14 February 2011
This is what I have written thus far to encourage the team members on the vision of the church plant. I invite you to read and hope that you will join us in our endeavors by covering us in prayer.
Word of the Cross
Church Planting Field Guide
"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV
[] Missional
[] Incarnational
[] Theological
[] Ecclesialogical
[] Spiritual
Being Missional
I had to come to grasp this term once again for what it truly means…and it has been refreshing.
How could I have forgotten (better yet, forsaken) my mission on earth. Bringing people to the knowledge of Christ brings Him the most glory. I felt like I was in a theological “rut”; growing and learning in my faith, but forsaking the preaching of the gospel to non-believers.
What is a missionary?
When I think about a missionary, I think about those that go abroad to other countries.
The assimilation with the culture, their language, etc… Being indigenous, (or looking for and pouring into one who is indigenous) is also important.
We have here [on our team] those that have come abroad and those that are indigenous. It is important to stay in touch with who we are and who we were in the culture. I felt as if I had to repent for forsaking who I was. The Lord will use who I am, how I grew up, to reach people. I should stay in touch with that.
Missional/Incarnational
“Go therefore…” Matthew 28:19
The Great Commission starts with “Go”! It is our duty to go to the culture and preach the gospel, to reach out. It is not, and it should not be expected that they will come to a foreign land of a “church”. We need to be a part of the culture, associate with them, while not compromising on the truth of the gospel.
I had to reconsider some of the staunch beliefs on preaching the gospel. It was almost as if I felt like that was it. Preaching the gospel is not just the act of telling someone about their sin and Jesus, it’s also about showing them. What if they reject the truth of the gospel? Would we, should we now forsake them? Absolutely not! Christ ate and associated with sinners. So should we…to preach the gospel.
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:17
We believe that people are saved by the message of the gospel. This entails communication. I’m sure all of you know that communication isn’t just brought about in words. No. Communication is brought about through body language, pitch/tone, etc… Likewise, the preaching of the gospel is too. If I went to a basketball court with a suit to preach the gospel, it is highly likely that I will NOT be heard. My communication ceases even before I open by mouth. Of course, I do believe that all things are possible in Christ and that He can sovereignly save someone in that manner, but it is our duty to remove all the barriers. Why preach in French to a bunch of Spanish speaking people?
So I say all this to say that, preaching the gospel – good, yes! Through words…primarily, yes. But what if they reject it? Then we must serve and love like all others and let the gospel be preached in that manner. This is what it means to be incarnational. This word relates to Christ, in that He became incarnate to be like us, to relate to us, to save us.
Difficulties/Warnings
The difficulties and warnings that are involved with this may or may not be obvious. Missionaries will be subject to the ways of the world. People will be cursing, having annoying habits, behaving immorally, speaking ignorantly, etc… Just think of it as what Christ sees in us. We are use to staying in the confines of Christendom, so environments like [other than this] can become frustrating. It is important that we live out the gospel as we know it and not compromise. It is also important to not impose Christian habits into non-believers. If they aren’t Christians, there’s no point. That’s essentially religion without the relationship. We must remember that it is Christ who changes us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Vision Cast
So my beloved WOTC (Word of the Cross) missionaries, WOTC is a missional outreach church. Our purpose is to reach today’s culture. Our goal is not to reach out to Christians (though attracting and/or repelling them is inevitable).
Bivocational
To be bivocational is to have two vocations or two jobs. That’s what I will be doing. It is actually recommended and I probably wouldn’t have it any other way. I can’t believe that some pastors would actually condemn it. It seems to me that they have lost a grip on reality and are stuck in Christendom, forgetting their true purpose. From what I can see, the benefits of being bivocational are two-fold.
1. I have a job. The church doesn’t have to support me. In fact, the church would benefit from my tithing as well.
2. I have first hand experience in the missionary field. I get to work with non-believers, share my faith, and show them the love of Christ. This is key!
Exercise: Marketplace Christianity
Write a list of the 5 closest people to you at your job. Tell me everything you know about them.
The purpose is to see how well you are doing in getting to know nonbelievers. Let’s make it a point to find out everything we can about them so that we can see how we could get a foot into their lives, to see how we may serve them and show them Christ.
How well are you doing?
Theological – Ecclesiological
“Go & Tell” vs “Come & See”
A “Come & See” approach is what we are use to churches normally doing nowadays. It is an attractional based ministry that invites nonbelievers to their culture. This type of ministry seems to attract more Christians than nonbelievers.
Our “Go &Tell”, M/I approach calls us to engage the culture where they are at with biblical non-compromising truth.
This brings us to our theological approach. I don’t really think that there is anything wrong with attractional churches. It just seems that we are use to churches that are attractional yet lack any biblical substance. Then you have churches that are attractional and biblical, but lack the missional, or the going out.
We are ecclesiological in that we believe in the importance of church, in the body of believers. Though our focus is to be missional, this does not mean we can neglect our Christian brothers and sisters. We believe in meeting together, fellowshipping, ministering, and growing in the church. We also believe that it is through the church that God operates in the world. Therefore, our hearts will be on planting churches in the surrounding communities.
Church Planting Church
It’s hard for me to even grasp this fully at this time because I’m in the middle of planting my own church, let alone plan on planting other churches. But what I do know is that God has called us to this and that if we don’t have it in our vision now, it will be extremely difficult to make it happen in the future.
Statistics say that this should be done within the first 3 years of a new church! Isn’t that crazy?!? This is realistic though, if we are doing what we are called to do – live missionally. If we are bringing nonbelievers in and discipling them, then the next step would be to send them off to plant a church in their own context.
Spiritual
And of course, we will be spiritual. We will be spiritual in the fact that we are born again! We are no longer about ourselves, but about God. It’s not about how well I preach, or how well someone sings, or cooks, but how awesome the God that we serve is.
Enjoy and God bless!
