It has been suggested by some that I document this new chapter in our lives known as church planting and our journey to the community known as South Lake Union. After a good deal of hesitancy disguised as procrastination, and with little else of value at the moment to add to the greater conversation of the common good on my other site, I will begin the process of processing the new adventure.
Hopefully, the honesty communicated through these posts .... hopefully they are honest....will encourage those who read it in whatever way they need to be encouraged. At the same time, but in a different way, may they also provide warning and a healthy dose of reality to those who need that as well...especially those who find themselves somewhere along a similar path, either now or in a future life.
First of all, within this very first breath of the process, I feel that I need to address motives, as this is one of the most complicated pieces of the elaborate puzzle that has been set before us. One of the first inquisitive comments that come from people not too familiar with church planting is this; "so I heard that your starting your own church". I know that the question is innocent enough, I hope, but it has a tendency to cut right into the soul. While I will admit that it's very awkward to hear, in an odd way it is good to be put out there, in measured doses anyway, because of that same feeling. The ache in my soul acts as a barometer of sorts that measure my motives. Each time that I have to wrestle with it I sense a bit more refinement in the reality of the journey that we are on and the perception that may come from it. The absolute last thing that I want is " my own " church. That is a terrifying thought. A church like that would not only be limited by my strengths, it would be also be hindered by my frailties. A new church I am intensely interested in, but my own...not in the least. I have found through the earliest parts of this journey that I am not even just interested in a new church. It has to be a new church in a fairly new place...in other words, in a place where a new community of people dedicated to following and modeling Jesus would be able to serve and love without competing with others who have the same drive and motivations. I know that it is virtually impossible to go where there are no churches present...I just want to avoid areas where a good deal of newness is already happening. I want to go where few have gone before. I am actually looking forward to encouraging those churches whose members are already there and have been for generations, loving and serving in our new community, while at the same time not competing, Times Square like, for attention in the midst of other new voices.
At the same time that I consider the distinction of "new" I also know that it's not new for the sake of being new, as in different or a chance to flee the old. The "new" of new church planting represents new life, new influences, new opportunities for people who don't know Jesus to get to know him in new and different ways. People are attracted to new because in "new" they are less likely to impose on the party. They are less likely to encounter the symbols and language and secret handshakes that they imagine we live by within our walls. That is in large part, the reason that planting new churches is still, since the days of the original church, the most effective way of helping the greatest amount of people encounter and accept the love and grace of Jesus. Herein lies the motive...and another day closer to new.
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