Planting a church that pops up strong ordinarily takes some time . . . maybe about nine months from seed stage to the day it goes public. It usually takes time to build the seed of a solid core group and get everybody ready for ministry. Why? Because the work needs to draw gifted servants and develop strong roots of relationships, leadership, service, doctrine and organization. Those roots help hold the plant in place when hard days come.
On launch day, of course you want people who visit the new church to connect with the Lord. You also want them to say, Wow, these people really know what they’re doing. This looks like a church that’s about two or three years old. That means all things are in order and done well, from the location to signage to genuine friendliness to worship to preaching to child care.
Yes, better emphasize child care. It doesn’t matter how good everything else is, if parents worry that their babies and older children aren’t cared for properly, they won’t be coming back.
Ty Gooch and the core group of Fellowship Life Bible Church understand and embrace all of that. Except there’s one major difference. We’re expecting the church to launch strong on Sunday, November 6. That’s a little more than three months from the date diligent work began on the seed of the new church. About 20 families, including a slew of kids, are committed to the work. And we expect more.
I figure there’s several reasons for that. It’s true that a planting pastor who parachutes in to a new location has a tough row to hoe. Much also depends on the ground where you're throwing the seed. If there's a few healthy churches in the area, it's probably going to be tougher to grow the church. There's maybe one other church in Gilberts, Illinois, where we're planting Fellowship Life, but there are others a few miles away. It's also true that a lot of people from the area already know Ty Gooch, which makes things easier. But that’s far from enough. In the case of Fellowship Life, the Lord is putting together a core of praying people who are gifted, smart, mature and passionate about Christ and his church. They also know how to make connections between vision and action. And whatever they don’t know, they’re teachable to learn what’s needed and then act upon it. That’s miracle grow stuff for the seed of the church.
Oh, one more thing, it’s affirming and encouraging to see the hand of the Lord’s approval on the work of the new church. We've seen that through unexpected and unusual gifts and blessings. At Fellowship Life Bible Church, that looks like a nearly-new grand piano, a trailer to carry equipment, an excellent building in a good location at a nice price and generous cash contributions from people who aren’t even committed to attending the church.
So, the church is slated to launch on Sunday, November 6, at Gilberts Elementary School at 729 Paperbark Lane in Gilberts, Illinois. There’s a lot more to do. We're looking confidently toward the public presentation of the new church.
Click here to check out Fellowship Life Bible Church's new website.