The Simple Pastor
By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer
RT @lukedvd: Hope his resignation from the England manager job will allow @JoelVirgo to focus on his church duties #nomorehairdye 16 hrs ago
In the past I’ve been a bit critical of our Together on a Mission conferences but there has been a consistent high point every year. Without fail the Thursday night of prayer and giving is extraordinary.
It’s a genuine joy to watch people give exuberantly and generously as year after year close to a million pounds is given on one night. In fact it says something when there’s a slight air of disappointment if the total is only say £950,000!
It’s a thrilling thing to be among 5000 people praying for the nations and I think it’s to Terry Virgo’s enormous credit that prayer so fundamentally shapes our gatherings.
Last year I sat up in the gods watching thousands of arms stretched out in prayer as we earnestly sought God for nation after nation and I thought to myself, next year that will be me on the stage. And this it was!
I was really grateful to have a short chance to tell the thousands that the very next morning our family was flying to Sweden and something of the desire God has given us for this country and to plant a church in Stockholm. It was then profoundly moving to have those same thousands prayer with great passion, vigour and faith and to have people ahead of you in the journey come to you, lay on hands and pray for you as if they were coming with you. It was a remarkable privilege.
I’m not sure what the conferences of other church networks are like, what they focus on, what sense of unity and vision they have. I’ve certainly not come across or even to be honest heard of anything remotely to that. So while I think there are other conferences that will do many other things better I’m not sure I’d trade any of that if it meant missing out on that prayer night.
So it’s not too much of a stretch to say that we feel sent not just by a local church but also by a wider church family together on a mission. I hope as we grow and devolve from the centre to the regions that somehow that sense of together will not be lost.
For some great photos of the event go here
However there were and are other problems with the concept of missionary that I had back then that stands in stark contrast to what we’ve just personally experienced. The missionary, at least as it seemed to me, would leave the local church and go and work for the mission agency. The vision for the mission comes from the mission agency and is caught by the missionary who asks the church to support it both in prayer and finance.
I’ve witnessed from friends of mine working for mission agencies that over time (and not always a long time either) there is a real sense that the vision that caught them and has taken them to another country and that they’ve made significant sacrifices for in the cause of the Gospel is not fully shared by their church. In other words their vision and mission was not seen or owned as the vision of the local church. As a result prayer for the departed, so to speak, becomes peripheral and perhaps over time funding dries up.
By contrast what we’ve experienced so far has been quite different, although time and distance could prove me wrong. What we’ve experienced is a church putting forward significant sums of money, helping us, loving us and seeking God with us because our vision and mission to see churches planted all across the world is the vision of the church we left. It’s not someone else’s vision, it’s theirs, it’s ours. So we’ve not been sent by a church to a mission agency; we’ve been sent by a church to a church for the church.
Here are some of the many excellent things Hope Church did in the way that they sent us. Firstly, they quickly grasped that this is what we were called to both as a church and us as a couple. This is the mission we are on together. Secondly, as a result of that, they sacrificially gave to enable that to happen. They really put up big numbers for us, giving us around 50% of our goal for the first 18 months all on their own. They grasped that God’s mission is an opportunity for God’s people to be generous in their giving. They owned the mission by the way they gave.
Thirdly, they loved us well as we left. We had cards, several leaving parties (all great fun) and we had practical help when we needed it. Lastly and perhaps most importantly of all, they sought God for us. They were told on which Sunday we would be prayed for and they were asked to come ready to pray, ready to being something from God for us and they did. We were overwhelmed by the depth, quality and faith stirring prayers and prophecies that were brought. We freshly and powerfully sensed again God’s hand on us in this move. It made me think this is a little bit what Acts 13:1-5 must have felt like. The Holy Spirit moving the church into wider mission.
We’re staying on as a family for a week’s break to rest, chill out, walk and play before returning for the last leg of life in the UK. We still haven’t sold our house so if you’re someone who prays we’d be grateful for prayers for that.
So there will be some pre-written posts over the next ten days or so but no links or book stuff until I get back.
In the meantime here are some fun facts about Sweden for you:
* Sweden has the longest life expectancy in Europe, 80.5 years.
* Swedish women has their first child in average at 30 years old , the oldest in Europe along with the Netherlands and Ireland.
* Sweden has the highest percentage of working mothers in the developed world, 76% of all the mothers go back to work.
* 40% of the Swedish women and 32% of the Swedish men aged between 25-64 participate in education or training. The EU average is 10% for women and 9% for men.
* As of 2006, Sweden had received 27 Noble prizes, including 5 peace prizes. This is the highest per capita ratio.
* Sweden has the highest ratio of McDonald’s restaurants per capita in Europe.
* Sweden has the highest number of nuclear plants per capita in Europe, with 10 reactors for 9 million inhabitants.
* Sweden has – along with Denmark and Hungary – the highest VAT in the world: 25%.
* Swedish Inventions include:
– The perfected the design of the zipper (Gideon Sundbäck).
– The marine propeller (John Ericsson).
– The refrigerator (Carl Munters and Baltzar von Platen).
– The computer mouse (Håkan Lans).
– The pace-maker (Rune Elmqvist).
* A popular Swedish souvenir is the road sign for moose-crossing. Every year a huge number of these signs are stolen from Swedish roads.
How you react to that very brief summary will depend largely on where you’re from and what kind of political atmosphere you grew up. Chances are if you grew up in a right-wing American household you’ll feel the rise of China as a challenge and a threat. Certainly that’s the impression you get.
However nations rise and nations fall (a lesson we in the UK have had to adjust to) and that’s a lesson that God seems happy to keep dishing out. But there’s another angle to this from a Christian point of view and I think one excellent reason to pray for the continued economic rise of China.
Actually, let me correct that, I can think of 100 million reasons to pray for the continued economic rise of China. This is a church that has been forged in the face of persecution and opposition and there is an increasing number of churches and Christians in that country. This from the perspective of the church is massive. the potential missionary impact as churches gain the resources and freedom to travel is enormous.
So here are some things to pray for:
What do you think, China threat or ally?
So last week I was in Stockholm for a church planting conference which was good. It’s encouraging to know that there are churches in the city that are aware of the needs of the city and welcoming new churches. There are partners and friends already there. That’s good. I was encouraged by conversations with John van Dinther of New Life Church Stockholm and Andrew Thompson of Korskyryan Stockholm who made me feel welcome.
The conference itself was interesting, the speakers were John Burke of Gateway Church, Austin, Texas and author of a couple of books. John is a church planter himself and having worked at Willow Creek, laser sharp when it comes to leadership, focused strategy and building a significant and effective church that I guess could be characterised, ‘seeker sensitive’. I’m not sure that’s the most helpful definition but it’s one that is recognised and known. John also loves football/soccer and I can even forgive him for choosing Chelsea as his team. (John then went via a few other countries to speak in Bracknell at Kerith Community Church).
The other speaker was Craig Whitney from Emerging Leadership Initiative (ELI), who again was open friendly engaging and committed to church planting and been involved in multiple church plants.
I’ll post a bit more about the session content in another post but they had some good things to say and quite a few take home points to consider and reflect on.
It’ll be interesting to see exactly what comes out of the conference because no question there is a lot of work to do if they’re going to hit their stated goal of 50 new churches by 2020.
I’ve lived in this house for more than 8 years, it is our first marital home. It is the first home for our children, it has been a place of rest, safety, laughter, prayer, worship, treasured memories. In so many ways it is more than a house.
But it is just a house. And my rootedness and sense of connection to a place and home can become a barrier to mission and we have always determined that that will not be the case for us.
It’s good to feel like you’re living the Bible and the words in Mark 10:29-30 come to mind. We’re leaving friends, family and homes and for one reason above all – the kingdom of God.
The house going up for a sale is the biggest financial step and the biggest potential obstacle to our hopes of moving in the summer but again Acts 17:26 reminds me that God has it all under control.
Moving brings everything into focus – this is happening. Home is where the heart is and we have decided not to put our heart into our home.
*This post was first published here*
I’m sure there is more, what would you add?
*This post has its tongue in cheek, with a gentle dig in the ribs to anyone who thinks this is what matters – anyone taking this too seriously will be reminded to lighten up*
“It has always been the vision for our church that it would be a church that plants churches and makes disciples of all nations, that we would be involved in the mission of God in the world. The steps we have taken to form Hope Church are testimony of our commitment to do that.
However over the past nine months or so, Emma and I, have become convinced that God is calling us to once again step out in faith and be involved in the planting of a new church. Our new destination could not be any more different to our present situation but we go where the call is, and that call is to Stockholm, Sweden.
God has a habit of not letting experiences in our past go to waste and while I was a theology student at the University of Nottingham, I spent 6 months as an exchange student in Uppsala, Sweden. Now it’s time to go back.
Over the past couple of years I’ve had a number of approaches about leading other churches or planting into new towns and although none of those were right, the experience of talking through these opportunities helped us clarify in our hearts what we were looking for and what would need to happen in order for us to be able to move, if that was indeed what the Lord had for us.
At the beginning of this year (2010) I believed that the Lord wanted us as a church to make a few more international connections in addition to our support of churches in Ukraine and I made a few enquiries. One of those enquiries related to Sweden as I retained a soft spot for the country after having lived there.
Then in the spring I read in the Newfrontiers Connect magazine this prophetic word about ‘starbursts over Scandinavia‘ that for the first time to my knowledge mentioned the idea of a church plant in Stockholm. I knew that God was speaking to me but I still hadn’t said much to Emma. Partly because I have a lot of crazy ideas and I needed to know that this idea was hanging around because it was God speaking to me.
At the May leaders prayer and fasting gathering I spoke with a few people involved in this initiative and as we prayed for the nations increasingly felt that this was a burden God was placing on me. So it was time to talk to Emma. I gave her a call and got her to look by my bed where I had a ‘teach yourself Swedish’ book and basically said ‘I think God is calling us to Stockholm.’
Not too long after that another major change happened in our lives, which is significant to this story. Previously we had always described our involvement in Illuminate as an ‘anchor’ to Shrewsbury. However as it became clear that we could no longer run the shop we were moving into uncharted waters. On the day I told a friend that we either had to find new owners or close the business he shared a prophetic word with me. He saw us in the pouch of an old Roman catapult and the ropes that held the pouch down were the links to the shop, as God cut the ropes to the shop the catapult would be released and we would be flung into the far distance. I knew again that God was speaking.
Emma received some significant confirmations in Scripture as God began to reassure her He was in this. On two separate but not consecutive occasions as we discussed Sweden, the next verses in Emma’s devotional reading were two verses that had previously given her peace about significant moves in her life.
We spoke with our church oversight (a bit like a spiritual director) and told him what we were thinking and he was supportive of is pursuing this development. At the end of June I read something by Terry Virgo that made my heart race it ended with, “The restoration of the church has consumed you, but now a new day is dawning. Whereas the word ‘church’ has stirred you, let the word ‘nations’ burn in your heart – because it’s time to look at the harvest fields and it’s time to go.”
At Together on a Mission conference in Brighton in July I met with some people from the Swedish churches and a Swedish couple who have been living in the UK for the past ten years who have also independently sensed a call to church plant to Stockholm. We were beginning to form relationships and connections. It was in Brighton that I first told my fellow elder Nick what we believed God was speaking to us about and asked him if he was in faith to take on the lead role here.
This was an important moment for me, 10 years ago at the start of the adventure in north Shrewsbury, I said to God I’d give 7 years and if at that time the church had leadership to take it on, was growing and seeing people saved and added I’d ask him where next. A few years ago I did just that but as a church not all the pieces were in place, although I could see and had faith for them to fall into place in time. Right now we see leaders emerging, people being saved, baptised and added, we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been in and I think that God has used this time both to prepare me and the church to be ready. I believe that Nick will do an excellent job and is certainly in a better position for his first lead role than I was 10 years ago. I’m confident that at this time our leaving need not slow up the momentum God has given us and that wasn’t the case a few years ago. What I’m saying is this feels like the right time.
The very next meeting we were in God spoke prophetically about new arrangements as God moved people to the nations. Now prophetic words and sermons at Newfrontiers conferences are neither unexpected nor new, it happens almost every time. But this time instead of thinking, ‘that’s nice’ I was thinking, ‘this is me’. It was a massive difference.
I began to read fresh books on church planting and as I read one by David Stroud I read Gen 12:1 which leapt out to me: Now the LORD said to Abram, “The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
Now I’m no Abram and I’m no genius, but even I couldn’t miss this one and it made even more sense given that I now work in what feels like to me ‘my father’s house’ (we converted an old church building into offices). We continued to work on relationships with those who also felt called to Stockholm and this culminated in out ‘holiday’ to Stockholm in September, a final piece in the puzzle for us. We spoke with both my parents and Emma’s mum and they were all incredibly supportive. Emma’s mother is so supportive that in fact she is planning on moving with us to be involved in this new adventure. Those involved apostolically in our region and in Scandinavia have all supported and encouraged this step for us.
We were clear; God had given us all this and more besides, we had enough. It was time to be obedient, we were going. So it is my intention to hand over leadership of Hope Church by the end of June 2011 and hopefully (if all the practical pieces fall into place) to move to Sweden in July 2011.
For the first nine months we probably won’t be in Stockholm but based elsewhere while we enrol as students and learn Swedish and become familiar with the country from the inside and make clear our plans to move into Stockholm early summer 2012. For at least that year we will need to raise financial support to allow us live there.
At this point in time there’s many questions we don’t know the answer to, but we’re confident that God will provide for us and that is the step that the Lord is asking us to take.”
I’ll write up the process we went through soon and begin to post some reflections on that stage but this is a heads up really that soon I’ll be writing about Stockholm (and why you should move there!) and church planting and a whole bunch of other such topics.
But for now I’ll leave it there. If you have any questions just ask and I’ll try to answer them either in a comment or in a follow up post.
“Church planting is not simply a matter of getting a number of individuals saved; it is about the advance of God’s community in the earth. He wants a community, his city, his family in which he could dwell. Church planting is an extension of the community, not simply an exercise in multiplying the head count. Part of God’s purpose in saving us is to overcome our intense selfishness and isolation.” (bold added)
Amen.
Church planting is not an easy thing to do, there’s a tonne of things to learn and to think about. Good reasons to have some good books on the subject and I’d recommend from the outset adding David Stroud’s Planting Churches, Changing Communities: A hands on guide to successful church planting.
It comes from the Newfrontiers family of churches and draws much of its material from within that network, however much of the advice would be useful or helpful no matter what your denomination or church movement.
It doesn’t particularly deal with theory or theology but very much concerns itself with the practical and personal side to church planting. What’s your vision? What qualities do you need? How do you manage your time and gather people? How do you build community and maintain momentum? What do you need to be ready to launch publicly? As a result of it being broken down into its various parts and with regular quotes and anecdotes from church planters you can motor through this book quite quickly. However if you’ve never planted a church before, you want to be making extensive notes and refer back to it regularly.
I guess I have one slight reservation, one that was flagged up by Howard Kellett not too long ago, when he said,
“In truth “you only launch once” is very much the language of the big company product launch, reaching the self focused consumer. So the more I reflect on the term the more I don’t feel comfortable with Godfirst Church Cheltenham as a Sunday morning product and even less at ease with the idea of Jesus followers as consumers.”
And there is the underlying idea that what you need to make your church fly are good musicians, good teaching, good kids work and a comfortable venue. My some what jaded reaction was ‘Perfect if you want the middle classes’. But if you’re planting into the inner city, or a rural area, or even just your average working class neighbourhood then you may not have any of those things and still be a great church.
Now I know Dave and I know he knows that. So now you know that I know that he knows or whatever. But the point is, in the book there’s this edge to consumer values that made me a bit uncomfortable and I know it’s not just me because one of the contributors to the book has said so.
None of that stops this book though from being on the shelf of every church planter and every church leader who hopes one day to help a church plant or send leaders. This is hands on, down to earth helpful stuff.
11.30 and we kick off with worship led by Kate Simmonds from Australia. I’m not convinced of the point of the choir but the worship was tremendous. Thousands instantly focused on Jesus, glorifying him with exuberant, joyful, loud, vibrant worship. I’ve got to say I absolutely loved it.
Stu Gibbs reads out a list of nations represented (there’s a lot) and it’s clear that this is an international conference and we are an international family of churches together on a mission. That’s good.
Terry Virgo introduces ‘Bones’ Mbonisi Malaba from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Personally I was delighted that a young black man from Zimbabwe opened the conference. Its no good being an international family of churches if we only ever hear from white, english middle aged men.
Bones speaks on Jonah. And it was all going so well. So the Old Testament character count is underway. 1 session 1 OT character related to our vision. In this case ‘reaching the nations’.
I’ll give fuller details later but to summarise the talk – God has a global heart for the nations and big cities of this world. Example Nineveh. The final third looked at Paul from Acts 18 and used the fact that he tentmaked in Corinth, stayed long enough (18 months) and influenced the city to challenge us to do just that. A lot of city talk in evidence early on. Fair enough I guess. Bones was balanced enough to say God loves people wherever they are.
It ended with a list of the 50 largest cities and their populations being read out. Those who felt called to church plant in these major cities were invited to come to the front for prayer. 1 Session 1 response to the front for prayer.
It reminded me of a friend of mine who lives in Karachi. I gave him 60 seconds to pitch to me why I should consider moving to Karachi. He gave me the best pitch in 10 seconds. ’18 million people who don’t know Jesus’. That’s the most compelling reason to move.
So we’re off to a good start. I’m excited about world missions, we need to be on it, Jesus calls us to it, we mustn’t duck it. Bones served us well with his passion, energy and faith.
Session 2 – Stef Liston.
Ian thinks it is more empire building than mission in some places but not others and his concerns are similar to the ones raised here by Jon. His brother Dave argues back with some force here
Tim Chester also believes in church planting and has recently finished a whole series of posts on the subject and also believes apostolic leadership is necessary in a not too dissimilar way to Newfrontiers
Here are some blogs of people currently getting in on the adventure that is church planting: Sean and Amsterdam; David and Belfast; Andy in Kings Lynn;
The church I lead meets in a school – it can be a right pain. Toilets facilities are inadequate and sometimes vandalised. Recently a first time visitor commented how distracted in worship she was by the healthy eating posters of jacket potatoes and milk around the room! The heating rarely works and the classrooms are a real challenge for crèche facilities. After nearly four years we’re planning a move into a community centre. Some of the issues above will be solved and others will be created by increased moving of equipment in and out of the centre every week. It’s all part and parcel of being a Nomadic Church.
Confessions of a Reformission Rev is an interesting book, didn’t take me too long to read (less than a week) of yet another mega-church in an American city, this time Seattle. Ok Seattle is the most unchurched in America with only 8% evangelical but I dream of 8% of any kind of Christian. For the UK to get up to 8% in any place would be an achievement. In my area if we get up to 8% most people would think revival has broken out. In my area if the church growth is spread out evenly among all the churches my church would have to double in size three times.
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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