Book Review (Part 2): Transformation - How Glocal Churches Transform Lives and the World
In case you didn't guess it from the part 1, Roberts is really, really into planting new churches. He writes that instead of focusing on having the biggest church in the area, that we should strive instead to "church the area." The argument is that a church merely trying to grow as big as it can it will tend to grow more self-focused and will be less focused on growing the Body of Christ in general.
I think that's a valid point, but I wonder if the answer is really to plant new churches. It seems to me that the U.S. has plenty of churches. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just direct people to other, already established churches? On the other hand, perhaps there are people that would not go to most of the established churches, and church planting can often be a powerful evangelistic outreach. Another issue concerning church planting is that for a church to continually do that on anywhere close to the level Roberts' church has done it, and would require the "parent" church to be continually growing (so that it doesn't become extinct by "losing" people to the new church plants). Many churches today have plateaued and would seem incapable of doing that.
Roberts is also big on every local church making a direct global impact. His church and the ones it has planted all pick an "unreached" people group and seek to impact them in any way possible. This often involves vocational or "tentmaker" missionaries, that is, local lay people who go overseas and practice their occupation sharing their faith in places where American pastors cannot go. An example of this is people from Roberts' church helped reformed a nation's educational system to help them meet their needs of their students with learning disabilities (he seems reluctant to give the name of the nation in question, but it's not too difficult to figure out). Roberts also mentions that hosting foreign exchange students can be a good opportunity to reach other cultures and that it also serves as an excellent test of your ability to live a transformed life (that is, can the exchange student notice anything about you that is different that other people)?
Roberts seems to be covering much of the same material that's in this book in online newsletters. Here's the latest one, and here's their archive.
One final note: this a fairly short book, only 180 pages of average size print.
Technorati tags: Bob Roberts Transformation Glocal church planting
I think that's a valid point, but I wonder if the answer is really to plant new churches. It seems to me that the U.S. has plenty of churches. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just direct people to other, already established churches? On the other hand, perhaps there are people that would not go to most of the established churches, and church planting can often be a powerful evangelistic outreach. Another issue concerning church planting is that for a church to continually do that on anywhere close to the level Roberts' church has done it, and would require the "parent" church to be continually growing (so that it doesn't become extinct by "losing" people to the new church plants). Many churches today have plateaued and would seem incapable of doing that.
Roberts is also big on every local church making a direct global impact. His church and the ones it has planted all pick an "unreached" people group and seek to impact them in any way possible. This often involves vocational or "tentmaker" missionaries, that is, local lay people who go overseas and practice their occupation sharing their faith in places where American pastors cannot go. An example of this is people from Roberts' church helped reformed a nation's educational system to help them meet their needs of their students with learning disabilities (he seems reluctant to give the name of the nation in question, but it's not too difficult to figure out). Roberts also mentions that hosting foreign exchange students can be a good opportunity to reach other cultures and that it also serves as an excellent test of your ability to live a transformed life (that is, can the exchange student notice anything about you that is different that other people)?
Roberts seems to be covering much of the same material that's in this book in online newsletters. Here's the latest one, and here's their archive.
One final note: this a fairly short book, only 180 pages of average size print.
Technorati tags: Bob Roberts Transformation Glocal church planting
posted by Freethinker at 9:06:00 AM
4 Comments:
I haven't been able to come to a personal conclusion regarding church planting in our already church-rich country. I'm about to be part of a church planting, so it seems, in April, if all goes as planned. Yeah, I just don't know. I grew up hearing how terrible it is to have so many differences, and that the differences are the reasons for all the different churches. Or is it really that drastic of a thing? Maybe we just like different music...or different clothes...and location is a big part of it. I wish I could just get up in the morning and go to the closest church. I suppose I could. Anyway. Someday we'll all be together.
Jason I would suggest a few things regarding church planting....
*you can never have enough (no matter how big or small) of churches who love Jesus and love people the way He loves them. I mean could you really say "Well I guess we don't need any more help leading others to Christ or loving culture?" I don't think so
*the larger a church gets the harder it is for many people to serve. church plants allow people to lead who otherwise might not have that chance in an already established church (we see this every month at Mosaic don't we?). we have leaders at Mosaic who would have never moved into this type of leadership had they stayed at their current church. (I am not saying that it's right...it's just a fact)
*change is easier to forge in a church plant rather than an established model. it's easier sometimes to start something new rather than to try to change something that has 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years of traditon. do you agree?
*ultimately i am not sure we should be starting more churches either....but i am into starting more movements of God's people redeeming the earth. call it what you want but where there is movement, faith, hope, love, Christ and those who follow Him I think you have the Church.
Great thoughts. Go little Mavericks!
Tank, I think many of the differences are small and of relatively little importance, but groups tend to focus on them because those are the things that make them different (or "right" in their view).
Stephen, I agree that it's much easier for new churches to change, and that large churches sometimes waste the leadership potential of some of it's members. Wouldn't it be nice if churches could fix those problems instead of just planting new churches?
You can't have too many followers of Christ, but perhaps you can have too many churches in some cases. I definitely think you can have too many church buildings.
I think the number of active believers indicates how much help you have in "leading others to Christ or loving culture," not the number of churches.
I would not look at it as starting new movements. I would look at it like there's one movement, and the question is what's the best way to expand it?
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