Why I'm NOT Planting | Pursuing Pastoral Succession
When Paul was speaking to the Elders in Ephesus he said, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24)
What is so compelling in the Gospel that makes people give their lives for that cause? What is it that changes the course of someone’s life completely like it happened with Paul? How can I be bold like him and say that with confidence? I am certainly not comparing myself to the apostle, but I know many other brothers and sisters in the faith have committed their lives with that assurance, so don’t you want that happening for you too?
When I came from Brazil to Orlando, I thought I’d be planting a church to reach Brazilians in Florida. The first plan was to have a Portuguese speaking church in Central Florida to reach the 300k Brazilians that are living here at the moment. Leaving your country is never easy, we came to a new country with five young children, not many friends but trusting that the Lord would help us through everything. “I want to go there to serve.” That was in my mind all the time.
In the beginning of the residency, I had some obstacles regarding immigration, my family in the adaptation process, and having to start the journey of planting a church not knowing how the future would be. Exciting, huh? That is when you have no external resources and you can only kneel before God and ask for his help. I think this is always the right place to be, even though we never want to go through trials to be there. That’s why God, who is a loving father, knows everything and orchestrates His story for his glory. It’s all about him.
Every monthly OCPN meeting I’d meet with new pastors and hear their stories, some of how hard it is to work a lot for the benefit of a congregation and have some people just leave because of trivial reasons. Anyways, in the beginning of my journey I met with great men who poured their wisdom and experience into my life, which I’m always thankful for. Between those times we came across a need for a pastor in the city of Lakeland, 50 min away from Orlando. The previous pastor has been serving that congregation for 40 years and is retiring in May/23.
When we first talked, he said he is looking for a pastor with a “church planting mindset” for his church. There are things we will need to work on to bring the congregation into a different pace of ministry. I was invited to preach there and then the elders invited me to consider pastoring them. It’s a great honor for me to be in that process of transition with this church. The people are warm and welcoming, the Lord has blessed this time and that is why I am not planting, but at the same time but for different reasons I can say, that is why I am planting.
Please pray for us while we board this new adventure for the Gospel. We need to plant, we need to “re-plant” , we need to continue the work of faithful ministries for God’s glory so we can saturate every city with the Gospel.
Blessings,
George