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.
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