What happens when a tattooed green-haired punk rocker joins a conservative church with a predominantly elderly congregation? His life is transformed by the loving acceptance of some old ladies, he goes to theological seminary, and he then gets sponsored by the church to go out and revitalise an almost-dead church, according to Mike McKinley in his book Church Planting is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-Up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things.
Revitalising a dead church and planting a new one are very similar activities. For a revitalisation you have to start with some very difficult conversations with the old members, but you get a building to start with, whereas for a church plant you don’t have to deal with old members but you don’t get a building; but in both cases you have the daunting task of trusting God that people will appear from somewhere and join your church.
The building McKinley inherited was in disrepair, the congregation was in disrepair, and everything needed to be fixed urgently; where do you start? McKinley decided that the most urgent need was for God’s Word to be preached in a clear, systematic and compelling way. As McKinley concentrated on that, the buildings were gradually repaired, issues of membership and governance were gradually dealt with, and the congregation gradually grew.
McKinley expresses a strong distaste for the “homogeneous unit principle” (which says that people tend to come to Christ through their natural social groups), stating that churches should be designed to appeal to all people. Interestingly, however, Ben Arment in his book Church in the Making refers to McKinley’s church as an example of the homogeneous unit principle in action. Arment says that McKinley’s expositional preaching and conservative approach fit well into existing social networks including a local Christian college and a homeschooling network. By McKinley’s own admission, the church’s main evangelistic activities have been by Spanish-speaking members of the church amongst the local Spanish-speaking underclass.
McKinley’s writing style is concise and witty, and I really enjoyed reading this short book (126 pages) in a single sitting. As a warts-and-all description of a church revitalisation journey, the book will be very useful to church planters and church revitalisers, whether or not they subscribe to the author’s particular theological inclinations.