I got started as an independent Baptist in a missions church. The first Sunday
I attended church, shortly after I became a believer, was the second Sunday of
the church's existence. Cornerstone Baptist Church,
all approximately ten people in it, was a missions church sent out of Bible Baptist
Church in Selah, WA. I
quickly learned that independent Baptists practice this principle of
"churches make churches." In other words, the authority to begin a
new church is not in a man, but in the local church. To preserve the integrity
of doctrine, a church authorizes a man to
- Plant a church
- Evangelize a community and
- Baptize those who are converted
I also learned that most young
preachers want to free their fledgling missions church from her sending
authority as quickly as possible. I used to think that was because we were
aggressive servants of the Lord. I have come to believe it is more because our
sin nature does not like authority over us. Any authority; even the authority
of a sending church. We view it as a sort of necessary evil. We would condemn a
man for planting a church without this sending church, exclaiming his
"church" as no real church at all. But we will shed our own selves
from the shackles of this mother church at the first possible moment.
I propose that this needs to be
addressed and changed. Some ministries would be better off as missions
ministries, possibly indefinitely. Depending upon circumstances, it could be
that they should be missions ministries permanently.
Consider what would qualify a
church as indigenous:
Some would say it is the ability to
support their own pastor.
I have seen this qualification cited a number of times but often neglected
by men who will organize as independent living off of mission support from
dozens of churches.
Some would say it is having a pastor and deacons.
But pastors sometimes move. Sometimes they move after only a brief time.
Deacons, the biblical mandate for deacons only happens when church is of
sufficient size that the pastor can care for the daily ministry by himself.
Deacons are never seen in the Bible as leaders but as servants. The very fact
that someone suggests a church isn't well organized until they have deacons
suggests they have an unbiblical view of the office.
I have personally suggested that a church is not ready to be organized
until it has ten faithful and tithing families.
I took the idea from the Jewish
practice for their synagogues. However I have also seen this practice
manipulated by getting friends and family to move to the town in order to get
the ten and get out from under the sending church. (Frequently they still want
money from the sending church, just no subjection to it.)
I want to suggest a different
tact, I want to suggest that,
A church is ready to be indigenous when it is capable of keeping the
course over generations.
- When the church has members who are longstanding
citizens of the area in which the church is planted and who are convinced
and committed to the doctrine and practice the church planter was sent to
propagate,
- When there is a plan in place and agreed upon by
members of that church to keep the church on course at the untimely demise
of the current pastor (whether by death, departure or depravity),
- When those who are spokesmen in the church when
the pastor isn't looking are as committed to the doctrines and practice of
the sending church as the church planter claims to be
then the sending church may well
consider organizing the missions church as an indigenous work.
By the way I would also propose
that organization should always be upon
the suggestion of the sending church and not the church planter.
The sin nature of the church
planter will always be to get free of authority and that should never be the
motive of independence.
This plan could only work with a
shift in the current practice of using a sending church as a formality rather
than a functioning relationship. The sending church ought not to be a
preacher's friend from Bible
College days or some big
and well known church in the fellowship, but a vital part of the church
planter's spiritual life, the best case scenario would be the church where he
was saved and baptized and brought up in the faith.
I know there are problems with
this plan too; many of them the result of pastors of potential sending churches
not being stable enough themselves to stay in one place and be mentors to
younger men in the faith. However we would be stepping in the right direction
if we began addressing these subjects with both the young would be church
planter and the more mature potential sending church pastor.
