David Watson's Blog

This blogsite is about mentoring Church Planters.  The desired outcome is well-rounded men and women of God who can make disciples and coach others to make disciples, start churches and coach others to start churches, and lead Church Planting Movements and coach others to lead Church Planting Movements.  But, as I have said before, church planting is more than a job, it’s a lifestyle.  One doesn’t do church planting; one lives the life of a church planter.  Or, more accurately, one lives the life of a Disciple Maker, which requires us to be mentors.

I have addressed the mentoring role specifically in a couple of previous posts – Being a Mentor and Leadership Essentials – Mentors, Coaches & Trainers, and Teachers.  In the next few posts I want to dig more deeply into the role and lifestyle of a mentor.

First of all, mentoring begins with one’s self.  The single greatest indictment of religious leaders is found in Matthew 23.

^{Mt 23:1} Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:  ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.  ³ So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.  ⁴ They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

^{Mt 23:5} “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;  ⁶ they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;  ⁷ they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’

^{Mt 23:8} “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.  ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.  ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.  ¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant.  ¹² For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

^{Mt 23:13} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

^{Mt 23:15} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

^{Mt 23:16} “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’  ¹⁷ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?  ¹⁸ You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’  ¹⁹ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?  ²⁰ Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.  ²¹ And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.  ²² And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

^{Mt 23:23} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

^{Mt 23:25} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

^{Mt 23:27} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.  ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

^{Mt 23:29} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.  ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’  ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.  ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

^{Mt 23:33} “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?  ³⁴ Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.  ³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  ³⁶ I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

^{Mt 23:37} “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.  ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate.  ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’’” (The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM)

There is a lot to exegete here, but the main point is that the religious leaders did not live out what they taught.  Their public and private lives were not consistent with the demands of Scripture.

• They did not practice what they preached.
• They put burdens on people instead of helping them with their burdens.
• They did what they did for themselves instead of for God.
• They shut the Kingdom of God instead of opening it.
• They made converts who were worse than they were.
• They forgot the source of their oaths.
• They were rule makers and rule police, but forgot the teachings of The Law regarding justice, mercy and righteousness.
• They looked good on the outside, but inside they were dirty and corrupt.  (The whitewashed graves were to look nice, but also to warn pilgrims not to inadvertently touch them and be disqualified by the law from entering the temple at Passover.  If you touch a Pharisee you disqualify yourself from worship.)
• They were so dangerous to the people around them they were like a brood of vipers.  Certain death if touched.

These warnings were given to those of us who are leaders.  It is so easy for us to fall into the sin of the Pharisees.  Our positions, our leadership, our rules, our representing God to the lost and leading the saved can cause us to lose sight of what it means to be a servant of God, one who humbles himself or herself and is then exalted by God as we serve His creation.

True mentoring begins in the heart of the mentor.  It is not only what we know, our experiences and what we have learned that makes us a mentor.  It is also what we avoid, what we choose not to do, as well as how we choose to relate to God and man in public and in private.

Mentors strive for consistency in their lives.  Their deepest desire is to Know God and serve man.  They are even-keeled.  What you see in public is what you get in private.  And the life of a “sinner who has been redeemed by the Blood of Christ and raised up to walk a new life” is not a slogan, but a revealed lived-in and lived-out reality that permeates all we think, do and say.

Mentors are redeemed sinners who know it every day, and live out the sainthood that has been bestowed on them by Christ for the benefit of the Kingdom of God and the people they serve.  If God is not working on those of us who call ourselves mentors, then we have no bases on which to be a mentor.  Mentoring is not about being perfect; it’s about striving for perfection through the mercy and grace of God.  Mentoring is not about knowing everything; it’s about being a learner who shares hard-earned lessons with others in hopes the lessons can be a little less hard.  Mentoring is not about being long-term (old) in a field of endeavor; it’s about being wise and able to apply the lessons learned to everyday life for the benefit of others more than self.

If you want to be a mentor, you have start with self, and then as you learn, fail, repent and repeat; you bring others along with you.  Your life is intertwined with the lives of others – from family to old friends to new friends, and even to enemies.  Each relationship has a potential for happiness or bitterness.  Each moment is a choice to do right, do wrong, or to do nothing (which may be the best or worse decision of all).  Each task can succeed or fail, sometimes regardless of what we are doing.

Mentoring is sharing your life with others so that you and they will be better people in service to the Kingdom of God.  If you are called to mentor, then you are indeed called to a high calling that demands your best in all situations and relationships for the good of others involved in Kingdom work.

Blessings!

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CPM (Church Planting Movements) has become a popular phrase in the Christian missions and church planting world.  But what I am finding as I travel the globe and exchange ideas with many different leaders is a watering down of the meaning of CPM.  I had one leader declare, “I have been doing CPM for more than 25 years!”  Yet, when I began to ask questions about his ministry, he was redefining his very traditional ministry as CPM.

By traditional ministry I mean:

• A focus on starting churches which adhere to and look like a particular church, denominational or doctrinal position.
• A requirement that leadership go through a formalized and institutionalized educational process in order to be qualified to lead.
• Formal ordination of leadership.
• High to strict control of the teaching/preaching ministries of the church and the ordinances of Baptism and Lord’s Supper by ordained leaders.
• In some cases a high focus on having a building that is called “church”.
• Usually, a high control of all aspects of church.

Please understand that I don’t consider any of the above wrong.  Any organization or church has the right to determine how they will do church and what qualifies individuals and groups to be considered a part of the denomination, organization, or church.  But, many of these requirements are extra-Biblical and slow church planting in such a way that natural replication cannot happen.  And simply renaming what one has been doing for years as a CPM does not make it CPM.

A Church Planting Movement (CPM) is an indigenously led Gospel Planting and obedience-based discipleship process that has resulted in a minimum of 100 new locally initiated and led churches, three generations deep, within the last two years for ministries in new areas.  There is trained local leadership in each church, and each leader relates to a mentor. Every-Member obedience-based discipleship that leads to ministry in the community is the norm for all new Believers and leaders.  The outsider who may have initiated/catalyzed the process is not considered the first generation.  The outside leader may maintain a mentoring relationship with the growing leadership of the movement.  See Church Planting Movement (CPM) – Our Definition.

CPM is local churches (within a people group, nation, megacity, or population segment) rapidly and regularly planting multiple new churches within the same people group as a normal part of being and doing church.  CPMs may be outsider initiated, but are insider reproduced, controlled and sustained.  Making disciple-makers is the focus, Scripture is the source of all teaching, and obedience to Scripture, not any particular doctrinal stance, is the starting place for all teaching.

By “outsider” I mean the person or group who initiated the first new churches.  Being from the same culture or language group does not make one an insider.  Even in CPMs, as churches spread from one community to another, the outsider who may be a very new Christian does not stay and lead the newly initiated church.  All church planting starts in and stays in the hands of local people.  Outsiders coach the process rather than perform the process.

So, following are the questions I ask to determine if there is potentially a CPM in progress:

• How many churches have you seen started in the past two years?  I’m looking for a number close to 100.    If the process is less than two years old, then I look for a proportional number.  The older a ministry, the higher the number I am looking for.  A thousand paid workers starting a few hundred churches every year is not a CPM!  No paid workers and 15 local churches starting 30 new churches in the past two years may be the beginning of a CPM, and if there are three generations, the likelihood of a CPM is greater.
• How many generations of churches starting new churches without outside support have you seen in the past two years?  I’m looking for a minimum of 3 generations in multiple lines, not counting the outside organization or church that may have initiated the process.  If there are not significant generational patterns, then there is not a CPM, regardless of how many churches have been started.
• Who started these churches?  Was it paid outsider church workers or non-paid local Believers?  By “started” I am referring to the on-the-ground worker leading the Bible Studies or leading people to Christ.  Outsiders may be coaching, but the work is done by an insider.  I’m looking for young believers/leaders starting new churches and young churches starting new churches, not paid or volunteer outsiders starting churches.
• How were these workers trained?  I’m looking for spontaneous church planting by young churches as well as non-institutional rapid training systems that give quick and minimal Biblical training to local leaders.  I am also looking for mentoring systems, formal and informal, that address just-in-time learning systems that present Biblical material and personal coaching when needed to meet a current situation or problem.  (Remember, I am looking at how it’s starting, not the longterm system.  Formal training systems will be required as the system matures.)
• What curricula do you use to equip your leaders?  Every curriculum begins with a philosophy.  This philosophy is passed on, intentionally or unintentionally, to every learner.  I’m looking for Scripture-only, obedience-based curricula that do not beat a denominational or doctrinal drum.  (What distinguishes a denomination or denomination-like church is the insistence that all related churches and any churches they start adhere to a particular and peculiar perspective and associated practices related to the Bible, as well as their particular church history and the way they do church.  All denominational and denominational-like churches are Bible-based and history-based.  They may require a strict or loose adherence to their doctrine and/or practices.  Their doctrine, however, is at best a subset of what Scripture has to say, and at worst contain extra-Biblical teachings and practices based on their church history.  All worship styles, leadership styles, and governance styles are mostly extra-Biblical, even though all denominations will claim a Biblical background for their practices.)  See Why Denominations Cannot Complete the Great Commission.

There are many other factors that indicate a CPM.  All of these are discussed and/or presented at www.cpmtr.org, www.reachingtheonlinegeneration.com, and www.davidlwatson.org (this blog).

 This article is about rapid recognition of a potential CPM, not how to do CPM or how to fully evaluate CPM.

Blessings!

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The following was prompted by a Facebook discussion thread about church.  You can find the thread at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/topic.php?topic=12813&post=113046&uid=162022126196#post113046.

I have been in hundreds of discussions about church over the past 40 years, some formal, most informal.  There are numerous quagmires in all of these discussions:  Frequency of meetings; size; leadership; discipline; replication; mission; functions and nature; universal and particular, and … you can add to the list.

Several observations:

1. We all tend to define/limit/project on others our view of church based on our current experiences.  We want what we are doing to be right, and if we are right, should not everyone be doing church the way we are doing it?  What is right for a new church may be very different than what is right for a 100 year old church.  Of course, this presumes we know the definition of right.  There are certainly absolutes, but there are also situations where there are seasonal answers/responses.

2.  We all tend to take snapshots of church and define it by that one snapshot.  Life is not a snapshot.  It’s not even a movie.  Church is complex and is in constant flux.  It has visible aspects, but also invisible aspects.  Relationships grow, change, get in trouble, recover or not, dissolve, and more.  It is the nature of organisms to change.  I am not the same person I was 50, 40, 30, 20, or even 10 years ago, yet I am the same person.  Life changes me, yet I continue to be me.  It is not natural to always be the same.  But even as we change we continue to be recognizable.

3.  We often confuse “nature” and “function” of the church.  “Nature” cannot be changed.   “Function” changes with the needs of the church and the internal/external populations the church serves.  The church belongs to Christ is part of the nature of the Church.  The church meets is one of the functions.  Nature is always true.  Function cannot be continuous, but is true at moments.  This is the old story of “who we are” and “what we do”.  Which defines us?  Both!  When we do something that is contrary to the nature of the church, then who we are is questioned.  When we fail to do what our nature would demand, then who we are is questioned.  We can occasionally do things that are not related to our nature.  We can occasionally not do things our nature would demand.  But, if we continue to defy our nature, does this not in fact change our nature?  And if our nature changes, does this not change who we are?  A church that ignores social injustice cannot stay a church regardless of what it calls itself.  A church that condones disobedience to God’s laws cannot stay a church.  A church that does not practice grace and mercy cannot stay a church.  It is not easy to be church.  We must stand up for what is right, obey all the laws of God, and show grace and mercy in the face of the human condition.  How can any human do all this?  That’s the point.  The church is not just human.   Is also includes God.  This makes it possible to be and do all that is required of church.

4.  We fail to recognize that churches have life cycles, and snapshots during these cycles do not define the whole of what church is.  Is a tree seed a tree?  Is a sprout a tree?  Is a sapling a tree?  Is a reproducing tree a tree?  Is lumber a tree?  When is a tree a tree?  If we measure by potential, then the seed or sprout is a tree.  If we measure by fruit, then only adult trees are trees.  If we measure by value, then tree products and their benefits to us define the tree.

I often get asked for my definition of church.  It is:

The church is a group of baptized Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who meet regularly to worship, nurture one another (feed and grow one another), and fellowship (practice the one another statements of the Bible, see http://www.davidlwatson.org/2009/11/20/church-planting-essentials-%e2%80%93-living-in-community-as-the-body-of-christ/); and depart these gatherings endeavoring to obey all the commands of Christ in order to transform individuals, families, and communities.

A friend of mine said many years ago, “I can’t give you a definition of a church, but when I see one I know it.”  No definition of church will insure that church exists.  But, somehow, we know real church when we see it.  This doesn’t mean we should not be asking the questions regarding the definition of church.  It’s healthy to ask the questions.  But, we must also recognize that any answer to the questions will not be enough of an answer to insure that church is real.  It is the asking of the questions and the discussions these questions raise that help us to make sure that we are recognized as the church because whose we are, who we are and what we do.

Blessings!

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I would like to introduce you to World Missions & Evangelism, Inc.  David Parish is the president of this Tennessee based missions organization.  Several years ago David attended one of our USA training events.  Later he invited me to come to his church and do a training event for his team and others.  Last year, about this time, my team joined his team in Central America to do more training and evaluate the progress of his team.  They made some of the changes we recommended, and have seen a tremendous jump in church planting.

David, and his teams, are convinced that what we train makes a difference in quality and quantity of Disciples and Disciple Makers which results in lots of church planting.  David’s last few posts have been insightful.  I encourage you to take a look at his website and read his blog posts.  The three that I find especially enlightening are:

Hear, Understand, and Obey

Hear, Understand and Obey: How the Three Column Bible Study Works

A Vision to Make Disciples

Please feel free to contact David and his team via their website.  These are men and women of God who love the Lord and love the lost.

Blessings!

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