Church Planting thoughts by Stetzer.

I really like Ed Stetzer, mainly cause the guy knows his stuff, has a dry sense of humor, is nerdy as they come, yet gets to speak at some of the coolest and dorkiest conferences on the planet. To give you an example, the week before I heard him speak at our Church conference, we was speaking at A29 in Raleigh Durham where some of my buddies are at in Vintage 21. To say the least that church is pretty hip and cool.

The next week Stetzer swings on the pendulum of cool and find himself at our conference as the Mac Daddy Key speaker communicating on Contextualization, and it blows the minds of about 80% of people in that room.

Stetzer is a master communicator, and the video below highlight some of my thoughts about Church planting. I wanted to highlight some points, that perhaps you weren’t aware of.

Know who you are

It makes no sense to be a square peg in a round hole. God created you the way you are, and he was pretty wise on a lot of stuff, so my guess is who you are is who you are mean’t to be. Leaving aside sin clouding who God “intended” you to be. What I am trying to say is, your giftings and talents that you use to glorify God are specific to you. So use them to glorify God.

I really battle with the concept that I am going to plant a church and do it this way because it work there, so it will work here. REALLY?! So if I take Purpose Driven and Do it in Maricopa is should work? Franchising Jesus like fast food is successful?

It doesn’t because people are seeking Authenticity. To achieve that you need to be aware of what people are thirsting for in your community, what demographic they are, what their background is. Then based on that and your skills and gifting you can start to construct a ministry to reach them. The incredible thing about Stetzer is the guy has been involved in planting and revitalization of a bunch of ministries, and he has been a success. He is neither cool nor hip (actually he is depending on what his audience is). But compared to a Driscoll, Chandler, Furtick, Noble, Bell he is kind of a dork.

The reason he is successful is he is very aware of his strengths and talents. He knows the giftings God has given him and he leverages that to glorify God. His TYPE of ministry changes, but his Style of leadership is distinctly him. It is successful because he is not trying to be anyone except himself, and he is receptive to the people he constructs a ministry strategy for, which makes him authentic

I remember playing basketball with my buddies at school, just after the “Grant Hill drinks Sprite” commercial. I loved that guy pre and post injuries (and he is in PHX now which rocks!). We would watch that commercial and then come to school and emulate Grant Hill. The problem is weedy, white, Australian, private school boys are NOTHING like Grant Hill. We look stupid and the whole impersonation thing is a comic tragedy.

Being like someone just doesn’t work. Adopting some of the principles is a Good idea, but why dress and act like Driscoll if that isn’t you? Why try to be some existential post-modern arty preacher-teacher if you aren’t Rob Bell? Use the Gifts God has given you. The reason many of my ministries are dominated with computer playing dorks who love Jesus and small groups, is because that in the largest part is who I am. I have since added grappling to my resume, but at the heart of the matter I am a computing nerd….I am happy with that, and it gives me talents that other people don’t have.

Know your Audience

Quite simply too many churches have pastors that are doing what they LIKE and not what God wants. The church is the Bride of Christ which means (according to scripture) we submit to the will of Jesus. Doing a ministry in one style because thats what you like, doesn’t work. Be sensitive to where you are and the spiritual temperature of your location. Then in prayer design a ministry that is going to REACH those people.

It doesn’t matter what it looks like if it is saving souls and winning people to God! If you are baptizing people and leading them to Christ then the church is working. Matt Chandler is not Mark Driscoll and their ministries are VERY different because of their location. Their GOALS are the same, their MINISTRIES are not.

The destination is heaven, the purpose is Jesus, the text is the bible, and the glory is for God. There is the framework for which you can construct your ministry. God is nice in leaving a pretty wide expanse for your ministry. We don’t need to look and sound the same to accomplish the same thing. So be sensitive to who your audience is, and REACH THEM!