I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be putting up church signs.

But a couple of weeks back I ordered twenty of these to splash around the suburb in different places and at different times. I’ve also paid for an Instagram ad to get a little bit of promotion – again not in my church planting repertoire previously!

In my mind church planting should begin with moving in and getting to know a place, getting to know the people, becoming part of the fabric of a community and then forming a church community that is indigenous and specific to the kind of people who live there.  It is a slow, unhurried process and the whole Sunday gig comes second to the community engagement.

So for church signs to figure so early in our process of church planting felt a little odd and arse-about. But as I reflected on this I realised that in our core team there is probably more than 20 years of living in this area, getting to know people and becoming part of the community. We live here – we belong here – and we love this community.

That ‘living’ wasn’t done with any thought that one day we might plant a church. It was just ordinary life, but it turns out that it has been the foundation of a church community – ordinary people doing ordinary things. Ordinary people living in their community and being a part of it.

So when the impulse came to plant a church we didn’t need to then start connecting and become part of an otherwise foreign community. We just needed to let the people around us know that this thing is gonna happen.

And so it is… This Sunday we have a ‘launch day’ another phrase that wasn’t in my vocabulary previously. At this rate we will be having pre-service countdowns, offering sermons and Bunnings like greeters at every entry… Ok just kidding.

Its been a slow slow burn, but a fire is starting!