I didn't really know what to expect from The Geneva Push's first church planter's conference - a curious fact, you might think, considering I was part of the organising committee.
As many of the speakers at last week's first In The Chute conference pointed out, church planting has something of a mystique about it.
This is the arena reserved for the uber-evangelists, the real Christians, right? The ones with the spiritual muscles that make me at least feel like slinking into a corner somewhere.
However the 80 or so people who attended the three day conference at Collaroy and the speakers they gave their attention to were an antidote for that sort of triumphalism.
Paul Dale, the Sydney Anglican minister leading the Church By The Bridge in Kirribilli warned us all that those who were attracted by the prospect of spiritual kudos and public platforms would do well to avoid church planting.
"If I had to sum up the one key thing associated with church planting it would be humility," he said.
"Cultivate that humility in your lives and your ministries, daily go back to your saviour. I love the fact that the apostle Paul, the greatest church planter in history, called himself a slave of God."
Experienced church planter after church planter - men who had, under God, planted thriving ministries in spiritual deserts, or built up congregations that had broken the magic thousand mark - had little or nothing to say for themselves.
Story after story of fierce opposition, financial struggles, staffing dilemmas and family crisis made it all too clear that these guys weren't the gurus that often seem to strut the church-planting stage.
No, they were just Christian like me, labouring in the field God had given them - and it was God who gave the growth.
The next step
The post-conference media release says:
19 attendees have applied to be assessed as potential church planters by The Geneva Push.
"Potential planters are interviewed by a team of people experienced in ministry, and then advised on how to proceed," explains Andrew Heard, another director of The Geneva Push.
"We are aiming to build a network of church planters who will encourage each other, share information and ideas, and above all.. get on with it!"
Several In The Chute conferences are already in the planning stages for 2010, including events in Canberra and Adelaide.
The Geneva Push says the events will focus particularly on identifying, training and providing on-going support for planters
"Geneva is not going to be about platform personalities but about a genuine fellowship of like-minded people."
Benefits of “In the Chute”
As an organising committee we strove to build in spiritual value at every point for the potential planters attending In The Chute: challenging talks, practical workshops, helpful assessments, on-going mentoring programs.
But I've come to realise that the real value In The Chute was the company you kept.
Links were forged between those who had walked the hard road of starting a new work for God, and those who wished to follow in their footsteps.
Iron sharpened iron, as the Proverb says - but was the edge one I was likely to use?
This may sound like a digression, but recently someone challenged me to explain why I thought that my wife and family are my primary ministry.
There are many places in the Bible I could point to - the relationship God gave Adam that preceded the occupation He supplied; the Proverbs that elevate a man's responsibility to his family above his other endeavours; the fact that Paul thought a man who did not care for his household was unqualified to taken on any other spiritual headship - but I think that the church itself provides the strongest model.
Jesus looked to the wife God gave Him and decided there was nothing He would not do to bring her closer to His Father; I can do no less.
As Al Stewart reminded everyone In The Chute on more than one occasion, "Your family is not an addition to your ministry. They are the first members of your congregation."
I may never lead a church of hundreds, but I will be responsible for pastoring one of four.
And I believe that I have as much to learn from the Godly humility, the single-minded devotion and sacrificial spirit of these church planters as any aspiring minister.
Mark Hadley works for The Geneva Push, a network dedicated to raising up church planters for Australia. In The Chute is the network's first church planting conference. Talks and resources from this event will be featured on The Geneva Push web site over the coming weeks.
