So I’m less than 2 weeks out from driving a 24′ foot moving truck over numerous mountain passes between here and Vancouver and I’m starting to think beyond the, “holy cow … we’re moving soon!” Of course once we get there we’ll have a few days to finalize housing before we move in, get all of the utilities hooked up, unpack, register the kids for school, get the lay of the land, and so on. My thoughts are now turning to, “Ok, once I’ve settled in, now what?” What am I to do my first 30 days in Vancouver? My feelings are the first 30 days will set the pace and precedence for whatever comes next. Since I’ve planted once before already my goal is to also avoid the mistakes and pitfalls I tripped into last time. So here’s my arm-chair missiological approach to my first 30 days:
#1 – Be a Sponge – The first thing I’m going to do is to assume that I don’t know squat other than God has called us to join Him in Vancouver. Sure, I’ve been part of the church planting world for a while now both as a planter and as a strategist both for a metro area as well as a region/state but I think that could do me more harm than good. The tendency would be to think I know what I’m doing and start running full speed ahead. This time I want to come in with a posture of a learner. The reality is that God has been at work in Vancouver for a long long time and He’ll continue to work in the city long after I’m gone. What I want to do is spend time simply immersing myself in the city, in the culture, among those who’re far from God, connect with lots of pastors and planters to learn from them, and begin to listen for and discern God’s voice in the foray. Exegesis in a passage of Scripture comes when we look at the whole and the begin breaking it down. I need to get a good picture of the whole first in Vancouver.
#2 Exegete My Focus Area – Once I’ve got a baseline understanding of the area, God’s past and present activity, and the beginnings of some great relationships formed I’d like to think I’m ready to begin exegeting and investing in the focus area of where we’ll be planting our first Ion Community. I realize that #1 and #2 do overlap and in reality they’ll both happen simultaneously as I’ll never get beyond learning about and studying the city. That is a lifelong endeavor that’s exhilarating. I never grow tired of learning about the city where God has placed me. My goal is to make sure I spend the majority of the week with those who’re unchurched and not following Jesus.
Apart from those 2 things I know I’ll walk the streets and neighborhoods praying like crazy begging God to work in people’s lives to create, form, and grow His church. If I can begin to implement these practices within the first 30 days I know it will set a good foundation to begin the process of planting a church. I know it is both an art and a science. I’ll let you know how it goes after the first 30 days.
