Reaching
Critical Mass:
Churches Planting Churches
In 1994 we moved to Illinois and built a house on a lot with three mature
oaks. Carpenter ants had vandalized the largest oak, eating the heart out
of the lower 7 feet of the tree. We cut it down and chainsawed it, and after
all the branches and firewood were dispersed, there remained two huge 6-foot
segments of trunk, which I had to get to the curb.
Have you ever tried to roll an irregular-shaped 6-foot oak trunk 70 feet
across a soft lawn? One normal-sized person with dug-in heels can't do it.
I borrowed my dad's steel pry bar and leveraged those monsters curbside,
using a fulcrum of four-by-fours and hanging on the long pry bar. Lever
and fulcrum allowed me to do what muscle power alone could not.
In recent days I have been asking, "Is it possible to leverage a denomination
to a specific goal like I did those oak logs?" Denominations are groupings
of people based on shared beliefs, visions, traditions, attitudes, etc.
Can such large groups be reinvigorated and redirected? So-called church
"experts" say it can't be done. But keeping God's power in the
equation, the Board of Bishops does not agree.
Sadly, in older American denominations most congregations never multiply
by starting another church. They get comfortable and turn inward. They seem
to forget or ignore that study after study shows new churches are the most
effective evangelism method in America. With local churches refusing to
plant churches, we experience the inevitable: 200 fewer Free Methodist churches
in 2000 than in 1975. We have a looming crisis that must be addressed in
this generation.
It may well be that unless we get aggressively in step with God's heart
for multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches, our effectiveness
is done. So, to honestly confront and call us to the ideal, let's talk about
the essentials in terms of leverage.
The Lever
My oak-moving lever was a 7-foot steel bar. When seeking to move a denomination
our lever must be a vision owned by a majority. The Board of Bishops is
calling us to embrace the vision of becoming a healthy, biblical community
of holy people, multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches.
In Called to Be Holy, Dr. John Oswalt says that when we renounce the self-life,
and by faith appropriate the life of the Spirit, patterns of intentional
sinning become a thing of the past. People who enter into this surrendered,
faith-driven life share God's passion for the lost and seek to make disciples
out of lost people.
The Fulcrum
With my oak tree the fulcrum was a pile of four-by-fours. To move a denomination,
our fulcrum must be a passionate recommitment to the Great Commission
("Go, make disciples") and a submission to the Great Commandment
("Love God completely, and your neighbor as yourself"). Such
loving will require us to inconvenience ourselves for the sake of the
lost. These two "Greats" must become the core values of our
corporate life.
The Force
My tree-moving force was all 210 pounds of me jerking on that steel bar.
Our force to move a denomination must be a Spirit- and prayer-energized
perseverance. When God gets ahold of our mind, and our will is surrendered
to His purposes, the partnership becomes prayerfully synergistic. When
we share God's passion for the lost, we reject thoughts of giving up or
backing off.
The Strategic Point of Contact
To leverage the oak tree, my strategic point of contact was the most resistant
point (the end furthest from the street). When seeking to move a denomination
the strategic point of contact must also be at the most resistant point
(furthest from God's ideal). Among us, as I have suggested, this most
resistant point may be our low investment in starting new churches.
If pastors and lay leaders in each conference took hold of the church
planting vision and never quit, we could develop "critical mass."
This concept from physics suggests that a nuclear reaction will not occur
until there is sufficient mass to both initiate and sustain an ongoing
chain reaction. The renewal of our denomination will not occur until we
develop a critical mass of churches planting churches. Then we'll experience
a momentum that suddenly accelerates, and it simply will not be stopped.
In the normal course of church life, each congregation ought to be working
a plan to start or to partner with another congregation to start another
church.
In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell documents that once the critical
mass is gathered, the step across the threshold to vitality is quick,
and a geometric progression of growth ensues. Let's continue to pray and
work for such a "tipping point" in the Free Methodist denomination.
Let's become obedient to God's heart.
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