Over the last eight months as I’ve prepared to plant Eternity, I have had many many people try and talk me out of it. I’ve heard everything from “This is the hardest thing you’ll ever do” to “If you can do anything else - you should”. I’ve read the books on church planting, read the blogs, read article after article and they all make it seem like there’s a boogeyman out there just waiting to devour church planters.

After you hear enough of that you can either have two responses: 1) It really IS that bad and I don’t think I’m cut out for this at all or 2) It really ISN’T that bad and I’m going to be different.

I tend towards the second. I think I’m bulletproof. I’ve been through my share of trials in life and I’m pretty sure I can sail through church planting without succumbing to the boogeyman. Or that’s how I think if I don’t take time to stop and see reality.

And this week provided me with some reality. Over the next few posts, I’m going to share the thoughts and reflections of a church planter who by all accounts to me seems like a great guy. Intelligent, hard working, caring, loves God and Jesus and loves his family. He seems to have all the components that make up a good church planter. But the boogeyman found him. Mercifully, and by God’s grace, he’s not completely dead, just healing and preparing for the next battle. But I wanted you to hear his thoughts and his reflections. For me, and for all church planters, and for all of those who pray for us, these are words we need to hear.

This last summer for us was probably one of the most confusing, conflicting, disorienting, and disillusioning seasons we’ve ever had in ministry. We felt like something inside of us was dying. We felt empty, dry, washed up, burnt out, and useless. We questioned our call to our city, to our church and to ministry. We wondered if God even wanted to use us at all…anywhere. It was a dark night of the soul. Our emotions were like roller coasters. Our advisors were supportive, yet inside, we had no idea what we were supposed to do. We were lost, drowning and crying for help. When we finally said that we were going to resign, we did so with hesitation. It wasn’t like we had a sure plan of something we were moving on to. We didn’t know what to do, but we knew we couldn’t go on like we were.