I want to thank the CL staff for addressing the subject of MB church planting in the March/April 2025 issue. Church planting has been a vital part of the U.S. MB story. The five articles bear this out. There are more great stories in our MB family to be told.
I was born into the Bethany Mennonite Brethren Church family in 1950. This “church plant” in Fresno, California, began in 1942 and later sent out and supported numerous missionaries worldwide. Many were in my parents’ home for meals and lodging.
In 1979, Mary and I were sent to Madrid, Spain, as missionaries by our Bethany Church family to serve with an emerging MB church-planting ministry that started in 1976. We returned to California in 2002 with gratefulness to God for our time in Spain to take care of our aging parents and begin a new season of ministry stateside.
In his article titled “The Tale of Three Church Plants,” Mark Ehresman appropriately states, “Each USMB church plant has a unique story… Each congregation is unique in the ways God orchestrates its history.”
While each church plant has a unique story, not every story ends cheerfully. Not every church plant becomes a vital expression of hope and transformation that lasts for decades. Tragically, some die. I applaud the CL writers for mentioning some of the “church planting deaths” along the way. Eventually, all churches will have an obituary.
What can we learn from church planting failures?
I have asked this question often since our return home last month following two weeks in Spain, visiting churches and fellow believers. After all, only one of the three original MB church plants continues today. That church, located outside Madrid in Tres Cantos, became a Southern Baptist congregation when our mission board decided in the early 1990s to dedicate their resources to other countries. An emerging Southern Baptist church plant back then provided a church home for our remaining MB group, many of whom are still members today.
Over 150 people were in attendance for the Sunday morning gathering we attended, a respectful number considering Evangelicals make up only 2 percent of the Spanish population. This church has erected its meeting place, and the pastor has been with the church for 25 years. Indeed, this is a church planting success story that involved MB missionaries at the beginning.
While there is a certain sadness associated with our first 11 years serving under the Mennonite Brethren, we are more encouraged with our last nine years as tent-making missionaries in Spain. For four years, we served with existing local Spanish Evangelical churches and ministries, and our last five with two Brethren in Christ church-planting ministries that are growing today. These later years were the most rewarding of our 20 years in Spain.
Why are these two Brethren in Christ (BIC) church plants growing today, but our first two MB church plants in Madrid (Saconia and Bellas Vistas) ceased to exist over two decades ago? If you asked me to summarize the reasons, I would respond this way. I share these reasons based on my present understanding of evangelism, discipleship and church planting.
In their book The Tangible Kingdom, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay state that churches tend to adopt one of two approaches to fulfill “God’s calling” in their church community: the “attractional approach” or the “incarnational approach.” The first “focuses on creating a place where people can go to and hear the message of the gospel.” The “incarnational approach tries to first create a people to which someone can belong so that they can feel or see aspects of the gospel lived out.” These approaches are like bookends. Every church moves in one direction or the other.
The attractional approach tends to produce “go-to-church Christians” with Sunday worship and preaching being the main events of their spiritual walk. Churches with an incarnational approach tend to produce “missional Christians” with an upward, inward and outward focus.
Each believer is on a mission to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and serve like Jesus. Serving fellow believers is called edification, and serving unbelievers is called evangelism. Discipleship relates to both. Being discipled and making disciples are the calling of every Jesus-follower. One approach tends to attract people to a service, the other, equipa people for service.
This overarching understanding of Christian discipleship and mission comes from blending the two “great commissions” found in the gospels. Historically, we have identified Matt 28:18-20, given at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, as our marching orders to reach unbelievers.
We also need to follow Jesus’ counsel in His first “great commission” given at the beginning of his earthly ministry (Mark 1:17 and 3:14-15) to be effective disciples and disciple makers. Jesus was an example of this. (For more information, consult my article in the January/February 2022 CL issue: https://christianleadermag.com/the-great-omission-of-the-great-commission/).
Churches having an attractional approach are more likely to measure success by counting heads on Sunday and/or conversions. Those with a missional approach are more likely to count the number of members living out their mission to be with, become like and serve others like Jesus.
Since this is difficult to enact, members are encouraged to reflect on how well they are doing in these areas and make the necessary adjustments.
Following are five areas why the BIC church plants seemingly prospered more:
1. Saconia, Bellas Vistas, and Tres Cantos church plants tended to follow an attractional paradigm. This was because most of our missionaries came out of churches that followed this paradigm. The missionaries serving in these church plants had great evangelistic fervor (some more than others), inviting people to receive Jesus and attend Bible studies, but less in equipping them to be with and become like Jesus.
I was one of those missionaries. I taught others to do what I had been trained to do: learn about the Bible and Christian teachings and evangelize. I have since made many course changes. (Go to https://christianleadermag.com/backward-discipleship/ for my story.)
The two BIC churches also moved outside the four walls of the church building, providing a healthy Gospel presence in their respective neighborhoods. Church members were effective in reaching those in their families, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Their churches strived to help new and seasoned believers to be with and become like Jesus.
2. When we move in the direction of becoming like Jesus (Romans 8:29), we move beyond “cognitive discipleship” (Halter and Smay), where we focus primarily on teaching Bible truths, stories and doctrines, all well, of course. Our MB church plants tended to center on this approach. However, “cognitive discipleship” needs to be complemented with “behavioral discipleship.” One needs to be committed to becoming like Jesus and have a viable plan for reaching this goal to experience a richer and more biblical kind of discipleship.
During our time with the BIC churches, we used resources to help us be with and become like Jesus. Only when I began serving with the BIC church planting ministries did the lights of biblical discipleship become brighter. Increased life changes began to happen in my life.
3. A closer examination of the grammatical construction of Acts 2:46-47, which paints a picture of the primitive church in Jerusalem, shows how small group gatherings, and not large group gatherings in the temple, were the center of that church community. When serving with the BIC, we heard much about cell-based churches and being transparent about life’s foibles. Deeper biblical fellowship was experienced. This fostered growth at all levels.
4. I believe we MB missionaries fell short of the biblical directives when developing future Spanish pastoral leadership. In hindsight, some leaders seemingly had a deep inner drive to be the pastor of a church, as though their identity depended on it. While most were gifted communicators, they lacked spiritual brokenness and emotional maturity, falling short of the character requirements outlined in Timothy 3:1-10. Seemingly, the BIC church plants did better in this area.
5. Our MB missionaries serving in Spain came from five different countries: Colombia, Paraguay, Austria, Canada and the U.S. This inherently provided the new church plants, especially in the Bellas Vistas and Saconia neighborhoods, with a unique set of challenges, most importantly related to developing a unified understanding of our mission. Such did not occur with the BIC ministries. One Spanish leader still serving today joined the BIC because of the Anabaptist focus and the unity of vision among the missionaries.
Even though some church plants die, many members once involved in these church plants often move on to other ministries and flourish. This should encourage a church planter amid any perceived feelings of failure.
Such happened with the Ramirez family. Their story began in the early 1990s with me visiting a 20-something Vicente Ramirez in the hospital. Much has happened since then. His parents later decided to follow Jesus. They died a few years ago, strong in their walk with God. His sister Pilar and her husband have been missionaries in Romania now for 20 years. All were former heroin addicts. Pilar’s son and his wife have been in Italy as missionaries for three years. More stories like this one could be told of fruit resulting from other MB works, even though the larger church communities eventually disbanded. There were many bright spots in our service with the MBs.
For seven years, Mary and I have been members of a local church that began nine years ago as a “revitalization of a dying congregation,” as one pastor says. We feel very much at home here.
The elders, like us, are committed to a more wholistic and biblical approach to discipleship. The last words we hear at the end of every Sunday gathering are, “Go and be the church!”
Luke depicts the Jerusalem church as “…having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). Such is our story today.
However, lasting congregational witness will only continue as individual members, being equipped to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and serve like Jesus, pursue loving God and our neighbor as ourselves, and glorify him for everything that is accomplished!
Lynn Kauffman lives in Sanger, California. He works as a part-time chaplain at a major medical center and behavioral health facility in Fresno, California. Kauffman and his wife, Mary, served as missionaries in Spain for 20 years with MB Missions and have pastored several USMB congregations in the Fresno area.
