I spent some time yesterday in the Old Testament Walk Through the Bible seminar.  It was a great Old Testament overview and I plan on using what I learned to help me teach my kids better.  The instructor made an interesting observation about the Dead Sea.  He stated that the Sea of Galilee flows into the Jordan River, which then flows into the Dead Sea.  The problem is the Dead Sea has no outlet.  It consumes but does not give back out.  This causes a built up of salt which hampers animal life, thus its name the “dead” sea.

I couldn’t help but be struck with the parallels of this story from nature to the spiritual life.  We often see this principle in the life of the church, where a small percentage serve and give out while the rest consume.  We also know that true life isn’t found in consumption but in giving ourselves away.  It’s a paradoxical truth that Jesus modeled and we continue to struggle with.  Here are some Scriptures to consider:

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” – 1 Peter 4:10 NLT

“And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”  – Acts 20:35 NLT

“He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, ‘Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.’” – Mark 9:35 NLT

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 19:18

I’m sure you could come up with many more examples.  So what does this have to do with church planting?  The temptation in planting is to create a Sunday service that is so cool that everyone will come and consume it.  While, there’s nothing bad about doing a service with excellence, it’s God honoring when done with the right heart, if that is all you do then you will simply be teaching your new congregation better ways to consume.  Rather than leading them to life, you will be leading them to death.  This is why it is so important to establish early on a DNA of service.  I worked with a church planter last year who used service as a litmus test for his planting team.  If you weren’t willing to serve, you couldn’t be on the team.  No consumers allowed.  While many could disagree with this approach to building a team, I think we could all agree that as a Church we need to raise the bar for discipleship and as pastors not be satisfied with people sitting in the chairs/pews and simply consuming.