I heard about a roller coaster that opened this spring in the UK (that’s the country, not the NCAA Champs) called “The Swarm.” Boasting of speeds up to 62 mph, it is designed to take up to 28 screaming riders – with hands and legs dangling – on a “flight through apocalyptic devastation on Europe’s tallest winged roller coaster.” Throw in the 127-foot inverted drop and near-misses with walls and stuff and you’ve got the makings of a pretty good thrill ride.
Only one problem. 2 weeks before it was set to open, crash dummies came back with limbs missing. Ooops.
2 lessons can be learned from this that apply to The Gathering (or your church plant):
One: no matter how excited you might be about the great things you’re doing, a little patience can go a long way. Look, nobody likes to wait when it feels like you’re on the verge of something great, and none of us would be on the church planting ride if we didn’t sense that there was something great in store for our churches. But the worst thing we can do is move so quickly that we harm the body. None of us want the people who have jumped on this ride with us to come back without crucial parts of who they are because we were impatient and wanted what we want NOW. Back off, pray, and let time work for you, not against you.
Two: planning is a must. Inherent in planning are to things that we don’t get a thrill from: time and testing. We’ve already talked about the time, but let’s brush against it one more time with an eye to the Boston Marathon that just took place this past Monday. Having run 2 of those beasts (marathons, not the one in Boston – yet) I can tell you with absolute certainty that you cannot wake up on a Friday morning and decide to go run 26.2 miles the next day without having spent the necessary time working through a training plan. Most of them last 18-20 weeks. You can see how time and planning go hand in hand. The church you’re planting is worth the time it takes.
But what about testing? What if the engineers had decided to just “give it a go” and opened the ride without sending out anybody (dummy or real) on a test run? A lot of blood, a lot of legal headaches, a lot of pain. In short, one big mess. So work your plan, and then test the work to make sure it’s the best ride it can be. The people that get on board will be glad you did, and you’ll find that they enjoy the ride a lot more, too. In fact, they’ll probably bring friends back to ride with them.
What does it all mean for us at The Gathering? It means that there is a timing in this whole process that is 100% perfectly in line with God’s. It means that no matter how full our space gets, the last thing we should do is rush to find a solution without patience and planning. And best of all, it means that when we’ve done just that, the end result will be a ride worth taking again, and again, and again.
I LOVE MY CHURCH!!!
