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!
A Frustrating Journey
“17 When Pharaoh released the people, God did not lead them by the way to the land of the Philistines, although that was nearby, for God said, “Lest the people change their minds and return to Egypt when they experience war.” 18 So God brought the people around by the way of the desert to the Red Sea, and the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt prepared for battle.” Exodus 13:17-18
Often in this life, and maybe often isn’t the reality but always, we get frustrated by the way…by the journey we are on in this life. God has called us to something great and we know that it is true, but the realization of the promise of God may take a lifetime. Like Simeon and Anna the day Jesus was presented in the Temple as a babe they had waited a lifetime to see the promised Messiah, and so we too must be reminded that God’s ways and God’s days are not like ours.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So, while it may have been more efficient to go to the Promised Land by heading due East it was not the best route to take. God knew that this fledgling nation needed to gain some confidence in God and their leadership before going into battle, and so they took a longer and more physically and emotionally demanding route. In the end we get the story of the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh once and for all because of this detour. With this in perspective you can imagine why the Israelites were frustrated with the fact that God was leading them to certain death. Here they were pinned against the Red Sea by the Egyptian army when they could have taken the shorter route through the land of the Philistines and been almost home by now. But God’s ways and God’s days are not like ours and in the end from our perspective we see what God saw.
Now if we can just take time to remind ourselves of this truth when we are in the midst of our frustrating journey to our Promised Lands. God fulfills His promises at the right time and in the right way. So, our prayers might need to be more “God prepare me for the journey, ” instead of “God, can you hurry this up?”
The Temptation of Procrastination
People were created in the image of the Creator-God which should mean that people are therefore creative and are creators, but because of sin we have a resistance to creativity that is called the temptation of procrastination. When we fall into it we become consumers rather than creators, and it can become a viscous cycle of time wasting activity.
I read this two years ago and bookmarked it. After preaching on temptation and bringing up how social media can be a pretty big one I thought it might be a good time to share with you guys in case you don’t follow Seth Godin or may have missed his post. Note that the lizard brain refers to the part of us that is reactive and will remain in control unless we engage the other higher orders of thinking.
Seth’s Blog: Modern procrastination
Modern procrastination
The lizard brain adores a deadline that slips, an item that doesn’t ship and most of all, busywork.
These represent safety, because if you don’t challenge the status quo, you can’t be made fun of, can’t fail, can’t be laughed at. And so the resistance looks for ways to appear busy while not actually doing anything.
I’d like to posit that for idea workers, misusing Twitter, Facebook and various forms of digital networking are the ultimate expression of procrastination. You can be busy, very busy, forever. The more you do, the longer the queue gets. The bigger your circle, the more connections are available.
Laziness in a white collar job has nothing to do with avoiding hard physical labor. “Who wants to help me move this box!” Instead, it has to do with avoiding difficult (and apparently risky) intellectual labor.
“Honey, how was your day?”
“Oh, I was busy, incredibly busy.”
“I get that you were busy. But did you do anything important?”
Busy does not equal important. Measured doesn’t mean mattered.
When the resistance pushes you to do the quick reaction, the instant message, the ‘ping-are-you-still-there’, perhaps it pays to push in precisely the opposite direction. Perhaps it’s time for the blank sheet of paper, the cancellation of a long-time money loser, the difficult conversation, the creative breakthrough…
Or you could check your email.
I would encourage you to engage in a social media, texting, cell phone abandoning, fast and then try to create something with your time. What might you make?