RE: Reforming and Planting
What a great question Jonathan asks about church planting and reforming, one that the circumstances of life have forced to give quite a bit of thought to lately, as it happens.
I think Aaron's absolutely right about the advantages of church reform he lists. In fact, I'd even add a few more. Take, for example, the joy of seeing long-time members suddenly come alive spiritually after a decades-long drought. We've seen that happen in several people's lives---to varying degrees---at 3ABC, and it's fantastic to behold.
Also, maybe it's obvious, but it still seems worth mentioning again---alot of the best locations already have churches (or at least church buildings) sitting on them. I mean, if we were going to fly over Louisville, Kentucky looking for a place to plant a church, I think we would be hard-pressed to come up with a location better than the one on which we currently sit: one block from the University of Louisville, surrounded by houses, in a huge and eye-catching building. Yes, it may be falling down in places, but it's there and it's noticeable---which is a big advantage in terms of "community visibility" over what many church plants are forced to do, whether it's putting out a sandwich board on Sunday mornings or relying on mailers for getting their name out there.
On the other hand, I think I can also point to a few ways in which church planting has advantages over church reform. In my mind, it's not a slam-dunk case.
First of all, there are places in the country where churches available to be reformed are just not in great supply. Take New England, for instance, or even the Northwest part of the country. Let me speak about New England, since I know it a bit better. There may be a good number of churches there, but many of them just aren't available for a Baptist pastor to step in and attempt reforming them. Maybe they're financially well-endowed and thus not feeling any pressure to call a pastor who is promising to step in and reform them. Or more likely, they're Roman Catholic or Congregational, and thus not open to an evangelical Baptist, no matter how badly we'd like to reform them. Now, I know that there are churches available for reform, and if you're talking about just a small number of guys looking for churches to pastor, it wouldn't be a huge problem. But what if (God willing, someday) we have several hundred Reformed men looking for pulpits in New England? In the South, that wouldn't be a problem; in the Northeast, it most certainly would be, and it would make perfect sense to start planting churches---alot of them---in places where they are currently scarce.
Second, any time you go into a church to try to reform it, you're going to have to swallow something you don't necessarily like. Maybe it's something in an old statement of faith, or something in the old covenant. Maybe it's an attachment to certain elements in the service, or the presence of the American flag to the right of the pulpit. We could all obviously keep going, but the point is that you don't start with a blank slate. With a plant, you do.
Which leads to this: Third, planting a church allows a pastor to shape the church's polity, doctrine, covenant, and practice in whatever way he deems most biblical. As we've found out at 3ABC, one must always compromise when one reforms a church. Just for example, there are parts of our new constitution and statement of faith even now which we might rather have left out if we were starting from scratch. But we weren't, so we ended up with documents which---though still, I think, really good and useful---are not what any of us would call ideal, even in a realistic sense. When you plant a church, on the other hand, there are no traditions to fight, no former polities to dovetail into, no committees to dissolve, no sentences in the old covenant whose absence in the new requires awkward explanation. You start fresh, and the people you start with are people who want---indeed who have chosen from day one---to start fresh with you as their pastor. (Actually, I probably should have saved that for a fourth point.) At any rate, there's something good and advantageous in all that.
Great to be talking about these things with all of you, brothers! I'm looking forward to the conversation.
Greg,
As a future Acts29 church planter ready to begin a work within the next 18-24 months, I have to tell you that the last paragraph helped me tremendously!
I've loved the series of posts on this and I think so far, they have been a truly balanced view of both sides.
One question, and I really am curious to hear thoughts on this. I'm reading through Keller's church planting manual and his thoughts on number of churches in an area and on his thoughts of aging churches. Do you see a day where a lot of the church buildings currently in use by dying, old traditional bastions will be absorbed by the up and coming new church works?
The pictures of former churches being turned into Mosques is heart wrenching, but most of the time, wouldn't you think there would be a new church work that would be able to use that facility?
Posted by: Marc Backes | Jul 5, 2007 5:25:40 PM
These are great posts. A few thoughts.
1) Church planting can also have its issues with wrestling over the vision within the core group, etc. Sometimes, the core group is made up of people who want to be part of a new church precisely to do church "their way." I have been told that in a typical successful plants, core groups still have lots of turn over. So, even though the Pastor gets to set the vision, that does not mean its smooth sailing on the unity front.
2)Keep in mind, also, that just as in church planting, not all church reforms will work. And that's OK. There will be some casualties along the way. I myself tried reforming a bear of a church right out of seminary, and ended up failing. However, I would not trade it for anything in terms of what it did for my own humility and sanctification. Sadly, the church building (right across from a major university) is now a clothing store. As one friend told me, "God had things He wanted to teach you -- without ruining one of His crown jewel churches in the process!"
3) Just a simple reminder that not all of your readers are Baptists. It is precisely New England where there are scores of Congregationalist churches that are ripe for reform for any hardy enough to do it, so that comment seemed odd, although I understand 9Marks is overtly Baptist. But for me, it was a Congregationalist minister (Gordon Hugenberger, now at Park Street in Boston) and a Presbyterian (Terry Johnson, at Independent Presbyterian in Savannah), who gave me a vision for the value of church reform. The Independent Pres story is amazing.
4) Sometimes we might revert too much to the "great man" theory of history when it comes to church reforms. Often, however, there is one man who is the face of the reform, while there were other providences and praying little old ladies behind the scenes who often get overlooked in terms of earthly credit. But that's what heaven is for!
Yours in His grace,
Chris Hutchinson
Sr. Pastor, Grace Cov. PCA
Blacksburg, VA
Posted by: Chris Hutchinson | Jul 5, 2007 9:19:56 PM
I've enjoyed this series of topics. It is very encouraging to see other decide that church reform is just as important. Thanks for the candid replies and posts.
If you check your 9marks map on the 9marks website there's a giant hole over SE Oklahoma. Why do you suppose? Fear. What do you do when you encounter that sort of rigid obstructionism?
Josh
Posted by: Josh | Jul 5, 2007 10:00:29 PM
I'm working on being more understanding of the whole reformed=baptist church reforming stuff. I live in Louisville and graduated from Southern in 06.
To an outsider church reform looks like a pastor getting voted in and then getting a bunch of seminary students/seminary dropouts/seminary type people to come to the church. And at some point these young reformers simply outnumber the old guard of the church. The young reformers then vote in a new constitution, which moves the old guard out of leadership positions.
The end result to me looks like a completely new church, with a completely new vision of what church is, that has taken over a building and forced the old members out, often to different congregations.
I attended a church where many senior citizens left one of these churches that had been reformed. I think they felt it wasn't their church any more.
Would anyone like to correct my perception? I'm not looking for an argument, just information.
Posted by: John Mark Inman | Jul 6, 2007 8:39:46 PM
I actually have been a part of reforming a church. The Lord saw fit to call me and my family to a small liberal congregational church of 20 in aug of 1993. I told the group we would preach and teach and live Gods Word. today we average 400 people on a Sunday. It has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.
For His glory,
Pastor Tom
www.hollandchurch.com
Posted by: TOM | Jul 6, 2007 9:47:09 PM
ps the church is in the state of Mass.
Posted by: TOM | Jul 6, 2007 9:48:05 PM