Planting a church is a ton of work. It’s not that the work is difficult, but man
is it selfless. One of my biggest
struggles thus far with this whole process has been giving up my personal time
to intentionally be around other people.
I knew this would be a struggle so I began praying about it before we
even moved here. What is amazing is that
now, after living this intentional life, I have seen the Holy Spirit working in
those we have built relationships with, and it makes every minute of this worth
it!
Our church that we have
planted runs a little bit differently than any other church I have been
in. The most significant structural
difference is a church service. We don’t
have one. When I invite people to
church, I don’t invite them to church.
They are invited to a weekly Bible study that we have, or into a disciple
group. The Bible study consists of our
two church planting families, and a new middle school student. Our disciple groups consist of neighbors or co-workers
who we read a large portion of scripture with.
We meet weekly and discuss how we are living by what we read.
What I like the most
about the set-up of our church is, I have to be intentional. It is my job to make sure the people I am
meeting with are shown the truth of God’s word.
If I truly want to show them Christ, I can’t rely on a pastor or church
service to do it (Granted I do ask Dave a ton of questions!). I have to not only act out my faith by
showing love, but I also have to be up on my game when it comes to God’s
word. One of the greatest things about
being part of a disciple group is that I am held accountable each week to read
scripture. Sometimes that means the entire book of Isaiah in two weeks, or the
book of James 5-7 times a week. How can
I expect to disciple someone and help them follow Christ and God’s word if I
don’t know it! I certainly still don’t know all of it, and that’s why I have an
amazing church family to help me and guide me, but I have learned so much
through the amount of Scripture that I have been reading.
I have been asked a
couple of times by different people, “Don’t you miss singing and worshipping with
other believers?” The first time I got
this question, it wasn’t something I had really thought about. I do like singing with other believers, but I
sing by myself all the time to God and just hadn’t noticed it. The second time I got this question, my
answer was, “No.” To be honest, I don’t
miss it. I know I am exactly where God
wants me to be. I don’t feel like I need to sing with a crowd
of other believers to be sustained or renewed.
It kind of shocked me when I came to this conclusion because I really do
love singing with other people. I just don’t miss it, crave it, or feel like I
need it.
If it is Gods will, then
one day, Sentral Church will have an actual service in an actual building, with
a worship leader and a crowd of people singing to the Lord. Until then, we have a primary focus of serving
God by making disciples who follow Christ, study His Word and make other
disciples who do the same. We don’t need anything else right now.
