Archive for the ‘who what when where & why’ Category

// The WHEN of Community Planting…

November 5th, 2008

WHEN?

When is this going to happen? When is the right time?

This is a question I have been thinking about a lot lately. Tim Keel in his book Intuitive Leadership (pg.63) talks about kairos time. He just brings up the point that God often stirs these kairos moments in the chaos of our lives.

Kairos being the “right” time. Opposed to Chronos which has more to do with chronological time.

[ funny side note :: the chaplin at my university preached a message on this very thing my freshman year. The bad part was that he decided it was the coolest idea ever and totally over played it. The kairos time became a huge joke the rest of my five years in college. But looking back on it, it really was a great message. Kudos to Bill Bray and shame on all of us for giving him such a hard time. ]

But yea, I am looking for that kairos momemnt to go forward with this whole community planting thing. But how do you ya know? My fear is that this is usually an unanswerable question. NOW is never the right time, the convenient time, or the easy time. Is it? That’s why I am looking for that kairos moment, I need that kairos moment. But I also need Jesus to open my mind, my heart, and my eyes to see it!

In my head I am wanting something to form organically. I want it to fall into my lap. I’m just not sure that always happens, at least not the way we expect it to.

SO, when is the “right“ time?

My question I have for you…
// How did you know it was the “right” time?
    (especially if you have planted a church PLEASE answer that question.)
// How did your story lead up to it being the “right” time?

DO SHARE!

Waiting for the “right” time
Erik

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2.0 // The where of community planting

September 26th, 2008

So how do you pick your where? How do you pick your spot to plant a community?

I think I am made it clear that I think the where is really important but how do you figure out WHERE you want to land and plant? I think that’s a good question.

I also think this is a hard question. Initially (this was a couple years ago) as Todd and I talked about planting a community together Todd was pretty sold on Illinois and there were a lot of good reason for that. It was our home for 18+ years and to give back to that place, to the people who have been a community of Christ to us sounded like a good idea. I think putting your hometown or area into the mix of where is a good idea. But not the only idea. And obviously Todd hasn’t ended up in IL just yet.

And a brief disclaimer is this :: I am not forgetting about the God factor. I believe that God could miraculously direct, I HOPE HE DOES! I could pin a map to the wall, close my eye and play pin the tale on the right place BUT I think until God does speak miraculously the intelligent, planned, intellectual approach is wise.
So far that’s my approach when thinking about this. Trusting that when it’s time God will speak clearly and / or give a solid assurance.

So here are a few more questions I think will help me figure out my where.

Where is there a need?
Where is there a desire?
Where is there openness?
Where is there opportunity?
Where is there a team?
Where is there resources?

These all seem to be good question…

(this according to http://www.citymayors.com/gratis/uscities_growth.html )

Another report give these as the 10 fastest growing cities ::
#1. New Orleans, LA #2. Victorville, CA #3. McKinney, TX #4. N. Las Vegas #5. Cary, NC #6 Killeen Texas #7 Port St. Lucie, FL #8. Gilbert, AZ #9. Clarksville, TN #10 Denton, TX
(This according to an article on CNN.com)

Another source lists these as the top 10 fastest growing cities.

I give you these lists of the fastest growing cities (you can also check out the 100 largest cities here) because I think population growth and in some instances size in general is a good indicator of opportunity and of a developing community. And personally i am much more drawn to a larger city with urban potential. So I pay attention to these kinds of things.

FIND YOUR SPOT [dot] COM
I also filled out this little survey. It’s kinda interesting, you fill out a list of questions and they give you the top 10 cities that would fit you (according to your answers.)

My List

I filled out this survey another time and after filling it out the second time i found my first results… they were different?

FIRST RESULTS :: #1. Knoxville, TN  #2. Cincinnati, OH  #3. Nashville, TN  #4. Oklahoma City, OK  #5. Little Rock, AK

Most of the top 10 were the same just mixed up a bit. 
But these are my results. Hmmm… 

 

 

So these are all just some of the things I am thinking about as I trying to decipher my where.

What are some other means of figure out this very important question?
If you are a church planter, how did you figure out your where? We would love to know!

Looking for those wide open fields
Erik

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1.0 // The WHERE of Community Planting…

September 18th, 2008

1.0 // The where of community planting // Republished
(the first time i put this post up it was a bit sloppy, maybe it still is but here goes)

To start this part of the conversation I want to say that I think this is really the central question in this series of “who, what, where, when, why” issues. I have been thinking about it and it seems that the where will really help to define a lot of the rest of these issues.

And when I think about ministry in general I really think that the where is an issue we don’t embrace enough and I think often our ministries suffer because of this.

Seriously, how many ministries do you know of that try and take stuff from “there” and implement it “here”? How many ministries try and take some mega-church method and make it work in their church? The answer is TONS! But WAY to often this kinda deal doesn’t take into account the context at all, it doesn’t even think about the where of ministry.

Every “where”, every context has a particular people, a particular culture, a particular that needs to be embraced in order to do constructive, Jesus following ministry. If you really think about it Jesus and his ministry TOTALLY embraced the where in order to do the rest of the ministry he did. Jesus completley knew the culture, he knew the people and their religious situation… he knew his context (his “where”) extremely well.

I remember living in Alabama. It was a totally different culture and kid than where I had been, Chicago. I wanna think I did some valuable ministry there but I am positive that if I would have embrace my where to a greater extent my ministry would have flourished in an analogous way.

Is it fair to say context is everything?

I’m not really sure about that but it does seem to make sense to me that context, the where of ministry would shape much of what you do as a minister.

I have some ideas about this but before I share them I’m gonna toss this post up for a day or so and see what you all think.

So what do you think about the where? Am I making to big a deal about this or am I on to something.

How important is the “where”, really?

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// The What of Community Planting…

August 28th, 2008

“What” is the hardest of the questions to really think through, I think. To ask WHAT kind of community your going to be is a pretty hard question to ask before you answer the where, which will also help you answer the who. Because in reality I think the who and what will be shaped by your where to a large extent. This is because context / contextualization is uber important when it comes to any kind of ministry.

With that said let’s talk about some of our options.

You might here a pastor respond to the question “What kind of Community (church) are you in some of the following ways…

We are a worshiping community.
We are a church for the unchurched.
We are a bible believing community.
We are a mega-church.
(ok, they might not say that but tons of churches are trying to be that)
We are a reproducing church.
We are a seeker sensitive church.
We are a innovative church.

I’m sure I could keep going and going and going with this list but that will do for now.
If you have some more you would like to add, please do share.

The problem for me is that none of these answers really resonate with me or seem to be the kind of response I hope to give some day when someone asks me this question.

So here are some of my thoughts.

I would want to say, “We are a Jesus following community.”
But WHAT does that mean?

// We are a relational community
 We desire to be centered around relationship, with God & with each other.
Everybody is using the word “missional” these days. Here’s our way of doing that.
// We are an incarnational community
 We grow where we are planted. We don’t want to transplant any other system or program.
We want to meet the needs of OUR neighbor.
// We are an Inclusive community
 To follow Jesus who came to serve the entire world is to be open to serving the entire world.
NO exceptions.
// We are a redemptive community
 In the same way God has continued to reach his redemptives hands into our world we (his redemptive hand of this day) reach into our world to give worth to broken people and situations to the best of our abilities by the grace of God.
// We are a dreaming community.
 Our reality does not define us. We dream the dreams that God has stirred in our hearts and that he has laid before us in the scriptures. Not only do we dream but we hope. And Dreams + Hope + action = heaven breaking into to earth, the kingdom coming.

// We are a praying community
// We are a story shaped community. We read the bible!

So these are my initial thoughts, I’m sure I could think of a dozen more and could combine a few I already have. But I’m just dreaming & thinking… this is what you get for today.

What do you think some of the key thoughts to the “what” of community planting are?
What is your answer to this question?
What would be the “perfect” answer from a church you would want to connect with?

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Response // The WHO of community planting?

August 23rd, 2008

I struggle with the concept of a target audience.  Stanely Hauerwas [author, theologian, & seminary professor] once said in a class I took that having a target audience implies that you are going to shoot someone.  His crass humor points out the absurdity of thinking of people as “targets.”  To be blunt, I think that having a target audience turns people into objects.  Additionally, the underlying assumption for creating a target audience is that the point of the church is to get as many people as possible to come on a regular basis in the hopes that they will start giving money and other resources to the organization.

I was on staff at a church that sent “mailers” to people as a means to market the church.  I was horrified to discover that the lead pastor only sent those mailers to select zip codes of the affulent in our area while specifically avoiding the more economically and racially diverse zip codes.

I feel like a response to my arguments would be the cliche – If you aim for nothing, that it exactly what you will hit.  Well, if a community plant must have a target audience, I feel like Scripture would point us to the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized.

Saying these words are much easier than actually doing them.  Right now, the house church I am a part of certainly does not have a target audience.  It is still pretty underground as the only real way to even discover it exists is to find out from a current member.  I have intentions of “targeting” the poor, marginalized, and the oppressed.  My wife and I recently bought a house in a diverse and mainly low income neighborhood with the hopes that ministry opportunities would present themselves.  However, I am not quite sure how such a person would feel coming to the house church.  We are a group of heavily educated white people with good jobs, and the majority of the group has known each other for quite some time.  I cannot help but think that an outsider would feel like an outsider in our group.  I admit that I am not quite sure what to do here.  I think a key is to begin and develop relationships with people who are not like you.  This makes sense to me on a personal level, but I am not quite sure how to do this on a community level.

I think that before getting into the who, it is probably more important to determine the what, as in “what kind of community is this going to be?”  Perhaps the who will be clearer once the what has been determined.

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// The WHO of community planting?

August 19th, 2008

I’ve read a few books (most notably The Purpose Driven Church) and have heard a couple pastors talk about their “target” audience.

Recently I listened to an interview with Mark Driscoll, lead pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He said, and I quote (loosely), “Most churches target 30- to 40-year-old women and that’s why our churches are 60% women.” Fair enough, but he didn’t end there. He went on to say that even the guys that are in these churches are kind of chics. This is why his church targets 25- to 30-year-old males because they want to be a manly church. So much could be said there but we’ll stick to the issue of the “who.”

Willow Creek was pretty famous for targeting 35-year-old businessmen when they planted their church. Rick Warren at Saddleback pretty much did the same thing. Ummm… it worked! Driscoll goes on to say that his church is 70% male or something like that. His targeting of a certain who is working as well.

I just wonder if you really need a who?

Is a “target audience” really necessary when one is planting a community?
Maybe more importantly, is a “target audience” really the most faithful thing to a scriptural proclamation of the Gospel?

These are just some of my questions when I think about the who of community planting. It seems to me that Christ died for the entire world, all of humanity. Is starting with a who in mind a way of saying one kind of person is more important or more valuable? I think I somewhat understand the argument that to have a target audience is smart because you are able to focus your efforts and limited resources on the needs of one particular people group. But I’m not convinced.

An authentic community probably can’t just be a bunch of dudes that look alike, vote alike, and drive the same kinda car or something, can it? I think part of the beauty of community is the diversity, the different voices, and assortment of ages, cultures, economic positions. An authentic Jesus-following community would be the par excellence of inclusive places. At least those are my idealistic idea at this point in the journey.

What do you think? Does a community planter need a “who” to start off with?

Give me some of your thoughts? Your pros and cons on the issue.

I look forward to hearing!

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The who, what, when, where, and why of community planting…

August 15th, 2008

I could plant a community 6 months from now, a year from now, or 10 years from now… who knows. But I am thinking a lot these days about the who, what, when, where, and why of ministry, specifically community planting ministry.

// WHO? Who is the “target”? Who are we hoping benefits from this community?

// WHAT? What kind of community is this going to be?

// WHEN? When is this going to happen? When is the right time?

// WHERE? Where do i plant this community?

// WHY? Why am I doing this? Why am I planting rather than just pastoring or something else?

All these question can go a million ways. Probably over the course of this conversation I will take them a million ways but over the next week or so I will start to ask these questions and I hope to get some helpful feedback from you!

Grace and peace
Erik

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