Church Planting 101

About a year ago when Luke Preussler and I began talking about starting a new church or “church planting” in Elgin, I thought I knew a few things about church planting. After all, I had taken a church planting class in seminary. Micki and I had been part of a very healthy and successful church plant (CrossWay Community Church in Bristol, WI) during that same time. I had attended a “boot camp” for training church planting pastors and read several books on the topic. I had watched and interacted with many of my pastor-buddies who had successfully planted churches around the U.S. Though I wouldn’t be so arrogant to say I knew it all, surely I had the level of expertise needed to make a go of this. Right?

Not exactly. If God has used the last year to teach me anything, it is just how little I know, how dependent I am on Him, and how much I can learn from faithful brothers and sisters who have followed the Lord’s call into church planting before me. One such lesson was learned just two months ago after we were well on our way to launching New City Church.

Back in November, as we were once again moving up New City’s launch date (in church planting world “launch” is usually defined as when a church begins to hold public worship services), I had a conversation with a church planting pastor in another state that caused me to step back and rethink the approach we were taking. I was asking him about the “launch strategy” they had taken, and he shared with me that the two most common questions people (mainly other Christians) had about his church as it was getting started were: Where will you meet? and Who will be leading the worship? Although those are not inappropriate questions, they do reveal the assumption that “church” is primarily a meeting or event on a Sunday morning and whether I “go” (or send a friend there) depends on if I prefer their brand or style of worship. My pastor-friend encouraged me to think less about launching New City as a worship service and more about building a community of disciples who will live life on mission in Elgin. In other words, focus more on being the church (our identity in Christ and our commission to make disciples who make disciples) and less on doing church (events, programs, etc. that ought to flow from who we are and our desire to fulfill our mission). I was shocked by how simple yet how profoundly biblical this counsel was.

This epiphany led to a shift in New City’s focus and an adjustment in our strategy. We began to view ourselves more as missionaries, or more precisely, a family of missionary servants who are following Jesus by bringing His gospel to bear in all the places in Elgin where we live life: our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces as well as the places where we do business, recreate, and hang out. We began asking ourselves: Who has God sovereignly placed within our spheres of influence and presence who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ?

Furthermore, we have found ourselves challenged by Scripture to view this call to mission less individually and more as a task that we pursue together as the body of Christ. We have been reminding ourselves that just as God established a people through Abraham who were to display to the world what it looks like to live in covenant relationship with their Creator, we have been blessed so that we would together/corporately be a blessing to others in our community (Genesis 12:1-3). Because of all that Jesus accomplished, we now go in the power of His Spirit, obedient to His call to the church to make disciples who make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).

The first step in our strategy for carrying this out is to form small groups called Missional Communities. The goal of each of group is to be:

...a gospel community that lives out the mission of God together in a specific area and to a particular people group by demonstrating the gospel in tangible forms and declaring the gospel to others--both those who believe it and those who are being exposed to it.

Simply put, Missional Communities are Families of Missionary Servants who make disciples: a community of everyday citizens who are devoted to Jesus, to one another, to their neighborhoods and city. (Soma Communities, emphasis theirs. www.wearesoma.com)

By God’s grace, that is what we want to be! And that is what we have been pursuing as we meet together in homes on Sunday mornings and then go into our community the rest of the week.

So if you happen to ask us a question about when and where we plan to have public worship services, don’t worry. We won’t be offended. Just realize that you may not get an answer that is very specific just yet (i.e. we think it will be in April and we are still investigating options for meeting space in downtown Elgin). What we would really like for you to ask us is: How are you serving the city of Elgin by demonstrating the redemptive love of Jesus? and Whose heart is the Spirit opening to the truth of gospel?

And we promise to ask you the same questions about your mission as a family of missionary servants that God has gathered into New Covenant Bible Church!

On mission together with our sending church,

Pastor Dave DeHaan for the entire New City family