Hey guys! I need your help and thoughts. Below is a rough sketch of what we've been talking about at Immanuel as far as church planting. I want your insights and ideas to make sure this isn't really naive and stupid. I also want to keep you guys (the Next Gen Taskforce) in the loop about where we're at and what we're thinking at Immanuel to make sure it coheres well with what we're trying to do city-wide. Send me those comments...

Vision 2010

Immanuel was a church plant in 1994. In 2005 we in a sense re-planted in the UIC Area with a clearer vision for missional engagement in a specific neighborhood. On our first Sunday in the UIC Area the leadership announced what has come to be known as Vision 2010 – our commitment to be spinning off new churches at least every five years, the first one getting off the ground by the year 2010.

We don’t want the movement to stop. We want to continue it. And we are clear about not wanting to grow and become merely an attractional church full of Sunday-morning spectators – that’s not church. We want to be a subversive little Jesus community in Chicago multiplying other subversive little Jesus communities all throughout the city. This is what we’re praying for and planning for.

In 2007 we set aside $10,000 for Vision 2010. We have committed $15,000 to be set aside in 2008 and $20,000 for 2009. The idea is that when 2010 rolls around there will already be a cash reserve of $45,000 in the new church’s bank account. We can also continue to subsidize the new church plant for a couple years until we need to start over for Vision 2015.

The normal way of thinking about church planting is that you get “a guy.” This guy needs to have pretty much every gift mentioned in the New Testament. We feel like that is unrealistic and would set us up for failure, especially in the city environment. We believe strongly in a plural elder model of leadership where team members complement each other. Why not start a new church with an elder team right from the get-go?

Currently we have 3 elders. In 2007 we are focusing on praying for and identifying potential future elder candidates and personally investing in them. By the end of 2008 we’d like to bring at least 3 new elders on to the current leadership team. Within that newly expanded team as we talk and think and pray at least 3 people will decide to leave Immanuel and be elders at the new church plant. This team will need to have at least one person with each of the following gifts: apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, shepherding, teaching (cf. Eph. 4:11). In 2009 these 3 elders will begin meeting together to pray and seek direction for what the new church plant will look like: vision, values, philosophy of ministry, neighborhood, who (if any) among the elders will be supported by the church, etc… Towards the end of that year they will begin to pitch the vision of this new church plant to Immanuel and ask people to leave Immanuel and come join this new church. We will need at least 25 people to leave and go with them.