Prior to 1945, the common method used to plant new ministries in America was "churches planting churches." My first call in Cannon Falls, MN, was such a situation. Over a 100-years earlier, one church had planted a sister church about 5-miles away. That's because at the time, 5-miles was a very difficult trip even for the early pioneers to make. Therefore, the church pioneered to the people!
Since 1945, however, the denominational top-down method took over and local churches punted their privilege to plant. It worked, for a while, but as denominations have deteriorated, so has the effectiveness of denominational planting.
Thus, our predicament today where sixty-percent of America is unchurched because churches have stopped pioneering to the people!
The LCMC, however, is changing that course. Or should I better state it as, "God is changing that course and we are tuning into God's plan!" We are once again advocating and supporting that "churches plant churches!" With that in mind, every once-a-blog-in-a-while I'll lift-up specific LCMC churches that are inspiring and modeling how we can ALL become a part of a church planting association. In this particular writing, I'll start by briefly sharing the missional story of two LCMC churches birthing three multi-cultural churches!
Hope Lutheran in Westminster, California was once a thriving church with mostly Caucasian Lutheran transplants from the midwest. A couple decades ago, however, the neighborhoods changed and more multi-cultural people began moving into the area. The all-white church was in decline until Pastor Paul Finley came and cast a new vision to reach the folks in the neighborhood. From that vision, two new "Hope" Churches have been born!
Esperanza ("Hope" in Spanish) is led by Pastor Sergio Cordero, while Hy Vong ("Hope" in Vietnamese) is led by Pastor Hy Thuong. Both new churches of Hope are hosted by the original Hope Church facility and mentored by Pastor Paul. The three are now blessing each other and strengthening "the Hope" of the neighborhood!
FROM CALIFORNIA TO WISCONSIN...Pastor Tom Graves planted Light of Christ Church earlier this year in the city of Wisconsin Rapids. The new missional community, however, is more interested in growing it's influence rather than just it's own worship numbers. That is why Light of Christ is already planting another Light of Christ Church in Ghana, Africa in conjunction with Good News Africa!
I delight in such missional discipleship. I believe God's heart is delighted because God loves having a BIG family! How about you?
Friends: statistics show that if a church doesn't plant within it's first 10-years, it never does. We, however, can change that. In fact, I recently made the comment to a large group in Iowa that if a church celebrates it's 125th anniversary but doesn't have any off-spring to celebrate with them, it's a shallow birthday party. That's when a pastor came up to me representing an Iowa church that happened to be celebrating it's 125th birthday. He looked mad. I thought he was mad at my comment, but no, he was mad that his church was celebrating it's longevity but had never had a baby. He said he would begin casting such a Godly-vision so that by year 130, they could boast like Abraham and Sarah! Ha!
With that in mind, join me in laughing with all of our Abraham and Sarah churches in the birthing of new churches that reach the nations with the Good News of Jesus!
For information on the 22 newest LCMC church starts in 2014, go to the LCMC.net website. Click on Mission Congregations, then click on "Newer Church Plants" for contact information.
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