Today church planting was on the agenda. Roger Ellis, Andrew Jones and Floyd McClung all wrote an inspiring paper on this issue, and I hope to get permission to put their work online, so we can all benefit from it.
Andrew gave a basic introduction on church planting and stated that 75% of the people who come to Christ do so through a movement rather than an institutionalised church. He also said it's an advantage not to have buildings, budgets and theologically trained clergy, because church for the emerging generation has to be simple, so everyone can work with it and start a movement that multiplies. Also from a strategic point of view - fulfilling the Great Commission as fast and effectively as possible - there's no other road ahead than networks of highly relational simple churches that multiply.
Patrick Johnstone says in 'The church is bigger than you think' that there have always been three main expressions of church: the ecclesiastic, the monastic and the apostolic-mobile. It's time to revalue and embrace the monastic and apostolic-mobile forms, as the ecclesiastic model has been too dominant and relatively ineffective. As Johstone states:
"We need to return to the concept of a pilgrim church, a church that will be hated, rejected, despised, persecuted, yet be an incisive, decisive, victorious minority which one day soon will be ready for its Heavenly Bridegroom as the perfected Bride. Christendom is doomed, but the future of biblical Christianity is bright."
Pete Greig stressed that at this moment 24-7 is not ready to start churches as a movement, but that the issue is clearly on the agenda, as the boiler rooms (in many ways church as it should be) are gaining momentum. So the story will be continued...
In the course of the afternoon we drove back to Barcelona, where most people had arrived for the next two days: a broader gathering of around 150 leaders from the different countries where 24-7prayer is represented. It was good to see Heidi Plympton, friends from Portugal and Germany, and many new faces.
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