missio

Walking this morning, I passed by the elevator and noticed a crowd gathered outside of the doors, waiting. The stairs are less than 15 yards away. Something else then occurred to me: there’s three floors in the building. So, of course, I saw an illustration to be had. How many times do we, as Christians, stand around and wait for something to happen? While it’s not happening, we complain. It’s slow. There’s too many people. It stinks. When all we have to do is put a little extra energy into things, and they will happen sooner and more efficiently. We just seem to be avoiding the stairs; we don’t want to work a little. This leads us to today’s question: when’s the last time you stair-climbed for something you’ve wanted? Not just prayer and waiting, but really reaching out for it and working towards it? Christians aren’t called to be lazy: we aren’t supposed to wait for the elevator.

The wise wisdom of Philip Nation, co-pastor with Ed Stetzer at Lake Ridge Church in Northern Georgia. (Copied directly from an email. Emphasis mine.):

In March of 2005, Ed Stetzer, Travis Vaughn, and Philip Nation began the groundwork for planting Lake Ridge Church.  Since then, they launched, celebrated their first anniversary, and commissioned Travis to plant a simple church in the same harvest field but among a different strain of wheat.
Not too long ago, a friend who trains church planters asked me, “What do these guys need to know that we are not telling them?”  I said that he needed to tell them 3 things:

1.  Church planting is hard.

2.  Church planting is very hard.

3.  Church planting is the hardest thing you will ever do.

Now having said that with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, we all know that it really is true.  As planters (Philip’s first time and Ed’s umpteenth time), you must recognize the emotional and spiritual battles to be faced and prepare yourself accordingly.  Here are three ideas to help you along the journey.
First, know that there is only one way to prepare yourself for success and rejection: Enjoy your own salvation.  In Luke 10:20, Christ has sent out the 72 workers, told them to pray for more workers in the harvest field, and given heavenly wisdom for ministry.  After they return with reports of the spiritual authority they enjoyed, he said “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” If you leverage your feeling of self-worth and “am I a success?” mentality off of the exterior results, eventually, you will find yourself in the pit.  Instead, continue to keep your salvation as the centerpiece of joy in your life.  Remember that God called you to intimacy with him long before he called you to plant a church.  And, that after your church planting days are over, he will still be calling you to intimacy.  This will anchor you in a joy that is infectious and makes evangelism, outreach, and missionary living much easier than you will expect.
Second, be determined to connect to a learning community of peers. By the grace of God, I became involved with a group of planters shortly after we began the work to start Lake Ridge Church.  There are 10 of us connected to the group and we have committed to doing a few things together.  First and foremost is to retreat for 3 days together every six months.  For each retreat, we commit to studying a book of the Bible and reading a spiritual formation book (last time it was Colossians and The Great Omission by Dallas Willard).  We do a lot of preparation but very little planning.  It is a time to laugh, cry, pray, and discuss God’s revelation in his Word without preachiness and pretension.  There are no scheduled sermons or prayer times.  We simply meet and allow ministry to occur naturally to one another.  It takes time and finances, but is worthwhile.  We also stay in contact through CoachNet.org for purposes of prayer, accountability, and encouragement.  Finally, some of us have committed to recording our “tribal story” in print.  It is foolish to learn from our own journey and not pass the lessons along to others.  This band of brothers has become indispensable to the journey and we are actively seeking others who would want to learn to do the same.  Currently, each one in the group (including myself) is seeking to begin peer networks among like-minded missional leaders in our regions of ministry.
Thirdly, we team planted Lake Ridge Church for many reasons, but a specific one is accountability.  The spiritual discipline of submission is relatively lost today and needs to be recaptured.  The recent events in Ted Haggard’s life is only a public illustration of what we all know to be an all to common experience in the church.  We intentionally came in expressing permission to be questioned about core devotional, family, and ministry issues.  Ephesians 5:21 stands as an unwavering command for us to submit to one another in order to honor Christ.  In a church plant environment, this is a necessary practice for the leaders so that good work will be done and sin might be averted.  After all, many planters have an Alpha Male – Big Dog – Uber Man personality that needs to be kept in check. 
The work of planting Lake Ridge Church has been fun, challenging, exasperating and exhilarating.  I hope that your journey will be fraught with the same dangers and filled with the same joy.