Things I Need to Plant
Posted By Aaron Marcelli on September 18, 2009
I recently found this entry in my journal dated February of this year. It is still my prayer today.
I have dreamed of starting a church for years. Though some of the particulars and the desired location have changed, the overall desire remains. But is it a calling?
I have spent much time in prayer trying to discern whether this longing and the things I hear about it are really from God or just what I want. And if they are from God, I’m seeking confirmation on things such as location, timing, method, etc.
I do know that I get extremely excited every time I spend much time thinking about launching a new church. I could talk, plan, or write about the subject for hours. I would even say that it seems I get more burdened or excited about the idea when I’m closer or more consistent in my walk with God.
This entire time I have tried to be open to hearing from God about this. Finally, I have told God that I will obey if He reveals that planting in Chattanooga is His will for me. So here are the things I’m asking He give me as conformation. These are also just three essentials that I think any church planter should have.
- A crystal-clear vision
If you don’t have a vision, where are you going? You have to see it internally before you can really want it. A vision is vital when casting the dream and motivating others to follow.
- A burning passion
There must be drive and motivation behind the vision to carry it out. I have prayed that if this is really what God wants, He make my burden and passion so great that I would not be satisfied or even want to live doing anything else.
- People to come along side of me
A professor of mine told me that when God calls you to do something great, He calls others to join with you. This is what I need and desire; to have people who believe in me, encourage me, and connect with the vision to see lives changed. I need people who will support me – financially, with prayers, using their ministry gifts, etc. This may be the most important of the three because without others in this with me, I’m just a lonely boy with a dream.
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I’ve been reading some of your posts this morning. As a former church planter, I’ve got some thoughts on the trajectory of your calling. My calling into church planting seemed crystal clear. A couple of years into it, I couldn’t see it any longer. I allowed the approval of people to supplant the vision God had given. I added to it, altered it and took away from it, in an effort to attract/keep people. Big mistake. I also found the need to repent of pridefulness of the highest order. My desire to reach an unreached people turned into (as it does for most church plants with which I am familiar) a running commentary on the failure of the Church to be about the business of making disciples. I was going to reach the lost and broken because the traditional Church couldn’t or just wouldn’t. WOW! Prideful doesn’t even begin to encompass what I was.
What I’ve learned is that I was bound to fail from the beginning in my efforts to begin a new church. There is not, nor can there be, a new church. There is just the Church. I didn’t need to save the Church. Christ has already done that. I, in fact, contributed to the further fracturing of the body of Christ. The church I planted is being pastored by my former associate pastor. I stayed in the church 10 months following my resignation. It’s a fairly healthy congregation, but still has some of my pride in its DNA. I suppose that’s true of every denomination and every 2nd, 3rd and 5th Baptist Church in every town in America, as well as every “non-denominational” church, who wear their non-denominationalism as proudly as most denominations have ever worn their labels.
Today I’m the preaching minister in a very small, very traditional, country church. I also work in a homeless shelter in a small rural city. Our church isn’t trying to be relevant. It simply is relevant. We run an after school program for poor, rural kids, many of whom have an incarcerated parent or parents who are illiterate. We outfit children with back-to-school necessities. We built a 3 room addition to a home so that 6 siblings could stay together. We provide heating wood and pay utility bills. We work with mission organizations to bring work teams from across the country to do housing rehab in our community. If someone is sick, we visit them. If they’re hungry we give them food. If they need clothes we provide it. If they are strangers, we welcome them. The Church does not have to be relevant. The gospel is relevant to every generation (good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, setting at liberty those who are oppressed, proclaiming the favorable year of the Lord). The Church needs to do the gospel, not just preach the gospel. The need for programs and methodologies will go away if the Church simply does the gospel.
I wish you well in your pursuit of Christ’s calling upon your life. Beware of the pridefulness that seems inherent to the world of church planters. Beware of generational or demographically based ministry. They are destined to fail in the long run and tend toward being racially and economically unjust (read The Next Evangelicalism.) Beware of not trying. God is bigger than your limitations (and certainly bigger than my opinions) and will equip you for every good work. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I wish you well.