The Brutality of Church Planting
Having just spent the better part of last week around 2800 people who aim to return to their home turf and plant churches, I have a lot of stuff swimming around in my head that I’m dealing with. Prior to last week, I’ve kind of been quiet. I’d not listened to too many podcasts, read too many Christian type books, surfed many blogs or really thought about what God sent us here to do. I think that was good for my soul.
Having met and spent some time with some people who are really kicking some serious tail, I’ve got a fire in my belly. I’m not ready to lay it all out here just yet, but hold on to your britches. I’m really not a hyped up kind of guy. There are really few things that make me get really excited — the kind of excited where you jump up and down and get all silly. God’s been planting seeds in me for a couple of years…those seeds are about to sprout and that makes me excited.
So, all that said, I was doing a little blog reading today and my blogging friend, Ben Arment, had a great post about the difference between a church planter’s first and second church plant. Now I know that I have never been a lead guy in a church plant, but I’ve done various things at various levels in several plants over the years, so I can feel where Ben is coming from. The huge thing that Ben talked about was a shift in priorities. I especially think that in the coming years, the shift from any one ‘church’ or denomination or network to the Church of Jesus Christ will be HUGE. With declining numbers of people in pews, the economy tightening people’s budgets, and disinterest in organized religion, we are going to have to band together. Things will have to change. I’m not saying that God won’t still build his kingdom — that really is ultimately his job, he just invites us along for the ride– but we are commanded to go into all the earth and make disciples, so we should probably be doing that. You should head on over to Ben’s blog and check out what he has to say. He is a great blogger, marketer and Starbucks fanatic. I think he and Scott Hodge have kept Starbucks afloat while Howard was away.
(You know, it is funny, now that I have to drive at least 10 miles to get to a Starbucks, I want it daily. I could drink an Venti-sugar-free-hazlenut-skinny-iced-latte pretty much any time of the day. I’d much rather have something from a local joint, but alas House Blend is like 25 miles away. Love you guys, but can’t make that trek for a latte! Wow, I’ll end the parenthetical sidebar now.)
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