Reflections on Church Planting – Part 1
This series of seven reflections were shared by Josh Cockayne at the Plant Course 2022, hosted at St George’s Leeds.
Acts is sometimes described as a “manual for church planting”. The thought goes something like this: if we could recreate the Church in Acts step by step, we would start a perfect church plant, free of all the trappings of institutional church we have inherited ever since.
Sure, Acts has many helpful principles that can be applied to our own context today. But Acts is not primarily an instruction manual with a blueprint we can lift onto our own context. It is the story of God’s people responding, as best as they can, to the move of the Holy Spirit in their time. Our hope is not to recreate the Church in Acts today—but to faithfully respond, as the first apostles and church planters did, to the move of the Spirit today for these people and for this time.
There is a huge amount that happens across the pages of Acts. But it begins with a pitching of vision. Let’s look quickly at the opening chapter. Luke gives us the context that this is really the second volume of his gospel: it is the story of the gospel post resurrection. And it begins with this period of waiting, while the disciples, shell-shocked from the events that have just unfolded are told to stay and wait for something new.
Jesus words before the ascension:
“Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””
Three quick observations:
1. We are not in control
The disciples have their own vision of what is coming next; their idea of where the kingdom movement is heading is a reasonable one given what Jesus has said and done for the past few years: Are you going to restore Israel? But Jesus’ answer is striking: It’s not up to you to know how God will work, you are not in control!
We would do well to hang onto this advice today as we reflect on our plans for ministry and our best guesses for how God will work through our ministries. It is not for us to know how and where God will work. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan or reflect or have vision, but we need to hold this in the context of authority. It is God’s church and not ours! It is only in the power of the Spirit, who the disciples sat waiting for, that we can do anything.
2. We are witnesses
This leads nicely to my second observation. Before they are planters or leaders or apostles, Jesus calls those gathered to be “witnesses”. The word used here has judicial connotations in the Greek as well as English; this is someone called to give account. Can you imagine a witness called to trial who bases their testimony on second-hand reports, hearsay, or best guesses? The case would be flimsy at best. Unless we are those who have known the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit first-hand, we cannot be those who witness to this!
3. The Church’s vision is given by Jesus
Finally, we can see that the church does have a vision, it does have a plan. It is to be sent as witnesses to those closest to them both culturally and geographically (i.e. Jerusalem), to those who are geographically close but culturally very different (i.e. Samaria), and to those who are different to them in every way (i.e. The ends of the earth). And we know with hindsight that this vision is very effective; the book of Acts follows the structure of the apostles working their way out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth to witness to the power that they have received in the Spirit, ending in the centre of political power with Paul’s trip to Rome. But notice that while this vision is both clear and effective, the reason for this is that the vision is given by Jesus…the disciples do not come up with this plan. They put it into practice.
Joshua Cockayne
Joshua is the Team Leader at Holy Trinity Boar Lane: a Church with a midweek ministry to love and serve workers in the heart of the city. He is also an honorary lecturer in the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews and a tutor at Westminster Theological College. He previously led the G2 Central church plant in York from 2016–2017.
