Lessons from a Church Planter

Yesterday I went to church at Skyline, one of the mega Churches near where I'm staying in California. The preacher was the son-in-law of one of the pastors, and this young man is planting a church in East Chula Vista, a town south of San Diego, which is one of the most rapidly growing places in the country. In the course of message, on the parable of the sower, he talked about putting one's faith into action, and how important this is when trying to reach unchurched people. He described some of the things that they were doing to serve the community in which they are working.

First, on the day after Thanksgiving, "Black Friday", Wal-Mart was scheduled to open at 5:00 a.m. and people evidently started lining up at midnight. At 4:00 a.m. the church planting team showed up at Wal-Mart with 50 some gallons of Starbucks' Coffee and as many dozen donuts to serve to the people waiting in line, and to introduce the new church they are planting. Well, that is a way of meeting people where they are!

They are holding their services in the brand new high school in the area, and to build good relations with the community, they attend all the home football games. What's more, the church planting team volunteers to clean up the stadium after the each game. Wow! Talk about gaining the support of the custodial staff! I would imagine that this stands them in good stead for help on Sunday mornings.

I admire the creativity of these people in living out the gospel and making contact with people in the community that they are trying to reach with the gospel. I was reminded of the work of our own young people's group, Maranatha, who did some serious clean up in the community where they were working the last couple of summers. How much they seem to understand that we have to do more than preach the gospel, we need to live it out in very practical terms that really minister to people. A number of years ago Joe Aldrich explained his approach to evangelism: "Love people until they ask you why." Not a bad approach, I'd say.