| The Vision |
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A Church Planting Movement Mustard Seed of MERCYhouse
Since September of 1999, MERCYhouse has seen a small core of devoted followers begin a church that has since grown into a church of over 200 encompassing people from as many as 10 campuses (Five Colleges, GCC, HCC, Halmark Institute, Westfield State, Fitchburg State . . .) and similar numbers of communities. Our hope and prayer is that this would only be the beginning of a movement that would see a significant portion (10,000 people) of our immediate area (pop. 100,000) reached for Christ and gathered into churches by the year 2020. This is what the 2020 Church Planting Network is all about. How will this happen? The short answer is God. Nothing we could ever do through our own strength and strategy could ever accomplish what we are proposing. Whatever the chosen engine for outreach, it must be empowered by God and its success will be an answer to the prayers of many.
That said, we as a church must also move forward in faith believing that God is wanting to do this kind of a work in our valley. The question is, how should the church position itself in a way that God could release the power and resources to accomplish such a goal? We believe this positioning will best come through church planting. Why Church Planting?Church Planting is in the Bible
After their first trip, it became apparent that this was more than coincidence, it was something to be sought after for the purpose of growing the church. Eventually, Paul saw himself as one who “plants” and then moves on to the next place in order to start all over again. We believe that church planting is a biblically sanctioned way of expanding God’s kingdom around the world.
Our cultural context dictates the need for more smaller churches This daw If that was true of our leaders, we knew it was probably true of the people we were trying to reach as well. Much of what we observe in our context confirms this as well. Smaller, unique, local things are highly valued while larger, corporate, slickly marketed things are viewed with suspicion by many. This means that if many more people are going to be reached in our valley (we are praying for 10,000), we believe that many churches are going to have to be planted to make a suitable church home for all those new believers. Church planting is an engine for evangelism Evangelism, as in the process by which the church communicates the good news about Jesus to the world, is done most successfully in churches that are new or are just getting started. Statistically a church is most fruitful in bringing others to know Christ in the first 10 years of its life. There are many reasons for this. People who are planting a new church are looking outward and serious about inviting others in. New churches are able to innovate much more quickly than established churches. New churches need everyone who comes to pitch in and help out which develops ownership. New churches are great catalysts for the growth of leadership. Case in point. MERCYhouse has never seen more people put their faith in Christ and be baptized in a given year than when we were a church of 60 and were meeting in the Jones Library for our Sunday service. Church planting is an engine for making disciples As was mentioned above, it is hard to find a better environment for growing leaders than a church plant. In a planting environment, you are constantly qualifying the unqualified which breaks the ceiling on leadership and multiplies everything from musicians to set-up crews like crazy. We saw this happen over the summer when we went from one worship band which had dwindled down to 2 people grow to 3 full bands serving two locations. When the need is there for leadership, people step up and are grown as disciples.
How can we cultivate a movement?Planter Recruitment
Planter Training Church plants often times rise and fall on the character and skill level of the planter. Many church plants around the nation fail because of the inexperience, burn-out, or moral failure of the person leading the charge. The way to remedy some of this is to have planters come in and spend a year assisting others who are farther along in the planting of a church. These emerging planters will spend one year under the supervision and guidance of a church planting pastor. During that year they will work along with staff in the day to day ministry environments that make up our network churches. After that one year, they will become a pastor of one of our church plants or start something entirely new here or somewhere else. Sending Out
Fundraising Planting churches costs money and we will use the network as a platform for encouraging outside churches and individuals to contribute funds to this effort. Network churches will also be contributing a portion of their giving toward the work of church planting in our valley.
Spurring On of Others We don’t believe that we can start all 50 churches by 2020. That means (as was said above) that we’ll be recruiting planters to come in and start from scratch as well as encourage our fellow churches here in the valley toward church planting. We will seek to sell these ideas to other churches and will offer whatever support and expertise we can make available.
A call to PRAY, GIVE, and GOSo what does this mean for those who make up the churches of this ever growing 2020 network? If this vision is going to be realized, we're going to have to do three things - Pray, Give, and Go. Pray
Here are some specific ways you can be praying: 1. Begin praying now that God would move in our churches and in the campuses and communities in our valley. 2. Ask God to raise up church planters and other leaders who can be evangelists and shepherds for the people who will be responding to God's initiation in their lives. 3. Pray for resources to fund salaries, infrastructure, and outreach. 4. Pray for the leaders of this movement to remain humble, sexually pure, people of integrity. 5. Pray and ask how God might want you to participate in this vision.
Give
This was appropriate (and still is to some degree as we expand) but not if it creates a dependence that causes the members and regular attendees of MERCYhouse to feel that our church is a free ride and deprives them of the joy of giving. The proof that this is happening at some level is the very low offerings that usually average about 5 dollars a person on any given Sunday morning I (Robert) have failed at communicating the necessity for generous giving to the church and beyond. Sacrificial and consistent giving is a spiritual discipline that brings about joy and intimacy with Christ as much as disciplines like prayer and bible reading. As we consider the 2020 vision, we must ask ourselves if we are willing to give sacrificially to make this happen. Are we willing at the very least to give 10% of our income and perhaps more to see new churches planted the same way that those outside supporters did so that we could experience a church where we could find and fall in love with Christ? If we say no, then we don't own the vision and it will most likely end in failure.If you are employed, we encourage you to give generously and sacrificially to the work of this church (and soon to be network of churches). Many Christian people use 10% (known as a tithe) as their way of gauging the minimum of how much of their income to give away. This guide comes primarily from the Old Testament (see Leviticus 27:30 and Malachi 3:9-11 for starters) but is also mentioned by Jesus (See Matthew 23:23). If you are not employed (aka college students), we encourage you to still give. The money you have through grants, loans, or parents is still God's money and we believe it is an essential spiritual discipline to set aside a portion of it to give away as an act of worship. Pray and decide what that portion will be and make a commitment to consistently give. Go
I believe many more in our church are willing to do the same and will as we send out more and more teams to plant services and churches. I am very proud of the faith steps that our church has taken so far and have full confidence that we will answer the call of Christ yet again as He leads us to this next stage in our growth. For ideas on how to "Go" in this church planting movement, see our church page. In Christ, Robert (Lead pastor of MERCYhouse, Director of 2020 Network)
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The early church (see New Testament book of Acts) did not begin to really proliferate until the first two missionaries of all time (Paul and Barnabus) set out on their first church planting journey. While neither of them really knew what they were doing, they were willing to follow Jesus wherever he led them. Where He led them was into cities where they spent a few months telling whoever was ready to listen about Jesus and gathering the new believers into churches. Then right about the time they’d start settling in, persecution would break out and Paul and Barnabus would have to move on to the next city. The result was the first ever church planting movement.
ned on us in a leadership meeting in Spring of 2007. We (MERCYhouse) were talking about future plans and getting feedback on how people thought things were going. Someone mentioned how it was hard for them to function in our church now that it had gotten “so big.” As we talked more about the perception of our church as large, even though it would be considered small in most regions around the country, we realized that for many New Englanders (our leaders for instance) 200 was about as big as they wanted.
We will be actively recruiting planters to come in and start new churches in our area. We will offer whatever support and guidance we can to facilitate the planting process with hopes of cultivating a community of planters and emerging planters who will provide support for each other and spur each other on toward more effective and God-honoring ways of doing church in our context.
Most of these plants will not have to start from scratch which statistically is the kiss of death for many a new church start. As a network we’ll be encouraging our churches to be sending churches who send out core groups led by trained planters to start new churches all around the Pioneer Valley.
The call for our churches to pray has never been more urgent. In order to pursue these dreams, God will have to do the impossible in answer to the prayers of His people. This will mean a commitment to personal and group praying and fasting if we have any hope of seeing the ushering in of this new season of the proliferation of the Church.
MERCYhouse began as a bit of a free ride in 1999 and was so by design. The message of the church is a message of grace, the best free offer the world has ever seen. What wasn't always communicated very well was that the free came at a price to supporters around the country who were not only tithing (10 % of their income) to their local churches but were also giving 1000's of dollars to MERCYhouse for staff and facilities and outreach.
This seems to be our strength in all of this - our willingness to go. This is the reason I believe that God desires for us to lead a church planting movement. For the last year, I've watched the Vita Nova Team and the Valley Church team pray and work and sacrifice to get things off the ground. It hasn't been easy, but they've grown as individuals and as a family in the process. I've also seen folks at MERCYhouse sacrifice to fill the leadership and financial vacuum left by these core teams and send them off with prayers and support.