Ralph's Blog RSSStarting A New Church by Ralph Moore (Sample Chapters
Preface
Starting a new church is a great adventure. People join the process for a mixed bag of reasons. Perspective pastors usually initiate the process and do so mostly out of a sense of calling. Some folks join a church planting team because of boredom with status quo Christianity. Many will unite to the project out of loyalty and friendship with the perspective pastor. Others attach themselves to a new church because they want to escape a congregation that no longer meets their needs. A few may help start a new church in hopes of learning enough to duplicate the process at a later date. All are valid motives.
Whoever you are and whatever your drive, this book offers support for your journey. It is a mixture of scriptural insights, hard-won personal experience and the spirit-driven victories of lots of people. Hopefully, you will find it practical and the advice easy to implement. In that sense it will benefit you greatly. It should provide a practical tool for a team to study together on the way to planting a new congregation or during those first few months after a church is birthed. I hope that this book will insure the success of every church planter who reads it and works through the checkpoints at the end of each chapter.
The book is not, however, a final answer nor does it claim to be the “right way” to plant a church. The nearest example we have of a right way is that of Jesus as he planted the church he left behind in Jerusalem on the day of his resurrection.
One facet of a book of this nature can lead to problems in the mind of the reader. That is my tendency as an author to tell stories that turned out well. You would do well to remember that for every victory there is also a rough spot in the road. Neither should you be overwhelmed by my tendency to talk about a large number of churches that my friends and I have planted. We’ve been at this for a long time. Also, perseverance is our great ally. We have known success mostly because we’ve kept at the task of planting churches. We have no secret formula other than a belief that every church should be about the business of planting churches—repeatedly. That belief results in numerical success over time. In fact, our greatest successes come downstream from our planting efforts. The churches that we planted have planted others. In several cases, many others.
My prayer is that the same thing happens to you. May you realize your purpose and then pass it on to others over several generations of churches. May God’s grace accompany you on your adventure.
Ralph Moore
Kailua, Hawaii
Chapter 1
Calling: Why I Plant Churches
People often ask why I expend so much energy on planting churches. They usually question the sacrifices my family, the members of my church and I make in the process. Sometimes they bluntly query, “Wouldn’t you be pastoring a larger church if you just stopped giving people away?” I always answer, “Yes, but I would touch fewer people.”
The Dream Is Born
The idea came to me when I was 19. I had been assigned the yard-care duties as part of a summer church-planting project in Gresham, Oregon. When the inspiration struck, I was weeding the lawn in front of East Hill Church’s tiny sanctuary.
As a way to kill boredom, I sang while I worked. That day the old Charles Wesley hymn O For a Thousand Tongues came to mind. It is a prayer for a thousand voices to sing God’s praises. The best way, or so I thought, to assemble such a choir would be to evangelize a thousand people. But, with very little experience in ministry, I nearly tossed this idea aside, reasoning that it would be impossible to complete such a task in my lifetime. Then I jumped to the concept of starting several churches. I view this mental leap through the prism of revelation, although it did not—and still does not—seem the least bit ethereal.
There were two reasons why I initially dismissed the idea that I could ever evangelize large numbers of people or pastor a large church. First, at the time, my denomination (Foursquare) only had three congregations of more than 1,000 members. The second reason held deeper implications: I simply did not believe in myself. The youngest in my class, I was always the last kid picked for playground sports. My family did not have a lot of money, while my friends’ parents did. I had no musical talent and was frightened of speaking in public. There were many reasons to feel that I did not have what it would take to lead a large congregation, but if I multiplied churches the issues would be resolved.
As I daydreamed in that garden, I devised a plan. Over a lifetime, I would gradually move down the Oregon coast and plant seven churches. I would progress from town to town like the apostle Paul did during his missionary journeys. Hopefully, after spending five to seven years in each small city, I would leave behind a trail of functioning congregations. The intent was to leverage my limited gifts by planting numerous churches.
God Had Bigger Plans
Nearly four decades later, my purpose remains unchanged, but the goal has grown. The Oregon Coast was too small for the vision God communicated that day in the churchyard. Seven churches planted consecutively was a good idea, but tiny compared to the plan God eventually revealed.
Today I do pastor a large congregation, but I have found that I can best advance my gifts, time and mentoring abilities when I multiply the church. This course started in the autumn of 1971 when I met with 12 people in Manhattan Beach, California—the first Hope Chapel. At this writing, that initial church-plant has blossomed into the Hope Chapel movement and includes more than 200 congregations. The network extends to five continents and it would take a sizeable stadium to hold the members of all its churches, most of whom will never meet one another in this life.
Rapid multiplication from a single location, as we have seen at Hope Chapel, seems close to what Jesus had in mind for the 12 apostles when He sent them from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, then to the ends of Earth (see Acts 1:8). The model has worked for me. It has allowed one man with limited skills and gifts to reach and get a message of hope to tens of thousands of people, most of whom he will never meet.
We Plant Our First Church
When we started the first Hope Chapel in Manhattan Beach I was ready and excited, but also fearful. However, when God presented my coworkers and me with an opportunity to launch a second congregation, I balked. Although the concept was biblical, it was too “far out,” even for a hippie pastor in the 1970s. Tradition still ruled in my heart. Church planting, in my mind, had to operate out of a denominational seedbed, not spring forth from a local congregation. Operating under my preconceived wishful thinking I was supposed to disciple people and send them to seminary. The denomination would turn them into church planters.
We Break from Tradition
At that time, my circle of fellowship held no concept of churches planting churches. Nor could it accept pastors mentoring other pastors. Fortunately, the person I spoke to in the denominational hierarchy had a more flexible wineskin than I. He told me that he hoped his daughter would one day marry and bear him grandchildren. But he had no right to dictate where and when she would have children. He observed that our church was pregnant with our first daughter church and said that he had no right to interfere with the process. If we planted a church, he would find a way to widen the denomination’s polity to embrace it.
He was a very wise man. When he stretched the denomination’s wineskin, he stretched ours, too. Our vision grew and many new churches exist today because of his advice and counsel. I now live in the hope that the seven churches I envisioned as a 19-year-old will expand to 500 by the time I retire. Church planting as much as pastoring has become my calling—but not mine alone. You are reading this book for a reason. I believe the reason is that God wants to stretch your wineskin and accomplish through you far more than you dare to imagine.
Church Planter’s Checklist
1. What is there in the author’s testimony that resonates with the vision God has put in your heart?
2. Write three to five paragraphs that recount your personal vision as it relates to church planting.
3. What will it take for you to multiply many churches within your current church or denominational family?
Chapter 2
Mission: Why Should You Plant a Church?
Today Christian leaders peer through a maze of exciting megachurch testimonies and pesky statistics as we search for the keys to success. The Christian media overflows with victory story after victory story. Yet, whenever surveyors such as George Barna tally the numbers, the results show the Church yielding ground, both numerically and spiritually. We seem to be losing the war for the hearts of the people of this world.
Most established churches serve their constituents well. But, on the whole, we are not winning over the unchurched. As we struggle to grow individual congregations, the percentage of Christians within the general population is shrinking. Our cities resemble urban donut holes. Suburbanites embrace Christianity while inner-city dwellers look to other options. Surprisingly many members of rising generations of Americans live in ignorance of Jesus Christ and do not possess a sense of moral absolutes. We need a new approach because the old way only maintains the status quo, thereby diminishing the overall size and influence of the Church. Aggressive church planting has the potential to reverse this trend.
We Can Learn from Lincoln
President Abraham Lincoln stood at a severe disadvantage through much of the U.S. Civil War. His generals refused to fight—they would not engage the enemy. At the beginning of the war military leaders recommended a defensive plan. They believed guarding Union territory and containment of the South would eventually calm the conflict. Lincoln disagreed. Between 1861 and 1863, he replaced four successive generals-in-chief and, despite the roar of protests from important people, he finally settled on Ulysses S. Grant. Living up to his nickname, “Unconditional Surrender,” Grant displayed courage and tactical skill through several commanding victories. His detractors, however, complained because he labored under a record of heavy battlefield casualties. It was also rumored that he had been drunk during some of his battles. When confronted over the choice of Grant, Lincoln dismissed criticism by saying, “I can’t spare this man. He fights!”
Today we are in a war of another sort. Like Lincoln, we need officers who will take the battle to the enemy. We are called not to defend turf, but to invade enemy territory. Our objectives must include entire cities. Our tactics should differ from much of our treasured tradition. Our mission is not to kill, but to spare lives.
Let’s Consider the Reasons
Have you ever questioned your friends about their prayers for spiritual awakening? I have. I find most Christians request more of whatever they already experience at church. They also expect this to come juiced with a sensory awareness of the Holy Spirit. They ask for their relatives and friends to come to the Lord. Some pray that the gospel would change their culture, but few petition for entire cities, even countries to embrace the Savior. If we are going to win the world then we need more than a refilling with the Spirit. We need far more labor in the harvest (see Matt. 9:35-38). We need more churches as frontline bases in the spiritual conflict.
There are many reasons why you should be thinking about planting a church. In the paragraphs that follow, I examine a few of the better reasons.
New Churches Provide Superior Results
As I have already noted, in my early years of ministry, I sent many church-planting teams out from Manhattan Beach. Then, in 1983, I moved a team of 30 people from California to Hawaii to plant a church myself. Likewise that church subsequently planted others. When we moved to Hawaii, our goal was to evangelize one percent of the populace, bringing them into newly-planted congregations in one decade. Just before we left California, my team members and I were twice told to stay home.
Both so-called encouragers cited the need for existing churches to grow as the reason we should not plant a new one. Over the past two decades we have planted about 30 churches within Hawaii, all stemming from that original congregation. Thousands of people find the Lord each year in those congregations. Others, encouraged by our success, have begun planting churches. Spillover growth occurs every time we establish churches in other states or other countries. The churches of those two critics do show growth, but the increase does not total 200 new members in nearly 20 years. If we had stayed in California, our Hope Chapel movement would not have expanded as it has and even the churches of our critics might not have grown as much as they did—ironically their leaders have since attended our seminars.
Vital Statistic: One American denomination (which one?) recently found that 80 percent of its converts came to faith in Jesus in churches less than two years old. (need footnote) Like General Grant, church planters produce results—they put aside traditional methods and find new ones to effectively organize their ministries and evangelize their cities. New congregations payoff in effective evangelism and church growth!
More Churches Produce a Better Harvest
I wish everyone who has come to Christ through the efforts of the Hope Chapel movement would also stay and grow with us—but they do not. Despite our best efforts, we cannot adjust to meet the needs of everyone we encounter.
I once heard a children’s song titled “Different Strokes for Different Folks.” The wisdom of that tune extends to churches. It is easier to conserve converts if the new Christian has lots of options. This is not only true within a given church, but the task is easier when there are many other churches from which a person can choose.
Just because a person is evangelized by a certain group does not mean that the new believer is going to feel comfortable in close fellowship with it. We often lead people to Christ whose tastes in worship, teaching or programs vary from what we offer—different strokes for different folks. At Hope Chapel, we are glad when we can refer people to other churches that can more adequately meet their needs. When we look at evangelism in this light it becomes clear that the more churches in a community, the more chances there are for people to truly find a place where they fit into the Body of Christ.
New Churches Speak Best to the Next Generation
Perhaps our greatest responsibility is to evangelize our own generation. After that comes the need to pass the baton of Christianity on to our children and grandchildren. This task can prove to be daunting. Language, music, clothing and lifestyles change over time. They tend to make our wineskins less flexible and unable to hold the new wine that can attract a new generation.
Decisions emerge quickly in new congregations, the process slows as a church grows older. Members of new churches find fresh ways of expressing worship and truth without resorting to an endless array of committee meetings. They tend to naturally speak the language of the founding generation yet avoid offending God-loving people from another. Although every congregation will be somewhat multi-generational, we need new churches that are focused on the needs of each new generation.
New Churches Move the Gospel Across Cultural Lines
Face it—my mother’s cooking tastes better to me than that stuff your mom makes. We all have our own propensities and like to be with people who hold similar opinions. Much of our view of the world derives from our culture: including our food, music, dance, hand-gestures, parenting styles—the list of preferences seems infinite. This principle is the same when it comes to picking a church. We tend to go where we are most comfortable.
Having lots of new churches simplifies evangelistic efforts among people or varying cultures and tastes. Getting people together with others who think like they think makes it easier to present the gospel in a way that makes sense to a spiritually-hungry individual. It is simpler because the gospel gets communicated in a culturally-friendly manner and at a personal level.
New Churches Can Open Doors for Very Poor People
We all feel comfortable with people of our own economic standing, too. This is why poor people do not flock to middle-class Christian churches. Neither do the extremely wealthy go to inner-city congregations.
This stratification compounds itself through a factor sociologists call “redemption and lift.” Poorer people who find the Lord improve their financial situation through disciplined living and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Eventually they see success on the job, earn more money and move into more costly neighborhoods. These people often continue to worship with their old congregation, but the natural lines of communication break down and they quickly become outsiders. As these people grow older, the gospel becomes confined to their hearts. As a result, in the old neighborhood members of the next generation come to view Christianity as a religion for the elderly and seek other spiritual options. We need a new witness aimed at younger people in every neighborhood and town.
New Churches Offer Better Use of Resources
Land, buildings and programs are expensive—sometimes they are wasteful uses of resources. Yet their purchase and construction are somehow becoming the benchmarks of congregational success. Discussions about mortgage interest rates, square-footage and staff salaries abound at pastor’s conventions like stock market conquests at a cocktail party. Meanwhile, new congregations grow explosively in borrowed or rented facilities with minimal overhead and a mostly-volunteer staff. A wise investment counselor might treat us to a figurative look in the mirror over our use of resources reflected against the results we seek.
Freshly-Planted Churches Present Leadership Development Opportunities
Adequate leadership is a monstrous need in every church. For this reason, church planters become excellent recruiters and innovators, or their churches die. The results of their recruitment and training efforts generally spill over into neighboring churches, missions and parachurch ministries.
Every church labors to develop and disciple new leaders. But new congregations do it faster. They are also forced to raise more leaders per capita into significant positions than long-established congregations that have already filled these positions or those looking to seminary graduates to fill them. As a result, new churches add primary leaders to the Christian community at a much faster rate than older congregations do. This leadership harvest alone more than justifies a cry for accelerated efforts to birth churches.
New Churches Are Less Likely to Struggle Over Manifestations of the Holy Spirit
We all become set in our ways and in our interpretation of truth. During the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, young people began to raise their hands during worship, speak in tongues at prayer services and clap their hands in church. Their elders were often aghast at such behavior. Many congregations were thrown into confusion only to have the problems resolved by what I will call grand-elders—people who were old enough to have experienced a previous move of the Holy Spirit.
These gray-haired bearers of wisdom calmed the waters when they could. Meanwhile, younger congregations unfettered by years of tradition and experience plunged swiftly into the waves of spiritual awakening. Church planters and their congregations never even held the discussions about these activities because they did not have to line up with existing traditions—they had none. Newer churches can focus their energies toward evangelism because they have fewer theological issues to resolve.
Established Congregations Can Grow Fastest by Simple Multiplication
A sheepfold tends to operate at or near the shepherd’s maximum leadership capacity. When a natural, economic or spiritual disaster robs a church of large numbers of people, a healthy congregation will usually see enough unbelievers come to faith in its services to regain equilibrium. When too many new converts come aboard too quickly, the average church leadership structure either collapses or opens like a sieve letting people out until equilibrium reasserts itself. A leadership team’s vision and ability, centering in the pastor, dictate the size of the church. It is hard to teach new tricks to old dogs. Millions of dollars and man-hours invested in church growth seminars annually attest to this fact. We listen to the best, but have a hard time digesting what we have heard. Church planting answers this phenomenon by letting the pastor and congregation simply duplicate themselves rather than being forced to relearn church-growth principles and redefine how they do ministry.
Church Planting Was the Chosen Tool of Jesus and the Apostles
The New Testament points toward the rapid deployment of congregations as the model Jesus intended for building His church. It took eight years for the gospel to escape Jerusalem. But when it did, it sparked a church-planting movement in Antioch that quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire.
Jesus delineated the task just before He ascended into heaven. The disciples were now called “apostles.” This move modified the purpose of their assignment. The parlance shifted from a term meaning “learner” to one suggesting that the person who bears it is an “ambassador.” The name change alone should have helped them understand that they were to go and make disciples. Jesus was not subtle about this. He gave the apostles specific instructions and sent them from Judea into Samaria and finally to the ends of Earth. Yet from all appearances the team never really made any progress toward the rest of the world until their work took on the trappings of a church-planting movement. When leaders finally did reach out to the world, they planted churches. Their primary strategy was rapid multiplication of congregations.
Aggressive Church Planting Works
After three frustrating years, President Lincoln discovered Grant. Before that time he cajoled generals, wrote letters begging for action and even designed one battle plan himself. The rise of Grant allowed Lincoln to return to the business of running the country. If this small bit of American history carries one strong lesson for us it is that of creative abandonment: Forsake what does not work for what does. With that in mind, you need to discover whether you have what it takes to multiply the Church.
Church Planter’s Checklist
1. Can you identify unmet needs in your target community that might be met by a newly-planted church?
2. How would your new church impact your mother church? State negatives as well as positive responses.
3. In your target community, what opportunities exist that only a new church could exploit?
