We Are Not Starting A Church

I have started three churches and coached a number of people starting churches and frankly the glamour is gone. Don’t get me wrong, I love the church and I love starting new things, especially churches, but if that alone is the goal, count me out.

I don’t see the early Christians trying to start churches or church planting movements or even attempting social transformation projects. The same is true of our brothers and sisters in third world countries.

I have been in third world countries where Christianity is exploding and I don’t hear them talking about church planting or social justice. I think they get church planting and cultural transformation a lot more than most of us in the west, but whereas we get excited about models and movements and fashionable theories (at least I do), they are passionate about Jesus. They have experienced the transformation of their lives and they want others to experience the same.

They also have an understanding of the Holy Spirit we seem to lack. They follow the Spirit of God in all his mystery rather than a five year plan developed over a weekend with a consultant in the room. Instead they try to do what the Spirit is leading them to do day by day and the result is that lives are transformed by God’s love and grace, through countless moments of service and compassion. Wherever and whenever groups of people fall in love with Jesus, churches naturally spring up and social transformation projects occur rising out of gratitude and excitement about Jesus.

So, those of us committing to start Restoration Community Church are not about creating a new church or a new kind of church. Our excitement is not about a new model or way of doing church that is more culturally relevant or contextualized. No, what we want to do is simply follow Jesus as he leads us by his Spirit. We want to be in love with Jesus and totally surrendered to him. As we do this we will experience God’s restoration of our lives, marriages and families and we will virally infect those around us with the restorative power and grace of God. A church will be birthed out of this that is healthy and life changing for married folks, kids and singles. Other churches and ministries will be birthed out of the overflow of our common love for Jesus and each other. And we will see our city and world experience the restoration of God’s image.

Who wants to just start a church when we can have so much more fun and impact simply following Jesus?