We should all be familiar with Saint Patrick’s missional pursuit of taking the gospel of Christ to Ireland.  Patrick was born in the Roman Empire and was taken as a slave to Ireland.  He left after hearing God speak to him and returned to the Roman Empire for the purpose of preparing (educationally and theologically) to return to Ireland for the sole purpose of sharing Christ with an uncivilized people.  As a result, many Irish monks were equipped and ready to leave Ireland and travel east to Europe where they would share the hope found in Christ.

The message of Christ spread throughout Europe and filled a huge vacuum left as a result of the Barbarian Invasions.

We simply want to obey the biblical mandate to go to the whole world to Make Disciples found in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8.

This is simple and not complicated.  We just want to obey the words of Jesus found in the Word of God, the Bible.  We started in Loganville & Walnut Grove, we have now moved to Social Circle and helped plant in other places like Pennsylvania.  We want to take the gospel to the “ends of the earth”.  Nothing more needed.

We want to live by the Psalm 67:1-2 principle of “paying it forward”.  

God has been so gracious to us and He has blessed us so much with the gospel.  We have WAY more than we need and we believe in the “so that” principle.  He has been gracious and blessed us “so that” we can make Him known to the nations.

We want to cultivate “selflessness” in our lives.

Philippians 2:5-11 describes the character of Jesus & how he left his heavenly throne to come to earth wrapped in human flesh to show us how much God loves us.  He “emptied” himself for us!  We want to live in that same spirit and that same character.  How can we keep the “good news” of God’s love, mercy and grace to ourselves?  How can we escape the wrath of God and not invite others to join us?

Are you living your personal life with the same sense of “mission”?  Are you living day by day with a plan to grow as a disciple of Jesus?  Join with us at Church at the Grove as we seek to fulfill God’s mission for sharing the love of Jesus with our community and the world!  I hope to see you Sunday as we share about our experience here in Romania!

Keep praying, keep investing, keep inviting!

Here a some things you can expect when you plant a church:

Hard Work

Planting a church is the hardest work of which I have ever taken part.  The work never ends and as a result, a planter has to be able to go home, disconnect and BE WITH your family.  You could spend all your time counseling, visiting and making contacts, following up, preparing to preach, teaching Bible Studies and completing administrative tasks.  One of my church planting coaches screamed at a training, “There are three things you need to plant a church!  Work! Work! and More Work!”

Plenty of Reward

Church Planting is the hardest work I have ever done but the most rewarding work I have been a part of as well.  There is nothing like rallying a group of people around a mission, seeing people turn to follow Christ, baptizing them and watching them grow as disciples.

Spiritual Growth

You grow more when you engage in something like church planting.  It is a huge step of faith, you constantly have to depend on God and it demands that you stay in the Word, connected in prayer and in community with others.

Spiritual Opposition

There is probably nothing more threatening to the enemy than planting a church that will set free people from spiritual bondage.  Expect spiritual opposition and anything but an easy ride.  Some of your opposition will come from people in and around your new church plant.  People get mad and will cause problems.

Strong relationships

Some of the closest friendships you will ever have will come from the launch team of people that help plant a new church.  It must be similar to being a part of a unit of soldiers sent in to battle.  You prepare together, serve together and celebrate together.

Strange people

When you plant a church, unusually nutty people will come out of the woodwork!  I can’t explain it other than they haven’t been able to fit in anywhere else and your church plant is a new frontier for them to assault..uh I mean connect.  Expect it!  It will be awkward, a bit entertaining and potentially distracting.

Highs and Lows

At times, planting a church may resemble an emotional roller coaster.  One Sunday you will be celebrating decisions for Christ, high attendance, a great offering and the next week you will be ready to throw in the towel because of some negative feedback, a poor offering or low attendance.  Buckle Up and don’t take the statistics too serious.

Laboratory For Your Family

There is nothing like planting a church for you, your spouse and your kids to learn and see up close how God faithfully works to support our steps of faith.  From trusting God for resources, seeing people turn to Jesus and watching people engage in disciple-making, planting a church is a perfect way for your family to get a taste of missionary life.

People will leave

I wish knowing this reality ahead of time would soften the blow to your feelings when someone you have grown to love decides to leave your new church!  It hurts and there is no way of getting around it unless you just stop loving and investing in people.  Keep loving and investing in people in trust God.  Here’s the thing about God, he keeps making new people and He will bring some of them your way.

God’s Presence

When Jesus gave us the Great Commission to go and make disciples he promised that he would never leave us or forsake us!  God’s presence is experienced in a fresh way when you step out on faith to plant a church.  God is faithful and He can be trusted.

Keeping the Message Simple:
We emphasize that God’s plan was to eliminate unnecessary religious components and make it simple to connect with God.  In order to accomplish this we attempt to remove any and all religious “hoops” that churches can tend to force people through to connect with God through a personal relationship with Jesus.  By religious “hoops” I mean things like dress, worship styles, liturgy (all liturgy is not bad), terminology, or connecting certain disciplines or religious activity to your acceptance with God.  Please don’t get me wrong, we do teach doctrine and we encourage spiritual disciplines as a means to grow spiritually.

Read this: Acts 15:19

The NIV states “we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

We are constantly evaluating how we communicate the gospel to our church and our community.  Our desire is to “lead” people and not emotionally coerce people into a growing relationship with Jesus.

Keeping the Methods Simple:
We realize that we live in a culture that is more and more demanding on an individual’s and family’s time.  We believe that we (Church at the Grove) can accomplish more by doing less.  I learned in a seminary class that the most committed people in a typical church will potentially spend 14 hours per week on the campus of their church keeping the operations going for that local body.  If they are spending that much time on keeping the church going, there is very little time left to invest in people outside the walls of the church!  Our desire is to simplify the methodology of our church for the purpose of freeing up time for people to invest in the mission of the church.

We do three things at Church at the Grove to accomplish our mission of leading people to follow Jesus and Make Disciples:

• We create environments where people can explore faith in Jesus at their own pace.
• We encourage relationships through Community Groups where people can connect in meaningful and discipling friendships.
• We start discussions that lead to sharing the hope found in Jesus by serving our neighbors and our community.

Things we will not do or require to keep it simple:

• We will not start a Christian school.
• We will not launch a sports league.
• We will not require men to be circumcised.
• We will not ask or force people to serve in multiple areas to be a Small Group leader.
• We will not ask people to spend all their free time doing work to keep the church going.

What we do ask people to do to keep it simple:

• We ask people to simplify their lives for the purpose of having margin for God’s mission.
• We ask people to utilize their children’s sports and other extracurricular activities as a way to invest in people for the purpose of sharing Jesus and inviting them to The Grove.
• We ask people to connect in a community group.
• We ask people to serve on a Sunday Serve team regularly.
• We ask people to look for opportunities to start conversations that lead to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus.
• We ask people to do these things in their normal circle of influence.

How do you keep the message and the methods simple in your life?

Here are some ways I/we began to connect when we planted just over 5 years ago.

Start in your own neighborhood and homeowners association
For a planter/pastor/leader to lead others, he or she must model what he wants others to put into practice.  Start with your own neighborhood or relationship circles closest to home.  There is nothing more powerful than a pastor sharing personal stories about how God has worked through his personal relationships to see people connect to God through Jesus.  I started getting to know neighbors through neighborhood events, homeowner association meetings and my wife and started a discussion group for couples on marriage and family issues.  As a result, we have seen multiple families and people from our neighborhood trust Jesus and get connected at Church at the Grove.

Local Schools
Our church’s two campuses both meet in public schools.  We began building relationships with the principles and staff through feeding them and loving on them in a variety of ways.  We told them we want to be their first call if they need something.  It has worked and they love us and have become “raving fans” of our church.  Here’s the deal:  If you tell them to call you, you better be ready to follow up and meet their request.  You must maintain a healthy credibility with the community.

Police Department
The Police Department knows as well as anyone what is going on in the community.  I went to the local police department and asked them if they had a chaplain.  They didn’t and I volunteered.  Within a year or so, we baptized the Chief and he now plays in our worship band.  We partner with the department on a number of things but the partnership with the greatest fruit has been our “Shop with a Hero” Christmas project that touches over a hundred children through the public schools.

Funeral Homes
One of my mentors told me that when he planted a church years ago he went to the local funeral home and volunteered to do funerals for people without a church. WOW!  I do over a dozen funerals a year for unchurched families.  It is a great way to connect with unchurched people and meet a practical need.  More and more people navigate death and loss without the security and hope that eternity offers us through Christ.  Several families have given our church a try through these connections and countless people have heard the gospel.

Counselors
We try to maintain relationships with what we call the “365 people” that deal with community needs everyday of the year. These are the police, firefighters and school counselors that deal with the basic needs of people on an ongoing basis.  We go to the school counselors and tell them that our church wants to be at the top of their list when it comes to helping meet needs.  They love us.  Here’s the deal: You better be ready if you make yourself available.

Social Workers
You will be able to meet practical needs if you make your church available to help with DFACS, county or city social workers or any leadership that is connected to everyday needs in the community.

Coach or volunteer in a local sports league
This is one of the best ways to connect with people in the community.  If you love what people love, they will listen to what you have to say.  If you pour your life into their children through coaching a sports team, it will be the easiest way to connect people to your church.  This may be the most productive means by which I have personally connected people into our church!  People are hungry for leadership with character and integrity and it is hard to find on the youth sports field unfortunately.  You can’t go wrong with volunteering to coach kids in the community!  Be ready, because people will be watching how you handle yourself on the field!

Prayer walk
There is nothing better than simply walking a neighborhood or town and praying over everything going on in a local community.  Prayer walking does not provide instant reward or feedback and it doesn’t seem like a glorified activity but God promises to reward prayer.  It is one of the best things a leader can do and it should be a regular part of a leader’s routine!

What have you done to successfully connect in the community?  I would love to hear one of your ideas that has worked!

SERVE
Why is this number 1?  I think so many followers of Jesus miss out on the impact of serving people around them in practical ways to demonstrate the love of Jesus.  Jeremiah 29:4-7 says to seek the peace and prosperity of a city and if the city prospers we will prosper as well.  One of the greatest ways to make an impression on the people and the world around you is to simply serve people in the name of Jesus.  The spiritual discipline of “service” is under-utilized in making Jesus known to people.  Serve in your church and in your community.  In John 13:3-5 Jesus demonstrates service as he washes the feet of the disciples.  Question:  How do we wash the feet of people around us in the 21st century?

GENEROSITY
In America, we have more money than we know what to do with. (And yet we are still in debt.)  We live self-indulgent lives and money has a stronghold on our hearts through greed.  Jesus told us that we cannot serve God and money at the same time (Matthew 6:24) The way we break the stronghold of greed and money is to give generously!  There is nothing like the discipline of generosity to change our hearts.

SHARE
Most believers don’t know how to start a conversation that leads to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus.  We must cultivate the discipline of sharing our faith.  Regardless of your personality you are accountable for making Jesus known to people in your circle of influence.  You can learn how to get into conversations and actually share your faith.  You can click here to see how I equipped our church to share their faith.  I believe if you practice the disciplines of SERVE and GENEROSITY, this discipline will come more naturally.

Read God’s Word
Some will ask, “Why in the world is this discipline number 4 on the list of most important spiritual disciplines for a believer in America?”  Simply because most Christians that are involved in spiritual growth are “over-read and under-applied”.  We have no shortage of Bible studies available to us but most followers of Jesus are not actively applying the Word of God to their daily life.  Some of us need one less Bible Study in our life and need to get out in the community and serve and practice generosity.  Here’s the deal:  If you are serving and giving generously of your resources and sharing your faith, you will want to read your Bible even more.  God’s Word, the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us and we should read it daily, don’t get me wrong.  These disciplines are specifically applied to believers living in America.  READ IT THEN DO WHAT IT SAYS! If you do what it says, you will want to read it MORE!

Talk to God
We should communicate with God through the amazing gift of prayer.  This is an underutilized discipline with most followers of Jesus.  Prayer is learning to depend on God.  This discipline is so often a formality and ritual in the life of the American Christian because we don’t lack for anything.  We don’t HAVE to depend on God because all of our needs are met in our culture.  Real, life-transforming prayer is depending on God for what we don’t have.  Pray without ceasing!  Don’t just stand there, pray something!

Connect with other believers in a local Church
Go to church! Join with other believers for the purpose of glorying God and joining Jesus in His mission of redemption.  God has sovereignly chosen to involve us in His mission of redemption.  We get to take the gospel of Jesus to people that are far from God.  2 Corinthians  5:20-21 says that we are His ambassadors.  Go to church!  Hear the Word! Celebrate Jesus with others!  Put into action what you hear!  Do it every week!  Don’t forsake it!  Hebrews 10:25

Circle Up with a Few other Believers
Circles are better than rows!  Invest your life with a small group of believers that can put into practice together these other disciplines.  You can read the Word and study together, serve together, give together, pray together, love one another!  You can’t grow spiritually as God intends by sitting in rows every week simply staring at the backs of people’s heads!  Get into a small group and get to know others on a deeper level and discover what it is like to live on mission with God with a small group of other followers.

These are the disciplines I believe that followers of Jesus must put into practice to grow spiritually and join God in His mission of getting the gospel OUT into the world we live in.  Some may not like or agree with the order of importance I put them in and that is ok.  Let’s don’t argue but simply apply these disciplines in our lives and the lives of those we are responsible for ministering to on a daily and weekly basis!

1.  Pray

There is nothing more effective than praying that the Lord of the Harvest will work on your behalf to reach more people with the gospel in and through your church.  As Pastor/Leader, start with yourself and then enlist your leadership and church to pray for people to engage, invest and invite their friends to join you for worship at Easter.

2.  Communicate

Easter is different than most holidays in that it doesn’t happen on the same day every year.  Sometimes it’s not even in the same month!  Most people in your church are thinking more about Spring Break than Easter right now.  You must communicate early and often WHEN Easter is on the calendar.  By the way, Easter is on April 8 this year.

3.  Creatively promote

Utilize fun, creative ways to promote Easter as an opportunity for people to invite their friends and family to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Troy Gramling of Potential Church in Florida utilizes the INVITE Bunny in “on the street” interviews to “stoke” the creative “fires” and to get people to invite their friends.

4.  Put something in their hands

Give the people in your church an “invite” card that they can give to their friends, family or people they come in contact with in the community.

5.  Equip people on how to invite their friends

Shawn Lovejoy of Mountain Lake Church teaches the people in his church how to invite their friends and neighbors AND he makes the evangelistic temperature in his church “white hot” leading up to Easter.

6.  Schedule Community Service through Your Community Groups

Nelson Searcy from Journey Church and Church Leader Insights encourages his Small Groups to do outreach events leading up to Easter to get the word out to the community about Easter Sunday.

7.  Utilize Lent Calendar for Prayer and Fasting

Mark Batterson of National Community Church utilizes Lent as a season of fasting and prayer to prepare his church for Easter.  They organize prayer walks and prayer lists to prepare people to reach out to their friends and family prior to Easter.

1. Because we understand that found people find people…and we will not stop doing whatJesus commanded us to do.

• Matthew 28:18-20- “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of age.”
• Matthew 9:35-38 – “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”

2. Because we understand that saved people serve people…and we will not stop doing what the Bible commands of us.

• 1 Peter 4:10 – “Each of you should use whatever gifts you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
• Matthew 20:28 – “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

3. Because we understand that growing people change…and we will not stop praying for Jesus to change us.

• Psalm 139:23-24 – “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

4. Because we understand that we can’t do life alone…and we will obey what the Lord has instructed us to do in Hebrews 10:24-25.

• Hebrews 10:24-25 – “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
• Ecclesiastes 4:9 – “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.”

5. Because we understand that we cannot out give God…and so we will obey what God’s Word teaches.

• Malachi 3:6-12- ‘”Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
• Proverbs 3:9-10- “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine

Everybody’s Welcome
Jesus was the perfect example/model of compassion for others. Jesus accepted and demonstrated love toward the unacceptable and unlovable of His day. Everybody was welcome to come to Him. He encountered prostitutes, Samaritans, tax collectors, gentiles, lepers or sinners of all kinds. In Matthew 9 we see that Jesus saw these people as sheep scattered without a shepherd and he had compassion on them.

My prayer is that Church at the Grove will be a community that has the same heart for people that Jesus demonstrated in the scriptures. We welcome people to journey with us even if they don’t agree with all we believe. We have created an environment where people can explore faith and their own pace hopefully experiencing the unconditional love of Jesus as they participate in our community of faith.

Nobody’s Perfect
We are all in need of forgiveness. Paul tells the Romans that “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. One of the core values we aspire to is “authentic relationships”. Because we are ALL in need of forgiveness there is no sense of spiritual superiority. We dream of a community at Church at the Grove where there is no need for hiding, no need for wearing masks, no need to impress anyone because we are all saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

Anything’s Possible
Jesus believed in people like the fisherman Peter. Although he was impulsive, haughty and often would stick his foot right in his mouth, Jesus saw something in this uneducated fisherman that led Him to invest into Peter’s life in such a way that the world would ultimately be impacted by Peter’s leadership. Peter was the most significant leader during the birth of the early church.

God has called us at Church at the Grove to invest into the lives of people with the attitude and belief that “anything is possible”. We are to see people through the eyes of Jesus and roll up our sleeves and do whatever it takes to get the gospel into the lives of those “least likely to go to church”.

That is why we stepped out on faith over 5 years ago to launch a gathering in Walnut Grove AND that is why we take another step of faith today to launch a gathering in Social Circle. This is an outpost on the landscape of our mission field where the Word of God can be taught and the gospel proclaimed. Let’s go! May God bless our obedience to Him and draw people to Himself as we lift up the name of Jesus Christ!

Keep praying, Keep investing, Keep Inviting!

Russ