4 Church Planting Tips with Lesslie Newbigin
Helpful thoughts on church planting from Lesslie Newbigin via Daniel Im.
Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), while being best known for his work in
missiology and ecclesiology, actually has a lot of advice for church
planters. In fact, each of them is an extension of his quote in the
picture above, or of my paraphrase below:
The church – a healthy church – is the hermeneutic of the gospel. It’s the way that the gospel comes to life. It’s the way that people can taste and smell the gospel.
When planting a church, it’s easy to go the way of the herd and get so
caught up with the details, that you forget the values or the underlying
ecclesiology that you’re trying to develop in the life of your church.
After all, without those details getting done, you wouldn’t be able to
plant a church. But what if, for a moment, you put those details aside
and re-examined the type of ecclesiology that you’re developing in light
of these four church planting tips that were inspired by Lesslie
Newbigin’s The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society?
1. Cultivate gratitude, not entitlement.
Newbigin suggests that churches need to be communities of praise and
thanksgiving and that this, perhaps, is the church’s most distinctive
character. So how are you cultivating a culture of praise and
thanksgiving in your church? Are you being intentional with your
preaching/teaching and the rest of your ministries? If you cultivate
that culture of praise and thanksgiving in your church, you’ll actually
see that translate into a heart of gratitude – and with gratitude,
you’ll be slaying the idol of entitlement. If that happens, you’ll see
your church’s “me” culture translate into a “we” culture, where the
focus will be less on personal comfort and wellbeing, and more towards
the wellbeing of your city and the salvation of those who are far from
God.
The church – a healthy church – is the hermeneutic of the gospel.
2. Share truth, not gossip.
The fuel that drives pop culture seems to be gossip and scandals.
This
isn’t just true for entertainment shows, late night shows and sitcoms,
but this pervades the news as well. If this is the MO (mode of
operation) of our culture, this will naturally seep into the life of
your church. So instead of calling your church to reject pop culture
outrightly and burn all their “secular” CDs and DVDs, what if you
cultivated a sense of skepticism towards it? After all, this skepticism
would enable your congregation to, in the words of Newbigin, “take part
in the life of society without being bemused and deluded by its own
beliefs about itself.” This sense of skepticism would allow your church
to be aware of pop culture, so that they could speak truth into it by
being an alternate community of truth apart from it.3. Be for your community, not just in your community.
On this point, Newbigin shares that the church is “God’s embassy in a
specific place.” So what does that mean? What’s the purpose of an
embassy anyway?
- It’s the official representation of one country in another
- It’s a place of gathering for the people of that country
- Outsiders can visit and learn more about that country, or apply to be a part of that country
- It serves to promote good relations in that country
In the same way, your church needs to serve as an embassy to your community:
- The way you gather, serve, celebrate and worship are on display to your community
- Make your gatherings exciting and meaningful
- Make it easy for visitors to join your church and discover Jesus
- Be involved in the concerns of your community – be a part of the change.
4. Develop players, not participants.
Jesus didn’t say, “Go and make participants,” he said, “Go and make
players.” That means the end of your discipleship pathway must be
“missionary.” So what would it look like to normalize “mission” and call
your people, not just to a deeper spiritual life, but to a life where
they’re fully on mission with God? What would it look like if everyone
in your church saw themselves first and foremost as missionaries, then
secondarily as everything else?
How are you cultivating a culture of praise and thanksgiving in your church?
Since Jesus described the Church as a royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:5,9),
it’s your responsibility to develop your people into priests. Think
about this for a moment, the way that you would train a player is vastly
different than the way that you would train a participant. For example,
in sports, the best participants are the best consumers – they’re the
ones who are buying the jerseys, the season tickets and all the
overpriced junk food that accompanies it. However, the best players are
the most diligent ones, the ones who know that they need to be training
both in season and off season. For the best players, that sport is their
life and there is no off-switch. What would it look like if this was
the way you developed disciples in your church?
Conclusion
The details are important. Raising up volunteers and finances, while
finding a meeting location are all mission critical. But so is the
underlying ecclesiology and missiology that affects the way you do
ministry and make decisions. By implementing these four tips, you will
definitely be on your way to creating a living, breathing representation
of the gospel in your community.
