our church plant...
I don’t know where this week went, one minute it was Monday morning and here I sit on Friday afternoon.
I got call from a very sad boy today, he was called to be told that the preaching minister’s position that we had been hoping for isn’t for him. They are looking for someone with more experience in a multi-staff church. It’s that damn dilemma of not having enough experience but not being able to find a job that will give you the experience because you don’t have enough experience. It is a continuous cycle and as an HR professional all I can say is, when it is right it will be right and there is someone out there who will take a chance on you. You just have to find that place.
But, we have to rest easy in the grace of knowing that this was not the right place at the right time. I know he doesn’t want to hear that now. But, my feeling lately has been that I have to continually make a conscious decision to realize that this is where we are and we are here for a reason.
The husband always wants to go and start a church plant somewhere, to start fresh and find and grow a group of people who want to “do church” for the right reasons (Acts 2). To cultivate a group of people who not only want to do church but be the church. As we sat at small group Bible study last night, I realized that we are there and we have, for all intent purposes, started a church plant.
The church we came to three years ago was a country club. People came on Sunday mornings because it was the right thing to do, the expected thing to do, because they played the piano and that was a position of prestige. They came because their mothers and fathers had always come and they had been sitting in the same pew since they were born. There were a few who came to church to be with a community and to worship a loving and mysterious God. Those folks were few and far between. In the last three years, we have lost about 1/3 of the congregation and the people who are left are people who don’t come to church because of what they can get out of it, they come to give of themselves in worship, through fellowship. The country clubs folks have moved on, they now graze in the pastures of the neighboring country clubs, looking for ways to exert their need for power and control. What remains is a core group of people dedicated to loving each other and Jesus. I think that we have started a church plant – or rather, we have just given a rebirth to the church.
I find peace in knowing that we are where we are, that we will be used for our gifts and abilities and that we don’t have to find another church. There is still a roof over our heads, the financial support was never waned even though so many people have left, people love us, we love them and we will be the church (inside the building and out) for as long as our community needs us to be.
I got call from a very sad boy today, he was called to be told that the preaching minister’s position that we had been hoping for isn’t for him. They are looking for someone with more experience in a multi-staff church. It’s that damn dilemma of not having enough experience but not being able to find a job that will give you the experience because you don’t have enough experience. It is a continuous cycle and as an HR professional all I can say is, when it is right it will be right and there is someone out there who will take a chance on you. You just have to find that place.
But, we have to rest easy in the grace of knowing that this was not the right place at the right time. I know he doesn’t want to hear that now. But, my feeling lately has been that I have to continually make a conscious decision to realize that this is where we are and we are here for a reason.
The husband always wants to go and start a church plant somewhere, to start fresh and find and grow a group of people who want to “do church” for the right reasons (Acts 2). To cultivate a group of people who not only want to do church but be the church. As we sat at small group Bible study last night, I realized that we are there and we have, for all intent purposes, started a church plant.
The church we came to three years ago was a country club. People came on Sunday mornings because it was the right thing to do, the expected thing to do, because they played the piano and that was a position of prestige. They came because their mothers and fathers had always come and they had been sitting in the same pew since they were born. There were a few who came to church to be with a community and to worship a loving and mysterious God. Those folks were few and far between. In the last three years, we have lost about 1/3 of the congregation and the people who are left are people who don’t come to church because of what they can get out of it, they come to give of themselves in worship, through fellowship. The country clubs folks have moved on, they now graze in the pastures of the neighboring country clubs, looking for ways to exert their need for power and control. What remains is a core group of people dedicated to loving each other and Jesus. I think that we have started a church plant – or rather, we have just given a rebirth to the church.
I find peace in knowing that we are where we are, that we will be used for our gifts and abilities and that we don’t have to find another church. There is still a roof over our heads, the financial support was never waned even though so many people have left, people love us, we love them and we will be the church (inside the building and out) for as long as our community needs us to be.
posted by Anna at
5:01 PM
1 Comments:
No, I don't. We are trying to do the exact opposite, reach a rural, farming community. I think that there many struggles on both sides of the coin, they may look different but are just as challenging to each demographic. You also have to abandon the idea of numbers because although people like to focus on Acts (and they added to their numbers daily...) you can not live by the numbers, it will always defeat you - and Jesus never preached a numbers mentality. It is self-destructive and in some ways, ministry-destructive, if that is all you focus on...and as you say, and rightly so, the gate is narrow.
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Anna, at 1:13 PM, May 09, 2006
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