My dad has been going to this new church in Sarnia for the past few weeks. It’s a church plant and they have only been together for the two weeks that my dad has been there. The church planter of this church was the assistant pastor of a successful Baptist church in Sarnia. He decided that God was calling him to start another church in the same city. So he did just that.
Most people you tell this story to will quickly frown upon this. “Why does Sarnia need yet another church, we have 102 churches now and they aren’t full at all” they will say. I probably would have said the same thing back in the day and my dad was saying the same two weeks ago. There is more to the story. The assistant pastor is getting paid two months of salary to plant this church. The church he is leaving is paying him to start up a rival church (rival?).
This my friends is the beginning of something beautiful here in Sarnia. Finally, there is a church who is more concerned with the Kingdom of God and not their weekly attendance and success of a building. It is much different from my experience, I’ve been asked not to ‘take’ leaders from a ministry. Or I’ve seen pastors complain that people were undermining ministries when someone would organize something outside the confines of their label. I’ve seen churches split angrily because it makes their church look smaller. Whose leaders are they anyway? Also, when did it become about filling up the church? Is it a fair statistic to say that when ever pew is filled up in this city, then we can start planting new churches, but until then we need to focus on the churches that are already there? I don’t think so at all.
There are a few problems with this. First of all is the use of the word church. Church isn’t the building where we sing; church is the people. When new ‘churches’ are being planted we should rejoice because that means that there is more communities that are being built that will reach more people. Christ preaches the Kingdom of God more than anything else in scripture, he doesn’t preach about filling up churches. Secondly, this response assumes that full churches are successful churches. Not so. Give me a small budget and I bet I can fill up any church here in Sarnia weekly. If pushing people in our doors is our goal, then we’ve missed the point.
Thankfully churches in Sarnia are coming around to the understanding of the Kingdom of God as opposed to cherishing their organization that they call a church that gives them pay cheques. I hope that all the churches in Sarnia can eventually come together to work toward the same goal and if someone leaves the Pentecostal church to go to the Baptist church, who the heck cares. Why do we have such a longing to make our full churches so necessary that we can’t see it any other way? The kingdom is the goal, not full churches.
When do we start Nate?
Oddly enough, I agree with everything you’ve said here. Sometimes I wonder why it is we have huge 2,000 seat auditoriums for our churches and why churches are allowed to become so huge. For obvious reasons it’s far more effective when churches separate to reach more people in a town, more cost effective and far-less risky than putting all of our eggs in one basket like so many churches are doing.
The only answer is I can think of is that people want others to be a part of what they built. If I were a pastor I would probably have no problem if thousands of people came to hear me preach twice on Sunday. I’d like it if lots of people wanted to be part of what I built.
So I congradulate that Baptist church for letting it’s minister go to start a church that could potenially draw members out of it’s own ranks and draw possible members from Sarnia. I think that more churches ought to adopt this attitude.
Well I beleive that the ‘true church’ has never stopped. The ‘true church’ is in every building in Sarnia and it is those people in those church that are furthering the Kingdom with or without the help of the organized congregations. So if we haven’t already started. I suggest we do now.
Hey Hey,
Great article. The Kingdom of God is where its at. However I do think that overall the churches in Sarnia are pretty good when it comes to unity. It’s not even close to where it needs to be, but it’s better then most cities. With our youth net working together to push unity within “the church” I believe that a revial wave is coming to sarnia like never before. The key is that the unity comes with sacrifice on all parts. Putting aside our small differences to push the truth of Jesus Christ.
Not that I claim to know your family well at all, I just think it’s rad that your dad has found an interest in a local church and that he sounds committed to it.
-Kevin.
Hello,
It is interesting that you are talking about church planting. I too am interested in starting a church one day. I have this vision to send the kind of love that Jesus has. Thank you for your article for it has encouraged me to not let go of my vision. This may seem like an unusual request but the reason I am writing is that I was interested in relocating to Sarnia and am wondering if someone knew of a room for rent. I would much appreciate an answer to the prayer that I pray in God’s will. Love Paula
I have been searching for a church. Where are you located?