Giving Birth

I am attempting to work my way through a few books as I get ready for a trip to Long Beach California. I am heading to Long Beach for a conference hosted by the Presbyterian Global Fellowship. This year's main speaker is Alan Hirsch author of the The Forgotten Way. This is the book I am working my way and hope to finish before I take off on Tuesday.

At this moment I am at chapter five, and I should finish the book in time. But this chapter caught me off guard. He spoke about the fact that church's must give birth. Alan quotes Neil Cole of the Southern Baptists Churches in America about the percentage of churches who will have a daughter church. Neil states that only 4% will "give birth" and 96% will not. Then this was put in terms of our human lives. If 96% of women were found infertile, this would be considered a disaster. But we just say that there already is enough churches and no need for more.

This has lead me to some questions about giving birth. First, does giving birth relay mean a church must start a new congregation? Can giving birth be accomplished in a dwindling congregation? Can this be a spiritual or just physical birth? Of course some of these questions sound like Nicodemus when Jesus told him you have to be born again (John 3:1-21) So I guess somethings never really do change.

I do believe that a daughter group is not so much a new church as it is a new way of doing church for a segment of the population. This for me means that an aging congregation can be transformed by giving birth to new ways of serving Christ. An old institutional church can become a missional church. All of this sounds great in my mind, but what would it look like in the world we all must work and live in.

First, I believe the church leadership must accept the fact that what is being done right now is not working. This should be obvious, but it is sometimes hard to admit the problem (This is how most twelve step programs work, maybe we can start a 12 step program for churches). As this is accomplished the leaders start to focus on central issues of faith, Jesus, God the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Bible. This means learning from the Master and re-vowing to be His disciples.

After this, the people in the people in the church are empowered by the leaders and the Holy Spirit to be the ministers of the church. This is where the "birthing" process begins. For the Holy Spirit will plant seeds in the hearts and minds of many. Those people being empowered will stretch out into there places of influence and start new ministries. So, there may be small groups all around, there may be new styles of worship at different times, and many other ministries. All can still be part of the original church with the daughters being the different parts.

This picture will not be easy for an institutional church with boards and "rules", and budgets. I do believe it is possible. Only by God's grace and with the power of the Holy Spirit. With God all things are possible (Matthew19:26)