Jesus the Church Planter
In 2015, a seasoned missionary posed an interesting question to a church planting team poised to set foot in their mission station. “What do you want your church to look like in a decade?” he asked. “Then, what does the DNA of that church need to be now? Who all with that DNA would you want to enlist and incorporate into your team?” That question stayed with me for several years for its strategic value, but it didn’t work in our context. Over the past three years of being in a growing church plant, I have been personally humbled, watching, and discovering the way Jesus plants and nurtures his church. Like John the Baptist, I have had the honor of serving alongside my Bridegroom, taking joy in seeing his glory in church planting.
Scattering
Early on in our ministry in South Asia, we discipled several young men in the faith. Our little flock, albeit informal, was a piece of heaven on earth. We spent all our weekends together, sharing for hours about the Lord’s work in our lives and debating Calvinism and Reformed theology around our dinner table, sometimes well into the morning hours. We laughed and cried together through persecution, conversions, and betrayals. Some of them went on to receive formal seminary training and we were glad to see them take on leadership roles in Reformed churches in our city. We longed for these men to join us in our endeavor. We had taught them, nurtured them, and they took on our character in much of ministry. But the Lord thought it wise to take all except one beloved Timothy to other places. In a presbyterian church culture, like-mindedness is crucial to developing the next level of leaders. Why, then, in God’s wisdom, were these kindred brethren taken away? God has taught me that church planting involves a bit of scattering first, that these men who had grown under our tutelage were now taken elsewhere so that Jesus’s prophetic ministry would be heard far and wide. “The kingdom of heaven is near!” was the voice that called out from the wilderness, yet John’s voice was carried to all the Judean countryside even as far as Jerusalem (Matthew 3:5). My country has two billion souls, most of whom “don’t know their right hand from their left.” (Jonah 4:11) Jesus rejoices in scattering his words abroad to people who have no clue that there is a King who saves. To that end, church planters must be ready to send men and women out to plant the seed of God’s Word wherever he is calling them.
Leveling
Before we began church planting, several elders from our mother church in the U.S. visited our home country to make contact with those we felt had “our DNA.” These men were disciple-makers, Reformed in their leanings, learning, growing, and leading their families in faith and grace. Yet when we returned, most of these men were content being solo leaders in their individual contexts and did not catch the presbyterian vision of becoming co-leaders and co-shepherds in Christ’s vineyard. The idea of a ruling elder was quite foreign in my country. We were grateful for two core families, both sent from the US, a handful of young men who wanted to build with us, and a few family members. Then something peculiar ensued. A few strangers found their way into our congregation, reluctantly. They were hurting, depressed, and needed counsel. As we counseled them, they healed. As they healed, they blossomed. As they blossomed, they flourished and couldn’t hide their joy. They began serving the church faithfully. They spread the fragrance of their love for Christ and the church to many of their friends, so much so that several unbelievers trickled into our church. Some of them even professed faith in Christ! One of these reluctant men is now shaping up to become a leader in our church. A few others were very shy when they entered in, but “Andrew-like,” they brought several others into our little church. We’ve had widows and orphans come in and change the shape of ministry, generously offering their mites and ministering through profound disabilities. But during this season, we also spent much energy and effort training an intelligent, gifted, and promising man for leadership, who later decided to part ways with us. What did all this teach me? “A voice is crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, straighten his path, every valley shall we lifted up, every mountain made low…and the rough places will be leveled” (Luke 3:4-6, paraphrased). John was introducing God’s people to what I call the Leveling Ministry of Jesus: leveling his kingdom, rejecting the proud, and raising up the lowly, introverted, shy, weak, and broken-hearted so that Jesus alone will shine as King and Head of the Church. It is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he chooses the DNA of his church by shaping and transforming losers and rejects, placing them as rubies and pearls on the church’s high steeple.
Transforming
More often than not, church plants that mushroom quickly have a charismatic pastor, an attractive music band, a plethora of ministries, a children’s church, and a ton of overseas capital backing the venture. This is the mission model that has worked, yet this is not the mission model that has stood the test of time and trials. A few years ago, I spoke with a pioneer missionary in Japan who told us we wouldn’t succeed with the youth if we sing only the Psalms, especially without musical instruments. Another pastor mocked us on the same matter and said we wouldn’t succeed. We were determined not to be supported by overseas funding lest the gospel of Christ be ridiculed or our own lifestyle become a stumbling block for earnest seekers. We eschewed entertainment with flashy lights and sounds, instead placing a premium on Word-centered worship, a loving community, and sanctified lives. We depended on Jesus’ methods and mission to show forth fruit. Our pastor believed that as he took care of the depth of ministry, Jesus would take care of the breadth. He preached the word expositorily, Sabbath after Sabbath. We prayed, reached out, loved, counseled, discipled, exhorted, and disciplined with all earnestness. It is true that several who visited us never returned because they were looking for flashy entertainment, but slowly the fruit came. One after another, those who had never known Jesus came to saving faith in him. They were enfolded into the fabric of our church through faithful attendance at worship, singing psalms, understanding the Scriptures, praying, and being discipled. Every one of them loves the psalter. They stand boldly against the face of persecution and poverty, trusting in Jesus to relieve them of their suffering. Jesus takes great glory in transforming people by the power of his Word, not by our gimmicks. As someone once said, Jesus’s ministry done in Jesus’ way will never lack Jesus’s resources, and dare I say, never lack Jesus’s fruit. When John the Baptist’s disciples grew jealous of a growing church plant, the one across Jordan, John knew that Jesus was becoming greater and chose the greater place—not in competition with Jesus, but working beside him. He stopped baptizing and encouraged people to follow Jesus. Transformative ministry glorifies Jesus when, like John the Baptist, ministers and church planters become lesser so that Jesus becomes greater. “He must increase” as John reminds us, too, so that we will cease to be showmen and become servants doing our Master’s bidding.
The author is a church-planting pastor's wife, an entrepreneur, a mother to a ten-year-old, and a mentor to several women. She occasionally writes and speaks at large on a variety of subjects. Her idea of therapy is sipping a cup of tea while enjoying a scenic view on her couch, and taking to watercolor art.