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!