How do you measure the gestation time for a new church? It’s been…
5 months since the launch team started meeting.
14 months since we set a launch date.
2 years since we sat down and planned a timeline.
5 years since our family packed up our lives and moved to Aotearoa for a church planting internship.
8 years since we first did a church planting assessment.
10 years since City on a Hill started in a lounge room, with a vision to make and mature disciples throughout Wellington and beyond, and a heart to plant more churches right from the start - and almost 10 years since Andy and I (and tiny baby Jack) moved to Sydney to start Bible college (and joined a prayer group for New Zealand!)
And you could go further and further back to see the influence of many who’ve come before this moment - people who’ve sown the DNA of multiplying churches into the fabric of our own ministry convictions.
But here we are - kicking off Hutt church this Sunday! In so many ways this week will be just like any other - we’ll open the same word together, and hear it preached. We’ll lift up our voices, to praise our loving Father and encourage our brothers and sisters with the beauty of the gospel. We’ll pray, we’ll break bread, we’ll share each other’s joys and sorrows.
But on the other hand, it’s the culmination of a long and winding journey - and the very first step of a new one, trusting that “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
It’s been abundantly clear through all of this that we’re not sufficient for the task, and that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
Thanks be to Him who is able to far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine - to him be the glory in this church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations (Eph 3:20). Amen.
Grace & peace,
Claire