My friend George Klippenes, who directs church planting for the Evangelical Free Church, wrote this email (posted with permission) and provided some helpful information.
Next week, Earl Creps and I are meeting with the E.Free. National Church Leadership in their first ever "Missional Summit" in Minneapolis. Earl and I will lead the conference with these 150 key leaders to encourage them to think biblically, missionally, and discerningly. Before I leave, I will have the chance to talk research with a smaller group of church planting leaders.
George wrote:
Ed,I am attaching a PPT that we have developed for our leaders to use based on your study. I will be dropping different slides into appropriate Bootcamp modules.
Because of your study- average plants takes 4 years to reach 89- we have made our theme for this next year- Breaking Barriers. What will it take to break the 100 barrier in year one, 200 barrier in year two, and the reproduction barrier in year three?
The first step is I am asking each district leader to identify the top ten fastest growing churches in their district. What is causing the growth? How much of the growth is conversion growth?
I know it is the exceptional rocket ship guy that plants the large megachurch.But I am not ready to concede that it takes 4 years to reach 89 people.
The harvest field demands that we do better than that.
I have shared with our leaders we need to look at our assessment, Bootcamp training, and coaching to see what refinements we need to make.
Thanks for your research. Keep it up.
Keeping Planting ... The Harvest Is ComingGeorge E. Klippenes
EFCA Director of Church Planting
Web: www.efca.org/planting
You can download George's PowerPoint here.
I spoke at the Evangelical Free national denominational meeting in Salt Lake City in June 2004. I was impressed to see how contemporary and traditional pastors shared fellowship and enthusiasm for each other's ministries. They are good folks... and it is good to learn from them.
And, one more thing, what a great mission statement:
The full statement is: "The Evangelical Free Church exists to glorify God by multiplying healthy churches among all people."
Comments (5)
I try not to judge anyone's heart, but it honestly makes me a little nauseated to hear a lot of talk about attendance goals... numbers, numbers, numbers.
So what if you figure out how to get a church to 100 in one year? I don't care if you get it to 10,000 in one month, that doesn't mean you're really pleasing God or fulfilling the Great Commission. I don't even care if you have 10,000 baptisms. There is no quantitative measure for true faithfulness.
Numbers aren't useless, but if we're not careful we can become just as greedy for congregants, or converts, or members, as gamblers are for cash.
Posted by Ryan Wiksell | September 6, 2007 3:24 PM
Posted on September 6, 2007 15:24
Wow, THE Ryan Wiksel, good to hear from you.
The numbers are not always the best scorecard, but they can also help people to be more intentional about reaching people far from Christ.
So, that is what I know George is focusing on. That is his passion.
Ed
Posted by Ed Stetzer | September 6, 2007 3:57 PM
Posted on September 6, 2007 15:57
Sure... THE Ryan Wiksell. You know how funny that sounds coming from THE Ed Stetzer?
Anyway, like I said, I'm not judging anyone's heart. But even with the best intentions, such heavy focus on numbers can certainly be counter-productive. It makes it easy to forget that it's actually God's job, not ours, and we're just privileged to be able to stick a toe in the water.
Posted by Ryan Wiksell | September 6, 2007 4:40 PM
Posted on September 6, 2007 16:40
Let's just say we have mutual friends, as you know!
But, I agree... that balance is hard.
Posted by Ed Stetzer | September 6, 2007 4:52 PM
Posted on September 6, 2007 16:52
Thanks for the mention, Ed. Good to hear from Ryan, too, a fellow Springfieldian. Wish I could be at your open-mic night but I'm on the road.
Posted by Earl Creps | September 7, 2007 11:51 AM
Posted on September 7, 2007 11:51