I’m on my way back from Manhattan, New York. While there I met with Dr. Mark Reynolds of Redeemer Presbyterian and Mac Pier of Concerts of Prayer along with other leaders representing various groups interested in aggressively planting churches in the Greater New York Metro area. They are working together to form an alliance called Church Multiplication Alliance. The purpose of the Alliance is to facilitate the convening of and communication between leaders and groups who are planting churches in New York., provide specific contextualized church planting training and assist with the acquisition of start up funding for new church planting ventures. This has been a work in progress for years, but the CMA is on the verge of really getting some forward traction due mostly to the strong leadership and determination of Redeemer Presbyterian and Concerts of Prayer. Redeemer is the premier church planting church in the New York Metro area (and probably in the nation as well). They have a proven track record of Kingdom-mindedness that is extraordinary. Mac Pier and Concerts of Prayer have a long track record of facilitating inter-denominational collaboration especially around prayer.

I’m hopeful that we (the Assemblies of God) can join hands with these excellent friends. The task in New York is absolutely way too daunting for any one group to handle on its own. The challenges in NYC will take an unprecedented effort to overcome. It’s almost as if God has brought us to a place of humility where we know we need Him and He wants us to know we also need each other. I certainly experienced the reality of my personal smallness as I stood briefly at the base of the towering “Jumbo-trons” in Times Square while lively throngs of people flowed around me. On Manhattan Island, truly the hear t of the “Big Apple”, less than 1% of the residents regularly connect with a community of faith. I think we need to decide if we are OK with that. And when we decide that it’s not OK, we need to back up our decision with actions and join our friends who are already there living as a called out remnant in an influential valley of dry bones. People like Dr. Marcos Rivera of Primitive Christian Church and the other A/G leaders standing firm in Manhattan. We must join with friends from other church families like Nelson Searcy of Journey Church, Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian and David Wilkerson of Times Square Church. Manhattan needs a thousand churches like these. Maybe God is calling YOU to play a part of bringing redemption to Times Square….

I remember a conversation I had about 8 years ago. I was talking to a creative leader who had a passion for tangibly bringing God’s love to lost and forgotten young adults in a particular urban community. I asked him to describe what he wanted to do. With much waving of the arms and vigorous expressions of the face, he proceeded to describe what he believed needed to happen in this particular community. “First,” he said, “I need to connect with these kids on a personal, non-judgmental basis. They’ve got to know they are loved. That’s what’s missing in their life. Once they are absolutely convinced that they are loved, then I need to help them understand why they are loved. They need to know Jesus. Once they meet Jesus, then I’m going to help them follow Him where ever He leads. I don’t know what you call that, but that’s what God has laid on my heart.”

After listening carefully to his ministry plan, I immediately responded, “What you’ve described is a church! You want to start a church!” Very emphatically he responded with a firm, “No way! One thing for sure. I don’t want to start a church.” At first, his response puzzled me. But after further probing I realized that this very creative, innovative and prophetic leader had a very unbiblical definition of church. When I used the word “church”, he envisioned a group of people sitting in rows, looking at the back of a bunch of heads listening to a guy in a suit preach, preferably using a lot of “thee’s” and “thou’s.” He was convinced that whatever it was God was calling him to do, it was not to start a church. Fortunately, after further discussion and prayer together, he discovered that what he described was more like a church than most churches. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last time I had a conversation like that with a leader like that. It seems to me like there is a lot of confusion out there about exactly what a church is?

How does a “church” sound? That’s almost like asking “How does “music” sound?” All music has some common elements like rhythm, notes, pitch, key, tones, etc. But last I checked websites like Rhapsody have hundreds of “channels” of different kinds of music. XM and Sirius each have at least 100 different genre’s of music played 24/7. All this variety is wonderful. “Different strokes for different folks.” Thank God that he has given us freedom to develop different kinds of churches for different kinds of people. Do you wonder if I’m just making that up? Consider what the “ultimate” church planter Paul of Tarsus wrote to the Corinthian church. 19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. First Corinthians 9:19-23.

Those are pretty strong words…”make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” What would it look like if every church sounded like that? What if we majored in serving Christ, by serving everyone so that we minimize the chance that anyone is left behind. As I travel around the country, I’m encountering leaders and churches that are weary of “church as usual.” It seems like God is calling His people back to the basics…loving God and loving people. Now that’s a tune that sounds good where ever it is played!

I just got a note from Daniel McNaughton, planting pastor of Spring Valley Community Church in Royersford, Pennsylvania. He recently returned from leading a BootCamp in Zambia, Africa. You can read about it by clicking here. (The Zambia BootCamp posts were uploaded on April 21-24, 2008). This is not the first BootCamp in another country. Certified AG BootCamps have been held in Mexico, Scotland, South Africa and Romania. In April, two teams, one from Sweden and one from Germany attended the Potomac District BootCamp to investigate the possibility of adapting the BootCamp process for their countries. As a result, we are actively planning to assist our German friends in making the BootCamp a part of their process for facilitating new churches.

One myth about BootCamp is that it is a “training” event. That probably used to be the case, but not any longer. BootCamp is now a strategic “discovery” event built on an adult learning model that is dynamic and totally adaptable to absolutely any style or model of church. As a result, the BootCamp process is a “state of the art” tool for any church planter planting a church anywhere. If you haven’t already gone through the process, now is the time to do it. The price of BootCamp has never been lower. Check out the Church Multiplication Network website to find out more and view a schedule of upcoming BootCamps.