Starting small

I learned a long time ago that some of God’s best work starts with small moments that lead to movements.

We started this year by inviting some close friends to help speak into MVMNT Church. We spent time together planning and dreaming about what the coming year could look like and mostly wrestling with the significant need in our city for new churches.

One of the key learnings from the weekend was something that came up when we were addressing the question of “what will people think when they hear that a new church is starting in town?” I responded with something that I believe to be more true all the time; “They won’t care."

That might sound depressing, but to me it isn’t depressing at all. It’s reality. We live in a part of the city where people are walking their dogs on Sunday mornings and spending time outdoors with their kids. It’s not a community where people are actively looking for a new church to try out on a Sunday morning.

I heard Jay Pathak share recently that “ The church reaches people now the same way that it has reached people for thousands of years. It goes from one person to one person to one person, over and over again.”

We love immediate impact, but when you are trying to reach people in a place that doesn’t care about new churches, you need to start by recognizing that people are most likely to show up at church because someone invited them. Personal invitation still holds a power that marketing, social media, and advertising can never touch.

When a church begins to see its people invite their friends and family members to church, and when those people find a place that they love going to, movements happen.