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 Obstacles to a Church Planting Movement in America


There’s a lot of talk about church planting movements in our Western world today. It’s something those of us who help facilitate church planting would love to see happen. On my blog in days past, I’ve voiced my affirmation with Bob Roberts and his belief that ultimately church planting movements are “Jesus movements” at their core. Consequently, our focus needs to be on disciple-making, not church planting. I still agree; my opinion has not changed on this matter since I wrote about it last year.

However, there is validity to the Spirit-saturation and allied momentum that can sweep through an area, along with the way it can impact collective communities and regions (does anybody remember the Brownsville revival, the Great Awakenings, etc.?). When the Spirit of God moves in the hearts of His people, the impact SHOULD have a “domino effect” (after all, we’re supposed to share it with others), regardless of whether it’s called a church planting movement or something else. If it doesn’t have that kind of effect, then I have to ask what’s inhibiting its movement to others beyond ourselves. The answer is often found in the systems we create.

The American “church planting system,” or better simply the “church system” we have inherited/created is a major part of the problem. While much of how we “do” church and the systems connected to it came to us from Europe, Americans have embellished and added their own signature to the system, too. These three culprits are, in my opinion, the primary obstacles to a church planting movement taking place here in North America during the early years of the 21st century.

The Need for a Building. The early colonists placed a “church building” in the middle of the new community when it was built and from that day forward, Americans have bought into the lie that churches have to have a building. To be sure, some regions in our country seek to legitimize their ministry (“we’re not a cult”) by the presence of a building. Others find a building almost required by current zoning laws and restrictions. There are no doubt other reasons, as well. Regardless, it should be obvious to all concerned that the requirement of a building–even the implicit need for a building–on behalf of its people or leaders is a sure way to slow down the forward progress and multiplication of new churches. Such edifices take time, resources and focus…all of which could be placed elsewhere if a facility was not necessary to the equation. Like it or not, Rick Warren and Robert Schuller before him are right when they say “the shoe should never tell the foot how big it can get.” Not only does a building limit growth, but it often mortgages expansion or the future just for the sake of maintaining the facility.

The Need for Professional Clergy. In some traditions, there is a requirement that pastors and planters must be seminary-trained and officially ordained (and/or licensed). While I’m not “knocking this” (I am all of the above personally), I do not see it as a prerequisite to the Holy Spirit doing His work in the life of churches or church planting. In fact, biblically and historically you could make a case for the fact that these will again slow down the work of the Spirit, not accelerate it. God calls; God equips; God empowers. Educational or experiential requirements are all well and good, but at the risk of stating the obvious, we may be substituting our own credentials rather than the essential credentials the Spirit requires. He doesn’t look at a resume or on the outward appearance; He looks upon the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). As well-intentioned as these things are–and they certainly are, in most instances, beneficial to the student/minister and to the congregation he will one day serve–they will also slow down the forward movement of the church in the Western world.


The Need for Money…lots of Money. We have facilitated church plants in America that are “created” by the infusion of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and will need the very same thing to sustain them. The quantity of money needed to get these churches off the ground causes many to step back and ask some soul-searching questions. Perhaps the most basic (and some would say, naive) one to me personally is why the New Testament never focused on money as a need or obstacle in planting new churches. Others would include concerns about the consumerism we’re feeding in American Christianity, “what” we’re using to attract people to the Lord and to His church (marketing, methods, a competition mentality) and the obvious non-transferable, reproducible nature of doing over and over again the largely-funded church plant. In a time of recession, like the current era, such dependence on funding and financing curtails even further the forward progress of church multiplication.

These three systems deficiencies are a part of the problem in experiencing a Spirit-led church planting or multiplication movement in our land today. The irony is that some people would not see them as deficiencies but strengths, and would use their power and influence to perpetuate them locally and individually, but to the detriment of the national and collective Body as a whole. The fact of the matter is that these three things are not needed in the rest of the world. These same places where they are not required are the very places where church planting “Jesus” movements are taking place (China, India, southeast Asia, etc.).

To be sure there are other obstacles that would have to be overcome culturally, missiologically and ultimately, spiritually. But until the American church acknowledges and seeks to minimize these three “systems” factors as obstacles to a church planting movement in our midst, chances are slim to none that we shall see one in our lifetime. We will have missed the blessing of being used by the Spirit of God and His work in and through us by requiring man-made demands–as well intentioned as they originally were–necessary for us to impact the multitudes around us with the Gospel.

from: http://bcmddavid.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/obstacles-to-a-church-planting-movement-in-america/


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