Church Planting is like construction. Church Replanting is more like farming. That image may carry some baggage for driven, entrepreneurial A-type personalities. Farming is hard, slow, long, dirty, and wearisome work and the results are greatly dependent upon a force that is absolutely out of your control\u2014the weather.<\/p>\n
You labor away, plowing the fields, sowing the seeds and watering the rows you planted. And then you wait\u2026..for the growth.One of the keystone verses for me as a Replanter has been Paul\u2019s description of his role and work in the church.<\/p>\n
“What then is Apollos? What is Paul?\u00a0Servants through whom you believed,\u00a0as the Lord assigned to each. I planted,\u00a0Apollos watered,\u00a0but God gave the growth. So\u00a0neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.\u00a0He who plants and he who waters are one, and each\u00a0will receive his wages according to his labor.<\/em> For we are\u00a0God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field,\u00a0God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:5-9<\/p>\n Paul recognizes that he plays a part in the work of the Gospel bearing fruit. He plants, Apollos waters. God is the one who makes it grow.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve found that in a church replant there are four stages:<\/p>\n