ARE CHURCH PLANTER ASSESSMENTS NEEDED?

In our modern age of sophistication the church has not gone unaffected! Much of the modernization of the contemporary church is a positive thing that has helped the church become more effective in accomplishing its mission.  A perfect case in point is the fact that I am sitting in my living room, using a lap top computer, writing a blog that can be shared over the internet to encourage and stimulate God's people to be more intentional and effective in pursuing Christ's mission.  However, not all modernization and sophistication is beneficial to the church and in some cases could be down right a hindrance.

In the area of church planting one sophistication that has been almost universally adopted by every major denomination and church planting groups in North America is the practice of performing Church Planters Assessments.  A church planting assessment is a process to determine if a potential church planter has what it takes to successfully plant a new church.  It is a screening process to sort through people and separate those who have a good chance for success from those who have little chance of success for starting a new church.  The rationale for this practice is to be A GOOD STEWARD of the resources that will be invested in a potential church planter.  Knowing that financial resources are limited the need for greater success in a church being started is important and thereby the need to assess the church planter.  No one would disagree with the importance of being a GOOD STEWARD.  I surely would never disagree with that principle.  BUT IS THE MODERN DAY CHURCH PLANTING ASSESSMENT PROCESS HELPING OR HINDERING A CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENT TAKE PLACE IN NORTH AMERICA? 

Before we can adequately answer that question we need to understand the kind of churches that we are looking for church planters to start here in North America.  That church is what I call The Corporate American Church.  It is a highly sophisticated church that offers a plethora of ministries, times and staff.  It is a church that has buildings, budgets and boards to manage and expand.  It is a church that is innovative, creative and adaptable to an ever changing culture.  This kind of church demands a church planter to be highly entrepreneurial, visionary and able to motivate a highly competent staff.  With this understanding of church and the kind of church planter needed to pull it off it is perfectly understandable why such a sophisticated church planter assessment would be advocated.  However, with the number of churches that are needed and the rate these church need to reproduce for a Church Planting Movement to take place there are not enough potential church planters available with the leadership skill level to create this church planting movement.  So it really doesn't matter how effective we become in assessing the potential of church planters to start these kind of churches, it will never produce a church planters movement for lack of available leadership. 

I suggest that instead of emphasizing the enlistment of people who need to have such high leadership skill level to start churches we enlist and train ordinary people who already have a job and don't need financial support to start churches that aren't so sophisticated.  IS IT POSSIBLE FOR GOD TO USE ORDINARY PEOPLE TO DO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS LIKE START A CHURCH?  Let's take a look at a couple of Bible verse to answer that question:

"The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures.  They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus."  Acts 4:13 NLT

Peter and John, two of the Apostles of Jesus and two of the authors of the New Testament were acturately described as ORDINARY WITH NO SPECIAL TRAINING IN SCRIPTURE.  As we read the book of Acts we can see what God was clearly able to accomplish through these two ordinary men.  The one qualification that these two men did have was that they had been with Jesus.

"... The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  Elijah was a man just like us.  He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and half years.  Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops."  James 5:17,18 (NIV)

Did you pick up on the description given to one of the most famous prophets of all times?  Elijah was a man just like us!  WOW!  The great Elijah who challenged the Prophets of Baal was a man just like us!  He wasn't anything special that an ordinary person couldn't become under the power of God. The one qualification that we do see here was that he was a Powerful Prayer Warrior.

Now if you take these two qualifications of having spent time with Jesus and a strong powerful prayer life and add to them the qualifications found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 you will quickly see that there is a far bigger pool of potential church planters available to us to raise up, train up and unleash into the church planting fields than what we are currently looking for through our modern day and sophisticated church planters assessment.

So are church planter assessments needed?  I would say, "YES" but not the kind we are presently using.  For the most part the modern day assessments only look for those people who are able to start The Corporate American Church and for the most part sorts out those who are only able to manage their own household well.  The assessments we need to employ are those that measure the spiritual maturity of a believer and whether he manages his own household well.  And if they meet that criteria train them on how to start a basic church family and unleash them to do it.  Don't pay them a salary but provide them some resources to do evangelism and allow that new church grow and develop as God's grace allows it to.

A Paradigm Shift On Church Planting Movements In North America

In North America churches are being started way to slow for it to turn into a movement.  The rate in which churches need to be started need to grow exponentially in North America if we are going to see a true church planting movement take place.  In order for that to happen North American church planters and denominational leaders need to experience a church planting paradigm shift.

Over  the past several years there has been a lot of emphasis and expectations on starting churches that will grow into a mega church status with the ever expanding buildings, budgets and butts.  Those kinds of results have come to represent health and vitality of a church.  And it seems that everyone from seminary professors, to denominational leaders and even church planters have bought into that kind of view.  But with the limited time and resources available to us is that approach the best one for the North American church to follow?  Will that approach bring about the desired Church Planting Movement that we all feel is necessary to fulfill the mission of reaching North America for Christ?  I think not! And I feel it is time for a paradigm shift to take place on what is a healthy church and what is an effective church from a missional standpoint. 

Imagine and compare with me a church planter working hard and using lots of resources, both financial and physical, to start a church that will be averaging 3,000 people within a 10 year period.  At the end of 10 years this church has a large building complex, a large budget, multiple ministries, and multiple ministerial and support staff.  From all appearances this looks like a strong, vibrant and healthy church. And maybe it is! But has its stewardship of time been used wisely when it comes to fulfilling the Great Commission?  Or could those 10 years been used differently that would have had a greater impact on the number of lives that have been reached for Christ?

Now imagine with me a different church planter starting a church that will only average 50 people each Sunday.  In addition to starting this church the church planter also invests a large portion of his time training and mentor a future church planter who will go and start a new church the following year.  In addition to being trained in church planting this future church planter is also trained on how to mentor future church planters who will be able to teach other future church planters also.  Imagine this cycle continuing for the full 10 years.  What would happen during that same 10 year period if each new church planter annually trained a new church planter, that annually trained a new church planter and so on?  After 10 years the result would be 1,023 churches, averaging 50 people each, for a total of 102,300 people in attendance weekly.

WOW!  3,000 people in 10 years or 102,300 people in 10 years!  What approach do you think is a better stewardship of our time?  It's not hard to figure out!  So I have this question: Who are you mentoring to start a new church next year?  I'm working with Manny Acosta, last year we sent out Ed Villareal who started HIS HOUSE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP and a few years back I mentor Larry Munguia who planted THE SOBER PROJECT of Tucson, AZ.  How about you?

Come on church let's make the shift and spend more time and energy raising up, training up and unleashing ordinary people into the church planting fields.  North America is depending on us to be wise stewards!

Getting The Power To Pursue Christ's Mission

This past week our church experienced a much needed time of extended and extensive time of prayer.  We started out on a Sunday night and had what we called a "Solemn Assembly".  This was a time of Confession of Sin and Consecration of our lives to God.  Then from Monday through Friday we had a three a day prayer meeting.  People could come at 6:00 a.m., 12:00 noon and 6:30 p.m.  On Saturday we held a 24 Hour Prayer Vigil starting from 9 a.m. Saturday til 9 a.m. Sunday.  We were praying for God to fill us with his Holy Spirit and to provide us with his power and presence.

It was amazing time!  The church really came together and as the week moved on the church noticed something about themselves.  We noticed that as we began to drink of the Living Water of God's Spirit we realized how thirsty we really had become.  Without even knowing it our church had become Spiritually Dehydrated and while we were still functioning we were not functioning effectively.  By the end of the week we God's Spirit was overflowing through us and all of the different functions of the church were flowing quite naturally.  One of those functions that we have seen a noticeable improvement was in the area of being a witness of Christ.

Acts 1:8 says, "And when the Holy Spirit comes you will receive power to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the to uttermost parts of the world."  A clear benefit of experiencing the Filling of the Holy Spirit is the power to be an effective witness.  It was on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them and 3000 people were saved and baptized.  Now that's what I call pretty powerful.  The Holy Spirit came as the disciples were in the upper room praying and waiting.  A very dear old pastoral mentor of mine, Dr. C.B. Hogue used to say,

"When the prayers go up the power comes down.  When the power comes down the church goes out.  When the church goes out the people get saved.  When the people get saved the saints give praise. And as the saints give praise the prayers go up."

How true that was for us at Valley Baptist Church.  As we prayed God began to open up opportunities for us to share our faith to others who needed to hear.  One of our church members, Henry, receive a clear word from the Lord to go visit a fellow worker of his who was in the county jail for attempted murder.  Another one of our church members while having a prayer time at the beach got an opportunity to share a word of testimony with a person who approached him.  One thing is for certain when God's people pray God provides power to share your faith.

How is your prayer life?  How much time do you spend in the presence of our Lord and Savior?  I have been challenged by a guy in the Old Testament named Daniel who had a daily practice of praying three times a day, every day.  What would happen in the church of North America if every person who claims to be a follower of Christ had that kind of prayer life?  How about if only half had that kind of prayer life?  I know lots and lots of power.  COME ON CHURCH LET'S GET ON OUR KNEES AND PRAYER.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHURCHES PRAY Part 1: They Experience Revival

An Essential Key To Unlocking A Church Planting Movement in North America

In searching for the keys to unlocking a Church Planting Movement here in North America I believe that the Lord has shown me at least one of those keys. While looking at scripture, especially the book of Acts, and at church history, especially my own denomination the Southern Baptist Convention, and in the contemporary Church Planting Movement happening all over the planet again and again I notice an important key to seeing the Kingdom of God spread and new churches rapidly being started and established. This IMPORTANT KEY is ordinary followers of Christ being raised up, trained up and unleash to establish new communities of faith (i.e. churches).

Not the paid professionals, not the highly educated, not those who have the religious pedigree but ordinary, common, and many times over looked, people who love Jesus with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. In the book of Acts we do see the Apostles starting churches. That's what Paul did. But the Apostles didn't start nearly the number of churches that were established in those early years. For instance, who started the church in Damascus? It wasn't Paul because he wasn't even a believer yet but would come into a living encounter with Christ on the road leading to Damascus that would transform him from a Christian killer to fully devoted follower of Christ. It wasn't the other apostles. The scripture tells us that when the persecution started the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. So who started that church? I think it is pretty clear that it was those disciples who fled Jerusalem because of the persecution to Damascus and as they came they bore witness to Christ's death, burial and resurrection and to as many as believed those ordinary followers of Christ taught them what they had learned from the apostles while in Jerusalem. Again, let's consider the church in Rome. Who started it? Again, not Paul. When Paul writes the Roman letter he makes it clear that even though he has not yet come to them it has been his desire to come to them share with them his gift. So who started it? We don't know for sure. Quite possibly it was some people who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached and 3,000 people were baptized. Having received salvation and basic instruction in the faith from the apostles they then returned home and shared with others in Rome. Here's what is clear. Most of the church plants were started not from the professionals but by the ordinary followers of Christ.

In my own denomination Southern Baptist experienced its greatest growth as farmers and ranchers began to move out west to start a new life. As these ordinary people, who were also devout followers of Christ, moved out west they were confronted with a stark reality. That reality was that there were no Baptist churches out west. One of the long time flagship churches among Southern Baptist has been First Baptist Church of Dallas Texas and according to Wikipedia,

"Dallas was a wild and reckless frontier town in the 1800s; no Baptist church existed in downtown because they were repeatedly being run out of town. When W.L. Williams and his wife, Lucinda, moved to Dallas and
saw no Baptist church, they were moved with determination and a call
from God. Along with nine others, they met in the Masonic Lodge at
Lamar and Ross on July 30, 1868, and First Baptist Dallas was born."

Notice that it was a husband and wife, ordinary folks who loved Jesus, that started what later became a highly influential and powerful church for God's kingdom. All over the Southern Baptist Convention, during that time, churches were established by farmers, ranchers, and other ordinary, non-seminary trained folks who felt what W.L. and Lucinda felt, a call from God and determination to start a new church. They knew the Lord through saving grace, they had read, studied and meditated on the Bible and could share what they learned with others who didn't know as much.

In our contemporary age there is a church planting movement happening all over the world, accept North America. As missionaries and missiologist have studied these rapidly reproducing churches one common factor keeps coming up again and again and that is it is fueled and driven by non-professional followers of Christ. Ordinary people who have a personal relationship with Christ determined and called by God to reach new people and gather them into newly formed communities of faith (churches) are the ones driving these movements all over the world.

So what does this teach us about one of the essential keys to experiencing a Church Planting Movement here in North America? Just this: OUR FOCUS MUST BE IN RAISING UP, TRAINING UP AND UNLEASHING ORDINARY FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST INTO THE CHURCH PLANTING FIELDS.

While I do believe there is a place for those who are in professional vocational ministry I do not believe raising them up should be anywhere close to our primary focus. Our attention, focus and emphasis in training church planters should be on those ordinary believers who will work at a secular job during the day and go and work the church planting field at night. Our discipleship process should focus on moving people from being SEEKERS to FULLY DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST WHO START NEW CHURCHES. Everyone member a missionary who starts churches should be our theme. Methods for training in Church Planting should be developed with the non-professional church planter in mind.

Now while some of these ordinary and non-professional church planters maybe sitting in some of our pews today I would venture to say that most will come out of the harvest. Why? Why won't most of the church members sitting in our pews heed the call to become church planters? Simple because that is not what they bought into. This way of Christian living is so far off their radar that most will not be able to tune into the right frequency to make it become a reality. However, I pray that I am wrong about this but I don't believe I am to far off from the truth.

Attention all Pastors, Directors of Mission, Denominational Leaders and Church Planting Strategists it is time for us to put our full attention and devotion into:

RAISING UP, TRAINING UP AND UNLEASHING ORDINARY FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST AS
CHURCH PLANTERS!

Stop making it small side issue! Start making it the major issue and emphasis.

A Lack of Resources For A Church Planting Movement In North America

Peter Wagner in his book CHURCH PLANTING FOR A GREATER HARVEST said that Church Planting is the single best evangelism strategy available to us. More people come to faith in Christ and grow in their faith through the planting of new churches than any other means. Armed with that information denominations and churches have made an intentional priority for new churches to get started. The North American church has become very sophisticated and professional in their church planting endeavors. Seminaries offer not only church planting classes but majors in church planting. Denominations require church planting assessments before potential church planters can be funded. Denominational leaders require church planters to attend church planting camps and/or training seminars to make sure that their is a viable strategy in place. With all this sophistication one would think that North America would be in the middle of one of the fastest growing church planting movements in the world. However, that is just not the case. Instead of a church planting movement that is over taking the general population of North America the North American church is in decline with the largest growing religious identification group being: 'NO RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE AT ALL". While the Christian church has declined the No Religious Preference Group has nearly doubled. Why? Why hasn't a CPM taken place in North America?

The answer to that question is simply this: THERE IS NOT ENOUGH RESOURCES TO START THE KIND OF CHURCH WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO START over the past 30 years. There's not enough FINANCIAL RESOURCES and not enough PERSONNEL RESOURCES. The kind of churches we've been trying to start with a full time paid pastor, in many cases staff, buildings, worship equipment, Bible study material etc... cost a whole lot of money. As a matter of fact it cost more money than we have available if we are to start the number of churches needed to impact North America. THERE'S JUST NOT ENOUGH MONEY!!

The second resource that we don't have enough of is PERSONNEL. To start the kind of churches we've been trying to start requires leadership that is skilled in administration, counseling, business, personnel and the list goes on. I jokingly but also seriously say, "That in order to be a church planter in North America you better have a Masters in Business Administration." And actually that's not very far from reality. But the sad part is that there's not enough people with that skill set to be church planters for us to start the number of churches needed in North America.

So what's the solution? The solution is to stop putting such an emphasis on starting Corporate Style Churches and start putting the major emphasis on RAISING UP, TRAINING UP and UNLEASHING ORDINARY PEOPLE AS CHURCH PLANTERS. North America is sick and tired of Organized Religion! Instead of these Corporate Churches with their big financial budgets and CEO leaders we need to start churches that resemble more of a family unit and led by spiritual parents. This kind of church won't don't cost much at all to start. There would be no need to pay salaries the church planters would have secular jobs and the money that is brought in can be used for evangelism and ministry. A few of these ordinary people may be sitting in the pews of our churches but most of them will be raised up from the harvest.

If the North American Church is going to be serious about reaching our mission field and seeing a church planting movement then we must become serious about developing this new church structure and using all of the people of God to start them.

Why Is Spiritual Light So Dim In North America?

As part of the Sermon On The Mount Jesus shared these words that give us an important insight into pursuing the mission Christ has given us. He said,

"You are the light of world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

It's not hard to understand the point that Jesus is making from this imagery. The primary purpose of light is to illuminate an area and thereby dispel the darkness so that people are able to clearly see. At the very heart of our mission is for us to be those luminaries by which people can see clearly. Our lives are to be such a powerful force of light that people are able to clearly see Jesus and understand the gospel of Christ. It is God's responsibility, through the Holy Spirit, to convict people of their sin and draw people to Christ but it is the job of Christ's followers to the light that illuminates in the spiritual darkness.

But if the pollsters are correct the Christian luminaries of North America are doing a pretty horrible job. All reports indicate that the Christian faith is in decline and that the fastest growing religious group is those people who claim "NO RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION" at all. That group has more than doubled between surveys and is the third largest group overall. If present trends continue this group could easily become the largest Religious Identification Group of all throughout North America. Why? What has happened to the North American Church that has caused its light to not shine as brightly as it once did? These are the questions that haunt my mind and soul and for which I deliberately seek the scripture for answers.

I think the Apostle Peter might have an answer for us to this question. As I was reading 1 Peter 2:11,12 it became obviously clear to me that he was thinking of Jesus' words during the Sermon on the Mount about us being the light of the world. At one point Peter almost quotes Jesus. Read what it says,

"Dear Friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."

There it is, "see our good deeds and glorify God..." That's almost exactly what Jesus said about being the light of the world! Our desire and ambition should be to live good lives and perform good deeds so that we bring honor and glory to God. But it's the first part of the verse that I feel is the key to making sure our light doesn't dim or flicker out! Peter pleads with and urges Christ's followers to abstain from the sinful desires of the world. Peter is warning Christians that failure to stay pure and live holy lives will result in lost people not seeing our good deeds (our light) and,thereby, not be able to glorify God. I truly believe that there is a direct correlation between Christians not living holy lives and lost people not seeing the light that can lead them to Jesus. Therefore, it doesn't surprise me when I hear that studies reveal that the morality of Christian's of North America is statistically no different from those in North America who don't claim to be Christians. We have done exactly what Peter begs Christians not to do. As followers of Christ we have failed to abstain and in some cases wholeheartedly embraced the sinful desires of the world.

If we are going to be serious about pursuing the mission that Christ has called us to, we have to be serious about living holy lives. While we are actively pursuing lost people, while we are hanging out with them, while we are going where they are, we must always remain pure and holy. Otherwise all will be for naught. What do we need to do in order to become effective and obedient in pursuing Christ's mission? We need to start with REPENTANCE! Listen to the words of God to his people:

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek after my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chron. 7:14

DON'T GET TIRED IN DOING GOOD! YOU WILL REAP A HARVEST, IF YOU DON'T GROW TIRED AND IF YOU DON'T GIVE UP. LET'S BE FULLY DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. LET'S LIVE THE HOLY LIFE WE WERE CALLED TO!

Do You Need Encouragement In Being The Light of the World?

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