I shiver just thinking about having that awkward conversation as somebody’s trying to have dinner!

Strictly relational – going out of your way to befriend new people and firmly establishing a “third place.” Not being afraid of controversial issues, but not going out of your way to highlight them or create a mass media frenzy. I dunno, I’m starting to feel like I’m ragging on advertising and I’m not – just putting out ideas of a total opposite approach.

2) Raising the bar on commitment/discipleship. I must be honest, I’m stealing this from Alan Hirsch (The Forgotten Ways) and from Eric Bryant and Mosaic Church. Making it hard to become a “member” – or actually doing away with the word membership altogether! Instead of being a glorified country club for Christians, making it something that people know when they join that they are putting their hand to the plow.

This might also mean doing away with the whole “seeker sensitive” Gospel message. I will never forget hearing Hirsch at a conference say, “Who are we to pick and choose from the message of Christ?” Do we have a right to talk about “living water” and “many, many rooms” while neglecting crappy ideas about “not having a place to lay your head” and persecution?

What about roles – understanding who has authority, who doesn’t, and who needs to shut up and serve? This is kind of harsh, but why is it that there are so many people who are proud about not being afraid to “stand up and let their voice be heard” as opposed to those who are eager to follow the authority that God has placed over them? Why can’t leaders lead? Maybe raising the bar on discipleship/commitment would help with this?

I will forever be haunted by a question asked by one of the young men in a church I was at, when approached about being a deacon. He said something to the effect of, “I don’t see what a deacon does that I don’t already do, why should I waste my time on yet another pointless meeting?”

3) A stronger focus on service rather than the gathering. The demoting of emphasis on gathering I took from Dr. Allan Karr, but I think there is something to it. Granted, I would probably never do away with this because I love having a rocking worship service, I really do. But perhaps instead of trying so hard to put forth the greatest show in town, maybe churches should try to help the greatest amount of people in town.

Perhaps this method would be much more effective than trying to lure young people to church with a show. I think my generation is one that craves action – it is sick of all the talk and more interested in getting their hands dirty. Why not help people, Christian or not, serve others? As you serve together, perhaps there is a greater opportunity to really let the light of Christ shine through us to those who don’t know Him, “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

4) In the same avenue of serving, maybe the way to see a lot of people come to know Christ and join a church’s movement is to leave the many to find the few. This sounds crazy, since everybody wants to grow their church (c’mon, it’s reality and it’s okay).

Here’s a way of looking at it. Pastors end up spending so much of their time trying to satisfy OTHER CHRISTIANS – putting up with quarrels in the church, sitting down with people who aren’t happy about the “vision” of the church or feel like they’re not “getting fed.” Total b.s. stuff.

I get so sick of it that I constantly think about getting away from the “churchey” type and spending time with the fringe of society. In fact, I have never EVER felt more like I was doing something that was right up the alley of where God’s heart is than when I was a summer missionary for Caring Ministries. The book of James had it right: true religion really is helping orphans and widows, and keeping oneself from being polluted by the world (which I think is actually what’s going on when churches get focused on meetings and taking care of “me me me” – pure worldliness me-centricism).

So maybe instead of spending so much office time, writing neat little newsletter articles that nobody seems to read, and having meeting after meeting where people can tell you what they want, maybe it’s more beneficial to make the streets one’s office. Or maybe the local food bank, or Caring Ministries, or the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Maybe instead of trying so hard to make sure the well-to-do Christians in our churches don’t get mad at us, or instead of trying to get the cool people in Tucson to be really impressed with the sweetest technological advances our church spent thousands of dollars on to grow our church into a nice, safe suburban loft, we should go hang out with the “dirty” people.

I wonder if more of them would actually be willing to come to the party.

I wonder if I will ever man up and go find them, to join God’s “Search and Rescue” (nice tie-in, don’t ya think?)