Reflections on 10/29 Class

I don't think that I was expecting our small group discussion time during Thursday's class to be as difficult as it ended up being. Many of us found it challenging to translate the theoretical ideas and the hopes and dreams that we have for our future church plants into more practical plans. For me personally, this is in large part because I feel as though many of my hopes and dreams will develop more organically rather than programmatically. Thursday's discussion helped me to more fully realize how integral having others with me on the church planting journey actually is. I now have a better appreciation for the need to begin dialoguing with a wide variety of people now, rather than waiting until the practical side of the process is fleshed out further. Conversation is key, and I need to make a conscious effort to place discussion at the center of the church planting process.

Reflections on 10/27 Class

While I wholeheartedly believe that there needs to be a return to the cultivation of genuine relationships and living life out in close connection to our fellow Christians, our lectio divina and subsequent discussion in class on Tuesday left me thinking about how we sometimes throw the word "community" around without truly understanding its implications for church planting and renewal. I wonder if, at times, we don't define the term so loosely that we fail to understand the implications of the intersection between the cultural idea of community presented in the New Testament and the sense of community that pervades postmodern culture. This is definitely a discussion that needs to have a prominent place in the church planting process, especially now as we seek to move away from the individualism and isolation that has plagued the modern church.

Reflections on 10/22 Class

As an idealist by nature, my tendency is often to dream big and strive for near perfection. While such an approach has its place in church planning, it was good to be reminded in our last class session that a new church can only go as far as the gifts and talents held by the people who comprise the church planting community will allow. As a result, we must remain aware of our strengths as well as our limitations, being realistic about what can be accomplished by the planting team while also trusting in the power of God to do even more. If we fail to understand our limitations, we actually will hinder the planting process even further. Creativity instead must be born out of an acknowledgement both of what we have and what we lack.

Doug Pagitt's Church Reimagined

Chapter one of Pagitt’s work stresses the idea that church planting is a process, not a one-time event, and that often a church will not show evidence of effective discipling until a significant amount of time has passed. Therefore, we must start small, focusing on the importance of building community, sharing our stories with one another, and inviting others to dialogue and partake of the experimental process that is church planting. Of particular importance is the element of accountability and ensuring that this dynamic is present at all levels and in all stages of establishing a church plant.

Pagitt’s personal story in chapter two reminds me of the value of not merely examining the needs of a particular demographic and looking internally when planting a church but of instead asking the bigger questions and focusing on the community around me. For example, what does the world in which I live need? What does the community around me have to offer and to say to the church that I am planting? Regardless of the specific demographics that comprise the church community itself, what does the community at large say that it needs? I do not want to approach the church planting process by necessarily working to target a particular population. Instead, I want the growth of my plant to be organic and to allow the community at large to dictate the kinds of needs that are addressed and hopefully met.

Chapter three describes the eclectic format of worship gatherings at Solomon’s Porch, including the space in-the-round that they have set up for their Sunday gatherings, their use of liturgy and stations throughout the service, as well as their development of new, creative forms of worship. At the heart of what Pagitt and others do at Solomon’s Porch are a desire to be authentic and a drive to understand fully their particular community, its needs, and who they are as people. It is important to remember that the goal of such a gathering is not to try to attract others but to create an atmosphere in which genuine relationship with God and with others is fostered.

Out of all of the chapters in Pagitt’s book, chapter four probably is the most unconventional for those of us from traditional evangelical backgrounds. Incorporating the body into worship practice tends to make many conservative evangelicals uncomfortable, as centuries of dualistic thinking have taught us to see the body as fallen, evil, and in direct opposition to the “spirit.” This chapter definitely expanded my thinking about the sorts of practices that can be incorporated into church gatherings, and it served as a much-needed reminder to look beyond the mind and spirit in order to see the important role that the body can play in living out our faith.

Chapter five discusses the notion that being people-focused rather than idea-centered lends itself to a particular kind of spiritual formation in which people come together to dialogue about things such as a the Bible in order to benefit the community as a whole. Based on such an idea, I need to be diligent in my own future church planting efforts to ask myself how to avoid setting up certain individuals as the only ones who are knowledgeable experts on matters of spiritual formation. Everyone has a voice, and we can and should learn from one another and grow along with one another. There needs to be no distinction between the speaker and the audience, but rather all involved must be participants.

The issues of hospitality and welcoming the stranger covered in chapter six raise a key question for my future church planting endeavors. How can we as a church plant extend hospitality in ways that are specifically relevant to the community in which we find ourselves? Everyone is a stranger to one degree or another throughout their lives, so it is important to find universal ways of living out the Kingdom and extending hospitality to a range of people. Eating with one another, doing very basic everyday tasks with one another, and opening our homes to each other are perfect examples of the kinds of universal activities that welcome a variety of people.

Chapter seven examines the notion of belief as being a holistic process that is grounded in more than simply information and knowledge. Instead, belief as Pagitt describes it brings knowledge together with the hopes, experiences, and ideas of individual people. Such an emphasis moves belief beyond the mere abstract to the realm of the personal. Therefore, relationships built on trust matter, for they allow us to influence and speak into the lives and experiences of others, and thus into their beliefs as well. Education is not the be all and end all of belief and faith, but listening to and understanding the personal stories and beliefs of others is.

Chapter eight expands upon the commonly-held view that creativity in church settings is limited to music and the visual and fine arts. Pagitt instead argues that creativity is much broader and that it ultimately is about openness to new ideas and experiences and incorporating this openness into the life of the church community. Key to this idea is the Kingdom notion that we get to create (and recreate) the world alongside God through acts of redemption. Therefore, what is important for me to remember in my future church planting endeavors is that people of all types—not merely artists—have something creative to offer and that it is thus important to purposefully incorporate everyone into the creative processes of the church.

The notion that service should not be a programmatic outreach of the church but rather a way of life is the concern of chapter nine. This chapter is useful for my final paper in that it serves as a reminder of the importance of being a hospitable, friendly face and inviting others into the church community, especially in the early stages of a church planting endeavor. Acts of service should not be programmatically organized but instead they will flow out of the attitude of hospitality and grace that is manifested in the establishment of trusting relationships with the outside community from the onset of the church plant.

Chapter ten is merely a short summary of the other nine chapters in Pagitt’s book.

Reflections on 10/20 Class

The personal stories shared in my small group’s get-to-know-you session yesterday reminded me of the vital importance of building a Christian community in which an atmosphere of belonging is cultivated rather than merely an atmosphere of intellectual assent. Although all of my group members come from various backgrounds and are looking to work with a variety of populations in the future, we are united in our desire to use relationships as the foundational element of our church plants. We recognize that the world is hungry for more than mere knowledge and belief and thus desire for our church plants to be places in which we authentically connect with one another, with God, and with his mission for the world.

Reflections on 10/15 Class

While I’m wholeheartedly in agreement with more recent church trends (especially within the emerging movement) to privilege dialogue and openness over purely a drive to reach a bottom line or specific conclusions, I think that sometimes such openness puts us at risk of failing to move forward in our attempts to change and renew the church. Today’s class reminded me of the vital importance of pursuing a mindfulness and intentionality as we seek to create new initiatives within the church. We must be flexible but also persistent, seeking to move in a particular direction but also being open to shifting directions when the Spirit leads us to do so. It’s for this reason that I find great value in the experimental stage of creating new initiatives, as it allows us to be purposeful about testing the waters and trying new things out while also keeping us in dialogue with God and with other church members as we pursue new avenues for church renewal together as a team.

Reflections on 10/8 Class

Last Thursday’s class underscored the importance of moving beyond a deconstructionist viewpoint in order to begin to reconstruct and renew the church for postmodern times. It is not merely sufficient to recognize that modern culture established a sacred/secular divide or that it privileged individualism over community, for example. While understanding—and even, at times, tearing down—these constructs of modernity is vitally important, the work does not end there. We instead be mindful of the ways in which we can continue to walk forward, renewing the tradition of the past while also replacing it with more culturally relevant ways of doing church in a postmodern context.

Reflections on 10/6 Class

I have taken several classes at Fuller that underscored the importance of viewing the West and the variety of cultures present within the West from a missional viewpoint—as though the West was itself comprised of “mission fields.” Discussing McGavran’s mission station model and its similarity to the current state of the Western Church helped to emphasize this point for me even more strongly. I wonder, however, to what degree McGavran’s solution for creating more people movements is applicable to the West. His work is significantly strategic in nature, at times even outlining the specific steps that can be taken to replace mission stations with people movements. I am not convinced, however, that the Western Church should adopt more strategic plans and goals to make such a missional shift. If anything, the Western Church has been overrun by strategy for years, often reducing what should be organic, life-giving acts of mission, mercy, and justice to committees, procedures, mission statements, and projects. I think that overall the Western Church would benefit from a little less structure rather than seeking change in the form of rigid structure.

Donald McGavran's The Bridges of God

Chapter one of McGavran’s work posits a crucial question: namely, how are people groups and cultures—rather than simply individuals—changed in order to become Christian. Such a question is foundational to understanding the processes of church growth and church planting, for if we subscribe to the notion that church is intricately tied to the construct of community, then we must look at cultures holistically in order to transform a people group most effectively.

In chapter two, McGavran continues his examination of the perils associated with a Western individualist viewpoint and discusses the need for Christianization to occur from within a culture. McGavran argues that a culture makes its decisions as a group, and thus a “people movement to Christ” is the most effective form of Christianizing a culture. I found McGavran’s discussion on the two stages of Christianization—discipling and “perfecting the people” (e.g. making ethical changes in a community, moving the people towards a Christian way of life, etc.)—to be the most beneficial for my understanding of the kinds of needs that must be met when establishing a new church plant. Transformation must occur from within the culture or community rather than pulling individuals out of their known world of daily living. Key to this transformation and the establishment of a new Christian community is a reorientation of a culture around the figure of Jesus, his teachings, and his way of life.

Chapters three and four examine Biblical and historical examples of successful “people movements to Christ.” These two chapters are not particularly beneficial for my final paper.

In chapter five, McGavran discusses the “mission station approach” to mission that was prevalent in the 1800s and early 1900s. Such an approach is invitational and individualist in nature and involves expecting new converts to Christianity to set themselves apart from their culture. According to McGavran, the mission station approach frequently fails and has little success in bringing large groups of people to Christ. Furthermore, such an approach turns the practice of mission into something that is programmatic and institutional rather than a changing and growing organic process that occurs within a culture.

Chapter six moves to a discussion on the new stage in which mission praxis finds itself—people movements—and examines examples of such movements in non-Western settings. Because my final paper most likely will be focused on a church plan for a Western context, the specifics of this chapter do not apply readily to me. Of importance in this chapter, however, is the notion that people movements are immersed in a particular culture which then sets the tone for the rest of the movement. Equally important is the idea that the exploration of new ecclesiastical traditions within these people movements allows for a community to discover to what Christian practices its people will most respond.

In chapter seven, McGavran addresses the importance of critically analyzing a mission endeavor and not merely supporting it indiscriminately even when such a movement bears little fruit of discipleship and growth. In order to do so, we must make a mental shift and view the church, which lives and works in particular cultures, rather than the mission station as the focal point of our mission endeavors.

Chapter eight addresses the importance of cooperating with churches that are growing and allowing indigenous movements to flourish and become independent as the most effective ways of expanding the Kingdom. Such an approach emphasizes the linking together of churches so that they can provide support and stability to one another and thus continue to expand outward into culture rather than bringing converts inward.

Chapter nine raises the question of how the older approach to mission praxis—the mission stations—can and should relate to the rising number of people movements around the world. A similar question exists today about how to incorporate Western ecclesiological tradition with the new manifestations of the church that are on the rise. Overall, I found McGavran’s answer to this question to be a bit heavy handed in terms of the employment of specific strategies. While I agree with him that the church is growing in certain areas of the world more than it is in others, I do not necessarily believe that priority should thus be given to people movements in these areas of the globe. Such a strategy brings with it the potential for certain cultures and communities to be neglected by mission efforts.

While financial aspects are important to consider when creating a church planning model, I do not feel as though chapter ten of McGavran’s book provides any insight for my final paper.

Chapter eleven and McGavran’s call for increased research on the mission practices of people movements likewise are inapplicable to my final paper.

Finally, in chapter twelve, McGavran sums up his book by arguing that mission ultimately is a call for us to march alongside God and to have a heart for the nations just as he does. This idea complements the notion of the missio dei.

Reflections on 10/1 Class

After last week’s class, I realized that my opinion of church planting has, over the years, been negatively impacted by the rigid denominational structure of the churches that I have attended for the majority of my life. I’m not suggesting that there is anything inherently wrong with the denominational church per se, but merely that a programmatic approach to church planting does not appeal to the relationally-minded person who I am.

I am eager to look at church planting as a more organic, holistic process. I always have felt drawn to an intentional community approach to Christianity, so I am excited about the possibility that this class affords me to explore various growth movements within the church. Who knows, maybe church planting is more of a possibility for my future ministry than I ever realized before.