How Important is the Where?

I've been thinking a lot lately about where we will plant a church. I've had some thoughts for quite some time now regarding the context in which we hope to plant, and when yet I wrestle with the reality that the "where" may not ultimately be up me.

There are many factors that play into this: denominational funding and strategy and demographic assessments to name a few. However, the biggest factor that might play into why the where won't be up to us is God's calling.

I believe that God has wired us for effectiveness in certain communities with certain groups of people. For example, some of us might be a better fit in an urban community with gen Xers while others might be a better fit in a suburban community with baby boomers. However while a planter may have her niche, I am starting to think that the actual "where" is secondary.

A quick survey of the Scriptures would show that the great Biblical leaders didn't choose the "where." Abraham didn't choose where he would go, nor did Moses, nor did Jonah, and Jesus even told Peter that he would be lead where he did not want to go. While a lot of factors will play into the where, God's call is primary, and once we submit to God's calling we remove our input into the decision.

As I continue this church planting journey I am finding myself less concerned about "the where." Sure, I would love to go and plant a church in the city of my choice, and that may or may not be where God leads me. I'd be interested to hear stories from some planters and how the "where" was determined in your church planting situation.

New Year Reflections

“I slipped from under the buffalo hide, got up on my knees and peered over the side of the wagon. There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.”

These words are from Willa Cather's American classic My Antonia. They are the words of a young boy traveling west to begin a new life in Nebraska at the beginning of the 20th century. These words took on significance in my life a couple of months ago as a spiritual director shared them with me.

2009 was the year of "new" for our family. In the past year we had a new baby, started in a new ministry, moved to a new home, made new friends, and have been adjusting to a new community. While 2009 was an exciting and adventurous year, full of risks and unpredictability, it was in all honesty, scary, stressful, and one of the most challenging years of my life.

In Matthew 9.18 Jesus describes his movement in terms of new wine and new wineskins. He simply shares that no one pours new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the skin will burst, thus ruining both the wine and the skin. He doesn't flesh this image out for us, he simply invites us to wrestle with its meaning. I think that the new wine represents Jesus and God's new initiative in rescuing and redeeming humanity. The wineskin, I think, represents us and our ability or inability to receive the new; to receive whatever it is that Jesus is up to.

Here's what I've learned in 2009 and am reflecting on as we enter 2010. New wine requires new wineskins. If I want to receive the new that God is doing then I need to reorient my life to receive it. My old patterns, habits, paradigms, boxes, and categories will not suffice. I think that part of the struggle in receiving the new this past year was my struggle to fashion a new wineskin with my life, and as I've begun to release the old wineskin in the last few months, I've also discovered the new to be quite beautiful.

This spiritual director shared this excerpt with me as a way of helping me to see that God is building a city in me, and 2009 was about God beginning a work on a new part of this city. I am the boy looking out of the wagon, seeing not a city, but the stuff of which cities are made.

I invite you to do the same. Look out of your wagon. What do you see? What lies dormant in your life, just waiting to be created? What is the next part of your city that God has begun the work on? In what ways, will you need to reorient your life in such a way that God can continue building a new creation in you?

While God is unchanging and eternal, God is always doing something new. My hope and prayer is that you can embrace and receive this new in 2010.

Grace and Peace, Erick.