Planting a church, it’s very easy to let my mind wander to all the fun wizz-bangery of churchdom. Images and thoughts can flood my mind for hours about what our meetings will look like, what kind of sound system will work, what will band sound like, how should we design the bulletins, what about signage… etc. After all, don’t we all love to talk about that cool Christian word “Ethos,” and “environment.” Isn’t it exciting to dream about what the experience of church is going to be like!?
Hmm. I wonder if in my own heart I don’t have meeting-idolatry. The dream of a future meeting is a shoddy, poor foundation upon which to build anything, especially a new church.
My dad is a contractor/land developer. If all he thought about in the building process was where the pictures in the new house would go, and what kind of fridge to buy for it, he’d be a pretty poor builder. Similarly, if we church planters spend most our time dreaming of how cool we’re going to look with our new face mic, lit by our new lights, cheered for by our new people, and rocking to our new band, then we are bad church planters.
Paul said, By the grace of God given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder… But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Christ Jesus. (1 Cor 3:10-11)
The day to think of wizz-bangery will come. But today is a day to lay foundations. Today is a day to pour concrete. This part is dirty, gritty, and slow. No band to rock to. No lights. No face mic. Just Jesus, and the people whose hearts he wants to change.
In the book of Joshua, memorial stones were set up to commemorate a moment when God did something amazing. Then, by seeing the stones, the people of Israel were to remember what God had done.
Today, I SET DOWN SOME STONES.
In the last 36 hours I’ve walked over 14 miles, seen over a dozen properties, scoured the internet for hours, and made hundreds of phone calls. In all my work, God was working, and now WE HAVE A HOME IN BOSTON! In one of the most expensive and property-difficult cities in the USA, God gave us a bigger home than we expected in a better area than we expected for less money than we expected… reminds me of a bible verse about God blowing away our expectations.
My hope and prayer is that in this home God will work in and through us, our church plant team, volunteers, friends, and family to birth a great church in this great city. God has given us an amazing place, and we are so thankful.
To my awesome team: thank you for praying. Walking by this memorial stone, may your faith be strengthened.
It has been said that church shouldn’t be a country club for saints but a hospital for sinners. I think that is a false, unhelpful dichotomy.
Church shouldn’t be a country club, catering to the wishes of it’s members. Neither should it be a hospital, simply concerned with healing hurting people. Church should be more like a triage unit on the field of battle. That is, the point of a triage unit is to get soldiers patched up and back out on mission.
Mission should mark every church that truly believes the gospel. Why? Because God is on a mission.
I can hear some objections. ”But Adam, shouldn’t church be about helping hurting people? Sometimes people need to take a break to be healed and helped.” And I would say, “Yes, yes, yes.” Absolutely. Church should be about helping hurting people, but helping them do what? Feel better? Have a healthy self-image? Health for health’s sake isn’t health at all, it’s idolatry. Similarly, church for church’s sake isn’t church, it’s something else… something indeed worse.
If church is a mission-focused entity, then the logical next question is, “What is our mission.” After all, soldiers don’t usually go out to fight without orders. Builders don’t start building without a reason. The mission of the church? That’s a great topic for our next post.
This past weekend, I had the high honor of getting to speak at Campus Harvest, a gathering of over 2000 college students in Durham, NC. I was asked to speak on the mission of God.
See all the dots in the TOP RIGHT CORNER? Those are Top-100 colleges and universities, and we’re barely on 10% of them.
New England is so strategic, and we’re missing the opportunity.
The good news is that we won’t be for long. Who’s in? Who wants to help plant some gospel-centered, Christ-exalting churches on or near these influential campuses?
Recently, Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian Church of NYC) did an interview/panel discussion on his most recent book. If you’d like to give it a listen, you can find it here.
Okay, we have moved back to the USA in preparation for our new mission assignment, and normal life patterns are emerging. It has been a crazy, harrowing, happy, sad, up, and down 3 weeks, so let me be brief but to the point.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT THROUGH THIS TRANSITION. Hope and I have been blown away at the kindness of God extended to us through his people, our friends, our partners, and even strangers as we prepare to plant a new church in Boston.
Secondly, PRAY FOR GOD TO MOVE IN BOSTON. Already we are feeling the wind at our backs as we walk into our next mission assignment. Please pray for God to do something amazing in Boston.
Werre back. Praise God. Now its time to get to work…
One of my favorite Lewis quotes, brought to mind from re-reading Desiring God…
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
I am filled with excitement, fear, faith, sadness, happiness, and host of other emotions. ONE THING I AM NOT, HOWEVER, IS CONCERNED. I do not lie awake at night wondering, “will they do okay without me?” Certainly not. In fact, I’m convinced that if I were, I would be both an IDOLATER and a BAD LEADER.
I would be an idolater because I would be implying that this church were somehow built by me. Rubbish. This church, and every other church, is built by Jesus Christ who said I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it. I am not Jesus. I don’t build churches. To believe that I do would make me an idolater and a fool.
I would be a bad leader because I would have illustrated exactly what I didn’t do: make disciples. I’m going to steal a riff from Steve Murrell here, WE MAKE DISCIPLES, JESUS BUILDS THE CHURCH. If I were concerned about this church, I’d simply be showing off how for 5 years I didn’t make a good disciple.
But… by God’s grace, I have made a few disciples, and Jesus continues to be the builder of his church. I’ve preached the gospel, and I’ve done my best to lay foundations in people. So, this is my assurance; I HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL to try and make disciples, and I BELIEVE JESUS WILL BE FAITHFUL TO BUILD HIS CHURCH in Edinburgh, in Boston, and all over the world.
