School for Church Planting

Scott and I recently returned from the Anglican Initiative for Mission (AIM)'s School for Church Planting. It was a very busy week with lots learned and lots affirmed. I really can't think of any initial time where Scott and I 'decided' that we were going to be church planters, but we're definitely on the path to that and really want to do it. We want to plant churches.

Someone spoke at the conference about how we're in a estuary. There is a time period that is leaving and a time period that is emerging , and these two time periods are mixing together (like fresh water mixing with salt water which makes the estuary). We're in this estuary time: we're in the midst of this crazy digital age that information travels faster each day, while at the same time there are people alive who remember the first cars or the first TVs. As a little girl, my grandma got her water from a creek! In this estuary-- in the midst of this merging of time-- people are longing for an "authentic encounter with a living God."1. In our fast paced time and space, it is so easy to "try on" religion or politics or anything to try and fill the longing that is inside humanity, but it is only through a living faith in a living God that the latent longing in each person can be filled.

So here we are. Believers stand at the door. Here is an excerpt from the great poem by Sam Shoemaker (founder of AA) that talks all about standing at the door:

As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to Go to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.

Where? Outside the door--
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But-- more important for me--
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.

For those I shall stay by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
I had rather be a door-keeper...
So I stay near the door.

Shoemaker wrote this poem using the imagery of Revelation 3.20: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

In this time of searching, in this time of seeking, in this time that hosts the greatest spiritual smorgasbord which allows for the picking and choosing of faith options, Christians must stand at the door. We must show people that a Savior is knocking on that door. They need only place their hand on the latch. At the door we must live into the fullness of the Christian faith bidding others to join us, not by words or deed, but by being transparent to allow the light of Christ to shine through us. We don't need to paint the door or make the door more attractive so that people will enter in, but instead, we need to stay near the door, so we can guide them as friends and fellow sojourners through the door to the ever living Presence of the ever present God.

If you want to see the whole poem, go to: http://www.aabibliography.com/dickbhtml/article10.html
1. Todd Hunter, speaker at AIM School for Church Planting