Another Clint Question Answered

What age and experience are necessary for a young man who’s aspiration is to plant churches and is it acceptable for him to stay single if he is qualified in other areas?

I suppose the answer to this question hinges on how you define the purpose of a church planter. Is the purpose of a church planter to collect a flock of people that he can shepherd? Sometimes I think it is. Can the purpose of a church planter be to teach while a group of leaders he has partnered with perform the shepherding of the church? I think this can be true sometimes too. This question really hits on the fact that we often call the preacher pastor. The preacher may not always be prepared to shepherd a church due to age. This does not mean that he might not b gifted to teach or to lead. Come to think of it, I seem to recall that shepherding can also be a spiritual gift (I will have to confirm). This probably hits on one of the problems that can sometimes be found in new church plants. The preacher is gifted to teach, but is not equipped to shepherd. In this situation it is important that the new church planter join with people who can help him shepherd his flock. So I do not believe there is an age or experience in which people could be able to plant churches. I do think however that it is important to recognize that people might come into church planting from different backgrounds and with different giftings. Recognizing this can help the new church planter identify where to seek the Lord in providing for needs in helping him plant a church.

As for if it is acceptable to stay single, the answer is definitely yes. This however is entirely dependent on the person. Paul talks about how it is better to not be married because you get to concentrate on doing more direct work for the Lord. He also talks about how most people should get married because they have trouble with sexual purity and thus could not handle a lifetime of remaining unmarried.

What are your three main concerns with the current methodology of church ministry and or church planting?

My three main concerns for the current methodology of church in general are as follows.

1. Denial of the truth: Often the modern church planters are willing to sacrifice even the statement that there is a truth. Even though Jesus says "I am the way and the TRUTH and the life." It seems that some in the church are accepting the post-modern views beginning with the denial that there is an ultimate truth.
2. Acceptance of Sin: The unwillingness to point out sin in the people in the church has perpetuated the view that Jesus is not changing the lives of christians. We seem to be perfectly willing to let members of the church to continue in "little" sins. The acceptance of these will almost inevitably lead to future "big" sins that then we try and figure out how we got to this point. A sympton of the acceptance of sin is the lack of confession of sins to one another. It is not just acceptance of "little" sins that is prevalent. One sin that stands out as having a line that is moving more and more liberal is sexual sin.
3. Pride in Leadership: This is not just pride of the main preacher. This can also be pride of elders and deacons. It seems that to many people in leadership of the churches care about how they look or how many people they are running. Some of the pride can show itself in pushing to shock people just for sake of doing it. Leaders are often convinced they can figure things out rather than rely on the guidance of the Lord.

RIP Circuit City

As most are probably well aware Circuit City is closing it's doors. This is after Linen's and Things has closed it's doors. Apparently many stores that use a lot of square footage have been shutting down. So why do I bring this up? Not to tell you to keep an eye on good discounts. Apparently they may not be as good as you think. This makes me think about an interesting "opportunity". I wonder with this increase in available large square footage open buildings will there be opportunities for any church plants to move into the open square footage. There are issues with this of course. Many of these places would require long leases, and the costs would be high for some churches. But available real estate can be few and far between in some places. Maybe this turns into an oppotunity to have a large space that would not have been available otherwise.