From time to time, I get calls from church planters asking if I would plant a church in the COG if I were them. The NCPO has a poor track record and most states don’t fund church planting to a significant degree. There are other organizations better setup for new churches like ARC and Acts29. So, what’s a COG church planter to do since the greatest church planting opportunities in the COG are not typically found in starting out from zero?
The greatest COG opportunities are in replanting plateued or declining COG churches. With 49% of our churches having under 50 people, there are scores of great opportunities waiting to be had. There are hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in assets sitting in buildings across the US. These assets have largely been hijacked from the mission of Jesus by a drifting in the focus on what our true purpose is. The new and off-mission purpose is too often protected by a handful of watchdogs…well intentioned people who guard tradition and yesterday at the expense of the original and only Gospel Mission.
If I was a church planter and wanted to remain in the COG, I would ask for 1) a church where there were very few people and 2) the full support of my AB to do whatever was necessary with the property and the people to refocus on the mission of Jesus. I would get it in writing to arm me in the transition process with my people and to protect the original agreement should another overseer be appointed on down the road that may not have the same understanding or may understand what’s going on.
With approximately 3,000 churches in the US that match this description, we may have some of the greatest church planting opportunities of any group anywhere. And, since pastors are not clamoring to get into those positions, you may have relatively little competition for the chance to go for it in a community you have a great heart for.
Your thoughts?
Filed under: church of god, church planting
In my humble (sometimes) opinion, the key word for church planting in the 21st Century is – CONNECTIVITY!
1. First, I don’t believe that denominations “beget” churches. Churches “beget” churches, so the best way to launch a new church is for an established, strong church to put together a team FROM THAT CHURCH. Now, I know that there are other ways that have been successful, but I’m talking about what I think is ideal.
2. Next, the new church plant should be connected at the hip with the mother church for a long time (ideally indefinitely), but the church plant would eventually have the autonomy to make that decision on their own, as unpredictable changes could happen at the mother church. The church that Daystar is now launching will be a separate church, but will have an ecclesiastical board that includes some leaders from the mother church (including myself, the lead pastor). This board will work in harness with the local leadership of the new church. Eventually more power will be relegated to the local leadership team, leaving the ecclesiastical board as only a resource to the new church.
3. Finally, a new church plant MUST be connected with a church planting mentor. Someone like yourself, Travis. The man from our church who is launching the new church will continue to be mentored by me, but must also have a mentor who is close to the church planting field. We do have an advantage in this area, since this will be the second church plant that our guy has launched.
In summary, CONNECTIVITY is the strongest word I can use for church planting. The loneliness, fear, doubt…that goes along with a new venture like this really requires connectivity on a personal level. And the logistical and financial burdens connected with a new church plant requires connectivity on a church level.
Travis, I agree re-planting those small church that are declining or have plateaued is probably the best opportunity we have to plant churches in the US. Jerry’s strategy would be ideal but I don’t know of a lot of other churches doing what he is doing and with the support/accountability structure in place that Jerry describes I sense a level of control that reminds me of a denomination.
Maybe a combination of the two approaches would be more feasible. A ministry team, maybe two couples, take a small church in or close to an area with potential for growth. Then the NCPO sends a mentor to visit the team once a month and spend a few days each visit for the first year to assess their needs, pray with them, mentor them one on one and help them brainstorm and think outside the box focusing on reaching their community for Christ (engaging that particular culture).
That mentor also visits established churches that have a heart to plant churches and presents the need of this church re-plant to them giving them an opportunity to give and support that team and the vision God has given them. This could be the entire job of these people who have the apostolic/church planter gift. They could focus on maybe 2 church re-plants at a time and take on more as the mission churches become more independent.
Many pastors are not church planters and I believe that is an apostolic calling. Those with that calling, like Paul, birth churches and ministries.
I like the idea, but I have 1 thought about it. Most of the smaller COG churches are small because there is usually a small faction of people that have rooted themselves in the church and have gained control. These people go by many different names: church bosses, “charter members” or my favorite one, sinners! But, going with your method Travis, would you try to convert these existing ‘problem people’ to your new vision or would you be resigned to the fact that you will lose them quickly. And if that’s the case, would you just try to get it over with as soon as you get there?
I would get the blessing of the overseer going in that I had the authority to do whatever is necessary to transition the church, including closing it down before re-opening it. I’d get that in writing.
I was able to work with our people here. But, our transition process was fairly lengthy and it took a lot of patience. Our people were mostly good people. I’ve been in some churches where they kill pastors like its a weekend activity. That’s where the letter would come in handy.
I’d get a job and get to it…expecting nothing from the current batch of people, being hopeful that some can make the transition.
The truth is that many of the people coming from a potentially dysfunctional situation will be unable, unwilling to even make a change. Having not been on a winning team, they may not even know that winning is possible. They might be defeatist toward any forward movement….seen that before.
Travis, I was in this very situation in the church we had in Maryland. (we have resigned our church and have since moved back to SC due to the failing heath of my dad). we were at a church identical to what you have described. it was less than 20 and the church had a bad reputation in the community due to the previous pastor and members that we “inherited.”
For 2 years, we beat the bushes trying to get new people and “weed out” those that Troy described above. We changed the name of the church, changed the appearance, and did everything we knew to try to bring people in. We would engage people in the community and conversations would soon lead to where the church was located and that was when the attitudes would change. the responses that we would get from people once they knew where we pastored were not very positive. even though they knew the old pastor had left and the majority of the people were all new, they still refused to attend due to what had taken place before we took over. (long story there)
this was really getting old and we were not seeing new people and i went to the state office with the possibility of selling the property and taking some of the money and relocate the church to either a school less than a mile away or a theater less than 2 miles away. The money that would have been made on this property could have literally funded multiple church plants, paid me a salary to be full time and still have money to purchase an office area for the church. There is no doubt in my mind, we could have moved locations and built a dynamic church in that area if we had the ability to do that.
the response that i recieved from them were, “that property is too valuable to sell.” i left with the feeling that all though they wanted to see us succeed and grow and they would help us all they could, selling the property was not an option. i literally felt like i had been placed on the titanic AFTER it struck the iceberg, and expected to keep it afloat.
i know there may be some instances where selling may not be an option, but we were in the perfect position to do something great. The payoff was low compared to what the property was worth, the people who were at our church did not have ties to the property or the building, and the area was ripe for a strong progressive, spirit filled church. it has caused me to think that all though there may be some in leadership that will think outside the realms of traditional business, as a whole the COG movement’s asset’s are their building and property and not people.
in a time when the COG is declining in membership, we should not have the fear of releasing some of our properties to fund and support existing and new works. there was a small baptist church a few miles from our church that was in a similar situation. short story….the SBC came in, closed the church for 8 months, kept a small group meeting in homes, brought in a pastor and is paying his salary for 3 years to build a new church. we have got to stop thinking small if we want to see people added to the kingdom. we need to start having leaders who will listen to people who actually live in the communities in which they pastor. they are the ones that have the pulse of their community and know what it needs.
sorry for the long post…looking forward to the engage21 conference.
Re-planting can be a great thing Travis. We did a re-plant while I was in California beyond our first church plant in San Francisco. The re-plant was in San Pablo. The church had falling to one family and the overseer turned the church over to Dr Ron Hooks who was co-founder of the San Francisco church with me. We were able to take the church to over 100 people in less than a year. We then turned the church over to a pastor friend of ours and the church is alive and doing well to this very day.
Peace,
Steve Wright
Bill, it’s sad when a once great denomination makes it’s decisions based on real estate. Study any denomination/movement/empire in history and you’ll find that when money comes before mission, sharp decline is quickly on it’s heels. I hope this doesn’t happen to the Church of God.
I’m looking for people and churches who want to plant missional churches in America. What if a bunch of missional minded pastors committed a percentage of their churches’ income to planting new missional churches. What if that money went straight to the new church that we targeted, and bypassed Cleveland and state offices. What if there were a group of us who were missional minded who would plant these churches and adequately fund them? If you what to discuss this further goto http://www.mikeburgner.com and let me hear what you got to say.
Mike,
My hope is that it doesn’t come to that. We will see what the outcome of Engage 21 is at the end of the month. However, your point is well taken and I know of one case where two large churches in our denomination have partnered together to plant/replant a church. So, if our denomination refuses to support the mission and vision then we may have to may have to find another way to fund and support the missional pastors.
I’m not suggesting a rebellion or exodus from the COG. I’m suggestion a revolution within the COG. I love my heritage, but heritage is not going to keep the COG alive another 20 years. I had the opportunity from 2003 to 2006 to be an itinerate minister preaching in COG congregations thoughout the USA. One disturbiing thing I noticed in nearly every congregation I attended with few exceptions—80-90% of the crowd were 55 &up. Please do not think I’m anti old people, or on a rampage against the builder/boomer generations. However, this fact is a symptom of a sick body. We have the first warning signs of death in the COG. How many cancer patients could have been saved if they would have detected it early enough? Our denomination is facing warning signs of death. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
How about more evidence? Go to a ministers meeting, general assembly, or conference and witness the handful of COG preachers under the age of 50. Our leaders have put pastor after pastor after pastor in these dying congregations and many of the young ones who bring a new vision or new life are abused and end up quitting the ministry.
Yes, some of our existing congregations have hope of replanting or having a major paridigm shift and becoming missional, but most just wanta stay as they are and die. Many of our congregations are like terminal cancer patients who just want to be left alone and die. “Don’t try to save me! Just give me something to ease the pain and just let me alone!”
Please do not think I refer to a group of people as “cancer”, but rather a mentality in our church. Most churches dominated by 55 and up people expect those from younger generations to just come in and conform to the old time way!
I have a living will. If something terrible happens to me, I’m not going to drain my children’s inheritance to keep me alive! I will not be kept alive with machines and become a burden for my family. Why does the COG keep pouring millions of dollars in resources and thousands of hours to keep our programs alive? Why not pull the plug and invest our resources in the church of tomorrow? THE COG IS DRAINING THE INHERITANCE OF THE NEXT GENERATION! Planting missional churches is the medicine that will cure the spirit of death from taking our church.
Mike,
I agree with you 100%. Next week, before Engage 21, I will be posting something that confirms what you have saying.
Wow…what passion Mike. As one of those young (less than 10%) ministers in the COG (26 years old) it is exciting to see a fire for the mission of Jesus being lit in men who have been at this longer than me…Evolution is ultimately the key…the COG has ceased to evolve, and like anything that does not change in a changing paradigm, it has began to show signs of its impending irrelevance. This is not a cut or shot at a great heritage and history, but as Mike said, history will not carry any living organism into the next era of its existence, and is that not what the body of Christ is supposed to be, a living, breathing organism. Great leadership happens when we are capable of looking at something that may be working or has worked in the past, dissect it, evaluate it, and strategically plan for how it must evolve in order to survive…where are these leaders? They seem to be the one’s with the least amount of sway in this movement…So what choice is left for a young man with a passion for Jesus, His message, and His mission? What is the recourse…Where do we find an expression? How is it possible to ignore opportunities through other organisms/organizations that will open the door for this expression of worship and mission to take place? Any cogent answer would be appreciated, outside of the conclusions that I have already drawn…
The problem as I see it is that the COG has become more of a hospice organization than a Birthing Place. Priority has been given to make dying churches comfortable at the expense of financially backing upstart churches. I sense there is a change on the way and believe the best days are ahead. Its encouraging to find others in the COG striving for change.
While I believe re-plants are vital for the church, I also believe strategic church plants are sometimes needed to escape past reputations and pre-conceived notions.
Great thoughts on re-plants. I also agree with my buddy John. I think both aspects are vital to our movement. These are areas that must be our focus. We must empower and educate pastors in current churches on how to refocus and reshape dying, comfortable churches. Also, the emphasis on church planting must take top priority. The opportunities are there but it will take some leaps of faith to get there from where we are currntly at. We must push the mindst that we are placed where God wants us and we should reach that specific culture. Too many want Church of God churches that all look and act the same. This is a flaw in our thinking that must be addressed at every level. I believe God wants to do great things with our movement, but we must be willing to accept the challenge to serve our unique generation!
Many in our current churches want change, they just are not sure how to make it happen. We have property and people with potential but we must improve leadership to lead and not coexist while vision dies.
I love the letter idea, this gives you some backing while making significant changes. Many will leave, many should come but most imoportantly the vision must succeed!
Travis… love everything you have articulated here and have been doing exactly what you suggest in the Pacific Northwest for the last 6 years. When we first arrived there was a small group of very dysfunctional believers doing irrelevant ministry, in an irrelevant building, in an irrelevant location in a very relevant suburb of Portland Oregon. The church was broke in every way, thought the facility had some value if liquidated.
From the start, our intention was to replant, though there wasn’t a lot of discussion at that time about the concept. It was embraced with some skepticism by regional COG leadership, but the support was there because of some early wins. I’ve found previous successes will always validate your new ideas.
Six years later, we have relevant ministry taking place within our cultural context with about 150 people, and are getting ready to move into a brand new relevant facility in a very relevant location. In a sense, I feel like we are just about to plant a church with a very strong core group. It has been possible because of the original facility we renovated and then liquidated. It has taken longer than I thought, but then again, the spiritual soil in the Northwest is know for it’s refusal of spiritual seed.
I honestly believe in our regional setting, this replanting is in many ways a better approach than planting at this moment in time because of many things you have articulated above regarding the COG structure. Fortunately, we have a Bishop who is supportive of the process, and we have had a few churches attempt this concept with success. Though we are still in the process, we hope to serve as a blue print for this to be done many times over.
Then, after we have established ourselves and mature, we can just give birth to other congregations or send teams to the replants in major population centers that have a church that is right for the replanting process.
Really Good Stuff. When I left an overseas Pastorate and wanted to come back to the states, I wanted so much to plant a Church. The problem was, I didn’t have a team (important key to a successful plant), or support to get my family settled, so I decided to take a small Church with the intention of turning it around. It has been an uphill battle, but the rewards are now beginning to come. When I attended the Planters Conference a couple years back, one of the speaker’s statements about the unlikelihood of turning a Church around in America weighed heavy upon my heart. I asked myself, is it really that existing (diminishing) Churches can’t be turned, or that we have been using the wrong models? I am sure I have been doing many things wrong the past 2 years, but God is affecting the Change here in upstate NY, and we are now positioned to really impact our community. With so many Churches in decline and almost closing, I am all for a re-focus of resources towards revitalization. One of our greatest assets in our Church was that our building was already paid for when we arrived – while it is small, when we sell it, it will serve to push us forward in the new Church that is emerging through us.
Rob Miskowski
Rob,
It’s great to hear your thoughts and have you drop in…hope its the beginning of a habit.
Hi Rob… good to see you on here. I hope you and Rhonda are are well.
Beloved Pastor Rob, greetings in the name of our lord and saviour jesus Christ.
It is great joy to visit your web site and to know how the lord is working through you. We want to introduce ourselves to you, I am from India saved by the grace of god in 1964,baptized in 1967 and graduated in Baptist Bible College in 1974 ever since I am serving the lord still today. The lord has given the vision soul winning and church planting reviving the churches and to see the reformation in the churches. So far the lord has blessed me in the ministry and still using me, I have written three books and several pamplets and four V.C.D’S in our language. I have seen much blessings in these ways recently I have given series of lessons on second coming on T.V channels. We have 100 beleivers in our fellowship, by his grace we have good accomidation for 400 beleivers on our own property site. Since this is a third world country and we live among the slum people to serve small and great . If the lord opens the door to start your work in India specially Hyderabad the state capital of AndhraPradesh. We welcome you in the name of the lord. There are several other co-workers with me, those who do not have cycles or two-wheelers if they are provided little financial help they can speed up the ministry in a better way.We have several groups of believers in the entire state those who badly needed prayer halls to be constructed. If you want to ask any question we are open to give you the right reply in the name of the lord. Please send us mail as soon as possible.
Thanking you somuch
Yours in his service
Pastor:G.ARYA RAO
I had the very good fortune of attending the Christian Servicemens Center at RAF Upper Heyford at the time that Rob (Miskowski) was attending. Along came Rhonda and we never got any sense out of them afterwards! No, seriously, Rob & Rhonda were two very special friends of mine and I’ve from time to time looked up their names on the internet to catch up with what they’re doing and have noticed them being at USAFE Mildenhall and now, it transpires, they’re back in the good ol’ US of A. My very best wishes to them both.
Kindest regards,
Richard Chandler-Jones (nee Chandler)
The British Dude(!)
Dear Brother in Christ,
We are two people started a ministry named ALPHA & OMGA GOSPEL MINISTRY. WE are looking for fund to reach to unreach people. If your church would be our church partner God will be glorified thru your org. we will send our details after your confirmation.
with thanks and loving greetings.
Pastor Biswa Das