Church Planting Journey Pt. 1

While working at a church, I would get to meet locals in that community who didn’t go to church. I understood, in fact, because of the church I attended, I was not comfortable inviting them on Sunday. Rather, I would take every opportunity to get to know them and listen to them. I let them voice their disgruntlement with the Church. I wanted to hear them out more than I wanted to offer a rebuttal when it comes to how they feel about the Church.

Since moving to South Atlanta, I’ve tried to do the same thing. Connect with the disconnected. Let them know that I am a follower of Jesus, but that I also wear many hats and have many feelings about the way things go in this country. I don’t do this to position myself as being on their side mainly because I don’t know what their side entails. I do it because I don’t think life can be packaged all nice and neat. Systematic racism and broken homes are an ongoing reality in this country. 

However, the call of God upon His children still stands. Contrary to what many conservative believers tend to parrot, the Bible never calls followers of Jesus to “just” preach the gospel and let the rest of people’s lives get ironed out on their own. I know this because God calls people into school systems, city planning, sociology, nonprofits, and other arenas that are outside the church. And if we truly are to be salt and light, while trying to restrict just who can preach or not, then it’s foolish to expect those in the city of man who are citizens in the city of God to watch all of life and say nothing about it. 

Connecting with the disconnected brings about hospitality, sincerity, apologetics, and self-giving care for people who very well might have a Prodigal Son experience down the road. There is no real way to guarantee a return-on-investment for the Christian. The wind blows wherever it wishes to and God has never sat back waiting on me to act before He does. 

The disconnected don’t see themselves in the story of God. There’s no rhyme or reason to life. There’s close to no hope to believe in the Jesus of the Bible. There’s very few examples of teen to 30 year old lives that have been made new and impacted others. There’s little to no substantive difference for those who were forced to watch church service online because of Covid to now get up and attend in-person. There’s a painful aim taken at abortion and anti-woke/DEI statistics while ignoring all of the other social ills that are clearly displayed before us in Atlanta, in Georgia, and beyond. But God isn’t to be mocked and has not left South Atlanta without a witness . . . .