Boulder Church Plant-January Update
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
When does a church plant “launch”?
Is it when the first home group Bible study is underway? Is it when the first decision to follow Christ is made? How about when the doors of the church building are open for the first service to the public? Or maybe it's when the church plant team moves to the city where the church will be planted?
Lately, our Boulder church plant team has found ourselves saying, "Well, when will we plant the church?" or "We can't wait to launch this church plant!”. During one of our team gatherings, Josh Luse reminded us that the Emmaus Road Church Plant is currently underway and has been for several months. How? Why? Because the birth of a church is not a building or launch date, it's people…the family of God. Now I understand that establishing a local church in a particular community normally consists of people doing life together, meeting certain places on a regular basis for Bible teaching and corporate worship, and aiming to make a difference in the culture they are planted. But as we think about launching a church plant, we need to ask a question. Isn’t church life fundamentally experienced with like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ with a common mission to love God and love their neighbor as themselves? During his lifetime, the Apostle Paul personally initiated and assisted in innumerable churches. Many times these churches had already begun with Christ followers meeting in homes, growing together as new believers and caring for the needs of others. The early church spread like wildfire…with like-minded people and a common mission to love God and love their neighbor as themselves.
One definition I like for the word "launch" means to "set afloat", like a boat being released from it's dock. Talk about an accurate description of the hearts on our church plant team! Even though physically, the whole team has not launched to the Boulder area(though a few are already living there) we are quite certain our hearts have launched. We have been released by the call of God from our docks and together we have been set afloat to follow God's leading. "Has the church plant launched?" we ask. You better believe it!!
Thanks so much for remembering the launch of Emmaus Road Church in your prayers. Recently, we set up a blog site where friends can stay current on the continued plans, prayer requests, give online, share some thoughts, and more.
Have a great rest of the month!
Kris Cheek /Lead Pastor
Is it when the first home group Bible study is underway? Is it when the first decision to follow Christ is made? How about when the doors of the church building are open for the first service to the public? Or maybe it's when the church plant team moves to the city where the church will be planted?
Lately, our Boulder church plant team has found ourselves saying, "Well, when will we plant the church?" or "We can't wait to launch this church plant!”. During one of our team gatherings, Josh Luse reminded us that the Emmaus Road Church Plant is currently underway and has been for several months. How? Why? Because the birth of a church is not a building or launch date, it's people…the family of God. Now I understand that establishing a local church in a particular community normally consists of people doing life together, meeting certain places on a regular basis for Bible teaching and corporate worship, and aiming to make a difference in the culture they are planted. But as we think about launching a church plant, we need to ask a question. Isn’t church life fundamentally experienced with like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ with a common mission to love God and love their neighbor as themselves? During his lifetime, the Apostle Paul personally initiated and assisted in innumerable churches. Many times these churches had already begun with Christ followers meeting in homes, growing together as new believers and caring for the needs of others. The early church spread like wildfire…with like-minded people and a common mission to love God and love their neighbor as themselves.
One definition I like for the word "launch" means to "set afloat", like a boat being released from it's dock. Talk about an accurate description of the hearts on our church plant team! Even though physically, the whole team has not launched to the Boulder area(though a few are already living there) we are quite certain our hearts have launched. We have been released by the call of God from our docks and together we have been set afloat to follow God's leading. "Has the church plant launched?" we ask. You better believe it!!
Thanks so much for remembering the launch of Emmaus Road Church in your prayers. Recently, we set up a blog site where friends can stay current on the continued plans, prayer requests, give online, share some thoughts, and more.
Have a great rest of the month!
Kris Cheek /Lead Pastor
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