Definition Helps Mission
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from author Nathan Knight’s book Planting by Pastoring: A Vision for Starting a Healthy Church. This book aims to examine some of today’s prevailing goals of pastoral ministry and recenter them on a biblical vision for church planting. In this excerpt, Knight makes the argument that church plants that define their biblical vision draw people in, rather than keeping them away.
I wanted to write this book because I can’t help but notice the absence of the church in most church-planting resources. I’ve read more than a dozen books on church planting. I’ve watched talks online. I’ve read blog posts, I’ve listened to podcasts, and I’ve at- tended conferences and assessments. I’ve talked with “strategists,” and I’ve met with future planters. And you know what? Ecclesiology is hardly mentioned!
Why is that? It seems that some people believe that the more definition and oversight you bring to the church, the more you will quiet the evangelistic thrust of the church.
My good friend Joel Kurz thought this way at one point. Joel is a pastor in West Baltimore. He planted the Garden Church a decade ago. I was talking to him recently, and he said something that fascinated me: “I thought that if we defined terms and actually used our statement of faith, we would keep people from coming— or we would be less likely to go to our neighbors with the gospel. Turns out, it was the opposite.”
He started his church plant with few definitions or expectations in place—no statement of faith that members had to agree on, no membership process, no clear teaching on the church. He said that over time their church became “theologically fuzzy, ecclesiologi- cally squishy, and morally ambiguous.” Division grew. Their lack of clarity became a heavy burden.
What did Joel do to try to fix this? He sought to bring clarity through two oft-overlooked documents: a statement of faith and a church covenant. He used these to foster theological unity and biblical community, which in turn has fueled the congregation’s sense of its mission.3
As we noted in chapter 2, church-planting resources usually emphasize size, speed, self-sufficiency, and spread. These measures of success are all admirable and even desirable, but by themselves they fail to guide planters to know if they’ve accomplished what they set out to do: plant a church.
It’s tempting to be vague; it’s tempting to keep the fences low and the doors open so that anyone can come in and stay a while. But as Joel learned—and as many church planters have learned—such instincts can rather quickly hinder the mission of the church.
But let’s get practical. How might clear definitions actually show love for people, strengthen the mission of the church, and honor Christ? When we preach, portray, and protect the gospel, four beautiful things start to happen.
Joel Kurz, “Church Planters, Don’t Wait to Put Your Documents in Place!,” 9Marks, accessed September 1, 2022, https://www.9marks.org.
To see what Knight suggests as practical steps and benefits to defining biblical mission for congregations, as well as a collection of reflections on other motivations and methods in our church planting, check out Planting by Pastoring here.
Nathan Knight (MDiv, Southeastern Theological Seminary) is a pastor of Restoration Church and serves on the lead team for the Treasuring Christ Together church planting network. He and his wife, Andi, live in Washington, DC, with their two sons.