The Trouble With Tribbles

 

Guest Post: The Trouble With Tribbles

EFCA's Dave Page on what Star Trek can teach us about radical church multiplication

Exponential

 

“And when [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’” (Matt. 9:36-38).
One of the most significant cultural events of my lifetime happened on September 8, 1966—the premiere of Star Trek. I still remember the famous 44th episode called “The Trouble with Tribbles,” featuring these cute, furry, little animals called tribbles that everyone just loved (if this was before your time, think gremlins or ewoks). But soon the tribbles were everywhere, multiplying like rabbits, essentially taking over the Enterprise. Dr. McCoy finally discovered that tribbles are born pregnant. All they had to do to reproduce was eat.
There’s a lesson to be learned from the tribbles (stay with me here). If we want to see a movement of church multiplication, we have to get to the place where churches are born pregnant and plant a church within the first one to three years of their existence. I realize and know firsthand that planting a church is risky business. Serving Jesus is risky. It takes a great deal of faith and courage to be the church planter and the sending church pastor. It takes a secure leader to give up people to go be part of a new church plant. Below are some of my favorite examples and stories of planters that have met the tensions head-on to birth new churches early in the life of their plant.

• Anthem Church, Thousand Oaks, California Matt Larson started his “tribble church” just four years ago. On Anthem Church’s grand opening Sunday, Matt introduced his associate pastor, Kevin Bailey, and told the crowd, “In a year or so, we’re going to plant a new church with Kevin as the lead pastor. Some of you may want to go with him.” Eighteen months later, Anthem Camarillo was birthed. A year later, Restored Church of San Diego was birthed and most recently Anthem Moorpark is preparing to be birthed—all within the first forty months of the parent church! As far as I know, this is the first time this kind of multiplication has ever happened within the denomination I serve, the Evangelical Free Church of America.
• Shepherd of the Hills Church, Porter Ranch, California Lead Pastor Dudley Rutherford actively seeks church planters to join him on staff and then gives them a free hunting license to recruit whomever they can to go with them to plant. Dudley trains planters, sends them out and the mother church supports them. I remember hearing that one time he commissioned nearly 1,000 of his own people to go to another city with one of their church planters to begin a new church. At the time, Shepherd of the Hills was running about 4,000, so this was a huge risk—representing the loss of one fourth of the church. But God rewards faith like that. One year later, Shepherd of the Hills brought in more than 1,000 new people to the mother church, and the daughter church was running 800 people.
• The Evangelical Free Church of Diamond Bar, Diamond Bar California Pastor Mark Hopper watched a new community called Eastvale spring up virtually overnight in the city of Corona in Southern California. The community used to be dairy farms that were now being sold off to developers and turned into track homes. Hopper saw that the fields were “white unto Harvest” (John 4:34). He had a vision for his church to plant a church in Eastvale, approximately thirty miles away. A member of his staff, Mark Lee, was sent out along with forty people to plant the new church. The crazy thing is that Mark Hopper led a building campaign for the new church even before it began and raised $500,000 for the new church. Talk about risky! Vantage Point Church began in Eastvale, California, in 2008 with more than 200 people. Mark Hopper attended Vantage Point’s one-year anniversary and witnessed more than 600 people celebrating God’s goodness at a special service. The majority of people that Vantage Point has reached has come from an unchurched background.

I look at these congregations and their leaders and think These churches get that we’re in the Kingdom business, not the church business. To expand the Kingdom, we need to raise up servant leaders willing to take great risks to plant churches and commit to a multiplication DNA at inception. I pray earnestly for the Lord to send out laborers for His harvest.
Note: Thanks to Ed Stetzer for writing a blog post back in 2009 about the “Tribbles” episode and helping me apply the trouble with the “fuzzballs,”—as Ed affectionately described them—to church multiplication.
Dave Page is the director of church planting for the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) West District and is a Strategic Leadership Coach with NEXT Coaching Networks. Dave is a leadership and launch coach, having started two churches that grew to over 1000 people. Dave does one-on-one coaching and network coaching for church planters and lead pastors. He specializes in coaching church planters that launch large thriving churches that reproduce. He taught church planting at Saddleback Church for 10 years. Dave recently started an innovative Wedding Pastors Network for church planters and pastors to reach unchurched couples in their community. He has an MBA in Leadership and an M.Div. degree. Check out Dave’s blog at www.davepageblog.org