The ETA for Micah's Porch to be launched is in October 2007.
In looking at the target for launching a church I have discovered that there are two tracks that need to merge at that date. The two tracks can be roughly described as institution building and community building. Trying to manage both of these tracks at the same time is proving to be quite a challenge. Throw into the mix the fact that I'm currently pastoring a church up in Wisconsin, and at times I feel like I'm developing a split personality.
Institution building is the side of church planting that is about developing legal and financial structures, networking with potential financial partners, and various administrative goals. This part of the work involves working with people who may never even step foot inside Micah's Porch.
Community building is the more enjoyable ministry of meeting people, sharing my faith with them, getting them excited about joining the vision, and building a team to launch the church itself. This group of people could care less about many of the details that people from the first group care about.
The additional complexity is that institution building is my most pressing current activity. After all, if I can't develop any partners to fund the launch, then it's going to be extremely difficult to get the church off the ground. The people building activity is something that I am involved in pretty much anywhere I go, but it really is not supposed to kick into high gear until about two to three months out from the launch. After all, someone may be really excited right now, but without anything to bring them to, eight months down the road a whole lot can change.
So the point of this post is... Navigating two paths while holding down a full time workload is a challenge. Not impossible of course, but certainly a reason for a whole lot of prayer.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
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1 comments:
Okay, this is my day for going through your blog and saying Amen, Amen, Amen. And you are in my prayers.
You are right. The balance of resources and relationships is crucial; if I had to sacrifice one for the other, and I have :), it is to sacrifice resources in favor of relationships, because of course the one flows out of the other and not so much the other way around.
Here at The Living Room Church, and our new venture "a third place" community center, the support of partners who aren't a part of the ongoing community of presence has been absolutely essential for us to do some of the things we have done to build relationships.
And as you say there is the added paradox of the bivocational plant; in some ways I wouldn't have it any other way, as I become a little suspect of fully funded plants, but especially when the paying job is not a part of the community where the plant is it seems to draw away time and energy when a job in the community would lead toward relationships where you need them.
That's been one of my constant tugs and a continual revisiting of the call question...
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