Explorer or Pioneer?

I have always been impressed with pioneers who embraced the risk of the unknown and uprooted their family in the hope of a better life.  Many sold their land, packed everything into a wagon, and started a new living from scratch.  It was a hard life, and many of the early pioneers in the States were on their own.  They faced dangers from wild animals, prairie fires, freezing winters, and hacked an existence out of the bush.  I enjoyed reading the Little House on the Prairie book set as a kid, amazed by the diligence of the hard-working Ingalls family.

Something I have been thinking about lately is the relatively recent emphasis on "church planting."  I believe being led by the Spirit is a critical factor in seeking to fulfill your calling.  It is important to examine our personal motives through the lens of scripture.  It is interesting all Christians are called to make disciples, yet I do not see any specific call in the Bible to plant churches.  Paul went spreading the Gospel, sowing the good seed of God's Word, and churches grew out of those divinely inspired efforts.  I do not think his motive was to "plant churches," but individual fellowships grew from disciples being made.  Jesus is the foundation upon whom the church is built.

Sometimes efforts to plant a church before making disciples can presumptuously place the cart before the horse.  The church is in need of pioneers who are willing to invest themselves making disciples in an existing church, family, friends, co-workers, or in people they meet.  I think some church planting could be compared to explorers who are keen to go to distant lands and claim territory for their denomination, church, or even themselves.  Like explorers who land on a beach and claimed  territory with a flag pushed into the sand, people can approach starting a church in the same fashion.  They fire up a website, develop a vision statement, establish a meeting place and schedule, have a faithful  few, but after a short while head off for a new conquest.  History is filled with explorers who became famous, but it is countless unknown men and women who committed themselves to settle who did an enduring work.  Explorers and pioneers had different motives, and so do Christians today.  God can use both, and only God knows our hearts.

Are you willing to be a pioneer for Christ?  You don't even need to leave your church to do so.  Every Christian can follow Jesus make disciples right where we are, and to that end we all ought to labour until God moves us to a new claim.  It won't be our claim, but His.  God will build His church, and what a blessing it is to serve and be part of it.