We began by reviewing some of the key data that came out of the demographic study commissioned by ABBA. There was a general consensus that most of us weren’t surprised by the data. While many in Austin might name themselves Christian by religion, that isn’t consistent with a much smaller number who would say they have faith in Jesus. And a few of the anecdotal examples that were shared line up with that.

One metaphor that Ed Stetzer shared in the presentation the data rings true. Austin, as a whole, has just enough exposure to the Christian message to be inoculated. Many have experienced church first or second hand — just enough to feel that they understand what Christianity is. But those understandings, more often than not, fall short of a holistic gospel and the giving of one’s self to be a disciple entering into a life more abundant.

As PlantR seeks to be a church planting movement, there is, of course, a desire to help see more and more church planted in and around Austin. But another emphasis emerged as well yesterday. How do we do all that we can to help the churches that are already going survive and thrive? How can we partner with each other and established churches and organizations to this effect?

As we brainstormed those questions, these were the thoughts about how we can partner with each other to help existing churches build a sustained movement:

• Be a truly collaborative network of planters
• Encouragement for each other
• Helping to equip each other and other leaders
• Constructive criticism of our models and character
• Being financially wise
• Train missionaries to Austin
• Coaching
• Share and identify with more stories of local planters
• Identifying and strengthening our theological calling
• Soul care for planters

Let’s carry this discussion on in the comments. How have you seen the above list working itself out already? How, as a network of co-laborers, can we develop and provide these things to each other?

The panel featured three local artists who are also deeply connected with local churches:

• Nate Navarro – a pastor at Austin City Life, and the founder of a non-profit called Music For the City. The vision for the Music for the City came out Nate’s desire to connect two passions he shares: the Austin music scene and the poor.
• Steven Bush – a staff member at Austin Stone leading a team of artists who tell stories through writing and photography. Steve is also a musician and a photographer.
• JJ Plasencio – JJ is a former member of two nationally recognized bands and a worship pastor with a strong heart for mission, inviting those who aren’t part of a church to play in his worship band as an entry into Christianity.

As each of these men shared, a few common themes emerged through their stories or the stories of those they have worked alongside:

• A disengagement with the church at some point in life, followed by a return through the arts.
• A longing for the church to be known for making great art, and not forming some kind of “crappy sub-culture”.
• A consuming desire to see the Gospel be made known and true through their artistic expressions and the relationships that come through them.

Out of the sharing of their hearts, a lot of great discussion formed around these questions:

• What does it look like for Christians and non-Christians to work together for the good of the city? This is the core question that Music for the City is exploring in their work, and one that all of us should be asking.
• How can the church engage with others for the good of the city and still give credit to Jesus through the collective witness of the church? Should that be publicly visible somehow, or come out of the relationships that happen through the work?
• What does it look like for artists and pastors to work closely together? JJ suggested Orbiting the Giant Hairball — a book about how the creatives and executives at Hallmark had to learn to work together.
• How can we engage with artists in such a way that they can express as more than just illustrations for the sermon? How do we show love to the artists? Love the artists beyond being a resource. Respect and support their art outside the church. At the root of all artists is an approval idol.
• How can the church re-engage burned artists to join them on mission? Teach them to be ministers first and artists second.
• Should we pay the artists? There is not an easy answer to this, as there are times when this seems appropriate, and times when it isn’t.
• What is the role of art in the Church? A visual story is often more powerful than a aural story. People weep over a scene in a movie before they would by hearing the story. Allow art to tell the story of the gospel.

All of the answers above only capture bits of the conversation. They may appear incomplete, and they are, as many of us felt like we hand only scratched the surface in this conversation. It’s one we will likely return to in the future.

Our time together ended beautifully, as JJ laid bare his heart in sharing his love and passion for the church. While he could be involved full-time in the music industry, it is to the church that he has given his heart. That is where lives are changed. Before closing our time by praying for us and our churches, he reminded us that our competition isn’t each other or any of the other churches in town…it’s the lake, it’s all the places where people are going to find beauty and life.

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

You can download a PDF of the issue directly from the GivingCity website.

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.

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?

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.

John began sharing some of his own story. He was authentic and honest about his own journey. A few of the insights he shared in the midst of that story:

• 80% of church planting is perseverance
• God keeps wanting to form who we are, because that’s how he does through us what he wants to do.
• I don’t change people…it’s not my job to change people. God does that. We work on the soil, the culture. We plant, water, and till.

Following his story, John shared his passion for leading a church. It is a passion I’ve heard him share before, and a passion that relates to the Gateway of today and any of our young churches: If you want to see the church raised up out of the culture, stop thinking like pastors who teach a church, and start thinking like missionaries. John went on to point out that it is not about the methods, but about continually asking the right questions.

What follows are the questions that John shared with us. They are questions that apply to where Gateway is today. And they are questions that can be asked by a church at any stage.

Context Questions
     Who do we exist for?
     Do we look messy like Jesus’ ministry? (see Matthew 9:10-13)
     How will we know if we’re reaching them?

Vision Questions
     Who are we becoming?
     Am I living the vision?

Lead through teaching:
     How can I tie this to everything else we do?
     What’s the One Thing I want them to get?
     What’s their resistance?
     Will I lose them?

Strategic Leaderhip:
     How does the mission get accomplished?
     How does everybody get involved? Is it clear to them?

Multiplying Leadership:
     How do non-believers become multiplying leaders?

Zac began by sharing his story. Some of what he said there was also detailed in the Austin Bible summary that was posted a few days ago. Following his story, Zac shared a number of nuggets that he has learned along the way. What follows are my best efforts at catching what Zac had to say:

• Celebrate every season that God gives you
  you are never more of a church just because you are bigger
  what assets do you have with 20 people that you won’t have later?
• Church planting will cost you your life
  you kind of go undercover and off the radar for 12-18 months
• Raise enough money
  you think you’ll gather a group of people faster than you will
  once you launch, you want your focus on the ground, not with one foot in support raising
• Learn your voice
  If you teach the way you were taught, the best you will ever be is high mediocre.
  Worry more about saying what will change people’s lives than about saying the right thing.
• Sniff out wolves
  People come with agendas to fulfill their life long dreams.
  Say no to a network that might cause you to compromise the vison that God has given you.
• Humility should be the defining characteristic for your life.
  Book recommendation: Humility by Andrew Murray
• Success is found in faithfulness
  We are completely dispensible
  If your church does not survive, that needs to be okay.
  Some of you don’t need to plant. Some of you won’t survive. And that’s okay.
• You can’t reach an area that you don’t live in.
• Hold people with an open hand.
  God has not called anyone to your church for life.
  If people leave your church, it’s because of you. Learn to be okay with that.
• Unity is the most understated apologetic of the church.
  Unity = spiritual power. It holds huge weight to a watching world.
  Will not walk with unresolved conflict with anyone in this church.

Zac had more great quotes than I could capture. If you were there, please share any that I missed in the comments.

The Tangible Kingdom

Hugh’s experience and perspective on church planting is unique from what many of us know, though it is one that many are weighing seriously. Hugh did not move to Denver to plant a church, but his heart for mission turned him into an accidental missionary. As his natural bent for mission played out in his life, relationships were formed with curious people who were disarmed by his engaging personality and knowledge of Christian faith. Within a few years, a church community had formed out of these relationships.

Personally, I resonate with Hugh’s perspective on trying to live as a missionary might engage in another culture. While the traditional church planting methods that have emerged in the past 20 or so years are still finding success, there is an apparent and growing need to form faith communities that connect with others through other means as well. Hugh’s intensely relational approach is one that all of us could learn from.

I also resonate, and struggle, with Hugh’s experience that Christians who come into their community are some of the most difficult to engage in mission. As we are still in the initial stages of forming our community, I find myself wrestling with this very question…and Hugh’s experience is matching up with some of the conclusions I’ve been drawing.

Hugh’s perspectives are unique enough that I’m certain there are a variety of responses to them. In the comments below, I’d love to hear others where you connected with his ideas, but also where you disagreed.

For more information about what Hugh is up to, or for information about The Tangible Kingdom primer for group study, visit TheTangibleKingdom.com.