Church Planners or Church Planters?

Three months ago I was challenged by reading a post on Guy Muse's blog about people who talk about church planting but fail to get on with doing it. see link : The M Blog: Church Planners or Church Planters?

As a visionary who likes to start new things I have been energised by the vision of seeing or rather being involved in the beginning of a church planting movement (CPM) here in England. The challenge to me comes from the fact that despite catching the vision most of my time and energy is still being taken up on other things .. and there is as yet no real plan in place to plant a church or recruit and train church planters.

I was looking at my archives from May to see whether I blogged about this when I first read Guy's challenge. To be honest, I think I have mainly been praying about it and processing what the Holy Spirit is saying to me.

Popping the Bubble

It has taken over three months for the Lord to work this one through in me, but I now realise that in March I just replaced one dream with another. The dream of becoming the leader of a significant large Charismatic (New Wine style) Church was the picture I had in my head when the Lord called me to be ordained. I finally let go of this around January this year when I realised that my gifting was more suited to an apostolic ministry.

Unfortunately, I have a "super-ego" that confuses my limited (but nevertheless still significant) calling with God's mega plans to save the world. My growing awareness of this megalomania has been the reason for my nagging doubts. I am pleased to say that this spiritual pride has now been nailed on the cross where it belongs. The bubble has been popped.

Doing the work that God calls me to do

So, here I am, back at work after an interesting summer. A by-product of my coming down to earth has been a growing confidence that my heavenly Father is with me in my daily work. This has led me to appreciate the good of what I have been able to do here as vicar of Bredbury (rather than always feeling disappointed that it is not like one of the bigger New Wine churches). I blogged about the early stages of this realignment in May. (click here to read)

Knowing who I am (the real me, not the super-ego) means I have also felt able to take a stand against one of the spiritual strongholds afflicting the church here in Bredbury. I feel that I am a rock that is firmly rooted on The Rock (psalm 18). The opposition is like the waves of the sea that break upon the rocks. Sadly this stand has upset a few of the more traditional church members and I have been spending quite a bit of time and spiritual energy on smoothing some ruffled feathers.

One of the verses that the Lord drew to my attention this summer was "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks" (Proverbs 27:23). In obedience to this I have been working to improve the quallity of pastoral care in the church and I am starting to mend some of the damage caused by my brokenness and frustration with the church over the past few years.

So what about the Gentiles?

I remain hopeful. I believe that God really does want the Good News to go out to the Gentiles of this land. I am carving out a bit of time here and there to meet with people who rarely darken the doors of the church. I am still hopeful that as St. Mark's settles down with their considerably more realistic vicar there will be opportunities to release some people into a Church Planting ministry. I believe I will play a part in my little corner of the world. I am a yeast cell amongst many that the Lord is energising at this time.

Part of my hope for the Gentiles is that as a church we will begin praying into the problem that was shown to us in April 2005. The problem is that many local working class people have experienced the church as snobby rich people disapproving of "the likes of them." This was more of an issue in earlier generations, but I suspect that this has resulted in a sub-conscious resistance to church being endemic in the local population. I suspect that this has become a spiritual power that needs to be prayed against. Watch this space for more on this subject.