Gary and Kim Shockley

by Gary Shockley

After nearly a decade of new church development work I’ve come to appreciate church planting as an “artful science.”

Before joining the Path 1 team I planted two congregations for our denomination. My approach to the first plant was very scientific—very formulaic. I thought, if I could just find the right formula, the right process, the magic bullet of church planting I could be serving the next Church of the Resurrection! And God laughed from heaven!

So I charged off to every conference I could afford to attend, read every book about church planting I could find and spent the summer carefully crafting my five-year plan. I had the maps, charts and formulas for success and hit the ground running. Like a mad scientist working in his lab I became obsessed. I wanted to do this the RIGHT way!  Truth is– I needed this thing to work because a lot of people were watching me. Some of them were waiting for me to fail. I couldn’t give them the satisfaction! So, I toiled in my lab even harder.

You don’t know this about me but before ministry I was pursuing a career in art. My passion was to design churches—the bricks and mortar stuff. In high school I competed for and won a four-year scholarship to a prestigious art school. It’s a long story but I walked away from all that to follow a call to full-time pastoral ministry. My artistic creativity oozed out into pastoral ministry in subtle ways—creative communication, marketing, signage, liturgical designs and such. Yet even these artistic expressions eventually fell silent to the tyranny of the urgent—got to find more money, more people, more staff, more leaders, more everything. The scientist better get busy!

Huh, as I look back on those years I realize now that I did not paint a single thing—nothing! My easel was bare—literally and figuratively.  The scientist had conquered the artist. I developed such a grip on my church work that I believed if I relaxed my grasp of the wheel or strayed from the plan one iota we would all go careening off a cliff. What a way to live!

Okay, I know every metaphor breaks down somewhere. Suffice it to say—without the creativity of the artist in me the scientific approach to planting just wasn’t working. It all became linear, progressive, predictable and BORING! It took a severe crisis to wake me up and seek a more balanced approach to ministry and life!  Weekly counseling and spiritual direction reintroduced me to the artist I had kept at bay all those years. I didn’t abandon the scientist-self completely I just partnered him with the artist-self. What a team we forged!

While the scientist carefully followed the timelines, benchmarks, and formulas for success the artist created open spaces for reflection, prayer, play and creativity. At staff meetings I introduced creative play things like silly putty, nerf guns, finger paints and stuff like that. My teammates loved it—even the non-artsy-fartsy types! We worked hard but we also played hard together. We would take afternoons off and go to a movie together just to recharge our creative juices. That’s the kind of balance I’m talking about!

Okay, you many not consider yourself an artist—but that doesn’t mean you aren’t. You were created in the image of God. God is ultimate creativity therefore you are by nature creative too! You are an artist. Is there anything more creative than planting a church?

Your artist self reminds you that while you have an important role to play in the creation of a new church it is ultimately not your doing—it is God’s. While the scientist-self wants to control, manipulate and manage things (thank God he’s here) the artist-self wants to relax, create, think outside the box and enjoy the journey.  Too much artist and things could easily spiral out of control never gaining viability and sustainability. Too much scientist and the project can get over-directed and lose all sense of joy and spontaneity.

Church planting is an artful science! No two churches will ever (should ever) be alike no matter how much they follow similar best practices and principles. The artist would never tolerate such a thing. Planning is important. Benchmarking is crucial. Processes are great. But so is coloring outside the lines, allowing the Spirit to take us where we never intended to go, inviting creative play among our teams, scrapping the plan for an afternoon to take a nap or see a movie. Hum, sounds like a plan to me! I’m taking the artist for a walk in the rain and giving the scientist the rest of the afternoon off. See ya!

 

NOTE: Gary wrote a book detailing his own crisis in ministry and the reawakening of his soul—his artist self—in his book, “The Meandering Way- Leading by Following the Spirit” available at www.alban.org in the bookstore section. All proceeds support a creative ecumenical ministry partnership in Belfast, Northern Ireland where artistic creativity abounds in a most peculiar way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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