In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” He was as clear as he needed to be, the church is His to build and he will build it! Our role is to serve Jesus as he does.

Now put yourself in my shoes. I was to be sent out to plant a church and the team so far comprised of myself, Lyndal, a sick 4 month old and a crazy 2.5 year old.

I was glad Jesus was going to build his church, because if he expected us to, it wouldn’t be very successful. As the days and weeks ticked over however, it became so abundantly apparent that Jesus was and is building his church.

A guy came to me after hearing about the plant and its vision and asked to have a conversation. He was a man sold out for Jesus, passionately pursuing him and inviting every person he came across to do the same. The conversation ended with him saying “If you’d have me, I’d love to come.”

“If you’d have me! Are you kidding?” I said “You’d join us? That would be amazing.”

“I’m so excited” he said, “I’ve been asking God for something like this for a long time.”

It turns out many others had. In fact God had been speaking to people about this idea long before it was any sort of written down idea. People had been feeling restless, were contemplating change, diminishing their current roles in preparation for something which they had no idea about.

With nearly every person on team this was the repeated story.

With one exception, my off sider and his family, Ori, Bec and their kids. For a long time Ori and I have journeyed together as he has sought to discern his call. While feeling called into full time church ministry, he had before him a heap of different opportunities but none had a compelling enough clarity to lead him to know which path to take.

Then one day in conversation about the church plant he put-out-there some blue sky thinking, “If I were to give you a day a week, how do you see that fitting in?” I had a double take to make sure I heard him correctly, then trying to not to be too excited, I said that’d be great.

Why wasn’t I too excited? Because I knew the fragility of what we were going to do, I knew how important following Jesus’s call was to Ori. I didn’t want my personal bias and immense excitement to side track what God might otherwise have in mind.

So that was the end of that conversation until a week later when I called Ori and asked if he was free for lunch in 30 minutes. My lunchtime slot had opened up and I wondered if he might be free.

So we met and we talked and we dreamed and critically analysed and over the next month prayed about this idea of Ori and Bec joining the team. The next I heard Ori walked into my office and said he was in and they would love the church plant team.

It didn’t take long for us to establish a healthy working partnership as co-church-planters and I am so thankful that has been the case. Leading this venture has now been a wonderfully refreshing experience and enriched by so much of the wisdom Ori has.

As I look at our team, I am still blown away. I’m blown away that God would gather together so many gifted and called people to do something new. While I feel equipped to lead them I do not feel worthy as I look at each one and am, to borrow the Apostle Paul’s rhetoric, filled with joy.

God is good and He is building his church.