Decisions, decisions

Part of me wishes we had a miserable summer.  I wish we would have found that urban living just isn’t for us.  I wish we would have been unable to connect with people.  I wish that pastors and ministry leaders would have given us a cold shoulder.  I wish that this city was so saturated with gospel-centered churches that there was no need for more.  If that was our experience, then making a decision would be a lot easier.  But that hasn’t been the case. 

We have had our challenges, to be sure, but overall this has been an encouraging summer.  We’ve been received with open arms by churches and ministry leaders.  Conversations at parks have come easily.  Multiple people have said they want us to keep them posted on how God leads us because they would have interest in joining us.  I’ve been able to reconnect with a friend from high school that I haven’t talked with in at least five years and he shares some of the same dreams I do.  And while there are some 2,500 churches in this city, there are only a handful of gospel-centered churches.  And many of the churches in America are somewhere between decline and crisis.  Despite the challenges that we’ve faced, it seems as though God could use us in this city. 

On the other side of the equation, part of me wishes that we had a miserable church back home.  I wish that we were unloved and unfruitful.  I wish that we had a dysfunctional leadership team and a toxic work environment.  If that was our experience, then leaving home to plant in Milwaukee would be an easy decision.  But that’s not the case. 

We are a part of a wonderful church family that we love.  We have an incredibly healthy leadership team, an efficient and empowering ministry strategy, an established leadership development system, and most importantly, we know we are loved and we love our church family deeply. 

So where do we go from here?  We are in the great but unfortunate position of needing to choose between two seemingly good options.  We have no reason to leave, but we do have reason to go. 

It’s important to recognize that this decision will affect far more people than just our family, our church family, or the Milwaukee area.  However God would lead, the decisions we make will have ramifications that will spread throughout and beyond our denomination and across generations.  What would New Richmond Wisconsin look like had Mike Evans never left the Chicago area to plant Faith Community Church?  What would Hudson Wisconsin look like had Larry Szyman or Tim Porter left to plant a new church in a new community?  What might Prescott Wisconsin look like now that Israel Haas has begun planting TORRENT?  What might New Richmond look like with me?  Without me?  How about Milwaukee?  The decisions that we make affect far more people than just the ones directly involved.  This is why we do not and will not make decisions in isolation. 

When making decisions, the safest place to be is under the care and protection that God has established - the elders of the local church.  God has entrusted the ultimate care of his church, the followers of Christ, to the oversight of called and qualified men in a local church (Acts 20:28, Hebrews 13:17).  This is where we start.  The elders of Faith Community sent us here for the summer.  I will provide them a detailed report including a number of indicators as to our potential fit, a response from pastors and leaders in Milwaukee to my ministry strategy, and Kristy’s vantage point on our experience and plans.  At the same time I will be in conversation with the elders of Woodridge Community Church.  It’s my conviction that if at all possible, an elder council locally needs to oversee a new church plant.  In our situation, that means that we will submit ourselves to the oversight of Faith Community Church and a local church in the Milwaukee area. 

After the elders review my reports and continue to converse and pray with us, if the lights are green, then Kristy and I will go through a church planter’s assessment.  The assessment is intended to determine if a potential planter has the skill set and stability to lead a church plant.  If we get to that point and the assessment confirms what we have perceived, then we would begin taking the formal steps to plant a church.  Most likely, this wouldn’t happen until mid-September.   

If at any point in this process we would determine that God is leading us to remain in New Richmond and contribute to the work He has begun there, then that’s what we will gratefully and joyfully do.  We have not made any firm decisions.  We are very much in the middle of the discernment process.  So please pray for us.  We still have two weeks left here.  During this time I will have the privilege of sharing some of our story with Epikos Church and preaching at Woodridge Community Church.  These will be key steps in building relationships as well as giving churches exposure to me so they can have more information to be praying on as they contribute to discerning God’s call on our lives.  Beyond this, Kristy is going to connect with different organizations in the city to gain firsthand experience investing in the kinds of initiatives that we would intend to if God leads us here. 

I do not know what the future holds, but I do know this.  Regardless of where we go or what we do we will experience failure and fruit because we are being carried by a faithful God.  And because God is faithful to His Word we can have full confidence that He will continue to transform our hearts to look more and more like His – for our good and His glory!