(HT: GCM Collective)

Small communities determine a size in which mutual discipleship and care can realistically take place. They create a simplicity that militates against a maintenance mentality: there are no expensive buildings to maintain o complex programs to run. They determine a style that is participatory and inclusive, mirroring the discipleship model and table fellowship of Jesus himself.

Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, pg. 93

My personal summary would be that to be strategically small and strategically simple is also to be strategically reproducible; therefor, a community structure that is easily multiplied.

He suggested, “Ask the Spirit, ‘What’s next?’”

At that time, I rarely asked the Spirit to guide and empower me for mission because I was doing nothing that would require the Spirit. I was insular, hanging around only Christian people, and rarely ever engaging anyone with the Gospel or showing them the effects of the Gospel and how that might look in our community. There was no reason to pray. It would have been like asking God to help me flip the channels on my television.

Well. My wife and I prayed… Spirit, what’s next?

If you want to open the power of the Spirit like freeing a hungry lion from its cage, then ask the Spirit what’s next with a desire to show others what He’s like for the sake of making disciples.

The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God’s new community. For his purpose, conceived in a past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in a future eternity, is not just to save isolated individuals and so perpetuate our loneliness, but rather to build his church, that is, to call out of the world a people for his own glory.

Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, pg. 39

I am excited to share that this partnering team had its first official meeting earlier this week. The meeting was a huge success! During our time together we reviewed and amended a proposed plan for the residency period. This plan should be finalized withing the next couple weeks. Once approved, this plan with provide a template for a public timeline that will be published sometime shortly after the residency begins in April. This timeline will outline all of the major benchmarks from the beginning of the residency period to the launch of Trinity Grace in March 2013. It is incredibly exciting to see target dates identified as this dream that began five years ago is finally becoming a reality! Please pray for continued wisdom and guidance for myself and the partnering team during this planning process.

Also, as I recently shared, we have finalized a plant location after sensing a clear clarification of God’s calling on our family to love, serve, and plant the gospel in Midland, Michigan. We rejoice in this answer to prayer and look forward to planting in the location where God has clearly drawn and planted our family. In addition to identifying Midland as our target city, we have identified a specific target area within the city; a .75 mile radius around the intersection of Ashman Street and Carpenter Street. If you are not familiar with Midland and would like a better picture of our target area, you can take a look here.

Finally, along with the 12 month residency plan, our partnering team discussed five important financial support streams. As Rachel and I look ahead to this residency period, we realize that we are going to be reliant upon the generosity and support of others who share the vision of a church being birthed in Midland. Over the next two months we will begin raising support from these five primary streams; Christian Reformed Home Missions, Classis Lake Erie, partnering churches, plant team members, and individual contributors. Please pray for Rachel and I as we begin to raise financial support in anticipation of the start of the residency in April.

If you would like more information about what is happening with the planting of Trinity Grace in Midland, please shoot me an email at shawn@trinitygracecrc.org

I am very excited to share a brief update that came as an unexpected result of the CPD Partner’s Meeting held on January 10th. Rachel and I have been struggling for some time with some misgivings and uncertainty concerning the exact location where God was calling us to plant. When we initially began this process two years ago, we felt called to plant a church in Midland. You may read more about that here. However, after some reflection, we began to waver in that decision – questioning whether it was indeed God who had called us here or following our own desire as to where to plant.

During the course of our conversation in the partner’s meeting, that decision was confirmed for us. I remember a two specific instances where the sense of calling became crystal clear. I remember listening to myself describe certain elements of Midland and the city’s culture and being struck by how obvious it was that this was indeed where God had called us to plant. I also remember being surprised that no one interrupted us to draw attention to this fact.

Following the meeting Rachel and I spoke about this during our car ride home. After I had shared with her what it was that I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to us during the meeting she confirmed that she was thinking the same thing. She was also surprised that no one addressed this – because it seemed so clear and obvious to the two of us.

Without any expectation of addressing that specific issue during our time together, God in His good providence spoke through His Holy Spirit when we least expected it. We rejoice in this answer to prayer and look forward to planting in the location where God has clearly drawn and planted our family. We know that the timing of our answer was a direct result of the time that we set aside to humble ourselves, fast, and pray as a couple and the direct result of prayers on our behalf.

We have been excited to share this update. Please join us in praising God for His answer to prayer and for His mercy, faithfulness, and loving kindness extended to the wrong people.

Nathan Gritter, the pastor of Community CRC, facilitated the meeting which had four primary objectives. First, to follow up on a coaching report that I submitted to Home Missions and Classis Lake Erie in December. Second, I wanted the opportunity to address some of the variables that lead to my withdrawal from the church planting process in August of 2011. Third, I also wanted to ask for the blessing of Christian Reformed Home Missions, Classis Lake Erie, and Community CRC to move forward and continue with the new church work. Finally, a large portion of the time was to be spent laying out specific details of a strategic plan for the birth of Trinity Grace.

The meeting was a great encouragement to Rachel and I. We are grateful for the support we received from all of the parties involved in the meeting. It was humbling to know that everyone traveled in from out of town to come along side us in prayerful discerning the next steps in this journey.

In the end a skeleton strategic plan was formed. One of the primary objectives to emerge from the meeting was the formation of an CDP Partner Advisory and Support Team. The team will formalize a strategic plan and oversee a 12 month residency period that will begin in April. Our team has its first meeting scheduled for February 7th. We should be able to share more definitive details following that meeting.

Why Church Planting?

The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for 1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and 2) the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else–not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes–will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.

So, why is church planting so crucially important? Because…

We want to be true to THE BIBLICAL MANDATE

Jesus’ essential call was to plant churches. Virtually all the great evangelistic challenges of the New Testament are basically calls to plant churches, not simply to share the faith. The ‘Great Commission’ (Matt.28: 18-20) is not just a call to ‘make disciples’ but to ‘baptize’. In Acts and elsewhere, it is clear that baptism means incorporation into a worshipping community with accountability and boundaries (cf. Acts 2:41-47). The only way to be truly sure you are increasing the number of Christians in a town is to increase the number of churches. Why? Much traditional evangelism aims to get a ‘decision’ for Christ. Experience, however, shows us that many of these ‘decisions’ disappear and never result in changed lives. Why? Many, many decisions are not really conversions, but often only the beginning of a journey of seeking God. (Other decisions are very definitely the moment of a ‘new birth’, but this differs from person to person.) Only a person who is being ‘evangelized’ in the context of an on-going worshipping and shepherding community can be sure of finally coming home into vital, saving faith. This is why a leading missiologist like C.Peter Wagner can say, “Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.“

Paul’s whole strategy was to plant urban churches. The greatest missionary in history, St.Paul, had a rather simple, two-fold strategy. First, he went into the largest city of the region (cf. Acts 16:9,12), and second, he planted churches in each city (cf. Titus 1:5).

We want to be true to THE GREAT COMMISSION.

New churches best reach a) new generations, b) new residents, and c) new people groups. First, younger adults have always been disproportionately found in newer congregations, and second, new residents are almost always reached better by new congregations. Last, new socio-cultural groups in a community are always reached better by new congregations.

New churches best reach the unchurched–period. Dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations.

We want to continually RENEW THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST.

It is a great mistake to think that we have to choose between church planting and church renewal. Strange as it may seem, the planting of new churches in a city is one of the very best ways to revitalize many older churches in the vicinity and renew the whole Body of Christ. Why?

First, the new churches bring new ideas to the whole Body. There is no better way to teach older congregations about new skills and methods for reaching new people groups than by planting new churches. It is the new churches that will have freedom to be innovative and they become the ‘Research and Development’ department for the whole Body in the city.

Second, new churches are one of the best ways to surface creative, strong leaders for the whole Body.New congregations attract a higher percentage of venturesome people who value creativity, risk, innovation and future orientation. Many of these men and women would never be attracted or compelled into significant ministry apart from the appearance of these new bodies.

Third, the new churches challenge other churches to self-examination. The “success” of new churches often challenges older congregations in general to evaluate themselves in substantial ways. Sometimes it is only in contrast with a new church that older churches can finally define their own vision, specialties, and identity.

Fourth, the new church may be an ‘evangelistic feeder’ for a whole community. The new church often produces many converts who end up in older churches for a variety of reasons. Ordinarily, the new churches of a city produce new people not only for themselves, but for the older bodies as well.

As an exercise in KINGDOM-MINDEDNESS

All in all, church planting helps an existing church the best when the new congregation is voluntarily ‘birthed’ by an older ‘mother’ congregation. Often the excitement and new leaders and new ministries and additional members and income ‘washes back’ into the mother church in various ways and strengthens and renews it. Our attitude to new church development is a test of whether our mindset is geared to our own institutional turf, or to the overall health and prosperity of the kingdom of God in the city.

SUMMARY

New church planting is the only way that we can be sure we are going to increase the number of believers in a city and one of the best ways to renew the whole Body of Christ. The evidence for this statement is strong–Biblically, sociologically, and historically. In the end, a lack of kingdom-mindedness may simply blind us to all this evidence. We must beware of that.

Simple questions should never be this difficult to answer. “So, you would like to plant a church? That sounds interesting. Where at?” My answer: “Well, I’m not sure.”

It’s been over four years since I first sensed a call towards church planting. Since that time I have sought to clarify and objectify that call as much as possible. As my confidence grew and we were gaining a greater sense of clarity, one question still alluded me, where?

Since the church plant’s initial conception it has been my desire that we would be a missional church community who lives in and loves the city in which God has called us to serve. So I prayed accordingly, asking God to give Rachel and I a love for the city to which we were being called. This is how I asked God to direct us and confirm his call.

For many years I tried to fall in love with a few cities that seemed like a suitable and, sometimes, strategic location. However, as hard as I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to make a commitment. Even when I tried, I still didn’t have a deep love for the location. That was until recently.

For many months Rachel and I had been exploring a plant location in the city of Saginaw; a very suitable location in many ways and the idea seemed to make sense. I still didn’t have what I would describe as a love for the city, but I did care for it and the people there. It seemed like a location worth pursuing and so we did. Three weeks ago, however, a comment was made that helped us to realize that we had fallen in love with a city – it just wasn’t what we were expecting.

We have been working and worshiping in and around the greater Midland area for about three years; almost ever since we originally felt the desire to plant a church. Although we enjoyed living here, we never gave planting in Midland much consideration. This lack of exploration was due to a number of reasons

First, we were a part of a healthy, growing church that was doing a great deal of good in Midland. It simply did not make sense to pursue planting in the same community as we were currently serving and worshiping.

The second reason was that Midland already has high concentration of churches. Although, there are mixed feelings about this depending on who you talk to, it still remains true that you could possible see six or more churches on the same stretch of road. Does Midland really need one more church? Really?

In a moment of clarity one statement was made that seemed to cut through the fog that was preventing us from committing our lives and ministry to a particular city. When discussing were we should move and settle to plant the statement was made, “I don’t want to move to another city. I love Midland. I want to stay here.”

“I love Midland.” Those where the exact words we were waiting to hear. It was a moment of clarity for both of us. Over the past three years we had fallen in love with Midland and it wasn’t until we considered leaving did we realize that God had answered the prayer from many years before.

It is true that it wasn’t the answer that either of us anticipated and we still had to wrestle with some of our natural objections, a few of which I mentioned above. Still, we finally had a sense of confidence that God had directed us and brought us here to seek the welfare of the city where we have been sent. As we seek to plant an incarnational expression of the gospel within our community we do so with the confidence that God has providentially directed us here to invest our lives in this city.

It is my hope and intention to post some brief updates pertaining to Trinity Grace over the next few weeks. If you would like to follow along we are on both Facebook and Twitter. Please understand that the plant is only in it’s infancy stage. Because of this, updates may be few and far between.

We do greatly value and appreciate your prayers as we seek to walk in faith and obedience to God’s call. If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact me: shawn@trinitygracecrc.org.