It's a helpful metaphor to think of a church plant like a teenager. In a healthy family a teenager is being prepared to be sent out into the world as a fully-functioning independent adult. Over time the teenager moves from totally dependent on the parents to independent and self-sufficient. It's a process. When the time comes, the young adult carries the family DNA and the familial relationship out into the world but creates a new household. That's the goal. Raising and launching a young adult is a sacrificial act on the part of the parents. The same is true with a church plant. The church plant moves from dependence on the sending church (parent church) to independence. And just like adolescence, both parties have to navigate the tensions of an ever-changing balance of dependence and independence, of control and freedom. And, yes, also money. But in healthy loving relationship the church plant (like the teenager) can develop and be launch...