A Word To The Wise About Church Planting
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
To all you young 'uns (and other assorted riff raff) who have ever thought about - or are thinking about - planting a church: Before you embark on your "rock-star-like" career, I think your perception of church planting may be a little clouded by the bull crap you see in the church, and on blogs, and at conferences.
Allow me to wipe that crap away: being a church planter will not make you cooler nor will it make you any more popular or more attractive to the opposite sex.
It will not make you any more spiritual and almost no one will respect you more for your courage, risk taking, or intrinsic motivation.
It will not make you braver or more disciplined.
It will not teach you to 'take it like a man' or 'be a real woman', it likely won't help you to get on TV and it won't allow you to buy nicer clothes, shoes, or hair gel either.
It won't allow you to finally be part of the perfect church, or to shed institutional politics, nor will it guarantee that people will accept you for who you are - authentic community.
It will, however, expose every limitation you have and defeat you at almost every turn.
It will bite you on the butt whenever it gets the opportunity, it will choke you, break you, wind you, bruise you, cut you and batter you, emptying any sense of self-sufficiency along the way. It'll wind you up like a clock until you feel like tearing your own face off and walking away in snivelling submission.
It's probably the most fun you'll ever have.
Or maybe it's just me.
Allow me to wipe that crap away: being a church planter will not make you cooler nor will it make you any more popular or more attractive to the opposite sex.
It will not make you any more spiritual and almost no one will respect you more for your courage, risk taking, or intrinsic motivation.
It will not make you braver or more disciplined.
It will not teach you to 'take it like a man' or 'be a real woman', it likely won't help you to get on TV and it won't allow you to buy nicer clothes, shoes, or hair gel either.
It won't allow you to finally be part of the perfect church, or to shed institutional politics, nor will it guarantee that people will accept you for who you are - authentic community.
It will, however, expose every limitation you have and defeat you at almost every turn.
It will bite you on the butt whenever it gets the opportunity, it will choke you, break you, wind you, bruise you, cut you and batter you, emptying any sense of self-sufficiency along the way. It'll wind you up like a clock until you feel like tearing your own face off and walking away in snivelling submission.
It's probably the most fun you'll ever have.
Or maybe it's just me.
Labels: church planting, writing
Seriously, you do it so naturally and well that to some it may look easy or like the ideal. You are, among many things besides Pernell, a great leader & church planter. Right now I'm praying for your continued faithfulness to the Father on the straight and narrow.
11:34 AM