Stealing Sheep

Barna says, “The experience of mainline churches shows that growing a congregation is not a simple matter. There are three options available if you want to increase the size of a congregation: steal people from other congregations (unethical), have lots of babies (takes years), or attract people not affiliated with a church (bingo!)."

Every growing church will, at times, attract disgruntled sheep from a neighboring pastors flock. In the farming community, given the right environment sheep will knock over a fence to get to the greener grass. Over the years when a person has visited our ministry we have chosen not to pursue them if we knew they were from another gospel preaching church especially without discussing their status with that pastor. Indeed, another local pastor and I joke about how we trade families every once in a while. Sometimes it is a stylistic thing, sometimes people are looking for something different, sometimes there is offense involved, and sometimes they just need to change their spiritual diet. None of this is what we would call sheep stealing.

Sheep stealing is the intentional picking off of members of a congregation other than your own for the purpose of building your own ministry. It is unethical and I don't see how God could bless a ministry based upon sheep weak enough to steal. In agricultural life, the farmer breeds his strongest sheep for reproductive stock. When a pastor begins his role pilfering from another ministry it cannot invoke the blessing of God. Further, the foundation of that ministry will be the weakened stock of the pilfered sheep.

So why do church planters find themselves so vulnerable to this temptation? It may be because we value the appraisal of men over the appraisal of God. When another man says "success" do we really value that higher than what God thinks of us. Paul said he didn't want to build upon the foundation of another man's work.The enemy uses this to divide and hinder relationships between pastors, making more difficult to do kingdom work together in the future, filling hearts with distrust, and filling the body of Christ with strife. Often that strife lasts long after these sheep have stuck around-leaving a lasting hindrance for the kingdom of God in that locality. By the way, that transfer growth isn't real growth when you have a kingdom perspective anyway!

So don't compromise. Do the right thing and call the pastor of the church, tell him that you have one of his sheep that has wandered. Let him reach out to retain those folks and keep what he has invested himself in. And build the relationship with the local pastors. Once trusted you will have a lasting bond that effect your ministry in that place. And just maybe, the loyalty you sow will be paid back to you when others are trying to steal from you. Think about it!

Church Planting in the Recession

What does it mean to "seize the day" for Jesus? I suppose that it means that we need to take advantage of the circumstances that confront us each day. Right now church planters find themselves in an economic downturn. That seemingly threatening news may not be as bad as one might think. It is true that gas and utilities are more expensive and inflation is hitting some food items. But is there an upside of the recession?

Frankly, as I was preparing a message on the rich young ruler it occurred to me that there are some forces working in affluence that hinder the gospel. When things are going well we often tend to lean on "our own understanding" rather than completely trust the Lord in our church work. As the young ruler found, riches hinder full obedience to Christ. David Beckworth , in his study "Praying for a Recession" found that Evangelical churches grew at 55% faster rate in recessions. Is that because people are more open to reaching out to God for help? Is it because we are at the end of ourselves more often?

How should it affect the church planter? Well, those in a close knit group like a start up church are likely to make greater sacrifices to keep the church thriving because of the buy-in factor. In larger churches it is easier to fade into the woodwork. So there might not be immediate financial constraints. Evangelism is easier in that there are many avenues of outreach. And people have an awareness of their need for God (or at least help). We use a pantry ministry to connect people to the ministry here. In spite of snow, there are often hundreds of people lined up outside the doors on Thursday evenings. There is much need, and while there might not be piles of money to use to meet that need, we can join in prayer with people at the place of their need. Letting God be God, and watching the miracles happen!

So don't freak out about the economy. It is an open door. The question is will we answer the opportunity at our doorstep?