Church Planting.... Again

Almost fifteen years ago, my husband accepted a call to serve as pastor to a church plant in the Midwest.  Sensing God’s call, we packed up our life and moved with our four little boys from a happy ministry life in Florida to an unknown future. We left a sunny, beach-front community for a rolling winter landscape.  We traded a large, well-established congregation for a small group of families who needed a shepherd. There were many unknowns, and God, as always, was faithful.  Our experience has been a wonderful, rewarding and fruitful. 

The church God planted is a healthy, thriving congregation.  It has never grown by leaps and bounds, but rather slowly and steadily, one or two families at a time.  The church has outgrown three different locations and now worships in its own beautiful facility. We have invested our lives here and are richer for it.

So now we are going to leave.

The decision to go has not been made lightly.  We have tried to think through all the implications of our leaving and the many people it will affect.  We have sought God’s will in prayer.

Having sent three sons off to college, with our youngest going this year, I know that the time to part with loved ones always feels like it’s too soon.  When did the little boys whose shoes I tied and whose bruises I kissed become old enough to go away and live without me?  I want to hold on to them just a little longer, even when I know that it is time for them to leave.  I cry when they go.

There is no set rule for pastors telling them when it is time to move on.  I know that some denominations tell their pastors when and where to go, but that is not our church’s practice. It’s especially hard to decide when things are going well.  Staying is easier. Knowing when to go requires discernment, and that comes through a close walk with Christ, prayer and a willing heart. 

We have told the Lord that we would go wherever He sends us, and now we believe that He is sending us to church plant again.  There is no little band of believers asking us to come this time.  We have been asked by our denomination to go to a community where it has no presence, and we’ll be starting “from scratch”.  It will be a thrill to watch God create something from nothing.

Since my husband announced our intention just over a week ago to our church, family and friends, the Lord has confirmed the decision in our hearts. There have been reflective conversations and concrete answers to prayer.  It will not be easy to leave, but we will go with confidence that Christ is before us, behind us and beside us.