Gotham First Sunday

Gotham City Church, the church plant I’m co-pastoring, had it’s first Sunday meeting last Sunday. Since I first felt called to planting in 2009, this day has been a long time coming. And finally it arrived.

It was most exciting and most terrifying. Actually tsunamis and giant spiders are terrifying. Starting a church feels more akin to what I suspect taking a group trekking up Everest feels like. It’s going to be a great success or a terrible failure. Although less people die church planting and you don’t need to be nearly as fit.

Still it was wonderful to take our next step as a church together. We sang, studied the Bible, ate, and prayed. It was pretty much what church is meant to be. I love the people we’re doing it with, and I love that we’re on the road to something new and exciting. I love that with this God and with this team we could make a church worth being part of. We’ve got potential. We’re on the way!

And that for me is also the problem. Now that we’re meeting on Sundays, and I’ve moved out to the area and lots of things are slotting into place, it’s time for things to happen. Seeing as there is still so much that has to happen, we’re definitely not ready to begin, we’re just on the way to beginning. But from this point on we have to grow, we have to build, we can’t just stay as we are. God has to deliver now*, and we’ve gotta be faithful.

I’ve spent the week since last Sunday, swinging between excitement and fear. This could be a good sign. I’m not sure life with Jesus was meant to be comfortable. I’d be worried if this whole adventure felt easy. But discomfort doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing the right thing. I can wear women’s undies and the discomfort wouldn’t prove the correctness of my actions.

And so we’re another step down the road and the way forward is the same as the way we’ve come. It was trust that God wants to build his kingdom that got us to where we are, and it’s trust that God will build his kingdom that will keep us moving forward. We have nothing but trust. God will build his church and he’ll even use me to do it.

It’s a good thing he knows what he’s doing.

*If he wants to, obviously.