Looking forward to hanging out with some church planters tonight. We're hosting a church planting event for the ARC at Ebenezers.
Thinking about sharing the unauthorized version of my church planting story. I'm a failed church planter. The first church I tried to plant never got off the ground. The great irony is that I put together a 25-year plan for one of my seminary classes and I actually got an A on the project. The church plant? I got a big fat F.
I had zero experience going into the plant. I had preached some, but I had never been on a church staff. I led worship and told Lora to play the keyboard real loud. I wore huge glasses that required two hands to adjust. And our first marketing campaign? Complete waste of money. Let's spend lots of money to invite as many people as possible to church so they can see how poorly we do church and insure they'll never come back again. I'm barely exaggerating. I actually designed our first direct mail marketing piece. Thankfully, not many people responded to the invitation.
There you have it. The unauthorized version.
I think God does some things BECAUSE of us. But He does more IN SPITE of us. In the words of Psalm 127: "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builder labor in vain."
Thinking about sharing the unauthorized version of my church planting story. I'm a failed church planter. The first church I tried to plant never got off the ground. The great irony is that I put together a 25-year plan for one of my seminary classes and I actually got an A on the project. The church plant? I got a big fat F.
I had zero experience going into the plant. I had preached some, but I had never been on a church staff. I led worship and told Lora to play the keyboard real loud. I wore huge glasses that required two hands to adjust. And our first marketing campaign? Complete waste of money. Let's spend lots of money to invite as many people as possible to church so they can see how poorly we do church and insure they'll never come back again. I'm barely exaggerating. I actually designed our first direct mail marketing piece. Thankfully, not many people responded to the invitation.
There you have it. The unauthorized version.
I think God does some things BECAUSE of us. But He does more IN SPITE of us. In the words of Psalm 127: "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builder labor in vain."
3 Comments:
Never thought a story of a failed church plant would be so encouraging : ) Thanks for sharing Mark. I'll be planting a church in Columbus, OH and love what happening at NCC!
You call it an 'Unauthorized Version'...I call it 'THE CLEAR CUT PLAN' and we all know the results. WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING, Jesus said. I am encouraged by your account.
I too am a failed church planter, so your story gives me hope as I just crossed the 30 year old mark and wonder sometimes where this ministry calling is going. I was on my home church's staff as a volunteer lay pastor, preached some (even taught a lesson inspired by your 1st book!), went to seminary and received an M.T.S. degree and left my staff ministry role to plant an "emergent" or "post-modern" faith community. That failed. Then I recently spent some time as an ordained elder in another "emergent" community. That ended only a month ago. And my question is this - is it okay to feel like I've failed to some degree? All around me, it seems ministers have success early, or at least earlier than me? I am passionate, but I take my flaws and missteps so hard. I have things to say (I'm more writer than speaker at times) and yet I feel like this calling is more crawling in the dark than anything else. I am leaning on God, in that I take hope - I just wonder how to find the strength to continue searching for my place in the kingdom.
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