Archives For church plant

Leadership in the Local Church – Elders

March 3, 2010 — Leave a comment

When the Apostle Paul was planting churches in the first century, he wrote a letter to a church-planting partner named Titus. He wanted to make sure Titus had not been distracted from first-order business in the church. In the letter, he wrote, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.”

Global-mission-of-GodThree quick observations help us learn something about the appointment of elders in church plants.

First, there was something that remained undone in the preparation of the church until elders had been put in place. This was not optional, supplemental or secondary. The local churches were incomplete until they had God-ordained leaders.

Second, there was period of time that passed from when these churches were launched and when the elders were in place. Presumably, this allowed time for church health, spiritual growth, character evaluation, doctrinal training, and missional living to develop within the people. We are not told what period of time passed before the establishment of elders in each church, but it is clear that a period of leadership transition is normal for most church plants.

Third, Paul (the visionary leader for the church planting movement) designated a trusted leader named Titus (a regional pastor) to appoint elders for the churches. Paul writes to Titus: “This is why I left you in Crete…” It was a priority for Paul and for Titus in the launching of new churches. Most church plants follow the pattern of a leader or leaders, often from outside the core group, who oversee the church until elders have been raised up from within the new church.

The Global Movement of God

When you step back and look at the big picture, this pattern makes sense. A church is not a stand-alone organization designed for its own good. A church is a part of The Church, a global movement of God to replicate the life and mission of Jesus in people of every tribe. The movement strategy is to launch new local churches that will reproduce authentic Christ-followers in every people group. For the movement to reach its full potential, each new church must join in the global multiplication of churches.

If a new church is indeed part of this global movement, it is clear that establishing healthy leadership in each church is essential to success of the movement as a whole. It is also clear that the elders of the local church should see themselves as leaders in a movement that extends far beyond their local community. They are a team of leaders on assignment in a local church to further reproduce the life and mission of Jesus in a specific place, with the purpose of furthering the global mission of God.

Churches often lose sight of their role in the global mission of God, and a new church struggling to reach the lost, update the website, pay the bills, and survive the next Sunday is especially vulnerable at this point. It takes just a few people to distract or derail a church in its early years. This is why transitional leaders must guard the gate closely and prioritize the training and appointing of elders in a church plant. This is also why the initial elders must understand and embrace their role in God’s movement called The Church. The first elders in a church bear a great burden to keep a rapidly-changing and often immature church on course so that it can maximize its redemptive potential in the world.

-jdl

In Church, Church Planting, Global, Leadership, Mission, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,
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Engaging the New South with the Gospel

February 27, 2010 — 1 Comment

We launched our church because of the great need in our area for churches with both deep belief in the gospel of Jesus and deep love for the people in our area. Rather than retreating from our world, we wanted to be a church that engaged our world for good. It is hard to deny that the South is littered with the bones of dead or dying churches that are failing to positively and significantly impact our world for Jesus. That’s not to say that every church is a bad church, but it does point to some major issues at play in many churches. Two years into our church plant, I am more convinced than ever of the need for new and renewed churches to meet the challange of a rapidly changing culture. Statistics also bear this out (see the map below). For the first time in 200 years, the church in the South is on the decline by attendance.

April 26-27, I will be attending a conference that will address these issues and call us to make a difference at this critical time. I want to invite you to join me at the conference. It would be a blast to have a bunch of us dreaming and praying together about how God might use us to engage our world with the gospel. If you are interested, you can register at www.advancethechurch.com. Please let me know, and we’ll plan to connect.

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The following was posted on Pastor J. D. Greear’s blog (jdgreear.com) and is reprinted by permission.
Guest Blogger: Mike McDaniel, Director of SendRDU
Map Source: American Church in Crisis by Dave Olsen

That’s the title for this year’s Advance Conference, April 26-27 in RDU. Last year we called for a resurgence of the local church. This year we’re focusing on the major issues that are standing in the way of that happening here in the South.

The South is changing. Urbanization and the vibrant growth of our cities have transformed the cultural landscape. Cities like RDU have become new centers of business and education, places where culture is being formed and made. And yet as our cities are advancing, the church is shrinking. For the first time in its history, the church in the South is declining at a rate faster than anywhere else in the country.

See for yourself. This map shows you where evangelical Christianity is growing in the U.S. (Pink indicates growth. Blue indicates decline).

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And this isn’t just a problem in the cities, either. These changes are felt in small towns, where small town southern values are clashing with new urban postmodernity, and religion is often more prevalent than the gospel. There may be churches on every corner, but most are plateaued or declining to the point where they will be empty in 20 years.

As we stand at this critical turning point, we must be prepared to respond. We believe that the decline of the church is not due to external factors, but internal failures of the church to faithfully communicate the Gospel and engage the changing culture around us. That is the vision behind the title Contextualizing the Gospel in the New South. We want to equip pastors, lay leaders, and members to respond by engaging the changing culture of the South with the unchanging message of the gospel.

This year we’ve moved the conference to the Summit to be able to offer it the cheapest price possible. Right NOW you can get tickets for a ridiculously cheap early bird rate of $50.

Speakers include: Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Johnny Hunt, David Platt, Tullian Tchividjian, Matt Carter

You can register at www.advancethechurch.com.

In Church, Church Planting, Culture, Gospel, Leadership, Mission, Uncategorized , , , , ,
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Going Solo and Other (Mis)Adventures in Learning

December 10, 2009 — 2 Comments

goingsolo(web)In a recent blog posted on the Gospel Coalition site (here’s a link), Tim Keller wrote about the benefits of being a solo pastor in a small church. Two years into a church plant, my experience tells me that he’s onto something.

When I worked in a large church, I learned a certain set of ministry functions, mostly focused on the specific area in which I worked. I dabbled in other areas, but never really “owned” any of them.  There were lots of things I had never done before and never would have done in a large church.

When I decided to move on to a lead pastorate, I had the opportunity to go to another good-sized church as my first “lead pastor” position. Instead, I chose to come to North Carolina and plant a new church in a rural area that was rapidly changing to incorporate new growth. Of course, the economic recession had something to say about the rapid growth and that has modified our timeline. We are still more rural than anyone would have guessed when we launched the church. In time, that will change, but for now, I’m learning a lot in our current situation.

Why Pastor a Church Plant or a Smaller Church?

Well, the first reason is the call of God. When we began exploring options, my wife, Nan, and I sensed that God was calling us to launch a new ministry here in the largely hyper-educated region known as the research triangle. There was a sense that we had the opportunity to do something for the kingdom that no one else was doing in our target area.

Another reason I chose to plant a church was that I believed it would force me to learn new things and become more well-rounded as a pastor. Keller writes about this:   

You can’t teach a younger pastor much about things they aren’t actually doing. And in a large church they aren’t a) bearing the burden of being the main leader, b) leading a board of elders, c) fund-raising and bearing the final responsibility of having enough money to do ministry, d) and doing the gamut of counseling, shepherding, teaching, preaching.

In a church plant setting, I’m forced to learn the full breadth of ministry. There isn’t any place to hide. If something needs to be done, I am usually involved in one way or another. We have a second pastor on the team now, and we’ve got a great group of volunteers that make ministry happen. We wouldn’t be a church without them. But when something goes wrong, I almost always get the call.

Along the way, I’m learning to counsel marriages, share the gospel, wade through personality conflicts, mobilize servants, build a leadership team, work through communication issues, encourage generosity, confront sin, nurture spiritual renewal, comfort those who are hurting, and so many other things. If I were in a larger church, I could delegate, program, or hire to avoid personally doing any one of these important parts of ministry.

I’ll love it when we have more people on the team, but I’m glad that I’m not missing out on this step in the journey God has for me.

-jdl

In Church, Church Planting, Leadership, Personal , , , , ,
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