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| frozen charles river |
If you're new around here, the backstory is: the Lord called my husband to plant a church in Boston about three years ago. We postponed once for him to pursue a once in a lifetime opportunity to get his Master's in Missional Leadership, see here, and we postponed once again this past fall due to the Lord really putting some big hold on our plans and my struggle with the d-word. Around Christmas 2010, I'd say our hearts were pretty fragile about Boston. I could expound there, but I don't even know where to start. We both were feeling a million different things, and in general - just fragile.
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| streets of charlestown, our future neighborhood in boston |
Our trip mid-February changed all that. You can read about that here. We asked that the Lord would put our hearts on the same page and give us some clarity. He answered that prayer 1,000 percent. For the first time ever, the idea of planting a church in Boston did not seem big, scary, impossible, or even doubtful. And the Lord has slowly changed our hearts so that while we're still passionate about the church, it seems like our actual calling is to just move to the city and love people the way we should no matter where we are. We don't feel like we need to go with a majillion dollars or a team of thirty people. We need enough money to support our family and be generous to the community, and we'd love another family to do life with and grow into a church with.
For once, there are kind of many little open doors. Church planting networks, possible funding, possible jobs, etc., but we're really just waiting to hear from the Lord with some clarity about when He'd have us go and HOW he'd have us go. We can jump back into fundraising and go that way if the Lord calls, or we can start working on Nick securing a job/transferring his current job there if that's what the Lord wants. We're just waiting to know one way or the other. And it may be, that He wants us in Columbia for longer. If so, we're great with that too. The calling is secure and firm, the timing is just not so clear to us yet.
But to answer the specific question: We know a lot of churches have planting budgets of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And don't get us wrong, if someone is passing out the G's to further the gospel, we'll put it to use. However, our current plan is to grow the church budget as it needs it, as our body grows. We won't need five people on staff immediately, we may not even need one full time person on staff immediately. We won't be having a big launch with thousands of dollars with of advertising or renting space for quite a while. Because of the nature of the city and the people, it will look much more like our family and a few other families, settling in, loving our neighbors, and moving outward from there. And as far as denominations (this was in the question as well), we'll be non-denominational but we will for sure be under some sort of authority and accountability, most likely in the form of a church planting network.
So, some things you can pray with us for:
- clarity about what else the Lord would have us do/work on during this season
- confirmation and provision about when is best to head to Boston
- at least one other family to follow Jesus' call in Mark 6:7-13
& help spread the gospel with us
- when the time comes, fruitful fundraising
- continued peace, contentment, joy, and gospel-based community while we wait
So. That's what I got.
I can't wait. I think we're all called to the great commission, to spreading the fame of Jesus where we can. I feel really, really, really thankful He's called and equipped my husband for pastoring in Boston, specifically. I love that place & those peeps.
Until then, loving practicing in Columbia.
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