High School Musical
Nobody is more surprised by this than me, but Zach Efron taught me an important lesson. I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. When I first thought about this post, the song, “We’re All In Together” from High School Musical popped into my head. Crazy right? But not really if you consider that my two teenage daughters played that teeny bopper movie in our house with their friends singing these lyrics at the top of their lungs more times than I care to admit. There was a time when I might have had that thing practically memorized!
“Together is what makes us strong”. “Together it shows when we stand hand in hand, make our dreams come true”. Of course it’s ridiculous (it’s teen superstars singing and dancing; how could it not be?). But these lyrics made somebody a lot of money! And let’s face it, maybe Zack is on to something. Maybe together we can make our shared vision a reality.
Church planting can be a lonely world as can any entrepreneurial endeavor. The entrepreneur risks it all to chase after a dream but the fact is that a dream shared by others has a much better chance of success.
When we planted Lightshine Church, I knew a total of two church planters; my coach and Northland Village Pastor, Nick Warnes and my fellow Moorpark planter and friend Em Blattner (Grow Community). I soon discovered that planters can often feel isolated and alone. I learned this through personal experience and from widening my network of planters and listening to their stories.
Fish Bowl
This past October, I was selected for some unknown reason to join a group of 10 church planters from around the country to go to D.C. to receive training in how to coach other planters and help them start new churches. This was quite an honor as these were some smart and savvy Pastor’s. During this training we had to practice what we were learning on each other in some “fish bowl” coaching scenarios that our teachers observed and critiqued (very nerve wracking). In my final coaching session, I was asked to coach a very creative Pastor from Chicago through a real issue that she was having in her ministry. My job was to uncover what was at the core of the problem and to help her come up with some possible solutions that would enable her to get “unstuck”.
It didn’t take long to uncover the root of the problem. She shared about the struggle of trying to find a new facility that would meet her church’s needs (a problem for most church plants). But when I asked her how this struggle made her feel, the flood gates of tears started and didn’t stop for 20 minutes. The bottom line was that she felt alone in the struggle and no one else knew how she really felt. Heartbreaking.
Feeling Alone When Surrounded By A Crowd
The feeling of being alone even when you are surrounded by a crowd can be hard to take. I could feel her pain and it really struck a chord with me. She came to the realization that she needed to share how she was feeling with people that would surround her with love and care; people that would remind her that she wasn’t alone in this work.
Even in community we can feel isolated and alone. I am incredibly thankful that even when I feel isolated, I know that I am never alone in this mission, in this dream. I trust that God’s got my back and that we really are in this together! I am thankful for Lightshine Church; for it’s members, friends, and mission partners. Together we can accomplish far more than we can apart. No one in our church community should feel alone. We all need to pay attention to the people around us, letting them know that we care, reminding them that they are not alone. This is the lesson that I learned from Zach Efron; well, sort of, but you get the idea.
Robert Douglas - Organizing Pastor - Lightshine Church
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