A manual

We have been about this work of church planting for a few months now.  I wanted to share one of the things that God has been teaching me, us, through this new work.  Let me get everyone up to speed on what is going on.  First, we have been intentionally getting out on Thursday nights to meet people, teach, and discuss who Jesus is.  During the planning phase of the church plant, we, and by that I mean me, decided that I knew about the culture enough to engage in a structured and decisive way to win people to Christ.  Apparently I did not.  Now I am not going to give up on our Thursday nights, but I see now that every culture is different, and needs to be engaged within its cultural context.  I also see that I did not truly understand the cultural context that I am now living, and ministering in.

Second, I am quickly learning that the book of Acts especially chapters 13 through 28, are God's way of showing us not only how to, but what to expect from church planting.  I was reading the book of Acts this morning, and was startled by the parallels of the first church planting movement, and my own experiences of church planting today.  The first thing that popped up on my, "it happened to me" radar was that people will let you down.  When we hit ground zero, I commonly refer to our city as ground zero, I started to get out and share the Gospel.  What I found was a city underbelly that was starving for Jesus.  Just the fact that I wear Van's shoes and talk about Jesus attracts people to Jesus.  So in my own mind I saw who I thought were going to be the transformed leaders on this new work.  What I found was that God was leading me through loving people, no matter what their response to the church plant is.  Paul went through this with John Mark when he departed, or rather deserted Paul on the church planting road.

Third, is change.  Change is not comfortable, it is not easy, and takes faith in the context of church planting.  In my tribe, Calvary Chapel, we are used to starting a home study, watching it grow, and after a time starting a Sunday service.  Now, I know that God moves in that method of church planting.  But, at the cost of sounding like the young guy that I am, He does move through new wine skins.  I can remember reading, and listening to Pastor Chuck over and over again speak on the topic of letting the Spirit move through new ways, or new wine skins.  I still go back to what Chuck said and let those words sink in, and teach me on the moving of the Holy Spirit, from sermons from the 1970's and 1980's.  They are still true today.  One of the things in Acts that should be noted by any church planter is Paul's willingness to change.  In Ephesus Paul gets kicked out of the synagogue, but he does not let that stop the church plant in Ephesus, he then rents out a school and raises up a body of believers.  There are times when our models and methods of church planting, are not going to work.  Even our ideas about exactly where to do things are not going to work.  Remember when Paul wants to preach the Gospel in Asia, and the Holy Spirit forbids him.  This does not deter Paul, he goes on to get a dream about a man in Macedonia, and goes there to plant another church.  Here is the connection.  If the Spirit is not working in something, find out where He is moving and working, and do that.  In our culture, if someone is going to go to church, they want to go to an actual church on Sunday morning.  This is not true of all cultures, but it is in mine.  So because of this, we are going to launch on a Sunday morning.  No momentum building, just do it, so to say.  Thursday nights are not what I thought them to be, but I have had many Gospel conversations, and will continue to do so on Thursday nights.  How is this change?  It is change because I no longer look to our Thursday night study to be the start of the church plant, to be the things that brings people, and other leaders to the church plant.  We now go out with no specific expectations, just that the Holy Spirit to move and work.  Now if we will look at the book of Acts as not only a historical and theological text, but a how to, and what to expect in church planting.  We can be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in planting the church.  

In Calvary Chapel, there is a book that I believe really defines us.  It is Harvest.  The starting of the movement is amazing.  Read about how Applegate started, and baptizing naked people.  Starting a church in a Karate studio, and a young dude that came late to a baptism and preached the Gospel to other hippies and baptized them, with no formal training.  I am of course speaking of Jon Courson, Raul Ries, and Greg Laurie.  Not the methods, but the heart of them.  To bring Jesus to new cultures, requires us to leave behind our presuppositions, and some sensitivities of that culture.  If Pastor Chuck has taught us anything, it is that all matter to Christ.  Reaching out to our "hippies" is what we are about.  I love what Peyton Jones says about this, "To reach the ones that no one else is, we have to do the things that no one else is willing to do, and go to places that no one else is willing to go."

There is a measure of faith that we are asking for in this new endeavor.  Please pray for us while we go through time.

In Him,

Cam