How Much Planning Went Into Deciding Where to Plant a Church?

I’ve repeatedly said that what Richard Florida writes about in his book Who’s Your City? has enormous implications for church planting.  It all comes down to the question posed in the title of this blog … how much planning went into deciding where you’re planting a church? To review, in the book Florida talks about the 3 biggest decisions we’ll make in life: (1) What are you going to do? (2) With who? (3) Where? We obviously spend A LOT of time planning and preparing for the first two, but what about the third?

What I’m interested in is how much time, effort, energy, and research went into the decision-making process church planters go through in determining where they’re going to plant. Also, where is the confluence of listening to God’s voice/will, knowing how He’s wired you and who He made you to be, and taking a pragmatic approach. Since most church planters say that God called them to the area and people they’re planting among then how do they determine it? Did they also set out certain criteria of what they’re looking for and prayed through them?

I’m also interested on a personal level because of my own process for determining where to plant a church again. It really was a long and arduous process full of tons of research, even more prayer, talking with friends, discerning needs, and trying to take a step back to see where God was at work locally, regionally, and globally. The decision to plant in Vancouver started off as a “nudge” or a strong feeling of “I’m incredibly drawn here” to the Pacific Northwest. That all started after my wife and I worked for a summer at a camp in SE Alaska after college. Since then I’ve spent countless hours researching Vancouver and other cities in the West. I was looking for a larger city (2+ million) that has a large Creative Class, a city on the front end of the new urbanism, a global/international city, a very ethnically diverse city with a large number of “visible minorities,” heavily unchurched, a large Asian population, a healthy number of colleges and universities, and other factors like a city that is striving to be eco-friendly, sustainable, and compact. Some of the other things I was looking at as well were support systems and structures that would be an aid as we planted. That way there are others I can tap into for advice, encouragement, mentoring, information, and so on.

I don’t assume that there are any 2 identical ways of how much planning went into deciding where to plant.  As each person is different so is each story. For some it was a quick process while others it was slow and drawn out.  For some it meant staying home and reaching a people and culture they’re familiar with while others it meant packing up and relocating to a different city or country. At the end God is glorified as people are reached and churches are planted.

How Did You Decide Where to Plant a Church?

That is a question I’ve been asking myself and others for a number of years now. What were the factors that led you to decide on where to plant a church?  Not only have I been thinking about this but it’s a haunting kind of question as well because the foundation of it is truly theological as well as pragmatic. Let me explain …

Several years ago while a Church Planting Strategist in Tucson I began noticing a trend. I’d roughly say that about 9 out of 10 church planters and church planter prospects felt God was leading them to plant in a primarily suburban setting/culture and among mostly Anglos. The reason this is theological is this: (1) This exposes how we view call and our theological underpinnings leading into our assumptions that leads into our decision-making. (2) This is theologically tragic because if God is calling guys to plant mostly in suburban settings among Anglos then He must not care about the 35% of the city that is Hispanic, non-White, and urban. Is that really who God is? I don’t think so.

So why or how did you decide where to plant a church?  Was it a familiar culture? Was it the most comfortable setting or environment? Were you from that area and you had a burden for the people? Was it to go to the most unchurched part of the city? Was it the easiest soil that’ll give you the most bang for the buck?  And if God is truly calling you there … do you know that for sure?  How can you tell it is God versus your preference or where is the convergence of both?

In the initial responses received from my surveys as to what were the primary determining factors that led church planters to decide where they were to plant a church the overwhelming majority said that they felt called by God. While this is exciting and affirming at the same time I wonder aloud if there’s a dark side to this. If the most difficult parts of the city are also the same places where church planters are NOT going then what does that tell us?  Does God not care? Why would He lead most planters to safer environments that’s inhabited by mostly Middle-Class families? Again, I’m not throwing stones but am simply wondering out loud. We don’t need less church plants in the suburbs because we need exponentially more. What I’m trying to uncover is why church planters chose to plant where they did …

A Church Planter’s First 30 Days

So I’m less than 2 weeks out from driving a 24′ foot moving truck over numerous mountain passes between here and Vancouver and I’m starting to think beyond the, “holy cow … we’re moving soon!” Of course once we get there we’ll have a few days to finalize housing before we move in, get all of the utilities hooked up, unpack, register the kids for school, get the lay of the land, and so on. My thoughts are now turning to, “Ok, once I’ve settled in, now what?”  What am I to do my first 30 days in Vancouver? My feelings are the first 30 days will set the pace and precedence for whatever comes next. Since I’ve planted once before already my goal is to also avoid the mistakes and pitfalls I tripped into last time. So here’s my arm-chair missiological approach to my first 30 days:

#1 – Be a Sponge – The first thing I’m going to do is to assume that I don’t know squat other than God has called us to join Him in Vancouver. Sure, I’ve been part of the church planting world for a while now both as a planter and as a strategist both for a metro area as well as a region/state but I think that could do me more harm than good. The tendency would be to think I know what I’m doing and start running full speed ahead. This time I want to come in with a posture of a learner. The reality is that God has been at work in Vancouver for a long long time and He’ll continue to work in the city long after I’m gone. What I want to do is spend time simply immersing myself in the city, in the culture, among those who’re far from God, connect with lots of pastors and planters to learn from them, and begin to listen for and discern God’s voice in the foray. Exegesis in a passage of Scripture comes when we look at the whole and the begin breaking it down. I need to get a good picture of the whole first in Vancouver.

#2 Exegete My Focus Area – Once I’ve got a baseline understanding of the area, God’s past and present activity, and the beginnings of some great relationships formed I’d like to think I’m ready to begin exegeting and investing in the focus area of where we’ll be planting our first Ion Community. I realize that #1 and #2 do overlap and in reality they’ll both happen simultaneously as I’ll never get beyond learning about and studying the city. That is a lifelong endeavor that’s exhilarating. I never grow tired of learning about the city where God has placed me. My goal is to make sure I spend the majority of the week with those who’re unchurched and not following Jesus.

Apart from those 2 things I know I’ll walk the streets and neighborhoods praying like crazy begging God to work in people’s lives to create, form, and grow His church.  If I can begin to implement these practices within the first 30 days I know it will set a good foundation to begin the process of planting a church. I know it is both an art and a science. I’ll let you know how it goes after the first 30 days.

Church Planting is Not a Career

How do you write a post about church planting and calling without getting all cliche-like? It’s probably like asking Peyton Manning a series of questions in a post-game interview and his answers would probably be … “It was a good team effort … we came in and took care of business … we had a great gameplan going into the game.” Actually pull out Peyton and insert any QB and they all repeat the same lines. Hmmm … does the NFL have a school for post-game interviews? Anyways, back to church planting …

We’re under 2 weeks out from when we load up the moving truck to begin heading down (or up?) the road to Vancouver. As we finalize our relocation plans I keep coming back to some of the core tenants of my faith. It seems like when we have our toes on the line of an upcoming threshold it has a tendency to cause one to do a lot of reflection. Is God for real? Is He who He says He is? Will He do what He says He’ll do? Am I running from or toward? Do those far from God really matter to Him? Why am I really doing this? Is this is about a good career move or is it about calling?

Church planting is a lousy career if truth be told. It’s like sitting at a blackjack table in Vegas putting all of your chips on the hopes that the next card will get you a 21. Or its like dumping all of your savings into a start-up dotcom who’s just gone public with the potential for a great upswing but it is high risk. Like in both cases you might “win big” or go broke trying and crash and burn.

One of the issues I’ve had to wrestle through is calling. What exactly is calling? Is the way we use and model it today truly biblical? What is God calling me to do? I think I’m more under the impression that God is already working and is inviting us to join him (ala Experiencing God). I know God is at work in the Vancouver metro area. I know He’s called us to come and join Him, but I’m also terrified and humbled. The task seems so overwhelming and the need enormous. It gives one the feeling of being very small, but that’s okay because God is plenty big. I’ve had to wrestle with the reality of feeling in over my head, and like Moses, very unsure of my own abilities, but in the end it really isn’t about us is it? It wasn’t about Moses but instead God and His plan for a nation. It’s not about me but instead about God and His plan for Vancouver.

Along those lines I feel then like we’re moving to Vancouver out of gratitude and obedience. We’re excited yet incredibly humbled that God would allow us to serve Him as church planters in this magnificent city. Our prayers are that through the days, weeks, months, and years ahead we’d continue to revisit that God is calling us and its not about career opportunities but simply out of gratitude and delight that we go.

Is There Such Thing As An Urban Ecclesiology?

Church is contextual and there is little debate about that. While you may think you’re doing church the way they did it in the 1st century more than likely you’re not. That’s not a knock on you or your church but simply to say the way the church expresses itself changes and morphs depending on the host culture. Yes, the Gospel is changeless as well as numerous core facets of the church are universal but there’s a lot that is adapted to culture. Let me give you an example:

Do you think the church in Corinth had electric guitars, coffee shops, Powerpoint, and tight jeans in the 1st century?  More than likely not …. maybe a tight toga but that’s it. What happened? Did the church compromise? No, it simply adapted to culture.

We know that the term “ekklesia” in ancient Greece was derived from ek-kaleo which was used to summon the army to assemble (kaleo means “to call”). In the 5th century the term was used for the assembly of citizens of a polis (city). Even in the book of Acts (19:24-25) that term was to describe an assembly called by Demetrius who was an idol worshipper. So when the new followers of Jesus hit the scene this common termed was used to describe them. They were a called out assembly of people gathering to worship Jesus, proclaim the Gospel, and be outposts of the Kingdom of God living out Jesus’ words in John 20:21-22.

So Christians in the city are called out to assemble together to worship Jesus and proclaim the Gospel. Does urban environments affect the way the gathering is done? Some advocate that the way church is done does not change from rural to suburban to urban. Even advocates of urban church planting stop at some point back in church history when they talk  about their expression of church with such terms as a Reformed ecclesiology, Orthodox ecclesiology, or other terms like “centrality of the pulpit” and so on. These are not bad but simply adaptations to the times and cultures the church expressed itself in. New churches being planting in urban environments have a great opportunity to lean on the wisdom of church history, apply biblical principles of the way church was found in the NT, and leave the rest to contextualizing church to the host culture. If that sounds nuts then realize that that’s what the church has been doing since it’s birth in the 1st century.

Proof? You’re probably not wearing a toga today.

Why Do We Need Churches Downtown?

From time to time I get push-back as to the reason why we need churches in our downtown cores. A good friend who’s a church planter summed it up a few days ago when I sent out a tweet looking for church plants in the downtown cores of several cities out West. He replied but said his church was a few miles away from downtown core but wasn’t it close enough?  Besides, as he said, there’s more people living in his area than downtown. True … so why plant churches downtown?

As cities continue to invent and reinvent themselves most have bought into downtown revitalization and depending on the city they’re at various stages of renewal.  For example, Tucson is right at the front end of it while other cities like Vancouver BC have been developing their downtown for decades and not only  that but they’re creating “mini-downtowns” now across the metro-area. In Vancouver there are over 2.1 million people in the metro area but only about 77,000 live in downtown (which is roughly 4% of the total population). So why plant downtown?  Does it really make sense? I mean … it’s compact, congested, very expensive, and the traction for church planting doesn’t seem to quite match other environments in the city.

If we look at cities as organisms rather than machines then what would the downtown be? Certainly it’d be the heart or the brain … or both. Therefore, without downplaying the other parts of the body, those two organs are pretty important and central. Our beating heart pumps blood throughout our bodies sending precious nutrients to all of the other organs. Our brain is the center of our being and consciousness. Comparatively to the rest of our body mass the heart or brain is rather small. If a man weighs 200 pounds then how much is the heart or brain? Not much. While the downtowns of cities are relatively small in size and population they’re still the heart, the brain, and nerve center of not only the city but region as well. When people talk about cities they don’t throw up images on the computer of the skyline of track homes in the burbs.  Usually it’s the downtown skyline that dominates our imagination of whatever city we’re talking about.

If everything then flows in and out of the downtown then doesn’t it make sense to plant churches there?  Based upon looking at over 200 church plants since the year 2000 I can just about count with both hands how many churches were planted in city core. So at there very heart, brain, and nerve center of the city is where we have the least amount of church planting taking place. Don’t you think its time to turn the tide?

New Urbanism: Renewing the City Or Are They The New Suburbs?

As you know I’m all about seeing cities renewed whether that be spiritually, socially, or the built environment.  There’s nothing more exciting than to see new churches planted in the heart of the city or seeing urban family’s lives renewed as they grow into who God wants them to to be. There’s also something incredibly exciting about seeing old decayed neighborhoods turn around and turn into swank places to live, hang out, or simply visit. There are many aspects of this movement of new urbanism that goes hand-in-hand with not only the way life should be lived but how community is to be formed and expressed in the church. However, sometimes behind the veneer of trendy sushi eateries and coffee shops is something not so pleasant.

I’m all for many of the elements of gentrification as it brings more focus, attention, and investment back into the city.  There’s something refreshing and encouraging to see old homes and buildings restored and renewed with a modern twist. Many times such efforts are a hope and an attempt to reverse or curb the flight to the suburbs to bring more people back into the city. I like to use St. Louis as an example because I know they’ve gone from over 800,000 people in 1950 down to 330,000 today within the city limits. More people moving back into the city would be good all around. Sometimes I struggle because usually when we talk about more people moving back into the city usually we’re referring to Whites. A lot of times gentrification pushes ethnic families right out of neighborhoods where they’ve lived for years.

I know many developers who’re involved in the process of renewing neighborhoods do seek to provide affordable housing along with the market rate ones which is a good start. I remember the little town I grew up in and for the most part everyone lived side by side regardless of income or socio-economic status. Sometimes in the suburbs you basically get a slice of one socio-economic level living all together and sending their kids to the same school. One of the gems of things like new urbanism/gentrification is to have a great diversity of ethnicity as well as socio-economic classes all living together, doing life together, and even part of the same church together.  That would be a great reflection of the overall church universal and something beautiful.

Some of the downsides of church planting, like trendy gentrified neighborhoods, is where we’re targeting simply one class and if stats hold out it is usually among middle or upper class White suburban families. Sometimes even when church planting is in the city core it is still among trendy White urban hipsters and then the question arises … are gentrified neighborhoods then the new suburbs?

Theology of Walmart

It seems about twice a year I end up blogging on the subject of Walmart because it just seems so prevalent in my thinking about the confluence of church, ethnic groups, and culture. Let me explain …

Last night I made a late night Walmart run to pick up some cough medicine for Grant who’s been pretty ill. Of course its always helpful to have a 24-hour Walmarrt handy and so I was there at about 10:30 PM. As we transition to Vancouver we’re staying at my Mom’s in SE Missouri for a few more weeks before we move.  It’s a fun little town with 50-60,000 in the metro area. It’s mostly White with about 10% African American. But at Walmart?  It’s all different.

Last night I felt like I was in a large urban center and if you were to judge based upon who was at Walmart you’d probably guess the same. I saw a handful of Chinese students/young adults, several different Indian (south Asian) families, Hispanics, others from various Asian countries, and from what I could tell eastern Europeans as well.  I was shocked because everywhere else I go throughout the area I don’t see that at all.  Depending on the part of town you’re in you’ll mostly see White or Black, but at Walmart … everyone shows up.

As I’ve been doing my research looking at 7 cities out west and the landscape of church planting I’ve been pretty shocked, especially in cities where it’s very ethnically diverse. I’ve spent countless hours scouring websites, looking at all of their photo galleries and Flickr streams and from what I gather here’s what I see … White people worship with White people, Blacks worship with blacks, Chinese worship with Chinese, Koreans worship with Koreans, Hispanics worship with Hispanics … but yet you can find them all equally at Walmart. I’ve seen all-White churches planted in Asian neighborhoods with 95% Whites worshipping at the church and there’s 200 people there.

Why can’t the church look more like Walmart as far as who’s connected to it?  Sure, if we combine all of the churches across a metro area it would be very diverse but what’s holding us back from connecting together weekly? If Walmart can do it and all they’re offering is lower prices then why can’t we since we’re proclaiming the reality that God is among us? I’ve seen churches planted in city center cores where its some of the most ethnically diverse places on the continent but everyone in all of the church photos whether staff, small groups, or their worship gatherings are White.  Why?

I don’t know why but it is always exciting to make a late night run to Walmart.

Church Planting Networks

I believe that in many ways church planting networks are replacing denominations as far as the emotional support, connection, and training that church planters need, crave, and long for. As a matter of fact when you talk to most church planters they’ll tell you what network they’re connected with before what denomination they belong to. It’s like telling someone you’re a Pittsburg Steelers fan before you tell them you’re Irish or a Democrat or a vegetarian … although I’m sure you’d be hard-pressed to find a vegetarian Steelers fan.  Maybe 49ers or Seahawks but not Steelers.  Anyways …

I meet church planters all of the time. I can spot them a mile away.  The first time I walked into this coffee shop in St. Louis I saw this dude in the corner sporting a North Face fleece, a 5 o’clock shadow (at 8 AM), a swank hat, and the give-away … a Macbook. My first thought was,” Yup, gotta be a church planter.” Sure enough he was an Acts 29 church planter. Take that network for example. It transcends and crosses denominational lines … Baptist, Ev. Free, Presbyterian, and so on.  Most often they’ll identify with the network before their denomination. It’s not that they’re ashamed of their denom its simply that where they strongly identify is the network which tells a lot about their theology, church planting methodology, who they read and listen to, the culture they swim in, and so much more.

Church planting networks aren’t nearly as parochial as denominations. Here you rub shoulders basically with groups that you resonate with the most. I’m Southern Baptist and that is a HUGE umbrella to fall under.  Among SBC guys church planting I know guys who’re Acts 29 to Mosaic Alliance to Emergent to Purpose Driven to Willow Creek to Forge and so on. They feel more allegiance to the networks than to the denomination. Like I said earlier, in many ways these networks have replaced the local association for example in Southern Baptist circles.  The association being the group of area churches. A new church planter who’s Acts 29 is going to feel more kinship with another A29 planter in his city than the First Baptist in his city.  It is cultural. Often times church planters get so much grief from churches of their own denomination that they have to look to networks outside for their emotional support and connection.

This is not a knock on denominations but I guess the reality of the new landscape we’re in. Most guys seem to be dually aligned with a denom and then a network of some sort.

Why Do We Plant Churches in the Suburbs?

If roughly 70% of church planting today in various cities are in suburban contexts what does that tell us or teach us? Of the various church planting groups, networks and denominations that I looked at all of them had by far the majority of their church plants taking place in the suburbs.  What do we do with this obvious trend?  Is it a good thing?  Bad thing?  Should we keep going with it or curb it?

According to Dr. Ron Boyce who teaches at Bakke Graduate University and formerly at the University of Washington the suburbs are the New Urban Frontier. I took a doctoral level course from him studying the nature of cities and I think in a good way he encouraged me not to look at an urban/suburban dichotomy and I agree. We need to look at cities as a whole and not create artificial lines because although on a map there are clear lines demarcating what is city and what isn’t for most people it is all seamless. The point that I’m trying to bring up is that if we believe in transforming the culture from the inside out why do we still have an outside-in mentality? Our city cores most often hold the key to influencing not just the rest of the city, but the region, and even world. If that is the case then why are most of us planting churches on the far fringes?

Obviously there are huge needs on the fringe since those are the rapidly growing parts of the metro area, therefore, it is a very strategic place to plant churches there. With that said I think the biggest difference is the whole mentality, philosophy, and approach to church planting that takes place in the city versus the suburbs. We can’t expect to do things the same in both locales and the city environments with their complexities and compactness bring to the forefront a whole new slew of challenges that many planters are not equipped to deal with. In urban environments you can’t help but notice more the social implications of the Gospel. The Gospel not only has the power to transform lives but also social structures, schools, neighborhoods, homelessness, and so much more.

Our cities are desperate for the power of the Gospel to transform lives within which will have an impact on social structures. In a message I heard from Mark Driscoll given at the new Mars Hill campus in Albuquerque he talked about if more men in the city would meet Jesus and be changed they’d stop beating their wives.  Well said. The reality is that we need that take place both in the urbs as well as the burbs.