Bull-RiderI never wanted to be a church planter. I didn’t even find it interesting. Don’t get me wrong—I have always viewed church planting as adventurous. I knew it would require a great amount of faith (or dumb luck). It was just that my only interactions with church planters happened to be with guys who didn’t care for their local churches. For one reason or another, they were disenfranchised. It was either the music, or the leadership, or just the red tape of trying to launch their new initiatives. They thought they could do it better—they could preach more clearly, lead more effectively, or cast a more buyable vision. In the end, it almost always came down to a question of authority and who was in it.

It always appeared that they were asking the wrong questions and focusing their energy on ministerial vanity. I’d sit in seminary and listen as they shared stories of their weekly “gatherings” and how well they were going. However, before long the people they hoped to reach were no longer coming and they were doing exactly what their former churches had done. The only differences were now they were meeting in a community center and they were the ones calling all the shots. It seemed to be a leadership issue more than anything else.

I knew that starting a church would require a lot of hard work and take its toll on a young family. I also believed that church planting was a calling. Ministry in general can be trying, but planting intensifies this truth even more. In Hugh Halter and Matt Smay’s book AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church, they point out the draw to planting even amidst its difficulties. “It’s sort of like watching ten well-trained bull riders get kicked off, stepped on, ground into the dirt, and gored. Yet for some strange reason the next guy happily ropes in and rides the same bull. There’s just something about this thing called church that captures our hearts and keeps us fighting for a better day.”

I now hope that I’m like that. I hope you’re like that too. That’s why after over 12 years in full time student ministry, God called my family to South Florida to pastor a church plant and help plant other churches. I’m learning every day and being stretched in ways like never before, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. We certainly don’t have the blueprint for success, but God is teaching us to genuinely trust Him as we seek to do some things that we have never seen done before.  It is an adventure—a humbling adventure!

I pray that no matter how rough the ride gets, we’ll never let go of the reigns that God has allowed us to hold.  Michael Catt puts it best when he says, “God cares more about my character than my comfort.” For me, the most comfortable place in the world is being in the center of God’s will for my life. In the end, it all comes down to hearing and answering the call. I’m so glad God asked me to do something I didn’t want to do! What about you? Would you be willing to pray and ask God if planting could be a part of His plan for your life and ministry? Maybe it’s time to stop making excuses about why you can’t, and start trusting in how He can.