It was the first launch team meeting for this soon-to-be brand new church. In a matter of days they would go public with their very first worship service. It was definitely an emerging church; but you could also say that it was seeker-targeted. They didn't know much about church growth, but they were completely pro-numbers even though they were organized around a house church model. There were all kinds in this launch team: those that were gung-ho and those that would give up; leaders and followers; wealthy and unemployed, men, women and children. It wasn't the most gifted or best resourced of new church plants, but they did have one thing that every new church needs—a certainty about their mission.
It was Jesus that did the visioneering before this emerging, seeker-targeted house church. As he spoke, he made the mission clear to all. He said: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
When they heard him speak one word stood out in a glaring way: witnesses. When this group of spiritual entrepreneurs heard him say "you will be my witnesses," they did not think he meant "sharing their story" or "inviting and including" people into a small group. What they heard him say was marturious, and they knew marturious meant martyr. The one thing that stuck in the heart and head of every member of that launch team was that starting this local church would be a huge risk, and it might be so risky that it would cost his or her life!
Challenge #1: Take Bold Risks " … and you will be my witnesses …"
When we started Community Christian Church, I was 25, Jon was 23, and it was a huge risk on God we decided to take. We had no money, no people, no facility and no sense. We just wanted to help people find their way back to God. That was over 15 years ago, but time, size, or perceived success does not change the challenge that is before us. We are still a church planting launch team, and we are still called to marturios, to risk it all. In a few weeks we will add our eighth Community Christian Church location. This next site will be in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago where 95 percent of the population is Latino and the first language is Spanish. So why would a predominately Anglo English-speaking-upper-middle-class suburban megachurch start a location in Pilsen? Because we are still a church planting launch team who has been challenged by Jesus to marturios, to take risks that may cost us everything.
Challenge #2: Be Spirit-Led " … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you … "
There was no mistaking what Jesus meant by marturios, but there had to be lots of scratching their heads when Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit would guide this risk-taking endeavor. How was that launch team to make sense of that?
When I was first contacted by a family about them giving us a facility and property on Montgomery Road that would soon become our Montgomery campus, I kept it pretty quiet while we discussed the possibility as a lead team. I wasn't sure this was where God's Spirit was leading us as a church. But the day I presented this possibility to our staff and asked them to pray about it, I was sure God's Spirit was leading us to Montgomery. We had just finished our all-staff meeting and not long after I got back to my desk, I received the following e-mail from one of our staff members who had been in that meeting:
Dave,
Weird thing—I had a dream last night; it was weird because what stood out to me was this little old lady standing there telling me that I needed to go and find this church in Montgomery. I kept asking her how to get there, and she told me to go down Montgomery Road and I would see the signs and they would tell me where to go. She said I couldn't miss it, but is important that I check it out. Then I hear about this church thing today with this property that someone wants to give us in Montgomery? On Montgomery Road? Weird isn't it?
Sherry
As I look back on what God has done and is doing through Community Christian Church and the NewThing Network, I wish we had a better strategic plan. I really do! But so far we consistently find ourselves reacting and responding to the Spirit's leading. It feels risky and sometimes disorganized. But it is just like Jesus told them, " … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you … " He was explaining that this risk-taking endeavor called church planting would be Spirit-led. It may have not made complete sense to that launch team at the time, but over the next few months and years they would come to know that the risks they would take on this mission would always be Spirit-led.
Challenge #3—Continually Reproduce " … in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
When a church responds to the first two challenges of Jesus and continually takes Spirit-led risks they will find that he will increase their influence in expanding concentric circles (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth). In 1998 we were one church in one location with two services and 800 attenders. But when God's Spirit created the possibility, and we took the risk to go multi-site, we began reproducing more and more sites. Over the next eight years we have expanded our influence to 8 locations, 20+ services and over 4000+ attenders. I thought it might stop there. No, that was just the beginning. In 2002 we had 35 people move from Chicago to Denver to start a new church. Over the next couple of years, we started churches in southern California, Detroit, Manhattan-NYC, and Boston that all are a part of our NewThing Network.
Next summer, I will get on a plane for Africa. I've never been to Africa, and there is big part of me that would prefer staying home so I could coach my son's final little league game. Over the next nine months, we are sending several of our staff people on exploratory trips to Africa, Asia, Central America, and Europe. So why are we all taking trips to places on the other end of the earth? Because we are still a launch team, and we are still obeying the challenge of Jesus.
Many in that first launch team had not explored far beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem. And now Jesus was telling them that this great adventure would be led by something they can't see, cost them all that they do see, and take them places they had never been. That is the challenge of every new church.
Dave Ferguson is Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church, Naperville, Illinois
Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today.
