“Please Mommy! I promise I won’t get sick. I just want a couple.”
My three-year-old daughter peered at me with longing eyes as she gripped the box of cookies in her hand. We had just gotten home from a birthday party where she indulged in enough sugary treats to put her father to shame (and that’s difficult to do).
At that moment, I knew that this was going to end badly for her if I allowed it. I knew that there would come the point of no return when her stomach would begin to reject the copious amounts of unhealthy food, and regret would eventually set in. I knew because I had been there myself. Experience had allowed me to see what my daughter was blinded to: too much sugar can eventually lead to an awful tummy ache.
Parenting is filled with these types of conversations. Having a few more years of living under my belt has allowed me to see things that my daughter, with her limited experience, is still figuring out.
In the same way my children need me to help them see the world through my eyes of experience, church planters need those who have gone before them to do the same.
Veteran church planters play a vital role in the pioneering effort of church planting because they have trodden the same paths, worked with similar soil, and waged war against the same enemy. Their years of pioneering work have allowed them to see through the eyes of experience what the new church planter cannot. So when my husband and I began the process of starting a new gospel work in our community, we knew we needed the involvement of men and women like this.
There are three areas that veteran church planters know to explore in a pioneer church planter: the hands, the head, and the heart.
This article was previously posted at Acts 29 West. To read the full article click here.
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