7 reasons why you would be wise to "re-think" the Franchised Church (part 2)

In response to the recent article in Leadership Journal that centered around my thoughts about video church, "franchising", North Point and church planting...here's a few things I would like to share as feedback and discussion points as I've digested the article and commentary that followed.  Disclaimer: These opinions are mine only and have nothing to do whatsoever with North Point Ministries, Andy Stanley or the leadership team here at Cumberland Church.  These are just my opinions, shared as one church leader to a group of others.  Thank you for allowing me to join in and continue the conversation with you.

With all of that said, here's my thoughts on "franchising the church"... 

(If you missed Part 1, please click here)

(4)  If I could, I would bet money that your church is currently using a “franchised church" model.  Every church leader and church planter I know is implementing parts of, or in full, a franchised church system from another church.  Whether it's Willow, Saddleback, Fellowship, Fellowship Bible - Little Rock, Life Church, North Coast, Hillsong, Mars Hill, John Piper, Ed Young Jr., Perry Noble, Erwin McManus, Dino Rizzo, Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, John Maxwell, North Point or First Baptist-something....we're all transporting something from somebody. You pastors and church leaders are lying to yourself and fooling no one to think that you and your church are TRULY 100% original.  It ain't happenin'.  As Solomon said, "there is really nothing new under the sun".  Please save us the "authenticity" and "you lead as your led by Spirit" sermon.  At the end of the day...you're borrowing and implementing someone's system...and you know it. ;>)  That's cool.  No reason to be ashamed of that.  That's wise!  But, just be honest and admit it.  Truth is, we're all doing it.  I'm just more upfront, honest and strategic about it than you are right now.  ;>)  Still don't believe me?  Well, then let's dig a little deeper.

For example, if your church has Sunday School, small groups, does Men's Fraternity for your Men's Ministry, has a Beth Moore Bible Study for women, has a strategy for doing inner-city ministry, has a church choir, does expository teaching thru a complete book of the Bible, has a Sunday night or Wednesday night service, has 101 to 401 membership classes, does communion every week or you have a traditional or contemporary worship service…then there’s a 99.9% chance you are following or re-discovering a model or system of ministry.   Bottom-line, if you ever were to "come clean" and formalize that relationship with the true creators of that model of ministry or you decide to teach/transport your newly tweaked/re-discovered church system out to another church…congratulations!  You have just bought into the idea and practice of franchising your church.  But... you still won't admit that, will you!? :>)  I'm scaring you, aren't I?   Say it with me...you know you're doing it, you are a f-f-f-f-f-r-r-anchising church.  Good!  Now keep saying it and workin' at it. It'll sink it soon enough.  Sorry to your church parishioners if they are reading this, the secret it out....your church and its leadership have now been exposed as not being original.  We'll start a recovery group for you if you need the help.  Truth is, most of us come from a franchised church...and we all are STILL taking things from other leaders and churches.  We should all celebrate and acknowledge that instead of pretending as church leaders, "we're authentic", "we're completely Spirit-led" and totally original in our thinking. :>)   Please. 

(5)  My systems may sound corporate, but I promise you... my staff, my church and my leadership style are organic. While the primary systems of my church are set and may sound "corporate" in nature, that would not be true of the rest of our church.  In fact, personally speaking... I would say that it's because of the North Point systems that my church follows that I am allowed to be FAR more creative and relational than I ever was before in my ministry.  You've seen this exact principle proven to be true in your own life...the more structured you are in your daily routine, the more freedom, time and creativity you feel like you to have to use and share with others.  Well, that's my church and my church staff.  Systems give us bandwidth and a passionate focus for our ministry.  Especially as a new church and a new church plant, that's HUGE!  You know what I did this past Friday?  I had 3 meetings off campus from 10:30 to 4:30.  I hung out all day with people from my church.  Two of my meetings were with new families that just started going to Cumberland Church.  They wanted to sit down with me and talk to me about my story, how the church got started, why I was passionate about Nashville and church planting, and how they could best get strategically plugged into the life of our church thru serving and group life. My other meeting was with one of my best leaders and we talked and prayed together about a very difficult situation he was currently dealing with in his job. It was awesome! It fired me up to have a day like that.  Friday is a GREAT example of why I love the North Point model and my role as a Lead Pastor at one of its strategic partnerships.  For the first time in a LONG time, I'm a pastor again. And you know what, everyone that knows me sees that too.  While they do like to hear me teach every now and then, they appreciate more the fact that my staff and I aren't locked up in our church offices trying to figure out the weekend service and how we're going to pay for it all week.  We live in our community and we do life with our people.   Because of that, my church loves my staff and they actually know them.  And...that's a rare thing these days let me tell ya.  You can't franchise that!

Here's the principle...good systems free your leaders.  Leaders infect the church with energy, direction and strength.  My church, Cumberland, would have never grown as fast and as reaching as it has in our first year here without the systems we had in place that we brought from North Point.  Our partnership with them was the wisest thing we've ever done.  Who are you partnering with?  Who is making you and your church better?

(6)  Leadership is stewardship, so we ALL should strive to be wise in using it. I heard Andy Stanley speak not too long ago about the idea that “leadership is stewardship”.  What a great, biblical principle. Leadership is given for a reason and... it’s given for a season.  I have to keep reminding myself that my leadership, my influence, and my church systems have a shelf-life. They all are under the grace and time-clock of God Almighty. I hope I never become arrogant or ignorant to think that the power of why my team’s model of ministry is working right now all over the world, is in the wisdom of the strategy of our planning, as much as it is as in the blessing of the One who gave it to us for this season.  Leadership is stewardship. If any of us as Christians and church leaders are finding success in reaching people with the Gospel or seeing significant life-change in our churches, it’s because of the presence, power and blessing of God Himself and nothing else.  He’s using us and our “systems” of leadership for a reason and for a season.  We would be wise to recognize that and be thankful for the blessing we have to be a part of what He’s doing in our communities. 

In light of that principle, you’ll have to excuse me as I strategically chose to ignore and dismiss most of the recent criticism I've received about my leadership and what I’m doing here at Cumberland Church.  Because you see for me, it’s a stewardship issue and nothing else.  I'm here because I truly believe Cumberland Church is God's idea and not mine.  Therefore, I'm here on His deal. That changes everything. Knowing that tells me that there's really only one opinion I should be concerned about and it's not yours. :>)  God has only given me so much time with my current gig and one day, I won't have any excuses to give for why I didn’t use all of my given resources and influence more.  This is His idea and it's His blessing that fuels Cumberland Church.  It's a stewardship issue.  I’ve found a model and a set of systems I believe in, I fit in and I chose to commit myself to....and I'm going with that.  I hope and pray you’re doing the same thing with where God has you right now.  Let's be wise and focused with what God is giving us.  It won't last forever.

(7)  The "win" for any and every church should be the same... it's Life-Change!  Here’s the real question I would like to ask you in this discussion?  The question isn’t… is my franchised model of ministry working, is it right or does it happen to draw more people than your model. That’s not the point.  The litmus test for any church or church model we chose to follow is... Are we seeing lives changed?  That's it!  That's the "win".  That's the reason we do what we do.   

Meaning, are we seeing people becoming more intimate with God?  Are we seeing believers in our churches connect more meaningfully and regularly with other believers?  Are they changing and maturing to be more like Jesus?  Are we seeing the committed core in our churches leveraging their influence in the lives of those aren't in church anywhere and are disconnected from God?  Are they strategically and boldly inviting their friends and neighbors into the right environments we are creating together, so that they can discover the life-changing message of Jesus Christ?  These are the questions, the truly important questions, that my team and I are continuing to wrestle with as we seek to implement our version of the “franchised church” in our town. 

How about you?  How’s your church model and your systems working for you?  Is it proving fruitful?  Could they be better?  Better asked....are they transportable?  Could they be duplicated elsewhere?  If not, why not?  Wouldn't that be, say... biblical?  ;>)   Check it out:

2 Timothy 2:2 - "And the things you (Timothy) have heard me (Paul) say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."

That's 4 generations Paul is talking about there.  Can anyone see "a franchise" developing?

Let’s talk about it.

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Comments

[Rich Barrett]

Good stuff, bro! I'm proud of you.

[Eddie Johnson]

Thanks for the comments guys! Appreciate you stopping by.

Jonathon - point taken. read my recent post about "every good analogy breaks down at a certain point". ;>)

Allen - thanks for the transparency bro. Man, i hate to hear that. But...all the more reason this discussion is more all of us to have. our mission could be missed if we don't have the systems to support it, fuel it and direct it. thanks for the sobering reminder. Hope God is using that experience in a powerful way with your new ministry.

Charles - wow! a fellow brother of VCU (Video Church Union)!! ;>) Thanks for stopping by. One of these days i gotta get up to Hendersonville to check out your church. hear great things these days about you guys! Sounds like "big mo" is visiting you. Awesome.

[Jonathan Brink]

Eddie,

I think you miss the point of the criticism. The idea of systems and stewardship and organic are great...but you didn't say that. Your primary metaphor was a consumer driven model. A franchise like McDonald's or even Chik fil-a serves to sell a product or service. In fact you even said, "Meaning, our franchise/church is designed to sell “chicken” (life change)".

The concern is against a build up of a consumeristic model of church that treats people like customers and the gospel like a product. Your original post was dead on in that respect. The franchise metaphor is just simply a bad comparison.

No one doubts your intent was meant to be good but take note that it took you two new posts to attempts explain yourself.

[Joe Miller]

Your contention that every church is a "franchise" is a bit flawed. Maybe it is because you are so immersed in the culture of franchising that you have not seen much outside of that.

Specifically, if every church is a "franchise" simply because they borrowed an idea from someone else, then every family-owned restraint is a franchise because they borrowed an idea from McDonalds. With that logic then every locally owned-family run restraint should owe money to a franchise for infringing on their copyright.

This is not to say that you do not have some good goals, I just feel that this part of your story exaggerates the point and seems a bit defensive.

[Allan W.]

Unfortunately for our church plant, we failed to choose a model that worked. We've done some great Kingdom work in a challenging urban area, but growth has been extremely difficult to sustain.

Were I to do it again, you bet I'd be looking at models that work - called a franchise or not.

[Charles]

Being a part of Lifechurch.tv in Nashville, i could go on for hours of the great need for our type of churches. The Franchise verbage is used by people that are trying to get a handle of it. I pray you guys have much success. Welcome back to Tennessee.