When I was in the early stages of pondering the church plant I’m currently working in, my coach asked me a series of five simple questions that, over the course of months, helped me think through what my church plant would look like. I’ll share those with you here, along with how I processed them, in the hope that the same questions might help you process your own ministry. Because your context is different, your answers will be different. That’s okay—variety is a good thing.
“What’s next?” This question the launching point for a season of prayer and reflection for me that resulted in the vision for a new network of missional house churches.
“What’s missing?” After reflecting on the state of the church in the U.S. I decided my answer was leadership development from the harvest. We were providing seminary education at a rate unmatched anywhere else in the world, but where were the new leaders that came out of the harvest? These reflections led me toward a simple church model for my new church plant: no staff. With no paid staff, you have to rely on developing leaders yourself.
“What’s the organizing principle?” Everything—even organic house churches—must have an organizing principle of some kind. We went with a network of leaders; each house church is independent, but the leaders of the churches are all networked through coaching relationships.
“How can your church get involved in incarnational, missional ministry?” Many churches pick a project and serve together. But—as I’ve found firsthand—it’s hard to get everyone passionate about the same issue. So I decided we didn’t all have to agree; we could do different things, sending people out in groups of twos and threes as they felt drawn to certain ministries.
“What is the multiplication strategy?” Fruit will be borne from people reflecting Jesus with a spirit of humility. So what do we do with that fruit? In the case of my church, we’ve seen multiplication through the natural migration of our people. When people move across town, we look for ways to plant new churches in those areas.
If you’re looking for coaching from a principle-based, missional perspective, go to www.loganleadership.com.
