Similar But Different

Church plants and established churches.  Both exist to spread the Gospel and make disciples of Christ.  Yet plants and established churches are uniquely different in ways that transcend pews vs. chairs and jeans and body art vs. suits and Sunday School.  

We asked several Great Lakes City Classis pastors from established churches and church plants to share their unique joys and struggles so we can better understand each other and come together in mission.
Chris Hall, Elevation Church, GLCC family

Truth from the "old suburbs."

1. What is your current context?

Wyoming, MI is a growing, diverse, blue-collar community with all the challenges of the inner-city yet none of the cool architecture or redevelopment of the urban core. It’s the place where stuff used to be built. Factories led to thousands of small homes, schools and institutions. Fast-forward 60 years and the factories are closed but the people remain.

According to the Pew Research Center, upper-middle class whites make up the core of evangelical Christianity yet upper-middle class whites don’t live here. We have a growing number of mixed-race homes and first-generation immigrants.  Schools are struggling to keep up with needs while support structures (families, churches, large employers) dwindle. Even with multiple churches on our block, the vast majority of people here have no relationship with Christ. Local churches are largely made up of people who live elsewhere and people who live here and who do belong to a church, typically drive out to a suburban, established church. 

2. What are some of the unique joys/blessings of that context?

As a “family of missionary servants” we get to see the gospel take root in people’s lives—often for the first time. We see real community form. We walk people through storms and they experience the love of God tangibly. In place of nuclear families, we are family to many.  We’ve baptized entire families! Seeing someone trust in the promises of God despite their painful, messy circumstances is a testimony to the One in whom they trust.

3. What are some of the unique challenges of that context?

Working with people who hover around the poverty line means “leadership development” looks a lot like helping someone create a monthly budget, talking couples through infidelity, raising money to cover medical bills, and sometimes it means making sure someone has a place to live after Thursday. “Regular” attenders show up (at best) a couple times a month. Getting them to serve or to “go deeper” is nearly impossible since they don’t have capacity after working inconsistent retail hours, making less than living wages, or juggling childcare issues. 

In order to get a handful of people together you must tap into the regular rhythms of life without adding on. Folks here don’t have the space in their lives to add something new. That means providing a meal for every gathering and providing a plan for kids since they don’t have money for a sitter and kids will not “sit quietly” during the meeting/conversation/service.

4. What do you wish people knew about being a church plant/ church plant pastor?

Not all church plants are the same. Applying suburban church planting expectations and milestones to our church sets us up to fail. Discipleship and multiplication here takes longer, costs more and looks different than other settings. Time that established churches put into strategy, staff meetings or sermon planning, I put into outside fundraising, driving down to the county courthouse or starting a Community Development Corporation nonprofit. “Church” means smaller gatherings, stronger emphasis on establishing and cultivating long-term relationships, less money, less staff, slower discipleship multiplication and will always include social action. 

Established or suburban church approaches just don’t work here. An urban pastor friend likes to tell suburban churches “Greetings from the future!” since what we experience is moving to the suburbs very quickly. We know what it means to minister in a post-Christian world. We are bi-vocational, we raise our own support and we have more in common with foreign mission. That's becoming mainstream soon.

Yes, it’s true that church plants don’t have the large overhead or legacy of committees and traditions that keep existing congregations from living on mission. I’ve heard established church pastors tell me they envy this. But the institution of the church (even with its committees, buildings, and traditions) offers the foundation to “do church” that plants don’t have. That foundation takes time to build so l may never see the real fruit of my own work. 

5. Anything else?

Please stop asking “how many people do you get on Sunday?” You mean no harm and are supportive of our cause but that question is a tremendous discouragement to a planter. We've had as many as 125 and as few as 12 and I have no way to know how many will show up on any given Sunday. It is a punch to the gut every time. 

Just like any pastor, I long to see many come to know Jesus as savior. I plant seeds, I cultivate the soil, I water it and yet God gives the growth. This is true for every congregation. But to plant a church requires momentum, to get momentum you need consistency, and to get consistency you need stability. Most days we’re working on stability—both in the lives of our congregants but also in our church. Any way your established church can partner with us to offer this stability (through funds, people, babysitting, partnership, meals, free space or even simple encouragement) is a tremendous blessing to an urban church plant. 

 

Classis Dates and Deadlines
- Registration due for the Fall Retreat

- Oct. 17, 7 PM Fall Retreat Webinar  (Click link to log in)

- Oct. 20-21 Fall Retreat, Gun Lake Comm. Church (agenda

- Oct. 29, 4:15-6 PM, Ordination of Yakuv Gurung, Nepali Speaking Community Church (973 28th St. Grand Rapids, MI)
Resources
Online Resources:
Reformation Day Resources (Oct. 31st) here, here and here.

"Rightsizing Smaller Congregations" (Church Renewal Lab article)

Vital Worship Grants-Applications for these $5,000-$10,000 grants are due Jan 2018. 

Breaking Barriers Fall 2017 - Including "Ketchup Moments" by Angie Walker (First Reformed, Grandville, MI)

"Four Ways to Leverage Your Church's Online Presence" by ChurchJuice

Local Resources
SheLeads Summit: Oct. 28, MissioAlliance, to encourage and equip sisters, and welcome brothers, imagining where God is leading the church. (Grand Rapids livestream, Canton livestream)

Fall Preaching Conference: The Reformation at 500, Oct. 26, Calvin Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI

3DM Naturally Supernatural: Nov. 3-4, Holland, MI

Unfinished Kids Conference:Teaching kids to love God and serve others, Nov.11, Holland, MI

3DM Stand: Women's Equipping Weekend, Nov 10-11, Fort Wayne, IN

Calvin Symposium on Worship: Jan 25-27, Grand Rapids, MI

CPC: Children's Pastor Conf: Jan 16-18, Orlando, FL

Exponential: Feb. 26-March 1, Orlando, FL

Youth Pastor Summit: April 23-24, Nashville, TN

CM Connect's Children's Ministry Conf.: April 30-May 3, Brighton, MI
* Resources not all officially endorsed by GLCC *
Ins and Outs
Mark Veldt to N. Grand Rapids Classis, RCA
 
 Jobs
Admin Assistant for Church Multiplication (part-time, MI,RCA)

Admin Assistant for Women's Transformation and Leadership (part-time, NJ, RCA)

Assist. Controller (full time, MI, RCA)

Regional Coordinator for Development (full time, MI, RCA)

Dynamic Youth Min. (part-time, MI, CRC)

Pastor (New Ground Church, full-time,Caledonia, MI)

RCA General Secretary (full-time, RCA, based in MI)

Nouwen Fellow (full-time, WTS, Holland, MI): scholars with research focusing on disability studies.

2018 Interns for WCRC (World Communion of Reformed Churches): Women and those from the Global South especially encouraged to apply.
 
Be sure to check/post jobs at rca.org/jobs  and network.crcna.org/church-jobs. Also send jobs to Tricia (GLCC stated clerk) to distribute to our classis family.
Launching
Renew Church Cleveland (Cleveland, OH, Pete Pinkowski) launched on Oct. 1

La Casa de mi Padre (Grandville, MI, Jose Luis Rivas Duran) launches on Oct. 15

CenterPoint Lewis Center's (Lewis Center, OH, Nathan Weller) Grand Opening on Oct. 15.

Be sure to pray for these churches, pastors, and communities.  May God bless them mightily in surprising and powerful ways.
Luis & Andrew Palau Foundation's CityFest

God loves West Michigan. He wants to bless our region in powerful ways. He wants to bring peace, hope, love, and forgiveness to our area and our people. And He wants to use the Church to accomplish this task. This is the vision of CityFest with Luis & Andrew Palau.

For more information, or how your church can become involved, check out CityFest or email Tom Elenbaas (Harbor Churches.)
 

Got News?
From births to deaths, new ministries to faithful service, please share your new and noteworthy with us!  Email news to Tricia, GLCC stated clerk.
 
 






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Great Lakes City Classis, RCA · 4500-60th SE · Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512 · USA

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