Adventures in Church Planting
The everyday realities of an extraordinary calling
Perhaps someone should create a reality television show following the lives of church planters—displaying the day-to-day adventure of missional living, mixed with out-on-a-ledge faith.
Imagine the ratings as viewers become caught up in the undeniable sense of calling, the escalating momentum and the hold-your-breath wonder at watching new life unfold?
Those viewers might lose interest, however, if the displays of God’s glory are intermixed with too many shots of pastors doing “ordinary” things—discussing fund-raising ideas or taking out the trash after a community gathering.
It might be hard to grasp the romance of God wooing His church, when the day-to-day details don’t seem quite romantic.
Some duties of a church-planting couple can, in fact, feel disenchanting. Pastor Cabot Ashwill1 acknowledges that “the days are long and sometimes discouraging.” Yet he also affirms that those same days are “punctuated by brilliant bursts of God-moments.”
In these moments of grace and beauty, church planters are reminded that behind the scenes, God is at work—and that is more than enough to keep them tuned-in to their calling of growing the kingdom. So, what does living out this calling really look like?
Preparing for the Premiere
The EFCA offers tools to prepare pastors for the church-planting experience, including its Boot Camp: an intensive, five-day training covering major issues that church planters will face in their first year.
When preparing to plant Nueva Vida in Georgetown, Texas, Marcelo and Rachael Lamas2 attended boot camp with the goal of learning how to raise financial support. “It was a great blessing,” Marcelo says. “It gave us the tools we needed to share our calling without fear.”
Still, a great part of being ready is being flexible. Marcelo and Rachael have had to adapt much of their expectations from that training, since their largely immigrant target community is so different from that of many in the EFCA. Tim Culling3, pastor of Restoration Church in Long Beach, Calif., says that even with great training and great prayer, anyone who claims to feel fully prepared for a church plant is either “lying, crazy or divine.”
He compares the process to that of having a baby: “You can dream about it, spend time with those who have kids, read about it and babysit for friends. But when you take the baby home from the hospital—that’s when the learning really begins.”
Set design & other logistics
Onlookers might assume that the first community-wide meeting of a church is its initial step. But long before a church can convene, many faith-filled strides have already been taken.
For some planters, the first step is a physical relocation. Cabot and Asia Ashwill moved from California to Spring Grove, Ill., to plant LifeSpring Community Church. Before moving their four children 2,200 miles, they took a family poll:
Do you want to move to Illinois? Six nos.
Do you believe God is calling us to move there to church plant? Five yeses and one “I don’t know” (from their 7-year-old).
Will you go? Six yeses.
For any church planter, the list of to-dos quickly grows: developing teaching tools and outreach methods, advertising, sermon prep, scheduling, budgeting, settling legal issues, and securing needed funds.
In the beginning stages, according to Tim Culling, most of these duties fall on the church-planting couple4. “You have to learn how to navigate various worlds,” he says. “The web-site world; the nonprofit status world: 501(c)3, EIN, tax laws, payroll; the marketing world: Photoshop, Pages, Word Art.
“If Apple® had an iChurchPlant application, I would have purchased it. Twice.”
Thankfully, pastoral couples don’t have to face the to-do list alone;the establishment of a core leadership team is vital. Together, they decide how and where the church body will gather and launch, as well as its core values and commitments.
Of course, pastors and leadership teams must balance these decision-making and logistical tasks with their main purpose: sharing God’s love with their community.
Casting call
Between small groups, mentoring, outreach events, leadership meetings and simply being part of the community, most church-plant pastors list “spending time with people” as a top priority in their day.
To Cabot, this is the most natural way to form the new church. “Church-planting is simply an expression of the gospel in the community,” he explains, adding that most visitors come to the church because of a relationship, not because of great preaching or programming.
Tim says that every venue has to be seen as a missional opportunity. On average, he spends two days intentionally connecting with the city of Long Beach, either by visiting other pastors and congregation members, volunteering with a local rescue mission, or studying in coffee shops.
Often, when new churches introduce themselves to their neighbors, God opens doors—literally and figuratively. A “chance” conversation at a coffee shop resulted in a new meeting space for Restoration Church, just when they needed it.
When members of LifeSpring sang Christmas carols to their neighbors, they were met with both surprise and enthusiasm. One man even invited the entire group into his house for a break from the cold. And then, months later, Cabot was able to share the gospel with one of the caroling households.
In addition to Bible studies and children’s clubs as a way to meet and serve their neighbors, Nueva Vida’s leaders have explored outreaches unique to their own community: English as a Second Language classes and immigration clinics.
Yet what do church planters do when, for some reason, the doors remain shut? Nueva Vida’s ESL class was well-attended, for example, but few joined a Bible study offered afterward. And when a small, new church seems to stay small and new, discouragement can start to set in.
“This is just a test . . .”
“Every Monday since we started, I print up my resignation,” Tim says, half joking. “In the early stages, it’s tough to keep moving ahead with so few visible results.”
Tim remembers one Sunday when only eight people showed up to Restoration’s gathering—including himself, his wife, Julie, his in-laws and his sister-in-law. All the next week, he found himself thinking, Can I still get a job at an established church?
Losing funding, struggling to find personal time, seeking affordable locations with adequate space or finding enough people to fill the space you have . . . day after day, church planters face the fact that challenges are many—and resources few.
The Lamases faced unique challenges planting a first-generation Hispanic church, in addition to legal issues related to immigration. For example, their Spanish-speaking congregation comes from a variety of countries, causing dialect differences that hinder communication. Many in the immigrant community also take on multiple jobs so they can support their families, leaving little time for church involvement.
Then, as if struggles within a church plant aren’t trying enough, there is life itself. Seven months after the launch of Nueva Vida, Rachael started experiencing pain when feeding their new baby. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, both she and Marcelo were devastated.
Chemotherapy took a toll on Rachael’s body, but she never stopped her work with Nueva Vida. Still, with so much else going on, the couple feared that the momentum of their church plant would decrease.
“But God surprised us,” Marcelo says. “He sent even more people to our church, and we grew more than we expected. The people in the church were encouraged to see Rachael’s faithfulness to the Lord; they saw God in my wife’s life.”
The Emmys (or, What makes it worth it)
Despite the challenges, and many times through them, God’s displays the glory of His coming kingdom.
“I feel blessed and encouraged every week,” Marcelo says. “When I see my community involved in ministry, when I see people give their friends the chance to hear the gospel, when I share the Word of God and I see people hungry for God, so ready to be fed—this amazes me.”
Tim agrees: “The change that God is bringing about in people’s lives is definitely the joy that keeps us going.”
He remembers preaching on Jesus’ choosing of the 12 disciples one Sunday morning. As he commented on how the disciples were an unlikely group to entrust with Jesus’ mission for the world, he remembers: “I looked at the group we had gathered that night: various colors, various backgrounds; some living in shelters, others in South Orange County—and yet, we were all together for the gospel. It was beautiful.”
In January, God more than doubled the people involved with LifeSpring—from the initial seven families to 17 families. LifeSpring leadership then started fasting and praying that, by summer, God would add seven more families who don’t know the Lord.
Soon after they started praying, a neighbor of Cabot’s who had not been to church in 30 years asked Cabot how he could reconnect with God. Within weeks, other church members began relaying stories of spiritual interest and spiritual fruit. “[We’re] on an adventure with God,” Cabot says. “He has been doing amazing things.”
Church planters understand that even the most ordinary daily realities—the meetings over coffee with new friends, the leadership meetings, the umpteenth chair set up for a Sunday service—are part of a grandiose movement, more dramatic than any TV show.
In this missional perspective they affirm that God is indeed director of their adventure. A “reality” well worth watching, but one even more exciting to participate in.
1Cabot and Asia Ashwill planted LifeSpring Community Church in Spring Grove, Ill. (lifespringefc.org). First public service is planned for September 2010. Attendance as of May 2010: 100.
2Marcelo and Rachael Lamas planted Nueva Vida Church in Georgetown, Texas (www.invgt.org). First public service: January 2009. Attendance as of May 2010: 60-65.
3Tim and Julie Culling planted Restoration Church in Long Beach, Calif. (www.restorationlb.org). First public service: October 2009. Attendance as of May 2010: 45.
4In a church plant initiated by lay people, these tasks are divvied up differently (see “No Ordinary People”). For a look at the variety of models that church plants can follow, see "Church-Planting Models".
Kristen Kimmel is a writer and project manager with Journey Group, in Charlottesville, Va.
