I’ve been doing some thinking lately about church planting in Canada and thought I would share some of my thoughts (ideas) with you.

It is my premise that the way we church plant in Canada has not really changed over the past 5-10 years even with all the emergent hope/ activity. Very little has been changed in the church model itself. It appears that we have encompassed the same model with a hopeful/ new message… yet for many of us it didn’t seem to work, and so in the end we have reverted back to the “good old days,” keeping with the same old model. (This is not all bad, in fact I appreciate those that did this for many reasons).

So I have thought this through and think I might have an idea that could encourage more innovation. It’s centered around trials and experiments. Encourage many church plant experiments and trials, as many as 100 different ideas, no cost, and many may fail, but the best work out.

You see, in the past a church planter needed: 1) to be part of a denomination, 2) a large amount of funding, 3) to pass a strict application process in order to be sent as a church planter. I have a feeling this is no longer necessary. What if we just sent out 100 random experiments? This freedom could lead to more people trying things out. In the past only a small percentage of church planters would be funded after getting through the denominational filters. That means that the denominational gurus decided who can attempt to church plant, so if they had 5 applicants, maybe only two were sent out due to available money and skill set. But in this new wave of information, resources, etc. 100 church planters can go out into the world and do this. There still may end up only being 2 left at the end of it all, but I have a feeling they may not be the same 2 that had to go through the vigorous application process as in my previous example and might be perhaps even more successful… (without going further as I wish to write more about this in my next post, this success may not look anything like Sunday morning, FYI).

I think money is a hindrance for innovation. Money will be necessary and needed to be able to continue to fund existing church plants in the more traditional bent as they will still be needed, but unless planters/ innovators/ leaders are passionate before they get paid there will always be the tendency to do whatever works for the sake of getting paid.

If we are able to really give enough freedom to thee planters, the 100 ideas may not necessarily be church look-a-likes. Instead they could be new expressions of the church in our world that many of us have not thought of yet. And it might be this wording that changes our expectations. Active church rather than big “C” church.

I also have a feeling that innovation will be stifled by those with a more traditional theology that is not open to changing. (This might alarm those of you with a certain bent towards orthodoxy). It is this more traditional theology that ends up producing a church that in most cases looks like a large public gathering, fueled by smaller groups that grow the larger one, which in turn determines success.

I also have the feeling that it might be the case that in order to truly be experimenters, church planters will have to come into their context with more of a blank slate… we can’t have our name, look, etc. of our church already determined before we land in the city that we wish to plant. We have to welcome more people (experimenters) with an entrepreneurial heart and allow them to run wild without having it all together.

How would we determine who can come? I guess if money wasn’t involved it would be easier? Maybe it would be harder at first. Remarkable needs to be emphasized and encouraged, even if they fail immediately.

I have also been thinking a lot lately about transaction costs; the cost for us to attend, or contribute to a church. Use of twitter, meetup, facebook have made it easy for people to come to a gathering. In the past being involved with a church type event was a form of commitment because it was harder to come. Getting people to come is actually easier these days. Having them stick (consistently) is the problem. The type of people that come in many cases are not committal. I was reading that in the past 1 hand written complaint letter to the government used to mean that 200+ people were represented (or had they same concern) due to effort it took to hand write a letter and mail it off… this is no longer the case. Writing an email or having a pettiton signed takes minutes, just have a look at how many groups people join on facebook. It is easier and people do not make the same commitment.

I think for me it might be nice to visit a few new church plants just to get a feel for the type of people that are showing up.

Lastly, (and thanks for bearing with my random thoughts) i’ve been thinking about user generated church content versus leader generated content. The leader of the church in most cases is paid to create content for the church (sermons, bible study material, etc.) But I am starting to see more clearly that leaders should create environments, not just content. I am imagining what it would be like for laity (in groups) to create the programs, activity of the church versus the majority of the decisions being made by a few people such as the paid staff. This will involve more patience and waiting for the users to create and generally “patience” isn’t successful. It’s hard to wait on people, but I think if we could be more patient we might see some serious life giving examples of church in the world… at least in Canada.

Please comment and help me develop these further, these are random ideas and i’m excited about working them out.

A while back Joe and Jeremy who were the main producers on this documentary (at least when they were in BC), came and visited us at the open house in Vancouver, BC. They spent some time interviewing Kristin and I who started this church, and low and behold we made it into the documentary. I literally have 15 seconds of fame at the very beginning so don’t blink, but Cato had a good chunk of time later on and has a a web short included as well on the website.

At the end of the day I love what they did. The video was well done for the limited resources they have and I was able to hear more about the other churches in Canada who were attempting to do something fresh and new in cooperation with God concerning the church.

Thanks to Jordon who reminded me to post on this and let me recommend that you get a copy and watch it with your community. It’s very helpful for those of you looking for some insight on the movement of the church in Canada.

A list of showings in Ontario are here.

Here is an exchange James and I had through facebook. And I gleaned an interesting thought from it…

If the economy goes into a recession because of citizens not consuming, then I wonder if Christians gave more of the their money away to those in need and consumed significantly less, would we actually cause a recession?

And then I wonder about how the USA claims to be 80% Christian and I am wondering why on earth the economy is sustained by over consumption.

My friend Don suggested that by giving our money away in order to help those in need sustain their own lifestyles we may balance the economy out by us and them consuming things we actually need, but who knows.

So there is my thought. Based on a world driven by consumerism. If Christians decided to only buy necessities and reduce spending significantly, could they actually cause an economic crises?

Would that be a good thing?