Learning (about God) from Church Planters

Today the District Superintendent of the Lower Pacific District in the EFC Canada and I held back-to-back meetings with two men. One is a church planter in Vancouver, BC whose new church is one year old, and the other who is a potential church planter I met at the recent Church Planting Bootcamp class at Trinity Western Seminary. I have introduced one of them, Sammy, to you before. The other’s name is Sam. Here’s what I learned today about God from them.

God honors faith. It’s possible to be resource rich, yet faith poor. Far better to be like these men and their families who being rich in faith rely on God rather than human resources including their own. A bold and realistic faith trumps money, facilities, equipment, experience, education, human knowledge, skills, etc. “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.” (Jer. 9:23-24)

When God puts a dream or vision in your heart, go for it. God lives within his servants and he gives to them his vision and dreams for ministry. These two church planters and others like them want more than anything to do what they believe God is calling them to do, each in a unique way and with different people. Let’s call it obedience to the Great Commission so that all nations and people groups on earth will be reached with the Gospel of the Kingdom. (Matt. 28:18-20)

Lost people matter to God, and therefore lost people matter. The church planters I know and coach have a compelling desire to .Like the Son of Man, they believe that they have come “to seek and save the lost.” (Lk. 19:10) God is in the business of seeking after and saving the lost, and so should we. And so should I.

God does not work alone. He uses people in his work and he works in community, first within the community of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and then within the community of the church. The church planters I met with today desire to work with others in association with other church planters and other churches. The church planters I know and coach want to work together in Kingdom ministry, encourage one another and partner in God’s work with other pastors and churches. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

So what are you learning about God from church planters?