This has been an exciting week for us. It's been a week where God's hand has been so evident. Chris and I are both discovering that prayer is like a holy drug - the more you experience it's power, the more you want to participate in it. I think many of us would agree that when it comes to prayer we are tired of status quo. Can you imagine what our churches would look like if we began to pray passionately for our cities and the people we live in community with every day? Can you imagine what our personal journey with Christ would look like if prayer became a priority for us instead of something that we give our leftover time and energy to?
We are seeing what can happen when prayer becomes the focus and not the afterthought. This past Monday we asked our prayer force to pray very specifically for the needs we were facing this week (we do this every Monday) Less than 10 hours after the e-mail was sent to our prayer force one of our prayer needs was met. By the end of this week all three of our weekly prayer needs have been met AND THEN SOME! God went above and beyond what we asked for in prayer and reminded us that His heart is moved when we are passionately seeking after Him.
I know that we are all on a very uncertain journey as church planters. There are days when we question whether or not we have it in us to see this journey through to the end. Many of us have heard the statement "If you are a church planter, you are in danger." We are walking into Satan's playground and trying to reclaim what he has stolen. We can't afford for one moment to walk into the enemy's territory without the covering of God's holy presence. We need prayer warriors that are willing to stand in the gap for us and pray continually that we would gain new ground as we journey toward planting a baby church. We need to be prayer warriors!
I'm so thankful for our prayer force. If we were given a choice between prayer supporters and financial supporters, we would take prayer supporters every time. We wholeheartedly believe that the momentum that is building for our church plant is a direct result of the faithful prayers of our prayer force. Prayer is our lifeline. I would encourage you, if you haven't already, to build a prayer force around you. Communicate weekly with them, give them encouraging updates and be very specific with the things you want them to pray for. I believe God wants to pour His power all over us, He's just waiting for us to ask!
Be encouraged today!
When you first begin the journey of church planting, if you are like us, you might feel a sense of anxious expectation as you are trying to meet people. I remember one time, while driving past our community pool on the way to dinner, we saw some people in the pool and seriously contemplated turning around, throwing our swimsuits on the boys and running to the pool in hopes that the people would still be there. There is a certain validity to this pressure we feel that stays with us during this phase of meeting people and making ourselves know to those around us. It's that pressure to seize EVERY opportunity, no matter how you have to rearrange your life to make it happen. Although this pressure is a valid feeling, we have recognized that we need to seek out ways to meet people and nurture relationships while also identifying key relationships and pockets of people that are going to take more of our time and effort to cultivate.
At times it feels like you are all over the map when it comes to building relationships. If you are like us, you have driven around your city to identify local businesses, restaurants and coffee shops you want to frequent. You've also probably looked at what clubs and organizations in the city you can get involved in. We pray every single day for open doors and opportunities to share who we are. We have found that in this city the culture is very free when talking about church and faith. So, for us, when people ask why we have moved to the city or what we do for a living they are not turned away when we share openly who we are and what we are doing. Actually, we have found without exception so far, that once we have answered who we are, the conversation opens up and people begin asking us many other questions about the church plant. This doesn't work everywhere, but where we live, our transparency has opened doors for us as we build relationships. We realize that this doesn't mean everyone we talk to will walk through our church doors, but we do recognize that at some point our name and what we are doing might come up in people's conversations.
So back to the map - we are finding now on this leg of the journey that while we are still building relationships in many different capacities (this must be an ongoing process,) there is a certain place on the map on which we must narrow our focus. These are our red dots on the map, where all roads must lead to. These relationships are the people we have met who have expressed an interest in walking with us on this journey. These are the individuals we pray will become passionate about our church and in turn will begin telling the people in their area of influence about the journey they are on.
For us, these relationships have been developed through a few avenues. Some have been through sports interests, others through socio-interests (ladies groups/mens groups) and others have been community involvement groups. Our city seems to be filled with young families that have moved here in the last 5 years. Our city is set on a port and has endured two devastating hurricanes in the last several years. The chemical plants have recuperated and are gaining momentum, which means they are in a hiring stage. With hiring comes families moving into our city. Many of the people we have met are people who have lived in our city less than 5 years.
We are constantly asking ourselves, "Where is our red dot?" As we are meeting people we try to identify the key individuals that we need to spend more time with. We ask them to have lunch with us or invite them over to our home. We open ourselves up to them and take the lead in being transparent with them. We try very hard not to be overanxious. We know we must let relationships happen naturally. The most important factor is that people know we are genuine in our desire to know them and where they are at. We don't see them as tools we are going to use to help build our church. We want to invite them on a journey with us that we feel is going to be exciting and challenging, but incredibly rewarding.
Enjoy the journey! It is so exciting to be moving in a direction that doesn't yet have an end destination;
we get to be a part of something that is bigger than we could ever humanly comprehend. Find your red dot and go after it.
Be encouraged today!
Sometimes I wonder why we are surprised that our society is hesitant to the gospel. We've focused so much on the packaging that often times people miss the present wrapped inside. We've tried every gimmick, punch line and strategy known to mankind to "hook" people into coming through our church doors. "Anything we can do to get our name in the community" is our motto.
The church world loves events. Honestly, I love events. There is a certain buzz that comes with planning an event as you work with volunteers to put your best foot forward in the community and present your church as a relevant part of people's everyday lives. We will invite perfect strangers off the street to come to our event and brainstorm until we are blue in the face on creative ways to successfully advertise our big day.
As church planters there is no doubt that we will plan events as we work towards launching our churches. Our everyday vocabulary will include words like, "block parties," "windshield surveys," and "preview services." These are all incredible tools for us as we work to become a known presence in the communities in which we are launching. My fear, however, is that we put the cart before the horse when we fail to focus first on the relationships we must bridge in our community.
The second week we were in Beaumont I opened my calendar and attempted to schedule our first block party (never mind the fact that we are a "parachute drop" church plant.) I felt the pressure to schedule a block party because that's what I heard you were supposed to do when planting a church. I quickly came to the realization that it was not a realistic goal at that particular moment (yeah, I know - obvious, right?) I wonder how I might have felt that day had I opened my calendar and worked on scheduling specific places I was going to go the next week to make connections with the people in our community.
God is challenging us each and every day to have a seat in our community. He is focusing our attention on taking the time to stop and talk to people around us. We know our neighbors names and their stories. We know the names and stories of people who months ago were perfect strangers to us. We get excited when someone from our community "friends" us on Facebook. We love walking in to a restaurant and having the person behind the counter ask us how the church plant is going. It gets us jazzed when a new friend asks if we would like to volunteer for a community event coming up.
The church events will come and go and the day of launching our church will be here before we know it. What I'm left wondering is whose lives are we going to touch through the process of planting our church? Are we allowing ourselves to be transparent to those we hardly know to the extent that they can see our intentions as genuine?
It is our deep desire that real, relevant relationships would be at the core of Northpoint Community Church and that connection would be a reality that is happening outside our church doors as much as inside our doors. It is our prayer even now that as events take place they would serve as a catalyst for us to connect on a deeper level to people we already know in our community.
Don't miss this simple truth. Let's have a seat in our communities from the very beginning. If we do not take the time right now to be in our communities and bridge the relational gap with those we meet everyday, we never will. It doesn't get easier from here, it only gets more complicated. One day we will be leading a staff and a church full of people. One day we will be charging ahead with church events and ministries. So have a seat, look around you and don't miss those God-appointed conversations waiting to happen.
Be encouraged today!
