three month update...

Are we having fun yet?

That's the question I've been asking myself for the past three months.  See, I've up and planted another church.  Here's my FIRST one.  They're rockin', have a great dude at the helm, have just moved into a new location, gone to two services and are set to grow like gangbusters this year if you ask me.

Planting again was near impossible. Took us almost four years to get up the guts.  I think, at the root, it's because planting a church means giving your life away. If you're anything like me (a freedom-loving, imaginatively-inclined guy) you dream of sailing away, seeing the World, embracing the far-horizon.

Planting and pastoring a church means staying put in one place for a very long time.  I think that, more than anything else, was 'the goads' we were kicking against.

And let me say, the first two months out of the gate at THE WELL my wife and I were freaking out. "What have we done?" was how we were feeling and what we were saying to each other. Had I just 'done' this in my own strength or was I really hearing God?  What would happen to my media career? Would everything stop cold? Would things continue?  What if things got busier?  Would I be able to keep up?  Would God bring us people to help us?

Would we come to love THE WELL?

It's hard to imagine loving another church like you did your first one. We still almost 'hurt' inside when we think of many of the people from our first church.  When we look back on their journey, on what God did in their lives through the work of that first church we still stand amazed.  We remember a room packed with 275 young adults, their hands and voices raised to Heaven, singing their hearts out in worship in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Great days.

How could it ever be that good again?

You really worry that it won't.  You worry that you've missed your chance, that you've blown it.

Then, all of sudden, in 'month three' your wee little suburban church plant starts showing signs of life.  New people start coming. People start crying during the sermons.  The worship starts getting some electricity (by the Spirit) to it. Your offerings start growing.  You feel momentum shifting. 

And you and your wife stop freaking out.  You stop feeling trapped.  You start feeling excited, start looking forward to next Sunday.

God starts working.

"What, even here?  Even now?  After all this?  Could it be?"

Well, yes it could.

Check out the 'official' three month update here.

And pray for us when you think of it.

(and thanks for that, by the way...)

T

ps: and the picture off the top is to remind me what 'evangelistic fervor' looks like. That was a sign my kids spontaneously made Halloween night after doing their rounds.  They wanted to share their bounty with their city--kind of like what we want to do at THE WELL.