Starting new churches sometimes seems a little like gravity. We all know it happens but “how” is tough question to answer. Most of us haven’t ever seen a new church start so we have a hard time picturing what it could look like. I'd like to to share a few thoughts on some really good questions that people are asking.


Are we planting a “seeker” church?

I’d consider it a "missional church." We will be very intentional about reaching out to people who don’t go to church already but if I'd call it a "seeker" church, you may get the wrong idea. We’re not going to downplay or conceal anything of what it means to be Christian. It's my opinion that people who are far from God benefit most from seeing and experiencing actual Christian worship on Sunday mornings (or whenever we choose to worship). That said, we will have to be intentional with how we use language. For example, the people we’ll be reaching don't know and don't care to know what "sanctification" means. But they do need to know about becoming a more mature follower of Christ, about offering forgiveness quicker, about holding your tongue more often.



How do you decide who to ask to join the church plant?

So far we haven't “asked” anyone to join. People have sort of self-selected by showing up for our events again and again. Several people have told me that they're really excited about building something new. I imagine this is how “recruiting” will go in the future. However, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't actively trying to recruit certain people. I'm looking for people with particular gifts (music, leadership, children's ministry, etc..) but mostly I’m looking for people with a passion start something new in order to reach out and invite their neighbor to church.


Dirk, although you look at least 35, you are a fairly young person. Are you going to ask only young people to join this church plant? Is this mainly a younger generational church?

I hope that both young and old Brookside members will decide to come along. Right now, I’m definitely bringing the average age of interested persons down. This is probably because college students really can't commit to anything a long ways down the road (I can’t blame them). I'll be recruiting unchurched college and career people a little closer to the start date. So it will NOT be a generational church. I’d love to see people of every age worshipping our God together. That said, I have a hunch that young people (under 35) will be big part, because that's who I am and that's who I connect best with.


What will the worship and service style look like? Traditional, blended, contemporary?

My vision for worship is simple. Songs, prayer, message, offering. And not necessarily in that order. I keep in mind that there will always be people trying church for the first time attending our service. Their closest experience to this is probably listening to a band in a coffee shop or bar, so that's what we're sticking to. Musicians will be encouraged to play however God has gifted them. If their passion is Jazz, let's sing Jazz. If you play the accordion, great. Let's sing Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by accordion. We'll probably sing more contemporary worship songs but it’s still too soon to tell. The important thing to remember is that the band playing will set the musical tone. I hope to see a bunch of different bands take turns leading us.


Will the church plant have its own council of elders and deacons for spiritual leadership and oversight?

According to CRC Church Order, church plants are considered "emerging congregations" and don't have elders and deacons until they organize into the denomination. That is a long time away. Until then, church plants are under the supervision of a neighboring church council. What's great about having such a supportive parent church like Brookside is that our council is actually invested in what we are doing. I expect this to be a fruitful and accountable relationship. Brookside's council will supervise the church plant "in doctrine and life." They do not supervise how we run the day-to-day operations of the church plant, which makes sense considering Brookside hasn't had experience with being a church plant in 50 years. The church plant will have its own steering committee or leadership team to function in lieu of a council.


Obviously, these are just thoughts and we have a lot of thinking, dreaming, and praying to do yet. I'd love to hear your questions and/or comments so feel free to comment on this post or drop my an email.

Catch the Vision

As many of you know, we had a big church planting event last Thursday. It was called "Catch the Vision." Hershey's Ice Cream, the store next to where we are thinking about leasing speace, catered ice cream cones and caramel corn. We had coffee and cocoa and a few musicians came out and led us in a time of worship. What was most incredible was that about 120 people came out to see what God was up to! We only had about 80 chairs set up so there was a lot of kids sitting in laps and people standing in back.

I spoke briefly on the need in the community for a new church. In the Bailey's Grove development right next door, there are a couple thousand people who aren't part of a faith community. This could be our chance to be the community church for that neighborhood.

It's always great to see what God is up to when he's just about to do something big. Obvisously, starting a new church is big but along with that comes changed lives. Some people who work in the stores in the building we're looking at dropped by on Thursday to check things out. For some, it was their first time in church. Granted, they wanted to promote their business but I'm sure it'll be exciting to seewhat God does.

One last interesting coincidence is that in my talk I mentioned the story in Genesis 12 where God calls Abraham to go to a place he'll show Abraham later. I spoke on how it struck me that Abraham had to pack up before knowing where he was moving and how we're planting a church before knowing every last detail. We trust that God will provide the details. Well, our sponsoring church, Brookside, just celebrated 50 years since they started. They chose to use the same Gen 12 story to talk about what a leap of faith it was to start a new church in 1959 and how God provided the details and impacted so many people.

It's fun to see God at work.

I'll have pictures on Facebook shortly.