A Year Ago – Church Planting Reflections
July marks the month everything changed. With a little fear and a lot of faith we decided to finally do what we had no interest in doing, but God seemed to have a lot of interest in doing.
We began meeting with people to explore planting a church in our hometown.
In some ways it has been exactly what I imagined.
In other ways it’s been nothing like I imagined.
I imagined some people being strong supporters who didn’t make it this far.
A year ago I didn’t even know most of the people who now serve with us.
We are nowhere where I thought we would be, and yet we are exactly where we should be.
Support has come from the unlikeliest of places, thanks Central Church!
Conflict has come from the unlikeliest of places…no names here. 🙂
Through it all this is what I have learned.
1. Obey the call of God, then trust Him for the results.
2. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
3. Evaluate, re-evaluate, and then communicate some more.
4. Set the bar high from the beginning after all God gave his Son for this.
5. Always do it with 100% commitment, but never think you know what you are doing.
6. Smile. It goes a long way.
7. If it’s not working change it.
8. Share the work…all of it.
9. Ask for help, or pay for help.
10. It is entirely possible to successfully plant a church without denominational, mother church, or agency financial support. Don’t let a lack of it deter you!
No better advertisement than a personal invitation
David Timms is one of my favorite teachers. I call him friend even though we don’t speak much or see each other often. I know that with everything he writes and publishes comes from a very significant and deep understanding of what it means to be Jesus’ people. Here is what he said in his last post,
Church planters feel this pressure as much as anyone. Indeed some church-planting models require considerable support and resources before they even launch.
Then we open up Matthew 10 and it wriggles beneath our skin. Jesus prepared to send out His disciples and declared:
9-10 “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.
Jesus looks at His disciples and tells them to drop the props and leave the lights. To paraphrase Him, He declares what all of us need to hear. “You are the message.”
That’s my heart. We don’t need the big crowd. We need people to stick with it, and no amount of money we spend on a campaign will be as successful as you and I inviting people to be regenerated with us. This weekend, you get to do that.
Go here to read all of David’s post.
9 Things You Need To Know In Order to Plant a Church
OBEY
I used to be a conference junkie thinking that somehow I would find the magic bullet to ministry. I wanted ministry to be easy. I wanted ministry to make an impact. I wanted lives to be changed. I wanted it to be exciting and fun. Often ministry ultimately ended in being disheartened.
After about 15 years of ministry I went on a conference fast. I pledged to not go to another conference until I actually had the influence necessary to do what I was being inspired to do. What began to register over the last five years of that fast is that ultimately my satisfaction in being a minister was intimately tied to my being obedient to God’s call on my life. It had very little to do with the other stuff I was chasing.
It may never happen, but if one day someone asks me to give a talk at one of those conferences or a publisher asks me to write a book about how to go about planting a church I’m sure I’d be able to come up with a list of ten or even 1000 things that had to be in place for Regeneration to be successful. However, ultimately, and I mean essentially, the only thing that really matters is OBEDIENCE.
It doesn’t matter if it is doing ministry, planting a church, raising a family, building a passionate and faithful marriage all comes down to OBEDIENCE.
If God calls and your spouse affirms that calling, then refuse to hesitate to go to the place He has called you and do the thing He has called you to do no matter what anyone else says.
1. O
2. B
3. E
4. D
5. I
6. E
7. N
8. C
9. E
“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrificesas much as he does in obedience?Certainly, obedience is better than sacrifice;paying attention is better than the fat of rams.” Samuel to Saul (1 Samuel 15:22)