Endings and Beginnings
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that we’ve been attending a wonderful church while in the midst of following God’s call to plant a church ourselves.
Acts Temple is a wonderful church. Pastor Jury Price and Co-Pastor Mike Dixon and all the leaders and people are just *awesome*. If someone was to come to Flowing River Fellowship (the church we’re planting) and they felt like they weren’t a good fit here, I wouldn’t hesitate to send them to Acts Temple. If we weren’t called to ministry / called for now, Acts would definitely be our home church.
But.
For a while now, we’ve been hearing from God that it’s time to start Sunday worship at Flowing River Fellowship. We’ve been meeting on Tuesday nights, and it’s been good. If we were to continue on Tuesdays, it would likely still be good. But it wouldn’t be God’s best for this church, and that’s what we want!
We’re sensing something with Acts Temple. A disconnect. We’ve felt this feeling before when it was time to move on. It’s always been immediately preceded by hearing from God about it.
See, we thought we could be part of one congregation while growing another. We’d started to get comfortable there, to go with the flow of things, to step into roles. It felt good and right. But it wasn’t what God really wanted for us. Oh, I do believe that He brought us there… but I think we overstayed His welcome. We should’ve gone when we started FRF, regardless of whether we met on Tuesdays, Sundays, or whenever.
The point isn’t that we’ll be busy in one place on Sunday so we can’t be at another… the point is that we can’t have our time and efforts divided between two congregations. If we’re going to be a part of a congregation, we need to focus on the needs of that congregation. Not another. I’m not saying that two churches (or ten) can’t be a help to one another, work on joint projects, learn from one another, and so on. I AM saying that each church needs to focus on its own efforts (without being inwardly focused!!) - whether as an individual congregation, or as a cooperative effort.
For example - Acts Temple put on a wonderful hot dog supper a ways back. It was a great thing and really ministered to some of Level Cross’s low-income residents. At least one family hadn’t had anything at all to eat recently! Yet when we went door to door, Ken and I felt very conflicted. Here we are planting a church, and inviting people to come to another church that we’re a part of. It’s a bit illogical. Not because FRF and AT are in any sort of competition… we should each be building the community of our own congregations.
I could draw a picture of what I’m trying to say, and maybe I will, because I don’t feel like I’ve expressed it well.
So - next Sunday morning we’ll be having services here. Hopefully our people will be able to handle the rapid transition. This isn’t how we like to make changes - but obedience is what counts here.
Today we’re hanging out. We’ll pray, work some on the logistics, keep plugging away at the Articles of Incorporation, and get some housework done. It’s been a busy week, ministry wise, and the housework seems to always come last.
