Church Planting

I had the privilege yesterday of sitting down with some of the pastor's in our community yesterday for the first Pastor's Fellowship. It was a great time that I pray will continue to grow and thrive, bringing the churches of our community together for Kingdom work. Bill Gravell, pastor of Sonterra Fellowship in Jarrell, is a church planter. He made a comment about church planting that prompted this thought: aren't we all church planters? The church I pastor has been in existence for 153 years this year. Sonterra has been in existence 3 years. Nevertheless, our goal is the same. We are to continue planting the seed of the gospel of Christ in the community where we are. The church is a living, breathing organism, not just an organization. We must change the way we view the church. We are the body of Christ, His hands and feet in this world for this time. We are to grow and thrive. We are to be fruitful. I think sometimes we forget that we are constantly in the process of planting a church. Just because a church has been in a community for a while does not mean that it is established in that community or that there are people in that community that don't need Christ. The foundation of a church is not set on anything other than Jesus (Matthew 16:18). If we do not take on the mindset of a "church planter" our churches will die on the vine. Sadly, many already are. We must be about people and not programs. We must be about the Holy Spirit and not our holy (or unholy as the case may be) huddles. We must be about the gospel and not gossip. We must be about changed lives and not just changed minds. When we begin to view our churches as church plants and see ourselves as church planters, with something to offer the community, that is crashing into life. Crash on!!