Why SDA Church Planters Feel Alone & What to Do About It
I want to share you with the biggest struggle my missional church planting students have...
Before I share it though, allow me to say this: I have done missional church plant training with 3 different organizations. And this problem that I am talking about is not something other denominations face. This seems to be an SDA problem. Perhaps not exclusively, but definitely more common...
And here is the problem: Loneliness
It sounds like this: "I don't have any good candidates to build a core team with."
"The Adventists in my local church are either,
A) “Toxic, unhealthy, and unsafe to build a secular mission core team with, or..."
B) "They get the vision and agree with it, but are otherwise too comfortable and disconnected to take the risk and plant a missional community..."
Which translates to: "I feel alone in this. I have no one to build with. I don't know what to do."
When I trained with other denominations, this was never an issue. Pentecostals, Baptists, Wesleyans — none of them had this problem. If they wanted to plant a church, even an innovative and creative one, they had a much easier time gathering a team of mission-hearted, relationship focused believers ready to do something radical for the kingdom.
SDA's? Not so much.
In my own personal church planting experience I have found that some SDA's are so conservative and fundamentalist that they do not make healthy candidates for missional church planting leadership — especially if your vision is to reach secular, post-church seekers.
And the ones that do agree with the overall vision lack the drive and determination to sacrifice comfort for mission. (They either prefer the comfort of a spectator model, are too scared to try something new, or have religious trauma and need to focus on healing.)
And it can leave the missionaries and church planters feeling like this is an impossible task. Like we will never be able to get anywhere because we just don't have the nucleus of believers to build a sustainable team with.
In some parts of the world you do have a good handful who are willing to go all in. This has been my unique experience in my city.
But in most parts, this basic pre-requisite doesn't exist.
I know because I run an online school with missional SDA's from all over the globe.
And this is the #1 frustration that I hear from all of them.
But here's the good news: Some of the members of this online school have been able to find each other and connect through our private chat group. These connections, I pray, will enable missional believers who live near each other without knowing to connect and launch new church plants that capture the relational vision our church desperately needs.
That aside, here are my top 3 tips for any missional Adventists out there who have no good candidates in your region who you can build a new, healthy community with.
Look elsewhere. Yep, I said it. If there are no healthy SDA candidates in your region who can be a part of bringing Kingdom to culture, build a team with non-SDA's. Find people who have a heart for Jesus and humanity, who are Kingdom minded rather than religion minded, and build something with them.
Start with discipleship, not denomination. If your goal in life is to make more SDA's then you might never get anywhere. If your goal in life is to make more disciples of Jesus, then you can get to work. As much as I love the SDA movement, we can't deny that our own faith-tribe is beyond sleepy and very difficult to mobilize. But the world still needs Jesus. Build (or join) a team of believers who want to share the hope of Jesus and make disciples and leave denominational brand loyalty aside.
Learn how to share Adventism in ways that build bridges not walls. This way you don't have to bury our message as you work with other believers. Instead, you can confidently share it because you know how to do it in ways that awaken curiosity and excitement as opposed to defensiveness.
Some SDA's will get angry at these tips and see it as an abandonment of our movement. But if I can be perfectly honest — I'm not the biggest fan of these tips either, not because I don't like other believers but because I wish, with all my heart, that our own faith tribe was filled with passionate, spiritual, relational, healthy, innovative, socially conscious, radically creative people who were ready to go hard for the kingdom. I wish I didn't have to "look elsewhere". My heart breaks at the condition of our movement and the lack of energy and vision.
So if these tips make you angry, don't come at me. Instead, use that anger to help cultivate a new generation of Adventists who are so on fire for Jesus, missional church planters will never feel alone again.
Of course, I still believe in this and TSCP is all about that task of awakening the dry bones in our own backyard.
But I get that in some regions, if you want to get somewhere, you have to go elsewhere.
Oh and one more thing… While I can’t guarantee anything you can always link up with other missional SDA believers around the world through my private online academy. This school isn't open to everyone. You have to apply to join. If your application is approved, you might be able to find some innovative SDA's who live close by.
And in that online school, I also show you how to do steps 1-3 in simple and sustainable ways.
You can apply here: nas.io/the-mission-collective
But if you can't join, no worries! Keep following this page for more tips and content on mission in our tired-of-religion age. And don't forget, our movement began as a smorgasboard of diverse denominations who were passionate about one thing: the coming of Jesus.
There's no reason we can't go back there.
Pastor M
