In case you are new here, I am part of a team that is planting a church in Winston-Salem, NC. We are brand new, just wrapped up our second week. We are proud to be a part of the ARC organization, which we feel has the vision and leadership to be one of the major influences on the growth of the modern Church – internationally.
Okay, on with it. I came across this article by Jon Tyson, who is a pastor in New York City. The concept is the city parish model, which is basically a network of smaller life groups forming community churches, joining together to have major impact in their city. This seems very different to me than what many churches are doing right now. I would venture to say the city parish model is far less popular than a multi-site strategy. Back to the article:
Two things stood out to me.
1. This would take a network of like-minded pastors to pull off
2. If successfully done, would revolutionize the way we plant churches.
To me, the difference between this model and the multi-site strategy is that each neighborhood has it’s own independent church that functions in the context of that area, not merely modeled after the church’s first successful campus. Of course, I have limited knowledge on the city parish model and the multi-site strategy, unlike The Multi-Site Master.
So, there are my thoughts. For you pastors out there, what do you think? For those of you who don’t go to church, I would really love your thoughts on the issue.
[...] Church Planting Strategy « Creating Culture sammahlstadt.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/church-planting-strategy – view page – cached In case you are new here, I am part of a team that is planting a church in Winston-Salem, NC. We are brand new, just wrapped up our second week. We are proud to be a part of the ARC organization, which we feel has the vision and leadership to be one of the major influences on the growth of the modern Church – internationally. — From the page [...]
Sam,
I love Jon Tyson! I think he is brilliant and his strategy for reaching New York City is amazing. I’ve actually looked at it several times and definitely feel there are some principles in there that will serve the 21st century North American church well.
However, I want to be extremely careful how I apply these principles. New York City is so radically different than Chicago, Minneapolis, South Carolina and certainly Des Moines, Iowa (my context).
I think that in New York, a truly international city with millions of people living on top of each other, it would be important for each borough to have a church unique to its culture and yet important to have a unified effort to tackle the needs of NYC.
In a suburban environment, I’m not sure that is so important – after all, every suburb looks basically the same. Maybe in the suburban context consistency is the key. Who knows.
Our church is downtown Des Moines reaching a unique niche of the culture (urban professionals, students, artists and young families) that most of the suburban churches aren’t able to reach.
As we grow and discover the needs of our city we will have to determine which strategy is best… Bigger facility (old school), church planting, multi-site video venue, multi-site teaching team, or city-parish.
Great discussion!
Paul
Sam,
First of all…are you related to Justin Davies? Or is it total coincidence that he told me about a cousin who is planting a church in Winston Salem, NC? haha
Let me start with a disclaimer. I am currently part of a church plant that is just starting, and I have been a part of launching video venues for a multi-site church. I haven’t done all the research/read all the models that many church planters have. My thoughts are mostly just from my experiences and my time as a pastor/leader, which I would still consider to be pretty “green.”
I believe multi-sites CAN work, but I think that a lot of them don’t meet pastors/leaders expectations. I believe they need to be viewed much more as a church plant than an extended campus. When viewed as an extended campus, they will always be handicapped. But when viewed as a church plant, they will be given an incredible head start. I could go more into this, but I don’t know that it’s the focal point.
I have never seen a city parish model or known anyone that is a part of one, so I don’t feel like I can give an opinion on that specifically.
What I do feel strongly about with all churches, but especially church plants, is integrity and love. Two words we kinda hear a lot.
Here is what I mean about integrity.
A lot of churches feel like they have to (blank). You can put whatever you want in that blank space. Have a band that’s sounds like Hillsong United, have incredible stage design, have ultra-hip coffee house, have a large amount of humor in your messages, play at least one secular song a week, set up a blog, or a million other things. None of these are inherently bad things. But when we start trying to be something that we aren’t, it stinks with a lack of integrity and people, now more than ever, can sniff that out from a mile away.
There is nothing more silly than going to a churches webpage, clicking on the pastors blog that they have advertised, and seeing that he hasn’t updated it since the middle of June. Nothing turns me off to a church faster than if they play a churchified rendition of a secular song.
The list goes on and on. It’s the whole focus 90% of your energy on your strengths and 10% on your weaknesses idea. A lot of churches/pastors are trying to be something that they aren’t, but the day and age that we live in is the worst possible time to do that.
Pastors and churches need to start being true to who God has created them to be, using their strengths, and finding their niche – not trying to piggyback on somebody elses.
The second thing that I feel strongly about is love. Kinda cliche, but stick with me here…
There are so many organizations, bands and celebrities that get so much attention for their charities and causes that the church can no longer get away without practicing what they preach. It is absolutely pitiful that the church has had to get on the band wagon of social justice. We should have been the ones pulling the bandwagon, rallying the troops, and drawing attention to the injustice and needs both in our country and around the world.
The last church I was on staff at was of significant size, and kind of the golden child of the district/denomination it was a part of. It was ultra seeker sensitive and was all about reaching the unchurched and dechurched. The services were heavily programmed with videos, special guest speakers/bands, special songs, commitment cards, “drop the stone” moments, skits, and more. In a desire to better reach people that don’t go to church, I decided to put together a programming team of non-christians and people that didn’t currently go to church. We met for about 2 months until I finally had to pull the plug on it.
Every time we got together I would lay out the series, topics, messages, etc and then start off talking about different things that we could do: illustrations, examples, specials, etc. Without fail, every single time we got together, none of them wanted any of it. These were the exact people we were trying to reach, and every suggestion we came up with, they said things like “why don’t we just use that money to help a local school” or “let’s use this time to raise awareness about a local shelter” and things like that.
Now I am not specifically against programming or any of those things…but all of our “program elements” should be there to incite love. Unfortunately, all too often they become the focal point of the churches time, energy, and resources.
I have left a doozy of a “comment” here, so I guess I’ll just wrap it up.
If there was a way to sell “life” it would already be in stores. Apple would have probably been the one to figure it out. But there isn’t. And as soon as you try and duplicate something that is alive, or box up an experience, you have affectively killed it. People want real life, and they want real meaning. The church is the hope of the world because it can offer that.
I don’t think that churches can successfully be duplicated. Every church IS going to be different. They may not act like it, or want to admit it…but that’s just the way it is. Because the PEOPLE are different. The neighborhood, the community, the state is different.
Instead of a bookshelf of church leadership books, I really hope my office has a bookshelf full of books about Des Moines and the things that are important to this city – insurance, banking, coffee, art, and music. And football (boo). haha
As church planters, we have to be authentic, real, and full of integrity.
As church planters, we have to love FIRST – and ask questions later. We have to love our cities and towns without agenda.
Those are my thoughts on church planting.
Definitely not the most well-written, but in my experience of working at a church but being friends and building relationships with people outside of the church, these are the two most common hurdles that keep people from becoming part of a church, and essentially part of the body of Christ.
I hope that made some sense. I should probably go back and read this before I post it haha…maybe next time :)
~chris