Calling, Credentials, and Zip Codes
If you were to condense down my résumé into Facebook bio page, I would look like a decent church planter. I am starting to plant a church in Los Angeles. My Doctor of Ministry dissertation was entitled, “Vineyard and Cities: A Thoughtful Engagement”. I live in a dense urban neighborhood in Santa Monica, and I know a bunch of my neighbors. I’ve even gathered quite a bit of demographic and ethnographic data about my context.
Yet not one of these bio page stats is enough to make me a good neighbor or an effective church planter.
Here are three realities that have smacked us in the face this year.
First, calling must be coupled with authenticity. Just because you’re called doesn’t mean you have the right to use people to fulfill your calling. In fact, it’s wrong and everybody can see it. The pressure of Los Angeles often pushes individuals to succeed at any cost which results in people treat each other like a commodity.
Angelinos are often distrusting because they don’t want to be used for someone else’s agenda. People know when a pastor is trying to use them. Even in the past two years, we’ve witnessed many clearly called and gifted urban church planters fail to plant a church because they don’t pass the authenticity sniff test in their context.
Authenticity is required—especially love. True love, the kind of love that promotes long-lasting Kingdom presence in a neighborhood, can only come from God. A priority must be placed on asking God to give us a supernatural love for our city. Additionally, we must do our best to authentically fall in love with our city—the food, the people, the arts, and its cultural uniqueness.
Second, credentials are only as valuable as a planter’s ability to contextualize. Nobody cares that my official title is Dr. Meekins. In fact, my city is bursting with individuals who are way smarter than me with far more persuasive ideas. I can guarantee you that nobody cares who you were at your last church. Brilliant and talented people are a pedestrian reality in LA. Everybody’s good at something. So why should they pay attention to me?
Our previous pastoral experience and our education must be coupled with the hard work of contextualization. Contextualization is the process of physically, mentally, emotionally entering the thoughts, the feelings, the culture of our zip code and communicating Jesus and the Kingdom of God in a way that plausibly addresses the overarching issues that concern of the people we are trying to reach.
Third, missional theories must be connected to real of relationships. Missional church planting is sexy right now. Buzz words like “neighborhood parish” and “ecclesial territory” dominate missional conferences, retreats, and blogs, and book tours. As we’ve begun to build our core team and get out into the neighborhood, we’ve found that most people aren’t enamored with our idealized theories. Spending too much time crafting neighborhood strategies can become a distraction from risk taking relationship building.
Our most successful efforts thus far have actually happened when we prioritizes our time around real people. Urban, suburban, and cosmopolitan planters must lean towards the strategies that will involve real people. Planters should move beyond the general concept of neighboring by prioritizing our calendars around real relationships with the people, businesses, and organizations who actually live and exist in our communities.
This year, we have committed ourselves to dig deeper into our calling with more authenticity, clearer contextualization, and a measurable pathway to real relationships in 2017. We pray that you will do the same.
