New Rhythms, New Churches, Bad Vibes – A Cautionary Word to Church Planters

Those who start churches often launch their new congregations at three different times of the year.

Christmas and Easter are the two obvious candidates, as they’re the most likely dates to draw a crowd. Besides both holidays have an inculturated runup to the big day—Advent and Lent if you follow the church calendar, Christmas shopping and springtime renewal if you don’t—that help build momentum.

The third popular time to launch a new church is right around the corner.

The start of the school year.

Perhaps it’d be more accurate to identify it as the Sunday after Labor Day, which falls on the first Monday of September. Even in places where the school year starts in August, church planters like to wait until after the holiday weekend to get rolling.

Why is the start of the school year so popular?

The popularity rests on the notion that people break their usual rhythms in the summer for vacations and such, and that the school year is a natural time for people to fall back into regular weekly patterns—or to create some new ones.

Like joining a church.

Church planters have the added benefit of a four month runway to Christmas with a committed core team. If you launch in September, maybe by the end of December you’ll have a lot of momentum moving into the new year.

So we’re entering church planting season.

And maybe some of you are getting ready to launch in the next month.

May I offer a cautionary word?

I’ll do so by way of illustration.

Below are two pictures of a new restaurant in our neighborhood, a WingStop.

When I saw these advertisements go up, it gave me pause. “What hubris,” I thought. “Taking over NYC? As if any one restaurant could do that.”

And then I made a startling realization.

This is the same vibe a lot of planters bring when they launch a new church.

It boldly announces:

• We’re here!
• Come to our convenient location!
• Tell your friends!
• The kingdom of God has come!

What it fails to recognize is that:

• No one was waiting for you in the first place
• The onus is put on them coming to us
• At best it leverages other people’s relationships, at worst it exploits them
• The kingdom was at work long before you arrived

NYC needs new churches, to be sure. But we don’t need denominations and networks that are popular in other parts of the country planting a flag here and saying they’re bringing the kingdom with them.

We need pastors and planters who live with the humility of Jesus, who listen to the broken (actually listen!), who learn from those who’ve been doing it for decades, and who catalyze communities of faith that are deeply embedded in the neighborhood.

So church planters, launch your church with joy and gladness in the powerful Spirit of Jesus!

But please, please don’t start another WingStop Church.