If I were to ask you right now to write a definition of church, what would you include in that definition? You might take a theological approach and speak of 'the people whom God has saved through the blood of Jesus,' which would be good. But, what if you had to speak of church at a visible, practical level? Would you talk about size of membership? Activities such as Sunday AM, PM and Wednesday night services? Is a church really a church when it has a building? What are we meaning when we talk about the church in church planting?
One of the great resources you will receive as an attendee of the Northwest Church Planting Workshop is a CD Rom with a pdf download of the 300 page The New Dynamic Church Planting Book published by Dynamic Church Planting International. On page 52 Paul Becker, Jim Carpenter and Mark Williams include a simple exercise to help us think through the question of what we mean when we speak of the church in church planting. I include part of this exercise here for you try.
Instructions: for each of the following descriptive items place the following designations
A. for absolutely essential
B. for good, but not essential
C. for sometime in the future, but not immediately
D. not important at all_____ the Gospel is proclaimed (evangelism)
_____ Regular gatherings of professing believers for worship
_____ The Sacraments are properly administered (baptism and the Lord's supper)
_____The group is self-supporting (not receiving support money from outside the local church)
_____ The group is self-governing with no outside control
_____ Children's classes and youth ministry
_____ Biblically qualified elders
_____ Owns a building
_____ A minimum of _____ people gathering together regularly for worship
_____ Has an official membership roster
What are your A items? How many do you have? Steve Steele of the DAWN church planting ministries suggests the following 3 minimum items:
1. Regular gathering of believers
2. Trained leadership
3. Observance of sacraments
David Hesselgrave suggests a church is a body of believers who proclaim the gospel of Christ and gather believers for growth in faith and training in service (p. 20).
The mission team I worked with in Meru, Kenya used the following checklist to describe the point at which experience taught us a preaching point matured enough to where we would call it an initial church.
1. 10 to 15 adult believers baptized
2. At least 2 men who demonstrate leadership potential
3. At least 50% attendance at weekly services consecutive Sundays in which all worship activities are included and led by local believers
Granted, by US standards the preceding definitions are very minimalist. But they do challenge us to reflect on what we mean when we speak of church. What is the product we are referring to in church planting? Can we call a handful of believers meeting in a living room a church? How might churches change as they mature from a new, minimalist state to a mature state? And finally, how do we know when a church plant if successful?
We'll look at these questions in future emails, but for now it is enough to raise them in anticipation of the Workshop.
For the sake of the kingdom,
Stanley Granberg