Below is the proposal I sent to the Executive Council for consideration for the General Assembly 2010 Agenda. This was referred to a study commission and will not be on the Agenda this year. What are your thoughts?
BACKSTORY
Like so many others, I have long been concerned with the lack of commitment from the Church of God to effective church planting. Even in times when designated church planting funds have been used for church planting, it appears that we do not have an effective model, so our efforts often fail. There may be several reasons for this propensity to be unsuccessful:
- Lack of proper training in church planting.
- Lack of ongoing support: mentoring, resourcing, encouragement.
- Lack of connection with a local Mother-Church.
Most people recognize that the most effective model for church planting is when a local church “has a baby” or plants a church out of itself. It has been well observed: “Churches beget churches. Denominations do not beget churches.”
I offer a recent Daystar Church plant testimony as an example. About two years ago, our Student Life Pastor, Greg Davis expressed his desire to pastor a church. So, we set out to birth a daughter congregation and send Greg out as the church planter. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t just send out a preacher with some money. We wanted to send out the Daystar DNA. So, we provided the new pastor with the following:
- A complete structure to run the ministries of the church. About 50 volunteers with the new pastor. Each of these had been trained and served in the various ministries of Daystar. Literally, the day they started, they were a junior version of Daystar. Ushers, greeters, children’s ministry, follow-up ministry, prayer teams, media, youth, etc…were all trained and ready to go.
- Demographic research: the new pastor and I spent much time discussing where, how, and when this launch would take place. Now, not only is he on board, but so am I. If it is in both of our hearts, we are more likely to team together to make it all happen.
- Support of $50,000 from the mother church as well as much more from other resources.
- Resources: Every spare piece of equipment, furniture, signage, etc… that we could round up was given to him.
What is the result? Eighteen months into the new church plant, Chelsea Community Church is averaging around 350 in attendance. The pastor is full-time and the community is turning on its head in revival.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
It is my belief that an effective approach to re-affirming our pioneering DNA is critical to our future. We must do this now. We cannot afford, as an Acts 1 and Acts 2 Church to compromise our commitment to our Mission in favor of other good but, lesser priority activities or line items.
So, why don’t we allow local churches to take a portion of their tithe-of-tithe, in the range (20%) of our historical financial commitment to church planting,* and use it to birth new churches? If we could forge a church planting partnership with the Church of God, we could exponentially increase our church planting efforts both locally and internationally.
Further, such an arrangement could undermine the structural flaw which has caused, over the course of decades, mandated church planting monies to be appropriated by the state offices to fund other activities. Instead of this money going through the state office, 100% of the church planting monies would go directly into starting new churches.
Therefore, I am proposing the following motion to be considered for strong approval by this Executive Council for inclusion on the 2010 General Assembly Agenda:
PROPOSAL
That local churches be permitted to invest up to 20% of their monthly Tithe of Tithe of the State/Regional Office portion of funding in establishing a new church or a new campus of an existing church. The church and/or church planter would be required to raise matching funds to be eligible to receive this percentage of Tithe of Tithe church planting funds.
STRUCTURAL NOTE
Please attach this proposal to the appropriate place in the new financial structure of the Tithe of Tithe or it’s most appropriate place.
Authored by Jerry Lawson
*It was in 1929, the year of the Great Depression when the Church of God rallied together to declare a mandated commitment level of denominational giving to North American church planting.
Filed under: church of god
[...] Planting Initiative QUESTIONSI Posted on June 2, 2010 by jerrylawson As you can see below, I have posted my church planting proposal to the Executive Council for consideration for the [...]
hello My Name is Wally, The name of my church is Kingdom Life Church, I started this Church 2 Years ago, with 20 people, we are now running about 85 to 90 adults , 6-10 babies and 20 children in our childrens Church. as of late we are still growing, lots of visitors at times running 110 plus. We are in rented building located in Rochester New Hampshire. Its vision for the lost, that calls me to the street. Would love to talk to some one . who would be interested in talking,
I have some doubts as to the economic sustainability of church planting at US$50,000 and up each time:
http://www.vulcanhammer.org/2010/06/22/my-thoughts-on-the-2010-church-of-god-general-assembly-agenda/
I also make some other comments re our upcoming GA.
I have watched two church planters fail in our area because of a lack of trainning or funding or both. Both of these men had a great vision and desire for the area. I would love to see what Jerry is talking about become the norm in the COG.
Don, you said, “I have some doubts as to the economic sustainability of church planting as US $50,000 and up each time.” Can you flesh out this point?
Jerry
I actually did so on my own post, but I’ll repeat it here for convenience:
Don, thanks for further explaining your point. I would argue that we’ve tried the “low-cost low-budget” approach to church planting and it doesn’t seem to be working in our time. While raising $50,000 may not be an easy challenge and we may not have many takers, we need to realize the context we are in right now in the COG. Last year we closed more churches than we opened in the COG, so any improvement is appreciated.
All of that aside, my proposal DOES NOT MANDATE $50,000 or any amount for planting a church. The beauty of this proposal is that a church could be planted with $5,000 or with $100,000…or more….or less. The point is shared investment from the state and local church. This is something we have NEVER had in my lifetime in the COG and I would love to see it.
Jerry
Well, Jerry, this is something of a “view from the pew” kind of analysis, but here goes…
Next month Laity Ministries will present for the last time its Hall of Christian Excellence awards for outstanding laity. We’ve had church planters in the hall; one I remember did so in the NYC area. But he was Malayalam. I suspect that the use of lay outreach pastors/cell group leaders and the like is more common in our non-Anglo churches (a group sorely lacking in this discussion or in the aftermath of the reallocation of resources) than it is in our Anglo ones.
There’s always going to be a need for “World Missions” types of church plants, but if we a) deem them to be the norm and b) set, say, $50K as a benchmark, then over time that’s going to be the accepted way, and everyone else will wait for the laity to reach for its wallet and fork over, just like we do with World Missions. As I said, we’ll run out of money before we run out of mission.
If we look at the NT (esp. 1 Cor 12) we see that spiritual gifts are supposed to be spread about the Body of Christ. But that doesn’t square with the way it’s done in our church. We could be doing (and have done in the past, in some places) much more ministry if we spent more time investing in making our lay people the ministers they’re supposed to be, and save a good deal of money in the process. But we’re not.
I used to be Roman Catholic. I’ve said it before in other places and I’ll say it again (although the current pope is shifting things in the other direction): the RCC’s view of the laity is, in some ways, higher than ours. This is, for me personally, a let down, and working for 13.5 years in the IO has only deepened the let down feeling I get on this subject. And we don’t have the sacerdotal theology to buttress our idea, either.
The long-term consequence of this is that it’s going to be difficult for our churches to hold onto quality people in the pews if the potential for them to actualise the call of God on their lives is stunted by a “trade union” attitude amongst our ministers. I’ve heard many people on this forum talk about ministers going elsewhere for better opportunities; well, lay people can and will do the same thing.
And, of course, I haven’t scratched the surface of the way we handle our money in general. I have some fun with this issue at
http://www.vulcanhammer.org/2010/06/20/crossing-the-rainbow-bridge-a-pentecostal-saga/
But my intent is serious: unless our church, at all levels (IO, state and local church) becomes a better steward of its resources, it will never have enough, and this church planting idea, along with many other worthy things, will become a mirage.
Don,
I’ll agree with your last statement. In the past we were using church planting dollars for all sort of other projects. This proposal does just what you are calling for. It mandates that we steward God’s resources for church planting, something we have not done in decades.
Jerry,
I just read your original post.
I love the story that you told, which is such a beautiful picture of how we should support and build up others and equip them to do the work of ministry. I say forget the money side of it for a second. The support and experience that was offered to that church plant is worth a million dollars in my opinion, compared to the $50,000. I know that it does take money.
However, let me throw a stone into the soup here. This type of endeavor will be difficult for our administrative structure to be successful with simply because there is no health in the Church. They can’t help some local congregations to be healthy and growing. How, then, could we begin to consider that they would be able to plant a healthy congregation? They will ultimately replicate the same situations that already exist.
I think your plan is a great one, IF it comes as the burden of a growing church. Where growth is taking place . . . and I should qualify . . . . not just numbers, but saved marriages, deliverance from addictions, healings, maturity, etc. Where those things are happening, including increases in numbers, God will provide the money and people to support a plan like you have outlined.
Just my 2 cents.
Great discussion here everyone. i think we would do well to study the most successful church planting fellowship in the past few years – Association of Related Churches. http://www.arcchurches.com I have been privileged to know many of these church planters personally (including Billy Hornsby, Joe Champion and others). If one were to study these life-giving churches and the systematic, prayerful ways they have been planted, one could only be amazed at the results they are seeing. Just a thought. And by the way….we are planning on doing our part here in Texas. After two years as senior pastor here, we have already planted our first church, with plans for at least six more to come.
Coming late to the party, but haven’t checked this site in more than a year. Great idea Jerry- may have to be tweaked, but I love the “matching faith” concept in funding the initiative. About 5 years ago I proposed a “matching faith” fund for Missions. I’ve seen well intentioned giving cripple long-term a Missions church when it does not allow local faith in giving to be exercised. We all sacrifice for what we believe in, and planters should be challenged to sacrificially give as they promote their vision. At the same time, proposals such as yours call forth and affirm the visions of the young men and prophesies of sons and daughters we as Pentecostals should expect in these Last Days. This is the mentality of faith and courage that the Church of God needs today, that of Caleb and Othniel. Yet the entitled and dependent sons of Joseph are also with us. Local planting initiatives require resources, but like the talents parable, the end result is a multiplication of resources…it’s time to put some seed in the ground.