Pastor + Author
By pre-ordering my new book, The Discipleship Opportunity: Leading a Great-Commission Church in a Post-Everything World, Vlad was able to submit this question.
If you would like to submit your question on discipleship, evangelism, or preaching that I’ll answer via video, check out my order offer here.
By pre-ordering my new book, The Discipleship Opportunity: Leading a Great-Commission Church in a Post-Everything World, Josh was able to submit this question.
If you would like to submit your question on discipleship, evangelism, or preaching that I’ll answer via video, check out my order offer here.
A few years ago, Ed Stetzer and I co-wrote a resource to catalyze movemental church planting. It’s called “1,000 Churches: How Past Movements Did It—And How Your Church Can, Too.” This is the final chapter.
In order to experience a movement of multiplication and plant 1,000 churches in your lifetime, you need to multiply everything: disciples, leaders, groups, ministries, and churches. Multiplication needs to literally become the core value for your church. It has to be so core that it becomes viral—spreading, infecting, and reproducing everywhere.
From the foundation of a church, success needs to be redefined from addition to multiplication. It requires a fundamental shift of metrics and celebration in the culture of your church. Part of how you do that is by carefully evaluating what you celebrate, what you mourn, and the stories you tell. When those three things in the life of your church tie back to multiplication from the beginning, it will help develop both a tangible culture (in what is measured) and an intangible culture (in what is felt) to drive toward a new way of approaching success.
There are steps we can take now to help increase our church planting passion and capacity. They will help us get there but only as part of a broader movemental focus. For example, churches and denominations can and must:
1. Welcome the Planter
Let’s be transparent. If you are a church planter, just look at yourself in the mirror. You can be a pain at times. You are a maverick and a self-starter, an entrepreneur. You can also be hard to work with. That drive is part of what makes you successful, and that same drive can kill or stagnate your church if left unchecked or unfocused. You had a vision of the way church should be when you planted, and it was obviously “better” than others you experienced. This is the God-given dissatisfaction that leads visionaries to plant churches.
The first principle to move toward viral multiplication is to not be offended when church planters you raise up and send out feel the same about you. When others don’t want to work out of your playbook, it is easy to become offended or cut capable leaders off from the pipeline because of a perceived lack of alignment (for more information about pipeline, see point three below). In these moments, self-awareness and a kingdom mindset are vital to holding fast to multiplication.
Remember that you likely felt the same way when planting your church.
Instead, begin listening to the dreams that God has laid on the heart of capable leaders in your church. Default to openness, and seek to be a leader who equips others for gospel ministry. Part of an equipping leader mentality involves helping budding leaders harness their holy discontent and channel it toward kingdom ministry. Instead of criticizing pre-existing systems, listen to their ideas and celebrate their passion, but be open to critique. Help them redirect it from theory to practical next steps, disciple them toward personal maturity, and guide them toward a wise course of action.
If you want to plant rabbits, you need to learn how to let go and welcome the planter who wants to hunt for carrots in a different way than you have.
2. Start a Network
In order to create movemental energy where you can continually influence daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter churches, starting a network is incredibly effective in aligning multiple churches onto a similar page. It cannot be about power or control; the motivation must be gospel partnership and a transferrable vision. The team must be stronger together than separate. After all, the only way you are going to get to 1,000 churches in your lifetime is if you take a rabbit approach, rather than an elephant one.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and in the same way, it must take a network to raise a movement. As you think about a network, it’s important to remember principle number one: there is a fine balance between alignment with vision and theology versus an openness to a wide-variety of approaches and systems. If your network is too closed, it will never reach viability and be able to multiply because there will not be enough people able to fit into your model. However, if your network is too open, it will be so broad that major theological differences will cause more division among the team than alignment. It requires a fine balance, with much prayer and intention, but creating a network will give you the medium to be able to continually add coals onto and fan the flames of multiplication. More on this later.
Creating a network, for those wondering, does not mean you can’t be a part of a denomination. Actually, smart denominations are encouraging networks, as we explain in the book we co-authored, Planting Missional Churches. Take a look at the two largest evangelical denominations (neither of whom generally likes to be called a “denomination”), the Southern Baptists and the Assemblies of God. They have intra-denominational networks (The SEND Network in the Southern Baptists and The Church Multiplication Network in the Assemblies of God), both of which help church planting nationally and locally.
3. Implement a Leadership Pipeline.
Unless you have a way to develop leaders at every level of your church (volunteers, leaders, coaches, ministry directors, and senior leaders) you will never get to 1,000 churches, let alone reproduce your own church at least once. We’re not talking about leadership placement; we’re talking about leadership development and there’s a difference.
Leadership development versus leadership placement becomes an unseen force that, like driving while the emergency brake is activated, can greatly hinder a church from effective multiplication and movement. With placement, you take an already strong leader and place them in a position or role. And in budding church plants, where a planter is desperate for any help, this is often the easiest, simplest, and quickest way to fill in the gaps.
But it’s near impossible to change that culture as the church begins to grow. Recruitment focuses on the placement of the right leaders in the right positions, and prayer for qualified leaders becomes prominent in staff meetings. Those in the wings who are humble and teachable, yet inexperienced, are left without an opportunity. On the other hand, leadership development looks for the humble and teachable person who has the potential to grow into a leadership role. Metrics are less about experience and more about willingness. Prayer for qualified leaders is more about humble people over experienced professionals. This allows all God’s people, and especially those who are young and passionate for ministry experience, to have an opportunity for growth. Often the most qualified and passionate leaders in a culture of multiplication are the ones that have been raised up from within that culture. It becomes less about adopting someone else’s vision and more about being shaped within and in the vision of your church. When churches crack this development versus placement code, they release the parking brake, shift into first gear, and burn rubber on the multiplication highway.
Over a two-year process, LifeWay Leadership convened 18 leadership experts. These were leaders in the church and outside of it, from different backgrounds, perspectives, and positions. Through a series of meetings, we wrestled through the idea of leadership development and if there were a core set of competencies that leaders shared, regardless of position. As outlined in the book, Leadership Code, 60-70 percent of leadership is transferable from position to position. In other words, up to 70 percent of what makes a leader effective in one organization, role, or position, is transferable to another organization, role, or position. In the course of these meetings, we uncovered over 280 competencies that effective leaders shared. While studying and filtering through this data, we uncovered a pattern. There were six broad categories that stood out as common themes:
These are the six core competencies for any and every leader within your church. Of course there are ministry-specific competencies, like rhythm for a musician or the ability to ask questions for small group leaders. However, regardless of the ministry area that leaders serve in, these six shared core competencies will guide their growth and development.
So, have you implemented a leadership pipeline in your church that develops new leaders and doesn’t simply train those already qualified?
4. Start a Residency Program
This is the bread and butter of a larger reproducing church. A residency program is the pathway to raise up and release your first church planter. Unless your church is churning out church planters left, right, and center, how do you expect to catalyze others to do the same? Training church planters involves more than just training on how to send out a mailer. This must be a sustainable, reproducible, and simple residency that trains in spiritual maturity, practical ministry competencies, and theological knowledge. Church planters need to be generalists, and a residency that is robust enough to give potential planters experience in every area of ministry benefits the church and the planter. You need to model being a church planting church so that all of your daughter churches will do the same, and their daughter churches, and their daughter churches. Through this residency program you will assess, train, fund, and coach your future army of church planters. And if a planter has been raised up within your system and has personally benefited from it, they will become the chief evangelist and the strongest advocate for doing it in their church. Whatever impacts us the most is what we will champion, celebrate, and share.
5. Plant by Multiplication, Not Primarily by Funding, but Care About Funding
You can’t buy your way into a church multiplication movement. If 1,000 churches were for sale, you can bet there would be a firestorm of people vying to buy! You can’t get into this scale of reproduction with money alone. It’s important to remember that money is definitely a factor. After all, networks like Acts 29 and ARC have large churches with big budgets that have funded their operations. So, if you’re going to create and facilitate a national or even a global network to plant 1,000 churches, then you’ll need to put a disproportioned amount of funding in. But, the key factor is having multiplying churches that will support churches, because you will never have enough. There are typically two ways to do this.
Pay It Back: When you send out a church planter with money, you can ask them to give a percentage back into the network’s church planting fund, in order to resource future church plants. We prefer that you ask planters to give back in perpetuity so that they feel like they’re a part of the team, stay connected to the network, and are continuing to resource other church plants, instead of simply paying back a loan.
Pay It Forward: You can also tell planters to pay it forward. In other words, when you give them money, you can ask them to commit to continually giving a percentage of their budget into church planting. This would be something that the leadership of their church would direct and lead, rather than a centrally controlled fund by the network or the mother church.
This keeps churches relationally connected with their church plants and deeply vested in their success. Where the money goes, that’s where the heart goes, too. Churches that directly fund other churches develop a heart connection.
Funding is a sacrifice, especially for a church plant. But the benefit of funding new churches as a budding church is the DNA that it instills. Remember, whatever is measured is accomplished, and whatever narrative is celebrated or mourned shapes the culture. So the sacrifice of money will reap far greater-reaching rewards in shaping a multiplication culture.
6. Be Born Pregnant
Imagine if every church plant you sent out was born pregnant? What if, in every church planting prospectus, church planters outlined their plan for planting their first daughter church? This can be a plan for recruitment, filling the residency in the formation stage, or setting aside resources to draw planters in. The most important factor in this idea is simply having a plan. For example, on the very first Sunday at Grace Church—the church I (Ed) most recently planted—we announced that 100 percent of our very first offering was going to go to our daughter church plant. This is what essentially shaped our DNA from the beginning. And when we planted, that’s what we did. Subsequently, we’ve sent out two of our leaders and elders to plant churches—one in Nashville and one internationally. The seeds at the beginning of a church and a movement determine so much of the outcome.
7. Open More Lanes
In addition to developing a traditional path to assess, train, fund, and coach church planters (your residency program), you need to open other lanes in order to plant 1,000 churches in your lifetime. For example, what’s the path to plant for bi-vocational planters? Your training needs to be adaptable enough for the 20-something-year-old barista steaming drinks for rent money, as well as the 65-year-old retired individual who has his financial freedom, but has received a call from God to plant. It needs to be layered so that a bi-vocational family-man can be trained in the same system as a full-time, newly married resident. Maybe it would take longer, but a graduated, inclusive program will train a wider array of people. What about planting a church among immigrants? Or what about planting house churches outside the edge of town? The training must work in multiple cultures, socioeconomic categories, and geographic locations. In other words, don’t make the mistake of only funding and training one type of church planter. Your default tendency will be to reproduce yourself and your unique style of ministry. This is who will initially be attracted to you. But realize that reproducing yourself alone will not lead you to planting 1,000 churches.
People in your church are going to be nervous. They’re going to say, “Now, wait a second. If we send people out, won’t our church decline?” Statistically, the most likely scenario is that it won’t. Jeff Farmer (researcher and professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary) did a comparison study of 75 churches and found that churches who planted, when controlling for other factors of similar size and passion, actually grew. When you send people out to plant, others will show up and step into leadership roles.
When I (Ed) planted a church in Erie, Pennsylvania, we decided to start two daughter churches. We said we were going to have twins, so we planted two daughter churches on one day with residents. For six months, these residents were on staff where they walked with us and we trained them. We then gave them a three-month transition period where they had a fishing license to anybody in our church. We blessed and encouraged them to approach anyone in the church with a challenge to come and plant with them. At that point, we were running 350–400 in attendance, so when they got about 50–75 people to go with them, it hurt. It was a lot more than we expected.
One whole worship team and a drummer—we had two worship teams—got a vision for church planting and decided to leave. This meant we now had no drummers in our church when they would leave. We said to our church during one of the preview services, “Listen. We’re so excited about what’s happened and how you have rallied around these church plants we’re sending out. But did you notice there’s no drummer today? We had to use a track.”
After the service, one of the members came up to me and said, “You know, I could be the drummer.”
And I said, “That’s awesome, man. But have you ever been a drummer before?”
He said, “Yeah, yeah. I used to tour professionally as a drummer.”
“What?” I was shocked because our previous drummer struggled. I mean we had a drummer all these years and he was painfully bad, but at least we had a drummer. And now this guy, who was a professional drummer, who had played for a couple different famous bands, comes up to me
and tells me this?
“Are you serious?” I asked him, “Why have you never said anything?”
“Well, you know, I just wanted the guy to have a shot who was up there.”
“Dude, you’re killing me.”
This is what happened throughout the church. After we sent out people, others began stepping up to the challenge and taking on leadership responsibilities. So, cast a vision for this and allow God to send people to fill the void!
One of the seven principles of multiplication is to start a network. In order to plant 1,000 churches in your lifetime, this is a must. However, our purpose in this book is not to discuss the nuts and bolts of starting a singular network but to share the need to start a network of networks. This takes the principle of multiplication up from leaders, groups, and churches and into how we think about organizing mass groupings of churches.
Take the NewThing Network for example. They are not simply one of the fasting growing networks out there, but they are a network of networks that have undergone tremendous growth by thinking in terms of multiplication rather than addition. In 2016, they grew from 267 to 1,176 churches in one year. They were able to do this because in that same year, they went from 29 to 50 networks within their larger NewThing Network. While NewThing still maintains a distinct DNA, they have released leadership and multiplied themselves so that each local network is finding, planting, and training planters they know and can be accountable for. NewThing then resources each network around their common vision, values, and strategy.
This network multiplication strategy allows you to open up new lanes to planting, since you’re going to have some networks within yours that are better at training bi-vocational planters, others focused on rural areas, and still others focused on highly dense urban centers. This strategy also gives you the opportunity to think and plant globally. Now before you go and fly to Ulaanbaatar in Outer Mongolia and start planting churches, remember that you need indigenous partners. This is one of the characteristics of a movement!
Since NewThing was able to find indigenous partners in Africa, India, and around the world, they’ve seen explosive growth in their network this past year. However, NewThing didn’t just partner with whoever had a pulse. They made sure that their partners shared the same values and DNA. They then did trips both ways—the NewThing leaders going over to those countries and those indigenous leaders coming over to the United States. After all, the further you are—culturally and socioeconomically—the harder it is going to be to stay on the same page.
When you plant globally, both through indigenous partners and by going to Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPG), you need a sound missiological strategy that produces three-self churches. In this last century, two missiologists, Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson, discovered that when churches thrived long-term on the mission field, they always shared these three-self values: self-governing, self- propagating, and self-supporting.
In a global network, it is vital to ensure that the churches you start always have a plan in place to become self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. Raising up a team of godly leaders to self-govern the church gets it to the place where it is its own church. This is also where a leadership pipeline gets its first provable experience—in raising up a governance body regardless of your specific ecclesiology.
Self-propagating is another key factor in planting globally and should be here as well. In a multiplying culture, churches need to be seeded with the right DNA that motivates them to be a part of planting other churches.
Finally, self-supporting churches are another value that needs to be consistently championed and expressed. Church plants can’t be continuously supported or else you cannot support the next church plant. Most new churches are not going to start that way. However, you need to have a plan to move them toward this, or you will get into a partnership that will feel like a never-ending black hole and it will ultimately prevent you from planting 1,000 churches in your lifetime. Supporting dormant and dependent churches will hinder the vision and keep you from the ultimate goal, so it’s important to clearly define church partnerships with expiration dates for funding, and clear measurable goals for planting churches and raising up leaders. It’s helpful to set up defined partnerships with expiry dates and clear faith outcomes that are relationally driven with quantifiable outcomes that meet the expectation of donor and dependent ministry.
No one in recent history has been able to get to 1,000 churches unless they stayed focused on it for at least 20 years. One hundred years ago, we got there in 10-15 years. But nobody in our lifetime has seen it without a sustained 20-year focus.
When John Wimber with the Vineyard focused on church planting, they experienced astronomic growth. Yet as their focus drifted to other issues, that’s when the momentum began to wane (though they are refocused again today). Most of the Calvary Chapels were planted within the first 20 years of that movement, and now the movement is in transition after Chuck Smith’s death. Now Hope Chapel has been able to extend a little longer as well. But when looking at recent history, it seems to us that you have to pull this direction for at least 20 years.
So, what story are you going to write? What are the next 20 years going to be like for you? Will you start down this road so that you can be a part of a movement that plants 1,000 churches in your lifetime?
We are ready to not just rejoice at movemental Christianity around the world—we want it here. And, we believe it can happen. Yes, it will require change and sacrifice, but what worthwhile thing does not? So, join us. Let’s provoke one another to “love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24) and toward exponential church planting in the form of Church Multiplication Movements.
As you look at your plans, don’t just go to one place—we are at “the end of the earth” now (Acts 1:8). You need to think that way. Recently, I sat down with a church like an investor would with a client, and I encouraged them to have a balanced portfolio. Some of it is hard but can pay great rewards, like an unengaged and unreached people group. Other parts will be easier, but with more than one approach, the 1,000 churches you see planted in a lifetime will change a whole lot of other lives.
As such, we leave you with an investment roadmap for church planting. You won’t be able to do it alone, and you will need partners, networks, denominations, and other mission agencies, but it’s the kind of investment that changes everything.
To get your strategic planning and creative juices flowing, consider this practical roadmap to help you plant 1,000 churches in your lifetime.
1. LOCAL MOVEMENT: 10 CHURCHES
2. REGIONAL MOVEMENT: 100 CHURCHES
3. NATIONAL MOVEMENT: 600 CHURCHES
4. GLOBAL MOVEMENT VIA INDIGENOUS PARTNERSHIPS: 260 CHURCHES
5. GLOBAL MOVEMENT VIA UNENGAGED UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS: 30 CHURCHES
You can download this entire resource as a PDF here 1,000 Churches: How Past Movements Did It—And How Your Church Can, Too.”
A few years ago, Ed Stetzer and I co-wrote a resource to catalyze movemental church planting. It’s called “1,000 Churches: How Past Movements Did It—And How Your Church Can, Too.” Over the next few weeks, I will re-post a chapter at a time. The following is Chapter 3: Movement Characteristics.
In order to start a movement and plant 1,000 churches in your lifetime, you need to think about church planting through the lens of rabbits and elephants. Years ago, I (Ed) remember preaching at a conference where I felt like the odd man out. It was like that song from Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the others…” The conference was on church planting, but it seemed like every speaker had started a church that had grown to at least 5,000 people—and some 25,000.
When it was my turn to preach, I decided to shoot straight and say it like it was. “Now listen. This is probably not what you’re going to experience when you plant a church. When you drove onto this campus, you drove on four lane roads called ‘Purpose Drive’ and ‘Saddleback Parkway.’ When you got out of your car, people greeted you and music was playing in the background. And now look, you’re with 5,000 people in this room. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to deter your faith. I don’t want to be that guy. But I need to be honest with you. This here can actually distract you from what God has called you to do. If you’re not careful, this conference can become ministry pornography for you— an unrealistic depiction of an experience that you’re never going to have, and one that distracts you from the real and amazing thing.”
As long as your goal is to plant a single, solitary elephant church like Saddleback, you’ll never get to 1,000 churches in your lifetime. We need more rabbits, without dismissing the elephants. (The Saddleback “elephant” has planted lots of churches, too.)
Yet, for a movement, we need rapid reproduction, not slow addition. Churches need to be planted and then quickly need to plant other churches. And, yes, they can grow to be elephants, but they need to start with a stronger focus on reproduction, early and often.
Consider this fact. Elephants have the longest gestation period in nature. After getting pregnant, a female elephant will carry her calf inside of her for nearly two full years! It’s almost unheard of for more than one calf to be born at a time. Upon birth, the calf is able to immediately stand up on his or her feet and walk a few steps.
This 260-pound “baby” will feed on his or her mother’s milk for about six months. At that point, the calf will begin transitioning to solid food, while continuing to nurse until age three. This whole cycle won’t start again for the mother until her calf is fully weaned. And for the calf, it will take 15 years before he or she begins his or her own reproductive life.
Let’s now take a look at the reproductive lifecycle of a rabbit. The gestation period for a rabbit is usually a month. At birth, a single female rabbit will typically expect not one, but up to 14 babies per litter. Within minutes after giving birth, it’s possible for a female rabbit to be impregnated again. That means a female rabbit can potentially have one litter per month! And as early as six months into their life, rabbits will begin reproducing.
What a difference! Let’s just take a moment and do the math. If a rabbit has an average of three female babies per litter per month, then at the end of year one, there will be 37 female rabbits (including the mother). If all 37 reproduce at the same rate, then at the end of year two, there will be a total of 1,369 female rabbits (including the original 37). At the end of year three, it jumps to 50,653 and so on and so on.
Compare that to elephants. At the end of year one, there’s only one, as the calf is still in the mother. At the end of year two, there are now two elephants: the mother and the calf. At the end of year three, there are still two. If the female elephant gets impregnated after weaning her calf at the end of year three, then it wouldn’t be until year five that the number of elephants jumps to an astronomically high number—three.
Now, don’t paint us as anti-megachurch here. As I (Ed) write this, I am the interim pastor of the oldest extant megachurch in the Protestant world, Moody Church. It has 3,700 seats and occupies entire city blocks in downtown Chicago. But, I can assure you, Moody Church knows that in its church planting strategy, the goal is not to plant more Moody Churches (though we would not be offended if some ended up that way!).
While there is definitely still a place for lengthy, elephant-like approaches to church planting, if we want to see movements of churches that birth 1,000 each in their lifetime, then we need to “breed like rabbits.”
Take a look at the following lists of movement characteristics and barriers from the perspective of various authors and practitioners. What do you see present in your church? What’s absent? Take note of the differences in what you’re seeing before we present ten characteristics of movemental Christianity as a means of comparison and encouragement.
In the West, if and when we see movements of churches planting 1,000 churches in their lifetime, then we believe the following ten characteristics will be present. Based on our observations, movemental Christianity will have some of these characteristics.
1. Prayer
Prayer will need to be more than a habit or a discipline. It must be a conviction that establishes its priority and be expressed in a consistent rhythm of repentance and renewed faith. Before we see movemental Christianity where we are moving from addition to reproduction, we will have to be fervently praying and asking God to change us first.
2. Intentionality of Multiplication
We will also need to show the intention of being movemental (see the next eight elements). This involves an outward vision instead of inward, raising up others instead of increasing ourselves, and seeking the kingdom of God and not building or protecting our personal kingdom. As of now, I believe our focus is primarily defensive and incremental, not intentional and exponential.
3. Sacrifice
Change will not come without giving something up. No movement will happen until pressure is applied to move the church from the place of being static to a body of believers in action—from addition to reproduction. Just as the body grows muscle and changes with the tension of weights being lifted, so the church will change and grow in the midst of tension. Denominations, individual churches, and believers must pay this sacrifice.
4. Reproducibility
Movements do not occur through large things (big budgets, big plans, big teams). They occur through small units that are readily reproducible. If you want to see a movement, things need to be accessible and reproducible at every level. Accessible means that the average person can understand and participate in the vision without any advanced knowledge or special training. Reproducible means that the concepts are reduced from complexity to simplicity to virally spread. This is a challenge to resist the grandiose in favor of the reproducible.
5. Theological Integrity
Churches wanting to be involved in transformative, movemental Christianity hold firm and passionate positions on biblical views. These views are rooted in something that goes deeper than a charismatic leader or visionary but are planted in firm convictions that flow out of the Bible. This transitions the motivation for movement from the temporary (a leader or a model) to the permanent (the Scriptures). The Baptists and Methodists won the Western Frontier (1795–1810) because they were passionate about their beliefs. The Pentecostals are not de-emphasizing what they believe to win Central America. Movements are found among people with robust beliefs, not generic and downplayed belief systems.
6. Incarnational Ministry
Movemental Christianity recognizes that the gospel is unchanging, but the expressions and results of the gospel will vary from culture to culture. It also recognizes that as the sent people of God we are called to appropriately identify with those to whom we have been sent. The unchanging truth of the gospel needs to translate to the changing language and values of people around us. Within this environment, Christians speak and act in a way that directly addresses the environment in which we live, work, and recreate with the good news of Jesus. All of this means that we must understand both the gospel and culture in order to be a biblically faithful and culturally relevant countercultural movement of God. Movements will look like, and be owned by, ordinary people in ordinary life that are compelled by an extraordinary vision for the world.
7. Empowerment of God’s People
Movements only occur when the disempowered are given the freedom, and then take up the responsibility to lead. In our case, the clergification of the Church has marginalized those God has called—all people. As believers, we are equipped with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, and the Bible calls all Christians a “royal priesthood.” Yet, the disempowerment of church members simultaneously satisfies and disturbs many pastors. Frustration results from not being able to get others to do the work of ministry, but satisfaction comes from being affirmed in doing the work others should be doing. Some pastors want people to shoulder the grunt work of ministry without having much say in leadership or vision, and this disempowers and disillusions qualified leaders to look elsewhere to exercise their gifting and calling. Such codependency and suppression is the death knell of movemental Christianity.
8. Charitability in Appreciating Other Models
Movemental Christianity is messy. Those involved in it make mistakes, overemphasize certain things, and even believe different things than we do. But no one gives his or her life for a bland belief system. It takes a wide net to gather the most fish, and it takes a wide variety of perspectives and ideas to reach a wide portion of culture. A movement of God cannot be contained in a single movement or theological tradition, and no one has it completely figured out. Therefore, movemental Christianity requires charity to maintain our firmly held convictions while rejoicing for and speaking well about those with whom we differ but are being greatly blessed by God.
9. Scalability
Movements often are stifled within smaller communities because of the small-mindedness and lack of preparation of local leaders. When God begins to move and believers allow movemental Christianity to begin to grow, leaders and structures must be able to rapidly reorient and resize to not stifle such movements. In many cases, movements will break out of structures rather than mold within them. More frequently, non-scalable structures (like some training programs or denominational structures) will actually hinder the movement. So, leaders need to plan at the foundational level for movement and growth, building structures that are flexible to a variety of leadership and adaptable to a variety of demographics. These structures become bottlenecks rather than catalysts, so hold them loosely.
10. Holism in Overall Approach
The modern evangelical separation of gospel proclamation and societal transformation is a historical oddity. Jesus spoke directly to the idolatry and hypocrisy in the culture around Him. It takes hard work to turn the dial from theoretical concepts to real-life action, and Christians are notorious for talking more about serving the poor than actually doing it. But movemental Christianity must practice holistic ministry in the way of Jesus to see real, lasting, multiplying success. Current movements and historical awakenings were and are accompanied by societal transformation.
We believe these ten characteristics will be present in the movemental Christianity to come—and have been proven historically to be effective measures where there’s been movement, reproduction, and multiplication.
Next week, we will unpack movemental principles and practices that will help your church move from addition to reproduction—so that you can be a part of planting 1,000 churches in your lifetime and stirring a movement of kingdom multipliers.
A few years ago, Ed Stetzer and I co-wrote a resource to catalyze movemental church planting. It’s called “1,000 Churches: How Past Movements Did It—And How Your Church Can, Too.” Over the next few weeks, I will re-post a chapter at a time. The following is Chapter 2: Why There’s No Church Planting Movement in the West.
It’s unlikely there will be a Church Planting Movement in the West. However, we’re still working toward something that is movemental. Let us explain. Again, there are 34 Western industrialized democracies in the world; countries like the U.S., Germany, Canada, and so forth. Among those Western industrialized democracies there is no such thing as a Church Planting Movement, as defined by David Garrison.
You say, “But Ed and Daniel, I read in David Garrison’s book that there were Church Planting Movements, and he named several of them in North America.” He did. We talked and don’t think he would say that now. Garrison has since revised his claim that there were Church Planting Movements in North America. We (Ed) actually wrote a paper together that became a chapter in Viral Churches, which laid out this reality among majority peoples. Yes, there are hundreds of missionaries who have been influenced by the Church Planting Movement methodology and who are trying to engage majority world peoples in Western industrialized democracies. Yet none of them have been able to see a movement thus far, which is why I think we may be setting an unattainable goal.
Now, don’t misunderstand. God can do it. We are praying for it. We should keep working toward it. But, we also need to know that there are movements that have happened in our lifetimes but not like what we’ve seen (also in our lifetime) in the non-Western world (think Asia, in particular).
There are some Church Planting Movements in Western industrialized, or semi-industrialized, non- democracies. Those movements are in Cuba, where downward government pressure prohibits churches from building buildings, forcing them to meet in homes. Once the homes started multiplying, they got a Church Planting Movement.
Church Planting Movements are also found in Shanghai, which is a non-Western industrialized society. The fact is, Church Planting Movements exist around the world, just not here in the Western industrialized world. Here’s one reason why: anthropology is an evolutionary process that leads to a societal structure. This structure sustains certain expressions and does not sustain others. For example, we live in a post-labor segmented society. In other words, if my car breaks down, then I’m going to go to my mechanic. If I have legal problems, then I’m going to go to my lawyer. If I need accounting help, then I go to my accountant. And if I need religious help, then I go to a religious professional or someone who has written something on that topic.
There are two expectations that now pervade our society: a professionalization expectation and a segmentation one. These expectations undermine the Church Planting Movement methodology that David Garrison has written about and that we desire to see here and around the world.
We are not saying these are all good things, but they are real—and really powerful.
Let’s say you go to an island or valley in Papua New Guinea. There, all the men wake up in the morning and go out to gather durian fruit. Or perhaps some go hunting, while the women stay home and care for the children and the village. Now, let’s say a missionary came and preached the gospel in that village, a revival broke out, and half the village came to know Jesus.
At this point, the missionary translates the Bible into their language, and as the people begin to read their Bible, they see that in 1 Timothy 3 it talks about pastors. So they decide that they need a pastor. Well, who should be their pastor? Since all of them do the same thing, they decide that the godliest person should be their pastor—and they pick the godliest person, a 50-year-old man who they’ve seen transformed by the gospel. Now what happens? What should the godliest person, who is now the pastor, do? It’s simple. He should do what he’s always done: continue to gather durian fruit.
In this model, his vocation hasn’t changed. There really is no way for his vocation to change. There is no pathway for changed vocation in that culture. So this creates a remarkably easy, reproducible leadership pattern where you can then go to the neighboring valley, share the gospel, and empower the godliest person to become the pastor. Then, the other godliest person becomes the missionary and visits the neighboring village and goes and spreads the gospel there. By default, the cultural environment is positioned for movement.
You can go throughout the entire region planting churches without any hindrance because all you need is the gospel, someone who is godly that meets the qualifications for a pastor, and the leading and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It just multiplies from there. There’s no labor segmentation in Papua New Guinea amongst the people who gather durian. Everybody does the same thing. No one has to read or not read. No one has to have education or not have education.
Yet, if you are reading this, you probably live in a world where all that has changed. When people have the economic ability and the religious liberty to do so, they now gather in increasingly larger groups under more professional or gifted leadership. That’s why churches are getting larger, not smaller. Now I know there are all kinds of exceptions, but the exceptions are that: exceptions.
Viral Churches was based on a research project funded through Leadership Network. The sponsor wanted to know what was really going on with church planting in North America. So Dave Travis, who was the CEO at Leadership Network at the time, connected us with one another and I (Ed) was commissioned to figure it out. We read every book and dissertation on church planting in the English language published since 1954. We covered everything. We looked at all denominations. We then took the positive findings that we discovered from that report and wrote Viral Churches to provoke the church to love and good deeds.
In the research, we discovered that we were not able to validate all of the claims to Church Planting Movements in the West. At the time, I (Ed) was actually the missiologist at one of the largest domestic mission agencies in North America.
While I was doing the research, I was told that there was a Church Planting Movement in Colorado. So I got on a plane, went to Colorado, and met with the people in the supposed Church Planting Movement. While talking to them, they said, “Yes, there are some God things that are being done here, but we don’t have a Church Planting Movement. You really have to go to Austin, though. That’s where you’ll definitely see a Church Planting Movement.”
So I went to Austin. When I was there, I met with them and they said, “Things are going really great here, but by no means do we have a Church Planting Movement. You have to check out Rhode Island though. That’s where you’ll definitely see a Church Planting Movement.”
I contacted the people in Rhode Island. And they said the same thing, “There’s no Church Planting Movement going on here, but there is one in Long Beach. You should check them out.” Then I went to Long Beach and they said, “No we’re not a Church Planting Movement yet, but we want to be and we’re trying to be.”
You get the point.
People kept referring to other places with talk of legendary movements.
I felt like I was on the search for the Holy Grail. And perhaps that’s what Church Planting Movements are kind of like. No one has personally seen them, but they know somebody who claims to have seen them, and it’s just a few villages over.
So, we could not find a Church Planting Movement among the majority of peoples within the 34 Western industrialized democracies. And making people run after things they can never achieve can be demoralizing. Now you might say, “Ed and Daniel, God in His sovereignty can make it happen.” Yes, we know that, but we also know that God in His sovereignty works within the cultural containers that are human existence and relationships.
On the other hand, we have seen Church Multiplication Movements in our lifetime. As Warren Bird and I (Ed) described in Viral Churches, these are “a rapid reproduction of churches planting churches, measured by a reproduction rate of 50 percent through the third generation of churches, with new churches having 50 percent new converts.” We’ve seen this multiplication with Calvary Chapel in the late 70s and 80s. We’ve seen this multiplication also with the Vineyard in the 80s and into the 90s. This multiplication has happened with Pentecostalism in seasons in the 1900s. The Baptists and Methodists experienced this as well from 1795 through the early 1800s. But right now, there is no Church Multiplication Movement happening here in the West. We think it’s attainable (since many of us have seen it in our lifetimes), but it’s just not happening at the moment.
If God wants to do a Church Planting Movement in the West and prove the research wrong, we will say to the Lord Jesus Christ, “Amen, and we’re excited!” But until that time, we need to call the Church to move from an addition mindset to a reproduction one so that churches will commit to planting churches that will plant churches that will plant churches to the third generation. We think at the third generation you can call something a movement.
Next week, we’ll unpack the characteristics of movements.