Recruitment vs. Development
For too long now, our sending paradigm has been one of recruitment. And, our churches, our networks, our conventions, and associations have all played a part in doing it this way. Our organizations tasked with planting simply become recruiters. Churches that want to take part in sending often do the same. In this way, the sending church is involved in identification, but it is identification from outside. Everyone wants an equipping pipeline these days, but after it is set up, they begin looking outside of themselves for the people to fill it.
Recruitment Paradigm
Recruitment is zero-sum. In other words, recruitment alone can never be multiplicative. A church that recruits their next planter from outside did not add another planter to the pool, they merely moved one discovered by another church. For every planter recruited and gained from the outside, another equipping system loses a planter. Cooperative equipping strategies with national sending agencies, through state conventions and associations, and even boutique networks are good and needed, but we must address a root problem: a waning supply of people to fill them.
Development Paradigm
We have talked about leadership development in the local church for a long time now. It usually goes hand-in-hand with the discipleship conversation. Unfortunately, it is often assumed that these leaders are being developed to scale up the ministry of the local congregation. Leaders to lead small groups and potentially serve in ministry roles in a congregation are important, but we must also consider how we are identifying and developing those leaders that a church will send out from the congregation for the work of the ministry. And these sent out tasks are diverse, ranging from church planting and replanting, to diaspora and international missions. This goal, sending out people from within the church to an array of Great Commission tasks, is the true heart of a sending church.