About 10 years ago a complete stranger knocked on our door. 'I hear you're a Christian' he said. 'We are starting a Sunday School work and evening service; will you join us?'

I had just moved into the area to be near a church with a Reformed ministry. I was greatly enjoying this ministry after years of being without it. But the church was several miles away, too far to take people from my own area to the meetings. I had been praying God would work in the hearts of the people around me — they seemed to need Christ so much. Was this man's visit God's answer to my prayers? I explored the possibility of helping him. So began what may prove to be a lifetime commitment.

I want to look at the problems and privileges of such a pioneer work and close by pointing to a better way of approaching the work.

Problems⤒🔗

We were confronted with a huge new housing estate with no church on it. The existing churches in the area were either ecumenically-minded and not evangelical, or Arminian and pentecostal in outlook. There was little if any evangelistic work taking place on the estate.

A Meeting Place?←↰⤒🔗

The first problem we had was to find a suitable place to meet. The private housing estate had no community hall to hire.

We rented a youth centre and then a school hall and more recently we have been in an old church building off the estate. This has made a surprising and unexpected difference to our worship.

To meet in a school or some other non-'church' building makes it more difficult for people to identify you as a Christian church. Are you the Mormons or JW's or some strange sect? is a question people often ask.

Meeting in a school with a huge hall decorated with murals makes it difficult to concentrate on worship. The murals in particular can be distracting, especially when Jack is climbing up the beanstalk just behind the preacher!

To have a building which has been designed for worship and preaching is a great advantage.

What should the Church Believe?←↰⤒🔗

The church at present contains people who have Anglican, Baptist, Brethren and Pentecostal backgrounds.

The different traditions issuing from these has often been a problem. I found several things which I previously thought were biblical were really an expression of the tradition in which I had grown up. Insight and change takes time.

Initially we were helped by a mid-week prayer meeting and conversational bible study in Romans. This glorious book laid the foundations for our doctrinal agreement.

We then went through the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and adopted this and a constitution before we became formally covenanted together as a church. This initial process took two and a half years.

The doctrines of grace were considered important. But they proved to be a sticking point for some who, as a result, left us before we became a church.

All sorts of other issues have had to be dealt with. What was the church's view of Baptism, the Lord's Supper, Church government and the charismatic movement? What was the place of women in the church? How were our worship services to be organized? — and so on.

These issues caused problems and discussion. Compromises had to be reached if the fellowship was to remain together. What were primary issues — where there could be no compromise? What were secondary issues where perhaps we could agree on a compromise?

I found these things difficult to face as a young man with only a scientific background. A better grasp of Scripture and the theology which issues from it would have been invaluable.

What Standards should the Church Expect of its Members?←↰⤒🔗

How should you run the worship service? Who should be allowed to preach? Is the mid-week prayer meeting essential for all church members? Early on we were known in the area for strictness, rigidity and being too 'cold'. Why? Well, we would only ask preachers who were in basic agreement with the 1689 Confession; we firmly held to our Reformed Biblical beliefs and refused to join in local activities which compromised these; and we expected our members to attend both Sunday Services and the mid-week meeting if at all possible.

I have always found there has been a knife-edged tension on these issues — you have to walk straight down the blade and it is often painful. There is always the tendency to slip: to fall one way into rigidity — you make a rule and stick to it — or to fall the other way and bend with the wind.

The only sure foundation is to return again and again to the Scriptures. What do they say on the matter? How strict are they? How much liberty do they allow?

Sacrifices←↰⤒🔗

Never think church planting is easy. It demands sacrifices. Some of us have jobs which demand evening work, weekend work, professional meetings and much reading. If one is on a career structure the opportunity to advance one's career may have to be turned down in order to continue to devote time to the church.

In terms of time the demands are heavy on top of the secular work. It has been at least two evenings a week, all day Sunday and the equivalent of two Saturdays a month. If one has a job with long hours it means 'free time' is scarce, as is time with the family.

In terms of giving — there has to be discipline here — there is no denominational fund to bail you out!

As well as sacrifice in terms of career, time, and finance there are other sacrifices. All sorts of jobs have to be done which in a larger church would be done by people who had the talents to do them — this demands discipline and persistence. But God is sufficient!

Smallness←↰⤒🔗

When there are only four or five families in the church inevitably you have to work closely with people of different personality and temperament. This has caused us most problems — even among people who appear to be agreed on the central doctrines of the Scriptures and are agreed on a Confession of Faith. The differences in temperament have at times been very destructive of the harmony of the church. In a larger church you may avoid the man who always makes you bristle and argue but there is no way you can do this in a small fellowship! You have to learn by God's grace to love that person, support him, encourage him and work with him. In this problem, as in all the others, you are cast upon God again and again to supply you with grace to meet the need. How fitting it is that our God is a God of all grace!

Privileges←⤒🔗

What then are the privileges? They, as in all other Christian spheres of labour, far outweigh the problems.

Service←↰⤒🔗

To be able to serve the living God even in the smallest way is the highest form of service a man can desire. Men find it a great honour to serve the Queen, but we are able to serve 'the King of kings and Lord of lords who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light'. This is a tremendous source of joy.

In the church we have encouraged people to use the gifts God has given them, not because of the desperate need in a small fellowship for workers, but as an expression of love for their Saviour who loved them with an everlasting love and gave himself for them.

Each of us has had to do things that in a larger church would not have been required of us. This has cast us upon God and revealed in some of us gifts that we did not know were there. How much joy there has been in seeing God meet our needs and finding that God is sufficient!

All the toil, sadness, controversy and sacrifices are nothing compared to the joy of knowing that we are doing God's will, that God has come, blessed us with his presence, to equip us yet again for the work he has called us to do!

Fellowship←↰⤒🔗

If you are not at the meeting — you are missed. There is in a real way the sense that one of the family is missing — where are they, are they alright? Some people find this too much, but it is a great help in encouraging consistency in one's attendance at worship and the prayer meeting. As the fellowship is close there is joy in seeing one another grow in grace. You see how the grace of God has worked in your brothers and sisters over the years and praise God for his goodness!

There is that sharing in the work of prayer and evangelism which is sometimes very joyful, and sometimes sad. In a small fellowship all the members feel and share these things.

A Better Way?←⤒🔗

So much for a few of the problems and privileges, but is there a better way? Yes! The problems over what you believe as a church, the different backgrounds and inexperience among the members and leaders can be overcome more easily than we have done. How? The Biblical pattern is for existing churches to pray, to set aside their 'best' men (the church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas) and then send them in groups of two or three couples into areas around them where the gospel is not preached. The church then supports them with their prayers, counsel and finance. This is happening in Britain today. ¹

Does this not present a call to the churches? Are you a member of a large reformed church (60+ members) feeling your gifts cannot be expressed? Then lift up your eyes, look at the harvest field in your county or area. There are many towns and villages up and down the land with no truly biblical ministry, chapels rotting and closing. There are many new housing estates with no gospel witness at all. Men are perishing, living in the awful misery of a hopeless humanism; men whose lives are empty, without God, without hope, bound for hell. Do we not care? How will they hear without a preacher? Pray, brethren! Ask questions in your church meeting!

Pray and seek that in your church men with suitable gifts will be set apart for the work of church planting.