McKinley - Church planting is for wimps: how God uses messed-up people to plant ordinary churches that do extraordinary things

Church Planting Is for Wimps

Other 9Marks Books:

The Church and the Surprising Offense of Gods Love
Jonathan Leeman

What Is a Healthy Church?
Mark Dever

What Is a Healthy Church Member?
Thabiti M. Anyabwile

The Gospel and Personal Evangelism
Mark Dever

What Does God Want of Us Anyway?
Mark Dever

What Is the Gospel?
Greg Gilbert

It Is Well
Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence

Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church
Michael Lawrence

For Karen,
Gods gift to me on this journey

Church Planting Is for Wimps

Copyright 2010 by Michael McKinley

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Faceout Studio, www.faceoutstudio.com

First printing, 2010

Printed in the United States of America

Italics in biblical quotes indicate emphasis added.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Versions), copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-1497-5
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-1498-2
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-1499-9
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-2464-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McKinley,Mike,1975

Church planting is for wimps : how god uses messed-up
people to plant ordinary churches that do extraordinary
thing / Mike McKinley
p. cm. (A 9Marks book)
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 13: 978-1-4335-1497-5 (tpd)
ISBN 10: 1-4335-1497-4 (tpd)
ISBN 10: (invalid) 1-4335-2464-6 (ebk)

1. Church development, New. I. Title.

BV 652.24.M37 2010
254'.1092dc22

2009031789

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

VP 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Appendix 1
Church Planting Memo Prepared by Mark Dever
for the Elders at CHBC

Appendix 2
Men's Discipleship Training syllabus:
Grace Community Church (Ashburn, Virginia)

If you have watched the movie Saving Private Ryan you will never forget the opening scene. If you havent seen it, the following list sums it up:

Bullets flying.

Blood flowing.

Terror raging.

Soldiers losing.

Some lost their limbs, some their lives, and some their sanity.

Church planting is not a physical war, but it is most definitely a spiritual war. In this spiritual conflict, just as in a physical battle, there are enemies, weaponry, danger, fear, and a lot of pain. But the way to win this spiritual war isnt by powering up and being a tough guy, but by surrendering your will and becoming Gods guy. Your citys battlefield doesnt require churches planted by men who are known as heroes. What we need today are churches planted by men who are known as humble.

Mike McKinley, as you are about to clearly perceive, is such a man. He is more impressed with Jesus than he is with himself, and serves as a trusted guide for those of us who are wading into terrifying waters or are in the midst of a full-blown church planting battle.

Mike shows us that you can plant a church that takes the Bible seriously and reaches diverse peoples, and that you dont have to chuck biblical faithfulness in order to preserve cultural relevancy. He boldly attempts to get us on the faithfulness path by getting us off the numbers treadmill that often plagues the church planting world. He also shows us that your church doesnt have to be lily white, even if it is planted in the soil of the suburbs.

Mikes book is not just a battle cry for the rallying of the troops. It also functions as a weapon to be added to every church planters arsenal.

Darrin Patrick
Founding Pastor of The Journey,
St. Louis
Vice-President: Acts 29
Author of Church Planter: The Man,
The Message, The Mission

I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks. Please allow me a moment to express my gratitude at the outset.

A great deal of thanks is owed to my friends at 9Marks. Jonathan Leeman has been both an excellent friend and an excellent editor. Matt Schmucker and Mark Dever have taught me the gospel in word and deed for fifteen years. I am very grateful to God for you all.

Many thanks are due to the brothers and sisters at Guilford Baptist Church, who are a source of true joy and encouragement to me. Special thanks are due to my friends Gail Smith, Tim Fanus, Paul and Lisa Emslie, and Aaron Pridmore for their partnership in the gospel work at Guilford. I also must draw attention to some of the long-time members of the church, particularly Nancy Higgs, Doris Jenkins, Lem Jordan, Sharon Brown, and Lee Thompson, who trusted God enough to hand their church over to a twenty-nine-year-old who didnt know what he was doing. Being your pastor is one of the greatest honors in my life.

Finally, I am grateful for the wonderful family with which God has blessed me. My in-laws, Virgil and Susie Andrews, have been far kinder to me than I plan to be to the man who steals away my only daughter. My brother and sister-in-law have been generous with their prayer and encouragement. I also owe great thanks to my parents, whose love and support Ive never doubted.

Without my children, Kendall, Knox, Phineas, and Ebenezer, life would have far fewer adventures, smiles, and joys. Thanks for giving up family fun day for a season so that I could write this book.

And to Karen, whose love and service I do not deserve... words fail me. Thank you for everything.

Introduction:
Justify Your
Existence

The history of my life will say to the world
what it says to meThere is a loving God,
who directs all things for the best.

Hans Christian Andersen

One online e-zine has a regular feature called Justify Your Existence. The gist of the feature is this: they take a band that you probably havent heard, and they put to them the supreme challenge. They ask the band to convince the readers that its worthwhile to grant them a hearing.

Well, I am aware at the outset that I bear the same burden. You havent heard of me. Theres no obvious reason youd want to read anything I have to say. I dont pastor a large church. Despite what my mom thinks, I am probably not destined to be a famous preacher or conference speaker. I dont have a particularly brilliant methodological insight that will transform your life or ministry. But maybe thats all okay. I am not writing this book to help you build a giant church or to advocate a technique that guarantees wild success.

What's in This for You

Instead I want to share with you my story of planting a church (well, kind of planting a church... well get to that later). Its not a particularly original way to present this material, but I think it is appropriate, because Christians are people in the middle of Gods story. The small victories and slow progress of the gospel in our lives and churches are actually spectacular evidence of Gods grace and exactly the things that make up part of his wonderful story of redemption.