Riding the ‘Church Planting’ Buzzword Train….

I keep an eye on church planting in the Seventh-Day Adventist system. Once in a while I will get an email or call from a conference administrator, pastor attempting to plant, or a member of a leadership team seeking a consult or exploring the possibility of consult.

I cannot stress how often I hear two things….

“We launched and are not growing like we thought we should,” typically their launch was within six months to a year and a half prior to contacting me. And this question is typically followed by a direct statement or strong allusion to pressure to preform and grow, grow, grow.

“We just are not seeing the support we thought we would have,” and this typically is attached with the first statement, along with the direct statement or strong allusion of pressure to preform from the conference. “They are expecting us to preform and yet there just isn’t help.” This is nine out of ten times how the conversation goes. If it is a conference executive that is not the conference church development, planter, or ministerial director, typically the individual is highly critical of the church plant in question.

I have never had an Adventist Church planter like my answer or analysis, “you are fighting a losing battle.”

What is the losing battle Seventh-Day Adventist planters are fighting…or creating?

First of all my background in church planting.

My parents were on the leadership team and launch team of two church plants growing up. One was in Silverdale, Washington. A church that grew, and yet for reasons of conference vision, this church combined into another church after nearly two decades of healthy growth and ministry. It is still a sore subject in the area as the current conference administration were the apparent visionaries for this move. The second church plant was in Las Vegas, Nevada. A church that used an Episcopal Church to launch in and is still thriving today, nearly twenty-five years later.

My personal involvement was always with helping in the A/V booth, slide shows, set ups and tear downs, and being apart of a rare group of kids that listened to their parents meet, fellowship, discuss, and lead together.

In my undergraduate days, I was given a church plant that had launched a year prior in a major metropolitan area, as well as assisting the older congregation north of the city.

Then comes my own failed church plant. In 2021 I was riding the church planting train, pulled out my retirement, and planted…..and ‘failed.’ But did I?

My post-graduate studies focused on church revitalization and planting, theology and methodology. I can say that failing teaches you more than apparent success. The wrong leadership, lack of buy-in, theological and methodological issues, location, and lack of support.

What I also learned is that failing in the church planting world is also more common than we ever realize, we just are never aware of it until those of us who have experienced it.

I used to be bothered by the failure, now I realize that God has taught me more and invaluable lessons through the failure than through my successes.

Today I typed in what I usually do every month or so,

Church Planting SDA

and clicked enter. The first article that popped up was a recent one from the last month, “Demystifying Adventist Missional Church Planting: Q&A With Anthony WagenerSmith.” I’ve read through it twice now and I cannot help but feel a response is necessary.

Where to start?

Let’s read the opening statement by the article’s author, “It's no secret that the Seventh-day Adventist church is slowly declining in the United States. Recent studies reveal that, in addition to this decline, Church membership is also "graying," less productive, and "surviving by the energy and resources of previous generations". In the face of these realities, missional Adventist church planters are needed in the North American Division now, more than ever before.”

You might read this and think this is completely opposite of what you have read in typical Adventist media, because it is. But what this author states is something the denomination has known for years, and actively danced around and hidden. The author does not address the problems as to why these challenges are being faced by the North American Division, just that we need church planting now more than ever.

Let me state, that is like telling a couple that is in a dysfunctional relationship that they need to get married or have a kid and it will fix all their problems.

The reasons affecting the North American Division effect church planters even more within the division.

• People do not know who Seventh-day Adventists are, and when they do like everyone else does, web searches, there is far more negative regarding the denomination than positive, even from within the church itself.

• Western society is becoming less religious, and dechurching quickly. When society is becoming more critical and suspicious of Christianity in general, well it’s going to be even more critical and suspicious of Seventh-day Adventists.

• Adventists themselves are not even attending and financially supporting the church.

• Lack of relevance to every day life, community, and intimacy.

What I listed are aspects that are effecting Christianity as a whole in the developed world, even more so Seventh-day Adventists.

Your normal laymen or pastor cannot plant a church in the Seventh-Day Adventist system. This is the greatest lie that is alluded too. In order to plant a church, you have to get conference approval. My experience, and I laugh typing this, was very negative. I emailed the Washington conference church planter and even the president several times. Gave them research, results from being in the community, spoke to the lack of presence, what I was cultivating, and my response was that planting a church was not in their vision for the area. They’ve since pulled all the area pastors from their pulpits and left the churches with retired pastors or none at all, but I digress. The conference church planter has mislead or even lied in several of his articles and presentations. Accessing funding and support from a conference means being on the radar of the president and having favor with leadership. This is so common, I have heard it from so many.

Say you do get the favor and support of the conference, you’ve now welcomed the scrutiny and limited financial support. The North American Division has had some very unrealistic planting initiatives. Plant 1000 was only met with the planting of 200 churches, which did not replace the even greater number of churches that closed in the division. However, the NAD has stated that they will give….$10,000 to each church plant annually, pending conference approval. If you are not an Adventist, and have planted, you will probably spit out your drink at that amount. On average, a church planter needs $100,000 a year, and around $250,000 for the first year, in total for the first 4 - 5 years, they need close to $500,000 to simply succeed. So financially, your paycheck and benefits will get paid by the church, you’ll receive some conference funds, but you’ll be skimping by.

The majority of Adventist Church plants are transferred growth, typically Adventists who have left, are leaving, or want to leave their current local church. This is alluded to by the author of the article, “How does a church plant reach secular people rather than simply attracting disgruntled Adventists?” Again, people are deeply suspicious of Seventh-day Adventists. Those who are becoming Adventist are those who are in a low socio-economic demographic, not all, but the majority of new Adventists. There is also a lack of commitment from current members. Church planting relies on passionate leaders who work WITH the planter and NOT FOR the church planter. Adventists are programmed into discipleship. We attend meetings, services, and programs. We volunteer to facilitate a good program. The pastor is the leader, the worker, the evangelist, responsible for everything. This mentality is present in most Adventist Church plants.

The Adventist system has people in church planting that really are not that successful. Discipleship and plants take 4 - 5 years just to get established. 4 - 5 years in the Seventh-Day Adventist system is the time your pastor may be lucky enough to stay in the pulpit, but they will get moved on. So pastors can rarely put down roots and permeate the community. Something required for planting to be successful.

Planting can be one conference president’s vision, and that president can then retire or change at constituency. Then like the Gulf States Conference, that president can systematically close church plants while investing in their own ‘digital’ church plant. So there is no stability or security.

Planters in the system are ill equipped coming out of seminary and college. The majority of pastors and administrators have never dealt with planting, actual planting. I’ve worked with, observed, studied, and explored multiple church planting networks, locations, and denominations. Adventists are at the bottom. When everyone is struggling, Adventists struggle unnecessarily.

We have become accustomed to the lack of growth, as though it is normal. The division has not seen growth above 2% in over 30 years. That is horrible. The Gospel grows, brings life. At minimum a church should be growing by 10%. The author of the article demonstrates this by stating, “After nearly four years of meeting practical needs, partnering with social service agencies, discipling through small groups, and eventually worshipping together, that church saw over 35 people baptized into engagement with the church (many new to Christianity).” That is 9 people on average a year. Amen for those that came to Christ, don’t get me wrong. But we have settled for what is, and not what should be. Christ promises us to be 30, 60, or 100 fold harvesters in Mark 4:20. He then states that his next church grew by 200 over several years. Again, Amen. Yet, if the Seventh-Day Adventist message is God’s message, it should be growing exponentially. The excuse long used of a world that is resistance is bad theology. Christ’s kingdom cannot be stopped.

At its core, this article demonstrates, we love talking about church planting, but we don’t actually know how to effectively church plant, since we are struggling with our current church bodies. We love riding the buzzword train and how it makes us look being ‘church planters.’ But, we do not have a system that truly wants to expand God’s kingdom.

Church planting should be number 1 priority. It is God’s priority, We see established churches sending Paul everything they had to help support him so he could plant churches left and right. We have no excuse.

The North American Division is only involved in Church Planting because conferences are not consistant or effectively planting. But the NAD’s attempts are failed as well. The website takes you to the ‘official website’ that does not work, materials not accessible, and leaders unavailable to talk. Those producing the content are producing content from opinion and little experience. The NAD division is far too diverse to have leaders in Takoma Park, Maryland instructing how to plant in St. Louis, Missouri, Seattle, Washington, San Antonio, Texas, or San Diego, California. Yet it continues and has been this way for several years.

The Seventh-Day Adventist system has so much that it could benefit planters, pastors, and educators and yet it hinders. There is a way forward.

Until a conference president and ministerial director decide to take ownership in their own hands, I will continue to pursue planting, revitalization, and assisting with those in the trenches who are pursuing Christ continually, effectively, humbly, and faithfully.