NEWS ANALYSIS: Church planting is local and organic

Mauricio Chenlo shares how denomination can support church planting efforts

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Relationships trump strategy in church planting, according to Mauricio Chenlo. Today church planting happens organically and through local relationship building, he says. It is not as strategic and professional as in the past.

Chenlo works as the Mennonite Church USA denominational minister for church planting. The denominational ministry team works to bring together aspects of urban ministries, church planting, peace and justice, and intercultural relations. The team attempts to make connections between these areas, he says, and discover which principles make us more effective and faithful.

Members of the Mennonite Church Executive Board pray for Mauricio Chenlo's work with church planting at the Feb. 18-20 meeting in Hampton, Va. Photo by Anna Groff

According to Chenlo, Mennonite Church USA desires to support these church-planting efforts; instead of centralizing its plans to offer more networking, communication and support for the conferences.

The first circle in church planting is the local leaders, the second is conference leaders and the third the denominational leaders and agencies.

"We don't want to interfere and tell the first circle what to do," Chenlo says. "Ownership of local must be central to how we understand church planting."

Church-planting efforts received recognition at denominational gatherings in the last year. At the Constituency Leaders Council meeting in Toano, Va., last Oct. 19-21, moderator Dick Thomas led a time for conferences to report their initiatives and mark them on a map. At the Executive Board meeting Feb. 18-20 in Hampton, Va., board members heard a report from Chenlo and offered him their support and prayers (see photo above).

Through his role, Chenlo surveyed conferences about their church planting and found the following: the largest conferences carry a history of promoting the initiation of new churches; younger conferences seem to be catching up with the missional church priority; most conferences respond to local leadership starting new churches; and most conferences hold minimal guidelines and resources when it comes to church planting.

He provided the following ways that the denomination could work at providing resources for those involved with church-planting projects:
• learn about and from new immigrant churches with strong connections to their country of origin,
• offer guidelines and documents for church planting and guidelines for ordaining and licensing leaders,
• integrate underrepresented racial/ethnic groups and
respect their strategies,
• develop a financial system for church-planting projects,
• work on a theological framework for church planting,
• offer more documents in Spanish,
• work with the seminaries in continuing education,
• plan an annual church-planting retreat for leaders.

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Additional Notes

What does a church plant need?

• Community organization: Help leaders define a vision for a new community and develop the local leadership required to create a self-sustaining, thriving community.

• Vision ownership: Work with emerging leaders to identify core ministry practices to become a thriving church.

• Community education & training: create opportunities for adequate leadership development skills: spiritual growth, community service, urban agenda.

• Sustainable spiritual growth: Develop ministry groups that are driven by service and planting the seeds of God's kingdom.

• Passing on the blessing: Help other groups plant new churches.—Mauricio Chenlo