What is SendRDU?
SendRDU exists to mobilize and equip people to plant gospel-centered churches in North Carolina, North America and cities around the world.
The Danger of Pursuing Your Calling in Isolation
Church planters tend to be lone rangers. In some respects, they have to be. There is a sense of isolation and responsibility that comes with church planting that is unavoidable. Being (1) rooted in the gospel, believing in it’s power to save (Rom 1:16), and God’s responsibility for saving people, not yours; and (2) having a strong team including future elders that can share the responsibility and hold you accountable are vital. But at the end of the day you will still feel like the buck stops with you, and to some degree that’s true.
That weight and responsibility tends to draw guys that are comfortable operating with a degree of isolation. Sometimes this is the sign of an experienced leader who is comfortable in his own skin and has enough wisdom to know when he is hearing from God and when he just ate bad pizza the night before. Other times it is foolishness ambition that is more rooted in proving one’s own worthiness than a genuine calling. Often it’s a mix of the two.
Proverbs 18:1 offers some great advice for those exploring a call to plant, and really for any leader:
“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.”
That’s not just a verse about isolating yourself so you can pursue BAD things without others knowing about it. It’s also about isolating yourself to pursue GOOD things without godly input. Don’t pursue your calling outside of community. Make sure you have people in your life that have access to your deepest desires. And give them permission to speak into those desires, even if it’s not what you want to hear. If you find yourself making major decisions in isolation, that should serve as an indicator that things are out of balance. Remember, the greatest assessment tool we have for church planting is the local church.
Free Download of Bloodlines
In honor of MLK Day, Desiring God is offering a free copy of John Piper’s recent book Bloodlines. Bloodlines tells Piper’s own story of his journey from racism to redemption. Here’s an exercept from Tim Keller’s forward to the book: One of the reasons I think this book is so important is that conservative evangelicals…
Don’t Let Your Vision Ruin Your Church Plant
One of the best books out there on community is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. It often gets looked over for more recent books, but Bonnhoefer’s work is rich with insight on the implications of the gospel for Christian community. I thought this sections was particularly insightful for church planters: Innumerable times a whole Christian community…
Endure: Going the Distance in Ministry
Our good friends over at Plant NC are hosting a regional event in Greenville, NC, on January 26. The conference is being hosted at Integrity, one of our church plants. The topic is going the distance in ministry. I’d encourage you to check it out: The average tenure of a pastor in Protestant churches has…