Brookside's Daughter Church

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2011-03-23T10:34:00.001-07:00

As always, you can still find us online or by checking out the latest on facebook.

We're online!

2010-02-23T09:14:00.001-08:00

Check out the new website at www.myencounterchurch.org.

This Blog Has Moved!

2010-02-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

Check out the new site at:

www.myencounterchurch.blogspot.com

I'll be posting all of my new posts on the the above site. Brooksidedaughterchurch won't be updated any longer.

What Does Batman Know About Sin?

2010-01-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

I think if Jesus lived today, he would have told less parables and made more short movies on his Macbook. Okay, that may be an overstatement but the point, I think, is true. Jesus was, in all likelihood, one heckuva story-teller. He usually communicated deep spiritual truth using average Joe kinds of people. Yet, sometimes his stories took fantastical and bizzare turns (see the Rich Man and Lazarus) to communicate that truth.

Stories are powerful, especially when filmmakers invest millions into making them as extraordinary as possible. But it can sometimes take a keen eye to glean a bit of truth from what often amounts to 90 minutes of explosions, violence, and love making.

Take the latest in the Batman saga, for example. In my humble opinion, the movie was such a smash hit (excuse the pun) because for the first time in any Superhero movie there wasn't this false dichotomy of Good vs. Evil. Many times in movies Evil is portrayed as Good's equal and opposite. Evil is sometimes cast as an alternative "kingdom" led my some genius bent on world domination. I submit to you that the evil Jesus talked about in the Bible was not of this brand. Nope, Jesus talked about an evil that was completely dependent on the good stuff that God already made. Sex is good (see previous post); adultery is bad. Desire is good; greed is bad. You get this idea that evil is a parasite. It thrives only on the destruction of the good stuff all around us. It isn't logical or coherent. It's chaos. Just like an apple that starts to rot, the "rot" isn't trying to turn the apple into something else. It doesn't have a strategy. It just destroys the apple until nothing's left.

The Dark Knight captures this perfectly. There's a scene in the movie where Joker just stole a whole warehouse of money. He's got $100 dollar bills stacked in a very neat 40ft high pyramid. A mobster is asking the Joker about his "plan" while henchmen are on top of the pyramid pouring liquid and watching it cascade all the way down.

"Plan!? There is no plan. I just want to see it all burn." The Joker flicks a match and a million dollars is instantly on fire.

That's evil. There is no plan. It's simply destruction. Sin, as we understand it, is simply destruction. It may look like a strategic way to get ahead but it ends the same way. The plan is burned up.

Earlier this morning, I read that fmr Senator and Presidential Candidate John Edwards admitted that the daughter of his mistress was in fact his. If pressed, I'm sure Edwards would agree, "Plan? There was no plan to my adultery." The "plan" could only end in destruction.

Surrender the Queen...gone missing?

2010-01-14T08:03:00.001-08:00

Some of you may be wondering why it looks like I haven't posted in a very long time. Ok, I got behind...true. But also, I removed the lengthy post called "Surrender the Queen" because a small publication called "The Banner" bought the rights to the article (to be published at a later and unknown date). "The Banner" is free and you can subscribe at www.crcna.org.

The Ultimate Church Planting Sermon Topic

2010-01-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

It's my conviction that when things aren't going too well in church planting (when numbers are down or when people don't seem as engaged as they used to) planters can pull out all the stops and preach on that one topic we know everyone will pay attention to: Sex.
Well, Encounter Church (that's the name of our new plant) isn't quite off the ground yet but I've been called in by another church to address this topic with their college/career group. It was awesome. Here's a summary. I've included my favorite lines. I hope it makes sense without the full 20 minute context. I spoke on the Song of Songs out of the Bible. It's a fascinating (and graphic) read. If you open it up to read it, you should know that the headings are Beloved (her), Lover(him), and Friends (friends). The poem is a dance of this couple's love story. Like all romantic comedies the dance is sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, but always beautiful. Sometimes commentators break the poem up into five encounters between the couple between which days or years could have gone by (remember its a poem).

Opener: I've been married 4 1/2 yrs and Kristin will tell you that in no way qualifies me to speak on this topic.

Encounter 1: SofS (1:2, 10) They get to know each other...and they like each other.

Encounter 2: SofS (2:6) The... ummm... physical aspect of the relationship is catching up. (2:16 "My lover is mine and I am his") This line is HUGE. Sometimes I think our conversations about sex spend way too much time on the minors and forget the majors completely. We talk about how it feels (good), we talk about how often we want it to happen (more), but we often never get to what it's all about. I would argue that SofS is less about sex and more about whatever it is that makes the woman in the poem say, "I belong to my lover and my lover is mine" (it's a repeated refrain). This book is about that. This topic is about that. Sex is about that. So what is that?1 In Genesis 2 God made man ("ish" in hebrew) but creation was still incomplete so he made wo-man ("ish-ah" in hebrew) "for she was taken out of man." So you have woman being taken out of man.

Separated.

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother to be united to his wife. They will become one." This isn't about gender roles. Don't go there. This is about people being separated and longing to connect deeply with another. God made them that way. Sex (Tim, my latin translating brother might help us here) comes from the same word as "Sect." Sex is about separation and uniting. We as human being are about being separated (and unhappy about it) and longing to meaningfully connect with another.

Encounter 3: (SofS 3:1-2) The woman is desparetely looking for him. You can hear the terror in her voice. She’s afraid. She doesn’t just fear the fact that she can’t find him, she worries that he doesn’t want to be found. But remember the aim of this book (this is about that). She isn’t just afraid of losing a really great sexual partner, she fears being completely cut off. Alone. We feel her pain. Because we are wired the same way. We fear being alone. It’s why even adults are scared of the dark. It’s why newborns need to be held. It’s why we leave the TV on in the other room even when no one’s watching it. Nobody wants to be alone. We’re just not made that way.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Some people choose to live alone. Celibate. Sexless. That seems like a working definition of hell. But remember this is about that. Sex is about fulfilling a God-given longing to meaningfully connect with another. Is that what we’d call “sexual energy?” Now here’s where it gets weird. Was Mother Theresa using every ounce of her “sexual energy” to meaningfully connect with the poorest-of-the-poor in downtown Calcutta? I think so. And I think she left the world a better place. What are we doing with our sexual energy?

If you can have connection without sex (Mother Theresa), can you have sex without connection? Just watch an old rerun of “Friends” or “Seinfeld.” Of course you can! But what happens to the that when everything is just about the this? Paul wrote a long time after the SofS. He wrote in Eph 4 about giving over to temptations (of any kind). He said it dulls our sensitivities. He didn’t say sex was bad. He just said that improper exercise of sex (or anything!) makes us callous. He said being callous makes us crave a higher intensity. In the end, we long for more and more and can never be happy. This can happen with anything. I have a friend who is an alcoholic in recovery who has a saying, “one too many…a thousand isn’t enough.” The alcoholic isn’t happy with a microbrew. It isn’t about the wheat and barley in an Oberon. So the alcoholic finds Natural Ice. Way more alcohol; tastes like garbage. But soon even that isn’t even. The alcoholic lands on Five o’ clock vodka (bottom shelf and Meijer). It tastes like that stuff you clean goo off your car with but it’ll get you loaded in a hurry. You can see the progression. Alcohol can be a good thing but quickly turns bad. Sex also turns bad. Casual Sex (sex without connection/commitment/compassion) dulls your sensitivity too. Casual sex impairs your ability to ever connect with another. Too much and, like the alcoholic, you’ll never be satisfied and left with a complete inability to connect meaningfully with another human being. I think that may be hell. And that’s what the woman in the poem fears.

Encounter 4: She eventually finds him. And if you take the time to read her reaction to finding him, she’s pretty happy. She hasn’t been neglected. He didn’t break up with her. She’s…connected again. But then we come to 5:2 and 3. We can imagine a good deal of time has passed. Maybe months; maybe years. He is standing outside in the rain. She is already in bed. Maybe he was away on business. She’s in her room and she can hear pebbles clicking against the window. It’s classic Romeo and Juliet. Something straight out of the movies. The fireman/model/lawyer comes riding up to her place on a white horse ready for the climax of the movie, the happy ending. He risks his dignity, his reputation, everything.

And here response? … “I’ve taken off my robe. Must I put it on again?”

Rejected. He laid it all out there. And she turns him down. You can just feel for the guy can’t you? Because when you were in 9^th grade and when you attended your first school dance, you walked up to the girl you’ve had a crush on for the whole year. You were five feet away, she made eye contact with you, you smiled at her, and she…ran away. You laid it out there and she said “no.”

It’s that fear of rejection that might prevent you from putting yourself out there ever again. When you take a risk for love, or dating, or whatever, you give the other person a great deal of power over you. Now let’s up the ante. I’ve been treating sex as a highly intimate act of connection one person can have with another. A big part of that is the fact that during sex a person offers him or herself completely to the other person. Those words from that second encounter ring true, “My lover is mine and I am his.” The act of sex entails taking off everything that might protect you. You take off all your clothes and expose your body and your heart. What happens in that next moment is huge. What’s the other person going to say. Will she be impressed? Will he be kind? You have just given yourself to the other person. And not just for those fleeting moments. In the days and weeks after too. Will he tell his friends? Will she make fun of me? After sex, you don’t belong to you any more. Your life isn’t yours. You are connected. So when looking for a sexual partner, someone to connect with, are you ready to trust your life to him, or to her. I don’t think you can know that you’re ready to connect to someone until your ready to give your life to them. And I don’t think you know that you can give your life someone until you marry them. Everything else is much too great of a risk. It’s a risk not just of being rejected, yes, that will hurt. But it’s a risk of coping with that rejection by “losing all sensitivities.” Sex with rejection will dull your ability to connect. You might try to amp it up to feel connected again but is a nasty spiral. It’ll leave you with your greatest fear, a complete inability to meaningfully connect to another person. It’s being alone. The definition of hell, I mentioned earlier. That’s the risk.

Encounter five: There was rejection. There was the risk of disconnection. He laid out his feelings for her and she was too tired to answer back. Then she came to the door, but he had already given up. They spend the chapter looking for each other. Their last encounter is spent with finding each other. Chapter 6:1 Where has your lover gone? I’ve found him. He’s in the garden. The poem ends with three chapters of them celebrating their love (and their bodies). They’ve risked everything, but this isn’t the risk. This is the reward. Two lovers embracing each other. There’s cheesy romance lines, there’s kissing, there’s fruit that definitely means something else completely. You get the picture. This is sex as it’s supposed to be. Sex about connection. This about that. And our Romeo and Juliet, to use the words of Taylor Swift, “Will never have to be alone.”

But why? Why is it this way? Why are we ingrained to seek connection with someone else? Sex is about connection, we know that. But we long to be connected so much more than sexually. As I mentioned we leave our TVs on when we’re not around. We stay up at night texting our friends when we should be sleeping. We’re not really friends with someone until we’re facebook friends. We’re not really interested in someone ‘till we read what they had for breakfast on twitter. I’m not against any of these things. I’m just saying that it is how we are wired. It’s how God wired us. Probably because he’s that kind of God. Yes, the Facebooking, tweeting, texting kind of God. Maybe you’ve heard about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I don’t think you can talk about God without talking social networking. We get it from God. The Father stays in constant contact with the Son, the Son gets all the tweets from the Spirit, the Spirit reads all the Facebook status’ of the Father….even before time. Do you get it? God is three-in-one a perfect relationship, perfect connection with himself. Connecting is what God is all about; connecting is what we’re all about.

But as perfect as our three-in-one God is, he took a risk. Looking at us from across the dance floor, he risked it all. If he walked across the gym in his full glory, she…we…would have run. He would have terrified us. His perfect holiness would have shamed us. And so he came in humility. As a crying baby who grew into an awkward teenager who grew into a average–joe-kind-of-guy. Who died. Naked. Exposed. Knowing that not everyone would accept him. Some would laugh. Others would spread rumors. Some would believe. You might believe. It was worth the risk. Because now you’ll never have to be alone.

1 Bell, Rob. Sex God. Grand Rapids: Zondervaan, 2007.

2009-11-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

A new church? What's it like? I can think of no better illustration of this new church than this story. Our story.

A man had two sons. The younger one wished his father was dead and asked for his inheritance in advance. Dad gave it to him and he wasted every dime. Penniless, he decided to go home. When his dad saw him, he ran to meet him. “I’m so sorry, I…” “Shhh. You’re back now and that’s all that matters.” The older brother, believing he had earned his dad’s love by never making mistakes, was jealous. He couldn’t believe his dad could act so recklessly.

Both of these sons were lost; only one was found again.

At times in our lives we’ve all messed up, screwed up, and fouled up. We’ve been the younger son who needed to swallow his pride and ask for forgiveness. We’ve been the older son who believed that he had the answers and everything would be better if only everyone else were like him. And we’ve been the father, who was charged with running after his son and embracing him even before he admitted he was wrong.

But this story goes even deeper. Think of the recklessness of the father in the beginning of that story. He gives away a good chunk (probably a third because the oldest always got double protions) of everything he had. And then when he sees his rebel son a long way off...he runs to him. He throws all dignity to the wind and runs toward him. I love that. I imagine God running toward me, toward us. "I've messed up; I've hurt you, I don't deserve..." "Shhh. You're mine now. In fact you were always mine. You wished I was dead but I never disowned you or stopped loving you. I've been looking down the road for you every day since you left."

Prodigal means: reckless extravagance. Maybe the son isn't the prodigal. Maybe the Father is the Prodigal. He recklessly shares his extravagent love with us. A reckless love that would even walk the way of the cross.

2009-10-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Starting new churches sometimes seems a little like gravity. We all know it happens but “how” is tough question to answer. Most of us haven’t ever seen a new church start so we have a hard time picturing what it could look like. I'd like to to share a few thoughts on some really good questions that people are asking.

Are we planting a “seeker” church?

I’d consider it a "missional church." We will be very intentional about reaching out to people who don’t go to church already but if I'd call it a "seeker" church, you may get the wrong idea. We’re not going to downplay or conceal anything of what it means to be Christian. It's my opinion that people who are far from God benefit most from seeing and experiencing actual Christian worship on Sunday mornings (or whenever we choose to worship). That said, we will have to be intentional with how we use language. For example, the people we’ll be reaching don't know and don't care to know what "sanctification" means. But they do need to know about becoming a more mature follower of Christ, about offering forgiveness quicker, about holding your tongue more often.

How do you decide who to ask to join the church plant?

So far we haven't “asked” anyone to join. People have sort of self-selected by showing up for our events again and again. Several people have told me that they're really excited about building something new. I imagine this is how “recruiting” will go in the future. However, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't actively trying to recruit certain people. I'm looking for people with particular gifts (music, leadership, children's ministry, etc..) but mostly I’m looking for people with a passion start something new in order to reach out and invite their neighbor to church.

Dirk, although you look at least 35, you are a fairly young person. Are you going to ask only young people to join this church plant? Is this mainly a younger generational church?

I hope that both young and old Brookside members will decide to come along. Right now, I’m definitely bringing the average age of interested persons down. This is probably because college students really can't commit to anything a long ways down the road (I can’t blame them). I'll be recruiting unchurched college and career people a little closer to the start date. So it will NOT be a generational church. I’d love to see people of every age worshipping our God together. That said, I have a hunch that young people (under 35) will be big part, because that's who I am and that's who I connect best with.

What will the worship and service style look like? Traditional, blended, contemporary?

My vision for worship is simple. Songs, prayer, message, offering. And not necessarily in that order. I keep in mind that there will always be people trying church for the first time attending our service. Their closest experience to this is probably listening to a band in a coffee shop or bar, so that's what we're sticking to. Musicians will be encouraged to play however God has gifted them. If their passion is Jazz, let's sing Jazz. If you play the accordion, great. Let's sing Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by accordion. We'll probably sing more contemporary worship songs but it’s still too soon to tell. The important thing to remember is that the band playing will set the musical tone. I hope to see a bunch of different bands take turns leading us.

Will the church plant have its own council of elders and deacons for spiritual leadership and oversight?

According to CRC Church Order, church plants are considered "emerging congregations" and don't have elders and deacons until they organize into the denomination. That is a long time away. Until then, church plants are under the supervision of a neighboring church council. What's great about having such a supportive parent church like Brookside is that our council is actually invested in what we are doing. I expect this to be a fruitful and accountable relationship. Brookside's council will supervise the church plant "in doctrine and life." They do not supervise how we run the day-to-day operations of the church plant, which makes sense considering Brookside hasn't had experience with being a church plant in 50 years. The church plant will have its own steering committee or leadership team to function in lieu of a council.

Obviously, these are just thoughts and we have a lot of thinking, dreaming, and praying to do yet. I'd love to hear your questions and/or comments so feel free to comment on this post or drop my an email.

Catch the Vision

2009-10-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we had a big church planting event last Thursday. It was called "Catch the Vision." Hershey's Ice Cream, the store next to where we are thinking about leasing speace, catered ice cream cones and caramel corn. We had coffee and cocoa and a few musicians came out and led us in a time of worship. What was most incredible was that about 120 people came out to see what God was up to! We only had about 80 chairs set up so there was a lot of kids sitting in laps and people standing in back.

I spoke briefly on the need in the community for a new church. In the Bailey's Grove development right next door, there are a couple thousand people who aren't part of a faith community. This could be our chance to be the community church for that neighborhood.

It's always great to see what God is up to when he's just about to do something big. Obvisously, starting a new church is big but along with that comes changed lives. Some people who work in the stores in the building we're looking at dropped by on Thursday to check things out. For some, it was their first time in church. Granted, they wanted to promote their business but I'm sure it'll be exciting to seewhat God does.

One last interesting coincidence is that in my talk I mentioned the story in Genesis 12 where God calls Abraham to go to a place he'll show Abraham later. I spoke on how it struck me that Abraham had to pack up before knowing where he was moving and how we're planting a church before knowing every last detail. We trust that God will provide the details. Well, our sponsoring church, Brookside, just celebrated 50 years since they started. They chose to use the same Gen 12 story to talk about what a leap of faith it was to start a new church in 1959 and how God provided the details and impacted so many people.

It's fun to see God at work.

I'll have pictures on Facebook shortly.

What does Brookside have to do with Applebee’s®?

2009-08-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

It’s an odd question but one that I've been asking more and more often. By now, you’ve probably heard that Brookside is considering the possibility of planting a new church. One of the questions I hear frequently is, “Why does Kentwood need another church?” And the answer that follows is, “Because not everybody likes to eat at Applebee’s.

Admittedly, that answer needs to be explained. For just a moment, try to imagine church as a restaurant. There are some restaurants that naturally appeal to particular kinds of people. For example, a friend of mine absolutely refuses to eat at Chinese restaurants. He simply has never liked the food and probably never will. That said, this friend has eaten at every burger joint on this side of the state. This is just the way God hard-wired him.

Restaurant owners are aware of this trend. Whenever there is an area of population growth, restaurants are quick to follow. The first one you may see is Applebee’s (usually a T.G.I. Friday’s isn’t too far away). Next, you’ll find a Pizza Hut, Panara Bread and a couple specialty diners. The point is that everyone can’t be expected to be happy with just Applebee’s. Some people are just hard-wired to prefer something else.

Yet, when it comes to church ministries, I often hear, “Brookside is such a great place. Why can’t everyone just come here?” To be sure, Brookside is a great place with a terrific ministry! However, some people are just hard-wired to prefer something else. Maybe they have a not-so-great past with a church that looks and feels a lot like Brookside or maybe the idea of “eating” at Brookside would be like checking out a Middle Eastern restaurant. It looks good, but the menu is in another language.

Whatever the case may be, God has wired his people in many different ways. One way that we honor that diversity is to create churches that reflect the unique tastes within our community.

2009-07-31T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Thank you for all of your prayers and support so far.

There will be several upcoming church planting events in the weeks and months to come.

• You are all invited to Brookside (36th and Kalamazoo) Sunday, Aug. 16 for a mini-presentation called, “Why Church Planting, Why Brookside, What’s the Plan So Far?” We will be meeting briefly between services from 10:15-10:22. I’ll be available for questions and comments after the 10:30 service.

• On Sunday, Aug. 23 A local church plant is holding it’s first service geared specifically for launch team members. I spoke with Randy, the pastor, and they would love if we joined them for that service. There’s a lot we can learn from them.

• Be on the lookout for a church planting table at Brookside’s Ministry Fair on Sunday, Sept 13. More to come later. God has blessed us with a lot of really great ideas for how best to reach new people for him. We ask that you pray for us now as we define further just where God is leading us. If any of you would like to hear more specifics, feel free to call me (Dirk) at 635.7005 or stop by Brookside for a visit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you know someone who would like to receive these updates respond to this email with "add: (email address) in the subject line. To unsubscribe from this list respond with "unsubscribe" in the subject line

Coffee and Ice Cream

2009-07-28T18:10:00.001-07:00

Kristin and I want to take a minute to thank those of you who have been emailing, calling, and meeting with us for a conversation over coffee. It means a lot to us that you take time out of your busy schedules to see how God is working through Brookside's church plant project. I would like to encourage you to send an email if you'd like to learn more and to meet us for lunch or ice cream. We're always excited to talk with people about the church plant.

Party Update and Prayer Requests

2009-07-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

First of all, we want to give a big “thank you” to everyone who came out to the party at our (Dirk and Kristin’s) place! By all accounts it was a huge success. There were a little more than 50 people who decided to spend the evening partying outside despite ominous rain clouds looming overhead. The rain held off and we had a great time.

Just to give you an idea of how things went, burgers were served and beverages were opened a little after 7. We need to give grill master Dan Iwema a special shout-out for his work with the spatula. He braved flame-ups that threatened to take off his eyebrows. But in the end the food was delicious.

A little ways into dinner, I (Dirk) thanked everyone for coming and used a big map to show a few of the church plant locations being considered. The point was made again that there are 8,000 people living in a very small section of Kentwood who have no faith affiliation whatsoever. Within the next five years it’s expected that another 1,100 people will call this area home. In the neighborhoods within 2.5 miles of Alger and Eastern, almost 20,000 people reported having no faith involvement…in any religion! Whether it means worshipping in a movie theater, a school gymnasium, or a storefront, these people need to be reached with the good news of God’s love.

Moving forward, some of the things that you can expect are more events at Brookside Church. Look for announcements about upcoming events that answer questions like, “Why do we need another church?” “But what can we do?” and “How do I talk to my neighbor in a way that invites her to worship?”

Through all of this there is one thing that we desperately need. Your prayers. Starting a new church is no small ordeal and it can’t happen apart from God’s rich blessing. Specific prayer requests are for God to lead us to the right place to start the church. We also need God to help us find people who are gifted but have “slipped under the radar,” so to speak. Church planting is an endeavor that discovers and deploys the gifts of the whole body. And the first step is finding them.

That’s all for now.

"GOD IS WATCHING YOU!"

2009-07-13T20:06:00.001-07:00

Yes, that caption was written on a church sign that I recently drove past. It caused me to reflect on both the people reading the sign and the sign's authors.

As some of you know from my Facebook site, the sign creeped me out a little. Maybe it was the use of printing in all caps, maybe it was the exclamation point at the end, but there is little room for such a posting to be regarded as a positive thing. I can't think of very many situations where yelling, "GOD IS WATCHING YOU!" would come as any comfort at all. It is almost exclusively the wrong thing to say in nearly every situation.

Yet, I know a thing or two about the congregation who posted it. I don't believe they meant any harm by it at all. In fact, I'd be willing to wager that they meant it as something quite positive. Perhaps they knew you'd read it as you barreled down the road at 50 mph, "take comfort friends God is watching over you." This is reassuring, pleasant, and calming.

To the insiders the sign is comforting; to the outsiders the sign is frightening.

This is a church planting blog and here's the connection. Every church, whether old or young, needs the critical eye of the outsider to keep our message on track. Without that precious point-of-view our message of a good news at best gets misunderstood and at worst rejected without ever being faithfully represented.

It's time to gather some more voices.

2009-07-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

As we get ready to really move forward, I thought it might be helpful to look at the past. Here's a couple comments that people just getting aquainted with church planting often ask:

“But every church in this community used to be fuller than it is now. The churchgoing public is a ‘shrinking pie’. A new church here will just take people from churches already hurting and weaken everyone.”

The fact of the matter is that new churches operate differently than existing churches, not better or worse, just differently. One of these differences is the people who are attracted to church plants.

Newer churches attract younger adults in part because existing churches develop set patterns of time of worship, length of service, sermon topics, leadership-style, and thousands of other tiny customs. Younger generations can’t see how this reflects the sensibilities of long-time leaders and so they are drawn to churches with a less complicated and complex history.

Newer churches also attract new residents. In existing churches it takes a lot of time, sometimes a decade to rise to a position of leadership and influence. Newer churches are able to give equal influence to long-time residents as to new residents.

Newer churches also attract new people groups. Imagine if, over the course of 40 years, an all-Anglo neighborhood became 33% Hispanic. The existing all-Anglo church would have a difficult time ministering in a meaningful way to the changing community. An intentionally bi-racial church plant would be better suited to meet the changing needs of this community than an established church.

“We already have plenty of churches that have lots and lots of room for all the new people who have come to the area. Let’s get them filled before we go off building any new ones.”

Established churches provide many things that newer churches cannot. Facilities, financial resources, prayer support, and encouragement from generations of Christians would never be possible without established churches. However, when it comes to reaching the unchurched, dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body. Churches that are at least ten years old gain 80-90% of their new members from those who are transferring from a previous congregation.[1]

The bottom line in that by starting a new local congregation, we reach entirely new people with the good news Jesus was talking about.

Next up: Thoughts on the church sign: "GOD IS WATCHING YOU!"

[1] Lyle Schaller, quoted in D. McGavran and G. Hunter, Church Growth: Strategies that Work (Nashville: Abingdon, 1980), p. 100. See C Kirk hadaway, New Churches and Church Growth in the Southern Baptist Convention (Nashville: Broadman, 1987).

Why Church Planting? (with insights from Tim Keller in NYC)

2009-07-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

Whenever I tell people what I’m up to, I usually get a response like, “Why do we need another church?” I love this question. I’d also like to take a stab at answering it.

“Evangelism” is a wonderful and loaded term. It comes from the Greek word for “good news.” That’s right GOOD NEWS. So how is it that the word for good news has been hijacked by guys on street corners shouting lines about hell and repentance? That doesn’t seem like good news.

So what is the good news? Jesus himself had a much fuller and richer sense of this word. For him, as we can see from the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), evangelism meant baptism and discipleship. This means that an ongoing worshipping body must be present—a worshipping body as described in Acts 2.

The good news is that God has provided us a community to help us live life to the fullest. The fullest doesn’t mean the easiest but it’s my conviction that following Jesus is the best way to live our lives. Praying with other Christians, sharing what’s going on in your life with a small group, and worshiping the God of the universe in a vibrant community are all aspects of God’s gracious plan for the unfolding of the local church.

The Acts 2 church has a beautiful variety of expressions that cannot be contained in a single or even a few churches. It’s a good thing to dream about the wonderful expressions that “church-life” can take. And as we dream about a variety of church expressions, we find that the variety and diversity of the kingdom of God also begins to take shape and grow. Church planting is simply the means by which we increase the breadth and range that Christ’s bride can take. In fact, leading missiologist C. Peter Wagner said, “Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.”

Of course there are tons of objections out there. Objections like “But everyone around me already goes to church” and “Isn’t the churchgoing public a shrinking pie? Why do we want to break it even more” and “Shouldn’t we our existing church filled before making new ones?”

We’ll look at these good questions over the next few posts.

Welcome to the daughter church blog!

2009-07-01T07:00:00.001-07:00

I’d like to take a moment to give a brief recap of how God has brought us to this point. Then, I have an invitation to our first party.

I suppose it started two years ago when Kristin and I randomly (providentially?) decided to do my summer internship in California. I wanted five straight weeks without one cloud or raindrop, God wanted us to learn about the amazing world of church planting. We worked with a half dozen or so church plants and saw how even these tiny and young churches were doing astounding things in their communities. Most of all, the vast majority of these people had little to no previous church involvement. This was where we wanted to be in ministry.

A year later, Paul DeVries, the senior pastor at Brookside in Grand Rapids, bought me lunch and put the idea of planting a church in Grand Rapids in my head. Twice since then we’ve had to say, “Well, it looks like God’s timing wasn’t in it.” Then something amazing would happen and the timing looked even better than before. Email me if you want a few examples.

I can’t neglect to mention the terrific work of the many committees who’ve helped pull us along. So here’s to you Visioning Task Force and to you Strategic Initiative #5. You guys made the difference.

That last committee came up with the idea to “birth” a daughter church. This is our current model and the more time you spend with me the more you’ll hear about it. Brookside will carry the developing church within while the young church has time to develop and grow. During this protected time, we’ll gather enough people together in our launch team so that we have a sufficient “birth weight” (you have no idea how far I can take this metaphor). The end goal is to give birth to a healthy beautiful baby church weighing anywhere from 60-150 people. Just like real children, the daughter church will still need some support and protection from the mother but we’ll become more and more independent until eventually we’ll completely leave the nest (become our own church with our own staff, administration, building, etc…)

For those of you who’ve spoken with me or Kristin, you know how excited we are about this opportunity. If you’d like to read more thoughts on this church plant and church planting in general, you can subscribe to an update by dropping me a line at dirkvaneyk@gmail.com.

Now for the invitation: many of you were there at the beginning when we just started thinking about this. Some of you Kristin and I just met. We’d like everyone to get together for a big party. Here’s the plan: Everyone’s invited to come over to our house (2082 Batchawana St. SE, Grand Rapids) on Thursday, July 16 @ 6:30. They’ll be good food, good beverages, and a good time had by all. This is our way of thanking you for your support so far but frankly, we’ll take any excuse we can in order to have a party.

Please RSVP to dirkvaneyk@gmail.com

That’s all for now.

God Bless,
Dirk and Kristin