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Looking
Back
I had heard about Zane.
My son Rob knew him from Bible college days and had said several times to
me "Dad, Zane would make a great church planter!"
Months went by, at a
Church Planters convention Zane introduced himself to me at my booth.
He asked me for the quick version of what we do in church planting.
I gave in the 3 minute version. His face lit up. He exclaimed,
"Do I ever wish I had talked to you first!" (Zane had attempted
to get approval as a church planter with his home denomination but due to
many intertwining issues the relationship did not come to fruition.)
Several months later, our
family had occasion to have Zane, Marcia and Victoria over for Sunday
dinner. Our daughter Sara, who shares our family vision, was
involved in the discussion as Zane's dormant dream of church planting came
to life once more. At the end of the discussion he said, "You
have no idea what this means to me. I felt like I couldn't talk
about this with anyone."
My next major encounter
with Zane was to invite him to work for a month on contract with Kainos
Enterprises helping to supervise in the Churchill Meadows Christian Church
campaign. As Zane learned through the campaign, the work is
gruelling but very rewarding. This experience convinced him that he
must use the same approach to plant a church in Cambridge. Zane's
dream was to contact the entire city. This would mean a campaign
nearly twice as large as the Churchill Meadows campaign. But it also
would involve twice as much money. Zane approached a few Christian
people with considerable resources and heart for his ministry to donate
the large sums of money necessary to conduct this massive campaign but
none of them made the significant contributions necessary to bring his
dream into reality.
That is why Zane struck
out on his own without financial resources to conduct a campaign.
The denomination has invested considerable money in the church planter but
discouraged him from using any of the money they invested on the campaign.
Their primary concern was well placed. They want him there for the long
haul. Undaunted, Zane rallied a team of volunteers. Most of the
volunteers were students from Heritage College. (This Bible College
is just down the street from the school in which New Harvest Fellowship
meets.) Still the hope was that, even with the volunteer work force
as opposed to paid missionaries, he could achieve the original objective
to reach over 35,000 households in Cambridge.
That was not to be.
In point of fact, less than half that objective was reached.
However, the campaign was undoubtedly one of the largest in Canadian
history. Volunteers made about 30,000 contact attempts during the
Permission Phase. They talked to a decision maker in approximately
17,000 households. Nearly 1,300 responded positively. That is
to say, they were prequalified in these ways. 1. They were self
confessed non church attenders. 2. They gave permission to hear
about the new church through the mail. NOTE: It seems to be that the
first point is often missed when people ask who has attended the church
from the campaign. They are pre-convinced that the people must be
actually moving from one church to this new church. However, the
only people that are communicated with in the campaign meet condition #1.
These are unchurched people.
After sending the
mail-five pieces, one week apart-the Invitation Phase was begun.
Approximately 25 people were trained on March 24th in less than one hour.
They began to follow the instructions in inviting the list of 1,300
unchurched people to the new church. By the end of 2,600 contact
attempts approximately 400 people said they would be in attendance on that
first Sunday. They further said that if they did attend they would
be bringing another 400 family members or friends with them.
We know from experience
to expect that one of four, or one of five, or one of six of these people
will actually attend. But Zane went to sleep Saturday evening
wondering if there would be enough chairs! The school only has 330
available chairs.
On the first Sunday there
were 280 people in attendance. The original launch team present
included no more than 30 people. There were a few other friends and
visitors in attendance. However the bulk of the people came from the
direct outreach.
At the time of writing
the launch team is feverishly following up in the prescribed way with all
those who attended and with many who said they would attend but actually
did not.
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Looking
Ahead
This time in history is
the most difficult for any church planted this way. On the one hand,
the enormous success of the first Sunday can easily lull a launch team to
sleep. They automatically assume that people will return. Some
will. Many won't. Many more won't if they are not followed up
personally during the first 48 hours after that Service. On the
other hand, the greatest moment in history for evangelism in this new
church is right now! And yet, euphoria has set in and adrenaline seems all
spent. It is up to the church planting pastor to keep the white
harvest field in focus.
For Zane this is
extremely difficult. He has worked tirelessly to complete the three
full-time jobs in getting this church started. He knows he was
called to job #1- Pastor of New Harvest Fellowship. However he had
to fulfil job #2-MPC campaign manager. This is a full-time job for
two months. He had to fulfil job #3 - MPC campaign supervisor.
This is a full-time job for two months. His personal resources and
energy are spent. But what was he to do? Others did not catch the
dream early enough. It is often true that a Vision Caster is left
alone without sufficient Vision Carriers at the start. Please pray
that those who have now caught the Vision will carry it on his behalf so
that he can get back to job #1.
In the present case,
there are over 500 people who gave indication they would attend but did
not attend. These people, to reiterate, are unchurched people from
the community. They are also people who have shown responsiveness.
They are willing to talk to someone over the telephone about church.
They are willing to receive information about church. They have
indicated the possibility that they might attend church. But
something kept them away on the first Sunday. That does not mean
they were all lying when they said they would be there. Some forgot.
Some were too afraid to take the chance. Some had something else
come up. But that does not mean their interest has
disappeared.
Having this list of
prequalified people is a huge benefit of conducting the campaign.
Very few churches have a list of prospects this qualified nor this long.
However, passivity won't get it done. They won't come because the
see an ad in a newspaper. They won't come because they see a
sandwich board by the curb. They won't come if you put a flyer in
their mailbox. They won't come if you put a roadside sign at a main
intersection. They won't come if you buy billboard advertising.
They won't come if you buy radio advertising. They won't come if you
buy television advertising. Why not? The answer is simple.
These are the people in the community who have proven to respond best to
mail addressed to them personally and personal telephone calls. So
the way to follow them up is to send them some mail and make more
telephone calls. That is easy to say. But for some reason, it
seems hard to do. These are not the people who simply throw your
mail in the garbage. These are not the people who hang up on you
because they think you are some telemarketer. They know who you are.
They have agreed to enter a relationship with you. They just haven't
gotten around to visiting a church meeting yet. They're not going to
if you fly a gospel blimp over their home. They need a personal
touch. It seems most difficult for a newly formed church using the
MPC method to stick with the approach that made them successful in the
first place.
Of course, filling a room
once does not make a church. There is much to be done in developing
the church's ability and programs at worship, instruction, fellowship and
outreach. Getting the right people in the right place and the
administrative systems in place to keep things moving is a huge
responsibility. But that is no different than any other church.
What is more, is that in some senses it is easier to start large.
Individual volunteers can now specialize in one major area as opposed to
spreading themselves and their involvement over several specialties.
Recruitment, training and delegation needs are more obvious when you have
so many people involved hundred the umbrella of your ministry. It is
impossible for the Pastor to do it all. In this case, that is an
obvious truth. When a church starts with 20 people it is not
obvious. Small church plants often get off on the wrong foot by
expecting too much to happen at the initiative and direction of the
founding pastor.
There is much more to be
said. There are many more questions to answer. To the limit of
money resources-anywhere, anytime, anything-I will work with those who are
open to catching a Vision for this kind of explosive ministry. As
you can imagine, since this represents a significant paradigm shift there
is tremendous resistance to the validity of the approach. It is my
premise that if we are to plant churches in sufficient numbers, we must do
it with the people who are available. It makes no sense to go on a
Star search. There are not enough Stars out there to fulfil the
Great Commission. We must use the people and the means available to
us, in tune with the culture in which we find ourselves. We must use
ordinary sinners saved by grace who are willing to work hard and long and
faithfully execute their ministry. Every failure I have seen in this
particular methodology boils down to a failure in execution. When
each step is faithfully executed the church planted is self supporting
from the get go. It has everything it needs. It continues to
minister and to grow. It does not fade away. The gospel is
still the power of God to salvation. It couldn't be simpler.
When we go and make disciples disciples are made, churches are planted and
the word of God flourishes. When we don't
go ..
It you would like more information on the process please contact Gary Carter at Kainos Enterprises about this ministry concept. |
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The process works because the Gospel is
powerful. Strictly speaking the MPC process is not evangelism. It is
pre-evangelistic. But it does apply the power of the Gospel to the lives
of those who are not now attending church. The key is that the process is
not a convincing process. It is an identification process. We
systematically identify people who are ready to respond.
Existing churches find the process useful
but the results are usually 50% of those achieved in church planting.
People simply respond better to something new than something old.
At Kainos we supply the expertise, the
software, the literature design, printing and mail preparation as
required. We also augment the volunteer personnel available as necessary
with missionary personnel. |
The process is best applied in a city context
because of the volume of people available to be reached. The threshold for
a church planting situation that can anticipate a fully self-supporting
church right out of the box is about 60,000.
Of course, the results vary somewhat. And
if you don't dispense living water for thirsty people they won't come back
in sufficient numbers. But contrary to current mythology, it doesn't take
a super star Pastor and an award winning band. It takes people who will
work hard and simply befriend those who are ready to respond. There are no
new magic ingredients. There is no need for special twists, new wrinkles
or fresh winds. A simple culturally sensitive Bible based ministry is all
that is needed. They come for the message not the bells and whistles.
There is a need to start with their felt needs. And often their felt need
is for their children and teenagers. But the workers are raised up out of
the harvest in short order if you love them, ask them and provide
appropriate training.
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