Babies, Sheep, and Perspective
Discouragement comes easy. I am convinced it’s one of the Devil’s most powerful tools against us because when we become discouraged we tend to become useless and useless people aren’t pursuing God’s vision for their lives.
This summer I was pretty useless. Allie was gone for the summer and my #2 (and only other help) left to pursue another great opportunity. I don’t blame him, but I got discouraged and lost all of my momentum. All of it.
Then October 18th rolled around and my wife told me that after 11 months of trying, she’s pregnant.
I’m going to be a daddy. Do I want to be an example to my kids of audacious faith in the face of discouragement and fear, or an example of missing out on joining God in His work?
I’m planting a church, and am utterly terrified.
The prospect of planting a church is petrifying. I have studied for the last 7 years for this moment, taken class upon class on the process that church planting requires, written church constitutions, bylaws, staff manuals, baptism and ordination documents, worked as an Executive Pastor where I created a church website, helped plan weekly services, helped develop a core team, launch team, and helped successfully launch a church. My studies have resulted in a Bachelor’s Degree in Religion, a Master’s Degree in Church Planting, the opportunity to preach and have lives transformed through that preaching, and a chance to study just about everything there is to know about starting a church from scratch. The last several years I have put weeks of time and thousands of dollars toward attending conferences for church leaders, conferences spanning 4 states, East and West from South Carolina to Texas and North and South from North Carolina to Florida, I have driven all over the country to learn from the leading sources in what it takes to plant, lead, and grow an effective church.
Yet here I sit at 4 AM, haunted by the prospect of planting. The self-appointed moniker “Completely Inadequate” certainly comes to mind.
I know that God has called me to this and I know that He is sovereign and it is His church to build (through me), and I trust that He will use my inadequacies to His glory, but my goodness, nobody prepared me for this. And the worst part… I’ve barely started.
