"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Rev. 7: 9-10)
This is a place I often go in Scripture. Church planting isn't glamorous and church planting apprenticesing isn't either. It's a daily exercise is dependance as you dream of things that only God can do and see all of your own inadequacies. So I go here often to see the end goal, the whole point of my ministry. To stand one day in this multitude with people from every tribe, people and language and sing praise to the Lamb who was slain. A great multitude that no one could number! We want to plant a church that plants churches so that God would use us to bring in that full number that he knows exactly.
But not just a church. We want to plant a Missional, Multicultural, Reformed Church in Downtown Muncie.
What does that mean?
Missional:
We want to seek the lost. We want to bring the gospel to those who don’t know Jesus. What does that look like in Muncie? Well, it means talking to a lot of folks that think Jesus is ok, but no nothing of the bible, nothing of what it means to have a relationship with Jesus and don’t really know him. They may know about him but they don’t know him.
Multicultural:
We want to bring the gospel to everyone in Muncie, which means taking the gospel to every ethnicity and culture in Muncie. And we want to see the gospel heal and bring restoration to real hurts and issues that our city faces. Muncie, like all of America as we are seeing with the events in Ferguson and elsewhere still has a lot of work to do when it comes to race. And we believe that the church should be on the forefront of that conversation. Why? Because the gospel has the answers to pursuing racial reconciliation. God has reconciled us to himself and one another through the cross of Jesus Christ and "has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14). This is glorious. God is glorified as we unite in our ethnic and cultural diversity around the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the picture we get in Revelation about the worship Jesus receives and yet, the church does not often reflect this reality. We want to experience as much of a foretaste of that day now and so we want to be intentional to seek to reflect this reality in our church.
Reformed:
We want to safeguard the gospel and reflect the truth of God’s word. And I am convinced that reformed theology does this best.
Church:
We believe that God's kingdom is advanced when God works in and through his people, that is the church. And we believe that the New Testament lays out not just an organic universal church (it does do this) but also a local, gathered, flesh and blood church body to which we belong and are accountable. So, we are not just seeking to plant an evangelistic group or a mercy ministry or a multicultural organization, but a church. A church with elders, deacons, structures, liturgy, and the organic connection of God's people knit together by His Spirit for His glory. We don't think its possible to love Jesus and not love the church, and so we will seek to do both.
And finally in downtown Muncie:
This is the context we believe is best suited for this to take place. And it’s important to say that because church planting isn’t done in a vacuum or in theory, but it’s about people and is done in the context of real relationships.
This excites me and terrifies me. I know I am inadequate, but called and therefore dependent upon God to work powerfully.
This is the beginnings of our vision and it is not set in stone, but it is what we are pursuing as we pray and trust God for direction in how to move forward in multiplying the gospel through church planting in Muncie. If you have any questions, please comment or follow up with me through email as I would love to talk further with anyone interested in learning more about what we are trusting God for in the coming years.
