Three New Questions to Form A Church Planting Theology

This is the continuation of a series of theological questions to help you explore your implicit theology. Read the introductory blog here.

1. What is your theology of Sabbath and how will you practice rest?

Church Planting is very similar to an entrepreneurial start up and we have all heard the stories of people who did not take a vacation or day off for years while starting their business. How do you square what Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, says about Sabbath, with the needs of a start up church plant or ministry? Could a robust practice of Sabbath be an act of faith in the power of God to lead His church? Without a proper theology of Sabbath, you will not practice rest nor will you model God.

2. What is your theology of pedagogy/education?

How do people to learn? Moreover, what does what we know about God and about humankind as a creation shape how we are teaching and forming educational opportunities? Our society is changing and requires new skills, but some churches maintain a whole system of Christian Education around the industrial revolution of lumping people together by age (as Sir Ken Robinson calls the date of manufacture!) and strict timing. What is the goal of Christian education—providing information, developing character, imparting skills? If Christian education involves ongoing human relationships and development, then how does your theological pedagogy differ from your theological andragogy?

3. What is your ecclesiology?

What makes a church a church? Is it a weekly meeting? A paid pastor? Participation in a denomination? What ideas are associated with churches that are necessary to make it a church? What ideas are good and ought to be maintained and refined? Is there unnecessary theological baggage carried unconsciously because of an unconscious ecclesiology? Developing your ecclesiology is essential because people exploring the church plant will have an unformed or unconscious (or even formed and conscious) ecclesiology and will explore the ecclesiology in practice and underlying the church plant. Check out possible helps for your ecclesiology here.

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