Foundations and Cracked Doors
As
Exponential East nears, we know that many of you are in different
places. Some of you are seeking clarity on planting. Others are
wondering what the next step is for your young church plant. Others are
asking, “We’ve grown our church, now what?” Still, some of you are
wondering if you should cut your losses and quit. Below, InterVarsity
leader and church planter Beau Crosetto offers encouragement to planters
wherever you are on this journey. by Beau Crosetto
I’m lonely.
I can’t do this anymore.
I don’t know if I have what it takes.
I think I could be doing something better with my life.
I am sure there are other things I am better at that I could spend my time doing.
If you have ever said something like this, then keep reading!
I know firsthand these feelings can emerge in any scenario or ministry, but I’m specifically writing to you who have embraced the call to plant.
Being a planter is the ultimate displacing experience. You have chosen to put yourself into a space where nothing is happening. You have opted to actively and excitedly recruit people to care about Jesus and His words where currently they are not caring and are unaware of His presence. You have decided to go into a place, stand there and look like a dork many times, and believe that God is actually going to fill the room or space with people.
Those life-altering choices take incredible energy, resolve and perspective.
Can I actually do this?
Will people actually follow my leadership?
Is my vision any good?
Planting makes us come to the end of ourselves as we realize we really want a big ministry with lots of people in it–where we get all the fame and glory for being a master leader with thousands following us.
Proper motivations are the No. 1 priority I work on with my staff. Shortly after setting out to start a new ministry, a point of breaking happens when all of the above-mentioned questions and assumptions come crashing down. We are left with God, His calling and ourselves.
Planting, at least at first, will not give you affirmation. Heck, people don’t know you from the next cult leader at first. You won’t get your sense of security from anyone else but Jesus and His call to follow Him to new ground.
So we hate this job many days. We wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
We love being on the adventure with Jesus. We love doing something that hasn’t been done before. We love that we get to taste a little bit of Jesus by displacing ourselves into a totally new area and making way for God’s kingdom to grow there.
Few moments happen that are better than seeing someone come to Christ through a ministry that didn’t exist before. In our best moments, we grasp that this calling is a privilege. Jesus has called us to do this work. We actually get to partner with God to help Him start new ministry in new places with people not currently being reached or cared about. WOW!
The call of the planter is to lay foundations, to start ministry where it’s not happening. To crack the door, so that others can kick it open. Others will come behind you and build it bigger. Your job is to get the work started.
And this, my friend, takes incredible energy, resolve and perspective.
Starting a ministry will mean facing many disappointments and enduring lonely moments. We have to become experts at embracing the challenge and turning to God in prayer to watch Him crack the door and lay the foundation.
Keep going, my friend. You are doing an important work!
This post first appeared on Beau Crosetto’s blog.
I can’t do this anymore.
I don’t know if I have what it takes.
I think I could be doing something better with my life.
I am sure there are other things I am better at that I could spend my time doing.
If you have ever said something like this, then keep reading!
I know firsthand these feelings can emerge in any scenario or ministry, but I’m specifically writing to you who have embraced the call to plant.
Being a planter is the ultimate displacing experience. You have chosen to put yourself into a space where nothing is happening. You have opted to actively and excitedly recruit people to care about Jesus and His words where currently they are not caring and are unaware of His presence. You have decided to go into a place, stand there and look like a dork many times, and believe that God is actually going to fill the room or space with people.
Those life-altering choices take incredible energy, resolve and perspective.
We love and hate this job.
We hate it because many times we feel stupid, small and insecure. We hate it because it presses all our limits. Planting brings up all our insecurities:Can I actually do this?
Will people actually follow my leadership?
Is my vision any good?
Planting makes us come to the end of ourselves as we realize we really want a big ministry with lots of people in it–where we get all the fame and glory for being a master leader with thousands following us.
Planting is about laying a foundation–not about building an amazing skyscraper. No one gets excited about foundations. When was the last time you stopped on a city street and said, ‘Wow, what a foundation that is being built!”Um, never. Foundations are not breathtaking like skyscrapers are. They are messy, flat and forming. At their best, they are the platform on which tall structures can be built.
Proper motivations are the No. 1 priority I work on with my staff. Shortly after setting out to start a new ministry, a point of breaking happens when all of the above-mentioned questions and assumptions come crashing down. We are left with God, His calling and ourselves.
Do you believe that He has sent you on this mission to start something new? Do you believe that you are the right person? Are a few people worth being here? Can you lay a foundation with joy?Or did we come into the ministry to run a big group and have everyone like us and want to be around us all the time?
Planting, at least at first, will not give you affirmation. Heck, people don’t know you from the next cult leader at first. You won’t get your sense of security from anyone else but Jesus and His call to follow Him to new ground.
So we hate this job many days. We wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
But we love this job, too.
For as many disappointments there are, we see as many thrilling surprises. We love it because we get a front-row seat to watch God move in ways most people have never seen before and will never see in their lifetime. We get to see the first fruits. We get to see the ministry birthed. We get to be continually surprised and thrilled.We get to be the servants in John 2 who see the water turn into wine, to sit in the owner’s box and watch God in action. We pay a high price for those seats, but the view and experience are fully worth it.A person unexpectantly having a God moment submits her life to Jesus. A late night text from a new believer says, “I am so excited we have started this group!” The night when more people come than you have printed hand-outs for.
We love being on the adventure with Jesus. We love doing something that hasn’t been done before. We love that we get to taste a little bit of Jesus by displacing ourselves into a totally new area and making way for God’s kingdom to grow there.
Few moments happen that are better than seeing someone come to Christ through a ministry that didn’t exist before. In our best moments, we grasp that this calling is a privilege. Jesus has called us to do this work. We actually get to partner with God to help Him start new ministry in new places with people not currently being reached or cared about. WOW!
The call of the planter is to lay foundations, to start ministry where it’s not happening. To crack the door, so that others can kick it open. Others will come behind you and build it bigger. Your job is to get the work started.
And this, my friend, takes incredible energy, resolve and perspective.
Starting a ministry will mean facing many disappointments and enduring lonely moments. We have to become experts at embracing the challenge and turning to God in prayer to watch Him crack the door and lay the foundation.
Keep going, my friend. You are doing an important work!
This post first appeared on Beau Crosetto’s blog.
About Beau Crosetto
Beau Crosetto loves starting new things
for God in difficult places. He is the Greater Los Angeles director for
Greek InterVarsity, in charge of seeing “witnessing communities” start
in every fraternity and sorority in Greater LA. He and James Choung recently released the FREE eBook Discipling Skeptics and Seekers, and Crosetto’s new evangelism book, Beyond Awkward, releases this October. Follow Crosetto on his website. Crosetto and Choung are speaking at Exponential East 2014. Go to the conference mobile site to learn more about them and their upcoming workshops.
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