Build on the Past Instead of Starting From Scratch

I've had this thought in my head for awhile...

What if the reason the church isn't making a substantial impact in our culture is that every generation abandons the vision and mission of the previous generation in favor of a new vision?

Certainly we need to re-evaluate, re-phrase, and re-strategize as time passes and culture changes, but that's different from abandoning a vision. I wonder if perhaps we're not re-evaluating enough.



It seems like this is a pattern (of course, I'm only 31 [almost 32], and I'm not old enough to have seen one of these cycles in real life...take it with a grain of salt):

• Young, energized, entrepreneurial leader is unsatisfied with the status quo
• Therefore, he casts new vision for what church can be and plants a new kind of church
• Young leader is wildly successful in his 30's through 40's
• After 20 years, the benefits, faults, and consequences of this new model start to become obvious.
• A new young, energized, entrepreneurial leader is unsatisfied with the status quo...

What if, instead of starting a new mission, vision, strategy, etc. each generation, what if we fine reformed and tweaked the ideas of the past?

Here's a gross generalization (I'm about to pretend I'm speaking about other people, but I'm really writing about myself and I give myself a nice title)

Young, visionary leaders tend to be...

1) Creative
2) Energized
3) Highly motivated
4) Frustrated with the status quo
5) Critical of the past
6) Of the opinion that they've got solutions to the previous generations problems
7) Looking to make their unique mark on the world

What if we spent all of that energy building on the past rather than reacting to it!?!?

MY STORY [to slightly arrogantly use myself as a positive example]

When I was seven, I started attending a church in Austin, Texas called Hill Country Bible Church.  The church had about 200 people in adult worship on a given Sunday morning.  Around the time I was in middle school, they announced their vision was to start planting churches in the Austin area to reach every man, woman, and child with the gospel in the Austin area.  By the time I graduated high school, the church had grown to over 2,000 people (it's now over 5,000) and had planted two churches (with a 3rd coming soon).

A couple years later, I found myself attending one of the church plants.  Very quickly, they realized that I knew how to run sound, and I found myself plugged into the worship team.  After a bit of time, they recruited me to the middle school ministry.  At the time, I had no idea that this was going to transform my life.  The following summer, I ended up interning, and I discovered my life's calling to ministry.

Jump forward four years (I interned for another year, went to Bible college, and got married), and I was offered a pastoring position at another church plant associated with the church I grew up at (we're like a mini-denomination: the Association of Hill Country Churches). After a pastoral change during my first year, my actual youth pastor growing up took over as the lead pastor of the church.  Jump forward a few years, we hired a worship director, Spencer Roth...the son of the worship director whom I ran sound for nearly 10 years earlier, and one of my students when I interned.  My church has three generations of staff all on the same mission to reach every man, woman, and child.

A LEGACY CONTINUED

Why do I tell my story?

Well, the church I grew up at started a church planting movement which now has over 20 churches in the Austin area.  The original church is a full blown mega-church.  A few others are at over 500 people.  Many are like my church, mid-sized but one of the largest in our community.  And there are about 10 which are under 3 years old and not large numerically, but heavily involved in their community.  And, a few churches have failed.  I would be the first to be able to criticize elements of our association (and my own church, and my own ministry), but I see the whole as healthier than individual parts.

Just this last year, a church was started in central Austin (one of the least churched areas) by two of my peers who grew up in youth group with me.  They are the first of my generation to continue the vision.  I have no definitive numbers, but probably at least two dozen students who graduated out of a Hill Country student ministry are on staff at a Hill Country Church.

EXPLORE GOD

One of the neatest things I have been a part of in ministry was an Austin area campaign called Explore God.  Explore God was a massive campaign intended to united the churches in Austin to have a shared sermon series and small groups for the purpose of changing the topic of conversation in Austin.  A large single donor and several area mega-churches pooled their money to pay for over 20 billboards and many radio ads.  They created incredible videos for a website to answer life's toughest questions.  Prior to the launch of the city-wide sermon series, they provided promo-videos, sermon outlines, extensive notes, and promo graphics to all the churches.

How does this tie to my previous point?

Well, the church I grew up at Hill Country Bible Church Austin was one of the primary forces in making this incredible campaign happen (with many others in the area like Gateway Church). What happened is that the churches in association all immediately connected with the vision of the campaign, and they became local evangelists for the campaign.  Instead of a few mega-church pastors trying to rally a city, you had over 20 pastors in local churches attempting to recruit pastors they already have relationships with to join the campaign.  While the campaign started with lofty goals about involvement, their expectations were blown out of the water.

In the end, over 350 churches in the Austin area all joined the campaign, accounting for something like 33% of churches in the Austin area.  The campaign had such an impact that there were continuous news campaigns on the movement for the month prior to launch.  The Christian Post even wrote an article on the movement, and other cities are looking to run the campaign as well.

So, what's my big point?

All of this was possible because a vision of a few men 20 years ago has continued.  They invested in the next generation, and sold them on a vision.  As time passed, instead of having to create a new vision for reaching our city, we have continued theirs.  

It's not perfect. It's messy.  There have been tons of mistakes, but...

We're building on the past instead of starting from scratch.