New Around the Mission
New Church-Planting Model Spreads From Seattle
March 14, 2011
In 2004, the Rev. Aaron Burt looked at a map and realized there were no Anglican churches in Washington or Oregon. Seven years later, there were still no churches, and the priest at Church of the Apostles in Columbia, South Carolina, knew he had to act. He had observed theAM’s church planting efforts for 11 years, and a dream was forming in his mind and heart.
“The Pacific Northwest is very empty,” the Seattle native says. “I couldn’t even say to anyone, come check out Anglicanism, come to this church and you’ll get a feel for what I’m talking about, because it doesn’t exist.”
Burt brought his idea for a new church-planting model to his bishop and network leader. He’d noticed the healthiest plants start with a group of people, so the first step is finding enough interested people to form core groups, including several lay planters, in all major cities from Seattle to Portland. If the core group takes root, it then walks through discussions of identity, direction and leadership on a flexible 10-month timeline. Meanwhile, participants immediately jump into doing God’s work in their communities. Lastly, each plant interviews and calls clergy, with assistance from Burt, and becomes an established parish.
“Statistically, four out of five church plants fail, and we’re not exempt from that,” Burt says. “So I intentionally built a reduction factor into the model. We need to attempt more than one thing at a time, and as we walk through the process, two or three of these church plants will actually take root and grow and be strong.”
The model requires both autonomy and full reliance on God. “It’s a corporate work of sifting out, is God doing something, and do you guys want to take this journey with each other?” Burt explains.
Rev. Aaron Burt
With the support of his network and former parish, Burt is now a fulltime church planter in Seattle enabled by a 501c3 called Northwest Anglican. Last year, he simultaneously targeted eight different cities—Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Olympia, Centralia, Longview, Vancouver and Portland—to discover existing interest among the residents. Through Facebook, Google ads and grassroots networking, he found enough interest in six of the cities to hold preliminary meetings.
In four cities, the meetings took root. The core groups generated enough momentum for Burt to begin guiding them through planting logistics. Today, each budding plant is at a different stage in the process. The group in Bellevue is a few months ahead of the other plants and serves as “the guinea pig” of the whole model. It will start interviewing clergy in June. The group in Longview has a solid core team, and is convinced God is doing something, but isn’t sure yet what it looks like. The Seattle group is still in the initial stages, while the Portland group recently reinvented itself to attract more people.
Burt looks forward to the arrival of two other priests this year to assist in his church-planting efforts. He sees Phase Two of the model extending to Idaho, Montana and beyond.
“When Jesus says I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, this model takes that at face value,” Burt says. “At best, all we are doing is following what He is already up to. We don’t seek to drum up interest or tell everyone what the plan is. The model is reliant upon the ability of the people themselves to sit before the Lord and listen to what He is or isn’t doing.”
Learn more about church planting in the Pacific Northwest.
Posted By: Cynthia P. Brust
Categories: Faith in Action
