Typically, church planters are given a vision and a call by God to a specific area for a specific reason with a specific mission. That is not my story. Some church planters go highly populated areas to start something they think they can do better than the those at the church they used to work for. That is not my story either.

I love my church. I love my pastor. My wife and I moved to Canton, Ga to commit 12 months to help grow and launch a campus we had been talking about for at least two years. But that was all we were willing to do and to be honest, 12 months felt like far too long to be away from our church family.  The problem was, when my Jamie and I instantly found renters for our house in Acworth, ended up in our #1 choice apartment complex when they originally told us nothing was available for a year, and saw the school our kids were going into was light-years ahead of the school they were leaving, we realized God was trying to tell us something.

All of sudden, out of no where, Canton felt like home. So much so, after only two weeks living there, a routine visit back to Acworth felt like a journey to a foreign land. That was it. Canton was our new hometown. We weren’t sure exactly what that meant but regardless we were confident we were staying in Canton.

Fast-forward through a lot of conversations, questions, and new developments on both the Cartersville and Canton campuses, and next thing I know I’m in a meeting with my pastor asking me to teach and lead the Oak Leaf Church Canton campus as a separate and independent church plant. Same name, same brand, same mission…but I would lead it? But I’m a singer. I’m only on stage with a guitar that acts like a force field between me and the audience.Uh…

You would think being on staff at Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, GA for the past three years had given me some church planting experience…but I was the one leading band practices not staff meetings. Having attended numerous church planting conferences and being around pastors at all different stages of their launch, you’d think I’d have some perspective of what to do…but I was paying attention to the music, stage design and lights.

So now I’m a church planter…sort of. I didn’t move to Canton with a call to plant a church in that city. I didn’t move here with a new mission or strategy. My family and I picked up everything and moved to a new city simply because God said go. Other than that, I’ve got nothing. And that is okay because I am confident I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

I guess now I’ll have to visit even more church planting conferences, read more church planter books (like Acts), and start using terms like pre-launch, core team, and momentum.