Sunday, January 4, 2009
open hand
Planting a church comes with it's ups and downs. I heard one pastor say; "How do you grow a church to a 1,000? By letting 2,000 go." Another statistic of church planting says that HALF of those who started with you will move on in the first couple years. This is a tough part of church planting. We have tried to operate from the paradigm of an "open hand." Meaning that when people want to leave, we bless them and help them plug in elsewhere. Many times the conversations are because of the travel distance, but regardless it still is a bummer. I have learned that trying to convince people to stay is never beneficial and usually delays the inevitable. Besides, it's not about building "A" church, it's about building "THE" CHURCH!
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When the wife and I felt called to step down from being youth pastors and begin fundraising for a two year missionary assignment, one of the biggest blessings was when our senior pastor called us into his office and told us he felt God told him that it was time for us to leave. He was more nervous than we were. God had already told him what we were going to be doing so no one had any bad feelings about the transition. Having his blessing gave us some of the confidence we needed to move into uncharted territory.
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