Reflections 10 years in...

If you'd asked me where we would be ten years into planting if I'm honest it is not where we find ourselves.  I'd have envisaged more people joining us, more people coming to faith, and probably us preparing now to plant again.  Many of those ideas were born out of the conferences available on Church planting and having discussions and reading books written by other planters.  Most of the speakers at the conferences were those whose churches had grown quickly, most were either from the US - let's be honest a whole different ball game to the UK in so many ways - or from towns or cities with university populations.

Ten years in seems good point at which to reflect on a few things because we aren't where I'd envisaged us being and I'm not disappointed with that, I am grateful to God for his undeserved grace.  Maybe these reflections will help some of those thinking about, or about to, or who have just, planted.

Seek out those who have planted in situations like yours, listen to their stories, ask them honestly to share the joys and hardships not just the headlines.  Planters feel a great pressure to talk about the positives and the successes, those coming along rather than those who have left the plant team after a few weeks and so on.  In our experience planting has been hard, joyful, exhilarating, exhausting, heartbreaking and God glorifying, often from one day to the next, sometimes from one hour, or moment, to the next.  In non-university towns planting is hard graft, it is low and slow, it is gradual and sometimes it feels as if it has stalled or gone backwards.  Seek out those stories and people and learn all you can from them.  Gospel Partnerships may be a good place to start looking for such people rather than big conferences or books about church planting.

Pray for your daily bread.  Reflecting on ten years this is perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned. Jesus doesn't teach us to pray for 6 months time, and he wisely tells us each day has enough trouble of its own.  That has certainly been true in our ten years.  There have been times when the church has felt secure and stable but also many times when it has felt fragile and weak, when the fear has been will we still be here in 6 months.  And in such times I needed to pray for my daily bread, to deal with today not worry about tomorrow or March.  That isn't saying we don't plan or dream we do, but I'm learning - too slowly - to pray for my daily bread in a church context.  Planting is hard.

Reach the lost with the gospel.  We don't plant churches to recycle God's sheep.  We don't plant churches to give believers in Bible teaching churches another option, or we shouldn't either as individuals or denominations.  There's a great temptation to welcome such people, especially because of the pressure we too often feel about numbers, about growth.  But we plant churches to see the lost saved and discipled.  As a church we need to keep that at the top of the agenda because it too readily slips down the priorities.

Pastor believers with the gospel.  I think this has been one of the things I most frequently made a mess of during our ten years.  I wanted to reach the lost and yet on day one, 2nd Sept 2007, we were a church with all the pastoral problems involved in that, and to be brutally honest I took too long to see that and so we weren't set up for robust pastoral care.  We spent hours talking about how we would reach the lost; reading, dreaming, engaging with etc... but we invested little time as a launch team preparing means of and planning to provide pastoral care for believers.  Naively I assumed teaching the Bible would be enough, along with some pastoral visits, and that in a small team I and the other leaders would see, know and respond to needs as they arose.  It meant pastoral care was too patchy, depending on how much you would reveal, how quickly, and to whom, who you knew and how well you knew them.  By God's grace it has been a thrill to see the church grow in this area over the years, to see people grow in visiting and loving and pastoring those around them in the gospel.  Though often its still feels as if our needs outweigh our resources.

Buildings matter.  If I could suggest three things to a church looking to plant this would now be one of them; find a building for your plant to call home.  We meet and have always met in a school.  There are lots of positives with that, and we are very grateful for the good relationship we enjoy with the school.  It has opened doors and provided many opportunities.  But if I was planting again I'd look for a building from the beginning.  In the area we meet entering homes is fraught with social complexity, meeting in a school provides challenges in terms of running things mid-week among other things.  And I think having a permanent premises gives you a footprint in the area and makes a statement about permanence and commitment, especially important in an area like ours where children's centres and other community outreach initiatives have proved short lived and simply left people feeling let down again.

Partner with others.  Perhaps the most significant thing in our making 10 years both as a church and with me here as pastor have been gospel hearted partnerships.  Bessacarr Evangelical Church has been an incredible blessing to us; generous with both the time of their staff and their money, and also being forgiving of me in a way parents often have to be.  Other partnerships have provided financial support and encouragement at key times, maybe sometimes when those involved haven't realised how crucial their partnership and encouragement has been.  God given partnerships are a blessing and planters and planted churches need to to do all they can to cultivate them before, during and after planting.

God is good and his grace has sustained us, his plans and purposes have been far beyond our imagining and we pray that as we move into year 11 God would bring others to taste and see his goodness through his people.

Facing up to our weaknesses

I think for me that is the biggest think that I have learnt in planting and pastoring SDCC.  Someone once said when I started as Assistant Pastor to enjoy it because it was the best job I would ever have.  I wasn't sure what he meant at the time but I think I have realised in the last 5 years.  Planting a new church is not easy, there are lots of pressures many of which are the same as for any pastor but some of which are unique.  Through the last five years God has been gracious, faithful, loving, forgiving, patient, and amazing, and the greatest thing is that we know our God does not change.

Planting has continually reminded me that I am saved by Jesus and his work not by mine.  Thank God that we are not saved by ministry success or condemned because of ministry failure.  Planting is a steep learning curve of planning, launching, living, relearning, re-planning and relaunching.  What you were so convinced would work doesn't, what you were so sure you were equipped to deal with you quickly find out that you are not.  But God is good his word is true and he is faithful and forgiving, even if at times we struggle to forgive ourselves for our failings, or others struggle to forgive us.

It has also made me aware of the almost constant temptation within myself to want my ministry to seem significant, or to be valued by others.  God has really taught me again and again that I serve for an audience of one, not for the gallery.  It is a lesson that I am still so slow to grasp but which he graciously keeps on teaching me.

I think ironically one of the things I have learnt is that I am not cut out for lone-wolf ministry.  I need other people to bounce ideas off, to train, to be trained by, to share things with.  I function best in partnership and in a team.  Yet ironically most planters seem to plant alone.  I think one of the biggest things I would do differently if i were planting again would be to make it more of a team, maybe have 2 members of staff, or regular ministry brainstorming sessions.

Any ministry exposes our weaknesses, the things we can't do and that is God's grace because it must drive us to him.  He can do what we can't and it is his gospel and his mission that we are called to partner in with him for his glory not ours.

5 Years and still going

Yesterday was South Doncaster Community Churches fifth birthday, on the 2nd of September 2007 about 30 of us met for our first service as a planted church.  I guess looking back there are a number of lessons we have learnt as a church and which God by his grace has taught me about myself and ministry.

1. You are planting a church.  That sounds ridiculous except that the focus as you prepare to plant is on outreach, reaching a new area, ongoing mission, loving a new community, making inroads, raising your profile etc...  But on day one you are a church with all the admin, preparation, pastoral needs etc which go with that.  This means you need to plan deliberately to balance those things and take a team that is balanced with those giftings reflected across the team.

2. Churches need leaders.  Leaders are key.  Church planter types tend to be dynamic, decisive characters who are adaptable and prepared to take risks.  But churches need a balance of leadership skills and a depth of leadership potential so that the needs of new converts can be met and discipleship occurs and so that as the church grows the pastor/planter and their capacity to work doesn't become the bottle neck.  They also need a series of strong leaders so that the church is not dominated by one person and so that they stand firm on the nature and purpose of the church when this is questioned or challenged.

3. Grow grass don't steal sheep.  New things are exciting and when new churches are planted people may well want to come and see, it may seem more vibrant, more on the edge and so the temptation is for people to jump on board.  But we always wanted to be clear we grow grass we don't steal sheep, we don't want to actively poach people from other churches because that is not growing the kingdom.  But we do want to teach the bible well so that sheep who aren't being fed can find somewhere to be fed.

4. Keep clear on the goal.  We had a clear mission statement "to equip God's people to be grace in the community to the glory of God".  Its not perfect but I think for us that has been helpful, it reminds us in a nut shell what we are about, of the core biblical values which we stood for and which convicned us of the need to plant.  We believe God has called us to equip and train people to live as disciples of Jesus by grace where he has placed them, both situationally and geographically, to make him known.  This has proved a helpful anchor when the temptation or opportunity comes up to do this or that or the other, often good things, but things which woudl have distracted us from our purpose.

5. Programmes serve people.  One of the greatest advantages of being a church plant is that you can change things quickly to meet the needs of teaching and discipling those in your congregation.  Programmes aren't fixed people aren't used to them.  Our make up as a church is now very different that when we started, we have way more children and young families, all of our founding leaders bar myself have retired, stepped down or moved away for various legitimate reasons.  But the flexibility we have means we can flex the things we do, the times we meet, in order to still seek to equip people to live by grace for God's glory.

6.  God is faithful and true.  Five years of planting have reaffirmed our conviction as a church that God is faithful and true to his word.  In both hard and good times God is good and sustains.

I'll share some more personal reflections tomorrow.