I haven’t joined the MAC cult as many of my friends have. I’m very curious about owning my own MAC, but my main decision to stay PC has been solely financial.

One of the things that attracts me to the MAC is the out-of-the-box uniformity. With PC’s we have the good family members and then we have the distant, red headed step cousins that we wish weren’t at the family reunions, no names…E-Machines and the like. With PC there are vast differences between a Toshiba and an E-Machine.

The more time I log in this “Church Planting” journey the more I am coming to realize that church planters and new churches (known as church plants…not the fake green things) are more like PCs and not like MACs. Church planters do not come in a box just as new churches do not come in a box.

I allowed myself to be defeated in the early days of our launch. It seemed like everything I’ve heard in conferences or read in books or listened to on Podcasts simply didn’t happen for New Passion. I allowed myself to have high hopes based on plans I created and from the promise of support and help from groups and individuals and even from the closest of friends. Though I can never control the circumstances around me, I’ve come to the reality that though God uses people in the most powerful of ways in our lives, there are times that he has a specific plan for us where we have to fully rely on and fully trust in him alone. I came to the realization that God was building New Passion in such a way that HE alone would get the glory.

There are things that all church planters experience and have to go through. I understand that. I consider these the mouse and the keyboards of the industry. We all have to have them to function properly. However, there are some things based on each church planter’s circumstances that they cannot learn from just anybody. The sad reality is, some church planters will spend a ton of time looking at attractive “successful” churches and adopting just about everything they do, but they never see or understand the realities that led that “successful” church to adopt those programs or processes. There are some church planters who want to be everyone but themselves and though I  have dealt with the temptation of falling into that trap, I am slowly seeing that many of the “successful” churches I could look at  haven’t dealt with what New Passion has to deal with.

It would be much easier if all church planters came in a box packaged with $75,000-$100,000 to start with, a launch team of at least 100 people,  a partnering organization that fulfills their purpose, all of the equipment needed for success, and every promise made to them fulfilled, and the ability to launch as a full time pastor, etc.  (That DOES happen for some)

My box consisted of…$15,000 ($5,000 of which was a loan & a majority of the remaining amount provided by some amazing generous individuals), 23 adults on our launch team, an organization where my “coach” abandoned his team and that has given no local support, not 1 church supporting us  financially on a monthly basis, several broken promises by other churches and by *gasp* friends, equipment loaned to us by an amazing church for about a year (maybe more), and a job from another Kingdom minded church where I can work and still launch our church bi-vocationally.

I don’t say this to complain. I say this to point out that church planters do not come in a box. New Passion Church is New Passion Church and God has given us this path to travel because I believe he has a specific plan and purpose for our church. If we whine and complain that we didn’t get to launch like other churches or if we whine and complain that life’s not fair, then I believe we set ourselves on a path that will miss what God has for us. Trust me, I am a student of other churches and what they are doing to have success, but I want to be careful not to miss what God has for us! What can’t God do with New Passion Church? I believe he has put us in a place where he can blow our minds, and make everyone else wish they could have a little bit of the credit.

Join the Conversation…What Did Your Box Look Like?

Popularity: 1% [?]