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 After
over two years in the role of director of Mission USA, I
have found that church planting is not an “exact science.” I
have found that there are many challenges to planting new
churches that closely resemble that of having and raising a
baby. Babies take a lot of care and attention. They make
messes that have to be dealt with. They eat a lot and they
eat often. But they are sure cute and enjoyable (at times).
Another thing is that you have to wait and build them up
before they can crawl. You have to keep helping them and
caring for them so that they can walk. But each new step is
a delight to behold. We can’t expect newborns to walk right
away. They aren’t strong enough. But, soon, with the right
attention and care, not only are they walking, they are
running!
New churches are so much like this. They
take a lot of care and attention. They make messes that have
to be dealt with. They eat a lot ($$$). But they sure are
wonderful. The other thing is that we can’t expect our
church plants to be grown-up healthy churches all at once.
It takes time for them to develop and grow into maturity. As
they grow, they need attention so that they can thrive. And
just like babies, they tend to draw a lot of natural
attention from people—connections! These connections turn
into opportunities to share the Gospel. New baby churches
are great at breaking down barriers just like babies
naturally do with people.
By comparing church plants to babies, in
no way am I indicating that our church planters are
immature. In fact, we have several very, very gifted people
planting our new churches and they deal day in and day out
with the challenges of raising a new church. Join me in
thanking our church planters and their families and all
those who are giving of themselves to see these new churches
thrive.
We can all be involved in helping
our new “baby churches” grow up to maturity. You can help by
supporting our new churches through prayer and through
giving. As I mentioned, new baby churches need a lot of
“food.” Please give generously to Mission USA. You make a
huge difference in helping our church plants now and also in
how many new churches are born in the future. We want to
give birth to many, many more MB churches. Can you help?
Please send your donation to:
The U.S. Conference of MB Churches
PO Box 220
Hillsboro, KS 67063
(Please note “Mission USA” on the memo line.)
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