I'm tired of church plant!

Ja Nonda and I were discussing church planting today. She said that “church planting should be redefined.” When she said that the very few wheels I have began to turn. Many people will be able to give me their definition of a church. At the beginnings of NEW FAITH we gave the impression that we were a church. Few people came expecting a church. The reality was that we were a group of people trying to survive at what we thought was church. Our group was far from being a church. I think some were torn between their spiritual needs and their friendship with me. I’m sure people wanted to stay due to our friendship but possibly couldn’t see a church. Was it engraved in their mind that church should look and feel a certain way? Possibly, but never the less we were not a church. We were not a church by today’s typical standard. The reason I say we were not a church is because I needed to destroy my own thoughts of what I was taught about church and how church should look. I needed a vision! I thought I had a vision. What I had was a bunch of people telling me how to fight a battle with someone else’s armor. It took me over two years to realize that I needed to direct NEW FAITH according to how I interpret (hear) the voice of God.

I’m told that a typical church plant process includes a decent size group leaving one church to begin another?

I would like to use an analogy of farming when discussing a church plant. I would plant a garden with my Dad while I was growing up. I discovered that everything planted came from its own. A potato can only come from a potato and corn can only come from corn. When a leader(s) is thinking about starting a church they need to recognize where they come from and what they want the offspring to look like. I slowly recognized I couldn’t reproduce as the church I came from. I wanted a different product. My Dad told me that when a horse and a donkey breed the result is a mule. A mule is sterile and can’t reproduce. A mule can work very hard but will eventually die as a mule because of the inability to reproduce. If I mixed the church I wanted with where I came from then I would have produced a sterile environment. A sterile environment to me means visions and dreams would not be conceived.

For two years I discovered some things.

• It’s not about how pretty you look.

I’m talking about the building.

• It’s not about how many people you have.

But be thankful for those that are willing and wanting to interpret God’s voice as you do.

• It’s ok to question the process.

Why are we doing it this way and believe this way?

• It can always be done better.

It took me over two years to figure this out. I figured that I’m from God and not the sister, partner, product, branch or leaf of another church. Things are different today. If people come to NEW FAITH today they will experience a real, authentic group. I do know that I’m tired of the word church-plant. The word church-plant makes a church sound sub-par when discussing churches. I think every church is a plant. What type of plant is the question? Today NEW FAITH is nothing like the church we came from and probably far from the typical church in our denomination. One day the light came on and I realized who I was and the direction NEW FAITH is supposed to go. I started thinking of God’s Kingdom instead of church plant. As in life it’s not about where I come from though it’s important to know. It’s really about what I’m becoming. I’m free from what I was and bound to what I will be. NEW FAITH is moving. It’s not planted or even organized. -chuck