Church Planters are an unique breed. They're discontent with the status quo and go out to shake it up a bit. They'll play around with church structure, definitions of 'congregation', and reject labels like 'pastor' for more culturally fitting titles. My favorite replacement for 'Pastor' is 'Cultural Architect'. Imagine having that on your business card? How many phone calls would you get to spruce up a home or garden? Especially if the name of your church on your business card happens to be something like "Home" or "Garden".
Which is another part of this love for uniqueness. The church name. Not since 1997 has a church plant had the word Baptist or Pentecostal, or perhaps even the name Church, involved in any way. 'The Journey' is probably the #1 unique name for a church plant. 'Mars Hill' is brilliant, and many other church planters have thought so too.
The problem is that we can get so creative, that we create a new type of irrelevance. Society, even in Canada, knows and for the most part respects what a 'Pastor' is but is unfamiliar with the term 'congregational facilitator'. Even Saturday evening worship gatherings may seem cool and cutting edge to Christians, but the culture you are reaching may wonder why you would ever 'do church' on a Saturday. Hanging out in the bar to meet people and have spiritual conversations may seem cool to you, but might be too much of a stretch for those you're trying to reach.
Innovation is good, but don't become so unique that you lose your focus from being a Christian attempting to start a church.
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