This past Wednesday marked our eighth month since we moved to the Marrero community of greater New Orleans. We recognize that we are very much church planting novices, but God has graciously taught us some valuable lessons in the short time we have been on the ground. As our weekly Bible study drew to a close and the last guests left on Sunday, I began to think through those that stand out at this point in our journey:
Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight. We did not realize how spiritually complacent we had become living in the Bible Belt of the rural south. One of Satan’s greatest weapons is to simply lull the sleeping giant called the church into a bloated apathy. We become content with the way things are while our neighbors descend into a Christless eternity.
Starting a church in greater New Orleans means you have to come strapped each and every week. The spiritual warfare expressed in incredible pressure on your family and ministry is tangibly real.
Avoid the comparison trap. There are Biblically faithful, Christ centered churches across New Orleans with many of them being planted by our brothers with Send North America. We celebrate when God uses them in their contexts, but we cannot compare what God is doing across the bridge with what He is doing in our community.
We look at each church as a spiritual military outpost of the same Kingdom. God sovereignly acts in each church as He desires for His glory and the good of the community we serve.
Celebrate the small victories. During our eight months we have seen exactly one conversion and have yet to baptize a single person. We have experienced a high attendance of thirteen people who we may not see again for three weeks.
Yet we have watched as God takes people from widely different walks of life into a next step of faith toward Christ. When someone you have prayed for and poured into makes a spiritually significant statement over coffee or the car ride home, we are reminded that God is very much at work in the lives of those He has entrusted to us.
Rest is an act of worship. Every morning I wake up knowing there are a hundred things that need done as we take the next steps of planting West Bank Baptist Church. There are always sermons to prepare, new people to visit, meetings to schedule, and a variety of steps that must be taken to plan for the future.
Around 10 pm every night my finite mind and body give out. I simply have nothing left in the tank. Lo and behold, the world continues to spin. The kingdom of Christ still advances in our city just fine without any further effort on my part. God does call us to be obedient, but the results of our labor are not for us to secure.
We are reminded daily that our Sovereign King was at work in New Orleans long before we came and will continue to be long after we are gone. By His grace, God has simply allowed us to join Him in His activity of reaching lost, hurting, and broken people.
The months and years to come will be both challenging and rewarding, and our prayer is that we will remain humbly sensitive to the lessons the Spirit of God is teaching our family and West Bank Baptist Church.
Would you and your church family join us in advancing the Kingdom of Christ in our part of New Orleans? Check out our page on How To Get Involved.
Melsons on the Move 