Don't plant a church

I recently went out to lunch with a great guy who wants to plant a church in Santa Cruz. I believe he’s gonna’ do a great job. That said, what was ironic about our conversation was my response to his question, “what should I do?” I responded, “Move here, but don’t move here to start a church.” 

A few months back I got an email from Shawn, who was about to finish his M.Div. He felt God calling him & his family to plant a church in Santa Cruz; (BTW: I am a huge fan of more Cplants in Santa Cruz). He wanted to meet & hear our story to get an idea of what to expect. He’s a great guy (great family too.)

There are several things that make each location within the U.S. unique. St. Paul Minnesota isn’t Buffalo New York; Dallas Texas isn’t Santa Cruz California, etc. Out of the several distinctive things that make up the Bay I will share a couple in regards to our challenge. 

First: The Bay is a post-post-Christian-neo-pagan culture. They don’t want church, they don’t need church & they aren’t indifferent to our hopes. Most of them know enough about Christianity to reject it & scratch their spiritual itch with some form of Buddhism. To them we are the imperialistic remnants of the George W. Bush Religious Right. We are the closed minded, gay hating, anti-fun fungus that drags down the freewheeling liberalism which is destined to set mankind free. 

Next: The Bay is very expensive. Granted our Father “owns cattle on a thousand hills,” yet each time I try my landlord says he doesn’t accept cows; he wants cash. When we moved to Santa Cruz it was ranked the 7^th most expensive city to live in the United States & I’m sure almost every other city in the Bay is the same. As you look around you see that almost every parent of a young child is in their 40’s. Why? Because most people in the Bay are consumed with a career to pay the bills & starting a family has to wait; for us who want to start a church, just trying to pay the bills takes a large portion of the prayer life. 

Too, as Shawn discovered there are two types of jobs for church planters; the wrong jobs that pay the bills & the right jobs that don’t. The wrong job (for a church planter)  is a construction job where you get paid $35hr, but all you work with is middle-age men who don’t live in your city (my first job in SC) The right job (again for a planter) is right down the street at the local coffee shop where thousands of locals stop by each day & “everybody knows your name;” however, your mom just called because she saw you & your family on the latest episode of “repo man” because you can’t pay your bills. Cattle anyone? 

Last: You’re the pastor of a small, slowly growing, filled with wonderful & challenging people (as they all are), church. On top of that you have expectations of where the church should be, so do your friends, & so does your denomination. You live in constant tension with what should be & what is. A friend shared a story of a very promising church planter in the Bay receiving $200,000 to start a church. 4yrs later he had gathered 50 people. The other pastors in the city agreed it was typical growth; his denomination wasn’t as impressed. This ain’t Ohio. 

These are three of the things making church planting, in the Bay, a grueling exercise in faith based obedience.

Last week Shawn & I met up for lunch. He looked tired. He was worn-out because he’d been looking for jobs, coffee shops, etc, & the reality of what he was trying to do was sinking in. He still hadn’t found a place to live because the place he got accepted for reneged on their agreement: no job, no house, only a call to start a church in Santa Cruz.  He asked for my opinion. 

I told him “move here, but don’t move here to start a church.” You see, we moved here to start a church. We had a particular vision for what God was going to do (or was it what God was going to do for us?) & that plan never materialized, which made many of us struggle because it failed. However, the only thing to fail was our idea of what God was calling us to & not what actually materialized, which is really a great thing; yet the process is a hard road to travel & an easy road to wander off of.  

We’ve realized starting a church in the Bay might take a lifetime. Too, what you think of church might not be what God is calling you to: Sermons, seats, video clips, young people, Caucasians, middle-class, heterosexual, etc. It’s a bit more complicated in the Bay & one thing God has shown me is: Slow down long enough to live life because that’s what everyone in the Bay (everywhere actually) is having the greatest difficulty doing: Living life, which is exactly what Jesus came to give…life.  

So I told Shawn “move down here, get a good paying job, allow your wife & family a transition time, learn the rhythms of Santa Cruz culture, make some friends, & then after about 2yrs get your support team & start a church.” I don’t think we’re doing church planters, in the Bay at least, any justice when we front load them to death with unrealistic expectations on top of an unrealistic financial situation. 

What used to take a shingle with the name Vineyard, a few Sundays, & a few good songs is a thing of the past. We’re drinking new wine & need new wineskins, which take time to mature.

Dear Sean: Don’t plant a church, go live a life.