Wise Church Planters Are Like Temporary Scaffolding

 

POY! SKIT GUIDELINES:

• In a small group, participants might simply read their lines, or glance at their lines to get the idea so they can speak in their own words.
• Most POY! skits require no practice in advance.
• Have any small children play a brief part. Most scripts have an optional part for children, listed last under Participants.
• Most scripts have a Narrator who should read the script beforehand to see how to keep moving the story along.
• It is not necessary to employ costumes and objects, unless the skit recommends such.
• It is not required to have an audience watch the skit. All present may participate.
• Scripture and paraphrases, if any, usually appear in bold.

PARTICIPANTS:

Builder, who also serves as Narrator

Scaffold maker

Carpenter

Decorator (preferably a lady)

Prompter (Optional). Prompter shouts a brief line and Companions repeat it.

Companions (Optional): children and all adults who want to take part. Make sure Companions know who the Prompter is, and that they are to repeat Prompter’s words.

SCRIPT:

Builder:	To construct this beautiful residence, we first put up a scaffold, the temporary platform that bricklayers stand on.
Scaffold Maker	I’m the Scaffold Maker. I come first, so I must be very important. Hey, Carpenter! Come build me an elegant scaffold. Go ahead. Make all the noise you want! Let me hear the hammer bang!
Prompter & Companions	Bang! Bang! Bang!
Builder	Ah, lots of noise! That’s what I like to hear! Busy work!
Scaffold maker:	Carpenter, come put a bench on this scaffold, for us builders’ comfort.
Carpenter	Yes, sir. When do we start on the house? (Join Scaffold Maker, pretend to pound nails.)
Scaffold maker:	You’re still too inexperienced to work on the house itself, so work more on the scaffold. Now, let me hear those hammers go bang!
Prompter & Companions	Bang! Bang! Bang!
Scaffold maker:	You there, Decorator, come hang some beautiful curtains up on our scaffold.
Decorator	Yes, sir. But I thought they were for the new house. (Join Scaffold Maker, pretend to hang curtains.)
Scaffold maker:	This scaffold is too small. Make it larger. Larger! Let’s hear those hammers pound louder! More bang!
Prompter & Companions	Bang! Bang! Bang!
Carpenter	I need more boards for the scaffolding. I’ll use those over there. I forget what they were for.
Scaffold maker:	Ah, this is the grandest scaffold I’ve ever seen! (Look around) “Oh oh! The house! I forgot about the house! Where’s the house? There’s no house!
Prompter & Companions	No house! No house!

DISCUSS:

Explain:

• The Lord Jesus uses church planters as a temporary scaffold to build His permanent Church.
• A cross-cultural church planting team normally is temporary, like a scaffold that is soon removed.
• There were no permanent church planting teams in the New Testament.
• Wise church planters place the church’s needs above those of their church planting team.
• Many church planting teams in foreign fields stay too long in a place, when they should turn the work over to nationals, because their scaffold becomes comfortable.

Ask: What type of people in your church or agency belong on the church planters’ scaffold?

(Good answer: Those with an apostolic “sent one’s” gifting, or those who come for a short term to test their spiritual gifts.)

Suppose a missionary wants to neglect developing a new national church in order to build up an expatriate church planting team into a strong organization, which occurs often. What would you say to that missionary?

(Good answer: Talk about how a scaffold erected around a building must come down as soon as the building is ready, and how most materials go into the building, not into the scaffold. Then ask how soon the mission scaffold can come down and the workers go to another job.)