What Does A Church Planting Movement Look Like?

April 29, 2010

What is a church-planting movement? This is a question that I have been wrestling with for quite some time. In fact, I am not the only one. Many people smarter than myself are asking the same question. People like Ed Stetzer, David Garrison, Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole, Bob Roberts, and the list goes on. Each one of these leaders share differing nuances about what this “Movement” would be. What does a church planting movement look like, and how do we know if we are experiencing one?

Even Webster’s Dictionary has multiple definitions of what the word “movement” means. I think the one that fits best, at least for this discussion, is “abundance of events or incidents”. I think that is what everyone is driving at.

Bob Roberts wrote “We want to see a movement that will transform societies similar to what has happened in the past and is happening in the East.” (The Multiplying Church, Zondervan 2008) American Christians are hungry for something, maybe a revival of old, to happen in our country. We want to see the Spirit of God sweep across our land in a powerful way as it is in China.

But here is the rub for me. As we look at movements across the world, as we look at what is happening in India, China, South Africa, and how the Gospel is taking these nations by storm, we have to put it all in its own cultural context.

We are not Mainland China where Christianity is openly persecuted. We are not India where a house church movement is maintained as a way to keep the church flourishing in an openly oppressive (against Christianity) culture. I believe we have to be careful as we describe what we see taking place elsewhere, as prescriptive of what must happening in every society, culture and place. What a movement in the U.S. looks likes, I believe, will be radically different from what one looks like in the East. With one exception, God shows up!

The book of Acts reveals a great mixture of both an indigenous, explosive , movement, led by lay-people as well as a more “professional Apostolic” movement, led by the likes of James, Phillip, Peter and Paul. The missionary journeys of Paul reveal to us that he went to places where believers had already been meeting as well as places where no movement of God had been seen. How God determines to move in any particular setting varies.

As I look at my own country, I want what I see across the ocean to happen here. But it won’t look the same. We may not see the widespread movement of God that I believe is being generated by persecution and hardship. (Nothing like persecution to get the church moving.) But we cannot discount that, as has been reported, we are for the first time planting more churches every year then we are closing. True, the state of the church and American Christianity is at its worst in our history, but I believe that we are seeing the early stages of a genuine Church Planting movement in the United States. Will it look as it does in another cultural context? No! Nonetheless, God is showing up all around the country. We are, as Malcom Gladwell put it, at the “Tipping Point”.

What excites me more than ever is that churches are starting to get the point. Even in our own group, many are starting to believe and own the vision. Instead of simply sending money they are now doing it for themsleves. Will it look the same? No! Even around the U.S. our cultures and structures differ. There is no one way to plant a church. One thing is for sure, if we are to see a movement pick up speed, it has to begin with the local church.

Posted 4/29/2010 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment

Comments:

     Amen just doesn't do your comments justice. "On target" sounds good too!