A Day in the Life Of...

As a church planter what does your day look like?  If you are a church planter you have, no doubt, tried to answer this question many times over.  I find myself sometimes thinking back to the "glory" days when I was on staff at a church.  Everyday I could look forward to going into the office to talk and dream ministry with the fellow "staffers."  There were people to be ministered to and needs to be met.


For the church planter this dynamic looks completely different.  Your church office might be at home, at a coffee shop, at a rented office space or it might change from day to day.  Your schedule looks different for right now - it isn't spent preparing for staff meetings or sermons.  Hopefully, your time is spent meeting new people anyway you can think - whether that is through frequenting the same local businesses, playing a pick up game of ball at the park, joining "clubs" throughout the city, registering your kid for a sports league.. you name it!


I think I'm getting better at embracing this new reality.  God is continually challenging me and my ideas of ministry.  I realize that as a church planter I have the rare opportunity to help create the culture and mindset of our church.  This is an opportunity and a great responsibility that I don't take lightly.  I've always talked about how important it is to "be in our community" but I must confess that now there is not other option BUT for me to be in the community around me.  There's no one walking through our church doors.  People don't have our church on their radar yet.  So, if God is going to use me to build His church, I better close my "office" doors and get out there, where the God-appointed conversations are happening.


Now with all of this said, here are some of the things we have done so far that might help you answer the question, "As a church planter, what does your day look like?" These are some of the projects we have worked on and the things we spend "our days" on right now. I hope this can help give you some ideas on where to start.  Don't forget though, these are just ideas.  Start each and every day on your knees.  God is steering this ship, you just need Him to tell you were to paddle today.

• Design and go "live" with website and Facebook page.  We made the decision to begin with a website and Facebook page.  I cannot tell you how many people we have met that have gone home, friended us on Facebook and seen our link to our website and church Facebook page.  The next time we meet with them, their first question usually is, "So, you and your husband are planting a church in the area?"  Although the website and Facebook page are bare bones right now, we are intentional about utilizing it to explain who we are and how to get involved.
• 2-3 Sundays a month - speaking at churches throughout our area to raise awareness and support.
• The Sundays that we are at home are spent visiting area churches to get a "feel" for the church culture in Beaumont. 
• Men's Basketball Night.  We intentionally bought a home in a neighborhood that has a community pool, basketball court pavilion and tennis courts.  Our pool has been a great tool for us.  We pray every day that God would send us "God-appointed" conversations, so we don't consider it a coincidence when the HOA president comes up and sits down for a chat around the pool.  We've had multiple conversations with people asking us who we are and what brought us to Beaumont.  HINT: be prepared to give a 30-second concise answer.  It might be your only chance.
• Scheduled our first community window survey.  We already have a building for the church plant, so we know our target community.  If you don't have a building yet, you have a greater challenge ahead as you target your key communities. 
• Met with administrator from Lamar University.  We have discovered on Lamar's website that there are some Christian fraternity and sorority houses on campus.  We are very interested in meeting the leaders of these groups and seeing how we might partner with them.  
• We have enrolled our son in Little League Baseball.  There are over 500 kids in his particular league.  OPPORTUNITIES are abundant to meet people and connect.  
• Our church building is directly across from a brand new elementary school.  Chris has introduced himself to the principal/vice principal.  We will "love" on this school throughout the year and make ourselves available to them.
• We have some "20" somethings that we know from a previous ministry we were a part of in the area several years ago.  We will begin a "game" night with them this fall and hopefully through our encouragement they will bring more and more of their friends. (Free, home-cooked food is always a bargaining chip with young adults.)  We hope to establish a small group the beginning of next year with our "game" night "20" somethings.
• Chris has met with the director of a homeless shelter in the city (Chris' eyes light up when you start talking urban ministry.)  One of our dreams is to have the CEO of a corporation worshipping beside a man without a home, realizing together that they are connected through the transforming love of Jesus Christ.  Now that's exciting!
• We are planning a major renovation for our church building next year.  Even though we own the building, we are nowhere near ready to begin meeting there.  At this point, we are working on identifying who our core team members are.  Because we are a parachute plant, we do not have any key players from a sponsor church to build a core group with.  Our core group will be built out of the relationships we are making with people right now.  With that said, we have the time to create a game plan for our renovation.  Over the next several months we will work with contractors and architects to design the set up we feel is going to create the church "culture" we feel God is calling us towards.
• Clubs and organizations.  We are getting involved in many of the community clubs and organizations - Mom's clubs, Sports clubs, Non-profit organizations, School clubs, Boy Scouts.  Connections must be made first and people must see that we are concerned with what concerns them and want to be a part of their lives.  We pray often that our motives would be transparent to those we are meeting.  Our main priority is to build relationships.
• RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS.  I could add to this list all the time as we continue to seek out ways to meet people in our community.  This is absolutely the most important task we have right now. 

So there you have it, in a nutshell.  I hope this helps you and encourages you.  Right now our efforts are almost completely spent on getting to know people.  It's discouraging at times, and more times than I care to admit I question whether or not this is going to make any difference at all.  Wouldn't it just be easier to open our church doors and let people come to us?  UGH.  Did I just say that?  Isn't that the mentality I've been fighting throughout my ministry?  And if we are really honest with ourselves, isn't this the mentality the church world has been fighting for years and years?  But now, here, where I'm on the playing field, the easy way is tempting.  God reminds me often that if I truly want to be the pastor of a church that is pushing believers beyond their comfort zone and leading them to passionately seek out building relationships with those outside the four walls of our church, then I HAVE TO do the same thing at the pregnant stage of our church.  I have to fight for a relationship-driven mindset, not a ministry-driven mindset.  

Be encouraged today church planter!  We are in different boats but we have the same captain.  Work on those relationships, open yourself up to anyone who might welcome you in.  Don't be afraid, this is a God thing.  Just get your paddle and start moving!