You can listen to an audio recording of this blog post by clicking on the player below.

http://20schemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Podcast_005b.mp3

 

This is the fourth blog of a four part series by Dai Hankey, a church planter in Wales. 

 

If I was going to plant again…

I would be far more careful about who I encouraged to join the church

This is probably…definitely…the most controversial post in this mini-series!

Basically, EVERY planter wants to see their church plant grow. This invariably involves people joining the church, and there are some totally legit ways that people can join.

Legit ways to join a church:

1. Procreation: Having babies is arguably the most fun way to grow a church! As a family we ensured that Hill City grew by 100% purely through procreation!

2. Salvation: This should be the goal of every church plant – to grow as people respond to the gospel and are born again, being added to the church.

3. Relocation: People have to relocate for all kinds of reasons – work, family, changing circumstances etc. Oftentimes this will mean moving away from one church and wanting to reconnect with a new church family that is more local to them.

4. Commission: Sometimes Christians might move from one local church to another for the purpose of mission. This could be because a certain job or ministry position has opened up or there is a clear call from God. In both cases it is good and godly to for the ‘sending’ church to both recognise the call and commission the Christian and their family to go with their blessing and support.

However, there are also some not-so-legit ways to join a church and we should be far more wary of these.

Not-so-legit ways to join a church:

1. Church-hoppers

These are the people that every church wishes didn’t exist and that every church planter should dread turning up. Church-hoppers are those who have been to every church on the block (often more than once) and never seem able to settle down. They often present as lovely people who are misunderstood and are the innocent victims of all the other horrible churches out there. Furthermore, they will always give compelling (and plausible) reasons for why things haven’t worked out at their previous churches (it was never their fault!)

We should be very wary of those who are quick to judge other local churches, not least because experience has taught me that if they turn up at your church slagging off the last church, it’s only a matter of time until they’re at the next church slagging off your church! Church-hoppers are dangerous because they do not understand commitment. If a friend of mine asked me for advice regarding their desire to start a relationship with a man who had never shown any commitment in previous relationships but who was known to have slept with every girl in the village, my advice would be the same as my advice to any church planter/leader wanting to welcome a serial church-hopper into their fellowship – DON’T DO IT!

To do so would be to arm a ticking time-bomb.

Another danger of church-hoppers is that they are people – and when your church plant is small you are desperate for any people to show up! The temptation is to ignore any concerns you might have for the encouragement/ego trip of a growing congregation.

Don’t be deceived – you are better off with a small number of committed saints who are up for digging deep and getting stuck in, than a crowd of spiritual hobos who live shallow, travel light and move often. No one models this better than Jesus Christ who preferred to sow into a small posse of disciples rather than a huge crowd of fickle followers.

Furthermore, church-hoppers will often be at pains to heap praise on you (and even your leadership), telling you how amazing your church is and why it’s so much better than all…