We’ve been pioneering in Lincoln for nearly five years, and we’ve had to learn a whole load of new stuff along the way. The conception of our first Church plant was based around learning how the first British Pentecostals did it, and why they were so successful at winning the lost. In fact, I guess my original reason for wanting to plant Churches was purely and simply to reach the lost.
Essentially I wanted to start a Church on a housing estate because there were people there that needed a Spirit-filled Church and someone had to take it to them. My family and I then went off to University whilst I studied theology, where I learned about this guy who managed to hundreds of thousands of people saved, and also managed to pioneer over 200 Churches in quite a short period of ministry. I kind of learned that to start a revival you had to preach to commoners. Hence Chav Church. I only called it that because all the middle class Pastor’s kids said they were working-class!
Being on the ground I’ve realised that there’s a lot more to being an affective missionary to a city. I recently heard a preacher speaking about how the Anabaptists would pioneer a Church, and thought that it is a great model for Church today. Although when I’ve explained what they did, anyone who’s tried this before will know how it can be very hard to get others on board with your vision for a new Church, and so we might all look at this and think it’s an impossibility. However, before you switch off, let me encourage you. Although they say that one man isn’t a team, it can be the case that a team can form around one gifted man or woman. So I’ll share this technique with you to encourage you to hone in on these gifts within yourself, and to train others in them as you build a team.
First, let me introduce the Anabaptists.
If you’ve been around Church for any length of time you’ll have come across this notion that some Christians are different from others. One of the big differences in the Church is that of the Catholic Church verses the Reformed Church, or Protestant Church. About 500 years ago a bunch of people looked at Church the way it was and thought that it needed some changes to become more inline with scripture, according to their convictions I might add. One of the main guys that we hear about a lot in Church is a guy called Luther. This Catholic priest was sort of the first person to act on his thoughts regarding some of the doctrine, or theology, that the Church had. He tried to change the Catholic Church, and he succeeded. He stayed part of the Catholic Church for a long time. Another guy that is mentioned at Bible College a lot was a man called John Calvin. He took things a bit further, and left the Catholic Church, but carried on some of their traditions like praying to Mary and baptising children. Then there was this other guy called Zwingly. Essentially, Zwingly read the Bible a lot like we would today, but was way too ‘reformed’ for the others of the reformation crowd. Their main problem with him was that he wanted to baptise people who were born again, and so he would baptise adults. His group was called the Anabaptists.
As you can imagine they must’ve have been really keen on preaching the gospel and getting people into the Kingdom of God, and out of being nominal Christians. Hence the whole issue of baptising adults.
These guys had a technique of pioneering new Christian communities, or Churches, that we can learn from today.
Their pioneer team had a Bible teacher
Committed Christians read their Bible. It’s through reading scripture that we learn about who God is, who we are, and what our purpose is. How will we ever be able to discern the voice of God if we don’t even know the sort of things that he cares about, or how he thinks. We can learn this stuff through studying the Bible. However, as a Church leader it’s easy for me to say that, but how will people get a passion for their scripture unless they see someone else who clearly has a passion for it too? What’s more, there’s nothing to stir up passion for scripture more than one of those moments where someone pulls something out of scripture – a hidden gem – that just rocks your world and reminds you just how awesome scripture is. One of those for me recently was when I read that king David, after being rejected as king by Israel, walked up the Mount of Olives in mourning as a rejected king. Putting that next to Jesus walking up the same mountain on Maundy Thursday, a rejected king, made my hair stand on end and I found another burst of passion for scripture. This is the importance of having a Bible Teacher as part of your pioneering team. If you can’t find one, learn to be one, and read your damn Bible.
Their pioneer team had an Evangelist
If you ain’t got anyone to teach the Bible to, there’s no point in having a Bible teacher. As I mentioned before, the reason I chose to plant Churches was because it’s a great way to win the lost. A pioneer ministry without an Evangelist, or at least an Evangelistic strategy and budget, is not a Church plant, it’s a sheep-fold robber. You aren’t after the lost, you’re just looking to pick up stray sheep. One of my first visits to Lincoln I met with about thirty leaders from over ten different Churches, made up of a bunch of denominations and traditions. When they asked me what my plan was I told them that I wanted to get people saved. If our Church reach the dizzy number of twenty, which might seem small to some, but I filled all of their Churches then I would get my treasure in heaven. For me, and for the Anabaptists it is/was all about winning the lost. We sometimes have people made a decision to follow Jesus in our meetings and I tell them to go to their nearest Church. Although we’re lovely people, we don’t have a monopoly on Church. There are other great Churches out there too!
Their pioneer team had an Entrepreneur
The Anabaptists would have someone who was proven in starting up new businesses and making money on their team. The aim would be to raise aspirations in their new area, create wealth, and of course they would aim to support the work of the Church. One of the hardest things we’ve found in Lincoln is to raise aspirations. If people don’t have aspirations for their lives, if they don’t have hope, then they’ll have no reason to read their Bible or be discipled. What’s the point in change if life will be the same after? Can life get any better? These people have no hope because they’ve been fed false promises and false dreams their whole lives. Most of the kids on this estate think they will actually be the next big thing for Manchester United, and when they don’t even get picked for their local Sunday League team their whole world comes crumbling down and they realise that their only real option in life is work at MacDonalds or claim the doll whilst drinking beer all day like their dad because they couldn’t be bothered with school. You don’t need GCSEs to play for Man U. When I gave a lad off the estate a job, all his mates went out and got jobs with builders too. That’s Kingdom! A decent entrepreneur will be out mingling with the local authorities and charitable organisations too. Before long they’ll have all sorts of people knocking on your Church door asking for favours that can later be called upon for the Kingdom.
Maybe you already have all of these gifts, or maybe you need to learn them, but if you want to make a big impact in your city for Jesus, you’ll need to get them somehow.
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