Church planting & small beginnings

“Zerubbabel is the one who laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. Then you will know that the lord of Heaven’s Armies has sent me. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” – Zechariah 4:9-10 NLT

This passage is precisely where we find ourselves, two families bound by over a decade of friendship, including hardships, and celebrations, called together to build the foundation of a new work. Right now, these small beginnings seem quite trivial, amongst the realities of providing for our families’ needs, activities, and our own spiritual needs; and yet we know the Lord rejoices in the fact that something has began. From the beginning of this calling which began in 2004, there have been times of second guessing, animosity stirred up, miscommunication, and outright warfare, in some ways similar to what Zerubbabel expierienced up until Zechariah let him know otherwise.

Currently, the four of us are focused simply on synchronizing each of our own thoughts, what God has put in each of us, how each of us will participate and deposit into this work, what our strengths are, and where each of us need help. We are also articulating our core values, from which our “yeses” and “nos” will flow, if something doesn’t fit then we have boundaries to say no, better yet we have words to express our why. You may have seen a few of these already pop up over the last week, so far we have drafted (subject to refinement) Releasing, Equipping, Affecting, Connecting, and Honoring. This is helping construct the DNA in what we envision to be a movement of church planting across Poland, each with it’s own values, able to reproduce, and REACH Polska for generations.

Our goal over the next year is to refine the values, begin some simple relational bible studies in English (until our Polish team members can be in Kraków more often, with a long term hope of possibly moving here), utilize our NGO and volunteer service work to invite people to our bible studies. By next fall we hope to have some locally generated income through our CSR (corporate social responsibility) consulting services which will provide for our Polish team members to work locally, help invite people, and open up discipleship opportunities to Polish speakers. Our desire is to make new disciples, it’s important that our church(es) be focused on making new disciples and not full of “transfers” from other churches, so please pray for this, and for people who can join our team and help us in helping lead people to Jesus.

The other big ticket item is for Alexis and I to seek out property (existing buildings or possibly build new) which is zoned for multi-purpose where our CSR service, church, and other activities can take place and where we and up to three or four families could live in community as well, there’s so many options on this front, we’ll see what God has for us when the time arrives.

So that’s where we are, small beginnings, big dreams, ideas; and ready to serve, change, and redirect; most of all, ready to extend the Church with the kingdom values of love, forgiveness, and acceptance.