** Warning, this is a bit of a soap-box rant **
Church planting ... I believe that it is a great method for getting the gospel out to the unreached while providing a place to foster new disciples and encourage believers. Church plants can be a way of bringing a visible church body into a community that has been otherwise devoid of it. And as we have learned from the textbook, they can be a way of meeting the needs in a community where other organizations fall short.
However, what I am struggling with, especially with our assignments, is discerning whether a community actually needs a church plant or whether the person wanting to plant the church should really consider pouring into the existing established organizations and churches. The textbook told us that we need to be careful not to overlook these organizations but rather see what their involvement is the community is and what they have to offer. I think that, especially in an urban setting such as we are in, our first priority should be to connect with these groups. If we find that they are lacking in reaching certain areas of the community, then we should seek to help them amend that. Whether it is done solely within that organization or as a joint effort with surrounding churches/organizations. Our faith community has been vastly blessed by God with various resources and connections and I think that they can work together to meet the needs of our neighbours both physically, emotionally and spiritually. We need to recognize this and make use of these resources. Paul likens Christians to the human body and as such we need to make more of an effort to work as the body; together in unison towards one goal: God's kingdom on earth!
So while I strongly believe in church planting, I think we need to be careful to consider the context in which we plan to start the plant and consider the resources already existing there.
Maybe in finding God's mission we need to look for what he has put in our hearts and minds. Try to discover what kind of passions for Church God has uniquely put into your hearts, then when you know how God wants to use you, find out where it fits in world around you.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like a lot of church plant opportunities in Canada will face this issue. I think of the neighbourhood I go to church where there are already two churches and a third church doing some pretty intensive ministry on week days. The fact that there are three churches doing ministry in the same area could make for strenuous relationships between the churches.
ReplyDeleteThen there are also situations where there may be a church that is not very active at all in ministering to the community. I am not going to pass judgment on why this but partnering with existing churches might be dangerous. Trying to get them to reach out to the community might be like pulling teeth. Do we go through that effort? Maybe we do, but we should be discerning.