Everything!
If I were to boil church planting down to a few base ingredients, they would be these: 1. Prayer, 2. Clarity of Vision, 3. Understanding the focus population, 4. Networking and 5. Team building. (And all these ingredients also go into revitalizing existing churches, as they get re-rooted in their communities.) The more interwoven a church planting team is with their community, the easier it is to plant a new church. In the old church planter boot camps they used to teach us that a planter should be making 25 fresh contacts a week. This little admonition often came on the third day, when we were running behind in the agenda - and after a few minutes of suggestions about places to make said contacts, the agenda moved on. I have personally trained almost 200 people in LaunchPad planter training in the last three years, and we seldom have time to really teach people how to make effective contacts and build a community of friends and allies within their neighborhood. We just tell them "You had better do this, or you will be sorry."
If I were to boil church planting down to a few base ingredients, they would be these: 1. Prayer, 2. Clarity of Vision, 3. Understanding the focus population, 4. Networking and 5. Team building. (And all these ingredients also go into revitalizing existing churches, as they get re-rooted in their communities.) The more interwoven a church planting team is with their community, the easier it is to plant a new church. In the old church planter boot camps they used to teach us that a planter should be making 25 fresh contacts a week. This little admonition often came on the third day, when we were running behind in the agenda - and after a few minutes of suggestions about places to make said contacts, the agenda moved on. I have personally trained almost 200 people in LaunchPad planter training in the last three years, and we seldom have time to really teach people how to make effective contacts and build a community of friends and allies within their neighborhood. We just tell them "You had better do this, or you will be sorry."
In my coaching, I have lost count how many times I have asked
church plant leaders, "What is your plan for meeting people in the
community?" And their answer is "I am going to hang out at Starbucks."
(That's it.) They are going to hang out in a coffee shop where
common courtesy is to leave one's neighbor alone. You try to chat me
up at a Starbucks while I am on my laptop and you will have an unhappy
neighbor on your hands. I do not want to talk to strangers at
Starbucks. Few people do. This is not a strategy for effective
networking.
So Kristin Kumpf and I had lunch at Busboys and Poets near my
office in DC last spring, and we started dreaming about a training
event that would truly teach our church planters how to move through a
community artfully, efficiently and effectively: teaching them how to
learn the community's heartbeat, how to find people who are influencers
and/or whose passions overlap with our purposes, and how to weave
these people together into a movement. Kristin used to be one of the
lead trainers for a major community organizing school in Chicago - and
then the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society asked her
to create church-based community organizing training.
Then late last year, Kristin and I got involved together on the launch team of new church in our city, even as we began planning a training in community organizing skills that would be customized to parish leaders and church planters.
Then late last year, Kristin and I got involved together on the launch team of new church in our city, even as we began planning a training in community organizing skills that would be customized to parish leaders and church planters.
Now, as we enter 2014, the event is all set for New Orleans March 31 - April 4 at First Grace United Methodist Church,
a phoenix-like multi-ethnic church on Canal Street that rose up in the
aftermath of Katrina! To our knowledge it is a first-of-a-kind event.
Kristin Kumpf and Rebecca Cole are the main trainers - I am a part of
the team, helping to frame the theological and church development
issues throughout the event. It portends to be a lot of good fun,
plus 3 CEU's. It is for anyone who is seeking to plant a new faith
community or for anyone that is seeking to better connect their
existing church to their community in relevant ministry. The cost
is $295 for the first person from a church or team, $95 for persons
two and three, and totally free for everybody else! My former SPRC
chairperson owns a great Hampton Inn one block off Canal, adjacent to
the French Quarter and the trolley line. They gave us a very sweet
price (good through February) on rooms booked related to the event.
For any existing church that has taken the Readiness 360 survey (www.readiness360.org)
and is working on either Cultural Openness or Dynamic Relationships -
this is one of the best training events ever to come down the pike for
you!
For information and registration link:
I look forward to helping develop some of the most savvy faith community organizers that the USA has ever seen. And I look forward to drinking my coffee in peace at Starbucks!
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