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 launched into the world successfully and with mutual joy. This happens through the selfless sacrifices of the sending church.
So as you think about our church planting process, think: raising and launching a teenager.
-Stephen Anderson
-Stephen Anderson