Prioritizing and Engaging the Planting of Churches
Dear Friends,
"A rising tide lifts all boats" is an aphorism sometimes said of church planting. In other words, new churches in the neighborhood are good for all the churches in the neighborhood. Many a church planter has said something like that when someone asks, “Aren’t there a lot of churches here already?” The reality, of course, is complex. Churches lose connection with neighbors all the time – for a variety of reasons. Neighborhood change may outpace the church’s ability to keep up. When I planted in Philadelphia 16 years ago, a church within my own denomination that had been planted some 25+ years prior, made the hard decision to close its doors because none of its 15 or so people lived in the neighborhood anymore. Even though the building was visible to the neighbors, the people were not. In neighborhood-oriented Philadelphia, it made sense for that church to close or merge with those doing ministry nearer the neighborhoods those 15 people lived in.
When we say that church planting is good for all, we simply mean that the Spirit of God is still moving in the neighborhood even when the congregations of that neighborhood lose connection. New Churches are sometimes better positioned to act on this work of the spirit. This is why partnerships between new and old churches is a helpful thing - it at least opens the possibility that everyone’s imagination for mission might flourish.
New Churches often have a more meaningful evangelistic connection with neighbors, not because they love more, but because the outward face of church work is at the fore of everything they do. New Churches also stimulate growth in partner churches and in a diocese because church plants are a hotbed of need and opportunity. They need people outside the community to pray – talk to God in what they are doing, their evangelism, their discernment of the Spirit’s work among them. New Churches almost always need outside financial help, which calls on established churches to practice generous stewardship of their own resources, and not just churches – individuals! Finally, New Churches are wonderful “schools” for leadership development. There are few leaders at the start of a plant, and within weeks of launching, many people that may have previously enjoyed life on the sidelines of older churches where formal and informal leadership roles were mostly full, find a place of ministry, and so, new leaders are formed.
How can we prioritize and engage the work of planting? A couple of weeks ago Church of the Resurrection hosted An Always Forward church planter intensive. David Drake and Patrick Cunningham, and really, the entire staff and vestry, were wonderful hosts of the event. The church has partnered with several church plants in our diocese, and in this move, they opened their space as a training hub for others across the Province to gather for an intensive training event. I believe about 37 attended the training event from dioceses across the Province. We sent 15 from our Diocese.
Dan Alger, Canon for Church Planting in the Province, and Molly Ruch, Canon for Church Planting in Diocese of the Upper Mid-West, led the time of training covering an array of topics theological and biblical, and deeply practical, which helped planters sort out readiness to plant, the biblical underpinnings of what they are seeking to do, and the ordinary grind of logistical issues as they seek to start a new community anchored in the mission of God.
In the last year six new plants have entered various stages of planting. The first thing I would invite you to is to partner in praying for these works: Two lay-led groups in Frederick, MD and Chambersburg, PA out of New Creation Hagerstown, Christ the Redeemer in Dillsburg, PA, All Souls Anglican in Richmond, VA, Church of the Good Shepherd in Charlottesville, VA, and Westside Richmond out of Redeemer, Richmond. And as you pray, consider if the Lord might lead you or your church to partner more deeply in prayer and giving to these important works getting underway.
Rowan Williams notes that, “Pentecost is the moment when the friends of Jesus discover that they can communicate to all sorts of people they never thought they would be speaking to….[It] is when the promise and the command given at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel becomes a reality. ‘Go and make disciples to the ends of the Earth,” says Jesus, ‘make disciples of all nations.’ And so at Pentecost the Holy Spirit comes down on the Church to build bridges with strangers….The Holy Spirit gives us the words to share good news with one another and even to take that good news into environments that are strange and unfamiliar to us.”
This, of course, is the vocation of all churches, but Church Planting and partnering with church plants is one of the ways we act on the gift and work of the Spirit and the call to build bridges with those that are strangers to us and to the church.
Blessings,
Tuck Bartholomew
Canon for Church Planting