The Church Planting Itch – A Personal Reflection by Daniel Fusco

 (Note: This post was originally posted on my personal blogsite, danielfusco.wordpress.com.  Since it deals with church planting, I thought it wise to post it here as well)

I’ve been back in Marin for a total of three days since the Pastor’s Conference and in some ways it feels like three decades.  It’s weird how that can be.

So I went to the conference with lots of questions and wonderings before the Lord.  It seemed as if the conference came at a great time for me.  I felt as if I was at a crossroads personally, as well as ministerially, and I needed time away to really think and pray through the implications of it all.

Within a few days of being away, I felt as if the Lord had answered almost all of my questions.  I’m going to sit here and try and write them all out.  I think it will be both healthy for me to see them in print, as well as possibly edifying for others in some way.   This will be written in distinct parts as for it to be a readable length.

The Church Planting Itch

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a church planter.  When the discussion moves to church planting, I get all amped up inside.   I love grinding out the launch of a new church.  I love when there is nothing and then something starts.  Twice in the last six years I have gotten to experience the highs and lows of church planting.  My entire Christian life has been a whirlwind and when things start to settle down into a more consistent routine, I start getting antsy.

I left for the conference finding that I had become very antsy about stepping out and planting another church.  As Calvary North Bay has matured, I find that the needs there are different than what they once were.  My role has become more managerial in many ways.  The emphasis moves from pioneering to quality control.   And I don’t love the change.  I find that my personality is better suited to pioneering.  As things become more routine, I begin to feel like a caged animal.  That is what I’ve been feeling for some time now.  I have often wondered if it is a personality flaw or a Divine calling. It’s probably both, depending on if it’s functioning in the flesh or in the Spirit.

Recently I had begun to romanticize stepping out again to plant another church.  But the problem was this, “Where can I go that is tougher than where I am right now?”  I planted in New Brunswick, New Jersey and that was a distinct challenge.  Urban, college town, highly liberal, almost no contemporary BiblicaL church in the city.  It was hard and fun and God blessed the work as He molded me and broke me in.  Then off to Mill Valley, which is a few short miles outside of San Francisco in Marin County.  I know that everywhere is a challenge when you are ministering the Gospel.  But this place is, well, completely out of control.  Spiritually oppressive, excessively liberal and wealthy, extremely well educated, and Post Post Modern.  The Lord has mightily blessed the work here (by Southern Marin/SF standards at least).  But still I’ve been wondering if at this point, my giftings were better suited to see someone else navigate this new season at CNB, much like Pastor Jason Falzarano is doing in New Brunswick.

But then it hit me.  There is no tougher place in the States to go.  I’m standing in the hardest soil in the continental US.  It’s exciting to have the Lord renew His vision in your heart.  I am right where He wants me to be!  An Apostle to the Excessively Liberal!

But then the question comes: Well what do I do now?

The Lord has ministered to me in three areas for this new season in ministry here.

1) Plant 10 churches in 10 years in Marin County and San Francisco

The Bay Area is very tribal.  People are community centric.  We feel that it will be more strategic to have 10 churches of 50 people (each in a different community) than to have 1 church of 500.  We’ve targeted the Marina Area of San Francisco (just over the Golden Gate Bridge) and Northern San Rafael as the first two places.  How this will take shape in the coming months I do not yet know.  But one idea is for me to be the planting pastor (of at least one of the new churches) and see the church grown up to about 50 or 75 people and then turn the ministry over to another pastor.  This way I can still minister to the body in Mill Valley (which will be a sending station) and leverage my church planting passion to see churches multiplied in the Bay Area.  Please keep it in prayer for me.

2) The Calvary Church Planting Network

The conference showed me the necessity and the efficacy of the Church Planting Network.  I met many pastors who have been utilizing the resources and wanting to be further involved.  I got a chance to minister to many men about the young churches that they are pastoring, planting, and hoping to plant.  I received many requests for articles on specific topics (as well as some requests to finish article series that I had yet to complete).  Many folks were wanting to partner with us in the work of blessing and assisting church planters who are on (or heading to) the field.  So in the coming 6 or 8 weeks, I am hoping to completely overhaul the church planting site.  Lots of new articles and resources are on the way.  There has also been much discussion about a Church Planting Conference of some sort.  I’d love to see this happen.

3) The Establishment of a Church Planting Internship

As I flew home from the conference, I was reflecting on a conversation that I had with my pastor, John Henry Corcoran, over lunch.  He was encouraging me to make sure that I am actively raising up church planters personally and not just through technological mediums (phone, email, websites, etc.).  I already have a pretty thick schedule of guys who I am pouring into.  But then it dawned on me, the way to ensure that we can see 10 churches planted in 10 years here in the Bay Area (as well as seeing church planters being well equipped) is to come up with an intensive training for potential church planters that we can run here in Mill Valley.  As I began to write on the plane, a one year intensive came flooding out of me.  We’d like to begin with 2 men who feel called to plant churches and have had that calling and gifting confirmed by their pastors and peers.  We’d have them come to Mill Valley and commit to a one year program that consists of numerous training modules (preaching, administration/legal, leadership development, outreach, church planting 101, etc), discipleship, and hands on ministry experience in a younger church.  The goal would be at the end of year, the planter will have learned and created everything needed try and launch a church (including have all legal, structural, technological, and vision casting elements done).  At the end of the year, those who not only completed the program but also showed that the Lord had called and equipped them by excelling would be sent out by us.  We’re also hoping that this intensive can be something that is reproducible in other churches that have a similar church planting vision.  This is all in its infancy stages but once the juices get flowing, there is no stopping it.