I believe the toughest question author Reggie McNeal poses in his book, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church1, concerns “The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth” as summarized by Tony Bowick in Sums2, or, as McNeal writes, “how do we deconvert from churchianity to Christianity?” This is the toughest question due to the extent of how much the church has become a kind of business or institutional model. Reggie McNeal writes, “North American Christians think in terms of its institutional expression, the church, as opposed to thinking about Christianity in terms of a movement.”4 The church has settled into its four walls and has began to look like the world. The most striking example of this is celebrity culture. This stagnation into comfort and honor has only proved to minimize the influence of the church as it continues to stray from apostolic Christianity. In apostolic Christianity, the church, made up of gifted and lively individuals, has broken out of the four walls of the church and brings the Kingdom of God wherever they go. Further, Randy Loescher summarizes this dillamma well in his paper Six Tough Questions for the Church. He writes, “In North America, the invitation to become a Christian equals an invitation to converting to the church.”5 This all would involve a very heavy amount of uncomfortable, though dynamic, deconstruction and reconstruction where individuals are being discipled and invested into rather than an institution or vision.
Another difficult question for the church planters today is summarized again by McNeal, “How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?” In this, the church must go beyond the primary goals of a Sunday service and enter into what it means to truly disciple their congregants and the nations. A passage that comes to mind is in 1 Samuel 13 where, apparently, the Philistines took control of all the blacksmith work so that Israel couldn’t make their own weapons.7 In a way, Christian celebrity, among many other aspects of “churchianity”, puts forth the idea to their congregants that the epitome of Christian expression is found behind a pulpit or church leadership role. The truth can’t be farther from this. This mindset has effectively taken out all the “blacksmiths” of the church. The sphere of influence in an individual Christian’s life, outside of the church’s four walls, is diminished and has lost its dignity. Many Christians can’t seem to find their calling in life and feel that it must be separate from their own providentially given circle of influence or vocation. It must be somewhere within the four walls of the church, yet they can’t seem to find it. Further, there is no room for them there. These kinds of church expressions are hard to stop, but necessary. It has effectively caused many Christians to not excel in their workplaces and God given talents and spheres. Church planters must keep in mind that they are to disciple their congregants to allow God to use them as He calls them forward into their unique callings. This can include making inventions, leading governments, starting businesses, having families, and so on. As Dr. Carlus Gupton summarizes McNeal’s work, Reggie poses “a more apostolic role of equipping people to be sent into their communities as an expression of the reign of God.”9
1. McNeal, Reggie. The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church. Jossey-Bass, 2009.
2. Bowick, Tony. “Sums: The Present Future,”Brought to You by – Will Mancini, www.willmancini.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sums-The-Present-Future.pdf. (21 Jan 2024).
4. McNeal, Reggie. (Kindle location 397).
7. Bible gateway passage: 1 Samuel 13 – new king James Version. Bible Gateway. (n.d.). https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+13&version=NKJV
9. Dr. Gupton, Carlus, “McNeal, the present future.” Life and Leadership. 2 November 2011. N.p. https://lifeandleadership.com/book-summaries/mcneal-the-present-future/ (20 January 2024).
A question I would add to McNeal’s list would concern the international church as one church family. Instead of asking, “how can we send our church members on a mission trip to the nations every few years?” I would say it is time for church planters to ask, “how can we join in unity with the global church and form deep, covenant relationships across national borders?” I would ask this because I believe that the church has much to learn not only from various denominations, but from various nations’ expressions of Christianity. I believe deep and longstanding international relationships are also an essential component of church expression and unity. The church of the West must enter into relationship with the persecuted church, especially in the understanding that the West, too, will likely soon face the same challenges and persecution of the global church. In this, we may now begin to enter into relationship as comforting family members towards those who are our teachers of things to come.
In my experience reading McNeal’s thoughts has both proven to me how daunting church planting is, but at the same time it was relieving to think of how churches can be reimagined according to truer, more biblical standards. I think of the light and easy yoke of Jesus. Has reading Reggie McNeals thoughts encouraged you about church planting or has his thoughts made church planting seem more daunting?
...and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 