Church planting is…
…long days and long nights when you most and least expect them.
…prayers and love and support and tears poured out over people who may never see how much you care.
…mistakes and mess-ups and apologies that feel like moving backward but are really moving forward.
…weeks that add up to months, where the empty chairs outnumber the full ones and you wonder if it’s somehow you.
…weeks when you can simply feel Jesus there and no matter the number of people the room feels ready to burst its so full of His Spirit.
…weeks when you feel used and unappreciated and misunderstood and taken advantage of.
…weeks where you feel undeservedly loved and served and you’re overwhelmed by the grace of it all.
…weeks where you feel up and down and somewhere in between.
…weeks where you’re simultaneously rejoicing and breaking over the people an their lives. And all you know is that in the midst of the mess and the joy, the pain and the grief, Jesus is good and He is there.
…weeks where you’re desperate for a few dozen more hours at least, because there is so much to do and so many people needing prayer and love and time that you can’t possibly do it all.
…weeks where you wonder if you’re wasting your time…
Church planting is…unsatisfying.
Church planting is unsatisfying but Jesus is more than enough. Church planting is unsatisfying because the work Jesus gave us is good and honorable and right but it was never meant to fill our deepest need for Him.
Church planting is unsatisfying if we let church planting be our goal.
John Piper said it...”Christ is glorious so that rich or poor, sick or sound, we might make much of Him.”
(emphasis mine)
Church planting is unsatisfying because it’s not about church planting…it’s about Jesus.
And when we’re all about Jesus in our own walks with God, then we can love and serve and work and teach and church plant in a way that is satisfying.
Be blessed
<3
