Thursday, August 27, 2009

How would Jesus plant a church?

Recently I have been reading and talking a lot about church planting, and while I'm very intrigued, I am also suffering from some serious head-spinning!  There are so many ideas, methodologies, and philosophies out there regarding church planting and to be honest, everyone thinks their way is most effective (even if they don't say it that way).  So what is the most effective way to plant and lead a church?  Quickly the responses begin, "Church Growth expert So and So says," and "This megachurch is doing this," or "This organic church movement believes this."  Which leads me to the question that is sitting in the back of my spinning brain:

How would Jesus plant a church?

Its really a pretty silly question because we actually have the divinely inspired documentation for how Jesus planted not a church, but the church.  I know that we all know this deep in our bones, but I wonder if we've lost sight of it in the midst of our conferences, methodologies, reading, and seminary educations.

So how did Jesus plant the church?
- he called twelve ordinary guys to drop everything and follow him, to "come and see" what he was up to
- he preached good news a lot
- he healed people and casted out demons
- he fasted and prayer (he prayed a lot, read the book of Luke)
- he hung out with sinners and tax collectors
- he died and rose again
- he called his followers to go and do all this stuff themselves

It seems that Jesus had a rather simple strategy that required courage, faith, a high level of commitment, and a healthy dose of the supernatural.  I think that we've lost a lot this in our churches and our church planting efforts and we need to reclaim it.  This doesn't mean that God isn't in a lot of the books, methodologies, and philosophies out there.  I believe God is (most of them anyway), but we can't leave Jesus behind and we can't bring him in later.  Jesus is the founder, the planter, and the Lord over the church, and he builds it, not us.

What are your thoughts on how Jesus went about planting the church?
Posted by at 11:10 AM

2 comments:

  1. Brother Erik,

    I orginally thought when you proposed the question, How would JC plant a church, i was like duh!

    It was interesting what you included/did not included in your list of how Jesus planted a church? where's the Lord Supper? Yes, he did all that stuff that you mentioned (raise from the dead, which is very important), but I would think something that most churches celebrate monthly or weekly (read: Christian Churches) would make that list? The point i'm making is, Jesus set up a memorial. I think it's important when considering planting a church we keep in mind what things are we going to celebrate/remember. I hate to use the word "traditions", but maybe that's the right word?

    I'm interested in the book "Life together", is it good? Bonhoeffer = stud! Is it a must read? Your thoughts?

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  2. Pbarc,

    my list was more off the cuff and meant to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. I definitely think that communion was important to Jesus and the early church and something that is essential to our function as the church today. In fact, while you Christian Church people practice it weekly, John Wesley practiced communion several times weekly, some even argue daily. We actually had communion at church yesterday and it was fascinating how so many people want it more regularly.

    I read the first half of Life Together and it was great. I eventually put it down though. It gets a little dry after a while. I'd definitely read the first few chapters.

    Hope all is well.

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