If you were to ask me a year ago about what church planting would look like, I would have given you a much different answer than I would today. My idea of church planting was mostly about the service and quickly gathering people to fill a space and to meet the budget, so that your church could be self sustaining. But this past year has challenged me to think more like a missionary in a community and not so much about programing, people for number’s sake or budget needs. The Kingdom of God,along with disciple making, must be the focus. Part of this shift in thinking is the context and other parts are what God has been showing me about the church, discipleship, mission, and the Kingdom.
Missional Communities will be the driving force in our church. These are groups of people who do life together, intentionally spend time with non-believers, minister in the community around them, and share meals and bible study regularly. These groups are messy, relationship driven, intergenerational, and outwardly focused. (As I type this, it excites me to think of the people we will meet, minister to and with, and the impact we will make in Lowry and beyond because of groups like these.) We will gather together for worship and we will have children’s programs, to some extent. But our main focus will be building a community of disciple makers. We want to not just think like missionaries; we want to live like missionaries.