What universal principles or best practices coming out of Mission OC have you discovered as a result of your work with both Vision 360 and now Mission OC?
There are several. We talk about these specific principles with all the churches and planters we work with:
1. Don’t mistake participation for transformation. In Orange County, we get so excited about events and people showing up that we sometimes mistake it for actual transformation. In church planting, a lot of the models that have been most embraced for the last 25 years are really event-driven; they’re about the big events, the preview services and the launch. All of a sudden, you see church planters and their launch team become a bunch of event planners.
2. Develop a discipleship strategy before a planting strategy. This is something we talk about all the time. Often, guys will start a church and have some success, but they don’t know what to do next. In their DNA, there’s not a discipleship strategy. They’ve got all these people coming, but they’re actually making attendees, not necessarily disciples.
3. Be quick, don’t hurry. Renowned UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, always told his players this. I’ve probably said that at least five times each to every church planter I’ve met in the last three or four years. When we hurry, we make the biggest mistakes, we cut corners, we compromise and we end up in a different place than where we wanted to be.
I think the reason why a lot of church planters hurry is because they want to have a regular attendance and gathering, so they can pass an offering basket and have revenue coming in each week. When you move too fast, you just make a series of decisions that actually kill what your mission and vision are likely all about.
4. Plant the Gospel before planting a church. You hear this all the time, but it can’t be overstated. If you plant a worship service, then people familiar with the church will show up. But if you plant the Gospel, the community and the city will show up. Seeds of relationship that have been developed over time will show up, and you’ll plant a church with people who are unchurched and don’t know Jesus and probably aren’t familiar with church.
So one of the things we try to do—and this is part of the “be quick don’t hurry” quote—is really try to help planters understand how important it is to spend time in and even live in a place where someday you’ll plant a church. Build a bunch of relational equity and present the Gospel before you actually plant.
Norb Kohler is a great example of planting the Gospel before planting a church. They took spiritual responsibility and ownership for an entertainment center called The District in Tustin, Calif., (movie theater, bowling, shops, restaurants). He spent a year getting to know every single store owner, every manager, every employee. He ate lunch there every day, and they planted Convergence Church actually in the theater. The church is made up mostly of people who work at and spend time at The District.