What Does "Deal Or No Deal" Have To Do With Church Planting?

We're only about 3 weeks into this journey of committing our lives to beginning a new church. God took us through a whole process (over many months) of calling us to this exciting leap of faith. Ironically, one of the clinchers to discerning His work in our hearts occurred as we were watching NBC's popular game show, "Deal Or No Deal."

On this evening, one of the show's contestants had the chance to walk away with $111,000 or continue playing (with the chance for $1,000,000). The odds were against her. She took the risk and continued to play. I think she walked away with under $1,000. Trish and I looked at each other and asked what we would do with $111,000. Without thinking, I said, "I'd plant a church...that's two years of support we wouldn't have to raise!"

After thinking about it, I learned something from my response. That fact that my heart quickly communicated a desire to start a new church...if I only had the resources... indicated to me that what was holding me back from jumping full into church planting was not calling...it was money. If I'm really honest with myself, I'm afraid of not being able to find or raise the resources we might need to support our family, purchase equipment, do marketing, and rent space (all the stuff you have to finance in the first few years of getting a baby church off the ground).

The crucial part about this is that I've believed from the beginning of this journey (back in August) that God has clearly said to me, "Don't be afraid of resources." In a very real sense, right there in the comfort of my easy chair, I realized that church planting was no longer an issue of a choice between finding an existing church to pastor- it was an issue of obedience to God's calling and an issue of trusting Him for the needed resources.

"Deal Or No Deal" is a fun show. But, for me, it will always be more than that. Its a game of risk and chance. Church planting has a lot of risk to it. But, now that I know its an issue of obedience for me, we head willingly into the unknown. I know that God...Who has unlimited resources... is worthy of our trust and perfectly capable of meeting our every need to do His will. It's going to be fun to see what sort of "deals" He leads us through.