Steve Addison

I’m noticing a trend amongst flagship churches. They are becoming movements.

Earlier this year I taught in the church planting school at St Mary’s Anglican in central London. They have about a dozen planting hopefuls in training. Planted nine years ago out of Holy Trinity Brompton, St Mary’s has grown to over 800 hundred mostly under 40s. Alpha has played an important part in their conversion growth. They have begun planting churches in the UK and as far away as Auckland.

Ralph Moore at Hope Chapel Hawaii has seen over two hundred churches planted in the US, Japan and Asia-Pacific. Hope Chapel provides an intensive nine-month training course for church planters. Entry into the course is limited to those who have already demonstrated effectiveness in ministry. The goal of the training is to create life-long learners.

Gateway Family Church was planted fourteen years ago in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. Under Rick Paynter’s leadership Gateway has grown to about 800. It’s one of the healthiest churches I know and has a consistent track record of converson growth. They are planting churches in Australia and amongst the urban poor in Papua New Guinea. This year they launched their church planting school with nine particpants.

In 1989 Tim Keller planted Redeemer Presbyterian in New York. He felt called to the renewal of the city spiritually, socially and culturally by building a movement of new, “Gospel-centered” churches. Redeemer has grown to over 4,000 and has spawned a church planting movement targeting global cities. In 2001, Redeemer started a church planting center that has helped create more than 100 new churches in New York and elsewhere.

Four examples. I could have listed many more. What are the common threads?

1. “Apostolic” leadership
John Peters, Ralph Moore, Rick Paynter, Tim Keller—have apostolic vision. They see beyond their car park. They see cities, nations and the world transformed by fresh, authentic expressions of the church. Without their leadership there would be no church planting movement.

2. Healthy parent
These churches haven’t planted because they are big. They have planted because they are healthy. Living organisms reproduce when they are healthy, no matter what size they are. They reproduce after their own kind. The churches they plant have a higher survival rate because they have been conceived in a healthy environment. They reproduce that health when they plant.

3. Home grown planters
Each of these churches grows their own leaders. They don’t entrust this vital task to others. They have all set up training centres that preselect the students. They only invest in emerging leaders who are already demonstrating faithfulness and effectiveness in minsitry. The training focuses on holistic development—character and spiritual formation, ministry skills, Biblical and theological knowledge. Training leans towards an apprenticeship rather than purely classroom model.

4. Widening circle
As churches are started these leaders reinvent themselves from senior pastors to movement leaders. They lead an ever-widening network of churches that are linked together by committed relationships and a common cause. They fully expect that the churches they help start will themselves start new churches. They see no contradiction between this strategy and their denominational affiliation whether it be Anglican, Four Square, Baptist or Presbyterian.

5. Movement dynamic
Each of these churches shares the characteristics of dynamic movements: white-hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid deployment and adaptive methods. They grow and attract people who share these values.

If I had a sixth characteristic it would be that none of these emerging movements really knows what it is doing. They are sailing into uncharted waters making it up as they go. What sustains them is faith and a passion to see the glory of God cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Links
http://www.stmarysweb.info
http://www.hopechapel.com
http://www.gateway.asn.au
http://www.redeemer.com

Steve Addison
Steve is a life-long student of dynamic movements that renew and expand the Christian faith. Steve serves as Director of Church Resource Ministries Australia.

Steve is currently involved in empowering leaders to fuel church planting movements throughout Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Europe.

His website on movements can be found at: http://www.steveaddison.net