What if you joined our boat? Or, someone else’s boat and their crew?
While speaking at Azusa Pacific University’s chapel, Francis Chan shared that he and his family are moving to Asia, this year, to become missionaries. He said, in part:“I feel like I’ve been fishing in the same pond my whole life and now there’s, like, thousands of other fishermen at the same pond, and our lines are getting tangled and everyone’s fighting over stupid things. One guy tries some new lure and catches a fish, and we’re like, ‘he caught a fish, let’s all try his method,’ and it just feels like, what are we all doing here?”
For Francis, he feels led to go to Asia where there aren’t so many “fishermen” to share the gospel with the people in that region. I commend him for his obedience to the Great Commission, in this way.
When I heard Francis Chan’s message, my immediate thought was, “Why not join efforts?” This might be because I have long believed that we have too many churches (yes, I know I started one), and many of those churches could and should join together. That’s why I was not shy about asking Dayspring if they were interested in merging with New Passion, and whether or not we would be “Better Together?”And, we found that we are better together. Dayspring wasn’t the first church I had talked about merging with, and it surely won’t be the last.
Together, now one family (New Passion Church), we share the same mission to lead people to become passionate followers of Jesus.
Dayspring won’t be the last church we’ll merge with because our heart is to help the local church be as effective as possible in leading people to become passionate followers of Jesus.
Francis Chan is right about many areas in the United States. There are a lot of fishermen fishing in the same ponds and in many cases their lines are getting tangled. Everyone sees the other as ‘competition’ and that shouldn’t be the case. We are family. Let’s be honest, it’s even more difficult for smaller, struggling churches. Especially when they are limited in finances, people, leaders, and facilities. It limits what ministry they can do, effectively. It’s more difficult when the ministry load is dependent on a smaller group of people who have to do everything. You can’t afford staff or quality leaders to help facilitate change and growth. Eventually, it leads to burnout and people depart for a boat they can rest on, without having to be the sole responsible person for their specific ministry. The already small, struggling church shrinks even more, until eventually it just barely exists or it has to fold.
Some churches have declined so bad they only have their life-long core group, & can’t even afford to hire a pastor.
What’s the silver bullet to change that? What’s the solution that will finally get the church over that hump, and keep it there? What’s the answer?
Some churches seek that silver bullet for years and never find it.
What if we were to untangle our lines and join our fishing crews? Our lines could be focused in specific directions to effectively catch fish, without overlapping each other. The weight of the mission wouldn’t be on just a handful of fishermen. And, there would be more resources to work with.
I am fully aware that not every church can be joined together successfully, but that shouldn’t be an excuse not to try, or to have a conversation.
I’m not the only one who believes this way. Just the other day, Eric Mason was advocating for more urban churches in Philadelphia to join forces.
I’ll tell you the biggest reasons why many churches won’t entertain this idea. Pride and Ego. It may mean having to admit failure. It may mean changing positions on the boat. It may mean giving up power. It may require giving up tradition. It may mean change. But, what could happen, if we didn’t allow pride to decide for God what He could do, when His people decide to work together for a greater purpose than the name on our boat?
If you would like to join New Passion’s boat, we would love to talk to you. But, just as importantly, if you and another church decide you want to join forces together, to become more effective, New Passion’s team would love to help assist you in that process, or to help orchestrate that process, as we have had a very successful merge with Dayspring. It’s not about New Passion Church, so however we can help you, we are willing to try.