Last night, I preached on Colossians 1:13-23 about Basilica's first core value - Christ.

(Audio | Podcast)

In the intro, I said that "in one month, my job at Basilica will be done." I explained that while there is still plenty to do, and while there are thousands of people right outside our door who have never heard the gospel, my work as a church planter is coming to a close.

The reason - We will be ordaining 3 men into pastoral ministry on August 19th.

Titus 1:5
This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town...

The idea, I believe, is that the work of planting churches is done when there are local, indigenous leaders put in place to govern the church. This is what Paul was referring to in Romans 15...

Romans 15:19 & 23
...from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ... [and now] I no longer have any room for work in these regions...

Why does this mean that the job is done?

The goal of church planting is in the name... to plant a church where there was not one. Part of the vision for Basilica has always been that men who came to faith through the ministry of the church would be trained to be leaders of the church. These men would be truly indigenous... they are not transplants from other churches... they are products of what God is doing in and through this new church.

On August 19, 2009, we will ordain Jimmy Parks into pastoral ministry... a man who became a Christian at Basilica... a man who was trained in pastoral leadership at Basilica... will become a pastor of Basilica.

We will also ordain Jody Willis, who became a Christian at another local church 15 years ago, but was trained to be a pastor at Basilica, and Scott Foster, who has been a Christian most of his life, and has planted his flag, as it were, in our community, and is committed to serving as a minister of the gospel to our city.

My work is done because of these men. A church is now planted. Local leadership is in place. I have multiplied myself in these men.

Scott has even taken on the role of training another man who came to faith at Basilica in theology and pastoral ministry.

This thing is going. It is no longer the work of one person, but the work of multiple, qualified and godly men, who understand their role in the church.

Ephesians 4:11-16
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Switching gears:

Now comes the difficult part for me... switching gears. I know that I need to take a much smaller role in the miscellaneous duties that take place at Basilica, and empower others for that work. But, for a perfectionist like me, that is easier said than done.

But, this site is one of the ways I am preparing for exactly that. I will be handing off the webmaster work in a couple of weeks, and I wanted this one to play with. I hope to help others find/develop communication skills for writing announcements, taking care of the church calendar, managing podcasts, running set-up/tear down, talking to other churches about partnerships, etc...

Then, I can begin to focus my energies on being a pastor... one of four... who happens to be responsible for the bulk of teaching. Pray for me and Basilica during this transition. I believe that this is one of the most exciting, yet challenging, times in the life of our church thus far.