It’s a good thing that I have some good friends who are causing me to think about things.  If they weren’t around I wonder how much would simply flow past me without realizing how fast time marches on.

I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday, and he started talking about what next year would look like at Community of Hope.  We look forward to passing the leadership of Awana on to somebody else (we’re already moving him in that direction - he’s already been taking huge stides along that path).  But the question was asked for us, what next?

Well, I told him I hope to take Freedom Session next fall, an intensive class to help people struggle with and overcome past issues in a Biblical framework.  Both Community of Hope and my previous church, Cedar Grove run this program, and I have had a lot of contact with both the people who run it and people who have taken it.  It is very good at what it does, helping people to recognize what hurts they have caused or experienced in the past, and how they affect their lives today, and act to resolve them.  I realized in my many interactions with people involved, that while I function pretty well, like most other people I have some hurts that definitely affect how I relate to people.  I wouldn’t mind dealing with those.

But, that’s not all by a long shot.  The vision that Cheryl and I have is to begin the process of planting a church in Alberta in the fall of 2010.  That is not far away at all!  Working back from a fall 2010 departure, that means we need to make a final decision about a destination city/town probably by the beginning of summer 2010, and before that we need to be building our team if there will be one.  It would probably make sense if we are going to have a team that our small group in the fall of 2009 be made up of those who are interested in planting with us.  We will need that fall and winter and spring to make decisions and pray and vision together what that new church will look like.

Fall 2009 seems so far away, but a quick check of the calendar is only 9 months!

On the bright side, if all these dates come too fast they are always subject to revision.  And on the brighter side, with every passing week, I do feel we are being prepared more and more for the task ahead.  There is still so much to do, but I still think we can get there.

What an amazing week.

Things are happening for our little clan, behind the scenes right now.  I can’t talk too much about it because much is still up in the air, but expect to hear about some significant steps coming in the next little while.  This dream of church planting is solidifying.  Even recently, it’s been a hazy object on the horizon, hard to distinguish through haze and geography between here and there.  Sometimes we have even asked ourselves if that objective in the distance wasn’t a mirage.

But it’s looking a whole lot more real.

And it’s getting realer.

Heh.  New word.

I encountered this article in a 2000 issue of a Church Planting newsletter produced by Outreach Canada.  Definitely food for thought.

What did you do last summer? At first you may think what Alan Braun did last summer can’t be reproduced. But perhaps it can…

Large Volunteer Core Recruited

Alan is pastor of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Penticton, BC. Last spring he invited volunteers from associated churches in the USA to come help, and they did—all 250 of them. An administrator was hired for three months to coordinate this volunteer team. What did the volunteers do?

Following orientation and training, the volunteers surveyed five nearby communities, informing residents that a new church was to be planted and offering a “Vision Video,” where the vision of the new church was shared. In addition, the door-to-door volunteers invited children to a community Vacation Bible School (VBS). Finally, the volunteers staffed seven distinct VBSs and made numerous follow-up home visits.

Results: Five New Churches and a Saturday Evening Service! What happened? 140 children attended a VBS in West Bank where volunteer follow-up calls gathered a new church, which is now meeting with its own full-time pastor. A new congregation is also meeting in a hotel in Osoyoos and three new plants are underway in Penticton.

In addition to these results, a new Saturday night service was started in the mother church. Over the course of the summer mission, 121 persons indicated professions of faith in Christ and are now being discipled.

How Does a Local Church Come to Take Responsibility For Planting?

Abundant Life Christian Fellowship’s vision was to plant a daughter church each year.  When its denomination, the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptist Churches, set the “God-sized” goal of planting 1,000 churches by 2010, ALCF went back to prayer. It concluded that, because of its size and strength compared to other churches in the denomination, they would be responsible for 100 of the envisioned 1,000 church plants. This commitment led, in turn, to the goal of planting five of these 100
churches during the summer of 2000.

What Can We Learn?

Missionary supervisor, Jim Graham, offering support to the project, suggests several potential lessons for all:
1. Concentrated sowing will produce a harvest.

2. Volunteer missions can be the key to reaching large numbers of people.

3. Church planting movements can happen in Canada.

Perhaps we should add a fourth: When denominations set church planting goals beyond their ability to control the outcome, God recognizes dependence and responds.

Who’s Alan?

Pastor Alan Braun arrived to pastor his first church, then with ten people, in 1989. The church now draws 400. He says he has gathered a governing board to look for results. Would he do anything differently?

“Yes,” says Braun, “I would communicate earlier in the process with the ministerial where we intend to plant.” Braun’s reflection on the shrinking influence of the church in Canadian life is: “We’ve been in retreat long enough—let’s get moving.”

I’ve been watching the blog of the Wilks Family, in Medicine Hat planting Pathway Church, for probably close on to 6 months now.  It has been a fascinating journey with ups and downs, and it’s been a privelege to be an eavesdropper on a church coming into being from nothing.

When I started reading them, they were just a lone family, trying to network and integrate into the community.  I read about god contacts, which evaporated it seemed.  I read about mission teams coming up from the USA to help them raise awareness and give into the community, and prayer walk.  I read about momentum, and discouragement.  But now, it looks like they have finally broken through something and are moving toward launch.  A worship team is forming, a location for the church is becoming clear, and more and more people in Medicine Hat are jumping on board.

Check them out and celebrate with them.  Lift them up in prayer that God blesses their ministry and brings many into the Kingdom through them.

Again, while reading Essential Church, I have experienced a gelling of ideas from several other places about mission and vision statements for a church.  This passage jumped out at me, speaking about why young adults leave the church in droves between the ages of 16-20:

Their parents assumed that the teachings of the church would be well received via religious osmosis. But the Great Commission explicitly commands us to teach and disciple. Neglecting this element of the gospel imperative creates an atmosphere of spiritual and doctrinal atrophy resulting in a nonessential church.

The passage about the assumption made by parents and leaders that their kids would “just get it” by coming to church stuck out at me.  I was struck that training people to follow Jesus needs to be central to the purpose of any church.  This made me think of Matthew 28:18-20.  I am seeing a framework for a vision coming out of that verse.

“(18b) All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I see in this passage bookends of worship: looking to God for our authority “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and his promise to be present with us “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”.  Worshipping God for who he is and seeking his presence is the first and last thing a church stands for.

Then we have the mission of the church - to make disciples and baptize “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”.  We are here to bring lost souls to Jesus.

Then we have a mandate to train up the disciples we have been entrusted with.  “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,”.

So a suggested mission statement of our future church plant could be, “To worship God, first and last, and guide his followers to him.”

A suggested vision:

Using Matthew 28 as our guide, we desire to pursue the mission that Jesus entrusts us with:

• To acknowledge our Lord Jesus as King, and worship him together;
• To guide our neighbours to be baptized as followers of Jesus;
• To teach and encourage each other in the love that Jesus has for us and the world;
• To raise up new leaders to pursue this mission everywhere;

What excites me about this is that it is short and sweet. It is not overly complicated with layers of process and form. It feels clean and simple, and that is what church should be, it seems to me. You look at any great movement, and it had a distilled message that was simple to grasp and follow. Like our faith. All God really asks of us is to love God and love our neighbour. That’s it. And the structure we are to use to accomplish this is the church.

I just tried googling this, and didn’t find a thing that was relevant.

My Pastor and mentor, Philip, suggested this to me a few weeks ago as a possibility when we begin to move forward with our dream of planting a church in Alberta.  He was suggesting that going bivocational would allow us to be more financially secure as we set down roots in the new community.

It certainly fits with my skill set - I am currently in a sales position for a company that makes real estate software for agents.  From the first week on the job, I was convinced that it would be easy to make money in real estate if a person simply used the tools we sell - that’s probably why I sell it well - I actually believe in the product.  But it had me thinking for a few years now that I could do well in that industry.  In addition, I already have some training in geography and mapping in Alberta, when I was in Forestry.  So I get that lingo.

The job has it downsides.  It is an on-call, 24/7 type job which can get very hectic if you get a lot of business.  But it is scalable and ultimately you set your own hours.

A couple other downsides are it would cost me money to get my license, and starting up as a realtor in a town you haven’t lived in it would seem to me to be a little tricky - local knowledge is an advantage in that job.

The upside is the chance to be out in the community all the time, getting to know the neighbourhoods, the issues, the things that make the community tick every single day, and earn money while I am at it.

It seems like such a good idea, I am wondering why nobody ever thought of it before.  But, it does pose more questions.  When is the right time to start chasing that license?  Would it be smart to get into real estate right now, or soon, and give myself a couple of years to learn the trade?  Or would it be better to plan to get the license just before or after the move?  Where am I going to come up with the money for the training?  Where am I going to find the time?

Hospitality. What a big word that is. I’m not talking about the number of letters but rather all that it means at least for me. I have been thinking lately about how I need to open up my home a lot more to others but I find it overwhelming. I like people, however, I do like my privacy and my space. My home is where I go to recharge when I am not picking up after my kids and doing what seems to always need done; from the dishes to the laundry. At the moment I have three sick boys. I did have all four sick at one point but one got better.

Already we’ve been opening up our home on Friday nights to our community group (aka small group/care group) but we could do more, right? I look at my schedule for this Fall and I know I am very busy teaching students and marking their papers, my studies, kids schooling, Awana team meetings, community group meetings, leadership meetings and church events. Somewhere in there I have to fit in mentoring, couple meetings with community group members and connecting with Awana leaders plus time with my family and God. How does one make it work?

Shane keeps bringing up having people over and instantly I think of all the preparation I have to do to have someone over for dinner and more preparation if they have kids (especially if they are young and will want to put our kids’ smaller toys in their mouths). A negative attitude creeps in as I list off all the ways having people over is going to impact me. Honestly, I start to panic.

When I get stressed I slow down. It feels like I never get ahead and so I feel like I shouldn’t even bother trying which is of course a bad attitude to have. But how can I change that? How do I make myself want to have people over and on short notice? If we are going to plant a church my home will have to be pretty open to company. I’ll have to make it visitor ready at all times. It isn’t a disaster it’s just lived in. I have a certain standards regarding how I want my home to look like when I have people over but it is difficult to maintain that standard when I have 4 little boys to take care of. I really need to work through this so I guess I will have to create a game plan as an attempt to eliminate some of the excuses I make for not wanting people over.

My “Simple” Game Plan:
1. Keep the kitchen clean at all times.
2. Entrance way must always be clean.
3. Living room always neat and tidy.

Three rules for myself. I’m not taking on all the rooms of my house, just the ones most frequently visited by company so I have one less panic attack when Shane tells me he invited someone to our house after church and they’ll be here in an hour.

So yesterday, Adam preached his first sermon at Community of Hope.  It was a  message a lot of us needed to hear heading into a busy fall where a lot is being asked of us, about whether following Jesus is easy or hard.  It served a second purpose as well - it allowed us to get to know him and his family and hear a bit of their story.

I was talking with Cheryl after church, and she says to me, kind of out of the blue, that she had a bit of a vision, but more of a realization.  She said she saw Adam and his family coming with us to Alberta.  Totally out of the blue.

I figured I had better note this down for posterity.  I like to give glory to God when he moves in ways beyond our understanding.  And it certainly will be beyond my understanding if (when) it comes to pass!

So, here’s your notice, Adam.  You’re moving again in a couple of years.  Yeah, sorry Phil.  What can I say?  It’s God, not us!

A church planting blogger and his wife that I follow are off to be assessed.  My prayers go with them.  I know for myself, in some ways I look forward to that step for us, and in other ways I am frightened by it.  What if we are the only ones who think we are called?  What if it isn’t God we’re hearing, but our own vanity?

I mentioned this worry the other day to my mentor and pastor, Philip.  He told me assessments aren’t really there to make you question your calling, but more to give you focus on knowing yourself and your giftings, and also your weak points so that you can build a team around you who will make up for anything you lack.  Or, failing that, at least give you an opportunity to work on those weaknesses, to improve.

That helped some.

What also helped is just encountering, randomly, story after story about people who thought they were good at something, but were told they stink, but then didn’t listen and became roaring successes.  I’ve encountered several of these - most recently Sigourney Weaver was told in college she was a crummy actress.  Neil Cole, author of Organic Church, in his book he mentioned that he was told her didn’t have the skills to be a church planter.  I think his results speak for themselves (Read the book).

So, there’s God, bringing these things to me when I need them.  God is still God.  Thanks, Jeremiah, for the CD out at iGo (I took you up on your offer to take one of those ep’s).  I’ve got your rendition of “Who Can Compare” on my iPod.  My heart sings this morning:

If you’re not the one we praise, who will we adore?

For God there is none like you, you alone are LORD!

I’ve been trying to hook onto one of these but they don’t seem to be very common.  The biggest ones seem to be a little preoccupied with issues that I am not necessarily interested in.  I don’t really know how to express what it is I am looking for.  I am looking for bloggers who are blogging about their growth, what works for them, what they struggle with.

I know lots of people get into heavy theological debates, and I guess I am more practical than I have always thought because that interests me less and less as time goes on.  I can’t figure out if church planters don’t blog like this, or bloggers don’t plant.  But hey if any of you who surf on by here know of some good ones, drop a link here in the comments.