The Call of A Thousand Voices

October 3, 2011

In 1976 Sally Field starred in the Emmy Award winning movie Sybil. Sybil was a young adult who suffered severe abuse as a child and as a result developed a coping mechanism that enable her to disassociate with the reality of her pain. Over the course of her young life, Sybil developed thirteen different personalities. Some of these personalities made her appear psychotic; some of them made her appear as a sweet reserved little girl. One of these alter egos made her want to kill herself on a daily basis. However, as Sybil grew up and started to live in the adult world, her once helpful coping mechanism made it increasingly more difficult to be a productive person in society. Her different personalities became a barrier to maturity. No one knew the real Sybil. In fact, the noise of a dozen voices, made it hard for even Sybil to discover and make sense of her own identity.

As Jesus was traveling to the Gerasenes, as recorded in Mark 15, he met a man filled with a thousand voices. While we are never privy to this man personal life nor how he got into his present situation, one thing was made very clear; his condition was very severe.

“Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.” (2-6, NIV)

As this man came close to Jesus the evil in him cried out, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me.”

Jesus asked, “What is your name?”

The evil spirit answered, “Legion, for we are many.”

Imagine the inner turmoil of a thousand voices, each competing for his attention, each telling him to do something evil, cruel or harmful. Never a moment of rest, never a sense of peace, never an opportunity to think rationally. Each voice competing to be heard, each voice screaming louder and louder for his attention. Each one claiming to be right, each one offering suggestions and direction.

As I sit here staring at my bookshelf and I see dozens of church planting titles, by godly men and women over the last two decades. People like Bob Logan, Rick Warren, Peter Wagner, Lyle Schaller, Aubrey Malphurs, Ralph Moore, Ed Stetzer, Brian McLaren, Robert Webber, Alan Hirsch, David Garrison, and George Hunter. Each of these individuals are heroes of the movement. Each of them have forged new paths and opened new doorways that have propelled church planting to new heights. Yet, each of these authors and churchmen are distinct and teach varying degrees of what the church should be, do, and how it should be planted. I wonder, as I think about the future of church planting in the next few decades has the movement become fragmented? Is this movement taking on the characteristics of Sybil, or legion? Have we created a schizophrenic and confusing “call of a thousand voices” each competing for the attention of the new generation of church planters? Each voice competing to be heard, each voice screaming louder and louder for attention. Each one claiming to be right, each one offering suggestions and direction.

Since my book, Planting Fast Growing Churches hit the market two years ago; I have become more and more aware of the multiple controversies that exist in the church-planting world. While healthy in many ways, I fear these controversies could cause a rift in the movement. In fact, in many ways this has already happened.

Just google church planting and you will discover endless pages with thousands of voices; each proclaiming their particular discipline is the only way to plant a church in this new generation. Will your new church be Missional, incarnational, or attraction? Will it be programmatic, purpose driven, cell-based, organic, or a house church? Each of these new planting disciplines are vying for the attention of our young entrepreneurial, church planters. Can we find any sanity in the midst of the voices?

There is common ground among the voices. We can find timeless principles that all agree on and we can create a new system that incorporates the best of the Missional, Incarnational, and Attractional disciplines. I believe that the next generation of church planting will depend on how well we are able to integrate the best practices of each model into a holistic approach.

Posted 10/3/2011 in Church Planting | 1 Comment - Add Comment

Comments:

     @stephenTgray. A church is born in the heart of a church planter. So probably because there are hundreds of different church planters there will be hundreds of different churches planted. The church that is planted in many ways will take on the heart and personality of the church planter who starts it. Either way America is in need of new churches that are laser focused on reaching people who are far off from God. As long as there are unchurched people that we need to reach we will be in need of new churches. Check out the blog I wrote on our new church plant in Seattle: http://www.ballardchurch.com/2011/09/new-seattle-church-launching-now-2/