Why start a church? Pt IV

Ideas started popping into my head about what we could do in our local community, in Slacks Creek.

I don't even think I'd really accepted the whole thing myself, but the ideas kept coming. It was a bizarre time. I kept telling myself "No, you're just being naive. You're really not capable enough. You're too young for a start." And it was like God was saying, "Sure sure, I hear you. But if you were to give it a crack, what would you do?" and I was sucked in that easily.

As soon as it became more of a possibility in my head (as tiny as it was), I shared it with Tam. She's a wise woman, with great spiritual instincts, so I knew she'd be able to tell if it was a good idea or not. If she said "No, I don't think that's right for us at the moment," it'd be a good sign I was off track. Personally, I didn't think it was a good idea, but I was certainly being compelled to bring it up, so I was very keen to see what Tam would think.

She didn't say no straight away, and I think that may have been the point when it first clicked in my head, "Maybe this isn't crazy - maybe this is it for us." But there were still a lot of obvious questions to discuss, to which I had basically no answers....

"Do you know how to plant a church?"
"No. But if it's the right thing then I guess God would do a lot of it. We're good at making friends and building relationships at least."
"How would it look?"
"I don't know. We'd have to see I guess. Something simple though."
"You need to put a lot of time into planting a church, and there'd probably be no money in it, so you'd have to have a full-time job as well. And then what about our family?"
"Yeah, you're right. I can't see how that would work."
"We don't even know anyone else who would want to help."
"Yeah I know."

Probably the worst sales pitch ever made. But strangely enough, even though there were no answers to any of these questions, the more we discussed church planting seriously, the more I realised this is just the kind of thing God likes to do with people.

("Ben, I'd like you to jump in here if you could."
"Isn't that the deep end?"
"Yep, but you'll be right. Trust me.")

I went to bed that night praying, "God, if this is a bad idea, just let it die. I'm ok with that. I don't really think I could do it anyway. But if you think it's a good idea, then you're going to have to convince Tam, and me."