What Kind of Church to Plant Allen Thompson goes on to argue that Redeemer Church’s understanding of "gospel" movements propels them toward church planting. But not just any kind of church. They want their churches to be "biblical churches."
He writes: Our question at Redeemer is this: How do we apply the movement methodology to the great cities of the world which possess enormous diversity in ethnicity, education levels, economic standards, etc.? How do we apply the movement methodology to New York City in particular? What kinds of churches fit this milieu? One answer is to revisit the definition of a biblical church. While various models (large, small, store fronts, house churches, cell groups) are effective in different contexts and neighborhoods of the city, the church planting leader must have a firm grasp of the essential elements of a biblical church. In other words, the leader must have no doubt as to what constitutes a true church according to the Scriptures. The Reformers outlined two essential marks: the faithful preaching of the Word of God, that is the teaching of the Christian gospel according to the Scripture; and the right use of the sacraments, that is baptism and the Lord’s Supper . Later the Reformers specified a functioning system of discipline as a third mark. Luther found additional marks of the true church alongside the original two; he specified the keys of discipline (Matt. 16:19), an authorized ministry (Acts 14:23; 20:28), public worship (Heb. 10:25), and suffering under the cross (Acts 14:22, 20:29). Charismatic churches point to the active ministry of every member as a mark of the true church (Eph. 4:7-16). In Redeemer’s model we focus on the traditional Reformed and Presbyterian position. The what kind of church issue becomes even more complicated when Redeemer partners with churches throughout the city. In its partner program, Redeemer provides training and mentoring to church planters of different denominational persuasions in order to facilitate church planting in many different forms throughout New York City. In this regard, a major training objective focuses on seeding every new church planting project with the DNA of the gospel (as explained above) and ensuring that new churches have a biblical ecclesiology.
What is implied by "planting"?
Consider the word planting. Church planting movements are concerned with starting new enterprises, beginning something new. We call these new ventures planting, borrowing from Paul’s agricultural metaphor and emphasizing inherent life (I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. I Corinthians 3:6-8)
The Redeemer movement definition asserts that a CPM is a Spirit-directed activity which naturally builds, renews and expands the body of Christ in a given city-region through the recovery and application of the Gospel. While movement in this definition primarily focuses on the strategic theorem of the Gospel that gives dynamism and momentum, and body of Christ clarifies the essentials of healthy reproducing organisms, planting deals with harnessing and focusing the energies of the churches in reproduction. The point is that church planting will be natural and constant, not traumatic and episodic, as a result of the gospel being applied constantly in growing, healthy churches.
The first two elements, gospel and church, must be in place, at least in rudimentary form, before natural church planting occurs and evolves into a movement. In other words, You can’t plant the church if you aren’t becoming the church. For healthy churches to be reproductive (become natural church planting churches), the book-of-Acts- Christian-ministry mindset must be developed. Keller says this requires the adoption of several principles:
First, the ability to give away and lose control of money, members and leaders. This presents a huge barrier for churches. Often, church leaders cannot bear the thought of losing money-giving families or key leaders or favorite friends. When a pastor helps organize new churches from his own church body, he loses money, members, numbers, leaders, and control. In addition, when a pastor lets go, he loses direct control while also assuming responsibility for problems in the project, a possibly unpleasant combination. Not unlike being the parent of an adult child, he is not allowed to provide direct instruction, but if there’s a problem, he is expected to help clean it up.
Second, the ability to give up some control of the shape of the ministry itself. This is a scary premise, especially to ardent truth-lovers. But the simple fact is that the new church will not look just like your church; it will develop its own voice and emphases. On the one hand, pains must be taken to ensure that differences are not too great (or fellowship and cooperation will become strained). But on the other hand, church planting cannot take place in the context of cloning. If a church insists upon reproducing an exact duplicate of itself, or if it is not willing to admit the necessity and reality of gospel contextualization (in that different generations and cultures will produce a different kind of church), then that church cannot engage in church planting.
Third, the ability to care for the kingdom more than for your tribe. Basically, the church planting mindset is not so much a matter of trusting new leaders but trusting God. Paul does not give the new churches up to themselves or others. He committed them to the Lord.
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