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We’re hoping to hit up one or both of these…

Last week I got to spend some time with a group of church planters, who provided opportunities to talk shop, learn about vision casting and play a few holes of disc golf. Let me preface this by saying that I haven’t reached championship caliber in disc golf yet. OK, I suck. But I did come up with a few lessons that pertain to church planting. Ready?

1. Effectiveness–not sexiness–is the objective.

“Nice disc purse, dude.”

It was no accident that the best player on the course, Jason Allen, carried his arsenal of diamond-etched, graphite coated, pro-model discs in a bag that looked like a large canvas purse. He even slung it over his shoulder between holes. And he didn’t blink when we gave him a hard time about it, because Jason knew that his disc purse was helping him reach his objective: kicking our butts. In a lot of circles, church planting is the hot item. I always thought of it as the extreme sport of Christianity–and everyone knows that the main allure of extreme sports is the chance to look good while rakishly risking your life. But winners realize that style falls by the wayside when you tackle something as difficult as church planting…or disc golf.

2. Humility is your ticket onto the course.

“I just missed a six foot putt. There goes the only strength of my game.”

Anyone can talk a good game. But a newbie can’t hide on the course. The only way to survive in a pastime with a learning curve as steep as disc golf or church planting is to admit what you know: practically nothing. And then set out to learn as fast and as well as you can.

3. Going long is half the game.

“I think that one disappeared over the curve of the earth.”

My best throws rounded out at around 60 feet. Jason’s best throws measured in at about 300. This made Jason a long distance thrower, and me a sprinter. I always had to use four or five tosses just to get near the hole, while he was usually putting within one or two. In a similar way, stats reveal that a lot of church planters burn out when they should just be settling into their marathon rhythm. Short-term precision is good. But going the distance is better. If you have endurance, you’ll have time to correct your mistakes.

4. Velocity overcomes bad marksmanship.

“You just shaved a branch off that tree.”

While us second-tier dudes routinely watched our discs get hung up on spiderwebs and blades of grass, we watched in disgust as Jason’s throws ripped right through low hanging branches like a circular saw blade. It wasn’t that our throws were worse (every once in awhile). It was just that they didn’t have the mustard to sail through a little resistance. Every guy who wants to plant a church knows he won’t get everything right the first time. The deciding factor is the spiritual velocity behind the vision. If the church planter is hearing from Jesus, getting his vision fed by God, then he’ll be able to razor right through some of those obstacles.

5. Seeing the course is non-negotiable.

“Now we’re throwing in that direction, maybe, I think.”

We spent a lot of time walking around the grassy course, sweating profusely, to figure out in what direction we should heave our discs next. Personally, I never really figured out the layout of the course, or how to read the arcane directional signs–which no doubt contributed to my mediocrity. When the next hole wasn’t directly in my line of vision, I usually opted for the right-angle approach: Throw straight ahead until I could see the flag, then throw straight ahead again. Grasping the layout of the course, the big picture, lets a golfer or planter play with strategy. That’s the advantage of wise, nuanced vision. Alternatively, you can just flail away and hope you’re going in the right direction.

Here’s the next installment in Church Planting with Small Groups…look for 2-3 more. In some ways, this item could be the most controversial, based on the very different approaches I’ve heard suggested. Feel free to push back on me here or give your take.

________See also Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4________

Give at least ten percent of income to missions via responsible stewardship.

Almost every church planter would agree in principle that, As a church, we want to support the Great Commission from day one. Up for debate is when day one begins. The rub is that the new church can’t support new evangelistic efforts if the people aren’t supporting the church. So when the church starts via small groups, the question becomes pointed: At what point in the church’s life should “tithing” (or generous giving) begin? Answer: As soon as people buy in to the vision and commit to being part of it.

Generous donations to missions are indicative of a strong, sacrificial missional ethos, and cash flow sends a clear message to core members: We may be small, but we are confident in God’s ability to provide to grow his church and to provide for our needs; God is generous when we are generous, and we want to love lost people like he does. It is no accident that of churches that give ten percent or more of income to missions, 80 percent grow quickly.[1]

What constitutes a “church?” Simply put, the church is the people of God. A local church is a group of believers who commit to doing life together for the glory of Jesus and furtherance of the gospel in a given context–even if there are just a dozen of them. It follows that if your “church” can easily fit on three sofas, they should still be invited to give their time and resources.

The goal of giving generously and missionally presupposes that the church planter has taught his people to do these things. Money follows vision–so the planter will need to cast a kingdom vision that encompasses all of life and justifies the donation of wealth. On a nuts and bolts level, a long-term stewardship development program will enable the church to eventually become self-sufficient–which is in itself a significant factor contributing to the health and survivability of church plants.[2]

Discussing money in a small group setting may seem more difficult, but the leader will need to have a plan to transparently put finances on the table from day one. This is a topic that could be discussed individually with core members as they consider the prospect of the new plant, e.g., “We are looking for people who will help set the tone for our community: people who are humble, others-focused, and ready to generously support this new gospel work with time and money from the beginning.”

________See also Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4________

[2] State of Church Planting USA: Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches, 3.

A guest post by Matt Maestas

Tim Challies’ freshman effort, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, is a helpful addition to the rather ambiguous void that exists in this area in Christian writing. With all of the self help, devotional and otherwise Christian literature available, it comes as a bit of a shock that more hasn’t been written on this vital topic.

Challies, of Challies.com fame is a much heralded blogger, Christian commentator and correspondent. It comes as a bit of a surprise that this is Challies’ first book, for it reads like a sage work. Filled with well rounded illustration and gripping analogy, Spiritual Discernment goes quickly, but prompts many instances of pause and reflection. Nestled at the back of the book is a study guide to help facilitate this venture.

In the introduction, Challies states he writes to the general reader who wishes to understand what the Bible teaches about discernment, showing that discernment is a discipline that Christians should seek to practice deliberately. In this stated goal, Challies succeeds by doing a fine job of highlighting examples of discernment in process and action in Scripture as well as providing a framework for this same discernment to take place in the life of the reader. Of especially good value in this regard are chapters 4 and 6 which focus on practical application concerning principles of discernment.

Another helpful chapter is 8, “Concerning the Dangers of Discernment.” This chapter serves as a helpful corrective against those who would label themselves the discernment or spiritual gifts police. In addition, Challies rightly warns of the dangers of both guilt and honor by association as well as going on unfounded witch hunts in the name of discernment.

With all that is notable about Spiritual Discernment, the book is not without its difficulties. First, an overly negative view of culture is taken, as God is seen to be at war with culture and not working within it in order to redeem. Secondly, at times it felt as if the communal aspects of discernment were overlooked in favor of the individual. Third, Challies seems to set up discernment as the ultimate spiritual gift, somehow exercising authority or preeminence over the others. Fourth, for an enterprise as complex as discernment, many of the solutions seemed overly simplistic, as when Challies writes, “Obeying God’s will is a relatively simple process of uncovering the truths of God so we might do the will of God.” Sounds real good on the exterior, yet in the Christian life, there are many difficult situations over which we must labor to make decisions. Finally, most troubling in Challies work is an overt infatuation with all things John MacArthur. While I have nothing against MacArthur and his ministry and teaching, overdependence on any one author is bound to color any perspective and this is evidently true in Challies work.

All in all, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment is a good read in an otherwise lacking area of Christian writing. While I cannot award it a full 3 stars, it is however worthy of a solid 2 on the Vanderhorst scale, “well worth your time.” This work would be especially valuable for a college or new believer’s class, yet is worth the time of a seasoned Christian as well.

[Matt is married to Jessica, and currently lives in De Soto, Kansas, where he is planting De Soto Community Church. A Will Ferrell devotee, he has been known to insert entire monologues from Talladega Nights or Elf into sermons. Just kidding.]

When I started seminary four years ago, I’m not sure I knew what the acronym stood for and I definitely didn’t know that there were conventions within the convention (wheels within wheels, if you will). Now, gearing up to plant a church, the prospect of partnering (or not partnering) with the SBC is something that can keep me up at night…especially in Missouri, where things are pretty messy right now. Nathan Finn has some insightful analysis regarding what’s coming down the line for the SBC.

I’m still fairly ignorant where all things SBC are concerned, but my hope is that churches can still be planted and the gospel can still go out via collaboration with even small groups of SBC people whose hearts/minds are in the right place.