How is a church planter “different”?

Some people say church planters are a strange breed!

It seems to me that church planters have a spiritual sensitivity that is slightly different from other types of pastors. Being a pastor always begins and ends with “What is God showing me? How am I supposed to respond?” God is constantly talking.

What makes church planters tick? What’s different. I think it’s the way they notice God and hear His voice calling to “Go” in unusual ways. Not from one canvas, church planters are willing to experiment and do whatever it takes to win someone to the Jesus they love. Their spiritual sensitivities can be seen in the way they think, and what they think about.

Here’s a reflection of things I hear myself and other church planters investing time in thinking about.

Do you hear God stirring your curiosity about these kinds of things?

• How can I help someone who doesn’t know Jesus come to a lively and dynamic interaction/experience/vibrant/relationship/realization of His presence? Come, Lord Jesus, and awaken the people I meet. Awaken my sensitivity to see the opportunities You are creating.
• Who is hurting in the places God has put me on mission, in my mission field? Come, Lord Jesus, and heal Your people. Use me as one of Your many instruments.
• How can I be true to who you are Jesus, rather than to the way the historical church may have hidden who you are and what you care about? (Whereas this could be a militant thought, a holy thought is to become more like Jesus and the church He invests in and leads.) Come, Lord Jesus, take my blinders off, and help me see You as You really are. Help me represent You and Your church in a way that brings gladness to Your heart and mission!
• What tools are effective in reaching this culture? Come, Lord Jesus, make us imaginative and creative, just as You are. Help us lead new songs You are creating in Your people. Help us see ways of relating that You are using. Help us to be curious and ask intriguingly good questions of the culture and how to impact it. Move in us! Move us to new wineskins! And kick us out of ruts, traps of the Devil to stagnate and be insular from everything else in Your faith hopes for all.
• Who is doing new things like us? Come, Lord Jesus, and make us one. Don’t allow a spirit of competition to overcome our oneness! Don’t let our pride in “what we can do, hope to do, or think we can do” overcome the reality that You are the only one who can do. Remind me daily Lord that I NEED all the people you are drawing into these new things.
• How do I keep this thing started two years ago fresh and renewing for me personally? Come, Lord Jesus, in my tired spirit of maintaining rather than producing something new! Help me be strong for and in You. Bring leaders for Your mission Jesus!
• How do I lead a multi-cultural movement? Come, Lord Jesus, in this all white or all black church to bring a mixed experience. Come, Lord Jesus, in our propensity to want what is “like us” to be diluted with other people who bring different viewpoints, challenging relationships, and different cultural backgrounds. Give us the spirit of Christ to overcome our own divisions, and the tenacity of spirit to want to do so!
• Why do I have to have office hours?! Come, Lord Jesus, and help me be “outside of the office” and at the local coffee shop, dock or bar as much as possible. Help me meet the people you love but who are not looking for someone at my building. Give me the grace and wisdom to set predictable patterns in several locations to meet people: office, street corner, coffee shop, club meeting, marina hangouts. Help me claim “the office” all over town you want me to set-up and keep hours at!

There are a few other directions of thought church planters seem to have on their minds – managing energy level, especially for introverts, in a more publicly interacting type of ministry; contending with false vs. true metric systems; contending with a sense of encouragement and discouragement each week; constantly learning new language & vocabulary which invites and appropriately challenges culturally oriented people; and paying attention to not ignoring family or friends in the process.

Go church planters!

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