Planted and Plucked Up: Surrendering Expectations in Church Planting

Church planting always starts with a “yes.” We say yes and step out in faith to build a church – His church. The words of my collegiate pastor echo in my mind: “There will come a time when you have the chance to write God a blank check for your life.” My husband and I had a chance to live out Jesus’ words in Luke 9:24: “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it” (NIV). We signed our blank check on life to follow Him by saying “yes” to joining our closest friends in a journey to plant Seek City Church in Burlington, Vermont.  

Burlington is one of the most unchurched cities in the United States. There is a darkness over this city originating from many things: crime, drug addiction, homelessness, New Age spirituality, and deep-seated church hurt. Our team had a fresh vision and mountains of faith. We had leaders and coaches speaking life into us, encouraging us, and building us up to carry out this vision of salvation for the Northeast. We expected our church to be booming, that we’d start a movement that would spread like wildfire. Unfortunately, these expectations became my goal in our ministry – and everything else took a backseat.   

It starts with “yes,” but how does our “yes” fare when expectations are not met? When doors begin to close? When vision just isn’t enough? When strategy has run out? When we remain steadfast and the growth that everyone says will come…doesn’t? For us, planting began to feel like being buried. The soil was heavy with the lack of growth of our team, financial stress, distance from family and support, job loss, and a personal ongoing battle with infertility. These challenges made the already laborious journey of church planting seem nearly impossible. I started feeling buried by the traditions and expectations of what a “successful” church plant looks like.  

I thought we needed the building, lights, signage, social media presence, and all other modern amenities, and I worked hard to obtain these things. But I was missing the one thing, besides Jesus, that we needed – the people! I was creating a place that looked and operated like all the churches I had seen, for people who wanted nothing to do with that kind of church. I was busy building a place for people to come, to fit neatly into this church box, when that wasn’t what the people in my city needed. That wasn’t who they needed us to be. That wasn’t who God needed us to be. In my well-meaning efforts, I didn’t let God lead me to reach people the way He wanted me to. The Lord began speaking the words from 1 Corinthians 3:7 into my heart: “So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” When we said yes to the church plant, all the Lord was asking was for us to be obedient in following Him to fulfill the Great Commission. He didn’t ask us to have a foolproof strategy or methodical plans. He asked us to walk with Him and watch Him give the growth, especially when the growth looked nothing like we had planned.  

It is worth it to follow Him when our plan doesn’t work out, when the church has no new visitors for weeks or months on end. It is worth it to surrender our expectations, and everyone else’s, for what He wants for His church. Maybe all the work, stress, worry, and doubt is for the one He wants – one person, one life, one encounter, one moment. Isn’t the uncertainty of our plan and the perceived failure of our efforts worth the one? Maybe instead of rows of seats filled with eager hearts, it’s all just for one seat, one heart. Would that be enough? Would you still say yes?  

God, being gracious and merciful, led us out of our planting season. In His sovereignty, He plucked us up from our mission field, and is continuing to lead us through a season of transition. The Lord has taught me that following Him will look nothing like we expect, and I praise Him for it. Church, I’d challenge you with this: Do we dare rethink tradition in order to reach the unreachable? Are we forsaking the “one” for the image of a successful church? How is the Lord stirring the hearts of the church to think differently in order to look, love and lead differently? Psalm 77:13 says “Your way, O God, is holy”. I pray that we all would follow His way, and not our own.

About the Author

Erika VanArtsdalen

Erika VanArtsdalen is a follower of Jesus, wife to her husband Kelly, and church planter. She has been blessed with ministry opportunities around the country, such as leading youth and collegiate ministry in Ohio, serving a new church plant in North Carolina, and launching Seek City Church in Vermont. Erika enjoys serving children with disabilities in her community in her day job as a speech language pathologist. She also loves spending time with her family, baking, finding new coffee shops, and playing with her English bulldog, Myla. Erika and her husband recently relocated to Buffalo, New York, to begin another church planting journey!