Here are five more key changes we must make if we want to see movement.
Last week we reflected on the first five of ten shifts that are mission critical for those engaging in the missionary work of church planting in North America in locales that are essentially bereft of Christian memory. They were:
- A Different Filter: From Entrepreneurial Übermensch [1] to Apostolic Catalyst
- A Different Frame: From Sunday-centric to Christ’s Body
- A Different Fascination: From Ecclesiastical Supremacy to Kingdom Submission
- A Different Focus: From Drafting Free-Agents to Developing Disciple-Makers
- A Different Family-Tree: From Replication to Multiplication
This week we will continue this conversation by focusing on five other key changes we must make if we want to see movement.
6 – A Different Force: From SoloClerics to Co-Vocational Teams
The mission force that is deployed in the vast majority of planting situations is a solo lead planter with a big heart for Jesus’ mission. As this planter arrives on the mission field, the financial realities soon overwhelm the romantic missionary notions that once preoccupied his imagination.
The pressure is on. Because of this, the unstated goal often degenerates into building a worship service following that can pay a salary before the start-up supporters move on. Quite understandably, all romantic missionary notions will be flushed in order to compete for the paying customers. After all, there is a family to feed and bills to pay.
As secularity continues to erase Christian memory from much of the landscape within North America, the possibilities of gathering and assembling displaced evangelicals into a financially sustainable professional startups will become a less-likely reality for most. Future church planters will retain their missionary imagination by ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/34uM6f4
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