Some of you have tried to pledge some money to support this substack newsletter. I did not intend for it to be a subscription, and I am not sure that I can figure out how to accept donations without making it a fee for everyone. I hope that I can figure that out, because I am blessed that some people want to support the work! Any money pledged will go to the work of church planting. If you are interested in supporting the work of church planting, you can mail a check to:
Trinity Hill Methodist Church
3600 Tates Creek Rd
Lexington, KY 40517
memo: Multiplication Fund
Or, if you want to give online, there are a few options. You can click here. Just make sure to designate your gift to “Multiplication Fund.”
The sky was strangely, ominously beautiful this morning in Lexington. There was a decent rain that we needed. But it was preceded by a weird clouds. Wavy bands of white clouds in front of darker clouds. The white clouds, as they came south, seemed to fold over each other. Thunder sounded like cloth being slowly ripped. It reminded me of a great song, “Jacob’s Ladder,” by the Canadian band Rush, my favorite band. It is long for as few words as it has; more of a tone poem. I was listening to it watching the sky:
“The clouds prepare for battle in the dark and looming silence
Bruised and sullen storm clouds have the light of day obscured
Looming low and ominous, in twilight premature,
Thunderheads are rumbling in a distant overture.”
[then about 5 minutes of some cool music depicting a storm and its clearing]
“All at once, the clouds are parted.
Light streams down in bright, unbroken beams.
Follow men’s eyes as they look to the sky
The shifting shafts of shining weave the fabric of their dreams.”
Indeed. When you are an Air Force kid, you are always looking to the sky. It is amazing that planes can fly, and that rockets truly do “slip the surly bonds of earth.” I found myself thinking and praying over James 5:7: “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains.” When I think of farming and fruit, I think of the parable of the sower, and church multiplication!
Church Planting in the GMC has two directions right now. I was looking at the notes from a meeting in February, and one of our bishops, Mark Webb, said that early on, we would probably need to help lay people start churches when their churches did not disaffiliate. Boy howdy. We have 4 now that I know of, and one more on the way!
The other direction of church planting is to form networks of pastors who come together to plant new churches. We call this “Friends on Mission.” Like-minded pastors gather for fellowship, encouragement, and pooling the resources of their churches to launch new churches. Churches plant churches, not denominational boards.
The pastors meet and grow in their love and care for one another. I am hoping that a group of 7 of the larger church pastors will meet together on an on-going basis so we can plant churches in our more populated towns like Lexington and Louisville. We had our first meeting at the Reds vs Giants game last month. Reds won. It was a good time to be together with pastors who love the Lord and want to see new churches for new people to find new life in Christ. The end goal of our fellowship is to work on planting new churches… identifying planters, recruiting people to go help start the new church, providing administrative support, encouragement and funding to the new churches. Where one church probably does not have the money to start a new church, 5 or 6 do!
I am in the beginning stages of starting a network for rural church planting in Eastern Kentucky. Same model, same plan… a group of pastors who fellowship together and work to start new churches.
My prayer is that as I share the vision that our Presiding Elders and other pastors say to themselves, “I could start a Friends on Mission group and plant a new church!”
We need to plant 3% of our total number of churches each year—just to maintain our association of churches. We need to plant more than that to grow! So, a minimum of 6 churches need to be planted, because the MidSouth Conference has about 200 churches. We are at 4, with 3 more in stages of development. I feel confident we will hit that growing mark!
Remember… the purpose of this substack is to keep people praying for multiplication…. Multiplication of disciples, multiplication of leaders, multiplication of churches!