How would Jesus plant a church?

Recently I have been reading and talking a lot about church planting, and while I'm very intrigued, I am also suffering from some serious head-spinning!  There are so many ideas, methodologies, and philosophies out there regarding church planting and to be honest, everyone thinks their way is most effective (even if they don't say it that way).  So what is the most effective way to plant and lead a church?  Quickly the responses begin, "Church Growth expert So and So says," and "This megachurch is doing this," or "This organic church movement believes this."  Which leads me to the question that is sitting in the back of my spinning brain:

How would Jesus plant a church?

Its really a pretty silly question because we actually have the divinely inspired documentation for how Jesus planted not a church, but the church.  I know that we all know this deep in our bones, but I wonder if we've lost sight of it in the midst of our conferences, methodologies, reading, and seminary educations.

So how did Jesus plant the church?

- he called twelve ordinary guys to drop everything and follow him, to "come and see" what he was up to

- he preached good news a lot

- he healed people and casted out demons

- he fasted and prayer (he prayed a lot, read the book of Luke)

- he hung out with sinners and tax collectors

- he died and rose again

- he called his followers to go and do all this stuff themselves

It seems that Jesus had a rather simple strategy that required courage, faith, a high level of commitment, and a healthy dose of the supernatural.  I think that we've lost a lot this in our churches and our church planting efforts and we need to reclaim it.  This doesn't mean that God isn't in a lot of the books, methodologies, and philosophies out there.  I believe God is (most of them anyway), but we can't leave Jesus behind and we can't bring him in later.  Jesus is the founder, the planter, and the Lord over the church, and he builds it, not us.

What are your thoughts on how Jesus went about planting the church?

Nuts and Bolts

Thought I'd share a few internship nuts and bolts with everyone this week.  Here's some of the latest:

- Took a group of six to an event in Davenport, IA called "Rock the River" last weekend.  Heard some good music and some average messages from Franklin Graham.  All in all the event was great for connecting with some youth and their parents.

- I'm in the third week of a preaching series titled, "Messy."  This has been a lot of fun for me and the church has been responding well to it.  

- We've been getting to know some of our neighbors little by little.  We're hoping to have dinner with some this weekend.  Please be praying that we'll get opportunities to share Jesus with our neighbors.

- We're doing well on the support front.  We're sitting at about 80% of our needed support, and are thankful for the generosity of so many friends, colleagues, and family.  We're confident that we can be at a 100% by the Fall.  If you're interested in financially contributing to our internship you can contact us at erickewaskowitz@gmail.com.

More musings next week.

Grace and Peace,

Erick