At last week’s round table meeting with the Church of Christ youth pastors we discussed the whole thing of planting an ’emerging church’ and I sensed the need to clarify that its not for everyone.

In fact its probably not for lots of people…

Just as planting a typical church is not for everyone I would suggest there are some character qualities that enhance a person’s chances of success and some that would be less desirable.

Perhaps the top of my list is what you might call being a ‘self starter’, or an ‘initiative taker’. So far no one has come to my door and asked me for information about Jesus… No one has invited me to join a community group, and no one who I hadn’t met first has asked me into their home.

Hmmm… tell you something?!

I’d suggest that if a person isn’t prepared to make the first move then it’ll be a long, lonely and possibly disillusioning experience. I sense the ability to grab the bull by the horns and take initiative in meeting people is for me possibly the single biggest quality a church planter needs.

Alongside this would be the ability to live with chaos, ambiguity and uncertainty cheaper by the dozen 2 download free beowulf grendel divx movie online . This is pretty hard at times as we come from well established and ordered systems that have been part of our lives for a long time.

But in an emerging missional setting we are ‘building the bridge as we walk on it’, learning as we go and changing as we need to. We are an experiment in progress and those seeking stability and predictability will be disturbed by the lack of familiarity. Ultimately there needs to be some systems established as no organism can live in a constant state of chaos, but these will take time to form and may even mutate regularly as the church evolves.

Clarity of vision would also be very high on the list of important qualities. It can be easy to get distracted from the main game or to be swayed by the opinions of other strong people. While you may not need to have filled in all the blanks, a well distilled concept of who you are and what you are doing is essential.

The longer I do this the stronger my own sense of calling to being a missionary becomes and the stronger is my committment to leading a team of people who also see themselves as urban missionaries. I don’t want to preach good sermons or run great Sunday services. I will do these things if they are what missionaries do, but I won’t be chasing them in themselves.

Have I forgotten qualities like love, patience, sense of humour, etc etc?…

Nope – there are many essentials – some I would take as ‘givens’ – but my observation of how we have planted churches over the years would suggest that others need to be spelt out a little more clearly!

Just my two bobs worth