Winning the World
234 Wi nn i ng the Wor l d: Fac i l i tat i ng Urban Chur ch P l ant i ng Movement s
Authority and Indigenous Church Planting Movements, continued
9. Integration of efforts rather than duplication of investments
10. Concentration on the strengths of gifted, available members to be used within the network of congregations in their specific locales
11. Pooling of funds and resources for strategic initiatives and projects
12. Adoption of strategic initiatives and work groups among and within members of the network
13. Retention of congregational authority within a framework of shared communal identity
14. Providing small, often isolated congregations with a sense of excitement and identity through conference, convocation, and gatherings 15. Raising up new generations of leadership for broader levels of supervision and oversight, i.e., the ongoing development of “bishop” level
Objections Answered
1. “Denominations and church structures that impose a hierarch of authority or require bureaucratic decision-making are ill-suited to handle the dynamism of a Church Planting Movement.” The idea per se that denominations and church structures will certainly impede the dynamism of a Church Planting movement is fallacious. Many of the most vital movements of church planting in America among the poor have been movements of a kind – Vineyard, COGIC, Calvary Chapel, or Victory Outreach, to name a few. Of course, a rigid, authoritarian, non-empowering structure will cancel any vital spiritual enterprise, but to suggest that every denomination and church structure is de facto anti dynamic when it comes to church planting does not coincide with the biblical record (e.g., the centralized leadership,
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