Developing a multiplying mindset – Part 4

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:06

Welcome to Unfiltered Podcast. My name is Lee Stevenson. I have the joy and privilege to be the executive director of church planting for Converge. And my co host here say hey.

Danny Parmelee: 00:00:15

Hey. My name is Danny Parmelee and I oversee church planting for Converge Mid America.

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:21

Danny, why don't you catch us up? Where we been? What are we doing? We're in a series of episodes right now.

Danny Parmelee: 00:00:26

Yeah, I think that we're on three, four.

I've talked a lot about just multiplication, and really with the end goal being kind of the multiplication of, you know, the, the congregation or the church, whether that's a church plant or a site.

But I think it's important for us to kind of just remember that that doesn't just happen, but you really need almost multiplication at each kind of level.

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:49

What?

Danny Parmelee: 00:00:50

It doesn't just happen. It does not just happen.

And so being able to know, multiply your leaders, multiply services, multiply systems, and so as you have multiplication as part of your DNA, then you're going to be able to multiply at the much larger level. And so we've been looking at that, looking at.

We talked about models last time, the different models of, of kind of multiplying and, you know, started off talking about sacrifice and generosity. Generosity not only of, of money, but also of people.

And today I think we're gonna talk a little bit about having that evangelistic kind of culture and how you have to multiply just even on that very most basic level of having the church grow through evangelism.

Lee Stephenson: 00:01:36

Yeah, I think evangelism, I know you and I are both fans of it, and hopefully all the people tuning into the podcast are as well. It's easier said than done if we're honest about building an evangelistic culture.

And I would say I'm going to go out as far to say, if a church is wanting to plant a church for any other reason than driven by evangelism, don't do it. It's way too hard, way too sticky, and you need something that's the driver to this. Why replicate? Why go after a new community?

Why try to reach new people if it's not evangelism? To me, it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

And so evangelists, evangelism has to be a part of your culture, and really not only just part of your culture. It has to drive your culture. It has to drive the ship of where your church is going in the long run.

Danny Parmelee: 00:02:29

Yeah, and I would say, and I think I've mentioned this before, at least at some point during this podcast is that as a church planter, I thought that it was necessary to have the gift of evangelism. And so even early on, when people had asked me to give my. My gift list type of thing, I'd always say evangelism.

I think it was over time that I realized I actually don't have the gift of evangelism, but I do have the passion and the drive for it.

And so I tell people that that the prerequisite for a church planner isn't to have the gift of evangelism, but it's to have that passion and drive for it, because God will surround you with other evangelists. And some church planners are evangelists. I mean, I know some where it's like, man, they just are leading people to Christ left and right.

Like, individually.

Lee Stephenson: 00:03:12

Yeah, absolutely.

Danny Parmelee: 00:03:12

Yes.

I would lead people to Christ in the context of the service, and I would share my faith that there's just those people that it's like every time they sit down on a plane, like.

Lee Stephenson: 00:03:20

You know, somebody's coming to Christ.

Danny Parmelee: 00:03:21

Yeah, someone's coming to Christ type of thing, but absolutely needs to be the driving force and should then shape a lot of the decisions that are made. Everything from where you meet, what the service looks like, your outreach is, how your marketing's done. All of that stuff is.

Is driven by how do we reach the person that's far from God.

Lee Stephenson: 00:03:43

And I think it's okay. When you're thinking about evangelism as a driver in the life of your church, you really.

When you're thinking about sending, multiplying, reproducing, you've got to consider your ROI or your return on your investment. If we're sending a planter into this community, where are we going to see the most fruit?

And I think that somewhat comes back to kind of the person of peace principle that you see in the New Testament. And, you know, and Jesus sends out his disciples, talking to a knock on the door, see who's receptive.

If you're not received, knock the dust off your shoes and move on. I do think there's an element of that as a church is looking at planting that you really want to begin to look for. Where.

Where can we see the greatest return on our investment? You know, if, you know, like, hey, this. This corridor right here, this square mile has five new church plants.

Well, you probably don't need to make it six. You know, it's like, where are they? Not where. Where are people desperate to hear the gospel? And how do we get there?

How do we get into that community? How do we find a planter that understands and speaks the language of that community as well?

What are some tips in your mind, Danny, of questions that pastors or leadership teams can ask of themselves to identify are we evangelistically driven or, you know, so that it can have honest conversations. If they're not, then they can begin to think through and we'll talk a little bit about this on afterwards.

Then we can begin to implement some strategies to turn the corner so that we are becoming more evangelistically aware.

Danny Parmelee: 00:05:24

Well, I think part of it is just evaluating if first of all, the planter themselves understands the gospel.

And I know that that sounds pretty basic and is maybe kind of a cliche question, but I think just starting there and then does the leadership, does the launch team, do the volunteers understand that and then understand their role and responsibility so that it is not just all on the church planter to do?

The other thing that I would say is even just from a planter's perspective is to understand that not every single person is going to individually lead people to Christ as well too.

Lee Stephenson: 00:06:07

Okay.

Danny Parmelee: 00:06:07

That, that, that shouldn't be the expectation. And I've seen that happen where the pastor gets up and that, you know, the church planter gets up and says, you know, you know, these are the goals.

You're gonna, you're gonna lead five people to Christ this year. It's like, man, for some people, their, their big step is just to invite them to church, you know, and there's going to be other people or just.

Lee Stephenson: 00:06:29

Begin praying, just begin praying.

Danny Parmelee: 00:06:31

Just understand that people are going to be at different places in the spectrum.

People are going to have different styles and, you know, just to kind of lead the congregation through that and to see it again happening in different places and at different levels. So it's not all just on Sunday, but it's also not all like, hey, every single person is just going to lead their coworker to Christ.

Lee Stephenson: 00:06:51

No, I think that's a great perspective. I would even add to some basic questions that even a parent church can ask of themselves to help identify.

Are we evangelistically driven or are we just kind of playing the routine is one, are people coming to Jesus in our services and within our church? Number two, are people inviting guests?

If people aren't inviting guests, there's usually multiple reasons, but oftentimes it comes down to the fact that they're embarrassed by the product of the church.

And so they don't want to invite their non Christian friends because they're afraid of what may be said or what may be done or their overall experience. I've heard a pastor friend of mine say that people don't usually invite to average.

And so we've got to elevate what we do on a Sunday morning experience side so that people feel compelled like, oh, my neighbor needs to hear this, or my neighbor needs to see this. And I think that's. And then the. The third thing I would just. What are your baptism numbers? You know, the.

The kind of the go to is if you're baptizing about 10% of your normal attendance, then you're reaching your local community and you're seeing people come to Christ and you're moving the. The pendulum. If you're under 5%, you're just reaching those within the context of who's in your church.

It may be children, it may be one or two people here, but I would not say if you're typically under 5% of your overall attendance and baptisms, you're not driven by evangelism. There's something else driving you.

Danny Parmelee: 00:08:21

Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Stephenson: 00:08:23

That's great, guys. I hope this has been a fun series of episodes just talking through all the different pieces of church planting and parenting a local church.

I do think the evangelistic culture is such an important conversation and peace. And I would encourage you to just sit around, talk with your leaders of the local church, talk as other pastors. What are you doing?

How are you doing it? We'll create a whole nother episode just on evangelism as a cultural piece.

And how do you actually develop that in the life of your church in a later episode? But thanks so much for tuning in with us. We're glad to have you. This has been unfiltered. Until next time. Keep it real, guys.