Church Planting means Work
Over the last couple of years I have had the great opportunity to meet and talk with church planters from all over the United States. From being at Exponential in Orlando, Florida to the church planters boot camp that I was a part of at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho. I have heard of many different vision statements and mission statements as well as processes to discipleship to marketing for events. I have heard church planters address the need for authentic worship and the need for fund raising. I have heard church planters talk about their ideas of being missional and of being leaders. But there is one thing that I have not heard people really talk about. That church planting means work.
It means that there are going to be days that you are meeting people way into the evening while your family is at home. It means that there are going to be days that you are painting and building different things for the needs of the church to get going. It means that you will be the one that is carrying the burden for finances and for the health of the people on your team. It means that you are going to actually going to have to get your hands dirty and maybe even get a couple of blisters. But it is work, hard work, sometimes back breaking work. But it is so worth it!
Proverbs 21:5 (NLT) 5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.
Tyler and I getting ready for church.
Do you need encouragement?
Ever have one of those days where you just wish some one would acknowledge that you are doing a good job at whatever it is your doing that day? I mean maybe if you are a stay at home mom, that your husband or kids would just tell you that you are doing awesome and that they love their home. Wouldn’t that be nice? I mean how about husbands that work away from home and are gone for a couple of days, that when you get home you hear from your wife and kids that they missed you and want to be with you. Instead, you get the list of broken things in the home and dad you promised to take me to the store. Don’t you want to be encouraged? How about for those high school and middle school students that are taking on the world in school. That when you get home you hear that you were missed and that is there anything that your parents could do for you while you do the 12 million hours of home work. But instead you hear about the chores that aren’t done or about how you missed one thing on the project and it wasn’t the grade that your parents had hoped for in that class. Don’t you want more encouragement?
I recently was sitting and working away and was kind of having one of those days, where I just wanted to hear I was doing a good job. That things were going well and that even though my emotions were getting the better of me, that God is the one in charge I am not, and today was better than I thought. When I looked up at the huge wipe board in my office and saw this:
Morgan making her dad's day!
There she left me a little note just telling me she loved me. What a great reminder and an encouragement to me. It made the rest of my day just hinking about how my “favorite youngest daughter” loved me. Maybe that is what you need to hear too? Maybe you need to know that from not just the people around you but from God himself. You see God being the great dad that He is even knew that was important. Look at what he said to His son:
Matthew 3:17 (NLT) “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved son, who brings me great joy.”
Guess what you are His kid and you too bring Him joy. So even if you can’t see it on the wipe board in your office know that God loves you and He wants you to lean into Him and hear I Love you, your doing a good job.
Hope that you are encouraged! Maybe this is something you need to share with someone else? Go encourage someone, maybe on their wipe board.
Working for it!
I was really taking this last week to watch, read, and digest what is going on through out the country in several states. I have had the privilege to talk to some of these leaders of the churches, I have read some of their thoughts about what is going on, and I have been reading the books that they put out. It is really exciting how God is growing and using these men to do amazing things in this world.
What unfortunately most people forget about what God is doing with these churches is that these leaders are also working hard at what they do. They are men and women that have followed the call of God and taken steps of faith to follow the call and do the things that were needed to build a church. To many people though are looking for the short cut. To many people thought think that oh that is happening in their church because of the building or the music. The thing is that everything had to start somewhere. I believe that just like Nehemiah he received the call followed Christ but he got to work. He got his hands dirty – he got sweaty – he got in the mix of building a wall.
Roger Staubach “”Spectacular achievements come from unspectacular preparation”
Many of us have gotten to the point where we have become so comfortable that we don’t see the need to WORK. Jesus was a carpenter, you can’t tell me He did not know about work. Think about the walk that Jesus made to where they hung him on the cross on the hill. Work! Why is it that we have put everything into a processes, into a book, into an idea. I believe that many people today have forgotten the principle of HARD WORK. Thank you to those leaders that are making the decisions and changes that you are to the church at large. Thank you for showing what God will do through a man that seeks after Him but also is not afraid of hard work. I pray that we will not forget that with people around us dying and going to Hell that it is not the time to sit back and not get to work.
Tell me how you have seen the work that you have put in comeback with God sized spectacular achievement?
