When I came across this video, it was refreshing to hear a well respected church leader share his thoughts so frankly. I think in the church we have also become so PC (politically correct) that we are afraid of offending anybody. But the reality is that truth sometimes is hard to hear and even harder to accept.
There are many people today who are trying to start up churches – which is a great thing because we will never have “too many” churches. No “one” church can reach out to the whole university or even the whole city. But the question becomes what is the best way to start up churches.
Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Dallas, addresses the reality of many young church planters starting churches by stealing people from other churches, hence his vocabulary of “church pirates.”
I think there are two issues at hand. First, when we think about church planting the best way to approach it by doing evangelism. But this takes a lot of time and effort, which many church planters are not willing to go through. Secondly, many people who check out or join new church plants are usually “disgruntled,” “dissatisfied,” and “disillusioned” people (please note: I did not say, “all” but “many”). Therefore, should we just tell them not to come to the new church plant because they have issues that they need to deal with the old church?
No matter how you look at it, our goal should always be to reach out to the unreached. Also, if disgruntled, dissatisfied, and disillusioned people from other churches come, we should try to make sure that they resolve whatever issues they have and get the blessings from their former pastor before they can attend the new church. Hmm… maybe this will solve some of the issues.
Church planting is not easy. It really has to be the work of God; and God using people who are completely surrender to Him.
It is my prayer that as we go into various campuses and cities to plant future churches, we will always reach out to the unreached rather than trying to fight over the same piece of pie. The world is just too big and time is just too short for us to neglect the harvest. If there are some people who are coming out to our church, who were part of another church, then I think it is our responsibility to make sure and direct them to get the blessings of their former pastor. But our main focus should be on the unreached and the pre-Christians.
Anyways, check out this video by Ed Young and some of his candid and up-in-your-face sharing about church pirates.