Monday, April 2, 2007

"I wish you were already meeting..."

...cause we'd love to come to your church." Maybe not those exact words (close though) are words we've heard. Lot's, LOT'S of people have indicated that our church sounds really great/cool/OUT OF THIS WORLD, ok maybe not the last one but people are definitely interested. Just one problem. They are interested when we actually ARE a church. That, by the way can be very frustrating and tempting as a church planter. Frustrating cause we feel like we can and are doing some already really great stuff (Life Group, Servant Evangelism) and tempting in that "We should just start." If it were not for us going through the proper channels in this process I think we would already be meeting and probably suffering for it. I didn't understand this animal called church planting until I was taught it from some very wise men. I am positive there have been some "Let's just start meeting" churches that are HIGHLY successful, but I would bet they are few and far between. There are so many ducks to get in a row that if not done right, and well, could be destructive. I am so glad we came down when we did to Cheyenne (End of January 2007). Our target launch is Oct. of 2007. I don't know if I could have been ready to launch in October if we arrived at our original date in June of 2007. The money spent on us attending a ministry assessment and church planters boot camp, to me, is priceless. I wish we were already meeting too. I'm DYING to preach. But I know we have other things that need to be done first. Connecting with people and serving the community is priority #1 at this time. I don't think any other church planters are out there reading this right now, but if one ever asked me I would say "Be in your mission field as long as you can before you launch."

Following Christ

Jeff

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