Why do We Plant Churches?

Intro

About 10 years ago, I was a 27-year-old seminary student looking for my next steps into ministry. I set up a meeting with a prominent regional church planting director in the Washington DC area to see if he knew of any internships or residencies that I could pursue. But these were not the opportunities he had in mind.

“I have $50,000 right now for you to go plant a church. Will you take it?”

“I don’t think that is wise,” I told him. “I still have three years left in seminary, I’ve only been a Christian for about four years, I have little ministry experience, I think I still need to grow and be mentored before I become a pastor.”

“We need more churches to be planted as a gospel witness,” he insisted. Then he hit me with this: “If you will not take this money from me right now, then you’re too scared and timid, and you’re unfit for ministry.”

I have no doubt this man loved Jesus. But for him, the mission of the church was a numbers game. We’ve got to get as many people saved as quickly as possible, even if we run over some people in the process.

It doesn’t matter how much we love Jesus, or how good our intentions are, if get basic ideas about the church wrong, we can end up in all sorts of bad, often harmful, places.

I know some of you are familiar with the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast from a couple of years ago, which covered the Mars Hill churches, Mark Driscoll, and their church planting movement. This was a movement Neva and I were caught up in at one point. This movement often had good intentions mixed with an unhealthy desire to expand a certain brand and culture. Once again, by any means necessary. I can still remember going to conferences and being cursed at by pastors on stage for not being manly enough, bold enough, for the sake of the church. It seems crazy now, but at the time, that just seemed like what you had to be a part of to plant churches.

When the mission of the church becomes all about a brand or culture, its all about power.

Or, sometimes, we think the purpose of the church is only to make a certain kind of social impact in the world. It is inevitable that such a vision becomes small, narrow, and exclusive. I once met with a religious leader who was trying to get a new congregation started. He said to me, “My critics accuse me of preaching the democratic party platform. They’re not wrong.” This leader couldn’t understand why people wouldn’t get with his program, and he struggled at the thought that a political conservative might join his congregation.

Here’s the thing: many of these ideas are not wrong, in fact they’re quite good. It is a good thing to want to see more people know Jesus. It is a good thing to want to make a social impact as a church. Often, our church cultures do have elements that are worth multiplying into other congregations. But when these ideas are reduced to the only thing, the main thing, we can get ourselves into all kinds of trouble, and we can hurt a lot of people. I have no doubt that some of you in this room carry wounds in your heart that were inflicted in the name of Jesus and the church.

It is so important for us to take seriously the mission and purpose of the church. But not just so that we minimize harm or so that we can be good stewards of our resources; we also must care about the purpose of the church so that we can get ourselves caught up in the beauty of what God is doing in the world. Last week we asked the question, “Who is the church?” I hope your hearts were lifted with mine to see a bigger, brighter, more beautiful picture of the church.

This week, I want us to dig into Ephesians 3 to explore the question, “Why do we plant churches?” Like last week, I want to expand our vision for what God is doing. We do not plant churches to accomplish any agenda; we plant churches to faithfully participate in God’s plan for the world. Why do we plant churches?

We plant churches to proclaim the mystery of God.

We plant churches to make known God’s wisdom.

We plant churches so that God would be glorified in us.

We Plant Churches to Proclaim the Mystery of God

Paul references a “mystery” that has been made known four times. There is a “mystery” that has been made known by God’s revelation, Paul had been given “insight” in this mystery, and it was his job to make plain this “mystery” to the churches.

The way Paul used mystery and the way we think about a mystery are very different. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear mystery is the mystery machine in Scooby Doo, or a mystery like the universe is so vast and unknowable, it’s mysterious. We hear mystery and think a problem we need to solve, or information that is unknowable.

That’s not how Paul used the word. A mystery, for Paul, was a counterintuitive idea that could not have been known by human effort, but it is an idea that has now been made known by God’s revelation. You never would have guessed it on your own. It’s not an idea we ascent to but an idea that God had to make known to us.

So what is the mystery? Paul tells us plainly in verse 6, but hold that thought for a minute. Because Paul used “mystery” at different times to refer to seemingly different things.

In Romans 16:25, Paul referred to mystery as the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Colossians 1:25-27 the mystery is the fullness of God’s Word made known in Christ. In Colossians 2:2 the mystery of God is Christ himself. In 1 Corinthians 15:51 the mystery is our future resurrection. In Ephesians 5:32, the mystery is the love that Christ has for his church.

In other words, this mystery revealed to Paul as the core content of the gospel upon which everything else in the Christian religion rests. And to this core content of the gospel, Paul adds in Ephesians 3:6 - That the divisions in this world are failing, that all people are heirs of Christ together, that we are members of one body, and we share together in the promises of Jesus.

Here’s the mystery. The eternal Son of God became a man and triumphed over sin and death not through might but through weakness and suffering. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, is making one new people not out of domineering force but out of meekness and humility.

In this mystery we have a treasure of beauty and freedom to offer people. All around our city right now, there are countless people who are trapped in shame and guilt. They are, as Paul said, in chapter 2, without hope and as good as dead. Even worse, many people are so crushed by their guilt and shame that they think they deserve to die.

We have the tremendous privilege of making the mystery of forgiveness, grace, and the new humanity known to people who are hopeless without it. And we do this through our words, as well as through the church going out in its life together, calling people into this new body that Jesus is creating.

Remember what Jesus said in John 17? The world will know we’re his disciples if we love one another. Theologian Christine Pohl rightly said that the best testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel is our life together. Others have referred to the life of the church as “the final apologetic.” Little can refute the life of God’s people when the church is being the church.

Why do we plant churches? We plant churches to create more opportunities for proclaiming this mystery so that many more people will discover there really is new life in Jesus, and that they really can be safe and loved among God’s people.

We plant churches to demonstrate God’s wisdom.

The second point really builds on the first here. Look at verse 10. This is one of the most important verses about the church in the New Testament.

Paul says that it is God’s intent to display his manifold wisdom through the church, verse 11, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ. What is his eternal purpose? Remember where we started last week? It’s in Ephesians 1:8-10.

Paul said,

Ephesians 1:8–10 NIV

that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Here is the truest thing about life that you don’t need to be a Christian to agree on. Everything falls apart. Everything dies. Everything breaks down. Nothing lasts forever. Herman Bavinck, an early 20th Century Reformed theologian, he described sin as a disorganizing force. What does sin do? It tears everything apart. Death, disease, war, violence, discrimination. It unravels everything.

What is God doing about it? In Christ he’s bring unity back to everything that sin has disorganized. Everything that falls apart is being put back together. Everything that dies is coming back to life. Every relationship that has been subjected to hostility is finding peace.

That’s God’s purpose in Christ.

And Paul tells us here in verse 10 that it is God’s intent to display his wisdom, this eternal purpose, through the church.

F.F. Bruce, another 20th century scholar, he said on this verse that “The church thus appears to be God’s pilot scheme for the reconciled universe of the future.” I just want you to take this in for a moment.

Do you want to know what God’s mystery is? Do you want to know where his wisdom can be found? Do you want a glimpse of the future? You don’t need to look long. Just look around this room. You’re in it.

Paul describes this wisdom as being manifold. It’s many-sided, many-colored, many-splendoured. Like a diamond, it refracts beautiful light in all directions, in all dimensions. And God’s manifold wisdom is in such a contrast to the way the rulers and authorities Paul mentions here construct things. The rulers and authorities of this world tend to create communities that aren’t necessarily bad they’re just boring, flat, uniform, one-dimensional. At their worst, they will inflict violence and discrimination on those who don’t fit their image.

Harvie Conn, a theologian and missiologist who had a huge influence on Tim Keller, he said that “Like stars in the universe, the churches are to shine in blamelessness and purity… By their love of all people, by giving no occasion for valid criticism, by their service of others, they are to be ‘the only hermeneutic of the gospel’”

So who are these rulers and authorities? Paul seems to have dark and sinister realities in mind here. If you look at how he uses this language in Ephesians 6. Any earthly authority or a shadowy demonic counterpart that is opposed to God’s intention to unite all things in Christ are in view here.

So what Paul seems to be telling us is, 1) That these rulers and authorities are responsible for the divisions and hostilities that exist between us, 2) That God’s intent isn’t merely to display his wisdom in us but also to confront these authorities with his wisdom in us, 3) That these powers are in fact powerless to stop the progress of the gospel.

Which means, stay with me here, that when the church becomes a vehicle for separation, discrimination, division, and hostility, we have not yet fully grasped the gospel and are still under the sway of godless rulers and authorities.

If we are going to be effective at church planting, not according to our metrics but according to God’s design, then we are going to need to acknowledge and repent of all the ways our churches and traditions have not displayed God’s wisdom but have surrendered ourselves to the rulers and authorities.

There is so much for us to talk about here, isn’t there? I wish I could do a whole class or something on this so we could have more of a dialogue about this. For now, let me present two reasons why we, as a predominantly White Church in a predominantly White tradition, are responsible for addressing these matters.

First is the legacy of the sin of racism in the past all the way up into the present day, in all of its shifting forms. I feel disrespectful even bringing this up because I don’t have the time to give to it. Let me say this. The church’s complicity in the sins of racism and segregation is worse than you think. And the reason why we still have segregated churches to this day is because we still haven’t dealt with it. We still haven’t repaired the damage. And any calls to reconciliation or unity without repair are hollow and empty.

If you want to know more about this history and why one of our church planting commitments is the repair of cross-racial relationships in our communities, I have an essay up here that I’ve written you can pick up later. I would only ask that if you do not read this just to acquire more knowledge. Please don’t read this if you’re not willing to let your heart be broken and ask how the Lord might use you to participate in repair.

Another one of our failure’s comes out of what is called the church growth movement, which for the last several decades has been one of the dominant expressions of White evangelicalism in the United States. It’s goal is what it sounds like. How do we get churches to grow as quickly as possible?

One of the key tenets of this movement was something called the homogenous unit principle. This idea said that people are more likely to become Christians and join a church if they do not have to cross any racial or class barriers in the process. So, if you want to grow quickly and reach as many people as possible, you should only plant churches for people who are just like you.

This movement has not only helped maintain racial segregation but also class segregation. Middle-upper class resources have primarily retained within middle-upper class church and ministry systems.

This was the dominant strategy for church growth in US evangelicalism from about the 70s through the early 2000s. And while most now would renounce this principle as unbiblical, there is no denying that we are still living it.

What Ephesians 3 is teaching us ought to radically upend how we think about the church, church planting, even how we think about being Christians.

If the way we think about church growth or Christian ministry is defined by earthly principles that maintain separation, then we have opened up the back gate and let the monsters in to God’s house. If the way we think about healing racial and class boundaries is more defined by our politics or group agendas than it is God’s wisdom, then we have capitulated to the rulers and authorities.

If we want to make it as comfortable for people as possible to come to Jesus, if we assure people that they can be united to Jesus but not this new humanity, if we’re telling people you don’t need to cross any barrier or division to come and be a part of what God is doing, Ephesians 3 would call into question whether we are really inviting people to Jesus or our own cultural imprint of him.

I’m terrified of saying that out loud. I’m not trying to be critical friends, and I’m not trying to make us feel guilty. Guilt is not the path to change. The beauty of the gospel is. That’s what I want us to step into this morning.

What in my heart and your heart needs to shift so that this beautiful wisdom of God can shine even brighter? Are you willing to ask that with me?

Ecuadorian theologian C. René Padilla once said that the church ought not to be a quotation of society but an embodied question mark that challenges the values of the world.

Are we a quotation of this city or an embodied question mark? I think we’re on our way.

Why do we plant churches? We plant churches to confront the world’s values system and display the beautiful wisdom of God to unite all things in Christ, beginning with us.

We plant churches so that God would be glorified.

Many commentators agree that verses 1-13 seem to be an interrupted thought in the flow of his thoughts, and that verses 14 to 21 Paul now gets caught up in praise for what God can and will do.

And his prayer for the church is that we would get caught up in this praise and that together, as one people, we would grasp just how wide and deep is the love of Christ.

If we are going to be a church that plants churches, it will only happen when we become a people who get caught up in the immensity of what Jesus is doing.

Here is my ask from you this morning. I’m not asking for you to agree with me. I’m not asking for you to support our church plant. I’m not telling you what you should or should not do.

I just want to ask you to pray. Commit to praying that God will get our hearts caught up in what he is doing. Pray that we will be transformed by the mystery and the wisdom. Pray that together, with all of God’s people here at Redeemer and around the city, we would get swept up in God’s plan to make his mystery and wisdom known through the church of Indianapolis. Pray that he put us in a posture of surrender of our wants, our time, our resources, so that more and more people might come and share in his glorious riches with us.

The New International Version Chapter 3

to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen