A
S O J O U R N
N E T W O R K
P A P E R
WHAT WE
MEAN WHEN
WE SAY “CARE”
By Dave Harvey
INTRODUCTION
“S
oul-care” is a signature value of Sojourn Network. Such
a claim is not a subtle display of self-satisfaction, nor a grab
to appear relevant by using trendy, contemplative, self-descriptions. It is, rather, a thing of precious beauty that God
implanted in our genetics from the moment of the network’s
conception. When the time came to define what it means for
us to be a church-planting network, the practice of “care” was
included not only because it was biblical, but because it was
self-attesting.1 Soul-care is not a value conveniently added
to our vision; it’s a grace providentially deposited in our very
DNA.
God installed it, we need it, and our pastors cherish it.
But “care” is complicated. It’s a word freighted with expectation. We can define care in whatever way we please, expecting
much more than we may be willing to supply. It’s also easy to
over-spiritualize the experience of care, believing that organic
connections rule out the need for organization or the intentional use of resources. Where care is not well-defined and
watchfully-tended, care becomes porous – quickly draining
resources that should go elsewhere.
Finally, care is also inconsistently applied. Expertise, available
time, and awareness rarely align perfectly with needs. Like a
hungry appetite, care satisfies…that is, until time passes and
next pang of need lands in the life of a leader.
On the menu of possible network services, care tends to be
the item with no price. The value is assumed, so the cost is
unstated.
This paper is our attempt to define what we mean by care; to
understand its value and the price we pay to enjoy it. Specifically, we want to answer questions about what Sojourn
Network means by saying we are called to “supplement the
care of pastors.” May God use it to deepen our joy in what we
drink together and inspire us to rise expectantly, fueled with
faith for the mission before us.
BUT FIRST, MISSION MATTERS
Pastors who want to plant churches are perceptive, especially if it threatens to slow forward progress. They know if left
undefined, the value of care can ravenously consume a ministry’s mission impulse. An exaggerated focus on care could
be a cozy sterility – a group that is ecstatic over their care and
camaraderie but unable to reproduce churches.
That is not who we are.
Sojourn Network wants to spread the fame of Jesus Christ
through planting churches. We want to see churches planted
each year through our partnership together. Lots and lots
of churches. This commitment runs so deep that a growing
percentage of our time and budget is dedicated to identifying, assessing, funding and coaching church planters. We are
humbled, not to mention appropriately sobered, that most
network churches provide 5% of their annual budget to Sojourn Network with the express desire of multiplying churches. Each major expenditure, therefore, is examined by how it
may or may not contribute towards that essential end.
MISSION INCLUDES CARE
Ministries measure what they value. Since we want to plant
churches, we consistently examine each phase of this process
to measure how we are doing. But should our mission be
understood only through planting churches? The answer is
an unequivocal “No.” Such metrics would be astonishingly short-sighted since, for success to be biblical, it can’t be
defined merely by being sent, starting ministries, or immediate impact (Matthew 28:16-20). To be truly biblical, mission
must be measured by the emergence of health, the presence
of fruit, and the ingredients to sustain mission effectiveness
for the long term. We’re talking durable, multi-generational
sustainability (2 Timothy 2:19).
Mission impact should certainly be measured annually with
short-term results being celebrated, or where necessary,
redressed. But for a gospel ministry to be truly biblical, we
must occupy ourselves not merely with the front end activity
1. “A church-planting network is a group of churches joyfully partnering through pastors to start churches, train leaders, and supplement the care of pastors”(emphasis mine). Harvey, “What Does ‘Network’ Mean to Us?” A Sojourn Network paper.
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of planting churches but with the holistic call to help them
finish well. We must possess the foresight to ask, “How can
we thrive over the next 30 years, and what should the fruit of
our resources and efforts produce?”
Our goal is not simply a strong start. Our goal is to build
with resilience, so that we may transfer this gospel work over
to the next generation (2 Timothy 2:2).
This is why Sojourn Network seeks to not only plant churches, but to plant churches that last. This means mission metrics
can never be reduced simply to stats on assessments, church
starts, or planters funded. This is not to suggest these measures are irrelevant; it’s simply to say that they are insufficient
to gauge the full scope of our mission output. For Sojourn
Network, mission is a holistic commitment that includes all
of the resources dedicated to planting churches and helping
pastors to persevere in churches that endure.
Helping pastors. Healthy churches. Planting churches that
last. Let’s not be naïve about what’s required to satisfy these
goals.
By including “helping pastors” that “grow healthy churches”
in our mission statement, we have intentionally formalized
our commitment to soul-care by embedding it in our mission.
For some, this may mean their understanding of “mission”
must flex to include resourcing the strengthening and care
of leaders. For those straining to adopt a broader vision of
mission, they can draw comfort from the reminder that the
Great Commission itself defines mission in such a manner.2
Others might suggest that this definition of mission simply
brings our model closer to the practice of the New Testament
churches and the ministries helping them.3
CARE STEADIES THE SPEED OF
THE MISSION
When mission includes care, there are natural implications
that must be understood and communicated to the entire
organization. First, while the addition of care in a network
makes for a superior planting experience, it also slows the
speed of growth. Here the metaphor of a governor may be
helpful.
A governor is a device that regulates the speed of something.
For example, when NASCAR realized that their cars were
getting faster and the accidents were becoming more serious,
they required engine modifications that regulated the top-end
speed of the cars. These modifications served as “governors”
on how fast stock cars could go.
To install a governor is to say that speed is not the only value
we treasure. A governor means that we are willing to cap the
speed to achieve other values that ultimately make our organization better. For NASCAR, going faster was sacrificed so that
other values (safety, protection of drivers, competition) could
be promoted.
The result? NASCAR became even more successful.
Care is one of those glorious governors that caps the speed of
our short term growth to secure the health of our long-term
growth. There is leadership, time, and money that must be
spent to properly maintain this governor. To provide care,
even the kind of carefully confined care we are advocating
below, we will require an infrastructure sufficient not only to
launch planters but also to help pastors persevere. Through
our care, we are saying that we will do everything we can to
make sure a church plant not only survives, but thrives as a
faithful expression of the gospel.
2. We must allow the full scope of the Great Commission’s mandate to inform our approach and understanding of missions. ‘Going’ without ‘making disciples’ is an aborted commission. ‘Baptizing’ without ‘teaching’ is birth without growth. To execute the full commission, we must endeavor to respect and
apply each component, as if the harvest depends upon it. If our mission strategy is to relocate to Eritrea to simply preach the gospel, then we are merely
‘going’ and ‘baptizing’. Though well-intentioned, we may have settled for a ‘good commission’ while neglecting the Great One.
3. Paul’s mission is a grouping of specialists identified by their gifts, backed up by a set of sponsoring families and communities, with a specific function
and structure. Its purpose is first the preaching of the gospel and the founding of churches, and then the provision of assistance so that they may reach
maturity. While this clearly involves interrelationship with the local communities, Paul’s work is essentially a service organization whose members have personal, not structural, links with the communities and seek to develop rather than dominate or regulate.” (emphasis mine) (Paul’s Idea of Community [Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1994], 168-169)
“. . . it is clear that the nurturing of emerging churches is understood by Paul to be an integral feature of his missionary task. . . . [this] included a whole
range of nurturing and strengthening activities which led to the firm establishment of congregations.” - O’Brien, Gospel, 42-43.
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It takes longer to remain stronger. We get that. But we’re in
this for the long haul.
For pastors, local church care is primary and network care is
supplemental. It’s really that simple.
PRIMARY CARE IS LOCAL
NETWORK CARE =
SUPPLEMENTAL
When defining our mission, we say, “Sojourn Network exists
to help pastors plant, grow, and multiply healthy churches.”
This mission springs from the biblical conviction that God
works principally and powerfully through local churches. Our
strategy for “helping pastors” can neither displace nor circumvent the local church. For pastors to grow healthy churches,
there must be care. For care to be truly effective and durable,
it must be local and church-based.
But supplemental care, does not mean random, insignificant
or undefined. For the pastor who partners with Sojourn Network, the experience of supplemental care is deeply treasured
and represents one of the most satisfying benefits of network
involvement. In fact, apart from planting churches and training pastors, it’s one of the essential reasons we exist. So let’s
move now to carefully define the contours of how this supplemental care is experienced by the pastors in Sojourn Network.
Swelling the staff of the network to meet the care needs of
our growing family of churches would be not only excessively
expensive, but also ecclesiologically misguided. As a network,
we believe that the best way to supply long-term, soul-satisfying, sin-exposing, grace-saturated “care” for our pastors is to
help them build pluralities that become strong teams. In one
network white paper, we say,
Care is Vertical
There is a temptation to immediately move soul-care outward
to a service we supply or seek from others. The idea is that
soul-care is narrowed to a horizontal exchange we have with
others. Yes, soul-care is horizontal, but not before it is vertical. True soul-care springs from our relationship with God
and flows first and primarily from our fellowship with him.
J.I. Packer says, “Fellowship with God, then, is the source
from which fellowship among Christians springs; and fellowship with God is the end to which Christian fellowship is a
means.”4
God loves elders and he wants their souls to be nurtured
and tended. So he supplies sufficient grace to convert pluralities into teams. When a team identity begins to form,
the care of each member becomes even more important.
In a world where almost anything can be professionalized
and outsourced, it’s easy for pastors to farm out their
care by finding the primary help for their soul outside
of the eldership, sometimes even outside of the church.
This is not a subtle attack on counseling, coaching, or
parachurch ministries….But those services must always
supplement the care from the local church, never replace
it.” (p. 9 from The Plurality Dashboard)
These pluralities, and only these pluralities, are in the best position to know the pastor, understand his context and temptations, and best shepherd his soul. The network, then, dedicates our programming, teaching, counseling, and coaching
not simply to care for a man but to build effective pluralities
that become competent teams. To adapt the old fishing adage:
Care for a pastor and he’ll find relief for a day. Help him build
a team and he gets care for a lifetime.
Care for the soul is something that comes first from God. If
we want to enjoy care from others, or effectively provide it to
others, we must learn to receive it from God.
Recognizing this will help our churches understand why our
emphasis on soul care includes applications of rest, personal
devotions, Bible meditation, Sabbath, the ordering of our
loves, and more. We’re not closet contemplatives or money-renouncing monastics; we’re just convinced that the care
of one’s soul is directly connected to our passion for Jesus
and the devotional rhythms of our life. We believe that by
tending these things, we are cultivating a network culture of
God-extolling, Jesus-loving, Spirit-empowered, soul-care.
Care is Relational
This is the “one-another” point—a truth which may sound
familiar but is profoundly consequential. “Relational” is the
terrain where words like community, friendship, fellowship,
4. J.I. Packer, God’s Words (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1981), p. 193.
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and admonition get traction between network pastors. The
locus where pastors drop their guards and become true “partners” in ministry.
When speaking to the Philippians, Paul uses the word
κοινωνiα for “partnership” (Philippians 1:5), This New
Testament Greek word sparkles with rich relational hues.
Paul later adds, “Making (his) prayer with joy because of your
partnership in the gospel” (Philippians 1:4-5). He then speaks
of his affection and heart-connection to his friends, “It is right
for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my
heart; I yearn for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ”
(Philippians 1:5-8).
These are Paul’s friends, his mates, the guys he loves, his partners. Their κοινωνiα —or shared fellowship —was bound
up with knowing each other and being known by each other.
As κοινωνiα grows rich, friendships grow deep and mutual
care breaks the surface on its way to bearing fruit.
In this way, the network operates like the local church. Care
flourishes in both entities, not through top-down organized
structures, but through catalytic, horizontal relationships.
The best care in the network is relational care – the kind that
springs from trusted, compassion-filled friendships and flows
from one pastor to the other.
When a network embraces the value of supplemental care,
friendship-building/deepening becomes an aim of network
spending and an important goal for each gathering. This is,
in part, why we do annual conferences. This value has also
shaped the objectives of our coaching cohorts, where we provide a growing number of network pastors an opportunity for
training in the context of relationship with other men.
Stuff happens – care happens! - when two planters or pastors
unite over the phone, or maybe at an event, to share their
burdens, encourage each other, pray in their sufferings, or
just lean back with a decent cigar to celebrate the potency of
grace.
Care Means Presence
As I write this I am in a city far from my home. I’m here to
visit a network church and to spend time with the church
planter. We will share a meal or two, swap updates, discuss his
church and think together through some leadership challenges. As a church plant, it’s not an especially large church, and
if you were to check the network website, you would find the
lead pastor plays no particular role in the network, save that
of a treasured member. But I’m here and delighted to be so.
And the network pays for it.
Each month, network Strategists5 make their ways to different
network churches. They will conduct seminars, gather with
elders, coach leaders, troubleshoot problems, and serve the
lead pastor. Many of the expenses incurred for these trips will
be covered by the network and are made available to network
churches as a privilege of membership. If the strategist has
done a decent job, the network pastor and his church will
experience the care of the network through the physical presence of the Strategist.
Each spring, we gather the Lead and Campus pastors, along
with their wives, for a few days of training and rest. While together, we worship, pray, hear some teaching, share meals, and
enjoy open blocks of time to unwind, reflect, and rest. We
also provide trained counselors for any couple desiring advice
or care. The counselors, the hotel expenses, the registration,
and some of the meals are all covered with great enthusiasm
by Sojourn Network.
It’s not an exhaustive list, but the examples above illustrate
just some of the ways that the network is seeking to supply
supplemental care through physical presence. In other words,
while we believe care is first local, and supplemental care flows
best through the relational connections between network
pastors, we still look for additional ways to marshal network
resources for our network pastors; that they might know,
experience, and be served by our care.
Care means Crisis
Crisis is inevitable. In a broken world where pastors lead
fallen people – where pastors are fallen people – it’s unavoidable. When crisis hits, the responsibility to wisely navigate the
church through the shoals of danger rests upon the elders. But
most elders are trained to deal with routine care, not irregular
5. SN Strategists are network pastors/leaders recruited to provide the network with their ministry expertise; their knowledge of diverse models; their connections to national resources, colleagues, and fellow pastors; their philanthropic support or other forms of needed guidance and assistance. The presence of
ministry specialists, or “Strategists”, reflects the ongoing need that many pastors regularly face to have a gifted ministry expert help them improve a current
church program/ministry, start a new ministry from scratch, provide general strategic counsel, or walk through a crisis with experiencing genuine care and
informed counsel. In short, Strategists help our pastors embody the mission and values of SN through strategic counsel and ministry expertise.
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calamity.
Where does a local church leader go for help when they need
immediate counsel and care?
For a Sojourn Network pastor, membership in the network
means that you have qualified help at your disposal. If the
crisis involves the lead pastor, the elders, other staff members,
or some knotty legal liability, care means having a Strategist
or network leader available to help interpret the problem
and customize an appropriate response. At other times, the
network may serve by connecting the local church leadership
with the best outside counselors or expertise.
But to truly comprehend how the network cares in crisis,
some important clarifications must be made. The network
seeks to serve elders in crisis, not displace them. Network
representatives will be typically involved on the front end of a
crisis, not in the ongoing management of it. If the network’s
involvement is effective, the local church leaders should
experience a compassionate, faith-filled presence that conveys
hope, stirs courage, and helps create a wise plan for progress.
- Because care is relational, we want to help pastors connect
with another through conferences, coaching cohorts, and
other communication channels.
- Because care means presence, we want to provide avenues
where network pastors can receive face-to-face counsel such
as sending staff to network churches, deploying strategists,
organizing conferences and retreats, and creating relationally-based cohorts.
- Because local churches experience crisis, we want to provide care through available leaders who can help local elders
interpret their crisis and customize an appropriate response.
Additionally, we may help connect a local church leaders with
the best counselors or expertise outside of the network.
OUR COMMITMENT
OUR CONFIDENCE
In a forest of information, it’s sometimes easy to lose the trees.
As we conclude, let me isolate some of the individual truths
carefully planted within this paper so that we might clearly see
and enjoy the true beauty in the forest of care.
There’s nothing sexy about care. The mere whisper of the
word can incite fears of organizational bloat and undisciplined spending. Also, connecting care to mission, without
losing mission, requires vigilant attention from the network
board and staff. We know there are easier and flashier ways to
build a network, but we remain determined to only plant as
quickly as our values allow and to invest wholistically, carefully & supplementally in the care and sustainability of the
pastors we serve.
- Because pastoral health and enduring churches are an
essential part of our mission at Sojourn Network, care must
become a strategic part of our methodology. We believe that
care can, if led effectively and managed carefully, actually
enhance the mission rather than dilute it.
- Because care caps the speed of our short term numerical
growth to secure the health of our long term growth, the
network will be patient and diligent to create a decentralized
infrastructure necessary to launch healthy church planters and
help pastors persevere in ministry.
- Because the primary care for a lead pastor and elders rests
within their own local church elder teams, one of the most
strategic ways Sojourn Network can care for leaders is through
deploying resources (staff, strategists, etc.) that help build
strong pluralities among local elders.
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- Because care is vertical, we want to help our pastors enjoy
greater fellowship with God by creating events and resources
that provide guidance and direction in rest, personal devotions, Bible meditation, sabbaths, the ordering of our loves,
and more.
It’s an exciting time to partner with men who share a burning desire to see the name of Jesus exalted through church
planting. Our confidence for this mission comes not from
our model, our experience, or our strength, but in knowing
that Christ has promised he will build his church (Matthew
16:18). Our confidence is grounded in the knowledge that
the one who loves us, and redeemed us, is now sending us.
May we go, confident in his grace, aware of his presence, and
treasuring the knowledge that as we respond to his call, we go
together!
Copyright © 2016 by Sojourn Network
All rights reserved. This paper or any portion thereof may not be
reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express
written permission of the publisher or author except for the use of
brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2016
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Louisville, KY
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www.sojournnetwork.com
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