AEC 2001 - Murray Points Church Planters to Their Own Anabaptist Roots

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Murray points church planters to their own Anabaptist roots

ELGIN, Illinois — British church planter Stuart Murray called on Mennonite and Brethren church planters to draw more explicitly on their own roots in order to establish churches that are as radical in contemporary society as 16th Century Anabaptist churches were in their society.

"I don’t care if you plant 10 churches or 50 churches over the next decade," he told the 61 pastors, denominational leaders, seminary representatives and mission executives gathered for the 4th annual Anabaptist Evangelism Council here Feb. 17-19, "the goal is not to plant more churches, but better ones, churches more concerned with values than with techniques, churches that are healthier, more sustainable."

Murray, who introduced himself as a sort of "disembodied Mennonite," has been a church planter himself over the past 20 years and is now teaching church planting and evangelism at Spurgeon’s College, a Baptist seminary in south London. He is currently chair of the United Kingdom Anabaptist Network and editor of their journal, Anabaptism Today.

Claiming that current church planting is being done in a cultural time warp of post-Christendom "saturation planting," he appealed to the group to study their own heritage where the Anabaptist reformers planted believers’ churches rather than territorial churches—congregations that were committed to mission, were multi-voiced in worship, had a church discipline, and engaged in truth-telling and mutual aid.

"We are living in a postmodern culture where most persons under age 35 don’t even know the biblical story, are deeply spiritual but not too "religious," are alienated and wanting connections but are really not committed to anything, especially the established institutions of society, including the church."

He listed four features that are important for a new church plant: a community of faith that allows for doubt and dialogue, one that embraces spirituality, one that works with new believers in a narrative rather than a doctrinal mode, and one that builds a community that focuses on friendships, not more meetings.

Among the "10 most valuable lessons" he learned in church planting were the choice of the right leadership, preparing the planting church, researching the target community, identifying core values before setting goals, establishing light and flexible structures, and considering "network churches" as well as neighborhood churches.

In a survey of the churches planted in the last decade in the Mennonite (both Mennonite Church USA and General Conference), Church of the Brethren, and Brethren churches, Steve Clapp, president of Christian Community, and researcher Angela Zizak underscored the need for another of Murray’s "lessons"—that of developing a denominational framework for church planting.

While 61 percent of those surveyed said they feel supported and encouraged, nearly a third said they would like more encouragement from their respective conference/denomination. Some 34 of the total 157 churches in the research sample had wrong addresses given to the researchers by the sponsoring denomination.

And while disagreeing with some of Murray’s presuppositions regarding Anabaptism, Walter Sawatsky of the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), in his "listening report," decried the fact that there was "very little explicit reference to the histories of evangelism of the churches participating here (in this conference)."

"Is there a history of what you have done?" he asked the inter-Anabaptist group. "Do you know it in general terms and in critical terms? Why is it that I do not naturally know that story?"

Sawatsky was also struck by Murray’s calling for a more relaxed approach to membership rules, to move from being bounded churches to centered churches at a time when the "stronger and more persistent voices" in the two Mennonite denominations facing a merger are calling for stronger boundaries and litmus tests. "Stuart’s framing of things forces us to see that as a fearful response, how it tends to hinder church planting of the kinds of churches we seek in the emerging North American culture."

The three-day conference was sponsored by New Life Ministries, an inter-Anabaptist organization which brings together representatives from six denominations in Canada and the USA. Each year, New Life Ministries invites scholars and practitioners to consider questions of evangelization, church growth and renewal, and church planting.

Next year’s Council will be held again in Elgin, Illinois, Feb. 15-17, 2002, on the theme Connections: Young Adults and the Church. Booklets containing Murray’s presentations and the results of Zizak and Clapp’s church planting research project will be published soon and will be available for $10 each (plus shipping) from New Life Ministries, 1-800-774-3360. Selected portions of Murray’s comments are also available on NLM’s website: www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org (see link below).

by Dick Benner, Feb 23 2001

Murray points church planters to their own Anabaptist roots

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