Church Planting: Tragedy Strikes: Part Two

What kinds of things really set you back as a planter? You know that things that make you want to quit altogether?

Yesterday a planter friend of mine stopped by because he needed to talk. He has been in a community for just over two years, and has struggled up to about 30 people twice now. Each time he gets numbers up around that level, one of the leaders that he has been investing in disagrees with him on some point, leaves the church and takes several families with him.

Now my friend is heartbroken, again. He had tears in his eyes as we stood on my driveway talking about his discouragement. He knows he can’t quit, but he has opened his heart up to see if maybe, just maybe, there is something else somewhere else that God is preparing him for through all this.

He hasn’t lost his burden for the lost, but he is losing his burden for the people in the community he is in. When that happens what are your options? What would you tell him to do? How would you encourage him? (One of his mentors suggested he return to seminary to learn more – is that good advice? Does more education really help when you are trying to reach people that are far from God? Does more seminary training help you with a floundering church plant?)

This community has had other church plants come and go. It is a difficult place to develop. It seems this is that pattern; they grow to about 30 or so and then fluctuate up and down. I knew the last church planter in this area too. He took a job as a small groups pastor a few years ago after experiencing the same kinds of things.

What would your advice be? What would you do if you were he? Have you ever felt or experienced similar things?

Church Planting; By Faith.

I consider myself to have plenty of faith. I trust that God will show Himself faithful in my life. When I read the Bible I see God being incredibly patient with people waiting for them to realize His love for them and accept it. I left a great job because I really believed that it was time to move on and that God would provide for my family. He did by opening up this position at our church, perfect for a new senior pastor to grow into and grow with. It is a small church, more like a re-plant, and with the transition of leadership that has happened this year as the senior pastor retired and moved, we have almost a whole new group of people. This week though I have been incredibly challenged.

The opposite of hope is despair. I am not in despair, but I am pretty worried. There are a lot of pieces that need to come together in this building project to make it all work. It has run over schedule and because of that has required us to make provision for the school that will be meeting in our building and leasing space from us. There are great people involved in making that happen, bringing temporary buildings to the site and setting them up away from construction so the school has meeting space until construction is done. But there are a ton of obstacles to overcome to make that happen, including moving a mountain of dirt and getting permits from the city.

When this project was imagined, there was plenty of money in a savings account to keep the church in operation until it experienced growth to support itself. The building was scheduled to open this month. Now it is most likely going to be November before we get into it. That means our cash flow will become an issue if we do not grow where we are. It is hard to grow a church in a school, but that is what we are trying to do. The fact that the project is taking so long, and the money is dwindeling will begin making the bank that loaned us the money for the construction very nervous. Did I mention we are a small church?

I am worried. I am not sure how God will make this all happen.

Today in my study time I read Hebrews 11. It just happened to be where I was in my reading schedule. “By Faith,” is mentioned 23 times.

So, “by faith,” I am trusting that God will see us through and we will make a difference in the community we are moving to. By faith I will keep walking forward, by faith I will believe God will make this happen. By faith I will believe that all the obsticals will be overcome. By faith I will pray, pray, pray….

Church Planting: Comment Worth It’s Own Post

I received a comment from this church planter a couple days ago; I completely understand what they are going through.  If it is worth doing it is hard, and sometimes you want to quit.  In fact T.D. Jakes says, “if you don’t want to quit you are not in anything big!”  You can check out the church’s web site here Then click the “English” tab on the right side.

keep at it, don’t give up, and remind me when I am down!

here is the comment:

What does a church planter do at 2:53 in the morning, twelve hours after preaching to the little flock? Gets out of bed after tossing and turning to google “quit churchplanting”.

Probably not really gonna quit, I am one of those Indiana Jones girlfriends who have a good grip on the whip… but it is refreshing to read that others like us are wondering whatever we are doing, isn’t His yoke supposed to be easy?

Before we planted I saw Jesus as the Lover of my soul, now I tend to see Him as my employer in a most difficult job situation.

S…. happens. Good things happen too, of course. Sometimes the yoke does feel light, it is just that the furrow is so long and the heat and the dirt all blend into one after a while….

Was reminiscing the other day about a verse in my old “Jesus-and-me-romance-book”, the Song of Solomon, where it says to catch the little foxes that would spoil the blossoming vine. So many mean sharp-tooth foxes around when you try to disciple broken and messed up people, it seems like we are constantly running ourselves ragged catching foxes. It is important to keep the vine field, the place of work, separate in your mind, from the enclosed garden where you meet with your Beloved. I find that if I do not fight for that place of intimacy and hear the reassuring voice of the Lord, I just might loose it and get out the game.

Still trying to figure that one out, so that my victory level and spiritual prowess isn’t so tangled up in the Sunday headcount, for example….

To hear Him say “well done, girl” when other voices are saying “what on earth do you think you are doing?”

Anyways, a blessing to read your musings and know that we are not alone in our struggles

Where Is God?

Joel 2
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”

Q: Where is their God?

A: He is among us.

Q: Where are we?

A: We are among each other.

Q: Where do we need to be?

A: We need to be among others.

Where do you hang out with “others” that don’t know God or go to church?

Church Planting: What Story Are You Trying To Communicate?

I read a great blog (Click Here) talking about what churches need to be doing instead of re-arranging chairs on the Titanic.  The author said we need to figure out what story we are trying to tell, and make sure that we tell it in a relevant way.  Movies are stories, TV episodes are stories, even the news is a story.  You probably use stories when you preach, and Jesus used story.  The Greatest Story Ever Told – Christ dying on the cross for us… so when it comes to churches we better get our story straight.  Then tell it.  Again and again…

As a new church plant, we are working diligently on what our story is.  What is your story?

Church Planting, Like Preaching, Is A Lifestyle

The man makes the preacher. God must make the man. The messenger is, if possible, more than the message. The preacher is more than the sermon. The preacher makes the sermon. As the life-giving milk from the mother’s bosom is but the mother’s life, so all the preacher says is tinctured, impregnated by what the preacher is. The treasure is in earthen vessels, and the taste of the vessel impregnates and may discolor. The man, the whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of the divine unction. E.M.Bounds

What kind of sermon are you preaching with your life?

What is the outpouring of your soul?  

Church Planting: Am I Really Capable?

I am reading all kinds of other blogs out there… seeing how others are being successful and doing amazing things.  They have all the Church Planting 101 tools – teams, money, vision, calling, support and I look at the tools I have and they seem somewhat pale in comparison.  Does it mean that I am not capable for this?  Probably, but is anyone truly ready for what lies in store for them in the battle?  It is a constant reminder that if God is not in this there is no hope in the world for it.

 

I am getting out of town for a couple days – much needed R&R.  Someone else is preaching Sunday and that helps the schedule too.  When I get weary, my vision blurs and that is not a good place for me.  I am taking a journal, a Bible, and Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost For His Highest, and The Ragamuffin Gospel… ought to be a good time.

what do you do to re-connect with God?

Church Planting: Tragedy Strikes – They Told Me It Would

It happened.  Something I had hoped we could avoid, but knew deep down might.  A close and trusted friend turned.  We have traveled life with this family for 15 years and have experienced hostility from them before, but it is funny how selective your memory is when you are just trying to get people to join you on the planting church journey.  I put him in a position of leadership, several people advised me not to, but I did anyway.  He and his family are going through a lot of change right now, and his job is busy, so I can chalk this up to stress and venting but the eruption has hurt members of my family.  I will talk to him about it, and I will try to redeem the situation – but I am not sure the trust level will ever be the same.  We will need to distance ourselves from this family, which will be hard, but the stakes are way too high – and I may need to remove him from leadership.  That will be hard. 

 

What happens when your close friends in ministry turn on you?  How does one deal with that professionally? Personally?  In your experiences has this ever happened to you?  What did you do?

Church Planting: No One Told Me

No one can explain this.  You have to experience it to know it.  In the beginning you feel like Indiana Jones or something; suiting up in just the essentials to protect you from the environment and any crazy people that you may come across, a couple bucks in your pocket, no map that makes any sense – just descriptions from people that have been somewhere similar before, and you.  If your lucky you have a wife that can come along, but you sure hope she can fight like Jones’s girlfriend in the movie – or maybe just hold her liquor like she did – cause you know you will need her to dig deep along the way. 

 

Sure there is “Training,” but that is a little like the lecture from the Stewardess in the beginning of a Trans-Atlantic flight, BEFORE you realize that this hunk of junk you are flying in is going to experience a lot of turbulence before you get anywhere near your destination – if there is even such a thing as a destination, right now as you try to keep from becoming airsick you feel like it is more a mirage than anything else.  You wish you would have paid more attention to the Stu for sure… Do you think you can land this thing?  I wonder…

No one told me – or at least put it into words that I could understand.  This is hard.  This is lonely.  I wouldn’t go back if I could, but I might die trying to get where we are going.  I was told long ago that a pastor cannot quit on a Monday –

now I know why.  If your lucky you have a few friends that have done this or at least tried it before.  They can help you with a clue or two along the way, and thankfully sometimes that is all it takes to get to the next leg of the journey.  It all brings new meaning to, “on a wing and a prayer.”  You have never prayed like this before – as if your very life depends on it, and to some degree it does, you actually live for this!  The good and the bad, and it seems at times there is a lot more bad than good.  But the prize, as rear as it is, and that it will go in someone else’s trophy case doesn’t even matter, the prize is worth the price.  Or at least that is what you tell yourself Monday morning.

 

My prayer for you – and me – is that this place becomes a place much like the saloon in the Indiana Jones movies.  A place of refreshment.  A place of story telling.  A place we can put our hats on the table and our whips out of the way.  A place where we can get more clues on our treasure hunt.  A place we can talk about how our Sponsor put us up to this, and yet has taken such great care of us along the way.  How He helps us avoid the traps, the pitfalls, and the robbers and evil villains out for the same thing we are – people precious to God. 

 

Our methods may vary, our skills may be completely different.  Our resources come and go, but I invite you to this brotherhood of treasure hunters, when out in the field we are all on the same turf – wild, dangerous, and capable of destroying us and those we care about.