Church Planting is About Loving Your Neighbor
Glenn Herschberger
Executive Director of Church Planting
An interesting thing happened when I was out in Seattle for a Church Planting Assessment Center. Marlan Mincks, our CPAC Director, and I went to a local restaurant a couple of times in Washington where we made contact with one of their servers named Erin. Throughout our conversation with her, she told us she had some family issues and she was an artist, specifically a glassblower. I could tell maybe she wasn’t living her dream job. In fact, at one point she shared the chef yelled at her earlier that day.
As we re-engaged her later in the week, we decided on the last day we would ask some more spiritual questions. I asked her if there were a couple of things I could be praying for her. She put her hand on her heart and said, “No one ever asked me that. You’re going to make me cry.” I was a little surprised when she said she wanted prayer for her protection. It was a busy night for her, so I just prayed silently.
A couple of years ago I attended a training in Boulder, Colorado with an organization called “Gloo”. They do a lot of work with surveys, assessments, and demographics. They presented data on current thinking and practices of the different generations. For example, 80% of millennials agree that experiencing God in a service alongside others, in person, is very important to them. The generation often chided for their relationship to the virtual space craves the physical world. In fact, while 73% of millennial churchgoers say the pandemic made them more open to digital church, 46% say they struggle to focus during an online church service.
The online world may be a way to connect initially with millennials, but it doesn’t offer the entirety of what they’re seeking. Millennials, the oldest of whom are in their early 40’s, are yearning for community and connection. This hunger provides local churches with a tremendous opportunity to show hospitality to a generation that they have often struggled to reach.
Gloo gave an example of some creative outreach strategies, such as a lunch for professional 30-somethings with a keynote speaker and discussion. Or parenting programs (over half of millennial women are mothers!) that include opportunities for families to form friendships with each other and serve moms. Outreach events that bring people together to meet a physical, local need.
Gloo also showed a demographic statistical survey of what people are struggling with currently. The top three areas were anxiety, loneliness, and depression. What does that mean for a church planter or church to go into a community and understand their cultural context? As a pastor, I think you must know your people and the hurts they are carrying around to potentially help lift their burdens and show you care. One time as I was driving through Caribou Coffee, I asked the young barista how she was doing. She was smiling and pleasant and she said she was fine. I told her that I really appreciated her working today and serving us our coffee. She put her hand over her heart, and she said, "Oh that’s so nice. No one has ever thanked me for working." It’s those little acts of connection, appreciation and kindness that will make a difference in the lives we touch.
We tend to have a cultural insensitivity to people living around us. What could you do in your community to reach more people with the gospel? Why plant churches if we’re not going to reach our lonely, depressed, anxious, and isolated neighbors? What does it look like to live out loving our neighbor?
Luke 10:25-28 says: And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He (Jesus) said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
I think it was Zig Ziglar who said, "People don’t care what you know until they know you care." The church and our church planters should lead the way in showing this culture we do care about them, we can serve them, as well as love them as Jesus does.
We need to raise up an army of church planters and global workers. If you would like some help with strategy and understanding how you can go about developing your pipeline, please email me by using the button below. I’m here to serve you and your church.