I am enjoying reading Ed Stetzer's book, "Planting Missional Churches". In reading this morning he provided some head scratching thought about how we do church plants. First he list five items that are part of a church to be a church: 1. A covenant Community (is one that holds one another accountable for godliness and growth) 2. Meeting, 3. Biblical Leadership (leaders called "pastor/elders" and deacons" 4. The Ordinances, 5. Preaching. Easy to agree with.
The form this takes is not given in the Bible. One of the forms that Ed Stetzer talks about is being incarnational "not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the mission church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don't yet know him."
Incarnational church planters work in the neighborhood they are planting in. Stetzer says, "Missional/incarnational church planters do not need a prospectus, strategy plan, and time line; they need a job in the marketplace."
Vocational pastor are needed, but using his explanation of "missional/incarnational" church planters do we need to do some adjusting?
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