The Call to Church Planting - Part 2

By Nelson Searcy

Part 2: The Four Calls of a Church Planter

Miss part one? get caught up here

My Call To Start A Church

We’ve explored the sources; now it’s time for you to nail it down.  When exactly were you called?  What were the circumstances around your call?  And how did it match up with the sources of proper calling?

It’s a good idea to sketch out an outline of your call.  Write it in ink, because once you start moving forward, you’ll want to come back to your confirmed calling over and over again.

My Spouse’s Call

“This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one.” -- Mark 10:7-8 (NLT)  

If you are married, God will NOT call you without confirming this call in your spouse.  There are few greater stresses on a marriage than a call to start a new church.  It’s important to go slow in this area and to carefully communicate to your spouse what God may be doing with you and your family. 

There are several things you should understand about your spouse’s call. 

First, the timing of your call may not match exactly with the timing of your spouse’s call.  Your call may come before your spouse’s.  You must be patient and allow God to speak to your spouse in his own timing.  Often a spouse’s call may come days, weeks, or even months after the call of the church starter.  Your role during this period is to be patient, be gentle, and avoid pushiness.  Just as God called you together in marriage, he’ll call you together to start a church.  If you move forward in your calling without your spouse, you are not only acting outside of God’s will for your marriage, but you are putting your future church in jeopardy.

Your call may also come after your spouse’s calling.  I have observed that God will use your spouse to gently (or not so gently) push you to move forward with what God is calling you as a couple to do. 

Second, the intensity level of the call may not match your spouse’s.  Sometimes, both spouses receive a very intense calling to start a church together.  Sometimes, the spouse may receive more of a calling to a supportive role than the actual call itself. Don't assume that your spouse is not being supportive simply because their level of passion is not equal to yours.  The goal is to confirm mutual calling, not mutual intensity.

Third, never move forward without your spouse being fully heard, involved, and committed.  Allow your spouse to share her thoughts with you – for once in your life, be a good listener.  Do not make any decisions without listening to your spouse and involving her in the decision making process.  Before you ‘pull the trigger’ on your calling, check, re-check, and ask your wife’s friend to check, that she is fully committed.

Your call to marriage ALWAYS takes precedence over your call to start a church.

My Call To A Place

The third call is the call to a place – a city, town, community, or area where God wants you to start a church.  Often this call to a place is part of the original calling.  At times, it comes later.  There is generally a correlation between who you are and the place to where God calls you to plant.  While a few exceptional people are called to cross-cultural ministries, most of us are called to places that match our personality or life experiences.  Ron Sylvia, a church planting coach in Florida, has said, “God prepares you for a place, and God prepares a place for you.”

If you already know the place where you are called to start a new church, think about how God has prepared you for that place.  What life experiences have you had that will help you in starting a new church in that specific location?  Can you see how God has been working on you already?

If you do not already know the place, here are some guidelines that might help clarify the place to which God is calling you to start a new church.

1 – Has God called you to leave the place where you currently live?  Your call may be to right where you are.

2 – Has God placed a passion in your heart for a particular area of the country or the world?  Don’t confuse passion with personal preference, but do seriously examine areas about which you have always felt passion. (My wife and I had to fight the urge to start The Journey in Maui instead of Manhattan).

3 – Is there an area where you told God, “This is the last place in the world I would ever want to live”?  That might be the place where he is calling you to start a church.  Remember Jonah.

If this is an area where you are stuck, take time to do some research, talk with other church leaders, pray with your spouse, and study some examples from scripture.

“It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.”   -- Hebrews 11:8 (NLT)

My Call To A People

Even though you may have a call to a specific place, there may be many different types of peoples in that location – young, old, rich, poor, etc.  See Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church for more on how to define your target.  However, it’s important for you to begin thinking now about the people to whom God has called you to reach.

One people call that is universal among church planters is to those without a relationship with Jesus.  Whichever people group God has called you to reach, it will be to those who don’t know God.

When Kelley and I knew God was calling us to Manhattan, there were numerous people groups from which to choose.  New York is an international city.  There is no lacking of various ethnic or religious groups.  New York is also economically diverse.  It is a city in which the richest of the rich live right next to the poorest of the poor.  As we prayed about the people to whom God was calling us to reach, we realized that there was no shortage of churches whose ministries were targeted to touch the lives of the poor and disadvantaged.  But there were so few churches that were equipped or had a passion for the young professionals of the city.  Young professionals are the most unreached people group in Manhattan.

It’s important to note that not only did God place a passion in our hearts for the young professionals of Manhattan, but they were also the people group most like us.  God gave us a passion to reach the people in New York City who we were most like and therefore who we were most equipped to reach with our gifts and experience.

Being called to reach out to the young professionals of New York City does not mean that The Journey ignores the various needs of our city.  But our heart breaks when we think about young professionals going through life in this dog-eat-dog city without God.

When you think of a people group that you might be called to reach, does your heart break for those people?

“When I saw this, I fell face downwards on the ground. Then I heard a voice saying, “Mortal man, stand up. I want to talk to you.” While the voice was speaking, God’s spirit entered me and raised me to my feet, and I heard the voice continue, “Mortal man, I am sending you to the people of Israel. They have rebelled and turned against me and are still rebels, just as their ancestors were.”
* Ezekiel 2:1-2:3 (GNB)