Hello, friends. I'm Aaron, a common pastor, church planter, aspiring coffee roaster and sometimes author. My greatest joy is co-creating with the King in his ongoing, unfolding Kingdom work. This is where I process some of what I’m learning, unlearning and relearning. Welcome.
All in Mission
"If you don't believe demons are real, try planting a church. You won’t get very far in advancing God’s kingdom without feeling resistance from the enemy." - Darrin Patrick
“There’s nothing new under the sun.” Go ahead and admit it. You’ve not only heard this phrase, you’ve said it. Perhaps numerous times. It’s a common one in our Christian vernacular. So let me go ahead on the record and say this: I don’t like this phrase. More importantly, I don’t think it’s true. I think Solomon was wrong.
I love church planting. I’ve committed much of my life to it. My passion is to see new churches planted that transform lives, serve neighborhoods and impact cities. But over the years I’ve seen a kind of church planting that I worry has the potential of doing as much damage as it does good.
When my dad began to sense that God might be calling him to plant a church someone gave him a sheet of paper that would hang on our refrigerator for years. At the top it read, “Future Church Planters: Count The Cost!” As a young man I remember really disliking that sheet of paper. I found it depressing; nihilistic even. Over the years, however, I would come to understand why my dad returned to that sheet of paper so often: He was living it.
It is very possible to plant churches and never get around to actually making disciples.
Yesterday I received a text message from a good friend that caused me to slam my phone down in disgust.
My friend had just delivered a large order of sandwiches to a church here in town to the tune of $1,500. He shared with me that it took he and another employee the majority of the morning to prepare the nearly two hundred box lunches. Although this church has a reputation for never tipping the delivery drivers from the business where my friend works, he thought surely they would tip this time. The order was enormous and the church had requested a discount. Perhaps, if nothing else, the church would tip the 10 percent discount to those who served them.
There is a special place in my heart for skeptics. You know who they are, right? Skeptics are the ones who are always questioning things. They are always asking questions like, Is this really true? Is that really what happened? Can that leader or organization really be trusted? Are their motives really what they say? Where is the fine print? When is the bait and switch coming, really?
For as long as I can remember I’ve loved the work of Vincent Van Gogh. In college I had a couple of his paintings hung in my cramped little freshman dwelling – his Cafe Terrace at Night displayed prominently between Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews posters. There is just something about the rich color and deep emotive quality of his work that has always struck a deep chord in me. It wasn’t until fairly recently, however, that I learned about Vincent Van Gogh, the man. What I learned was shocking.
