Jan 20, 2021
By Pastor Chuck Meathrell
Possibly the toughest thing I have ever had to do as a pastor is to move on from Jacob’s Well Church in South Carolina. I have sometimes felt that it must be something like sending your child off to college. You hope and pray that she remains focused, that she clings to the King, and that she hangs onto the lessons you strove to teach her for all these years. I suppose I was never terribly worried that Jacob’s Well would suddenly lose track of its values; we just didn’t want to say “goodbye.” This church was our baby.
I guess it probably sounds a little condescending to talk about the church like she’s a child, but I don’t mean it that way at all. You go through many of the same kinds of struggles as a church planter that you do as a parent. There is a lot of triumph and there are a lot of tears. You do a lot of laughing and sometimes there may even be a tantrum. You try to teach generosity and faith. You even do some disciplining. I was never very good at that.
I think there needs to be a book on this just for us. There are more books on church planting than you can shake a stick at. There are not, however, any books that talk about planting a Seventh Day Baptist Church. Obviously, planting a church brings with it some challenges that are absolutely unique to our denomination. This article addresses three of those challenges.
Challenge #1: They’re Not All Going to Be Glad You’re There.
Early on in the church planting process, I put together a blog post entitled “Churches, Churches Everywhere…and Not a Drop to Drink.” I had been challenged a number of times by individuals noting the phenomenon in America’s Deep South of “a church on every corner.” It’s not only a cliché; it’s a real thing. My challenge back to them was always that, first, they were not talking about churches but church buildings. Secondly, being that the American church is in something of a numerical freefall, the churches were no longer meeting the need in the community. This was the inspiration for the article’s title. Last but not least, I was not answerable to them but to the God who was sending me out.
Another issue we faced was simply that other churches either looked upon us as a kind of competition and were often not interested in working alongside us or just thought we were weird. They assume we’re Adventists or some snake-handlers and reject any relationship out of hand. You go to church on Saturday? What is wrong with you?
The point here is that you shouldn’t expect the world around you and your church plant to think it great news that you are there. Even the local churches may not be delighted at your arrival.
Challenge #2: Be Prepared to Be Kind of Lonely
They didn’t teach this part in seminary — possibly because they didn’t know.
When we planted Jacob’s Well Church, the nearest SDB congregation was nearly three hours away and our main connection was with the Metro Atlanta Church which was more than four. There have certainly been a lot of wonderful Sunday-goers who were supportive but they could never grasp what it is to be a Seventh Day Baptist. We’re just different. To top all this off, there were not a lot of us doing SDB church planting in those days, or at least not that we knew of.
What this all meant is that we spent time being rather lonely. It was just the six of us and often it felt like we were on our own. Since then, social media and the advancement of telecommunications have made these connections a lot easier —and I hope you all will avail yourself of them in your support of church plants across the USA, Canada, Mexico, and around the world.
Challenge #3: It’s GOT to Be a Team
This is more of a tip than a challenge — but it can be particularly tough to achieve in our little denomination.
Church planting takes teamwork. This is a hugely important detail. You’ll be making your own work a lot tougher if you go in with a plan to start a church on your own. There should be more spiritual gifts than just your own. More heads than just yours. You need others to sing with and weep with. Taking care to do so will help you cope with challenge numbers one and two.
I am more thankful than I can say that Jessica and I had the Catoes to help and encourage us in those early days. Simply put, the church would not exist today without them. It’s odd to think now that two of the three of them have passed away and the Meathrells have moved to Ohio. None of the original founders are part of the church, but it continues actively today.
If I had to do it all again, I would jump in. I would still be lonely and offended by the rejection of other Christians — but I look back on those days as being some of the most refining days of my life. Church planting is extremely hard stuff but it is Kingdom stuff. Be prepared, if you are called to it, to hurt and laugh and sing and weep. Just like parenting, it brings all the best stuff.
Pastor Chuck Meathrell is thankful and humbled to serve as the pastor of the Pataskala SDB Church in Ohio since spring, 2020. He lives in Pataskala, OH, with his wife and three sons.
