The Great Unknown

The risks, rewards (and, yes, routine) of church planting

Each of us has stood on a ledge—at some point in our Christian faith—and wondered about this idea of stepping off. Will it hurt? Is this really where God wants me? Did He perhaps just want me to stand here for a while and consider the view?

We’ve approached our particular faith ledges and considered turning back. After all, the unknown is so … unknown. But over the years we’ve learned that if God is behind the idea, then it’s not unknown to Him, and He’s there to catch us as we leap.

In this issue, we introduce you to several fellow EFCA leaders who are involved in the risk-rewards business of church planting. No two church plants are the same—neither the planning that launched them nor the demographics that define them. Yet each was birthed out of a passion. And for each, a typical month includes exhilarating mountaintop experiences mixed with ledges of the great unknown, plus simple, ordinary (often mundane) life.

As you read, consider your own leaps of faith—as well as your own day-to-day faithfulness—and commit to pray for our brothers and sisters who are stepping into the church-planting unknown and watching God do great things.