giving it away

In my last post I spent some time writing about dangerous motivations for planting a church.  Over the past few months I've spent a considerable amount of time reading and writing about church planting, and I've been struck by what one of the most popular reasons to plant really is.  You might be surprised . . .

When you get down to it, many of the leaders who plant churches do so because they are not allowed to lead fully in their current ministry settings.  In the hierarchical model of church leadership, the senior pastor has veto power over everything any leader on the staff wants to undertake.  New ideas, new approaches and new pursuits can all be ground to a halt under this model.  Very often, non-senior pastors are not allowed to give ministry away by senior pastors who are unwilling themselves to give leadership away. 

Other times senior pastors are unwilling to unleash the broader passions of other pastors at their churches because those passions don't fall inside their preconceived structural boundaries.   More than one friend of mine is planting a church because the senior pastors at their previous churches wouldn't allow them the opportunities to develop their gifts as evangelists and teachers.  I've certainly be called to task for having the nerve to step outside my 'worship pastor box' at previous churches.

Taking the model a step further, I've recently learned of a young church in Wichita that decided they needed to sever ties with their denomination because they could no longer allow the denominational leadership to dictate what kinds of decisions and ministries they were and were not able to do.  In this instance and entire church removed themselves from a hierarchical to be free to pursue what they felt God was calling them to.  

In situations like these young pastors and leaders are almost compelled to pursue new avenues that allow them to stretch and grow into who God has designed them to be.  In the coming months I'm hoping to explore alternate leadership models that will continually be unleashing new leaders without the destructive fall-out today's dominate model creates. 

I'm hoping you'll join me in these conversations.  Leave a comment below if you're familiar with situations like the ones I've described . . .

Comments

[Dan]

Here is an interesting question for you:

In regard to people leaving churches (often frustrated) to plant churches that allow more freedom...

when is this the churches fault for not "equipping the saints"... and when is this just another sign of American Christianity acting like selfish consumers who want it 'their way"?

Or, how will new church plants navigate accountability, rebuke, and just saying no?

(The questions are easier to ask than answer ;) )

[Alex Schwindt]

Lot of questions here, but they're good questions. One of the things I've often observed is that pastor's would often rather 'fence in' a young leader with narrow ministry portfolios rather than give away control. I think this is a byproduct of the "bigger is better" church leadership mentality. Instead of planting new churches, existing churches are more concerned about becoming megachurches.

It seems to me like young church plants need to protect solid doctrine and their core values. Beyond that, are there times when leadership really need to 'rebuke' young leaders?