Planting Space

contributed by Doug Foltz

I heard Vince Antonucci speak yesterday at a church planter’s bootcamp put on by Church Coaching Solutions. He spoke on having an evangelistic DNA. Vince’s talk got me to thinking about the last three and half years I’ve spent in Charlotte. During the pre-launch phase I was incredibly focused on evangelism. I built friendships with non-Christians. I started a small group out of those friendships that allowed my new friends to ask questions about God and the church. Their answers were raw and honest and fueled my desire to start the new church. Some of my non-Christian friends even served on our launch team and filled crucial service roles for our new church. I had the joy of baptizing several of my non-Christian friends over the course of the first year of the church. All great stuff.

The problem came during year two of the new church. Many of my non-Christian friends were now Christian. I slowly entered into the Christian subculture that keeps so many of us from being evangelistic. My time was spent almost entirely with Christians doing the work of ministry. The only time I spent with non-Christians was when they came in the doors of the church. I stopped being intentional about being in the community. Do you relate?

Vince talked about doing church for non-Christians. Much of what they do in their services is geared towards non-Christians. The typical rebuttal to that style of church is that church is for Christians. I challenged Vince afterwards and said that he is doing church for Christians. But instead of teaching believers how to enter the Christian subculture, he is teaching them how to be salt and light in the world. In a nutshell, that is evangelistic DNA. It’s the old adage, “Christians are to be in the world, not of the world.” Thanks for the reminder Vince.

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