church plant rant

It's been a while since we posted anything. I for one have been very busy. Chris has probably just been lazy. This past week our church plant, "The Church Downtown" got started with weekly Sunday morning meetings. While we had 9 folks missing, we still had 16, and while that may not be exciting to some of you, I'm pretty excited. It felt like something was finally happening. I told some of my friends last week that sometimes I feel like a kid who desparately wants to fly a kite, and goes out into a field and starts running, and the kite will fly a little bit as long as I can keep running. Problem is, I'm getting really tired. I need some wind. If you have ever flown a kite, you know that feeling when you have run enough to get it into the wind that is about 30 or 40 feet off the ground, and you start to feel it tug back at you, and you stop running and realize that you are no longer providing the lift? Sunday felt like that.

Last night I received news that friends of ours, members of our launch team, are expecting their first baby! Exciting stuff. They are a great couple, and will be great parents. I have been thinking about babies lately. I have four children. So I have lived with a pregnant woman 3 out of the past 11 years. For those of you have not spent much time around pregnant women, there is a phenomena that is called "nesting", it happens when a baby is about to be born. That little swollen lady that has been sick, sleepy, swollen, and slow moving for 8 months or so, will one day wake up, and become a cleaning machine. She will not stop till all things that will be in contact with the baby are perfect. Paint, decorate, stocked and sterilized, everything will be ready before she goes to sleep. Or at least before the HUSBAND goes to sleep. Nothing is too good for the coming baby. We have just rented out space for our church plant, and had our first "open house Sunday" last week. There are three rooms, one for our meetings, an office, and a nursery. We just spent 3 weeks buying stuff, putting it together, learning how to use it, painting, cleaning, hanging up signs, blah, blah, blah. But a ton of effort was spent on the nursery. It's a great room, giant teddy bear, toys, etc. and all the adults want to go in there to play.Do we have any babies? Just my 18 month old son. But we need to be ready. We know there will be there, some day. While we were getting ready for our open house last Sunday, my wife and I were working like crazy; I was painting and she was scrubbing every square inch of floor that is ours. That is about 2000 sq. ft. My wife said that she felt like she was nesting. I agreed. We were getting ready for some new "spiritual babies" to come, and I wanted everything perfect. The difference is that I have no idea when the due date is on our "babies". We have no way of "inducing" either. But they will be there, we have to get ready.

When I was a kid, my next door neighbor was big into comic books. I lacked the necessary discretionary income to be involved in the hobby to the depth of my collegue. So, the obvious solution to the dilema was to spend a lot of time at his house, and we would open up the vault, or file cabinet as some call it, of comic books and sit and read while eating Little Debbie cakes, drinking RC's and listening to the Monkees and the Beatles. Occasionally, we would break out the PONG game, but my mind would always wonder back to the comic books. One of my favorites featured a group called The Fantastic Four, which featured four superheros that worked together, you know, like the Superfriends, but different. Well, my favorite character was a guy called Mr. Plastic. He could stretch his arms and legs, head, whatever, to reach across the room or across the town. It was great. Want a cup of coffee? Just reach across the hall and get it. Not quite as flashy as Superman, but still a pretty pretty good trick. I think the reason I like this guy is that I identify. I am highly flexible. Which is a pretty necessary characteristic of a church planter. This month has me stretching and stretching more and more. Too much. Actually, it isn't the circumstances of the month, it's my lack of discipline. I haven't been eating right or exercising. I have hardly picked up my Bible all month. I know. I know, don't say it . . . My prayer life is small, stretched thin right now. I'm tired. My creative juices are not flowing. Mr. Plastic is stretched too thin. Church planting has some great benefits, but there is little help around, and precious few to help out with basic jobs around the church. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing, to be honest. This week I need to retreat. I am about ready to crash. I think I will head to the woods, to be quiet, read, sing, hike and recharge.

I feel really bad about Scott’s dilemma, especially since the cinder blocks were my idea. But, that may be what ya get for asking a red-neck how he would support a heavy object. Oh well, I am amazed at the amount of hard unfulfilling work church planter’s find themselves doing. For all of Scott’s efforts carrying that load to the second he found himself carrying it right back the following day. How many days have I said to myself, “Self, what did you do today?” Amazingly some of the most fulfilling days are those when manual labor is involved. The idea of seeing something you’ve planned actually be accomplished and at the end of day saying, “WOW, that is exactly what I planned to have happen!” But, that is not the norm. We are dealing with people who perceive us as ______(insert word here) whether it be a contractor, or a priest, or a quack, or a fighten fundie, or as an “expletive.” The process can be discouraging and like Scott’s ordeal with the cinder blocks our efforts to build relationships can seem like a unbearable load we carry just to discover our efforts are in vain, or are they? Jesus said that if you have done these things to the least of these you have done them to me. So, I often find myself discouraged when the core group seems to turn cold, or the young lady I’ve tried to minister to thanks me for the help as she begins here journey at a new church (not mine) or the young man who receives counsel and may never darken the doors of our church; But, my goal must be to bring glory to God not Grace Community Chapel. I wonder if church planters, denominations, and Christians in general focus so much on doing that they forget about being. Being Jesus’ hands and feet, not merely doing work in the name of Jesus. Church planting is a labor of love, but we find ourselves in trouble when the labor outweighs the love. The thoughts of Sisyphus pushing the boulder to an unattainable goal may slip into my mind during the hard times, but just as quickly Jesus slips in with his reminder, “I’ve gone ahead, I’ve done the work, and I will receive the glory.” The load then becomes lighter and what seems trivial becomes triumphant with a kingdom perspective. “Scotty, keep up the good ‘work’ and I’ll be looking for those cinder blocks next time I have car trouble.” (Chris) Chris Moles is a church planter with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He presently serves as planter/pastor of Grace Community Chapel in Eleanor, West Virginia.

Obviously Chris has nothing to do this week as he is way ahead of me on posts. While I know that it is not a competition, being the stubborn Appalachain that I am, I want to pull my share of the load. This is a crazy week for me. We have rented out our first meeting spot and have a self-imposed (stupid) deadline of being ready by Sunday for our first "Preview" service. I have a meeting room and nursery to get painted, a sound system and monitor system to install, tables and chairs to be delivered, install an alter, decorate our meeting room, find coffee pots and coffee, and figure out how to put all this together for a practice service. I am not advertising this meeting. It has all the makings for a disaster, because of so many variables that have yet to be settled. I also have to actually have something to say, lead worship and probably run the sound on Sunday. On top of all this, I have a raging sinus infection that has me blowing my nose every 30 seconds. Yesterday, I spent all afternoon getting 64 cinderblocks up to our meeting space, so we could set our 32" TV's on the platforms we were making. Our church is on the second floor, so instead of carrying them up 32 stairs, we were using a hand operated elevator that was built in 1925. It had a 500 pound capacity. We were a little over that. I am not a huge person, about 140 pounds, and my fellow conspiritor Dave Thompson, who is a local youth pastor/DJ, is much stronger than me, but then again that isn't saying much. So the way this elevator operates is through a series of ropes and pullies, basic block and tackle sort of set-up. You pull one set of ropes to either set the brake or release it, and then another set of ropes are pulled in order to raise or lower the elevator. We were exhausted by the first load, partly because of the strain of the work, but mostly out of praying that we wouldn't die on this rickety old elevator. We were laughing our heads off in nervous anticipation of plunging 30 feet down this old shaft with a load of cinder blocks. It had all the makings of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Oh sure, we could have bought stands for our TVs, but they were $350 a piece. We spent $100 on our set of blocks, and after all the trips to the chiropractor, we might have saved a few dollars. But I did have a great time with Dave, and I have a stupid story to tell at District Conference. This morning, my landlord came by and saw the cinder block platforms, and said we have to take it down. He is a great old guy, and engineer who is about 82 and works everyday. He is concerned about the concentration of weight. So I just wasted a day. And a lot of effort. And money. My point? No day is the same in the life of a church planter. You can whine about it, but no one is going to listen. The best way to face life is to revel in the things that most folks call misery. It's all part of the adventure. I love this job, but I think I'm going to go have a good cry in the men's room.

Ah yes, emerging churches. I became fascinated with the church’s relationship with postmodern culture when I first heard the scuttle-butt in 1997. Since that time I found myself reading and studying the subject more than anything else I could get my hands on. I have been fascinated with how God has moved on church planters and pastors to do whatever it takes to reach out to the surrounding culture. So when God called my wife and I to join in the journey by planting a church in our home state of West Virginia I was ready. I had it down, I knew all the names…Sweet, McLaren, Cecil, Kimble, Jones, Grenz… I had read them all studied the websites available and was ready to plant West Virginia’s premiere emerging church. I just wish some one would have told the people of Putnam County West Viringia my plans. I remember the first time I used the word emerging on a sign. I young mother asked the most obvious question, “Who are you merging with?” Terms and models are of little effect when your trying to reach people. The fact is people are not contained in terms or models. No matter how… “Emerging I was” the culture around me remains stagnate. Good people with good intentions, going nowhere fast. The biggest obstacle I’m finding is teaching folks that they have a need. What I’m getting at is much of the emerging culture says, “We are looking for something, we have a spiritual need, and perhaps these Christians have something going.” I recently heard of a local church attendee after a sermon delivered by a young pastor state, “I didn’t know I was hungry until I set down to eat.” This is much of our task in West Virginia. Many folks I attempt to build relationships with have tried the Christian faith and either rejected it or been content to merely exist in it. The object is now not to simply present the faith but rather to deconstruct the existing folk version of Christianity and replace that with a Biblical understanding of the church. Difficult but fun. I look forward to the day when those within our reach sit down at table to eat. (Chris) Chris Moles is a church planter with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He presently serves as planter/pastor of Grace Community Chapel in Eleanor, West Virginia.

This was the response by a friend of mine when I confronted her regarding her family’s church. The family controlled church is possibly the most prominent church in rural and small town West Virginia, probably started by ones grandparents or great grandparents as a result of a denomination leaving with the closing of coal camp in the 20’s or perhaps a disagreement regarding anything from ones obligation to the farm to the circuit preacher’s doctrine. Whatever the cause of its initial founding one thing drives most family churches today…staying open. Survival is a big part of the churches existence and loyalty to ones church may be as significant as loyalty to ones family. Since it is very hard to be assimilated into most family-controlled churches church growth is reduced to marriage and “havin babies.” For my friend to rant about “her church” is not uncommon I find most churched young adults in WV dislike or even despise their local body. Again the main purpose for staying is loyalty not Christ, in fact most young adults I speak with may not have any form of relationship with Christ, some raised in the church can’t even articulate the gospel, yet any given week you may find them with mom, dad, granny, and granddad warming their pew all the way to eternity. When my friend made this comment my mind immediately agreed… “I hate church too!” I recall the love I have for my family and our unique connection to “our church” but I also recall my struggle to encounter Christ not just live within a system of expectations. Before I could re-direct my thoughts and give her some appropriate pastor answer another friend who is involved in our plant says, “Great, you would love our group then. We all hate church too!” Oh no, how do I correct that? The great thing is I don’t have to, it struck a cord. She was no longer alone, her bitterness was not unique to her. Now we had the opportunity to present the true church, no not Grace Community Chapel, Christ’s church…the body. Most people in this young lady’s situation have not heard about the body. They perceive church as an obligation not a lifestyle of commitment to something far greater than ourselves. Christ told Peter that the very gates of Hell would not conquer Christ’s church and Christ left us with battle plans, “Go…make disciples…baptize…teach. Not Go…cater to yours and yours alone. Will her desire to remain loyal outweigh her desire to find her place in Christ’s church? I don’t know, maybe she can do both, again I don’t know. What I do know is this, we are called not only to start new churches but to re-introduce what the church is. (Chris) Chris Moles is a church planter with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He presently serves as planter/pastor of Grace Community Chapel in Eleanor, West Virginia.

No lie, I have been asked this question, in one form or the other, on several occasions, six to be exact. Now, I understand that misconceptions regarding church plants are found in every culture from the simple questions regarding how a church starts to the questions regarding the faith itself, my favorite is the famous… “Are you a cult?” But here in the mountain state I have received numerous comments from folks who are utterly confused about what it is I do. It’s no wonder that church planting is foreign to most mountaineers, in fact, in the last fifty to one-hundred years most new churches in WV are the result of splits. As a result, churches and church people are extremely suspicious of new works and those outside the church doors share much of the same opinions, “If its new it must be up to no good.” Family and friends then, who know me and my heart, assume that I could not be involved in destroying the church so this establishing new churches must be a business where I build new buildings for existing churches. At first this upset me and in my mind I would think yes, I do build churches and in fact I’m preparing to lay the foundation on your head. But soon the frustration turned to compassion. Ephesians four is very specific when it tells us to put off every form of malice and to replace that with virtues like compassion. So, I now look forward to the misconceptions and words spoken in ignorance as an opportunity to share what I believe is God’s heart for the church. In Acts 11 the church falls under persecution and followers of “the way” flee to different sections of the empire where they may begin to worship freely. One group, which the Bible only mentions as some “But their were some,” some of the followers who did not see the church as an institution, some who did not see the church as a social club, or a family obligation, Some who saw the church as God’s vehicle to reach the world. These followers establish a new church in Antioch and people from every background come to worship, we even have this group to thank for our name, “They were first called Christians in Antioch.” God began to honour their efforts in church planting and from that group’s example we eventually have Paul and Barnabus who become model church planters in Scripture. My prayer is that this ethos can once again exist in the mountain state churches planting churches, Christians making the main thing the main thing. This is church planting in small town West Virginia a new passion to re-introduce the Christian faith to a people of misconceptions, to see God transform His children into an authentic grace-oriented community of believers focused on accomplishing His mission. So, am I a contractor? No, but I pray I can be a fellow-laborer with those who don’t quite understand what I do, but if persuaded we can begin to build God’s church together person by person, or as the apostle Peter would say stone by stone on the living stone that is Christ. Now, when someone asks me, “Do you build churches?” I answer passionately, Yes. With Christ as the cornerstone and God the Father as the architect I can confidently help build His church one mis-lead stone at a time. (Chris) Chris Moles is a church planter with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He presently serves as planter/pastor of Grace Community Chapel in Eleanor, West Virginia.