The following post was written by Amber Plymale. Amber and her husband planted a church in O’Fallon, Missouri about three years ago. (If you have a story you would like to have posted, please email it to us at planterwives@namb.net)
In the early days of church planting, we had a handful of people (on a good Sunday) and things were stressful, to say the least. I often would find myself daydreaming of the day when we wouldn’t have to wonder whether anyone was going to show up for service, but people would just COME every Sunday (preferably LOTS of them). Those would be the glory days… life would finally be easy. I was letting the stress and anxiety of church planting rob me of my joy, and I knew it, but as soon as we grew bigger, then I would be joyful again. Or so I thought.
Well, by the grace of God, our church got over the hump and really started to grow. I could hardly contain my excitement! We started having well over 100 people regularly. What a change! We praised God for it. I was joyful again at last, but oh, the joy didn’t last long. All the sudden my husband’s workload became much bigger. There were programs to put in place, baby Christians to disciple, phone calls to visitors to be made, small group leader meetings, etc. Plus, he still had to prepare a sermon every week. Having all of these people show up was wonderful, but now we had to start DOING something with them or we feared we would lose them. The task was overwhelming.
My joy was zapped once again. I started to daydream about the day we would grow big enough to hire an associate pastor or a children’s minister. Now that would be great. Those would be the glory days. Life would finally be easy. I would be joyful again! But didn’t I say that last time? What happened? Were there really “glory days” in church planting or was it just one big vicious cycle? Were we destined to work ourselves to death without ever finding those greener pastures? This hit me like a ton of bricks. I cried out to God in prayer. Through that still small voice and a series of circumstances, God began to do a work in my heart. I was focusing too much on my circumstances and not enough on the One who was in control of those circumstances. My joy was based on our church plant and not on the One who had called us to plant the church. My focus was totally out of focus. My joy should be found in Him and Him ALONE. I already knew that, but somehow the stressors of church planting had made me forget.
Now, as I write this, I wish I could say that I am totally changed. I can tell this will be an ongoing battle for me. I have to continually remind myself that I can be joyful each and every day (even at 9am on Sunday morning when both nursery workers call to say they overslept). I can be joyful even when my husband is working late (again) and my children are driving me crazy. I can be joyful because the same God who called us to plant this church will sustain us. But I cannot take my focus off Him because the world, with all its problems, will start to creep back in. I’ve found that when my focus is truly in focus (on Christ), then I can live each and every day in my greener pasture!
