church planting in the custard factory

Great day at the Custard Factory in Birmingham last Saturday to learn a bit more about Re:source.

The venue location was great though the theatre created a performance feel (understandably!) which wasn't everyones bag.

The day was a mix of worship (always great to see some creativity), stories - from mostly youth oriented fresh expressions, and Andrew Jones talking about custard powder; yeah!

There were 70+ people there, most of whom were church planters, which was very encouraging. Andrew talked about the organic ingredients of church which may produce the potential for growth by reproduction and multiplication rather than addition. Following the yeast analogy:

Organic Church Planting:
1. Happens by small steps.
2. It's invisible
3. It's complete, pervasive and permeating: 'hands off' ethos.

Too many churches being planted are too complex to be replicable. Without this simplicity we will never see a potential movement emerge.

Working from Luke 10 he then outlined a simple pattern for planting;

1. Ask the Lord of the harvest - Prayer.
2. Go - He sends us into the harvest field, where He will already be at work.
- We go to THEIR houses, stay there, eat, drink and hear their story
3. Heal the sick - look for where God's favour is already working.
4. Tell the Gospel story

Other random thoughts from my notes:

There is still structure in organic settings. But very flexible.

Old model of leadership development involved sending person off to college for several years, they then return older and 'wiser', and lead church for another 40 yrs; now leadership is dispersed, corporate and flexible and shifts from one to another as needs demand.

Old model tended to focus on Pastor/Teacher now it is more reflective of five fold giftings. Pastors/teachers ruled in the inherited church - Apostles/prophets in the EC.

Simple church/organic church is not about doing more cool things but a different way of thinking.

I was left with a few questions at the end; in terms of the Re:source training course, due to restart next year, from the last course about 9 or 10 new works were started which have survived. However not one of them was easily reproducible. Are we just repeating some of the mistakes of the 90's? Can we plant reproducible emerging churches? Or are most of these guys not interested in that concept at all?

I felt the contrast between what Andrew was sharing in terms of organic, reproducible and multiplication could not have been greater with the stories which were told; one of which for example involved raising £500,000 to build a brilliant indoor skate park. They're doing a fantastic job of contextual mission but not easily reproducible I suspect!

posted by alexander @ 8:18 PM    0 comments

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