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January Meeting Reflections: Jonathan Dodson
While much has come from PlantR in the last few years, there is great hope for what God has yet to do in Austin. PlantR’s prayer is to be in the middle of that by helping to shape a movement of church planting. In a meeting this month, the PlantR board felt that there were two things that could happen in 2010 for PlantR. We could plateau as a network focused on connecting relationships, or we could continue moving forward to shape a movement of church planting. Without hesitation the board felt led to emphasize the latter.
With that emphasis in mind, Jonathan Dodson shared some thoughts on what needs to happen in PlantR in 2010 and beyond. Notes from his outline are below. We’ll follow up early next week with some action steps you can take immediately to help shape this movement.
The Vision of PlantR
- To catalyze a Christ-centered, context-sensitive church planting movement for social and spiritual renewal of Austin and beyond.
- None of us can plant a church that can change the city on it’s own. The renewal of a city requires a movement, not a single church.
Our strategy
What do we need to include in our strategy?- faith in God — and not in our practices and experience
- a stirring of the Spirit
- we need the gifts of church planters — are you participating in a lead team?
- partnership between churches
What do we need to remove from our strategy?
- a misplaced sense of identity — each of us is a disciple/Christian first, and a pastor/planter second
- a searching for personal glory
The Nuts and Bolts of a Strategic Partnership
- identify areas of need for the city — John Herrington and HCBC are partnering with Ed Stetzer to conduct an exhaustive survey of metro Austin
- partnering in the community — relationships with established churches and organizations planting churches in the city
- become an informational hub via the website, twitter, etc.
What Does a Movement Require
- it happens through community
- it happens through prayer
- it happens through your local context
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PlantR Churches in Giving City Magazine
Both Austin New Church and Soma Austin are featured in the latest edition of GivingCity Austin magazine. The article is called “Austin’s Church Plants” and begins on page 16. The PlantR network gets a mention as well.You can download a PDF of the issue directly from the GivingCity website.
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October Meeting Reflections: David Smith
Most of us are already aware of the generous spirit of the Austin Baptist Association since they host our monthly meetings. But in our October meeting, we got a look at just how generous that Spirit is as David Smith, the Director of Missions, spoke to us this month.
David began by sharing the heart of the ABA for church planting. Their vision for church planting is as follows: Utilizing cooperation, passion and innovation, the ABA will provide an environment to aid the local church to expand the Kingdom by planting local churches. According to David, Austin Baptists connect with about 1.7% of Austin on any given Sunday. The ABA recognizes that any work of the Kingdom of God is going to be much bigger than Baptists alone, and their heart is to connect with anybody and everybody who is sharing Christ in Austin.
David followed with some exhortations for each of us as church planters. His statements were simple, but needed reminders for each of us, to hold tightly to each of these practices:
- Read God’s Word – Specifically, read the whole thing every year. David gave each of us the annual reading plan from Discipleship Journal.
- Love God – With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…with all of your being.
- Love your spouse – The most memorable advice he ever received from a pastor he deeply respected: “If you want to be a success in ministry, you love your wife.” David encouraged each of us to date our spouse at least once a week, and he put his money where his mouth is by giving everyone in attendance a $25 restaurant gift card.
I love David’s heart. But I know that he is one of many who have a spirit of partnership to see new churches in Austin. I’ve never seen cooperation like I see in Austin, and I’m thankful for what David and others do for the sake of our ministry in the greater Austin area.
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The White City
Last week, NewGeography.com published an article called The White City. The premise is that progressive cities tend to have a lower population of African Americans and don’t create as many opportunities for diversity. Austin is one of the cities specifically mentioned.
My first reaction is to take issue with this article based on the data. When Ryan Robinson, the Austin City Demographer, visited PlantR last February, he showed data that anglos now comprise less than half of the population of Austin. This full spectrum of ethnicity isn’t reflected in this article.
However, I also want to sit with the point of this article. It is at least worth considering the challenges that it raises. How do you respond? How do you see the relationship between the Progressive label of Austin and our changing demographics?
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September Meeting Reflections: Stew
We’ll post the excellent handout from Stew’s talk soon. In the meantime, here are some thoughts that Jonathan Dodson posted on his blog yesterday.
Man, you missed some great gospel reflections on church planting by Michael Stewart today at PlantR. Stew is the Pastor of Missional Community at Austin Stone. His words were gospel water to my soul. He called us away from idol-making and into gospel-believing.
He pointed out how we try to find worth and meaning in lots of places besides Jesus:
- In our numbers: We “round up”, inflate our attendance, number of missional communities, conversions.
- In our models: We emphasize best practices, methodologies, and models instead of the Gospel
- In our mission: How many poor we reach, souls are saved, children are rescued, houses are built
- In our community: How much time we spend with others, how we serve them, how we are loved and accepted
- In our hits: blog activity, comments, popularity
What we need is Jesus not numbers, models, mission, and community. All these things make very bad masters. When we fail in community, community is not merciful to us. Master Community kicks us when we are down, but Jesus dies for us. Master Mission is not a good master. When we fail to be missional, to serve enough, witness enough, preach enough, Master Mission will beat us down. But what does Jesus do? He dies for us; he lifts us up. Only King Jesus is that merciful, gracious, and satisfying. His acceptance alone frees us to be ourselves for him, instead of being somebody else for others.
P.S. This last section Stew adapted from my Enduring Community talk at Acts 29 ENDURE. Audio forthcoming.
