“What has been the biggest surprise so far in church planting?”
This was the second question my friend Gena asked me and three other female church planters to answer at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures, during a panel on Church Planting for Women. I wish I could remember word for word the responses of the other three women. They were amazing. Here is my response (as of today):

Aside from God cleaning up my mess (see my last entry), one of the biggest surprises has been the duality of spiritual forces battling it out in our lives and in the lives of our neighbors.

God is clearer than ever in this work…during an extremely difficult time for us, we have been overwhelmed by the incredible bounty of God’s care: the way He is constantly comforting and strengthening us through our supporting churches, family, Christian friends and non-Christian neighbor, the way He has provided just what we need for this mission/work at just the right time is amazing (one tiny example – brand new school that is safe for our eldest son, opened six months before we moved here), the way He sends unexpected allies like the principal at that very same school to connect us to the community, the way He is so obviously here already, using other church planters in the area who are willing to work as a force with us without any territorial tendencies, the way He presents opportunities over and over again when and where we think doors are closed, and the list goes on and on.

Satan too, is clearer than ever. The ferocity of the darkness around us and in us is startling as well. Illness, violence, depression, fraud and hypocrisy, loneliness, poverty, fear of failure, the list goes on and on…

It’s amazing how the truth of the war of the spiritual realms is obvious on this battlefield (both East Hollywood and my own soul).

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To those women involved in ministry, what was your biggest surprise?

Categories: stories
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