They've Got It "SDRAWKCAB"

Yes, that is correct. They have it "sdrawkcab"! For those that cannot read in reverse, that is, "They have it backwards." Who does? The Church.

I could spend hours, days or even weeks on many things wrong with the functioning of the Church. Specifically today, I want to discuss church planting. It appears to me that most church leaders (denominational officials, primarily) have not changed their theory of church planting since Lewis and Clark embarked on their transcontinental expedition.

The theory behind church planting was to send a young pastor into a frontier town and say, "Brother, go start a church. God be with you." Then the guy was dropped into this town to fend for himself. It may have worked at one time, perhaps even as late as half a century ago.

This is still in play in many leaders' thinking. Here is the current philosophy: send some poor sap to a faraway place, demand that he find a permanent building and grow a church.

The reality of life today is that it simply does not work. Where the permanent building used to be one of the most important pieces of the puzzle, it is now one of the last things a church planter should worry about. One hundred years ago, building a church building was relatively inexpensive. All one needed was a few walls and pews. Now, one has to contend with building permits, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, fire codes, plumbing codes, electrical codes, building codes, environmental land use laws, etc.

Years ago, church staff was not important. In fact most churches did not have a staff. What staff that existed was voluntary. Unfortunately, that no longer works. Churches need to be staffed from the beginning. The way I see it, a church needs a minimum of four full-time (or nearly full-time) ministers: lead pastor, worship pastor, youth pastor and children's pastor. One would do well to hire a reliable nursery worker on a part-time basis.

The result of this "sdrawkcab" approach to church planting is that churches are doomed from the outset. To put it in business jargon, they are under capitalized. They have great buildings with no ministry. People may show up to see what a new building looks like, but they will not stay with effective ministry. We need to make sure every church has effective plans for ministry before we worry about anything else.

I call all church leaders to reevaluate priorities when seeking to plant churches.