Church planting

Mark Dever on the Great Commission and Church Planting

April 13, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney Categories: Church planting | Conferences | Missions

I would recommend all of the messages at our recent Plant conference. But I would recommend that you get started by listening to the excellent message by my good friend Mark Dever titled, “The Great Commission and Church Planting” (Matthew 28:16-20). The message will help you understand the relation between the Great Commission and church planting.

The message was dense in content and Mark’s rate of speech was, as it normally is, warp speed. I’m saying you cannot comprehend all this with a single listen. But you can try by downloading the message here.

I doubt a single listen will be sufficient.

And here are a few notes and an outline that may help you follow along:

The Great Commission and Church Planting (Matthew 28:16-20)
Mark Dever
March 25, 2011
Plant Conference (Glen Mills, PA)

Introduction: “I want to pose six questions to help us think about the Great Commission and church planting.”

Question 1: How are we to fulfill the Great Commission? “A true church is marked by the right preaching of the Word of God, and the right administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the preaching of the gospel. In the lives of those baptized and coming to the Lord’s Supper then a corporate witness begins to appear. A church is planted as people begin to see this group of people as followers of Jesus.”

Question 2: What is the big picture? “We find that the big picture in the Bible, from Israel to the redeemed in heaven, seem to show us a pattern of God wanting to be known as faithful and having community around him which knows him and praises him as one who is faithful and just and true.”

Question 3: What has God done? “So God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is involved in church planting far more profoundly than any person in this room will ever be involved in church planting—far more profoundly than the Apostle Paul was involved in church planting! The church is not something which in the most fundamental sense is a human idea or a human creation, but it is fundamentally God’s idea and God’s work. This is what he is about. God is a great church planter.”

Question 4: What did the apostles understand? “Friends, the sort of church-centered ministry where you go out and evangelize, but you do it specifically with the hope and trust and understanding that God intends to bring these Christians back together in local churches, is what this book of Acts is full of.…The New Testament shows the Great Commission being fulfilled by church planting.”

Question 5: What does that mean for us? “Here are eight practical exhortations and implications aimed at pastors of churches:”

Focus your mission efforts on church planting.
Consider who you are sending out.
Consider what you have trained them to do.
Consider how you are going to support them.
Build into your church culture a desire to see the kingdom of God expand in your area and beyond.
Encourage other evangelical church planters around you.
Consider reclaiming existing churches.
Pray for the spread of healthy churches.

Here are five things I want to build into the culture of our church:

Discipleship
Personal evangelism
Missions
A desire to strengthen other churches broadly
A desire to encourage gospel growth in my own area

Question 6: What is our goal in fulfilling the Great Commission? “The glory of God in the church.”

Conclusion: “The local church is where the authority of Christ is exercised. The local church is where disciples are made and baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The local church is where Christians are taught to obey everything Jesus commanded us. To this end, Christ promised us his Spirit until he returns. And so we see that church planting is the normal business of the local church. The Great Commission is normally fulfilled through church planting.”

PLANT! A Church Planting Conference

September 28, 2010 by C.J. Mahaney Categories: Church planting | Conferences

A little over 25 years ago we at Covenant Life Church had the privilege of sending out a group of friends to plant a new church in the Philadelphia area. Little did we know that the church would grow and mature and plant a number of other churches around Philly and beyond. Now that church, Covenant Fellowship Church, is hosting Sovereign Grace Ministries' first church-planting conference—PLANT!

We have been planting churches for decades but we have always wanted to learn from others and improve. Over the years we have learned many things, made plenty of mistakes, and experienced much grace in our humble attempts to advance the gospel through church planting.

But we still have much to learn, which is why we packed this conference with church-planting thinkers from a variety of movements and denominations who each bring significant experience to the mission of the gospel.

My friend Dave Harvey (director of church planting and church care in Sovereign Grace) will be speaking along with Darrin Patrick, Mark Dever, Tim Witmer, Mike McKinley, Daniel Montgomery, Shai Linne, Pete Greasley, and Craig Cabaniss. I will also be speaking.

If you dream about church planting, if you’re doing church planting, or if you are supporting church planting, I think you will benefit from the conference. Come join us in Pennsylvania on March 24–26 for PLANT! and learn with us.

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Here are the conference details:

Name: PLANT!

Date: March 24-26, 2011

Location: Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, PA

Cost: $99/person

Purpose: To gather church planters, pastors, and anyone interested in church planting, inside and outside of Sovereign Grace Ministries, for the purpose of inspiring, teaching, and equipping for church planting. This includes young men in high school, college, or seminary who are interested in church planting, as well as pastoral teams who want to build church-planting churches, and members of churches who want to explore being part of a church-planting team some day.

General-session speakers:

Darrin Patrick (Acts 29)
Mark Dever (9Marks)
C.J. Mahaney
Dave Harvey

Breakout sessions:

The Importance of Preaching in Church Planting • Tim Witmer | Associate Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary
How to Plant an Evangelistic Church • Pete Greasley | senior pastor, Christchurch, Newport, Wales
How to Build a Church-Planting Church • Craig Cabaniss | senior pastor, Grace Church, Frisco, TX
Replanting! • Mike McKinley | author, Church Planting Is for Wimps
Way Finding: A Map for Planting Your Church without Losing Your Soul • Daniel Montgomery | senior pastor, Sojourn Community Church
Engaging the Urban Context with the Gospel • Shai Linne

Concert:   Shai Linne will perform Friday night.

Registration:   Register at www.sgmplant.org

Early registration: September 14, 2010–December 14, 2010

Regular registration: December 15, 2010–March 15, 2011

The conference is giving away prizes every two weeks to early registrants. By registering early, you are entered to win. Prizes include an iPad, books, and a free hotel stay at the conference. Winners are chosen randomly. See the website for more info.

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Related links:

Dave Harvey, video, “What Makes the Great Commission Great?”
Dave Harvey, blog series, “Patience, Pace, and Church Planting” (parts 1, 2, 3, 4)
Toby Kurth, audio, “Church Planting in Urban San Francisco”
Dave Harvey, interview, “Lessons from an Urban Church-Planting Dude” (parts 1, 2)

Church Planting Interview with Dave Taylor (2)

September 9, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church news | Church planting | International

  In the last post, I introduced you to Dave Taylor, who is leading a Sovereign Grace church plant in Sydney, Australia (www.sovgrace.org.au). We’re always excited to go where we sense God’s direction and, like Dave, never dreamed that would be Australia!   

Here’s part two of my interview.  

Dave Harvey: What is your strategy for starting the church? 

 Dave Taylor: The first part of my strategy is to quite simply remember that it is not “my” church but God’s, and that it is not ultimately about me building it, but him. It can sound so ridiculously basic, and I guess that’s because it is, and yet (to this basic guy) this is a truth I have had deeply impressed on my heart throughout this last year of preparation. With major delays on visas and with the whole move nearly falling through on several occasions, this is a truth that I never want to move away from.  

The small part that I’m then bringing to the strategic party is simply to do all I can to help build a community of believers who know, love, apply, and proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. For the first ten weeks leading up to our public launch in September, this will simply look like Sunday morning and mid-week times with the planting team. Our times will be spent doing life together, laying the foundation for Sovereign Grace Church, and casting vision for the future.  

DH: Has anyone in Australia even heard of Sovereign Grace Ministries?

  DT: In Christian circles in Sydney, it seems like everyone has heard of Sovereign Grace Ministries. It always amazes me to be honest—10,500 miles away from the UK—9,750 from Gaithersburg—and yet, most know exactly who we are and in particular, love our music!  

 DH: What are some of the biggest sacrifices of this church plant for you and your family?  

DT: The biggest sacrifices we feel are all relational ones. We had been a part of Christchurch since it began in 1995 and loved every minute of it. To have served at Christchurch for so long was scandalous grace, and so for us as a family to leave the church, pastoral team, friends, and family behind was to do so with great sadness.   

They may be out of sight, but they are never far from our minds.  

DH: How does Sovereign Grace prepare to plant a church in a new country? Tell us about the preparation process.  

DT: Well here’s how it worked for us. There were three clear parts to the planting story.  

First, the place. For years there had been a steady interest in the Sovereign Grace Ministries website from online users in Australia. When a group of people began to clearly pursue us, a purposeful relationship began to unfold. Over time, contact only then increased from Sydney in particular, and after a visit, it seemed clear to us that God was calling us to this city.  

Secondly, the man. To plant a church anywhere you need a senior pastor. Sovereign Grace is always looking out for these men, to help assess, train, and equip them for the task that God has called them to. This isn’t a quick process and I like that. It’s even slower when you prepare to head to a new country. I thank God for the years of training I have received in Sovereign Grace.  

Thirdly, the support. Sovereign Grace is a family and I have experienced that more than ever during this preparation process. In the last year, I have received more support than I ever thought possible. Through encouragement, care, prayer, training, counsel, and a financial grant to help towards the plant, I am one seriously blessed planter! And that’s not where the story finishes—it’s only the beginning. Because the support is relational, it “moves” with us! We haven’t headed out as lone rangers into a foreign land. We go as part of a family who are standing beside us and eager to get in the trenches with us.  

By God’s grace, our hope is that this is just the beginning of the Sovereign Grace Ministries Australia story... 

 Let’s be stirred to prayer for our friends. Dave is right—by God’s grace, this is just the beginning of our Australian story. We are eager to see God bless our friends as they plant a local church for God’s glory. Please continue to pray.  

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  Dave Harvey leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here. 

Church Planting Interview with Dave Taylor (1)

September 7, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church planting

While I’m sure the word has spread, some of the most exciting news in Sovereign Grace Ministries is that we are now in Australia! That’s right. A new church has just been planted and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Our friend Dave Taylor and his family have relocated from Christchurch in Newport, Wales, to the land down under. Public meetings for Sovereign Grace Church Sydney began this past Sunday.

We’re so grateful for the Taylors and their ambition to see the gospel preached even when it calls them half way around the world away from family and friends. I recently had the chance to ask Dave some questions about his venture. Here you’re going to find a story that is shaped by the grace and wisdom of God, as well as filled with the faith of two people, Dave and Emma, who loves God greatly. I bet God stirs your heart—like mine—as you read. And don’t miss the part about the importance of community.   

Dave Harvey: Tell us about the process of discovering you were called to plant a church in Sydney.  

Dave Taylor: This story begins in July 2008, when I had the privilege of accompanying Pete Greasley on a church-planting exploratory trip to Australia. [Pete is the senior pastor of Christchurch and serves Sovereign Grace Ministries in our international development.] I had never before even thought about heading over to Australia. It always seemed so expensive of a trip and way too far to go, but my good friend Pete was keen to have me along and so off we went.  

It was a wonderful time. Shown around by Mike Pasalich (a Sydney-born Australian) we were warmly introduced to so many people who were excited about the possibility of Sovereign Grace planting a church in Sydney. I returned home from this trip enthused about the doors that seemed to be opening up in Australia. God was clearly at work and I, like many others, was keen to help out—from afar—in any way that I could.  

It was in December 2008 that the “afar” status then came into question. You, Dave, were actually in the UK and gave a message to our small-group leaders on ambition. The thrust of the message was actually on contentment, but in making a side point you quoted William Carey: “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.” As you said it, I felt particularly provoked, a stirring that I could not shake.  

The following week, my wife and I were out enjoying breakfast and randomly Emma asked how things were progressing in Australia. I explained that right now we didn’t have anyone to lead the plant in Sydney. She began to ask about what was needed for the job. I threw out a quick five points as I ate my toast. That’s when the life changing moment occurred, as she replied, “Dave, you seem like that type of guy to me.” We both laughed…nervously…and, yet, in that very moment, I think we both knew, as best we could, that God was at work here.  

After a few weeks of prayer the burden just wouldn’t shift and so I talked to Pete. Was it just me? Had I eaten too much cheese? Was my own ambition simply driving this? Why me? Pete was so kind as I chewed this over with him, as were the other pastors on the team and the Sovereign Grace leadership team. By April 2009 our course was set for Sydney.

  DH: Tell us about the formation of the team. What was involved for these folks in getting the church off the ground?   

DT: Including children, the church planting team is around 60 folks. Having waited at least two years for this plant (many far longer), they’ve all exhibited sacrifice and vision ahead of this plant.

Mike Pasalich invested three years of his life in the US and then the UK to make this plant a reality. Sarah (Mike’s wife), a true American, headed off to Australia in faith to help Mike care for this initial group. Mark and Bianca Williams—native Australians—came to the UK for two months, along with their one-year-old, to throw themselves into Christchurch life. Dave Elsing moved from Perth to the UK to take part in the Christchurch GAP Team, and then relocated to Sydney to get involved in the plant. Patrick and Meg Chavez relocated—twice—just so that they can get involved with the plant. The Woods and the Williams, two Christchurch families, are preparing to make the 10,500-mile relocation from the UK to Australia.

The sacrificial, visionary stories just go on…How can I thank God enough for the joy of serving men and women like these!   

Folks, this is just the beginning. We have in Dave and Emma, a couple who love God and the gospel and are sacrificing home comforts, closeness to family, and much more to see God’s church built. Exciting stuff! Don’t miss part 2 where Dave tells a bit more of what’s happening on the ground in Sydney.

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[CO]MISSION UK Update

August 19, 2010 by C.J. Mahaney Categories: Church planting | Conferences | Pastoral ministry

Our first church-planting conference, [CO]MISSION UK, was held July 8–10 at Christchurch in Newport, Wales. Dave Harvey spoke at the conference along with Pete Greasley, senior pastor of Christchurch. Pete is responsible for international church planting and care on behalf of Sovereign Grace Ministries in Australia, Germany, Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and the UK.

For an update on the [CO]MISSION UK conference, I asked Pete a few questions.

C.J. Mahaney: I’ll begin with a broader question. Among young pastors in the U.S. we see a trend toward what is commonly referred to as “young, restless, and Reformed.” What is the theological climate among the young pastors and church planters you see in the UK?

Pete Greasley: In recent years, I’ve become increasingly aware of a stirring among young men in the UK to “do something” for the gospel. There’s been a gradual growing in awareness—particularly amongst men in their early to mid twenties—for the need to plant gospel-centred churches both here and elsewhere in the world. I’m also aware of many guys who have already planted churches and desire encouragement and input in how to best apply the gospel in their church situations. From my perspective, this is an exciting time!

CJM: So last month you hosted the [CO]MISSION UK Conference. I hear it was well attended. Were you surprised by how many attended?

PG: Very much so. We anticipated about 30–40 men, partly due to the specificity of the conference (men who believed they may be called to church planting or who were already leading a church plant), and also because we didn’t think that Sovereign Grace was that well known over here. When 120 men booked in we were extremely surprised and genuinely humbled that such men of calibre were willing to take time off work and travel to the conference.

CJM: Who showed up and what do those guys represent?

PG: There was a real spectrum of attendees, from experienced church planters to new university graduates exploring a sense of call to church planting. But the unifying factor amongst them was a desire to play a part in seeing new churches planted and wanting those churches to truly represent the gospel and still be here in 10, 50, 100 years time! I was particularly encouraged by the sobriety, as well as the passion, that these men demonstrated in desiring to build churches that glorify God. God was kind to us in allowing us to influence and be influenced by these passionate men.

CJM: What immediate fruit did you see from the conference? What long-term fruit do you hope for?

PG: As the conference drew nearer, our prayer was that it would be the beginning of relationships that God would use for the furtherance of his kingdom. God was pleased to answer that prayer—we met some remarkable men, and our hope in the short term is that these relationships will provide a context for us to continue to learn from and serve these men. But in the longer term, I hope that we’ll be able to play a strategic part in the birthing of new churches throughout this country. Our desire is that in God’s providence, he would use [CO]MISSION UK to inspire men to plant churches that will bring much glory to God and will stand the test of time. If we can serve towards that endeavour, even in some small way, it will be an incredible privilege. Soli Deo Gloria.

Thank you, Pete.

The audio and video recordings from the conference can be downloaded from comissionuk.org.

For more about Pete, see my interview with him: Meet Pete Greasley.

Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 4)

June 8, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church planting

We’ve been talking governors. A governor is something that controls the speed of an engine. Install a governor and it slows you down; pop it off and you go much faster. When it comes to church planting, Sovereign Grace has intentionally installed certain governors—values that help us control the speed and quality of our growth.

In the previous posts we looked at the first two governors:

Governor 1: A commitment to finding the right guy.

Governor 2: A commitment to providing the right guy with the right resources.

Having the right church planter and the right resources (team and finances) promotes the viability of a church plant.

In this post we want to think not just about viability (the likelihood of a successful church plant) but sustainability. Sustainability is about more than individual plants; it is about the ability of a church-planting movement to maintain a coherent and consistent approach to church planting. Viability requires a focused commitment to the success of a church plant. Sustainability requires an effective infrastructure within a movement to make sure that we stay on track with who we are and what God has called us to do. These final three governors are aimed at sustainability.

Let me introduce you to the three final governors in church planting:

Governor 3: A commitment to actively care for a church planter before he goes and after he arrives.

If you’ve been in the church-planting world long enough, you’ve probably heard stories of church planters who find themselves isolated and “dying on the vine.” Sometimes this occurs because a guy feels called to start a work and launches independent of care, connection, or coaching. Other times the promises of support go unrealized. No matter what the cause, church-planter burnout is one of the major factors in failed church plants.

Sovereign Grace Ministries is a “family” of churches. That means we are committed not just to ministry partnership, but to ministry fellowship. Partnership often means mechanics and funding. Fellowship means ongoing relationship, encouragement, training, correction, and accountability.

Back in the day, we were a small enough group that an SGM guy could know almost every other pastor in the movement, and enjoy deep friendships with more than a few. These relationships provided ready means of counsel, encouragement, and resource sharing, and a healthy dose of learning from each other’s mistakes. As we’ve grown, this happens more on a regional level. And as Sovereign Grace churches continue to multiply, we need to consciously set up structures of care for existing churches and new church plants.

The SGM Leadership Team and Church Planting Group spend a lot of our time these days think-tanking for the future, in order to preserve the relational nature of Sovereign Grace care for leaders. Whatever the ultimate structure looks like, it will be based on our core commitment to care for each church planter and each established church through leader-to-leader relationship. Here’s our ongoing commitment: We will govern our growth to make sure every church planter, at every step of church planting, experiences care through relationships with other leaders.

Governor 4: A commitment to ensure that Sovereign Grace values run deep in church plants.

One of the remarkable things we’ve seen over the years is how many gifted and highly trained men have come to Sovereign Grace Ministries expressing a desire to plant churches. Frankly, we feel a little bit like we’re being asked to play in a pro-am with Phil Mickelson, and we’re the “am” of the pairing. But we’ve also learned that there are things at the heart of who we are as a family of churches that can’t be downloaded from a website, read in a book, or imbibed from a conference. One of the things we must ensure is that our church planting doesn’t become the wheel out of alignment—you know, pulling us off track a little bit at a time. This can happen when the values of a movement diminish bit by bit through expansion and innovation.

One of the things that every church planter knows is that he is not planting his own work. The fruit of his labor has come through a vital partnership with a sending ministry. The church planter has received a stewardship of values that he in turn must embody and transfer to others. Because internalizing core values is essential, this will always govern our growth.

Governor 5: A commitment to endurance, not just impact.

In the early days, the idea of church planting as a primary missions strategy was strange to a lot of folks. But church planting now has some serious street cred. It’s become normal, if not normative, in many denominations and families of churches. I think that’s great because it provides us the opportunity to learn more. We’d be foolish to sit back in our little SGM world and pretend that we’ve got it together. That’s why I love connecting with other church-planting guys—getting up close to what they are doing, and getting their eyes and insights on us. As C.J. has always said, nothing we’ve ever done is original. We’ve just become good at adapting what others have done; if we ever stop learning from others we might as well cash it in.

As we’ve matured (relatively speaking) we are also seeing that success can’t be defined in present impact. To be biblical and worthy of the costs it demands, success has to be long term. We’re talking enduring, multi-generational sustainability. We can’t think of five year plans—we have to think in 50 years. We have to think about how to build now so that we have something meaningful to hand over to the next generation.
Here’s a principle that now runs deep in Sovereign Grace Ministries: gospel-centered means gospel-transferring (2 Timothy 2:2). Gospel-transferring means that we’re building church models that proclaim the gospel, apply the gospel, and seek to impress the gospel upon the next generation. We’re not looking to cultivate a passion for the way Sovereign Grace does ministry. We want the passion to be confined to the Savior himself.

Honestly, discerning those things is an ever-present challenge for all ministries. It’s sometimes hard to see where our present practice will help transfer the gospel and what is, well, just our way of doing things. Understanding the difference and building in light of it is the only way this thing will last.

Conclusion

It’s funny, originally I wanted to call this cluster of blog posts, “Why So Slow???” But as I thought about it, the goal is not slow growth, it’s wise growth. And that takes patience and pace in church planting.

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Dave Harvey leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.

How to pray for a church in Seoul, South Korea

June 2, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church news | Church planting | International | Sovereign Grace update

I met Kang Songhwan when he and his wife, Miran, visited our church near Philly. Songhwan already had a seminary degree and almost ten years of pastoral experience. But the shocker was that they were considering moving temporarily from South Korea to the U.S. to attend our Pastors College. I remember being struck with the sincerity and humility of this couple—they were willing to make some serious sacrifices to go where they believed God was leading them. I’ve met few people like the Kangs.

Songhwan and Miran did move to Gaithersburg in 2008, and we were privileged to have them at the Pastors College. Songhwan did a remarkable job of navigating an intensive ten-month study program in his second language. (I mean school was always a challenge for me in my first language!) Songhwan graduated in June of 2009 and moved back to Seoul to plant a church.

Fast-forward to today: There are about 30 adults in Lord’s Grace Church, meeting in an English-language school in central Seoul. Songhwan recently finished teaching a series on foundational doctrines and commitments. On the final Sunday of that series, the church’s first members made a public commitment to the church, and everyone celebrated with a shared meal afterward. It’s no megachurch, but numbers aren’t what Songhwan is aiming for. A recent email from him says that the church “is growing continuously and happily in God’s mercy and grace.”

Now that’s good news.

Would you pray with us for Lord’s Grace Church? Please pray:

that God would grant the church favor in their community
that the church would share the gospel effectively and many would be saved
for financial provision for this brand new church as it gets started in an expensive city
that God would give grace and wisdom to the Kangs as they lead this church

Thanks for praying for believers in Seoul!

If you’d like to support Sovereign Grace Ministries’ work outside the U.S., you can make a designated gift by clicking here.

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Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 3)

May 19, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church planting

Okay, back to this topic of governors.

A governor is a device that regulates the speed of something. For example, when NASCAR began to realize that their cars were increasing in speed year by year, and this was making accidents more common and more serious, they instituted what was dubbed “the car of the future.” The car of the future was essentially the car of the present with some design modifications that effectively regulated the top-end speed of all the cars in the same way. These modifications served as “governors” on how fast stock cars could go.

What’s interesting is that the purpose of the car of the future was to go slower than what technology could ultimately allow. Other values besides speed were important to NASCAR, so speed was sacrificed so those values (safety, protection of drivers, competition) could be promoted.

Sovereign Grace church planting has governors on the engine of our growth. They help determine the speed of our growth so we can move forward toward the finish line. The next governor I want to discuss is having the right resources.

Governors in Church Planting

2: The Right Resources

This means the right guy with the right stuff is not enough. We need to send him with the right resources. How many people are needed for a successful church planting team? How much up-front cash does a church plant need to get off the ground? What does care look like for the planter after the planting? These are resource questions where wise church planting joins clear strategy. The bottom line? A viable church plant is possible when the right guy is given the right resources for the right needs in the right location.

There seems to be a growing consensus among church-planting movements that a viable church planting team needs to be around 30 to 50 core people. By core we mean people who are committed to both the work and the sacrifices necessary to get a church off the ground. Bigger teams may be attractive, but they’re not always better. If bigger means folks who are coming with their own agendas or self-seeking desires, then run for the hills ’cause you’re planting a weed, not a church. Also, some types of plants—cross-cultural for instance—are better served with smaller teams of experienced or knowledgeable folks.

Likewise, financial investment is subject to the church plant situation. Planting in some urban areas is an experience of sticker shock; everything from meeting space to cost of living is more—actually, much more. And the process of people moving from happy attendees to faithful givers can be unpredictable. So there is a lot of diversity in the church-planting world over the question of how to fund church plants.

In Sovereign Grace we operate with a few basic principles:

• We want a church planter to be focused on planting and establishing a gospel-centered church, not building a funding base. We have found that where a proven man is free to focus on building the church, the Lord’s provision will usually move a plant quickly from outside funding to self-sustainability. And what gets fostered in the process is a spirit of gratefulness and shared mission in the plant, because both the planter and the team recognize the financial commitment of the broader family of churches to help them get established.

• We want a plurality of leaders as quickly as possible. The ultimate goal, where possible, is a plurality of full-time elders. However, until the church is financially capable, we have provisional pluralities made up of lay leaders with proven gifts and character. But a low-risk church plant can actually get extra money to speed a plurality of elders on its way.

• We see financial resourcing as part of our shared partnership in the plant. If you talk to most of our church planters, one of their hopes is to be able to say to Sovereign Grace Ministries, “Thank you for your commitment to us. We’d now like to make a commitment to future church planting through our giving to the mission.” While this transition from receiving to giving doesn’t take place the same way for all church plants, it is a vision that Sovereign Grace church planters hold dear and endeavor to build into their new churches.

The right resources are an important governor in Sovereign Grace church planting, because church planting isn’t merely a growth strategy. It’s a commitment, both to people who are sending and people who are going, that we will do everything we can to make sure a church plant not only survives, but thrives as a faithful expression of the gospel. It takes longer to start stronger. We get that. But we’re in it for the long haul.

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Previous posts in this series:
Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 1)
Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 2)

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Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 2)

May 13, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church planting

In my last post I talked about how Sovereign Grace is committed to being as aggressive in church planting as gospel values allow. But certain values act as governors to cap the speed of our growth (see the previous post for the retro go-kart analogy). Therefore planting churches requires patience to do it well, and the pace to sustain it over the long term.

As a Leadership Team we’ve identified several governors—things that help us pursue opportunities at the speed limit our values will allow. They determine our pace and insist upon our patience. (Warning: For dudes who are missiologically minded—read: rapid expansion—don’t check out. We in Sovereign Grace may be nuts but it’s an informed lunacy.)

I’m going to take several posts to discuss four specific governors. Here’s the first:

Governors in Church Planting

1: The qualified guy

Yeah, yeah, I know. We all believe this. You can’t plant a church without a good candidate. But I’m not talking about a good guy. I’m talking about the right guy. Why? Because for us, the key factor in strategizing when and where to church plant is the man—the church planter. A viable church plant begins with both a need or opportunity to plant and the emergence of a qualified man to lead the plant.

You see, need is relevant, but it can’t determine our pace. There’s just too much of it and too little of us. Is there really any place where you could honestly say, “There’s no church needed there”? Opportunity is also important, and we pay careful attention to it. At any given time there are groups of folks in various locations who are requesting that a Sovereign Grace church be started in their area. And conversations with existing churches looking to affiliate with us are always taking place.

But need and opportunity alone don’t create the call to plant a church. We need the right guy. A qualified one.

What do we mean by a qualified man? A qualified man is one who has sensed a clear and enduring call to plant a church. But there’s more. That sense of call has been confirmed by mature leaders who know the man, warts and all. A qualified man is revealed by the grace on his life. How do we know if there’s grace? Because there are character and abilities that match the eldership qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and other passages. And not just to attain them, but to maintain them as well.

In Sovereign Grace Ministries, we organize these qualities around five essential criteria, which we call the “e5.” First and primarily there is preaching. That’s the BIG E. A qualified guy must be an expositor who knows how to handle God’s Word in clear and compelling manner. In our experience, the training and evaluation involved in this component just takes time. It slows the process. We realize that dialing this one back, maybe just downgrading from expository skill to sensible Bible teaching, would speed things up considerably. But we’re called not just to win converts but to make disciples. Disciple making requires exposition.

It doesn’t end there; here are numbers two through five. The qualified man displays (2) a leadership gift, (3) faith towards God, (4) a shepherd’s heart that cares for people, and (5) a determination to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5). If reading this list incites a desire to know more, check out our website. Also stay connected to this blog. We definitely want to talk more about the e5.

So how do equip men and evaluate whether they are qualified? Sovereign Grace has, by some measurements, a ponderous training process for church planters. It starts with relationship. You know, being known and coming to know us well enough that we can evaluate each other. Then there’s a ten-month Pastors College commitment, followed by a residence with a local sending church.

Could we speed it up? Sure. But we’re not measuring success in the next five years or in the number of churches affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries. We believe growth is fruit of building right, not a goal that should determine our strategy. After all, church planting is a heavy responsibility, and high failure rates are an unacceptable statistic. We’re not doing experiments; we’re reaching people.

When all is said and done, we’ve found that the single most important variable in the viability of a church plant is the man sent to do the plant.

Not long ago a woman came up to me and shared her sincere burden to see a church planted in a certain area. She humbly shared all of the needs and opportunities and evidences of God’s activity in that area. As I listened to her I thought, “Wow, she has enough faith for this thing all by herself!” And then she asked me what she could do to speed things along. I answered with the first step.

“Pray for the man.”

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Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 1)

April 28, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church planting

It can be awkward, but only sometimes. It happens in certain conversations with other church-planting guys whenever the topic turns to vision for the future. Usually it goes something like this.

Church-planting guy (not me): So how many churches would you Sovereign Grace guys like to plant over the next ten years?

Me: Mumble, mumble, mumble… (sounds of me stuffing chips in my mouth to avoid answering)

Church-planting guy: We’re believing God for thousands of churches planted over the next few months. We’re calling it maniacal multiplication. So how many churches do you guys have right now?

Me (having no more chips to protect me): About 80, or maybe it’s 90—I forget exactly.

CPG: Wow, that’s great. How long have you guys been planting?

Me: Since “We Are the World” came out.

CPG: Wow, that’s incredible.

Me: The first one.

CPG (doing math in his head): Oh…I’ll pray for you dude.

End of conversation. Awkward.

Let me say something at the outset here. First of all, I am so grateful that there are church-planting groups who love the Savior and love the lost so much that they are willing to take the risks and send men so that many gospel-preaching churches can be planted quickly. That’s bigtime faith! And make no mistake, it’s being hurled at a bigtime need. I have no doubt God will bless those efforts. But as much as I’d like to see Sovereign Grace churches so widely and thickly planted that you couldn’t spit from a freeway without hitting one, that isn’t what God is calling us to. At least for now.

Since our inception, we’ve had a clear sense from the Holy Spirit that we were called to be slow and patient builders. That was crucial because we were trying to sort out who we were, and therefore what we were trying to build. Had we exported quickly, we could’ve really wreaked havoc. And back in the day, church planting was kind of an odd thing anyway—old as the New Testament, but not really something people talked a lot about. You didn’t have churches and denominations dedicated to it—and no websites helping you learn how it’s done.

When it came to church planting, what mattered to us was that real, solid, gospel-loving, local churches would bloom. Churches that had shared values, relational connection with each other, and common purpose. We didn’t want to plant churches and walk away from them, or have them walk away from us. We call ourselves a family of churches because that’s what we’ve been. We wanted to build slow and plant slow because we wanted every church to apply the gospel and be a healthy contributor to the mission of church planting for years to come. We’ve made tons of mistakes along the way, but that’s what we’ve tried to do.

Slow and patient doesn’t come easy to us. In fact a little over a year ago, the Sovereign Grace leadership team went on a retreat to revisit a familiar question: How aggressive should we be in planting churches? We talked about ways we could expand more rapidly without diluting what makes us distinct. We asked, “How do we take advantage of the growing number of opportunities that are coming our way from both inside and outside of Sovereign Grace Ministries (and increasingly this includes genuine possibilities beyond the U.S.), without compromising the quality of care for leaders and churches in Sovereign Grace?”

As a result of this retreat, we came back more firmly committed than ever to being as aggressive and creative as we can to plant churches—we want to plant tons of churches! But we also realized that the Lord had deeply ingrained in us some clear values that would act as governors to control the rate of our growth.

What do I mean by a governor? Growing up, our family vacations always took us to the Jersey shore. It was a kind of religious pilgrimage; my family held a deep-seated belief that the ocean summoned us. The beach town where we stayed had go-karts, which loops us back to governors. A governor is a device that regulates the speed of the go-kart engine. It caps acceleration, controlling how fast the go-karts fly around the track. To a ten-year-old, governors stink. To the parent who pays for health care, they rock.

What’s interesting is that the purpose of the governor was to go slower than what the engine might ultimately allow. To go-kart track owners, other values like safety, passenger protection, and bloodless family times were important. Speed was sacrificed so other values could be promoted.

We didn’t consult a go-kart mechanic on this one, but as a movement we at Sovereign Grace Ministries saw that to remain healthy and to endure, we needed governors of our own. Don’t get me wrong; we love growth. But rapid growth could not come at the sacrifice of other values we hold dear—values that make us who we are.

So here’s where I’m driving this. In a couple of upcoming blogs, I want to pop the hood on Sovereign Grace church planting and check out the governors. I think it might be great to understand some things that help us grow at the pace that God would have us grow…and still remain Sovereign Grace Ministries.

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