Church Planting out of Weakness
We praise God for the growing number of relatively strong churches who have the motivation, vision, and resources to plant other churches. This weekend, however, my wife Becky and I worked with a church who is planting out of weakness.
They are a middle-class Anglo church in an area of changing demographics. Flavel Yeakley, the church growth consultant at Harding, has made a study of their congregation and area and projected that they will gradually die if they maintain the status quo. Their options are to sell and move (the typical response) or church plant out of their location. They have decided on the second, more difficult option. They feel a commitment to their area yet most members drive in to the church building from other nearby communities.
I praise God and respect the elders who are making this decision. They are courageous and visionary men. It was a joy to speak to their congregation three times on Sunday and meet with their elders and provide theological frameworks to conceptualize their transition and practical processes to accomplish it through the equipping of catalytic church planters working with them to evangelize the area.
What are the obstacles that lie ahead? Would you suggest a few?
Would you also pray with us for these leaders in the midst of this transition?
posted by Gailyn Van Rheenen @ 6:06 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
It sounds like this church is going to have to become servants int heir changing community. They are going to need to communicate, better then ever before, that they are there and there to stay.
When I hear about a church in a "changing community," what I hear is that the community is losing its SES clout, is darkening in skin color, and "deteriorating."
What an opportunity to build bridges. This will require an unusual level of humility, some significant dividing of what is Truth and what is merely comfortable cultrual expectations within their culture of origin. Self-confrontation will be necessary.
I gotta say, it sounds like this church has guts - or are out of their minds. I'd like to think that they have guts - faith may be a better way to put it.
Lord, please guide this courageous church in ther pursuit of your will in their chanhging community. Grant them the great blessing of learning of you as they learn abou the people who live next door to their building.
Give them the joy of humility, the peace learning to respect different people, and the hope that things that divide people will not divide their church.
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