My first task after training was to plant a new church in Canberra. I had no preparation like that offered to planting leaders these days. I honour all those who have worked so hard to create effective assessing, training and coaching for planters. I admit I am nervous about putting our dependence for success on these things, but I recognise that the “eco-system” around planters is much better than it was for me.
Still, I learnt a lot on the job.
Here’s a look into something I learnt in those early days.
The next lesson I learnt related to an assumption that a Church planter can make. While the danger mentioned above lies in seeing this work as a way to defend or enhance a particular brand of Christianity, the danger also exists that you believe what you are offering is what the community is looking for. I learnt that to establish a faith community you needed to truly understand what was happening in your context. If the right disposition positions a Church planter to be effective, then it is the right understanding of the context that gives a Church planter the right message. I learnt that a lot of the people in my context were teenagers, single mums, or people managing week to week on a limited income. These were important factors in determining the kind of language I would use. I found that single parents needed understanding and support far more than a reminder that they were single parents. I discovered that I needed a message that was full of grace – indeed an invitation to the gift God offers to everyone.
I discovered that my message needed to start with the presumption of God’s love for people rather than beginning with a denunciation of their wrongdoing. And these insights into the context then began to change my message. It is easy to critique people, and it is easy to denigrate them and their decisions, but the right understanding of the context in which a new faith community exists helps that faith community talk the right way to the people around them. I learnt that true freedom meant that people could belong in many ways. People didn’t have to become like me. The more I learnt about the community around me the more my language and message changed.”
My new book “The Genius in the Kingdom: How Discipleship Impacts Church Planting” argues that while all the elements of the eco-system around planting are important, it is a discipleship process that begins to multiply and provides the momentum for movement. The making of disciples and our commitment to teaching them what Jesus has given us is our calling. Our commitment to this will create the movement we are seeking to the point where we will not need to worry about where the new churches will come from.
For disciples have a way of knowing what their Master wants!
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