The following is part of the interview process I went through with Community Bible Church of Olathe. After the initial 3-hour conversation, they sent me a list of questions to respond to. These were necessarily brief, but I hope you find them helpful.
Q10: What is your view of divorce and remarriage?
- God’s intent for marriage is that one man would marry one woman for life (Genesis 2:18-25).
- Jesus allowed for divorce in the case of adultery (Matthew 5; 19) and Paul added another exception for the abandonment of an unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7). In these cases, divorce is not mandatory. Each spouse should forgive as Christ has forgiven us, but if the divorce is biblically justifiable according to these two exceptions, the church should not stigmatize the offended spouse, but shepherd them through the divorce.
- If the divorce is biblically justifiable, the offended spouses are free to remarry “only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39).
Q11: What is your philosophy for how best to execute this church plant including your perception of ‘risk’, thoughts on leadership development, initial style of the corporate gathering, content of the 2-year preparatory period, and other thoughts you may have?
- First, let me address the issue of “risk.” I assume this is added here in quotes because I used that word in our first meeting. The context of my original statement was the reality of the decline of the church in America. I referred to statistics regarding the percentage of Americans who are still open to the more traditional form of “church”—about 40%. That leaves about 60% of Americans who aren’t even open to coming into our church services. My follow-up was, “I’m looking for a church that will love the 60% enough to take some risks to try to reach them.”
- I believe there will be several levels of risk associated with a church planting venture like the one CBC is pursuing:
- To hire someone outside CBC—like myself—to serve as your “Plant Pastor” is a risk. It’s hard to get to know someone through resumes and a few interviews. It will involve risk regardless of who you end up hiring.
- To focus your planting efforts on the 60% will require methods which are outside of the comfort zone of many churches. I can’t speak for CBC yet, but I know many Christians are uncomfortable becoming “a friend to sinners” and going into places and settings where the 60% live.
- To challenge an established church to support the hit-and-miss nature of missional outreach is risky. The church may want to see tangible results that may not be measurable for many years.
- There is the risk that the planting team will choose to employ methods that may never bring people onto the campus of CBC—at least not for a long time. If the planting team decides to plant microchurches, converts may never be comfortable with a traditional worship service and may choose instead to connect only with an off-site gathering.
- Church planting efforts may fail after years of investment. This may be true because of the wrong plant pastor, the wrong planting team, wrong targets and goals.
- Church planting efforts may surface issues in CBC that will stall church planting efforts and cause delays (e.g., need for discipleship and leadership development).
- Ultimately, however, I believe God will be glorified as CBC steps out in faith. Just as the Church of Antioch—in Acts 13—sent out Barnabas and Saul taking a risk and not knowing what would happen, there is no way to know what will come of CBC’s missional and church planting efforts. But God is pleased by our faith.
- For the rest of the issues raised in XI, see separate document: “Plant Pastor Vision.”
