I resonate with the first few verses of First Corinthians Chapter 3...
I'm often very carnal, and need to be preached to as such, but occasionally I'm more in Paul's role of speaking to the "church people" who must still be talked to/at as carnal humanity.
I spend a few hours a week helping in a
church plant in one of the most
overchurched towns in America, Cleveland, TN. And countless more hours talking with other people at various stages of the church planting journey, from
pre-launch to several years in to a "successful" church plant.
As I was reading today, I fell into a couple words I've often thrown away, verse six"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."
A few translations use growth instead of increase, but this is not one of those verses that gets dramatically different if you use
NIV,
KJV,
ESV, etc...
No, it wasn't my first time noticing the verse, there is a biblical example of church planting there! It's ultimately all about God! But I had never really paid attention to those two words in the middle,
Apollos watered.In most of my conversations with church planters there is lots of talk about me this and God that, but it's a rare occasion that we start talking about their "Apollos" the person(s) that will water the work.
In order to do the watering this person(s) need a few basic skills--
3.
They must have desire--Few things could be worse than having to use the laborer who needs to be constantly coaxed into helping...if they don't want to be involved, you are better off focusing your energies elsewhere. There may be a way to motivate that desire up a few notches, but if its something you are spending lots of time and energy on, look elsewhere.
2.
They must have water!--In any organization, especially at the beginning we'll sometimes accept any help we can get, but this can often choke and slow long term progress because those given responsibility don't have the skill necessary to complete the task...it can even make things worse because now you're focusing attention away from your primary objectives onto fixing the mistakes that these eager water sprinklers made. One way to prevent this is by spending more time up front in the training and equipping before you send them outside with their water pale to get to work.
1.
They must have direction--some need more than others, but you'd never just give someone a bucket of water and say go put this outside if you had a specific place that needed watered; tell them and show them, but be careful not to micro-manage, this will not allow them to come up with better solutions than you ever would have.
It seems that anything worth planting is worth watering, so who is watering your plant, and what are you doing to make sure they succeed? If you focus on planting and equipping others to water, God can cover his part!
