Author: mikejentes

When sociologists want to provide evidence that there is still a racial divide in our country, many times they look to the Church for the compelling facts. Maybe you’ve heard the saying before, “Eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America.” Though the Bible is the most multicultural piece of literature you’ll ever put your hands on, the bride of Christ struggles to look like the first Christian Church in the book of Acts or the future kingdom of heaven where believers will live eternally.

I have the awesome privilege of serving as the senior pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minn. In just over three short years, this ministry has grown to become an intergenerational, hip-hop, multiethnic, reconciling and urban community of close to 800. Our congregation at the time of this writing is about 60 percent European-American, 35 percent African-American, and the rest a mix of Latino, Asian and others.

As an African-American male in my mid-30s, I often wonder not only how I came to pastor this amazing church, but also how I live in what I consider the spiritual warfare of the racialized matrix in American society. Let me briefly guide you through an experience of corporate worship at The Sanctuary:
On this particular Sunday morning, an experience of corporate worship is about to begin that has been focused on racial reconciliation for the last seven weeks. The service begins with our worship leader giving an opening prayer and then leading a time of praise and worship, which includes hip-hop, soul, rock licks and urban gospel. It’s interesting to me that our church is 60 percent European-Americans, yet most Sundays our praise and worship style is so diverse.

Before the sermon, our Reconciliation Design Team presents a dramatic, spoken word piece titled “Where I’m From.” The piece is presented by a multiethnic group of women and men who tell their unique ethnic stories of their upbringing, faith and take on the world around them. They end the piece by asking in unison, “Where are you from?” After that, I preach a sermon titled “Reconciliation and Worship,” which ends with an altar call of people from different backgrounds committing to and praying through being ambassadors of reconciliation in the world.

I realize in that moment that this is something special and out of the ordinary for a church in America. The Sanctuary is what I would call a post-black, post-white church. I think about this, and I grieve because I want so badly for the norm of the Church in America to be an ancient-future Church that lives in the tension and victory of the first Church in the book of Acts and the picture of heaven that we see in Revelation 7.

One might ask why it would be so important for the Church today to be a Christ-centered, multiethnic and reconciling community. Well, there is the sociological reason that we live in an ever-increasing multiethnic and multicultural society, and if the Church is going to be a relevant force of evangelism and mission in this reality, we must strive internally for the multiethnic faith community. This is not the most important reason though. The Church ought to be multiethnic because it’s biblical. We see this through the Great Commission, as well as the early Church and future Church; we also must wrestle with the multiethnic Christ, who is the Bridegroom to the Church we are called to develop through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

The black church and the white church are the most visible pictures of our need to become one so that the world might know that the Father sent the Son (John 17:21).

The black church historically is a community refuge, an institution of African-American empowerment and a place of escape from the remnants of racism and prejudice that have yet to be dismantled in our society. I believe that because of the history that the black church has in our country in terms of being prophetic, addressing social injustice and being bold and charismatic, it ought be one of the leading champions of the Christ-centered, multiethnic and reconciling church. This is truly what I mean by becoming a post-black church. Through taking a post-black church approach, the black church can also point other ethnic-specific churches to the biblical call to oneness and reconciliation.

Though not typically referred to as the white church, it remains the majority church in this country for the time being. Through the ever-increasing multiethnic and multiracial reality within our nation, however, the future of the white, dominant church is threatened.

By the black and white church embracing the mission and theology of reconciliation, we not only produce a church that is relevant to an ever-increasingly multiethnic and multicultural world, but we also become the beloved Church portrayed in Scripture. My prayer is that the multiethnic and Christ-centered Church would become the norm in America.

Efrem Smith is the pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church and is profiled in The RELEVANT Nation (RELEVANT Books).

From the 850 WORDS OF RELEVANT :: 10.16.06

If you are thinking about how your church could cross-cultures and start an ethnic church, this article can help give you some ideas of different ways it could work.

Read on for more…

Urban Cross-Cultural Church Planting Models by Jerry L. Appleby (1986) Reprinted with permission from Association of Nazarenes in Social Research

No two situations are the same. Each neighborhood, language, and church needs its own action plan. Each plan becomes its own model.

Several churches have followed somewhat similar patterns. The following criteria have been used to select and describe models that can be used as examples.

There are actual churches that have examined by the author.

They are successful in that growth and evangelism have taken place. It might be said that the model “worked.”

These models do not seem to have geographic sectional overtones or to have successful because of their geographic location.

Certain adaptations can be made to these models without loss of workability. All the characteristics may not fit a given situation, but the models can still be a usable plan.
These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but illustrative. Other examples no doubt do exist. God given ingenuity will probably create more in the future.

Read the article here

Our 10th issue of “thechurchplanter” on Women & Church Planting is posted online for all to read. Click HERE to check it out.

If you would like to receive a hard copy or multiple copies please contact Mike and we’ll get them out to you.

Recent Back Issues of “thechurchplanter“:

Essential Evangelists

Churches Planting Churches

Poverty

Living Stuff Before Organizational Stuff

This year’s National Celebration for the family of Grace Brethren Churches had the opportunity for many workshops lead by our GBNAM folks to talk about aspects of church planting. From grant writing to hospitality to starting churches. Lot’s of experience to offer in these workshops.

Here’s a list of the presentations connected with GBNAM:

The Aging Baby-Boomer Church – Kurt Miller

Grant-Writing for Christian Min. Pt. 1 – Jeffrey Rodman
Grant-Writing for Christian Min. Pt. 2 – Jeffrey Rodman

The Lost Art of Hospitality – Mike Jentes & Kevin & Siew-Choo Ong

Micropolitan Church Planting – Tony Webb

Strategizing for Mission at the Center of the World – Steve Galegor, Jr.

Launching New Churches – Ron Boehm & Jim Snavely

Click here for the website to order the copies you want.

Our 10th issue of “thechurchplanter” about Women & Church Planting is in the mail traveling to our Grace Brethren Churches all over the continent. If you would like to receive a copy, please email Mike with your snail mail address, and we’ll be glad to mail you a copy.

Soon we will be posting the magazine on the GBNAM website.

Our 10th issue of “thechurchplanter” is hot off the press. It will take a bit of time to get them mailed out to all our churches, but there will be some preview copies available at our FGBC National Conference next week.

The Topic for this Issue is Women and Church Planting. Here is the cover…as a teaser. Be looking for it soon!

Recent Back Issues:

Essential Evangelists

Churches Planting Churches

Poverty

Living Stuff Before Organizational Stuff

Church Planting Class Offered

Grace Brethren North American Missions and Grace Theological Seminary together are offering a week-long church-planting class this summer, August 14 – 18!

Location: Winona Lake, IN

Dates: August 14-18, 2006

Reasonable housing available; contact Ron Boehm (midwest_ron@mac.com)

Registration deadline: July 17th

More information: CLICK HERE

Spouses may attend class at no charge (if no academic credit is desired) and are encouraged to do so.

http://web.mac.com/midwest_ron/iWeb/MissionWork/GTS.html

Southwest Grace and Tony Webb have sponsored Micropolitan Church Planting Summits to catalyze a church planting movement in Ohio with the dream of seeing a church a day being planted. Below is a link about the Micropolitan Church Planting Initiative.

www.churchaday.com/micropolitan/microhome.htm

Churches and the IRS

Churches–if they meet the requirements of a 501(c)(3–are granted with the privileges of tax-exempt status without having to apply for a 501(c)(3). We thought it would be helpful for you to have some documentation about what the IRS says about churches.

Check HERE for a compilation of important and relevant statements from the IRS about Churches and some ideas and hints for doing things legally in setting up your church for tax-exempt status.

Here’s the link: http://www.churchaday.com/ChurchesandIRS.pdf

We put together a list of important publications by the IRS for Churches. These are helpful documents if you are starting a church, to know what the Federal Tax laws are and what you can do legally.

Check out the list below or click HERE for a PDF document to download and print:

Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations: Benefits and Responsibilities Under the Federal Tax Law

Publication 1828 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf

This publication is a quick reference guide of federal tax law and procedures for churches and religious organizations to help them voluntarily comply with tax rules.

Applying for 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Status

Publication 4220 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4220.pdf

This publication presents general guidelines for organizations that seek tax-exempt status from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Although a church is not required to apply for 501(c)(3) to be exempt from federal income tax or to receive tax deductible contributions, the church may find it advantageous to obtain recognition of exemption.

Another important document with more specifics is Publication 557: Tax-Exempt Status for Your Organization http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p557.pdf

Compliance Guide for 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Status

IRS Publication 4221 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4221.pdf

This publication presents general compliance guidelines for recordkeeping, reporting, and disclosure requirements that apply to organizations that have tax-exempt status from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Charitable Contributions—Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements
IRS Publication 1771 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1771.pdf

This publication explains the federal tax law for organizations such as charities and churches that receive tax-deductible charitable contributions and for taxpayers who make contributions.

Social Security and Other Information for the Members of the Clergy and Religious Workers

Publication 517 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p517.pdf

Unrelated Business Income Tax

Even though an organization is tax exempt, it still may be liable for tax on its unrelated business income. Unrelated business income is income from a trade or business, regularly carried on, that is not substantially related to the performance by the organization of its exempt purpose or function except that the organization needs the profits derived from this activity.

More details found at http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96104,00.html

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IRS website
www.irs.gov

If you are setting up your church, there is a really helpful page on the IRS website about the “Life Cycle of a Public Charity.” It goes through a step-by-step order of what to do with links to the specific instructions. You can find it at the following link: http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=122670,00.html

What is a Church Planting Movement?
by David Garrison from the booklet called Church Planting Movements

A simple, concise definition of a Church Planting Movement (CPM) is a rapid and multiplicative increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment.

There are several key components to this definition. The first is rapid. As a movement, a Church Planting Movement occurs with rapid increases in new church starts. Saturation church planting over decades and even centuries is good, but doesn’t qualify as a Church Planting Movement.

Secondly, there is a multiplicative increase. This means that the increase in churches is not simply incremental growth—adding a few churches every year or so. Instead, it compounds with two churches becoming four, four churches becoming eight to 10 and so forth. Multiplicative increase is only possible when new churches are being started by the churches themselves–rather than by professional church planters or missionaries.

Finally, they are indigenous churches. This means they are generated from within rather than from without. This is not to say that the gospel is able to spring up intuitively within a people group. The gospel always enters a people group from the outside; this is the task of the missionary. However, in a Church Planting Movement the momentum quickly becomes indigenous so that the initiative and drive of the movement comes from within the people group rather than from outsiders.

If this definition isn’t enough, we might also clarify what a Church Planting Movement is not….

Click HERE for more

Kurt Miller gave a presentation where he ran through the Biblical Basis for Church Planting. Below are the items he mentioned:

Church planting is based on the biblical mission of God.
Mission describes everything. We needto be reminded that “while we are going, make disciples” (Matt 28:19). The assumption of God was that his disciples would all live on mission. God lives on mission. Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son…” We must live on mission because our God is a sending God. He operates on mission.

Church planting is based on the teachings of our Lord.
Remember the parable of Jesus about the master who prepared a great dinner for his guests. Many turned down his invitation to eat, so the master said, “Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23).

Church planting is based on the Lord’s commission.
The main part of His Great Commission is “making disciples” (Matt 28:19). This is what Jesus asks. He is the one who commissions making disciples and the gathering of those disciples into new churches.

Church planting is based on God’s plan for building the church.
Ephesians 2:19-22 “…you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” God is building the church this way. Jesus said, “I will build my Church” (Matt. 16:18 NASB)

Church planting is based on an apostolic gift and function.
Paul was an apostle. He was the starter of many churches. But Paul wasn’t just an apostle. Consider 1 Timothy 2:7, “And for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” Paul functioned in at least three roles as mentioned in this passage. In a similar way, I (Kurt) seem to play a multiple role. Primarily I’m an evangelist, but I serve in an apostolic function to see new churches started. 1 Corinthians 12:28 gives us order for church planting, “And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers,…” The apostolic gift and function leads the way for church planting.

Church planting is based on God’s initiative.
God makes it grow. Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). He is the initiator. He is the most interested in this enterprise. The apostolic and evangelistic functions are “seed-scatterers.” The more seed scattered, the more reaping will result. The more reaping is glory to God.

Church planting is based on the mission of the local church.
Every living thing reproduces after its kind. Churches reproduce churches. Additionally, churches must be active evangelistically and socially. For far too long we have held these as opposites in church work. These two functions of church life must go together. Evangelism and church planting are part of the mission of the local church.

Listen to the words of Emil Bruner, “As the fire exists by burning so the church exists by mission.” Both neighborhood evangelism as well as cross-cultural evangelism should be given equal emphasis. Both the home mission and the foreign mission must be emphasized in the total missionary involvement of the local church.

Theodore Williams explains it clearly in his book, The Local Church and Mission: “A church that has no concern for cross-cultural evangelism is not fulfilling its mission.” He emphasizes this point from a quotation from the constitution of the Church Of South India which he feels states this point beautifully: “Every congregation of the people of God is basic to mission in its neighborhood and to the ends of the earth. The mission of the local church does not end with the mere proclamation of the gospel. There must be the planting of churches among the people to whom the gospel is proclaimed. The mission of the local church is evangelization with a view to planting churches in the neighborhood and in the world. Local churches reproduce themselves in their neighborhood and on the mission field.”

Church planting is based on the growth pattern of the New Testament church.
The book of Acts documented with numerical figures the growth of the early church. Somebody was counting. The pattern in the New Testament was growth—an increase in numbers of disciples.

In our circles, we are often uncomfortable with the growth because we are concerned about the quality of the disciples. It is good for us to recognize the “quality and quantity” tension won’t go away. There were certainly problems with the Church Growth Movement heightening the attention to the quantity aspect. At the same time, God expects us to see disciples being made and churches being planted. We must make quality disciples and more of them. Let’s celebrate the tension.

Church planting is based on the nature of the gospel.
Start in Romans 1:16; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The Gospel is the power! Paul goes on expounding this in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”(NIV).
The faithful and effective communication of the Gospel should win people to Jesus and the planting of churches. We need to ask an important question, “Why aren’t more people coming to Jesus and more churches being planted?”

Church planting is based on the work of the Holy Spirit.
We see the example in Acts 13:1-3, where God in the person of the Holy Spirit sent out the first missionaries. They were to reproduce around the world. That is the work of the Spirit. The missionary or the evangelist should live in conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit. No amount of study, training and experience would substitute for the power of the Holy Spirit.

Philip Hogan of the Assemblies of God has rightly emphasized this fact. “I am persuaded to believe, that after taking advantage of every tool, pursuing every possible human plan, all one needs to do to find plenty of service is simply to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. When one engages this truth and begins to live by its principle, there will be whole communities, whole cities, whole nations, whole cultures and whole segments of pagan religions that will suddenly be thrust open to the Gospel witness…”

The Lausanne Covenant states, “The Father sent the Spirit to bear witness to his Son; without this witness, ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth, and Christian growth are all the Spirit’s work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a Spirit-filled Church. A Church that is not a missionary Church is contradicting itself and quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization will become a realistic possibility only when the Spirit renews the Church in truth and wisdom, faith, holiness, love and power.”

(Presentation by Kurt Miller to the Fellowship Council of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches Feb 2005)

There seem to be two distinct schools of thought in the church planting community. The first is “This is hard. Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t look like you’ve got what it takes… I’m not so sure you should do this! Have you prayed about it?”

Do you hear the difference?
For more click HERE

The normal response to discussions about church planting is something like this:

These statements appear to be ‘common sense’ to many people, but they rest on several wrong assumptions. The error of this thinking will become clear if we ask ‘Why is church planting so crucially important?’ (more here)