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    Embrace: A Church Plant that Broke All the Rules
    Embrace: A Church Plant that Broke All the Rules
    Embrace: A Church Plant that Broke All the Rules
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    Embrace: A Church Plant that Broke All the Rules

    By Rosario Picardo

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    About this ebook

    Rosario Picardo was a recently divorced and slightly jaded ex-Marine when he heeded God's call to plant "a church for broken people." This book chronicles the struggles and triumphs of Embrace Church, from its beginnings in his basement as a rare urban church plant to a multi-campus congregation that reaches hundreds of folks broken by poverty, burned by Christians, and in need of healing grace. By telling his story, Picardo hopes to inform, inspire, and encourage seminary students, future church planters, and any Christian committed to expanding the body of Christ among marginalized people in urban areas. Alongside relevant data and theological insights, Picardo shares the practical lessons he learned, as well as personal journal entries about his internal struggles, in order to offer a comprehensive glimpse into not only the need for new church plants, but the difficulties and opportunities that exist in this sort of ministry.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResource Publications
    Release dateJan 7, 2014
    ISBN9781630871499
    Embrace: A Church Plant that Broke All the Rules
    Author

    Rosario Picardo

    As Ginghamsburg's Executive Pastor of New Church Development, Rosario (Roz) Picardo partners with Senior Pastor Mike Slaughter and the leadership team to dream and deploy new faith communities within the Ginghamsburg community of churches. He also provides for the oversight and growth of the Dayton campuses, partnering with Pastor Jon Morgan at the Fort McKinley Campus while also currently serving as the campus pastor at The Point Campus in Trotwood. Roz is an Ordained Elder within the United Methodist Church, holding a Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Ministry from United Theological Seminary. He leads a consulting group for church planters/pastors called Picardo Coaching LLC and is the author of Embrace: A Church Plant That Broke All the Rules and Get to Work: Recovering a Theology of Bivocational Ministry. Bef

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      Book preview

      Embrace - Rosario Picardo

      1

      The Journey of a First-Time Church Planter

      This is so cool, I thought to myself. I can’t believe a church would hold a service in a vineyard! As I was visiting a growing suburban area of Atlanta, I came across a United Methodist Church plant’s preview service on Christmas Eve, which gave me a taste of what their weekly services would look like in the future. The place was packed with about four hundred people. There was plenty of excitement and energy in the air. The young pastor was formerly an associate at a larger church and had been sent out with a launch group to start the new endeavor. Before they even launched on Sunday mornings the church plant had staff in place, all the equipment they needed, the momentum to get the ball rolling, and a growing suburban setting with the financing from a supporting, established church to back them.

      I heard the church continued to expand and was already talking about purchasing land only three short years later. We hear stories like this and get excited. And why not? While this isn’t the typical story for a church planter, stories like these are often presented as the norm. But I have to admit this was not my church planting experience. As I was watching new churches launch, like this one on Christmas Eve and others, I began to feel insecure and fearful. I had thoughts like I could never start a church like so-and-so, and I could never have that many people, and the list goes on and on. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. I talk with planters frequently who struggle with similar thoughts. Ministry is tough no matter one’s context, but it is especially difficult when starting a new faith community. It is typical to have self-doubt, feel alone, and be tempted to isolate yourself when you feel like a failure.

      Often books on church planting are about growth gimmicks, models, and an overall sense of how great someone was at starting a new faith community. A cookie-cutter methodology gets passed along as a one-size-fits-all method without considering context and the way the individuals involved are uniquely gifted and wired by God. The Christian culture has romanticized church planting to the point that it has done a disservice to aspiring planters. It becomes way too easy to forget that not all plants make it. I think this sets up younger people, especially, with the assumption that all church planting efforts are successful. Many young church planters enter the fray like I did. They like the idea of planting, have a grand vision, and big dreams about the church’s success, but when the work starts they quickly realize that their expectations were misguided. If you are a church planter, potential planter, or current church leader, I want to level with you about my experience. I hope you find this book informative, inspirational, and transformative as you approach your own challenges in starting a new faith community or being a part of a launch team. The planting season of a new work is incredibly difficult, and often comes with huge expectations and little reward. Planting a new faith community requires patience and endurance, especially when battling the many unrealistic expectations that surround the task.

      These unrealistic expectations may come from denominational leaders or even from oneself. I have to admit that I’m my own worst critic. My self-doubt was exacerbated by the apparent expectation that every new church needs to be a megachurch that is immediately self-sustaining financially and building its own facilities. Honestly, when I launched Embrace Church I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I didn’t receive training or many resources. I didn’t have an auditorium full of people or even a house full of them, but I had a compelling vision that I felt God had given me. It was that vision that would not let me quit even during the numerous times when I wanted to give up. It is my personal experiences in the field that have given me a special heart and burden for those who are brave enough to answer the call and start new faith communities in hope of reaching people who need it most.

      Before I dive into the nuts and bolts of church planting along with my rollercoaster journey, I need to help you get a glimpse of who I am. Years before I had ever thought about church planting, while I was in recruit training for the Marines at historic Parris Island, South Carolina, I discovered the fire of evangelism inside me. I quickly became the prayer leader for the platoon. At night, when the other recruits would hit the rack, a few would wake me up out of my sleep. This is never a good sign in boot camp because it usually means a blanket party, where you get physically pummeled. Thankfully, that never happened. I was shocked when they wanted prayer. I would pray for these recruits to pass their fitness tests, for their home life, and even for my drill instructor’s house to sell—and guess what? It sold! The drill instructor was so convinced I had a special connection with God (I didn’t. Part of me thought it was luck, but I took the drill instructor’s word for it.) that he had me pray on graduation day that the sky would clear up from all the rain. About five minutes later, it did. God was answering my prayers. Since then, I have never seen anything like it. When I left recruit training, I was being called Rev by my fellow platoon mates and even the drill instructors.

      When I returned to Houghton College for fall semester, I started thinking about military chaplaincy. However, I still had some growing up to do. I was hanging with the wrong crowd even though I still had a pocket of good friends who surrounded me and loved me no matter what I did. As a student, I was known for making a few of the resident assistants cry. As a freshman, I was taking seniors out to get drunk who had never even had a sip of alcohol touch their lips. I knew I had a decision to make. By the end of my sophomore year, I decided to surrender my life fully to Christ and to pursue his calling. I quit hanging out with my old friends and quickly became a leader on campus.

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