Zach Peters' Podcast
A place for sermons, reflections, and general pondering on life and stuff.
Zach Peters' Podcast
Church Plant Journal: Part 1 How We Got Here
This episode reveals the unexpected journey of planting a church, born from reluctance and curiosity. We explore the pivotal moments leading to our commitment, faithfulness in uncertainty, and the joy of community building.
• Journey from reluctance to church planting
• Pivotal influences and unexpected experiences
• Importance of seeking God's direction
• The transformative power of prayer and contentment
• Embracing opportunities amidst uncertainties
• Moving to Cumming, Georgia, and starting anew
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Well, hello and welcome to the podcast. This is the first part of a new mini-series that I'll be doing my wife might be joining me and it'll be six or seven parts on church planting. And if you don't know, me and my wife, we are about a year and a half into a church plant. It's been interesting, it's been fun, we're learning a lot, we're experiencing a lot, and I just want to share some of that with anyone who might be curious or might want to learn something, or might want to laugh or be sad or any other numerous other things. But this week is part one and it's sort of how we got here. How did we decide we were going to do this thing? How did we get led to this position where we are decide we're going to do this thing? How did we get led to this position where we are planning a church, which is this sort of interesting and wild thing? If you would have told me about it, even 10 or 12 years ago. Please excuse my voice. I preached yesterday. It's a good sermon, but I am trying to recover today, but I wanted to go ahead and record this. So this is part one. How did we get here?
Speaker 1:Well, the first place to start when talking about this is I did not want to be a pastor really at any point in my early life. Some people, I guess, feel called earlier on, and maybe I felt called to be in ministry. I didn't know what that meant. I certainly didn't want to preach, I certainly didn't want to be on a stage, I certainly did not want to be in front of people. So that wasn't really on my radar at all until about my senior year in college. Without going into great detail, I just had this realization where I needed to accept this calling on my life to preach and to teach, even though I did not feel qualified or did not feel like I had the tools to be a preacher. Again, not talking about helping in ministry, I'm not talking about even being on staff at a church, but to have the responsibility to teach and to preach and to love and to be in front of people. I did not like that and on top of that, I certainly didn't think that I was going to be a church planter. So when I did finally accept the call to preach and to pastor and to do ministry like I do now, in my mind it was all about finding a church that already existed to go work at. And that's what I did. I worked a little bit in New York. I worked in a place near Athens, georgia. I worked in a place in Clayton, georgia, up in the mountains, near Athens, georgia. I worked in a place in Clayton, georgia, up in the mountains, and that's just what I did for the first one, two, three, four, seven or eight years of ministry, sort of immediately after college. That's just what I did. Right, I worked at existing churches.
Speaker 1:It was not on my radar that I would go and start something from scratch. In fact, I have a pretty difficult time narrowing down exactly when church planning even entered into my mind. I think this is going to be very random, a very specific memory. I was doing a demo job for some side cash in New York, ripping out a house by myself and I was listening to an audiobook Reasons for God by Timothy Keller. I had never heard of Timothy Keller up until this point and I loved the book and I started doing research. But I just who is this guy? Who's Timothy Keller? Realized that this guy planted a church in New York City before I even understood what planting was, and that he had done this thing, and so in my mind I think that was probably the first time that planting, starting a church from scratch, sort of tickled my curiosity a little bit. And that was before I was even a full-time youth minister somewhere. It was just part-time stuff I was doing at a church.
Speaker 1:Then I did end up finding a full-time job in a church near Athens, georgia, and I would go home because I was young and because of my my girlfriend slash fiance at the time Tara still lived in New York. I was living in Georgia and there'd be weekends not every weekend, but there were certainly weekends and series of days where I just, you know, I might as well drive home, and I would drive the two and a half hours, two hour and 40 minutes home, you know, once or twice a week to go see mom and dad, see some friends at my hometown. And on those long drives several things happened and I promise you this is going somewhere about how we got to where we are today here in Cumming, georgia. But I would have these long drives from Monroe, georgia, to Dalton, georgia, and I would never go the interstate. I hated going the interstate, so I'd always go back ways and those back ways brought me through some places that are now very familiar to me.
Speaker 1:But I used to drive through Cumming, georgia. I used to drive through Alpharetta, I used to drive through the place where I live. In fact, I remember, before the neighborhood that I live in now was even built, I drove down this road before this neighborhood was even built, before I even knew I was going to be here. Years and years ago I drove by the places that I drive by now and I would think, well, this is a nice place. Wow, this is a nice place. What an interesting place to live. It's sort of close to nature, it's close to Atlanta, it's close to things, but yet far enough away where you could enjoy yourself. And they were building all sorts of new neighborhoods here and I saw all sorts of just different types of people in the area.
Speaker 1:And so, just as I'm making these drives, you know, back and forth a couple of times a month, I'm just having these thoughts and I'm, you know, I'm praying during this time about God, help me, god lead me, and stuff like that. And a little side note, I even prayed when I drove through Jasper, georgia, and Ellijay, georgia, which are in the mountains. I'd pray God. It'd be cool if I would be able to pastor a church in the mountains sometime. Now in my mind I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm praying it. Well, long story short, I do end up being a youth pastor in a church in the mountains. You couldn't get any more in the mountains than I was in Wiley, georgia, clayton, georgia, up there. But I would drive through this region and I would pray and I would think, well, this is a cool place, a special place. It'd be real cool somehow to be back in this area one day.
Speaker 1:But I didn't know how that would work and slowly but surely it just sort of was birthed and pulled and yanked out of me. That you know, I wanted to plant a church one day. I didn't just want a church to go to that was fully established. It was interesting to me to find a church one day. I didn't just want a church to go to that was fully established. It was interesting to me to find a place that needed a church. And you might say, zach, it's the South, there's churches everywhere. There's still plenty of people who don't go to church.
Speaker 1:So we've got some work to do, and so I just started remunerating and I got to a place at my last church that I love, by the way. I love my last church. I love being a youth pastor there. I love the people there. I love my pastor there and his wife. They treated me so great, the people treated me so great. I loved it there.
Speaker 1:But I'm there and in my mind I'm thinking it's time, it's time to go do something. It's time it's time to go do something. But I didn't know how to do that. There was no open avenue Financially. I got to have a job, right. I've got a family. I've got a kid. I had another kid on the way, and so there's all of these questions about where do I go, how do I get there, what is that going to look like? How is that going to present itself? What am I supposed to do? And we looked at all kinds of places. Me and my wife made like a short list of places that we wanted to look into, from Texas to Tennessee, north Carolina, florida, georgia, all around these places where we were interested in going and trying to plant a church. And it was great to dream, it was great to think about, but there was no practical way to get to where we needed to get to. And so I'm getting a little antsy at my last church. A little antsy not because anything silly is going on there, but because I just know it's time, but I don't know how to get there or even where to go.
Speaker 1:And then Tara won Christmas, the Christmas before we transitioned into this new season of our life, getting super antsy. She's a little antsy, she understands, we both understand that somehow it's time to go do something different. And she looks at me, she goes. You know what? We need to be content, content. I know we're frustrated, I know we're sort of feel like we're a little bit stuck. Maybe that's the wrong word, it's a negative word but we're sort of not where we want to be in the moment. As appreciative as we were where we were, and she goes. We need to be content moment. As appreciative as we were of where we were, and she goes. We need to be content. And that was December. Content. Okay, tara, we'll be content, we'll be content. And we were content. And you know what? Our attitudes got better and we started sort of getting our mind back to where we were.
Speaker 1:And then I got a phone call, text message actually, from a family member, and the family member basically was updating me, checking in on me, and he said you know what, why don't you give me a call? Give me a call this date, this time. All right, give you a call. And so I call and this family member, who I love dearly and who is used by God in this, basically tells me you know, zach, I had a bit of a dream and in that dream I hired you and it was one of the best things I ever did. In the dream and he goes I want to. What are you thinking? What do you think about maybe coming in doing some stuff for me in Alpharetta? And and of course I'm sort of shook. I'm like okay, and so talk to Tara, think about it, pray about it.
Speaker 1:I have a couple of conversations with my family member and he basically says I know you're still a pastor, but I would love for you to work for me. And so I said okay, as long as you know I'm still a pastor and I'll do it, I'll come work for you, we'll make this thing happen. And he even says yeah, I know you're still a pastor and you can even use a room I've got to have services and classes in if you want to. So we're like, okay, let's do this thing. So here we are Years ago didn't even want to be a pastor, didn't really know about church planning. But now I know, had some long drives and some long prayers and God's faithful to us, we're in a good place.
Speaker 1:But I'm getting antsy. And then Tara's like got to be content and we're content for like three weeks and then we get this phone call and now we're closing out our youth ministry and we're heading to a brand new place in Cumming, georgia, alpharetta, georgia. And here we are and we move all our stuff here and then it's still sort of like okay, here we are. What does that mean? And I realized very quickly and this is very special to me I realized very quickly that I am living around places. I am seeing things every day when I'm driving around doing things for work that I saw years ago on those drives from Monroe to Dalton. I'm seeing the place where I have church, I'm seeing my neighborhood, I'm seeing schools, I'm seeing neighborhoods that weren't built then, that are built now, and all of it's flooding back into me and I'm overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God that he's brought me to this place that I had no business being in, had no way to get here, no means to get here, no means to make this happen. Now, with all of that being said, we are now incoming. We are now in this place where God, basically, must have seen my heart and known that I needed to be here and he got me here. But we're still far from planting a church. We're by ourselves. I've got some family nearby, but that's it. Okay, that's it. And we basically take a season of recharging and we visit some great churches and we sort of recharge, we refresh and again, and we recharge, we refresh Again.
Speaker 1:Towards the end of a year of us being here, I'm getting a little antsy again. It's time, but how, how, how. I keep saying how, when, what are we supposed to do? What is it supposed to look like? I've read books, I've listened to podcasts, I have listened to teaching material on church planning, but at some point you just got to say, all right, I'm going to podcasts, I have listened to teaching material on church planning, but at some point you just got to say, all right, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, let's do this thing, let's jump into this thing.
Speaker 1:And I remember one Sunday morning. I look at Tara when we wake up and I said, hey, we're having church at home this morning. And maybe that seems a little lazy, like a cop out. I promise you it's not. We still got ready. And maybe that seems a little lazy, like a cop-out, I promise you it's not. We still got ready. And my first podium was a couch cushion with my little iPad out in front and I read some scripture and I had a message and we listened to some worship on YouTube and that was our first church service. And the next Sunday we went to the facility that my family member has offered up to us to use. And that's how we're here Planted Church.
Speaker 1:We're a year and a couple of months into this thing, let's say a year and six months, maybe a year and a half or so, and it's different. Right, it's different, it's fun. We'll talk about some of the differences at other podcasts and other sessions of this, other parts of this. But we're having a blast, we're learning a lot, we're learning a lot about ourselves. We're we're. You know, good times, bad times, everything in between, I should even say bad times, it's all good times Met some wonderful people. Tara's family has moved down and they've jumped right in and are helping us. My family helps a good bit as well.