Planting Churches/Communities

Over the past few weeks, after going to see McLaren, having an interesting conversation with Brandon (pastor of the Embassy in Waterloo), an inspiring conversation with Darryl and his brother and Phil and Steph coming home I have found myself pondering church planting a lot more than usual. Brian Mclaren talked a lot about it and encouraged more people to plant churches. Brandon is a church plant success story on campus of University of Waterloo and now has a good crowd of young adults having a community to belong to. Halifax (where Phil lives) needs someone to plant a church. To many people, this could be a little odd.

I remember when I first mentioned to people about three years back that I wanted to come back to Sarnia and plant a church. I got a variety of faces and responses. Most of the older generation kind of frowned and told me that there are already enough churches in Sarnia. Then they would give me some over-stated statistic of how many empty seats exist in all the evangelical churches in Sarnia. They will tell me that there are already one hundred and something churches in Sarnia and why don’t I just jump on board with one of those churches. A valid statement I thought.

The younger crowd will usually tell me how excited they are and how they can’t wait for a me to plant a church. They will tell me how the church they are at right now just isn’t cutting it. They will tell me that the worship is outdated and the sermons are of no relevance and repetitive at that. Another valid statement I thought.

Looking back now on all these conversations, it only makes me want to plant more. Those that told me that there are already enough churches in Sarnia couldn’t be further from the truth. First of all, there is only one church. How can we have too many churches? What does that mean exactly? I don’t think God will think there are too many communities of faith in Sarnia until there is one for every thirty to fifty people. When the younger generation tells me that they can’t wait until we start our services I hang my head. When did we start putting so much emphasis on great worship bands and young preachers? Not that these are bad in themselves, but that is so far from what should be central to a church. What should be central are the people around you, not the people on stage.

This is why part of me gets more excited to plant a church. If all people are concerned about is filling pew space, then we definitely need a church that isn’t concerned with that. I hate when people give me that statistic that “if every church in Sarnia was full there would still be seventy thousand people without a place.” What the heck does that mean? So what if every pew seat is full, where does that get us? The community that God called us to be isn’t found in a great service or in full services. It will be seen all week long in every person. So sure, come for the service, that’s fine, but you will find that our service won’t satisfy you enough either after a while, and you will move somewhere else.

I won’t feel like I’m competing against other churches. I will feel like I’m advancing the church. I am coming here to work with the Kingdom of God. Every church that is planted is bringing it one step closer; yes even the crazy charismatic ones. So as time comes closer. These conversations haven’t really discouraged me at all. They have encouraged me because I know that no matter how full or not full their church is, it won’t matter because that will never give them a community to belong to. So until the churches in Sarnia are providing true communities in Sarnia, I’m thinking we will need more than just one church/community plant in this city.