26. Planting Churches in a Post-Christendom World, with Daniel So and Jeya So

Daniel So and Jeya So are both experienced church-planters and experienced coaches of church-planters.There was a time when you could start a new church simply by walking into a new part of town, knocking on doors to let people know about the new church, and within a few weeks there would be a hundred people or so–especially if they already belonged to that denomination or tradition.  But church-planting is not that easy in a Post-Christendom world.Daniel So and Jeya So will share about the challenges and the joys of starting new churches—or as they put it, “new worshiping communities”—in the 21st century.THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Daniel So and Jeya So are the pastors of Anchor City Church in San Diego. Daniel is also the Director of Cyclical San Diego, the Presbytery of San Diego’s church planting initiative. Jeya does assessing and coaching of church plant leaders with “1001 New Worshiping Communities,” national church planting initiative of the Presbyterian Church (USA).The most formative book Jeya has read in recent years is Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis.The two most formative books Daniel has read is The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard and From a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology by Sang Hyun Lee.Cyclical is more about cultivating environments in which new worshiping communities can grow and thrive than it is about starting new denominational churches.A new church is far more nimble and responsive than most established churches.In order to effectively start new churches and worshiping communities, larger church bodies need to be supportive and open-handed.The purpose for starting new churches can’t be to save the denomination. It has to be for the sake of the kingdom of God.Large churches must be willing to let go of and support leaders and staff who feel called to start new churches.A lot of the qualities required for church planting can apply to church revitalization.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSBooks Till We Have Faces by C.S. LewisThe Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas WillardFrom a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology by San Hyun LeeDaniel So Twitter: https://twitter.com/headsparks/Cyclical San Diego Website: https://cyclicalsd.org/Anchor City Church Website: https://anchorcity.org/Cyclical Los Angeles Website: http://www.cyclicalla.com/To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632— Links to Amazon are affiliate links.  If you make a purchase through any of these links, I’ll receive a small commission–which will help pay for the Spiritual Life and Leadership podcast!Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.