Episode 27: Crawfish, Rabbits, and Elephants: Different Modes of Church- Josh Spinks

Hello all!  Welcome back to Pastor to Pioneer, where this week we hear about what the simple church all boils down to as Britton shares a meal and garners wisdom from Josh Spinks, a Baton Rouge area pastor of over twenty years.  Josh and Britton break bread together, Cajun style, as they talk through what it was like for Britton's family to experience a crawfish boil courtesy of Josh's family, and what a fantastic cultural experience that was.  Josh also shares how he planted a church twelve years ago without any guidance or anyone to coach them, but with the desire to start something with disciple making and simple church principles at the forefront.  Josh divulges to Britton that he regrets starting to meet as a big group every week because he saw that people often seemed to want to take the path of least resistance.  It often appeared easier for people to come to a large gathering where little was expected as opposed to sitting knee to knee in a house where much more was expected. Josh also talks about the need for both elephant and rabbit churches, the elephant church being the current church system which takes a lot of resources and has a long gestational period before there is reproduction, while a rabbit church is a simple church that takes little resources and reproduces quickly.  Josh is still the pastor of The Way Church in Denham Springs, LA but much of his time is spent in his role as the Director of Made to Multiply.  This is an initiative of e3 Partners to train 1 million people in how to have gospel conversations, how to make disciples and gather in simple ways.  He does a lot of training in traditional churches throughout the country, also looking for people who want to be sent out as pioneers to start new movements of disciple making and simple church initiative. [email protected] www.e3partners.org