One Year In, Part 1

Sanctuary Church of the Lake Country celebrates its first birthday today. We’ve hosted Sunday morning gatherings for a year now. What’s God been doing in our church during that time and what lies ahead?

This church was founded on and motivated by a belief that the people of the Lake Country region needed a gospel witness that was intellectually credible, spiritually dynamic, relationally enriching, and practically-oriented (Acts 2:42-47). The Lake Country is more or less a region unto itself and so we didn’t think that churches in neighboring regions would be sufficient for its residents. And while it’s true that this area has many churches, most of them are either evangelical or sacramental. These have value, but the Lord put on my heart that the Lake Country needed “a church of power” (Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 5:4). In addition to this, my experience taught me that most churches were poor in developing relationships (1 John 3:11; 4:20), so any church we’d seek to establish had to emphasize the social dimension of the Christian life. Christianity is not purely private; it is a corporate faith that gets strengthened by, and must be shared with, other people (Ephesians 3:17-19).

So we started on Sunday, November 2, 2008 with just our family: Grace, Daniel, and I and the children. We began small (Zechariah 4:10) and I know that growth is slow sometimes and it’s not always easy, but doing the right thing is something God rewards (Galatians 6:9). Let me share with you an excerpt from an email I received recently:

"Robert, do you know what happens after you plant the seed of a Chinese Bamboo Tree? Nothing. That's right. Absolutely nothing. For 4 years after planting the seed of this tree you get no satisfaction other than a tiny shoot coming out of a bulb. Must be something wrong, right? A still birth or stunted growth. A bad seed maybe. If you didn't know about the growth patterns for this tree, you'd think that all your efforts to plant and cultivate were useless. But, in fact, what's happening all the time is that underneath the ground there's a massive root structure that's forming. You can't see it, but it's there and it's HUGE. Then, in the 5th year, the Chinese Bamboo Tree grows and grows and grows, sometimes up to EIGHTY FEET tall . . . Sometimes it takes months, even years before you SEE the growth. But all the while you're making deposits into a secret account that all of a sudden (that's the way it seems, but, in fact, my point is that it's not all of sudden) begins paying dividends. It takes maturity to be patient."

Kingdom work is a lot like growing bamboo; it's not something we can control but it is something we can anticipate!

We stepped out in faith and launched this church not because we were disgruntled with other churches (Philippians 1:15-16; 1 John 2:19); that would’ve poisoned Sanctuary and doomed our efforts. Rather, we believed that, apart from our own talents or skills, God could do a work in this area that needed to be done (Acts 14:27; 1 Corinthians 15:10).

We’ve striven to maintain a balance between the Word, the Spirit, relationships, and service. We’re not perfect with it. Each of us has a preference or a leaning toward one or more of these (I’m partial to the Word), but overall, we’re committed to growing in each area.

We tried really hard to keep an outward focus. I don’t think we’ve been entirely successful, but at least we did three outreaches on June 28 (water bottle distribution), August 1 (Picnic in the Park), and October 24 (Pumpkinpalooza). These enabled us to introduce ourselves to the community, practice servant evangelism, and begin to invite people to the church. These outreaches were not necessarily cheap, but they were worth it and I believe God will honor our efforts to bless our neighbors.

We also started to meet for services one Sunday a month at Swallow School. This represented a big change for us because we’ve gotten accustomed to meeting in the house. I think that the house meetings have facilitated our relational growth and our commitment to each other. These will serve us well, but I also believe that the Lord wants us to share His love with others. In other words, there’s room in His family for more brothers and sisters (Acts 2:47; 16:5).