When Nobody Else Shows Up: Reflections on Church Planting

Although Woody Allen isn’t someone people quote much these days, when I was just starting out in ministry, one of his quotes played on a loop in my head:

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

That is not me saying that any church or ministry we started grew because I showed up. But I did need to be there for God to work in and through me in each of those places.

But at the same time, like Paul, I recognise that even my ability to show up was a gift from God.

I want to share a couple of stories in this post.

What Are We Doing Here?

The first place I ever started a new ministry was at the University of Albany. I moved there in 1989, and over our first year, I gathered a few students.

A year later, Liz moved out to join me. And while a couple of other students showed up, we started year three in Albany with a grand total of one student.

I was starting to get the feeling that I might not be cut out for ministry.

But then something incredible happened. On the first Friday night of our third year, we had put up posters on campus, and about eight new students showed up.

It was so unexpected that the one returning student walked into our gathering, and immediately turned around and walked out because he figured he was in the wrong room.

Most of them stuck around, and some became lifelong friends.

Hello. Is Anyone There?

About a month later, I was sitting outside near one of the dorms one evening, leading a bible study.

Okay, that isn’t exactly how it happened.

The reason I was outside was because the student hosting the study in his room didn’t show up. But then again, neither did anyone else.

Just me.

It wasn’t the first time it had happened. It wouldn’t be the last.

But that night, I made a decision. Even if nobody comes, I’m still going to do whatever it is I’ve prepared. So I did. I sat there in the dark and cold, teaching something I’ve long since forgotten.

And this was well before mobile phones and Bluetooth devices, so if people saw you sitting outside and talking to yourself, they just assumed you were…well, a little bit off.

Magical Thinking

I want to be careful here. Christians too easily fall into what can best be called magical thinking.

Magical thinking works like this. I hear of someone who went through a situation similar to something I am dealing with. They explain what they did (or didn’t do) and how, at some later point. God came through and fixed their problem.

The magical thinking kicks in when I assume, if I do the same thing they did, then God will — or even must — resolve my problem.

There are so many problems with this mindset.

I just gave you a brief summary of the situation. You don’t have a full grasp of the context. Plus, like most people, I am a somewhat unreliable reporter. I believe I am recounting accurately what happened, but it was 30 years ago, and I’m sure there were other things going on as well.

I think my commitment to teach, even if no one showed, is significant, but there were countless other things that went into getting that ministry off the ground.

Of course, the biggest problem is that magical thinking causes us to treat God like a formula to be solved, rather than a King we give allegiance to.

There are things to learn from what we went through and what we did. But there is no formula to get something from God.

Why Didn’t I Quit?

There were so many times in those first few years in Albany when I wanted to quit. One Sunday night during year one, I parked my 1978 Ford LTD at the local grocery store, sat there and cried. What I wanted most was to pack up my stuff and sneak out of town.

But something else happened that night. I was reminded that I believed God called us to be there. And despite my current circumstances not bearing that out at all, I still believed it.

And so, that night, I committed that whenever I sensed God calling me to a place or a ministry, I wouldn’t leave until I sensed him saying it was time to go.

Now, I do think that there were some important spiritual principles at work here. The commitment to be faithful, to show up, even when it made no sense, even when those around us were saying, “maybe it is time to give up”, made a huge difference.

Same Story, Different City

Nine years later, Liz, I, and another person sat in a large empty room on the third floor of the Community School of Music and Arts building in Ithaca. We were about five months into our new church plant, and all of the university students had gone home for the summer.

It was ten minutes past the time for our worship service to start, and we were wondering where everyone else was. We were all still planning on worshipping and teaching with just the three of us (well, six of us counting our three kids).

However, I announced that I was going to go outside to remove our sign because I didn’t want anyone coming in and seeing that we were such a small church.

It’d be much better if they came next week…this week would be too weird. So I was going to hide.

Liz and the other person would not let me remove the sign. And sure enough, a couple of minutes later, an older couple walked in, they sat down, and we had an eight person worship service.

While it is fun to recount these stories years later, they are not fun experiences to go through. In the moment, this day felt awful.

Sometimes it Feels Like Plodding

But we’ve learned in our 35 years of starting campus ministries and churches that they are just part of the deal.

In large part because God doesn’t just want a new church, he wants to do a work in the people who are leading it.

As Liz and I have engaged in this process again here in Dublin, I’m frequently reminded of these experiences.

And I’m encouraged, which may seem like a strange word to use, but I am encouraged that we’ll collect more of these stories over the next few years. We may not share all of them publicly, but they are part of the process of starting something new.

It’s still hard. We’re okay with that.

Whatever Happened To?

I should wrap up those two stories above. The couple that came that Sunday in Ithaca — they didn’t come back for 2 months. And when they did, well, that was our second 6 person service of the summer. And strangely enough, they stuck around and were part of our church family for a few years until they moved out of the area.

That student in Albany — he became one of our student leaders in Albany, a good friend and is currently one of our ministry partners!

Even during those times when you look around and think, ‘we’ve hit bottom,’ there is often something God is doing — if you’re willing to hang around long enough.

What was a time when you kept showing up even when it was hard?

Photo: by Steve Barker on Unsplash