I recently led a whiteboard conversation at a gathering of church planters in Louisiana. I find it interesting to attempt to guide a conversation among people used to a lecture driven teaching method. Evidently someone has trained our gallant men to sit politely and quietly taking notes (or checking their email) while a sage attempts to crack the safe that is their brain. More on this later.

For now, I will just tell you that I put ideas on the board and then shut up. They eventually spoke up and had marvelous conversations. I bring their concerns and conclusions to you, hoping that you enrich us with your experiences, opinions, or research.

I presented four topics as “The Planter’s Nightmares: 4 Problems to Solve Before they Kill Your Church.” The four represent the most common problems I hear when I ask what went wrong, and I usually only ask that during a church plant postmortem. So today’s post is a collective attempt to kill the most dire problem before it kills your church. In coming days—meaning that I am not committing to a schedule—we will look at the other three and any that you want to add.

The four:

1. 1. God ain't buyin' what you're sellin'. Your mission does not align with his.
   

2. 2. They ain't buyin' what you're sellin'. Your strategy does not align with the people you’re trying to reach.
   

3. 3. She ain't buyin' what you're sellin'. Your calling does not align with your spouse’s.
   

4. 4. You ain't cut out for sellin'. Your habits do not align with your expectations.
   

Today: God ain't buyin' what you're sellin'. Your mission does not align with his.

What is God’s mission? Is it not to fill the earth with news of his accessibility through the atoning death of his son? Is God not on mission to bring to himself? By writing the kind of words I just wrote, our little group told of things God is not doing. God is not in business to bring us prosperity, equality, clean air, or lower taxes. God is not bringing us victory over other religions, machines, capitalism, communism, fascism, militarism, liberalism, or the emergent churches. He is not a trite god waiting on our opinions or a capricious god trying to kick us around. He is God Almighty and he has a plan to make himself known. He may accomplish a few of the things listed as nots, but they will be incidental accomplishments and evidence of his great power and love. His purpose is to glorify himself by making himself known to his creation--he is, in that sense, on mission.

We, therefore, might want to shut up all our pointless programmatic wandering, hand-wringing, and politicized scheming. Trust God, spread the Gospel, and equip the saints; it’s about that simple.

Why then do we overcomplicate things with grand shows and programs that encourage religious consumerism and anxiety in church staff? In my group, one man asked if we do all the churchy stuff because we really think we need to build God’s church, meaning that he will not build a good church without all our Wal-Marting of his bride.

That is, the brother wondered, do we not really trust God to build his church? The guys in my group—about 20—admitted that most of their time is spent in administrative tasks and doing things they do not like to do, do not feel equipped to do, and that have very little to do with advancing the Kingdom. Things they think, or are told, will build the church, but do not do much building. Things that are not well connected to evangelism or equipping the saints to do ministry.

The consensus of our group was: If your mission is doing much of anything other than spreading the Gospel and equipping the saints in the simplest way but no simpler, you are fighting against God. God will win by killing you or your church. (I think they meant that last part metaphorically.)

Together, we worked on some thoughts to put into practice. We decided that ones calling “God called me to ___ ___” may or may not be true, but it is critical. We should all be able to explain what God called us to do, and it should look very close to “advance his kingdom directly.”

Second, we agreed that God is interested in His agenda, and not so much mine or yours. So we will be very smart to get over ourselves and get back to finding him at work and joining his work (thank you Henry Blackaby).

Third, we are under the judgment of God’s word. It is not his word that needs our judgment, it is our (my) life that needs changing to be more like Jesus. That means we are right when we love people and wrong when we do not. We are right when we are teachable and wrong when we are not. We are right to ponder and discuss God’s mission and wrong when we assume we have it all nailed down.

I asked them to explain what God’s mission might look like when we encounter it in action. What they described sounds a lot like what we might call a movement of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit wants to be in charge and he wants to move through your town reclaiming souls as his kingdom advances. He wants us to pray and tell everyone who will listen that there is good news today: God is accessible! Jesus paid the price of admission to God’s throne room—he can be found. So get with it.

Your thoughts?