What’s interesting to me is that too often, leaders who look to Luke 6:38 to motivate their people to give, do not practice the principle in the way they co-labor with Jesus in building His Church. I’m not referring to the way the leaders manage their personal giving. I’m referring to how their strategic plans align with this crucial biblical principle of “give and it shall be given.”

Here’s an example of what I mean. The conventional approach to staffing has been to go out and find the best proven leaders and hire them to serve on the leadership team of a local church. The hiring process is costly and fraught with potholes. When a really good staff person is hired, conventional wisdom says hang on to him/her. Keep them for yourself.

But Kingdom wisdom says you might want to give them away. Send them out to plant a church, be a missionary, help a struggling congregation get back on mission, etc. It doesn’t make sense I know. But the biblical principle seems to apply to more than just money in the pockets of the members. When we develop leaders and give them away, the principle is that more will be “given” to us. I’m not suggesting that every leader we develop must be sent away to honor the principle. But SOME of the leaders we develop should be planted as seeds to expand the Kingdom beyond the parameters of our immediate ministry context.

For what it’s worth, this concept is actually supported by research. Studies by “Natural Church Development” author Christian Schwarz conducted on churches that are intentional about sending indicate that “sending” churches tend to be healthier than “keeping” churches. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.

An example of Kingdom wisdom is the principle of “the first will be last.” From the perspective of conventional wisdom, the “first will be last” just doesn’t make sense. Believing that the “first will be last” requires faith. And if we really believe it, it will change how we act as in, we will cease focusing on trying to be first and let God place us where ever we can best be used.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going consider some common points of “conventional wisdom” I’ve heard from leaders in the world of church planting and multi-site approaches toward multiplying the church and contrast them with their “Kingdom” counterpart. Feel free to think with me via comments.

Conventional Wisdom: We honor God when we are efficient. Here’s how this common piece of conventional wisdom is often manifested. “Why should we go through the expense of starting another church when we can add X number of people by simply adding another worship service?” Underneath this line of logic is the concept that the goal of planting is simply to attract more people to church meetings. If more bodies in the pews is the goal, then it does make sense to simply add another service. That’s conventionally wise and actually does make sense.

But the problem is that efficiency is not necessarily a Kingdom value. Mary, the sister of Lazarus helps make this clear. Was it efficient when Mary poured the bottle of expensive perfume over the feet of Jesus? When Jesus stopped by for a visit Martha was consumed with practical (efficient) concerns, but Mary wanted to spend time with Jesus and Martha’s suggestion that Mary was wrong was not supported by the Lord. As far as I can tell, efficiency was never a guiding factor when Jesus made a decision about anything.

Kingdom Wisdom: We honor God when we are obedient. Efficiency may be right some of the time, but obedience is right all of the time. So here’s the Kingdom answer to the question “Why should we go through the expense of starting another church when we can add X number of people by simply adding another worship service?” Have you asked God what He wants you to do? Are you starting another service because a consultant told you it was the best way to grow your church? That may be efficient, but it’s not necessarily obedient. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not against adding services! It may very well be the right thing to do. But it needs to be right for the right reason, not just because it is consistent with conventional wisdom. Because conventional wisdom often runs contrary to Kingdom wisdom.

The pastor of “number three” is Pastor Peter Cho. Peter and his wife Shenha have been working diligently to gather a “launch team” of English speaking Korean young adults to build a bridge to the extensive SoCal population of 2^nd and 3^rd generation Korean immigrants. Thanksgiving Church has been a great “womb” for them during their “gestation” phase and on the first week of September they plan to birth “Great Harvest Church” just a few blocks down the road from Thanksgiving Church. So, yesterday, I had the privilege of sharing a word of exhortation and encouragement to the launch team of Great Harvest. (more…)

This list is probably not exhaustive. These are just some of the short-sighted reasons I’ve heard from people who aspired to plant or from people who did plant and it didn’t go well. Feel free to comment and add your own “dumb” reasons.

So what are the right reasons to plant a church? Here are a few reasons I think are headed in the right direction.

1. To build a bridge to lost people and help them become followers of Christ.
2. To obey a clear calling of God.
3. To tangibly fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples who make disciples.
4. Because it’s not OK that millions of Americans are sociologically disconnected from a community of disciples and God has called us to go where they are and help them find him.

Feel free to respond with your own thoughts.

What is especially encouraging for me is that these friends are the fruit of decades of labor by AG missionaries in every corner of the globe. From the beginning, our missionaries were determined to plant the seed of the Gospel in the hearts of indigenous people and then empower them develop leadership to lead themselves. It is a strategy that has clearly worked. Currently, the AG has self-governing General Councils in 212 countries and territories. Much of what is now happening globally was catalyzed by missionaries who obeyed the call of God to sacrificially GO to take the Gospel to all nations. Now the fruit of their labor is coming back to bless America in our time of great spiritual need.

These leaders are passionate and faith filled and they are working diligently to reach lost Americans of all ethnicities. I’m optimistic that they are part of God’s plan to heal this nation. And the reality is that these folks are the future of America. According to a recent article in the
New York Times, America will be composed of a “minority majority” by 2039. In other words, over the next thirty years, the proportion of non-Hispanic whites which now comprise about 66% of the population will rapidly decrease to 49% in 2039. We must plant churches that are multi-cultural as well as cultural specific to reach folks of differing languages and cultural with the powerful Gospel of Jesus.

The bottom line is that God has positioned the AG well to reach lost Americans regardless of culture, language or nation of origin.