A Day in the Life of a Church Planter

It's always a fun conversation when someone asks me: "What do you do for a living?" Usually, I will answer the question with "pastor," "church starter," "church planter," or "church worker." However, recently, I wonder if "gardener" might be a more appropriate descriptor. In this post, Professor and Author, David Fitch, paints a picture of today's church planters with the following words: "They will be communal shepherds [who] are most often shepherds of an entire ethos of a community. They are not starting or managing an organization. Instead they are cultivating a communal sense of mission identity among a gathering people 'for this time and place.'" I find that to be a pretty good scratch at the surface of "what I do."

Last Saturday, my wife and I had the opportunity to share the day with new friends from this church. As we talked together dreaming about connections with unbelievers, starting house churches, and spiritual formation in the context of community, inevitably, the question was asked: "So, what does a typical day look like for you?" My friend from Denton graciously stepped in to answer; however, tonight, I would like to invite you into "A Day in the Life of a Church Planter."

After an 11 and a half hour day yesterday, I took my time getting started today. Although I took a slight verbal lashing later, my wife sacrificially got our kids going, took our daughter to school, took our son to Grandmom's, and worked all morning herself. For those of you praying for her during this pregnancy: "Thank you!" Today was a rough day, and now that the first trimester has come and gone, she is actually feeling worse...at least right now. However, she's amazing, and keeps putting one foot in front of the other.

Recently, Bret, myself, and a mutual friend have committed to crafting and living out a "Rule of Life." The three of us were in a "Christian Spiritual Formation" class in January 2008, and as we have entered into a formation group together, we are seeking to live out revised versions of our "rules." Part of my "rule" involves an ancient spiritual practice known as "praying the hours." For me, "praying the hours" consists of stopping (to the best of my ability and memory) and putting aside whatever I am involved in for prayer at 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, and 9pm. I have been greatly blessed by this practice, because I am walking with God throughout the day and able to reflect on what has already happened and what is yet to happen each day. Usually, in the morning, I will pray along with the "morning prayers" podcast of Divine Office, but today, I fired up "Navigating the Suburban Wilderness - Week #3" through my car stereo via my iPod to guide my time of prayer. May I see myself and others through the eyes of Jesus, and not through possessions, labels, and a craving for results.

For both Bret and I, "personal care" (daily exercise, healthy eating habits, proper sleep rhythms, etc.) is a high priority. As a result, since he moved here in October, we have played racquetball 3-5 times a week. Today was no different. I met him at HFC, and four games later, we were both exhausted.

From there, it was back to an empty house for some computer work: email correspondence, website development, Facebook networking, work-related blog reading, and perhaps some non-work related blog reading, too.

After that, I began thinking again on our theme for this coming Sunday. We are approaching week #4 of an 8 week series entitled: "Navigating the Suburban Wilderness." The purpose of the series is to compare the dominant aspects of suburban culture in the southwest corner of the DFW Metroplex with the way of Jesus. Yikes! God has been mightily at work in our community through the first 3 weeks. I can think of 4 broken relationships (some for more than a year) that were restored last week alone, because one or both parties in the relationship approached the other for forgiveness and reconciliation. God is truly forming us into a community of confession, forgiveness, and restoration, and he is going with us to extend such a life to our area.

For a teaser revealing some of what we'll be tackling this Sunday, click here. I am responsible for two times of story-telling, so I began to imagine what the context of each segment would consist of. In addition, Bret and I spent some time talking through email and on the phone fleshing out the theme, and crafting a flow for the sermon. We have been team preaching the entire series, and the collaboration has been a formative experience and a lot of fun.

While talking to Bret, I hopped in the car and took off for lunch at Dairy Queen with my wife, mother-in-law, and son. I chomped down a hunger-buster, medium french fries, and two 32oz Cherry Cokes. Didn't I say something about "personal care" earlier?

I spoke to a friend on the phone for 15-20 minutes. He is in the midst of some major life changes, and I am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead for him and humbly approaching God on his behalf.

45 minutes later, I went to visit some friends who came to our Sunday AM worship gathering for the first time last week. They had to leave early, so I thought I would swing by their house for a while. As I mentioned in the beginning, a majority of my role involves "seeding missional communities;" and therefore, I spend Wednesday afternoons and most of the day each Thursday "out of the office." Turns out, my friend answered the door, and we shared a little over an hour talking about her life. Currently, she is wondering about her identity and worth, mouring a recent job loss, making major sacrifices for her family, and uncertain as to whether or not church should be described as a community of healing and hope or a community of harm and disappointment. I pray that through the transformational power of God, Christ Journey can help her rediscover a little bit of the former. At the conclusion of the conversation, I prayed for her and left.

Next, I talked to my Mom on the phone for 30 minutes, and hoped to visit with a friend I have not seen in several months; however, no one came to the door after I knocked. Shortly after returning to the car, the boss called to ask me to pick up our daugher from school. "No problem," I said. "I should probably take her out visiting with me anyway." I found a great spot near the front of the "pick up" line. My daugher jumped in, and unbeknownst to her, we headed to MCDs for a hot fudge sundae.

After dropping $1.08 for the sundae, my daugher and I met Bret and his son at the Shenandoah Townhomes in southwest Burleson. We have been praying and cultivating relationships in the Shenandoah community since June 2008 eagerly looking forward to a launch of a house church in the neighborhood someday. That day is coming...really soon!

We met up with a friend of ours who lives in the community. Our kids played together, and we talked about life, faith, the Kingdom, scheduling, cleaning, serving, meeting our neighbors, work, sleep, and our shared vision for a house church in the Shenandoah neighborhood. Praise the Lord for new friends willing to live risky lives for the Kingdom of God. Thank you for praying for this new house church.

We said "goodbye" to our friend at Shenandoah, Bret, and his son, and my daughter and I returned home to find a "not feeling too good" Mom and a sleeping son. In 15 minutes, the four of us were in the Camry on our way to City Market for diapers and dog food. The dog food was for us, but the diapers (and wipes) were for a baby shower we were going to. Over the last few months, Bret has been officing (for the most part) at the local Denny's restaurant, and as a result, he has developed some good relationships with the wait staff. As a "regular," he has been able to strike up extended and meaningful conversations when the restaurant is not busy. One of the waitresses is expecting her first baby at the end of January, so Bret invited himself and us to her baby shower that was held at Denny's this evening. Kingdom living is exciting to say the least!

We arrived with our diapers and wipes, and were able to meet most of our friends' entire family. We talked, played the "don't say baby" game, and watched our kids color and play with balloons. We are thankful to be messengers of the Lord cultivating relationships in our community in his name.

My wife already did not feel good, and the smell of cigarette smoke in the restaurant was not helping. I think restaurants without a fully enclosed "smoking section" or a fully enclosed "non-smoking section" might as well consider the entire restaurant a "smoking section." On the other hand, I do love me some Grand Slams!

Anyway, we left the shower early, and went back to the house. My wife took a rest, and I got to cooking a lil dinner. In reality, this means that I heated up some leftover brisket, and popped two corn dogs in the microwave for the kids. The three of us ate together, and then, I got "little man" ready for bed. He brushed his teeth, laid down with his Mommy for a while, said his (and our) prayers, and then, amazingly went off to sleep with ease.

By this time, my daugher was ready for bed, and the two of us sat down for some devotional Bible reading and conversation. You know, if LST is using the Bible to teach non-English speakers to read, then why am I not using the Bible to teach (and grow) my 8-year old in reading? Anyway, we talked about what the Bible is, where it came from, what kind of literature we find in it, what "Old Testament" and "New Testament" means, where books, chapters, and verse numbers came from...you know, anything that an 8-year old might need to know in order to be a world renown biblical scholar! My favorite question from her came when I was telling her that there was a time when people did not have the Bible as we have it today. Immediately, she asked, "If they didn't have the Bible, how did they learn about God?" She really does not understand how profound a question she asked, and how many of us today would have no answer.

For the rest of our time together, we dove into Mark 1.1-3. We talked about the title "Christ," Jesus as the Son of God, and the "Good News" Jesus is to us. We even ended up in a bit of a trinitarian conversation as she asked how Jesus could be God's Son and yet be God. We had a meaningful prayer to close as we asked God to reveal the Good News of Jesus to us as we journey through Mark, and that we would also be sharers and livers of such Good News. She's excited to talk about Isaiah and John the Baptizer next time. I gave her a drink of water, and kissed her goodnight.

Now, I'm sitting on the love seat in my "Mary Tyler Moore" living room reflecting on a full and wonderful day in the "already, but not yet" Kingdom of God. Having the sacred opportunity to join God in confessionally, humbly, sacrificially, eagerly, and patiently tilling soil of the lives of others is the greatest job in the world. In fact, most of the time that I think I am working for and with others, God is actually tilling the soil in my life, too. There you have it: "A Day in the Life of a Church Planter."

Tomorrow looks like racquetball at 7am, formation group at 9am, preparation for a presentation I am making at a church in Coppell on Friday at 10:30am, time in the community all afternoon, and coffee with a friend at 9pm.

For now, I'm headed to the ps2 to fire up some NCAA Football 2008. I'm 3-1 with Florida State. I lost to Iowa, but beat Oklahoma by six touchdowns. Go figure.