Remember Mongolia

Contrary to popular belief, Home Assignment is not a year long vacation, just in case anyone has false ideas of what “missionaries” do when not on the field. Currently I am in the midst of a 10 week tour in Wisconsin. Even last week, when I was on vacation with my family in Panama City, FL, I still had the opportunity to speak and share in a church being pastored by an old friend. We’ve been to Wyoming and New Mexico to connect with our church partners. Kingdom work in Mongolia goes on there and we are about the work of raising awareness, prayer and support here. It’s a full time job, really. Being away from family for huge chunks at a time is not great. However, I am happy to connect with churches and to see awareness and support and connectedness with the Global Kingdom of Jesus increase. It's satisfying.

Wyoming, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Florida … and Tennessee. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time in each of these places. A couple of weeks ago I was driving through an unnamed Wisconsin town. The downtown area had an unbelievable number of bars. It was fairly amazing, actually. I can’t say that I have ever been to a place that has more bars, per capita. One Catholic Church. One Lutheran Church. 75 bars. (Okay, maybe not 75 … but trust me when I say it was a lot.) As I drove through “Bar-Town”, Wisconsin, I decided something. There needs to be a moratorium on church planting in areas like Nashville (and that includes Franklin, Brentwood and Spring Hill) and Dallas (I read that this is the most churched area in the country - and Metro Nashville can’t be far behind). Church planters who are feeling called to establish a new congregation really need to consider places where there is little Gospel presence and that would NOT be Nashville. It WOULD be places like Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, or towns in States like Maine or Montana. I drove through Spring Hill, TN one recent Saturday evening and the entire main drag through town was littered (seriously, it looked like actual litter) with church signs in preparation for Sunday Morning (and Saturday night) services. Spring Hill doesn’t need another church. Franklin, TN doesn’t need another church. But, if planting a church is what’s on your heart, why not consider going to Española, New Mexico or to Beacon Falls, Connecticut? Nashville already has churches. Lots and lots of churches. I would even go so far to say that Nashville has enough churches. I know there will be some who disagree to the point of even being offended by that statement. But, I wholeheartedly believe it’s true.

I was sharing these thoughts with an old friend of mine recently. His immediate response was expected and common. “Well, there’re lost people everywhere, brother.” Yeah, I know it. And, in Nashville and places like it, there are is also opportunity everywhere. There are over 800 churches in Nashville. If neighboring Williamson County is thrown into the mix there are well over 1000 churches in the area. One thousand churches. Granted, many of these churches will not be Gospel preaching churches. So take away half. Take away two-thirds. Take away three-fourths of them. That still leaves at least 250 churches, for crying out loud. That goes without even mentioning all the Christian ministries and organizations that are located in Nashville and the surrounding counties. I dare say that Nashville is churched. Are there lost people? Yes. Are there unchurched? Sure. But establishing another church in a place where there are so many other churches is not going to change that fact.

Church planters must ask and answer the question of “why do I want to plant?” And let's not play games. Answer the question with brutal honesty. Several years ago, I met with a church planter guy who wanted to "plant" in the Nashville area. His stated main goal in trying to figure out where to establish his new congregation was not “where is the need?” His main goal was “how close am I to our family and what school system will my kids be in.” Are you kidding me? This is terribly wrong criteria.

I wonder sometimes if we really understand what Jesus meant when He said that we are to deny self, take up the Cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Somehow our American Dream mindset discounts the implicit discomfort of that call. Establishing the Kingdom of Jesus in the areas of the world (and America) that are unreached and least-reached is not going to be comfortable. The easy places are essentially reached. The easy places have Bibles and churches and Christians. It’s the uncomfortable places of the world (and America) that are left. I would never choose to live in “Bar-Town”, Wisconsin or Connecticut or even Panama City, Florida (yeah, the beach is nice - but sure wouldn’t want to live there). But these are the places where church planters NEED to live and do the work of the Kingdom. If the choice were mine, I wouldn’t choose to live in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It’s not an awesome city. It's far from family and there are very few "perks" in living there. But it’s my harvest field - where I am called. Church planters need to go to the places in America (and the world) where the need lies … not necessarily to the places in America (or the world) where they are comfortable.

So until the Gospel of grace and freedom is being proclaimed over the noise of “Bar-Town”, let’s call a moratorium on further church planting in Nashville and other such over-churched places. If you are called to a place like Nashville, why not connect with and assist something that’s already happening instead of feeling the need to start something of your own? There are good things happening in many Nashville area churches. Join what God is already doing there. If there is a sense of being called to something new, why not check out “Bar-Town”, Wisconsin? It’s time to move toward need and not comfort. That’s what Jesus said.