After 6 years of being on this field of ministry God has sent and assigned us to, I am beginning to see things a bit clearer. For one, I can see where we have been and how God has led and is continuing to lead us. Secondly, I am seeing the seasons of church planting that God has brought me through and wondering if that is the way He desires to lead all church planters...or maybe just me...maybe some CP veterans can help me out here. But,here is what I see:
Church Planting is much like farming and planting crops. There is a lot of work to be done before seeds are ever placed in the ground...yet we (I) just did not see that truth in 2006 when we moved to Troy. Fresh out of seminary, 11 years experience w/inner-city ministry, combined with the fact that I was born and raised in the community God sent us to, I thought we had all we needed to hit the ground running. And we did just that.However, as I now see, fallow (raw, unused, uncultivated) ground needs to be worked and broken up before seeds can be sown.And that is precisely the season we (me, my wife, and children) have been living in...a season of preparation and breaking up fallow ground. During this time God had been preparing us and pereparing the soil of this mission field for planting. We have led a few people to Christ and have baptized a few, but for the most part this has been a season of connecting woth people and building relationships...real,authentic realtionships, which will serve as bridges for the gospel as God continues to prepare the church planter anbd further prepare the ground for the next step or phase.
