confessions of a converted pastor

I enjoy perusing church websites and literature as time permits, especially as it has to do with new churches. Church planting has always been in my spiritual DNA. It has been twenty two years since a Mennonite Pastor encouraged Bev and me to explore the possibilities of starting a new church. The passion that he stirred in us exists to this day.

I must say, however, that many of the tactics we utilized ten or fifteen years ago (and many still use) bother me today. I recently had some time to surf the web at my job and was looking at the websites of some new churches. It became almost comical as I begin to notice key phrases that repeatedly appeared in most of the sites.

- a different kind of church
- exciting kids ministry
- relevant preaching
- upbeat worship
- relaxed dress
- casual atmosphere

Now lest you think I am being too critical, these were precisely the kinds of words and phrases that I used to promote Grace Covenant Church ten years ago. Time spent in the school of God has a way of helping one see more clearly.

As part of my journey, I have spent much of my Bible-reading time reading about the life of Jesus. (It seems to me that if one wants to follow Jesus, one should be familiar with Him!) When I put the above mentioned phrases against the template of Jesus life, I discover a great deal of difference between the Jesus pattern and the accepted church planting pattern.

A wealthy young man comes to Jesus. Jesus invites him to come to His next meeting where the young man can be uplifted by the worship band, his kids will experience an exciting time with qualified kids church workers. The young man will be comfortable in his well worn sandals will he sips his cappuccino. He will hear teaching on how to live his life….

Okay…it really didn’t happen that way. Jesus’ hook used to catch the man was this – sell everything you have, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Me! (And as you may know, the young man was not uplifted after hearing Jesus proposition.)

Jesus meets Matthew at his place of business (Matthew was a tax collector). Jesus invites him to the First Church of the Disciples to experience God’s love as the Jesus Christ Ministries Worship Band played contemporary music. He would have the opportunity to hear relevant teaching while enjoying his coffee.

Wrong again…Jesus simply issue an invitational challenge to Matthew – follow me. Jesus gave no guarantees that Matthew would enjoy himself, or be uplifted in any way. Jesus didn’t offer family ministry, or life changing teaching, or contemporary music. The invitation was vague, the guarantees non-existent.

Again, please do not hear me as being critical. I too thought I should lure people to my church, offering certain desirable guarantees. I never took the time to stop and compare my methods with the way of Jesus. It seems as if we have somehow commercialized the message and life of Jesus. We treat Jesus as a product we are offering for sale. We hope to make Christianity attractive.

The way of Jesus is not easy. I will no longer minimize the difficulty of following Jesus. Following Jesus will require me to relate to people on an intimate heart level, engaging with them in their struggle and pain. I will invite people to follow Jesus with me but I will make no effort to make their journey easy. Jesus didn’t. And if Jesus didn’t, then why would I do so?