Element Church Insider

This is something I worked through a few weeks ago, and I shared with the Lead Team as well.  It isn’t completely formulated beyond the pages of my journal yet so I thought I’d get it up on the blog to keep processing it.  Since it’s not fully processed it’s a bit random.  I started thinking about Element Church.  We’re 16 months old, but we’ve already gone through several “stages” of church life.  It got me thinking about where we were going, and what we would be doing 16 months from now.  Then I started thinking about the fact that EVERY church, at some point, was a church plant.  Whether your 16 weeks, 16 months, 16 years or 160 years old, you started and ground zero.  LAUNCH SUNDAY!  So I began jotting down what I thought were the four stages of the church.  I’ll start with stage #1 today.

Stage #1 “Establish”: In the establish stage of the church you are concerned with very few things.  There are probably more but here are three

1.  Money  2. Consistency and 3.  Critical Mass.

Money is HUGE in the start up of a church.  It is not the ONLY factor, but it definitely helps in being able to launch big.  People have started churches with lots of money and failed miserably.  People have started churches with little to NO money and were HUGE successes.  Lots of variables go into that, I just know for us, and talking to other church planters, that when you are trying to get established it just simply takes money.  WHEN Element decides to plan another church or campus, one of my HIGHEST priorities is to resource that church plant team properly with finances.  Being a church plant that was properly resourced enabled us to do things that I think were a HUGE factor in the strong start we had.  Two paid pastoral staff, office assistant, office rental, marketing, outreach, equipment ALL were a part of our beginning because of money.

Consistency was one of my BIGGEST frustrations and concerns when we were being established.  Church doesn’t work without consistently committed people.  I was surprised (not sure why) at how many “AWESOME, we’ll be there!” responses we got from people that were at BEST hit and miss.  Mostly no shows.  In fact the people who became consistent were the biggest surprises for us.  You CANNOT become established until you have consistency.  Bible studies, service projects, prayer meetings, worship times DON’T WORK without consistency.  We started doing Unplugged services each Sunday in the Summer of 07 to start developing these consistently committed people.  Unplugged made the beginning of Element Church.  That leads to the other part of the Establish stage.

Critical Mass.  I don’t know what the magic # is, but there is something about a certain # of people that make a service “feel” better to people.  If you come to a church 0f 15, compared to a church of 50, something just “feels” different.  Critical mass is huge in the success of an early church.  It helps first time guests feel as if they don’t stand out as much.  It brings more enthusiasm and energy into worship.  It creates a greater sense that “something is happening”.

The biggest statement is:  “Whatever it takes!” When it is LITERALLY “This thing works or we move somewhere else”, you will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to make sure it works.  Sacrifice, time, work, money, effort, WHATEVER.  You work as if it depends on you and PRAY as if it depends on God.  UTTER DEPENDANCY ON GOD!  You realize the GRAVITY of what you are trying to do.  By the way, why do we lose that the longer our church is “established”?

The biggest question is: “Will we make it?” A great sense of wonder fills the establish part of church life.

The biggest danger is: “We’ll give in” Giving in to someone elses vision.  People WILL come to a new church to try and push their vision and agenda.  New churches attract disgruntled church goers who want to make THIS church what THEY think it should be.  This NEVER goes away in ANY stage.  DON’T GIVE IN!  Giving in to someone who has money.  “What if they stop giving?”  Who gives a crap?   Did they call you to do this or God?  Trying to be “another” church and not who God called you to be.  Just because it worked for… doesn’t mean it will work for you!

EVERYTHING in the first stage of a church is about “making it”.  Getting to a place where the church is sustainable.  Money is coming in.  Ministries are being performed.  People are being reached.  I remember the anxiety of the unknown.  SO MANY variables to getting established.  SO MANY expectations, whether realistic or not.  MAN, what is sad to me is that the next three stages are so often avoided by churches.  Establish is all they ever make it to.  It’s a danger for all of us.  Stage 2 – 4 coming.

Processing,

Jeff