The Church needs you! Spiritual Entrepreneurs

As the Australian culture is rapidly changing, so too the Church must change. I’m not talking about changes to who we believe that Jesus is or the message that He gave us to give to others. But I am talking about how we communicate the message and what the church looks like today.

Before you might start frowning at this, I want you to think about what the Church would have looked like 100 years ago and ask whether a church like that would suit you today. Probably not.

The message would likely be essentially the same, although the words used wouldn’t be. And the illustrations used would certainly be different!  There is so much more that would be different. Including the culture.

We Need To Discover More Spiritual Entrepreneurs!

Spiritual entrepreneurs are people who love the mission more than inherited methods. They see possibilities others miss, create what does not yet exist, and discover new ways of forming Christian community among people who are not currently engaged with church.

As a young man, I was an entrepreneurial accountant and businessman. I attended church, but I was barely engaged. Then a spiritual father did what Dave Ferguson calls WICNU— “what I see in you”. He saw potential in my wife Sharon and myself that we had not yet recognised. He asked us “have you ever considered planting a church?” The answer was no, at least until that moment.

Twelve months later, Sharon and I planted a church and the direction of our lives was irrevocably changed.

A Culture for People We Are Not Yet Reaching

Any church leader will tell you that changing a church’s culture is neither easy nor quick. In fact, the culture of an existing church is probably a good match for the people who already attend it. If it were not, they would probably not remain there.

But if we want to reach those who aren’t currently engaged in church, we need to develop a culture in the church that is a good fit for the people that we want to reach.

Whilst it’s neither easy nor quick for a church to adapt their culture, it’s not so hard for a church plant; or at least it shouldn’t be.

The Danger of Transplanting Culture

Whilst it makes sense that having a critical mass in the church as it’s launched will help it’s growth and even survival, the more people that come from a sending or mother church, the more the culture of the sending church will likely be reproduced in the new church being planted.

When this happens, the church plant will be well placed to attract people who would have been comfortable in the mother church.

Healthy church planting requires more than reproducing an existing model in a different location. Planters need permission to listen to their context, experiment wisely and shape a community around the people they are called to reach.

A New Church Needs Its Own DNA

Genesis 2:24 offers a helpful picture of healthy biological multiplication where a person leaves one family to form a new family. That family in turn has children who in time will form more new families. The new families remain connected to those from which they came, but they are different and unique, not simply being a copy of the family they came from.

My grown children carry DNA from my wife and myself, but each is unique. They understand and relate to their generation in ways that I cannot.

Healthy multiplication of spiritual families follows a similar pattern. Church plants will be descendants of their sending churches but they will carry something of their heritage, convictions and culture, also needing the freedom to develop an identity and ministry expression of their own.

Name What You See

Entrepreneurs are rarely energised by simply copying what already exists. They love the mission more than the method. They innovate, create and find pathways where others see barriers.

Many entrepreneurial people within our churches have found their primary outlet in business or the wider marketplace where they are given freedom to build and innovate. Some still attend church, but their gifts may remain largely disconnected from the Church’s mission.

Consider what might happen if we intentionally recognised those gifts and invited these people to become spiritual entrepreneurs; perhaps even to pioneer new churches or faith communities?

Perhaps as you read this you might resonate with what I am writing and think “perhaps I am called to be a spiritual entrepreneur?” Or perhaps another person may come to mind? If that happens, WICNU; name what you see in them. Encourage them and give them a meaningful challenge to which they can apply their talents and gifts.

Help them explore how God has wired them. The APEST assessment (apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher) is frequently a useful tool. Then help them find the relationships, training and coaching through which their potential can develop.

Your church or denomination may be able to provide that development. Where additional support is needed, you can also connect them with church planting and pioneering ministries such as  Reach Australia, City to City Acts 29, DCPI, M4, Power to Change, Micro Movements or Multiply Movements.

Begin With The End In Mind

Churches planted today must reflect the future more than the past. For that to happen, spiritual entrepreneurs must be identified, equipped, trusted and released.