In 2015, my Lead Pastor shared a dream to send out five new campuses or church plants over the next five years. As his Executive Pastor, I rolled up my sleeves and began to make plans to help him implement this initiative. What I didn’t realize at that time was that my wife, Rose, and I would be one of the five. I had been on staff at the Vineyard Church of Mishawaka for 10 years and I really enjoyed my position. Recently, though, I had noticed an unsettled feeling in my spirit and I began wondering if there was something more out there for me. As our church campuses and plants began to spring up around the region, one location seemed to be missing: the neighboring city of Elkhart, near our sending church.
After months of prayer and times of fasting with my wife, we finally concluded that God was calling us to plant a church in Elkhart, 20 minutes away from our sending church. In December of 2017, I shared the news with my pastor. Though shaken by the news, he was very supportive and encouraged us.
God has certainly blessed us, but because of the short distance between the churches, it has been sometimes difficult to navigate.
Planting Near Your Sending Church
Here are a few things we have learned on our journey:
Love, Love, Love
Planting a church nearby your sending church means that more people can and will decide to plant with you, leaving some pretty big holes back at the sending church. There were days when I didn’t feel like the most popular guy walking into a staff meeting, but I knew it was the necessary pain of a new birth.
