How important is your name?

The Bible teaches, “A good name is more desirable than great riches. (Proverbs 22:1)”

Parents will carefully choose a child's name. It is usually the first important decision they make about their child. Businesses will hire the best marketing firm they can afford to name a new product line; one that will make their product fly off the shelf. New church starts are as concerned about finding the right name as prospective parents and big corporations. They try to find a name that says something about their church and will attract people to it.

Often a number of churches will select similar or identical names. This indicates either a movement of the Holy Spirit or a human tendency to follow popular fads. The fact that some churches with hip names survive and others fail, is a sign that there is more to a church than a name.

It is popular today remove a church's denominational label from it's name. Some view their denominational identity as a liability but, rather than withdrawing, they remain in the denomination and pull a religious bait and switch.

Despite the popularity of some very large non-denominational churches, the fact is that most people who attend church regularly do so at a church with a denominational label. Moreover, many large, successful churches use their denomination in their names. Again, there is more to a church than a name.

Whether it is a person, a product, a company or a church, a good name is a product of positive actions. It is maintained by protecting its reputation. One well-known church name is Willow Creek Community Church. According to Senior Pastor, Bill Hybels, its name was selected hastily at a lawyer's office while completing some initial legal documents. They named the church after the Willow Creek Theater where they were meeting.

Name changes are often needed in a church or business whose reputation has been stained by scandal. Otherwise a change must be carefully weighed against the costs. First there is the obvious cost of replacing the signage, stationary and business cards. Don't forget forms, brochures, banners, etc.

Second, there is the political cost of convincing the church membership that a name change is a good idea. Some members will have emotional ties to the name and others just cannot handle any change. Will it be worth the residual ill will?

Finally, there is the marketing cost. Unless you are making a clean break with the past, how are you going to let your friends know that you're still the same church but with a different name? It takes time and money to create name recognition. It is naive to think that people will flock to your church just because you have a “cool” name.

The best type of marketing, whether church or business, is word of mouth. That can be free for a church whose members believe in their church's mission, feel the presence of God in worship and grow spiritually through church activities. It is better to spend your physical and spiritual energies (and finances) on things that will build your churches reputation than on a name change.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; 

bind them around your neck, 

write them on the tablet of your heart. 

Then you will win favor and a good name 

in the sight of God and man.

 Proverbs 3:3-4 (NIV)

Free Buildings!

While some pastors are gifted at building campaigns where money is raised to build a new facility, I seem to be gifted at building rescue.

It started in New Orleans where I was pastor of a Spanish-language new church start meeting in the basement of an inner-city Anglo church. A church six blocks away was going to disband and turn the building over to the Greater New Orleans Baptist Association. The plan was to sell the building and use the money to fund new church starts.

“Not so fast,” I said, “Any new church will eventually need a place to meet and that will involve another real estate transaction. The primary beneficiaries will be real estate agents and tax collectors.”

I was allowed to move my small congregation into the building. With the help of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary students and short-term mission teams, we were able to add an English-speaking service and several ministries that benefitted the community in tangible ways.

Years later that experience proved beneficial. I was asked to start a new church in a church building where the existing congregation had disbanded and turned the property over to the Lake County Baptist Association in Far North Metro Chicago. Once again mission minded folks banded together and developed a thriving ministry in a church that had once shut down.

This was repeated in the same area twice more as new churches were launched, buildings were repaired, and a gospel witness remained in a community that needed it.

What’s my secret? The desire to do it!

In one building I was able to do more than $200,000 worth of repairs and improvements in a year through donated parts, grants from churches and individuals, and volunteer labor. The dilapidated, out of code and unwelcoming building became a cheerful place where God was praised in two languages.

Two other church starters had first dibs on that building and both turned their noses up. Five years later, one of those new churches disbanded and the other was still renting.

Another key factor is my belief (constantly repeated) that the property does not belong to me, the church that meets in it, nor the association that holds the deed. It belongs to God. It is a Kingdom asset and all Christians ought to participate in its success. That is why so many mission-minded folk (some are not church-goers) pitch in to make it happen.

The third and, perhaps, most important factor is NETWORKING. I go to the meetings where Christian leaders gather, listen to their stories and tell mine. Somewhere in between there is a vision and partnerships are formed. You’ll discover opportunities and resources for ministry if you listen. You’ll discover partners if you tell your story.

Who Plants Churches?

Many churches today are planted by individuals following the biblical example of Philip and the other scattered Christians in Acts 8. These individuals include clergy and lay and men and women with varying levels of education.

Some are apostolic. They gather a core group, select and train leaders and move on. The new church then calls a pastor, often called a planted pastor, who might be full time or bivocational. It is far easier to find a pastor for an established small church than to get someone to start a new church from scratch. Also, most pastors with apostolic gifts lack the gifts to pastor a stable church.

In some cases the individual planter becomes the founding pastor and stays long term. Rick Warren and Bill Hybels are the most prominent examples but often theses pastors are bivocational.

The individual planter will sometimes work alone but might seek denominational or local church help.

Churches often start new churches in a nearby community where a significant number of their members live. Church members will provide the launch team and the church will help pay the planting pastor and other expenses while providing mentoring and accountability. In some cases a church will plant a new work in a pioneer area. This type of church planting still requires an individual to provide the vision.

Denominations will plant churches as well, sometimes in partnership with a local church. This involves demographic studies and intense evaluation of the church planter. The right planter is placed in the right place at the right time. It also involves a greater financial investment for the new church. This model does not have a greater success rate than churches planted by individuals or local churches. I saw a church fail even with a hand-picked, full-time staff of three and $500,000 in pledges. Two other churches that were not denominationally funded survived in the same county. Both have their own buildings in less than 10 years.

No matter who initiates the new church start, partnerships are the key to success. Partners include multiple churches providing funding, materiel and other help, denominational support and individual prayer and financial partners. Seminaries, Bible Colleges and parachurch ministries make good partners as well. It is even possible to have multiple denominational groups involved. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has partnered with American Baptist Churches, Baptist General Conference of Texas, and Missionary Baptist Churches for new church starts.

Missions, Evangelism and New Church Starts

Missions in the New Testament involves evangelism and new church starts. In Acts 2:41 we read that 3000 people were baptized following Peter’s evangelistic sermon. Later, these groups formed communities that we call church and the Lord added to their number daily (v. 47)

The laity were involved in church planting from the beginning. New churches were started by believers who were scattered by persecution in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1; 11:19). Phillip preached the gospel and baptized many. The Apostles came later to support the work.

The church at Antioch commissioned and sent Paul and Barnabas to go on a mission trip. They proclaimed the gospel in synagogues and public places, gathering the new believers into churches and teaching them. Paul would appoint elders from the new congregation and move to the next location. He would check on his new churches through later visits and correspondence. This pattern was repeated in all of Paul’s mission trips.

While proclaiming the gospel, the New Testament Church did attend to the physical needs of people. There were miraculous healings and sharing of resources with the poor but the main task remained to preach Christ, gather into churches and teaching to obey all that Christ commanded.

Contemporary missions should follow the same New Testament pattern. The pay off for missions ought to be baptisms and new, indigenous churches among the people we serve. If all we do is clothe, feed and educate are we not just sending them to hell a little fatter and smarter? How faith-based is a program that does not yield faith decisions?

Missions is not an either/or proposition? Evangelism or felt-needs? It ought to be both.

Helping people in need is clearly commanded by God and modeled by Jesus. The immediate goal of benevolence ministry is to relieve human suffering. A secondary goal is to build relationships with hurting people. The ultimate goal is to bring about genuine life change in individuals through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The intent of missions among the poor and needy is to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ, not simply to provide services. It provides a point of redemptive connection and adds credibility to our communication of the gospel.

One such model is Life of Faith Christian church in far north Chicagoland. The heart of the church is a food pantry that also provides clothes, furniture and referrals. Pastor Michael Pimpo uses this platform to connect not only with the needy, who are open to the gospel because of their current crisis, but also to people who want to serve, many of whom are unchurched pre-Christians.

The result of his effort recently yielded five believers baptisms. This may not seem like a large number but it is more than most churches will do this year.

The American church is currently in decline despite having the largest number of seminary trained ministers and having more money than any other church in the world. It’s possible that there is something wrong with our training methods and missions strategies.

It’s time that our missionaries and church planters start working together to bring that New Testament pattern resulted in so many people coming to Christ.

When great is the enemy of success

I was at a church planting conference recently where I was placed in a team of peers and given a task to perform. It was a practical exercise in teamwork and leadership. At one point, when we were struggling to move from planning to action, someone said, “Good is the enemy of great.” He was quoting the first sentence of Jim Collins' book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't. Many pastors, including me, have read this book.

Earlier that day we had been told that 80% of new church starts fail. With that fact in mind I had an epiphany, “Great is the enemy of success.”

Willow Creek and Saddleback stand as models for the “great” church. Many pastors and church starters want to get their churches to that level. In fact, megachurches and their pastors have much in common with great companies. However, megachurches are rare and pastors and church starters who are merely "good" become disappointed and give up.

Typically, a talented church planting team is placed in an area into which large numbers of young families are moving. In one particular case, it was expected that a new church start would attract close to 300 people on the launch date and double in three years, launching other church starts at that point. The church failed before the five-year mark even though they had $500,000 in outside funding, three full-time staff members (and their wives), and every modern gadget found in church today.

On the other hand, other new church starts in the same area survived the five-year mark. The difference (according to a study by the Center for Missional Research) might be expectations. Church starters who expect to be leading a large church within a certain amount of time tend to fail at a much higher rate than those who were committed to serve in a given location regardless of size or financing. Those who are satisfied with "good" succeed at a higher rate than those who expected "great."

Great is also the enemy of success when we over plan and fail to act. “Analysis Paralysis” is how one colleague liked to put it. Successful leaders have a bias toward action: “Ready, fire, aim.”

Some planning is needed but every question cannot be answered in advance. Plan what you want to do, and then take action. Be flexible enough to make adjustments as you go. Missional churches are able to take advantage of ministry opportunities as they arise and that requires a sense of urgency. Urgency that leads to action generates excitement in the congregation and the community and creates momentum.

“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4 (NIV)