This is a fascinating clip of Ed Young, Jr talking about church pirates in the guise of church planting. Very interesting. He talks of the betrayal that happens when a staff member takes a group of people off and plants a church - sucks them away from the church he was on staff of or had influence on.
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Ed Young Jr on Church Pirates
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June 6th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
One mmans pirate is another mans freedom fighter. The interesting thing about this is the idea of competition, does he really think churches compete against each other like the “corporate world” he mentions or are there enough “lost” people out there to go around. And finally, does Ed have any concept of Eccliesiology, namely the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church. or is there just Ed Young and the rest of the world.
I have seen Church transplants that work very well . when a group of young families (with the blessing of the church) move to a church that is struggling and help it to grow and become missional. I am glad thier senior pastor was not so narrow minded.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I have to betray some serious ignorance here, but having only heard of Ed Young (generally positive things), this is the first speaking/writing that I’ve seen of him. It’s a little weird.
I understand his protection of friends and their churches, but he seems to make a lot of assumptions here. Like, the “pirates” who spend 10 years of their life plotting to steal people away from the church they work for. Wha?? If that were really true, it would without a doubt be the most singularly stupid way to plant a church ever invented.
Unless he’s willing to interview EVERY new member of his church to ensure that they aren’t coming to his church from another church in town, there’s very little possibility of not being hypocritical on this one.
I also agree with Markus’ comments.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:24 am
There was once a time when about 10 families of us “pirates” out of about 2500 people were tired of our preacher that sat down when he preached…with no bible in sight…read one verse and then told anecdotes for 45 minutes around that verse…tried to apply it to our lives using Amazing Race or Survivor nonsense…was too concerned with finding out how to get fireworks to shoot off inside the building safely…like doing patriotic services broadcasting soldiers pictures and presidents photos…selling hot dogs and coffee inside the church…blah blah blah. Yep, we were “pirates”…and none of us have looked back since. Thank you Lord for opening our eyes!
Junior needs to read some Spurgeon, MacArthur, or Piper “How to…” material.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am
My personal take on Mr. Young’s “warning” and/or condemnation is that the idea that someone joins a church staff all the time plotting their malevolent “piracy” strikes me as a bit on the paranoid side. Also, one can only speculate how many of Fellowship Church’s thousands of weekly attendees are from transfer growth. I guess as long as there is not a Machiavellian leader organizing them then Mr. Young wouldn’t object to high glitz marketing that results in rearranging the Kingdom instead of expanding it.
As one who has left leadership in a church to do it another way for another target group [no I didn't take a bunch of people with me and yes we are still struggling to break the "missional code" of our target group], I would submit that the larger problem is men trying to build personal empires rather than being consumed with the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Men too interested in their high visabilty leadership instead of the nurture and development of new leaders. Can anyone say Jesus & the disciples or the apostle Paul?
Any researcher worth his salt will tell you one of the most effective ways to reach a people group is with church planting [even saturation church planting].
One has to wonder how many churches has Mr. Young’s church INTENTIONALLY planted under his leadership? A review of his church’s website blares out the new church growth strategy de jour “one church - multiple sites” (don’t even get me started there) yet I was unable to find a sigle tidbit relative to church planting.
Obviously, the are fallen men [aren't we all] with improper motives through every flavor of the church. To assert, as I think Mr. Young does, that these “pirates” are the bane of the church strikes me as a bit over the top.
I believe it grieves the heart of God when the leaders of His body see other believers as the “competition”. May God forgive us of our individualism mindset and by His grace help us to become greater KINGDOM servants.