What a way to start a church! It's certainly not the typical format for new church development. Where is the planning committee, the fund-raising, the arm twisting, the real estate deal acquiring the land, the faithful few who volunteer from other churches to give the whole thing its initial push? Not everyone has the personality to start a church from scratch, but Paul did. "I planted, Apollos watered," says Paul (1 Corinthians 3:6). Some preachers are just good at planting churches and getting them started.

My dad was good at starting churches. I remember when he started a new church development in 1955 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with all those services in an elementary school gym until the first building was built and all the enthusiasm as everyone worked together with a common goal. M…