Prior to gathering up my friends, I had attended a conference on church planting and it was great! In hindsight, it was a bit like that network marketing meeting your friend invites you to. You hear how great this will be and how everyone will want what your providing. The reality is, very few succeed at the highest levels and it takes a lot of ground work to even get started.
The conference was great. They had great music. The building had awesome colors, catchy phrases throughout, and was a work
of edutainment art. I was hooked. I had fallen for the six-million dollar man idea of church planting: “We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better...stronger...faster." I was convinced we could make a church that was "better...stronger...faster" than those around us. What I didn't know at the time was: that's not church planting!In fact, the six-million dollar man approach is just making a better church service, rather than establishing a new community where those pursuing the things of God can explore and grow. You see, a better church service is easy. All you need is better musicians, better preachers, better graphics, better greeters, better carpet, better building, better... you get the picture. And it can cost you $6,000,000.
In this journey of church planting, I've come to find that I didn't know what "church planting" was. Today, I believe I'm still learning what it is. One thing church planting isn't: just a better church service.
Check out my fellow sojourner of church planting, Greg Hunt, and some his thoughts on church planting. While you're there, share your thoughts, and please take a moment and share them here too.
Here's a quick glimpse of some of how we're learning what church planting is at Grace Point.
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