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Emmanuel Research Review

Resources for the urban pastor and community leader
published by Emmanuel Gospel Center, Boston
Issue No. 13 — January 2006

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The Emmanuel Research Review is a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center. The Review features articles, papers, resources, and information that we believe are helpful and relevant to urban pastors, leaders, and community members in their efforts to serve their communities effectively.

In this issue: What Church Planters Are Saying

Introduction

by Brian Corcoran
Research Associate
Emmanuel Research Institute

In this issue of the Emmanuel Research Review, we listen in on a panel discussion featuring four diverse church planters from the Metro Boston/New England region, joined by a West Coast-based missions overseer. The discussion, which took place at the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston on October 15, 2005, is facilitated by Rev. Ralph Kee of the Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative.

As each panelist shares from his or her experiences, the distinctives of each church plant emerge, revealing a diversity of expressions, context and cultural considerations; social theory and theology; opportunities and obstacles; innovative internet applications; transformation in team building; and the amazing adaptability of a faithful and relevant church.

The Panelists:

Matt Kruse, Edgeworth Community Church, Malden, MA

Ismail Pereira, International Baptist Church, Fall River, MA, and six daughter churches in southeastern MA.

May-Lynn Chang, Mosaic Boston, Boston’s Fenway area

Torli Krua, Liberian church plants in Philadelphia; Providence; and Lynn and Peabody, MA. Rev. Krua is the Founder/Director of Universal Human Rights International

Stoney Edwards, Urban/World Missions Researcher from the First Baptist Church of Los Altos California

Discussion Facilitator:

Ralph Kee, Church Planter and Facilitator, Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative, Boston

In this issue of the Review, we offer both text and audio excerpts, as well as images from the actual panel discussion, along with other information to profile these churches and ministries. While portions of the discussion are available online in MP3 files, the entire panel discussion is available on CD by request.

As usual, we conclude this issue with a list of print and online resources for those who want to further explore this topic. As always, your feedback is appreciated!

Talk to Me! What Church Planters are Saying

The complete comments from each panelist are available in both a written transcript and in an MP3 audio file:

Matt Kruse: read | listen

Edgeworth Church
238 Highland Avenue
Malden MA 02148
781-420-9291
http://www.edgeworthchurch.com/

Matt is the lead pastor and first shepherd/elder of Edgeworth Church. His responsibilities include leading, preaching/teaching, and loving people. He and Grace have been married for almost 10 years and have 3 children. Matt is currently tent-making in financial management for a local school district as Edgeworth gets going.

some quotes:
“I’m convinced that the church exists to be a bridge between people and God; between the culture and the gospel. And we have to find ways to get the message of Christ and the truth of who God is and what he has done to the people that God has called us to. We have to build that bridge.”

“For us that has meant no more neighborhood focus. When we started church, we thought, we are just going to reach another neighborhood. We got this school in this neighborhood called Edgeworth, with about five thousand people. Everybody told me it was a great neighborhood. And it was, thirty or forty years ago. So we spun our wheels for about two years doing church toward our neighborhood. Doing outreaches. Knocking on doors. Handing out flyers. And it was a waste of time because our culture was no longer defined by neighborhood. We were doing church toward our neighborhood and not toward our culture. Rather than trying to meet the needs of a neighborhood that existed 30 years ago, we are called to reach culture in the Malden area. And that has been a big shift for us in thinking; instead of geographically, thinking culturally.”

“We don’t use paper at all. We don’t do a bulletin. We don’t mail anything. Everything is done online or through the overhead projector. Because, that’s the way our culture is. And they are not interested in being handed a commodity when they come to church. But if they want, they can jump online.”

“I’m such a control-freak, Type A personality, and all that jazz. I’ve literally, by and in his grace, been forcing my hands open so that I am no longer holding the church back. Everything doesn’t have to be funneled through me. I used to stand up and lead the worship. God has given us somebody who has a heart for him and can lead the worship. I don’t have to do this. He can do it better than I can. So I’m not doing it. I used to do everything from setting up to locking the door. I don’t have to set up. Somebody else can lock the door. I don’t have to counsel everyone. I don’t have to cook meals for everyone or organize everything. I need to preach the gospel. I need to shepherd the leaders of the church. I need to cast vision. I need to track the culture. I need to do the things that only I can do and pass the rest of the stuff off to others. If you’re not doing that, I would encourage you to do it. It has transformed our church. It’s no longer Matt doing it. It is a team of people doing what they can do, and the pastor doing only what he can do. It has freed me up to be much better at what I do. It is a struggle for people who are perfectionists, but it is a necessary thing for the church to grow beyond the leader.”

Ismail Pereira: read | listen

International Baptist Church
Igreja Batista Internacional de Fall River
397 Bay Street
Fall River MA 02723
508-264-6461
http://www.ibifallriver.org/

Ismail Pereira is a church planter, missionary and evangelist who has been used by God to establish churches and ministries in Brazil and New England. Ismail is the founding pastor of International Baptist Church in Fall River where he currently pastors and facilitates church planting with six other churches.

“We don’t want Christians in our church. We want people that have not been saved. And I insist that for my people in my church all the time. They become friends with Christians from other churches, and the first thing they do is invite them to church. And I say, ‘You cannot do that here. They can come for a dinner, but make them understand they are not being invited to join our church. They should stay where they are.’”

“After four years, I have pastored five different churches in the same location. They have come and gone, come and gone. We have two families from the original group. That’s it, besides my family.”

“Usually, when somebody comes to our church to visit for the first time, I advise them to visit other Brazilian churches in the community. And I give them the address and the name of the pastors and I tell them to go visit them. 'Go visit them. You visited our church, now go and visit these five or so other churches. And if you decide to come back, you will be very welcome. And if you decide to stay at any other church, fine'. I tell our people, ‘You are forbidden from inviting anyone who goes to another church. Don’t.’ If somebody from our church invites someone from another church, I rebuke them. I tell them not to. Unfortunately, among Brazilians it is common for people to have problems of doctrines and means and ways. Therefore, if somebody shows up at our church from another church, I send them back. I tell them, ‘Make peace with your pastor and bring me a letter from the congregation. Then you can come and stay.’”

May-Lynn Chang: read | listen

Mosaic Boston
Fenway area of Boston
http://mosaicboston.org/

May-Lynn moved from California to Boston in 2003, co-founded a dragon boat club (www.livingroot.org), helped start Mosaic Boston Church (www.mosaicboston.org/), works full-time as Director of Outreach for Walden Media (www.walden.com/web/teach/home).

Mosaic is a group of urbanites with a longing to embody Christ-centered community in the midst of the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. “Our hope is that we become a movement of expanding communities that serve Boston and the world as gospel renewal-agents in personal spirituality, relationships, the arts, and urban healing.”

some quotes:

“We can’t change what people believe until we change what people care about. And so what we are trying to set up is, instead of going out as lone rangers into a community like some missionaries do, we are saying, let’s go out and bring the people into the community. And seeing the way we know Jesus, how we interact in love, reflects the gospel to change and transformation. And in time, as they hang out with us, having coffee, doing something together, they say, ‘These are my friends and they call themselves Christians and they happen to go to church. Well, I guess as long as all of them are my friends, I might as well go.’ It’s seamless in terms of how we are trying to win them. We want to emphasize with them that church is not programmatic, but it is the power of relationships.”

“I think the hunter is most successful when the prey doesn’t know he is there. So we are mindful that he is at work, but we don’t know where he will strike, but we are mindful. A lot of times we realize that he is trying to divide along relationships. They are subtle ways, sowing seeds of discontentment. We all have our ideas as to what we want church to be. And we come to the table and say, ‘This is how it is,’ and we just clash all the time. So that is interesting.”

“I think what he is teaching us is that he wants to change us personally. He wants to start a church and he wants to start it in us. That it’s not so much about working through us—he wants to work in us. I think, for me personally, this is very difficult. I have never been more rebuked than I have been in the last few months. And I welcome that. And it has been great. But I never thought that I could have stepped on so many toes, to such a degree, with so many people. And for them to come back and say, ‘You know, May-Lynn, I don’t think so!’ It has been humbling, but I think that all of our weaknesses are surfacing. But the thing is, through that, the gospel is working. And that is how we are trying to send that message out, of transformational change.”

Torli Krua: read | listen

Universal Human Rights International
31 Heath Street
Boston MA 02130
617-522-2020
http://www.uhrionline.org

Rev. Torli Krua, in partnership with his father, Rev. Man Krua, has started Dan-speaking churches among Liberian refugees in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. Torli’s own experience as a Liberian and God’s calling have brought him to a ministry dedicated to serving the forgotten and desperate. Torli is with Mission to the Americas and the Founder and President of Universal Human Rights International.

some quotes:

“How do you communicate the gospel to people who have been completely broken and who don’t have any more hope? How do you communicate the gospel in a country where families have been shattered, indefinitely separated, without first trying to get to where the people are? Well, God brought me to this country to bring the good news of the gospel to the people who are coming here.”

“And now I say that the responsibility to bring the gospel to the world—or at least bringing the gospel to the people God has brought to the doorsteps of the church here in the United States—ought to be a concern of every Christian here in this country.”

“I am prepared to go anywhere in this country to bring the gospel to people and to the Christian Americans to see the opportunities that they have. Churches think, ‘We don’t have refugees.’ So we have a gospel choir of people from Zimbabwe, from Liberia, Sierra Leon, and we have a whole bunch of refugees that they didn’t know about in their town, working in hotels and other places. They were not in the community of Americans. One church, the day after that service, they had been able to establish an international fellowship. They have Bible study every week, and they are going to be having a church.”

Stoney Edwards: read | listen

T. S. (Stoney) Edwards
First Baptist Church of Los Altos
Los Altos CA 94024
http://www.fbcla.org/

Stoney has an entrepreneurial background that is of great value in his service to the church in the field of missions. After many years of missions oversight at First Baptist Church of Los Altos in California, Stoney has recently undertaken a new role in missions research to assess changes in world mssions and suggest future directions for FBCLA and other mission programs and agencies to meet the new paradigms.

As a guest at this event, Stoney takes a few moments to reflect on some of the issues raised by other panelists.

Q&A: read | listen
The event closes with 10 minutes of questions and answers on a variety of topics.

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Resources on Church Planting

by Ralph Kee and Rudy Mitchell

I. Books and Papers about Urban Church Planting

Church Planting for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Guide for New Churches and Those Desiring Renewal. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2004. This one covers it all. In this third edition, readers will find material on the importance of healthy, biblical change in our churches, updated appendixes, insight on our postmodern ministry context, and strategies for reaching new population demographics such as Generations X and Y.

Conn, Harvie M. Planting and growing urban churches from dream to reality. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books, 1997.

Courtney, Thomas J. A Church Planting Strategy for the Urban Poor. Diss. Westminster Theological Seminary, 1987.

Dubose, Francis M. How churches grow in an urban world. Nashville: Broadman P, 1978. History, theology, and strategy of growth in all kinds of city churches.

Ellis, Roger, and Roger Mitchell. Radical Church Planting. Cambridge: Crossway, 1992. Insightful. The British seem to have a lot to offer America in the area of urban church planting.

Francis, Hozell C. Church Planting in the African-American Context. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1999.

Greenway, Roger. Guidelines for Urban Planting. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1976.

Grigg, Viv. Cry of the urban poor. Monrovia, Calif: MARC, 1992. A book which has had a significant influence on incarnational urban ministry and church planting in the cities of the world.

Hesselgrave, David J. Planting Churches Cross-Culturally: A Guide for Home and Foreign Missions. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1980. Step-by-step approach; something of a classic.

Hiebert, Paul G., and Eloise Hiebert Meneses. Incarnational ministry: planting churches in band, tribal, peasant, and urban societies. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books, 1995.

Kreider, Larry. House Church Networks: A Church for a New Generation. Lititz, PA: House to House Publications, 2001. Kreider is International Director of DOVE, a worldwide network of cell-based churches and house churches.

Logan, Robert E., and Neil Cole. Beyond Church Planting. St. Charles, IL: Churchsmart Resources. (Order online: http://www.churchsmart.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=1110)

Marchak, Mark, and Michael Lindsey. Street Guide: Starting City Churches. New York City: URBACAD, 2003. Essays by urban practitioners/urban missiologists.

Murray, Stuart. Church planting laying foundations. North American ed. Scottdale, Pa: Herald P, 2001. Asks the right questions. Important for thinking through your ecclesiology for church planting.

Parker, Matthew, Tamberlyn Quick, Diane Reeder, and Eugene Seals, eds. Black Church Development. National Conference on Black Church Development, 1985, at William Tyndale College. Detroit: Parker & Parker Co., 1985. The book contains papers from the conference. Note: the material is also available on audio cassette at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton, IL, see: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/538.htm#1.

Patterson, George, and Richard Scoggins. Church multiplication guide: helping churches to reproduce locally and abroad. Pasadena, Calif: W. Carey Library, 1993.

Phillips, Robert A. Church Multiplication Guide: The Miracle of Church Reproduction. Masters' Thesis. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2002.

Regele, Mike. Robust Church Development: A Vision for Mobilizing Regional Bodies in Support of Missional Congregations. Rancho Santa Margarita, CA: Percept Group, Inc., 2000. The day of the denomination is not over. The Percept Group helps denominations start new churches.

Romo, Oscar I. American mosaic: church planting in ethnic America. Nashville, Tenn: Broadman P, 1993.

Schwarz, Christian A. Natural church development a guide to eight essential qualities of healthy churches. Carol Stream, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 1996. Essential insights for the church planter and congregational developer. See also the Natural Church Development website: http://www.ncdnet.org/.

Simpson, Wolfgang. Houses That Change the World: the return of the house churches. Carlisle, Cambria, UK: Paternoster, 2001. Previously published by OM Press, 1998. A book that is influencing many church planters.

Spencer, Burke. Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations about God, Community and Culture. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. A snapshot of an online “community conversation” as it tries to make sense of God in the emerging worldview. It represents a gathering of individuals with different points of view, theologies, life contexts, and feelings. Author Spencer Burke, creator of theOoze.com, provides the framework writing for each chapter and acts as a “guide” to the accompanying e-mail postings that supplement the chapters. Subjects discussed include: Authentic Community, Experiential Worship, The Internet and God, Art as a Vehicle for Communicating Truth, Spirituality and Sexuality, What Is the Church?, What Is Postmodernism?

Stetzer, Ed. Planting new churches in a postmodern age. Nashville, Tenn: Broadman & Holman, 2003.

II. Articles

Armet, Stephen. “Holistic Church Planting Among Latin America’s Urban Poor.” Urban Mission 14 (June 1997): 17-22.

Branner, John. “Five Approaches to Church Planting.” Urban Mission 8 (Nov. 1990): 52-58.

Franz, Delton. “Planting a Church in a Changing City.” Mennonite Life 43 (March 1988): 23-27.

Greenway, Roger S. “The ‘Team’ Approach to Urban Church Planting.” Urban Mission 4 (March 1987): 3-5.

Kuiper, Daniel. “Urban Church Planting and the Seminary.” Urban Mission 10 (December 1992): 39-48.

Stutterheim, Ernst. “Wildflowers in the Desert: The Joys and Trials of Urban Church Planting.” Urban Mission 15 (September 1997): 26-35.

Tino, James, and Paul Brink. “A Model for Urban Church Planting - The First Phase: From Preliminary Investigation to First Worship Service.” Missio Apostolica 7 (March 1999): 40-46.

III. Organizations and Websites

Urban Expression is an urban mission agency that recruits, equips, deploys and networks self-financing teams pioneering creative and relevant expressions of the Christian church in under-churched areas of the inner city. Urban Expression: Creative church planting in the inner city. Is urban church planting really that different? Yes - and the reasons why. (See: http://www.urbanexpression.org.uk/?q=node/67.)

The Movement: Global City Church Planting. The Center coordinates Redeemer’s effort in church planting in New York and other major urban centers of the world. The Center also encourages other churches in Greater New York to start new gospel-centered churches. (See: http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement.)

World Impact - How to plant a church. (See: http://www.worldimpact.org/resources/plant.html.)

Principles and Problems for Urban Church Planting: Taiwan. A PowerPoint slideshow covering four principles of effective church planting and three problems to overcome: discipleship planning, leadership training, and instilling vision. (See: http://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/Topics/Ministry/Wujya/ChurchPlant01.html.)

A Model for Urban Church Planting (in 4 stages) - a journal article. (See: http://www.lsfmissiology.org/Essays/TinoModelUrbanChurchPlanting.pdf.)

Mentor and Multiply – George Patterson’s resources for church multiplication. Free Training Tools & Materials. Patterson and other mentors with mission agencies and churches offer to help you, without fees, to gather God’s flocks in neglected fields and let them reproduce, train their new shepherds the way Jesus and his apostles did, make disciples that obey his commands and disciple others. (See: http://www.mentorandmultiply.com.)

Coachnet International Ministries empowers Christian leaders to start, grow, and multiply healthy churches. This ministry deals with general church planting. (See: http://www.coachnet.org.)

Leadership Network. “Ten Paradigm Shifts Toward Community Transformation.” This concept paper outlines ten paradigm shifts that churches are experiencing as they engage their communities with the good news and good deeds of Jesus.
(Pdf file: http://www.leadnet.org/resources/docs/booklet.pdf). This is one of several free downloads on many contemporary issues for church planters. See: http://www.leadnet.org/downloads.asp#churchmultiplication for an index of papers. For the main website, see: http://www.leadnet.org/.

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Emmanuel Research Review, copyright © 2006, Emmanuel Gospel Center. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint any or all of this newsletter, contact mailto:rmitchell@egc.org by email or write:

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