Church planting for dummies…
Nov 3rd, 2009 by ljkim
The act of starting a new church is called church “planting.” I don’t know who first thought to call it that, but I think the idea is that a fellowship grows in an organic way – so you don’t “create” a church, you “plant” it. Anyway, whether you create it or start it (or launch it) or plant it, I’m really bad at it. If you measured church-planting ability on a level of one to ten (ten being best), I think I’d rank somewhere in the area of “2″. Unlike most natural born leaders, I actually like it when people think differently and do their own thing. I like that God gave people personalities that don’t need an authority figure to tell them what to do. I also like that God gave people rational minds so that once they realize something…truly…no one has to tell them what to do, they’ll be self-motivated. Some of you might think these are “nice” qualities for leadership – but in the real world these qualities get in the way of motivating and leading like minded people toward a single goal…like starting a church.
So if that’s the case, why bother trying? A couple of reasons…and these are really at the core of CityFellowship’s DNA:
One, there is something missing with “church” as we know it here (in English speaking places in the U.S.) It is not in sync with what we see in the Bible… And because we really want a church that resembles Jesus that we can invite our non-Christian friends to. I think those with the leadership abilities – because they can accomplish what they want – wind up recreating our culture’s idea of a “successful” ministry, rather than letting Jesus create something new – renewing and reforming the church.
Two, I think a real church comes about as a result of God’s work. And so the inability of CF’s founding pastor won’t hinder it from becoming Jesus’ church. Instead, it will (someday) be even more clear that this was God’s doing. Don’t get me wrong – if talented and able people wanted to help CF to grow, I wouldn’t turn down their help! But even then, it would be because God brought them, not me.
As Tolkien wrote: “This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
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