I think I could write a book on the nuts and bolts of church
planting, and I haven’t even planted a church yet. It’s not as simple as a lot
of people think. For me, it began with mission trips that were used by the Holy
Spirit as he poked tenderly at my heart. Then there was the burden for a couple
of communities that God placed on my heart. Finally, the day came when I knew
my Heavenly Father was calling me to be a church planter.
The process from that point forward seems to take a lot of
time. First, there was the sharing of my call to church planting with state
denominational people who have responsibility for coordinating church plants
and planters in our state. Then there were the forms and surveys that I needed
to take to gain denominational approval. Finally, there was the interview
process to determine if my wife and I would be approved as church planters.
From the time I originally answered God’s call on my life to that point I
continued to serve as pastor of a great church and burned up about five months
of time. At my age (I’m 63 years-old) time goes by quickly, but it seems like a
long time when I look back at it.
Then there was the announcement to my church family,
followed by my resignation a few weeks later. We used that time to try to
prepare documents to use in enlisting supporting partners for our new church
plant, and I developed a “plant plan.” We made several trips to East Alton,
Illinois to expand on early vision tours, and also looked for a place to live.
When we couldn’t find a place to rent God showed us a house and we were able to
purchase it. In the meantime we were trying to locate free boxes to use for
packing up our goods.
We closed on the house three weeks ago and began the process
of moving. In all the moves I have made in ministry I have been fortunate to
have churches who paid for professional movers or who sent people to help us
pack. On the other end, the church to which we were called willingly labored to
help us unpack.
Not so with this move. Because we are planting a church that,
as of yet, doesn’t exist, we had help in loading the truck, but no church
family on the other end to help us unload. Thankfully, family came to the
rescue. They not only worked to clean and paint our new home, but they helped
us unload.
We are in our new house and you’d think we are ready to
plant our new church. We are—and we aren’t. After we unloaded the truck we went
back to load to vans and a utility trailer. This week we rented another truck
to move the rest of our belongings. It took four vanloads, two utility trailer
loads, and two truckloads to get all of our possessions moved.
Please don’t think I’m complaining. I’m not. God has
provided miracles for us all along the church planting journey to date. I’m
just saying: it takes a lot more time to get there than you might think. We
originally thought we would be moving around the first of the year. Then the
goal moved to April and the first interest group meeting May 1. Now it’s June
and we’re still in the moving process. But I know that soon we will begin the
actual process of planting a new church. I’m still just as excited as when God
first called me to this new ministry.
Maybe the title of the book should be The Nuts and Bolts of Church Planting Before You Even Get There.
Join us in prayer as we continue to make this journey.
2 comments:
We are praying for you. I have always said planting a church is not for the faint of heart or the uncalled. If I can provide any assistance please let me know...
We are praying for you. I have always said planting a church is not for the faint of heart or the uncalled. If I can provide any assistance please let me know...
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