What is a Church Planting Resident?
Introducing Our Blog
As our planting journey continues, we thought it would be good to start a blog and newsletter for friends and supporters. We have a few goals for this communication.
To update you on developments in the church planting process.
To explain why we are passionate about church planting.
To pass on things God is teaching us along the way.
To provide fundraising updates.
To share prayer requests.
What is a Church Planting Resident?
Many people we have talked to have been encouraging and supportive, but seem a little confused about what exactly we are up to. Some people aren't familiar with the term, "church planting." For others, the concept of serving on staff at a church as a "resident" is new to them. For many, the whole thing is just a bit foggy. So I'll try to break it down.
What is Church Planting?
Church planting is a term used to describe starting a new church. Throughout the New Testament and throughout history, the establishment of churches has been God’s primary plan for spreading the Gospel.
There are various methods of doing this. "Parachute planting" is when a pastor and his family move to a particular area and work to develop relationships and share the Gospel, essentially starting a church from scratch. Often a pastor will start a church with a "core team" of other Christians who are committed to starting the church with him. Sometimes, two pastors will co-lead a planting endeavor.
What is a planting resident?
You can think of a planting resident a bit like an apprentice or an intern. You might wonder why I would step into this kind of position after pastoring a church for 5 1/2 years. (I was privileged to serve as the pastor of United Lutheran Church in Laurel, NE, a wonderful, small agricultural community in the northeast corner of the state.) I believe those years of experience will prove incredibly valuable for planting.
At the same time, leading in the planting of a church is a somewhat different beast. Both I and First City Church would rather take our time to do things well than to move too quickly. This includes going through a two-year residency to equip me for the planting process and to begin the groundwork for starting a plant. Along with being equipped, the residency has been a time of carrying less ministry pressure. This valuable season of rest and growth has allowed me to spend extra time with the Lord, and to freshly prioritize Cortney and the kids. It has also helped me regain some energy for ministry before entering into an intense season of planting.
In future posts, I plan to cover topics like:
Why plant a church when we have so many churches and so many of them need pastors?
What does a planting resident do with his time?
Thank you so much for your interest and your support.
