The Wild, Wild West of Church Planting
The Wild, Wild West of Church Planting
The church planting craze of the last thirty years has created a mess, and we’re feeling the downstream effects of it now.
Here’s a dirty little secret of the church planting world. It's a haven for guys that won't take the traditional route of serving in an established church and moving slowly up the ranks.
Most church planters are young, high-charisma, guys in youth or music ministries with a knack for technology. They're good at marketing too. They know how to sell a product. They deploy these skills to great effect, attracting people by creating hype and buzz around an exciting Shiny New Thing.
Several of today’s largest and fastest growing megachurches were founded in the last 25 years. Megachurches and church plants have a symbiotic relationship, since they use the same tools and strategies to accomplish rapid growth. I know a lot of church planters that dream of pastoring a massive church. Planting a church that grows into a megachurch is a church planters dream. That’s how you know you’ve made it.
That’s not necessarily bad. Being the pastor of a large church should mean God is blessing your ministry and many lives are being impacted for the gospel. But let’s be honest. It’s just as likely its an ego trip for a pastor hungry for acclaim. Pride is an occupational hazard for pastors. I confess this is a temptation for me that I need to mortify daily.
I know lots of church planters (I'm one of them). Some of them are wonderful, godly men that I hold in very high esteem. So I'm not throwing shade at faithful church planting pastors. Seriously, let me say that again. Many church planters are godly men, brilliant theologians, and faithful shepherds. They’re good men. There are lots of them and I thank God for them. Nevertheless, we need to honestly observe and evaluate some of the broader trends going on out there.
I’ll be blunt. Some church planters have no business planting a church. Many of them barely have Sunday School teacher level theological knowledge. They think they don't need anything beyond that, though, because they’re doing mission work. Nevertheless, successful mission will produce converts that need discipleship, which is the responsibility of local church pastors. This isn’t happening in many church plants, because the planter’s focus is on producing numbers more than shepherding souls.
A church planter is a pastor. Period. Pastors are men, qualified for the office and called by God to shepherd God’s flock. Jesus told Peter to “feed my sheep,” which is their primary task. Some pastors are uniquely gifted for the pioneering work of church planting, but never to the neglect of the shepherding work. Thus, the training and instruction of God’s people is a minimum requirement for any church planter.
And yet, the evangelical world spent three decades, beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the 2010s, throwing money at church planters who couldn't pass a basic ordination exam in many denominations. Some of them wouldn't even be approved for lay elder positions in their sending churches.
Why? Because many of them were evaluated for entrepreneurial ability than shepherding. Since planters usually see themselves as missionaries, they think they should be innovative. Do something different. Break tradition. As a result, the church planting world became a kind of ecclesiological Wild Wild West.
All of goofy innovations were justified in the name of “mission.” They do whatever it takes to get people to show up. There are no rules. Getting numbers is the whole ballgame. And all numerical growth is considered valid, because they’re “reaching the lost.” Some of them do it because they are only funded for two or three years, and they need a tithing base to keep going.
I know one guy on the west coast who displayed a live NFL sports ticker of east coast games on the screen during the service. Other churches do “church at the movies” themed services, like Barbie, the Avengers, or whatever else is trending.
One church in Cincinnati does a Super Bowl themed church service every year. This church was planted in the mid 90’s by Proctor and Gamble marketing executives (let that sink in). They call it the “Super Bowl of Preaching,” where two different pastors turn the preaching into a competition. They have a scoring system, referees, and tailgating.
At this event a few years ago, a woman pastor “punted” a Bible like a football.
One leader I’ve spoken to this church said they do it because it’s “mission.” Super Bowl Sunday used to be their lowest attended service of the year. Now, after they started their “Super Bowl of Preaching” services, it’s one of their their largest services of the year.
Numbers.
“Mission” is the perfect cover for innovations bordering on blasphemy.
Go for it! God won’t mind! Whatever works! Anything goes!
It’s all about reaching people! People are certainly being reached, but are they coming to hear about Jesus or to watch the circus show spectacle?
For contrast, check out this clip. Watch the excitement on their faces as these Christians open a box full of Bibles. Listen to their loud exuberance fall into a reverent hush as it dawns on them that they are holding God's word in their hands. Hear what the woman says at the end: “this is what we needed most.”
Can you imagine punting one of their bibles like a football?
Well trained and qualified shepherds would never dream of doing such a thing, but in the Wild Wild West of church planting, anything goes.
What gets lost in these discussions is that fact that many of the people who attend these services are Christians who need discipleship, instruction, and pastoral care. That’s not what they’re getting. Those things get in the way of “mission.” And successful mission is defined purely by numbers.
If numbers are the goal, then you don’t really need shepherds, you need entrepreneurs. And some of these entrepreneurs were wildly successful. The “Super Bowl of Preaching” church in my city is barely over 30 years old, yet it has become one of the largest churches in the country.
Don’t misunderstand, the size of the church isn’t my complaint here. Faithful churches can grow very large. My complaint is with the goals and methods used in some of these churches, regardless of size.
An entrepreneurial church planter may be able to successfully fill a high school gym or cafeteria for a church service. As a church planter myself, I can assure you, that’s not hard to do. Getting people to show up is the easy part. People will show up on Sundays if you’ve got a decent band and charismatic speaker. Most people aren’t looking at theological training or biblical qualifications. They’re just responding to the marketing pitch.
But shepherding the souls of God’s people is not so simple. That’s why men used to spend years preparing for it. Unfortunately, more than a few church planters are simply ill-suited for the task. They thought they were ready because they have the technology and marketing skills to build a website, raise funds, and cast a compelling vision for reaching people. They are better at entertaining people than edifying them.
“Mission” is the omni-excuse for all of it. This is the priority that supercedes all others. The Christians who join up with them learn this too. “Mission” is priority one, and that means doing whatever it takes to get people to show up, even punt a Bible.
To keep the numbers up, you gotta keep producing high quality religious entertainment. You can’t confront people’s real idols, because that could turn them off.
Bill Hybels started Willow Creek by surveying his community, asking them what they would want in a church. He took the results and built a church that gave them what they wanted. Numbers, numbers, numbers.
What do people want these days? Entertainment and life hacks. They’ll keep coming if you focus on that and sprinkle Jesus in here and there.
People also want a spiritual high. Highly produced, emotional music can do that. So have the young, beautiful people who look and sound like pop stars perform a religious concert and call it “worship.” Everyone sings and gets the feels. People like that! They’ll come back next week for another high. Even worship itself is an attractional tool to draw in unbelievers.
In the Wild Wild West of church planting, anything can be justified with the claim of “reaching people.” In fact, I heard one person describe their church’s strategy as “we’ll do anything short of sin to reach people” (even if it’s just drawing fellow Christians away from uncool churches).
Lessons Learned
The church planting craze has died down recently, leaving us with a mess on our hands. Here’s a few observations and lessons learned.
These churches don’t teach people what a true church is. They think church is about you, because their whole church experience has taught them that. God exists to give you what you want. Church is not about forming God’s people into greater Christlikeness, it’s just a weekly evangelistic crusade.
These churches don’t teach people what pastors are for. They think pastors are innovators and entrepreneurs rather than shepherds.
These churches don’t teach people what worship is. They think God doesn’t care about worship. They don’t believe worship is a sacred assembly where God’s people gather to worship him in Word and sacrament. They think worship is the musical part of the religious show. The words of the songs don’t matter. They sound like puppy love songs from a boy band. There are no rules or norms for worship, as long as we’re being sincere (Nadab and Abihu would like a word).
These churches teach people to think newer is better. One megachurch advertises itself by saying “We’re not your grandma’s church.” As though that’s a bad thing! That trains people to despise history and tradition. It fetishizes the young. Every wonder why worship leaders are usually young, hip, and beautiful? Think about that one.
These churches teach people to equate church growth to kingdom growth. If lots of people are showing up, that’s always considered a sign of God’s favor.
These churches teach people to market Jesus like a product. God is presented as a vanilla, therapeutic, progressive hippie guru that hangs out at fair trade coffee shops washing feet. He just wants everybody to, like, love each other and, like, be nice and stuff.
These churches don’t teach people to see God for who he truly is. They don't learn to fear God. There is little sense of transcendence and awe. There is no reverence to him as King and Lord.
These churches produce false converts. This is a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the truth. When you build a religious empire that caters to unbelief in order to reach them, you don’t actually reach them for Christ. They don’t encounter the real Jesus. I know a couple of “successful” church planters who ended up denying the faith and devastating the lives of many.
Conclusion
I still believe in church planting. My church has plans to do more. But I’m much more sober minded about it now. In my church, our future training and assessments will focus less on entrepreneurship and more on doctrine, humility, pastoral care, courage, fear of God, and true evangelistic zeal.
Personal Updates
Possible Church Relocation to Northern Kentucky
As our church has grown, we’ve begun to explore the possibility of relocating to a larger facility in Northern Kentucky. We’ve been in Uptown Cincinnati (near the University of Cincinnati) for nearly 15 years. As I’ve been praying over the last year or so with people in my church and consulting with other experienced pastors, it seems like Northern Kentucky (which is just across the river from our current location) would be a good fit for our congregation to relocate to.
Even though we’re currently in a niche, urban neighborhood, a number of our recent visitors to church are coming in from Northern KY, many of them driving over 30 minutes to get there. I won’t presume on the Lord’s leading, but this is definitely something that we’ve noticed and are trying to discern God’s direction for us.
We’ve been praying specifically that God would present us with a clear opportunity to move to a location that could seat 500 people, with classroom space, sufficient parking, and easy highway access.
My Nomination for 1st Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention
I have a lot of pastor friends in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and we have been noticing some concerning trends in the convention in recent years. So a few weeks ago, a few of them approached me about running for the role of First Vice President of the SBC. This was not on my radar at all, but I told them I’d prayerfully consider it.
My number one focus and calling is to my local congregation, Christ the King Church. I did not want to overextend myself and make commitments that would pull me away from my church priorities. The first VP is basically the backup to the President in case he dies, so it’s a manageable commitment for me. So I decided that I could run for this office without hindering my work in my church.
I agreed to do this because the SBC is facing a Liberal Resurgence that must be challenged. The issue that I will focus on is women pastors. Some SBC churches have women pastors on staff, which is not allowed according to the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM, 2000). I am going to the convention to urge voters (called “messengers”) to pass the Law Amendment, which simply reasserts the BFM’s commitment limiting the office of pastor to biblically qualified men. Since I have been outspoken already and published on this subject, it makes sense for me to represent this biblical view at the institutional level. Please pray for God’s wisdom and guidance on this!
Five Baptisms at Christ the King Church
By God’s grace, we continue to see steady growth at Christ the King Church. New people are coming every Sunday and always have positive things to say. I got to baptize five precious saints last Sunday! Baptisms are always one of best things I get to do. One of the men I baptized is a former college football player. The water splashed all over the place when I put him under the water. The church always turns into a fun, party-like atmosphere, with shouts and cheers and clapping. I just smile and think of what a privilege it is to have a front row seat to watch God change peoples’ lives.
King’s Domain Conference: Gendered Virtue
We’ve been working hard on promos for the King’s Domain conference we’re hosting at church this April. I’ve been doing a lot of writing and podcast interviews with the main speakers.
When we started King’s Domain last year and hosted our first conference, we didn’t know what to expect about putting on a conference. Everything was new. This year, we’ve got a better idea of how to plan and how to budget. The speaker lineup is excellent and I’m very excited to see it through.
Here’s some more details if you’re interested.
King’s Domain ministries in Cincinnati is hosting a conference this April 18-20 to promote Christian virtue for men and women. I’d love to personally invite readers of the Current Reality newsletter to come and join us!
The theme is “Gendered Virtue: Men and Women Who Take Dominion.” Here’s a quick explainer for why we’re doing it and why you should come.
Why do we need this conference?
The future belongs to those with healthy, Christian households. Unfortunately, these are becoming an endangered species. Many Christians lack a basic understanding of sexuality and what it's for. This conference will provide solid guidance that will benefit every household at any stage.
What will you gain from this conference?
Everyone who attends this conference will take away these three things (other than the sweet Tshirt, free book, and other SWAG):
A biblical blueprint for establishing Christian households that lasts for generations
Practical application for men and women from experienced gospel ministers
Tangible steps you can take to move forward in your specific situation
Who is this conference for?
This conference is for men and women, single or married, whether or not you have children.
What's the cost?
Only $119. (I said it wrong in the video! $119 is the correct price). That's a great price, especially considering the quality of content you'll get.
Who's speaking?
Check out this lineup! Michael Foster, Joe Rigney, Toby Sumpter, Shane Morris, Matt McBee, and Michael Clary.
