Church Planting

As a little boy, it was the first time I heard my mother laugh; I mean a really hard barrel-roll laugh. Literally I sat at her knee and listened as she read from the Readers Digest:

A little boy was given 2 dimes from mom: “You’ve been a good boy. One dime is to buy an ice cream cone this afternoon; the other is to put in the offering plate at church tomorrow.” As he headed to the ice cream shop he dropped his dimes—one of them rolled through the drainage grate on the sidewalk. He cried out loud, “Sorry God; there goes your dime!”

I’ll never forget her laughter. I guess I remembered it because as a good little boy I could relate! And I’ll never forget learning that day that the church is about money and giving….and about priorities.

The joke’s on us if a new church doesn’t quickly learn this lesson, and that’s nothing to laugh about. To help with this we try to teach our planters a simple formula: BS + CS + CP=SSF.

BS…is Biblical stewardship. There are so many scripture references upon which to build this eternal truth that I couldn’t list them all here. Good sound biblical teaching on stewardship, generosity, sacrifice, and money MUST occur not just at the time of a stewardship campaign…but also sprinkled throughout the year in strategic ways. John Wesley developed a simple guide to sermon topics on this grand topic: Earn all you can—save all you can—give all you can.

CS…is common sense. At Boot Camp our planters are taught to personally thanking individuals for their giving via hand-written notes. This begins when the launch team first starts to meet….these gatherings create the first opportunity to teach biblical stewardship. But use common sense: Don’t guilt people; don’t shame them; be creative & engaging; set an example with your own giving; AND THANK THEM PERSONALLY!

Common sense also realizes the importance of good fiduciary responsibility. Be sure your folks know you are using their money (God’s money) wisely and with absolute integrity; be able to point this out and demonstrate it. For too many people, the church as they have known it (especially from TV preachers) is little more than a money-grabbing machine. So use common sense in sensing their suspicions and fears … and making sure you are living out trust & integrity.

CP… is Conference Policies. Be sure you have and follow clear policies for your new church start in collecting, counting, reporting, and using funds. If you haven’t yet developed policies, feel free to check ours out in the North Texas Conference on this site.

SSF…is Strong, Spiritual Finances. This is not only our very foundation, it is our credibility. Without it, a new church plant is not likely to grow-up. And without the CS and the CP, all too often the BS sounds just like that to potential new church members…bs.

“May the odds be ever in your favor.”

A process of Discipleship does not guarantee making new and effective Disciples for Jesus Christ, but it certainly improves the odds…that, plus an insatiable hunger to reach new people, and to bring them into a life-changing relationship with Jesus. But these aren’t hunger games -- this is serious business and the stakes are eternal, so it needs to be the highest priority for a new church!

That’s why I was glad to sit across the table from Steve Howard. “Being part of a new church changed my life and my wife’s life,” said Steve. “Because that’s not only where we found our faith, but that’s where it grew and made us the people we are today.” “Tell me more,” I prodded.

“Like lots of folks, we started shopping around for churches because something was missing in our lives and we couldn’t quite put our finger on it. So when we started visiting around we went as ‘Middlers’”

“Middler?” I asked.

“Yea…you know: when we arrived we parked in the middle of the parking lot, walked in in the middle of the crowds, sat in the middle of the sanctuary….just trying to blend in.

“We were attending a big church— easy to blend in, so we went a few times. One of those Sundays we heard about a new thing…starting a new church. So my wife and I were curious and decided to check it out.

“And from the first Sunday in an elementary school auditorium we were able to move from ‘blending in to fitting in.’ We didn’t know it at the time, but the pastor was discipling us: we went to a bible study, then soon we were teaching a bible study and attending others…and classes about the gospel, about Jesus, about what it meant to live out our faith. At the same time they were getting us involved in helping on Sundays, serving in ministries during the week, going on mission trips…you know, before we knew it we were all in!”

As Steve spoke, I picked up on the process of discipleship that had changed his life: From ‘blending in’ to ‘fitting in’ to ‘pitching in’ to ‘going all in’. Steve and his wife have been instrumental in helping Creekwood grow into a vibrant worshipping congregation of more than 700 people in a beautiful campus.

New churches are encouraged to find creative metaphors to communicate their discipleship process. When the Congregational Developer in Nebraska, Nita Hinds-Park invited me to work with one of her churches in Lincoln (Horizons UMC,) I loved their use of the metaphor “The River” to portray an exciting and refreshing process of discipleship: Gather at the river (worship) Climb Aboard (get involved) Journey together (growth opportunities) Ride the Rapids (service & mission) Bring Others Along (getting others involved).

To move a first time guest into full commitment and growth, other churches utilize similar metaphors….but it’s all about the same thing: an intentional way to grow in faith and move from blending in to fitting in to going all in!

Jim

Dr. Jim Ozier is the Director of New Church Development and Congregational Transformation for the North Texas Conference. He began his work for the NTC in November 2007, focusing on the area of new church development. Congregational transformation was added to his responsibilities in 2009.

Small wonder that “The Artist” won Best Picture.  It is itself a powerful metaphor of the teaching moment     available to the new church planter during communion and baptism…connecting the ‘new’ to the ‘old’; the  ‘past’ to the ‘future’.

Spoiler Alert:  I’m about to tell the ending of the movie, so if you haven’t seen this amazing, award winning film, go watch it … then come back and read on!

Set in 1927, “The Artist” uses film genius to tell a story about deep change:  The transition from the golden era of silent films … to the new future of ‘talkies’.

The movie’s spectacular opening imagery portrays the relationship between George Valentin, a smiling, beaming, super star of silent films … and young Peppy Miller, the beautiful aspiring actress who idolizes him. She finally wins a part in one of his films and goes on to co-star with him.

But when his producers insist he make a talkie, he rebuffs them and derides the new medium, unable to comprehend that anyone would ever want to watch movies in which actors speak.  Angrily, he refuses and disparages the new technology as a passing fad.

Desperate, he plunges his own fortune into yet another silent film in which he produces and stars. Rejected by audiences, he loses everything.

Meanwhile, his beautiful young co-star easily flows into the talkies and becomes more of a super star than he could have ever dreamt.

He (the old, the struggling, the past) watches in disbelief as she (the young, the new, the future) attracts a huge following.  As adored as she is by the changing world, she is not ‘full of herself’ -- but persists in reaching out to her old friend. She tries delicately to care about him, even to take care of him….creatively trying to bring the one who had mentored her into the new world of talkies.

But to the past he clings.  We watch as his life tumbles from denial, to defeatism, to despair. We silently urge him on—not to despise her success; not to deny her efforts to reach out; not to disdain the future as some hostile plot to abandon the past.

Ahhh... fortunately  it ends redeemed and well!  He finally takes her hand—the past and the future partner-- and together they produce a spell-binding performance!  Blending the old and the new, they create a new version of the age-old tradition of the stage.

The prayer of the ages is for the church to bear witness that the hope of the future is not in abandoning the past, but to build upon it!  Ancient traditions need not fear new expressions.

Sacraments in a new church plant carry such power!  In new settings, with new expressions and within a new context, they provide the teachable moments of future building upon past; of old and new hand in hand to bring about a spell-binding experience for today’s audience; of silent, sacred meaning  --deeper than words -- to engage people with the Living Word.

It isn’t surprising that the most common response I hear when talking to pastors about planting a new church -- about becoming a Mother Church -- is, “We want to someday, but right now we just can’t afford it.”  Which brings to mind that insightful poem by Zig Ziglar:

The bride white of hair stooped over her cane;
Her legs uncertain, needed guiding;
And across the church aisle,
With a big toothless smile,
The groom in a wheelchair came riding.

Who is this elderly couple thus wed?
You’ll find, if you’ve closely explored it,
That this is that rare,
Most conservative pair
That waited till they could afford it.

If we waited until we had no financial worries, the majority of us would never have gotten married or had children…but most of the life-shaping decisions we make are driven by other considerations—like love. Like passion. Like the future. Like a legacy. Like commitment.  There are just some things that are too important to put off.

Starting new churches is one of those.

Looking back over the history of United Methodism, most all of our existing churches were planted by some church at some time that “couldn’t afford it” … If today our churches “wait till they can afford it,” to birth new churches we probably won’t have many new churches.

Now, I’m not trying to get our churches to spend foolishly or rashly.  But I am trying to get more of our existing churches to think seriously about “When is the right time to birth a new church?”

An important part of the answer is “when it is adequately equipped to be successful.”  Equipping not only the planter -- but the prospective mother church -- with the training, tools, and resources it needs to successfully plant an extension campus or daughter church.

In North Texas we have adopted the following steps to properly equip a prospective mother church before it attempts to plant:

1. Recruitment based on nothing less than the passion to reach new mission fields from the heart of the Sr Pastor and local church leadership
2. Assessment and coaching based on the Path1 Readiness360 online tool
3. Specific 1.5 day training on what it takes to be a successful mother church
4. An extensive process where I meet with multiple groups & stakeholders culminating in a ‘resolution to plant’ voted on at a called Church Conference.
5. Resourcing from the Conference to supplement and extend the monetary investment on the part of the mother church

We won’t birth many churches if we don’t raise up mother churches!   But in North Texas we’ve learned the hard way that if we don’t equip the mother church, the results often end up as a ‘smother church’ or a ‘disengaged church’ floundering  in frustration trying to be the parent church it had dreamed of being.

When is the time right for a church to plant a new church?  When it is equipped to be a good parent for the long haul! 

Conversation in almost any United Methodist circle soon moves to the topic of "Fruitfulness."  Certainly a high quality we are looking for as we try to find new planters is someone capable of "bearing fruit." 

It is no wonder that Jesus used the metaphor of fruitfulness.  (excerpted from  “Where There is Fruit, There Are Fruit flies: Dealing With the Problems of Success” by Jim Ozier)

Jesus was big on multiplication, and fruit contains its own seeds of reproduction; he was drawn to diversity, and  while some fruit grows in clusters (grapes), other fruit grows singly (watermelon); some is sweet (cherries) and others bitter (almonds). Jesus loved uniqueness, and some fruit grows high in trees (oranges) while others grow low to the ground in plants (strawberries).

But it's all fruit.  Yet, there is another side to the metaphor of fruit with which the Jesus was also familiar:  Wherever there is fruit -- there are fruit flies!  No matter what kind of fruit, there are little irritating insects that buzz around ripening fruit and lay their larvae right in the good part…soon destroying it.

We want to find planters who will bear fruit—but because with every little bit of fruit, every step of success, there will be fruit flies --We need to find planters who can deal with the problems of success.

Too many church plants plateau too early and often because the planter is not able to deal with the problems of success and fails to build on momentum. It is not enough simply to be skilled, gifted, and talented enough to bear fruit… we want to find planters who have the patience, perseverance, and adaptability to deal with the problems of success.  Those little fruit flies may look like obstinate members, facility challenges, money woes, keeping people on board, etc

So what do I look for when trying to find a planter?

• Someone who not only can build momentum, but that can build on momentum
• Someone who can not only get people into church, but can also get church into people…creating an intentional, internalized culture and community
• Someone who get along well with people, but who can also get along without people…because they have cultivated a strong inner life in solitude and reflection
• Someone who can articulate and clarify values, and who also values clarification of mission, ministry, identity and purpose
• Someone who can bring people in, and who can also send people out…launching them into mission and the mission field
• Someone who can grow into the changing roles of leadership as the church grows, and also embraces the unending role of change agent for growth
• Someone who can create inviting environments in which people can lovingly worship, learn, fellowship, and gather….and can also lovingly invite a community of faith to honor the environment given us by God at Creation.

Wherever there is fruit, the fruit flies will swarm.  Will they divert the planter or motivate her or him?

Jim

Dr. Jim Ozier is the Director of New Church Development and Congregational Transformation for the North Texas Conference. He began his work for the NTC in November 2007, focusing on the area of new church development. Congregational transformation was added to his responsibilities in 2009.

Save the Date - August 27th, 9:00am-1:00pm - Portable Church Delivery and Orientation

Next Saturday, August 27th is an exciting and extremely important day in the life of our church community. On that day two staff persons from Portable Church Industries will arrive from Troy, Michigan to deliver our trailer and the equipment we will use to create our worship and children's environments, our signage, and other key pieces that will transform our elementary school setting into a warm and welcoming space. We will have the Portable Church staff with us on Saturday from 9:00am-1:00pm and they will also be with us for setup and takedown Sunday for our first Preview service. Our members will learn how we will use the equipment and meet others on the team. Breakfast and Lunch will be provided on that day, however because of the nature of the work we will not be providing childcare.Come join us in our celebration!

Three Preview Services - August 28, September 4th, and September 11th.

St. Andrew UMC Frisco members will have three opportunities to worship together before our Launch Sunday on September 18th. These days will give us a chance to practice setting up and taking down our environments before the 18th. We will also have full services with music and preaching. Come for these worship experiences as we build up to the 18th kickoff. Pastor Edlen will continue his "3...2...1...Launch!" Sermon Series with three sermons entitled:

August 28 The Battle for the Beanfield.

September 4 A Walk in the Clouds.

September 11 Gird Up.

The "BIG" Invite, September 18th

The "BIG" Invite is the invitation we would to extend to others and have others extend as well to join us for our Opening Worship Service September 18th (10:00-10:25am Connection Coffee, 10:30-11:30am). We would love for our worship space to be full on the 18th. This can and will happen if we all would simply invite your networks - our friends, our family, our co-workers, and our neighbors to worship that day. On September 18th we'll be starting our first sermon series,"Church: The Ultimate Social Network",and view scripture through the lens and the language of today's most popular social networking sites, linkedin, facebook, twitter, and youtube. I promise you that you will experience amazing music and hear a sermon that will touch your heart. Don't forget - The "BIG" Invite - September 18th, 10:00-10:25am Connection Coffee, 10:30-11:30am Worship Celebration.

National event focuses on how to start, cultivate thriving churches

By SHERON C. PATTERSON

More than 480 United Methodists from across the nation recently gathered in downtown Dallas for the 2011 School of Congregational Development, a national event that takes place in a different city each year.

Jim Ozier coordinated the School for Congregational Development on behalf of NTC.

The Rev. Jim Ozier, director for the Center for New Church Development and Congregational Transformation in the North Texas Conference, coordinated the school. The General Board of Global Ministries, the General Board of Discipleship and Path 1, a new church development ministry, sponsored the event.

Participants came to learn how to vitalize their congregations and got an array of experiences that included workshops and on- site learning opportunities at 12 NTC congregations.

Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe opened the SCD with a challenging sermon, “From Crisis to Christ-Centered,” based on Matthew 4:1-11.

“Things that used to work do not work anymore,” he told participants. “No longer are people flocking to our doors to join our congregations simply because we have a sign outside that says, “Open for business.” The culture has changed and is much more diverse than in previous years. Many of our annual conferences are still trying to do ministry from the top down, with a philosophy that one size fits all.”

“We are in what some would call a crisis situation!” he said.

A crisis can present great opportunity as well as a time of testing, he said.

“The good news is that we are realizing and recognizing that change is all around us,” he said. “We have learned and are learning to live in the wilderness. You see, a crisis situation tests us and helps us get straight our priorities and our real purpose in life. I believe the scriptures give us direction and guidance that can help us go from crisis to a Christ-centered denomination.”

We are reminded in 2 Cor 1:20 that “all the promises of God find their YES! in Jesus Christ.” Paul was the ultimate church planter.  He saw a vision of a “man from Macedonia” calling out, “come over here and help us.”  (Acts 16:9)   And he went.  His steps 2000 years ago began the march of Christianity to expand out of the Near East, into Europe and ultimately into America and the rest the world.

Today, there are millions calling out for us to plant new churches and faith communities.  True, they don’t sign petitions begging us to come to their communities.  Most don’t even email or send an invitation, or ask us to friend them on their Facebook page.  But they call out just the same.

Innovation is the ability to hear their plea, and embrace the creativity and strategic foresight to respond.

It is well to remember that our purpose is not simply starting churches, as though each one started is another notch in our gun. Rather, our purpose is to bring people to a faith relationship with Jesus Christ: new people, more people, more diverse people, younger people, un-churched people.

While starting new churches is the best way to do this… we have to be clear that this is only a method to reach our objective: making new Disciples of  Jesus Christ.

There are other methods, and this is where innovation becomes a valuable asset.  Here in North Texas we face a burdensome challenge: 

• Small country churches meeting in dated facilities.
• ‘Urban sprawl’ is flooding into the surrounding geography.
• New rooftops are springing up by the thousands… commuters who drive into Dallas to work, but want the affordable housing of new developments.
• But hardly any of this new demographic attends the old church.
• How to reach a new demographic without discounting the existing church?

Over the past two years I have worked with three such churches to develop a culture of “mission field over maintenance.”  This year, in consultation with my office (and supplementing salaries from my budget where needed) our Cabinet this year made three ‘strategic appointments’ in which we

1. Sent to each church outstanding NCLI trained pastors, who will attend the August New Church Boot Camp along with key leaders from their respective churches.(Prosper, Celina, and Princeton)
2. Created a “tri-coaching” relationship in which these three form a support/learning group, which includes one coach from Jim Griffith’s network (paid for by the District).
3. At boot camp, in conjunction with their coach, they will develop unique benchmarks to move their church to reach the new populations.  This could include relocation, mothering a satellite campus in a new housing development, or closing and forming a new Elijah congregation to meet the new mission field.

Will it work?  Who knows.  But it may be an innovative way to hear the new man from Macedonia crying out in some growing areas.

I write this at the South Central Jurisdictional Boot Camp at Mt. Sequoya.  Some 40 planters and launch team members gather in rapt attention to every word Jim Griffith speaks. You can see it in their eyes: excitement, future, apprehension, hopes and dreams.

Reminds me of a wedding I conducted a few years back.  Our church had a beautiful amphitheater and the bridal party and all 200 guests assembled their following the ceremony.  Each of us had been given a small flat box with instructions to not open until directed to.  Then, at the highlight moment we all together opened our boxes.

To our surprise, each held a live butterfly!  When our boxes opened, the butterflies escaped and fluttered upward.  Amazingly, as they drifted skyward, they spiraled gathered together creating a spiraling trail upward.

We watched in awe.  They symbolized the soaring aspirations, hopes and dreams of the bridal couple and you could hear an audible: “Ahhhhhhhhhh….”

….Until the butterflies cleared the top of the amphitheater…and caught the attention of the thousand or so Grackles nesting in the nearby Bradford Pear trees.

With a gushing swoop, the birds descended on the Monarch butterflies  and all their blissful symbolism, now directly overhead.

In an instant  the “ahhhhhhh’s”   turned into, “uugghhhhhhh’s”

Do you know how fast “ahhhhhhhh’s” can turn into “uugghhhhhh’s?”   It happens all the time in the New Church world, when reality can devour so many hopes and dreams and possibilities. 

That pastor and launch team and Mother Church and DS’s and Congregational Developers and Bishops …the whole Conference is looking at the possibilities and the future and the hopes and dreams of the new church.  You can hear them gush together at the start, “ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

But it is amazing how quickly the “ahhhhhhhhh’s” can turn to “uuugghhhhhhh’s” when things turn sour.  When the expected people don’t show up; when the money dries up; when the project doesn’t get off the ground; when there are overbearing frustrations and problems.

That’s why a passionate, well trained planter is so important. That’s why a determined and committed Mother Church is so critical. That’s why a coach is so crucial: Reality lurks just out of sight.

The “aahhhhhhhh’s” can turn into “uugghhhhhhh’s” with blazing fast speed at that crucial crossroads when the founding pastor leaves and the 2^nd pastor arrives!  That’s why it is so important that an  assessed, trained, and coached  2^nd Pastor is appointed to follow the founder.

From my own experience and in my work with 2^nd Pastors following founding pastors, I’ve learned that 2^nd Pastors often are anxiety ridden over the prospect of “ahhhhhh” turning to “uugghhhhh.”   We have developed resources and tools to help!  The Path1 goal is not just to plant hundreds of churches, but to grow them to sustainability and vitality, even after the founder moves on and the 2^nd pastor arrives.

The recent, “Bishop’s Call To Action” has caused a stir…which is good because the soupy state of United Methodism needs some stirring up.

Path 1 has been a major spoon used to stir us up over the last decade.  It emerged with the realization that changing culture -- not just things – would be required to create a system-wide apostolic movement of churches starting churches for denominational renewal.  If ‘action’ was to produce ‘traction’ then every practice and assumption about starting churches would have to put on the table.

The “Call To Action” is a noble effort by dedicated leaders, but rightly or wrongly it engenders skepticism born simply of, “Is this just the new soup of the day?”   Lots of action -- not much traction.

For generations we have mobilized incredible resources in multiple pursuits of action.  In light of our steep decline in membership and other measurables, the case can be made that more often than not, we’ve simply fallen into “the activity trap” -- Doing things that satisfy our need for action…but fail to gain real traction.

The “Bishop’s Call to Action” acknowledges the current state of United Methodism, and accordingly targets accountability to show results in the Mission Field. The temptation is to focus too easily on ‘who’ is the problem:  underperforming clergy, disengaged laity, out of touch seminaries, and on and in an endless litany of who is to blame…of who is the cause of the problems.

What if it’s the wrong target?  What if the situation is so complex that it requires a whole different set  of possibilities to be considered?  What if, instead pounding on parts of the system for our decline…that we put the system itself on the table for serious discussion?

 Is this not the time to consider the possibility that the world has changed so drastically, that drastic change to our culture will be required to move us forward. Are we really willing to put everything on the table?    Maybe times have changed in ways that we need to put on the table our way of doing things. 

How about, for example, we truly consider a major cultural shift in the operating procedures of the Church? 

• Re-vision the nature of the Council of Bishops – to consider a system akin to a major, national non-for-profit where active Bishops make up the Board of Directors…and employ a high-powered CEO not only to run the day to day but also to lead in analyzing the challenges before us and making the tough decisions to get us to where we want to be?
• Re-vision the various Boards, Agencies, and other entities of the denomination,  as similar to departments or divisions or subsidiaries found in other corporate structures… all within the portfolio of the CEO?

Would this work?  Who knows?  But the bigger question is would denominational leaders even be willing to seriously consider it –and other systemic changes -- as a culture shift to meet the shifting Mission Field in radically different times?  Isn’t there a sense that for decades we’ve been spinning our wheels?

 It is traction, not action we crave.

We are a complex, mega-corporate entity.  Isn’t it possible that we need to learn from other similar organizations…that we need a strong corporate leader who works under the direction of the Bishops, and frees our Bishops to return to their historic/biblical role?

 What would Bishops do then?  Well…they would Bishop.  They would order the life of the denomination by setting its direction, priorities, and culture.  As a local church grows large we expect the Sr. Pastor to employ some kind of executive officer.  In similar fashion, the Bishops would be freed to focus more on spiritual, apostolic leadership, and less on the business demands of the denomination.  They would invest more time in their respective Annual Conferences, and less to the national expectations of the general church. Most importantly, instead of being swamped by the demands of running a huge, complex, corporate structured beaurocracy…they could do what God has called them to do.

Granted, our current polity and structure does not empower the bishops to "run the church," or its day to day activities.  As scholars reminds us, The COB is actually seen as one among many units where decisions are made and initiatives taken; a  reality that finds root in American Methodism's caution and fear of too much power in one place. 

In Methodism’s prime time, such a conceptual framework may have been adequate.  But these are new times—not only of social chaos, but of organizational, cultural complexity.  “Who’s in charge?” is a fair question.

Will denominational leaders face up to new realities that may well require a clear source of leadership to guide change? Would that really be on the same table as, for example, holding clergy accountable for fruitfulness in the local church?

I applaud the COB for initiating a ‘set aside’ bishop to serve some of the functions of a CEO, and for the initiation of some kind of an operations team.   As useful as these may be, questions will persist as to their authority and their ability to hold the denomination accountable…whether we are just tinkering with the system, instead of changing it.

Soup’s on!  Let’s at least be willing to taste the future in new ways!