A Church Underground

Farmers understand church planting better than most.

I spent today with a potato farmer whose family has farmed in St. Johns County, Florida for generations. He offered to drive me around the county to orient me to the place we believe God is leading us to plant a new church. Along the way I learned everything I could ever hope to know about how to plant, grow, and harvest potatoes.

I had never really considered that potatoes don’t have seeds. Apparently, if you want to multiply potatoes, you plant a seed potato…underground…in the dirt...and wait for the harvest.

Churches don’t have seeds either. If you want to multiply churches, you plant a seed church…underground…in the dirt…and wait. That is what New City Church is right now – a church plant…a church underground. And make no mistake, in order to plant something you have to get dirty. Church planters and those who plant with them are willing to get dirty because they know that harvest will be worth it.

But what kind of soil are churches planted in? Churches are planted in the soil of lostness. St. Johns County is a prime place for a new church because in the last five years, 55,000 people have relocated there, many of them desperately lost and far from God. That is fertile ground for gospel growth. Jesus said as much in Luke 10:2: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”