Here at Quarry Ridge we’re very much aware of the difficulty – the “puzzle” – of being a young start-up church. Being Christ’s Church in the world is an enigma of sorts. We’re living out a calling and a life that is not easily explained or understood by many people, and our daily work poses a unique difficulty as we work to achieve something we’ve come to call “breakthrough momentum.”

Have you ever stopped to wonder why Christ-followers “do church?” Lots of people have – on a regular basis. There’s a sense of mystery to it’s purpose, and no one can quite explain it in a way that allows us to say “Ohhhh – THAT’S why we do this!” I want to help everyone understand it, once and for all, and in such a way that you should be able to explain it in your sleep. Are you ready?

Why Church? Christ’s Church exists:
to glorify God,
to grow believers in their Christ-likeness, and
to give ourselves away in service to Christ, sharing His Good News in the world

We call it the “3Gs” - Glorify – Grow – Give. But there’s more.

Under each of those three pillars of the New Testament Church are two strengths or values or measuring sticks we use to describe or quantify our growth.

Glorify God
Worship (John 4:23-24)
Love (Mark 12:30-31)
Sometimes referred to as our VERTICAL ministry (to God) or our UPWARD focus, these deal with our hearts connecting to God.

Grow in our faith
Grow (2 Peter 1:5-8)
Belong (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Sometimes referred to as our INTERNAL ministry (the Holy Spirit growing us) or our INWARD focus, these deal with developing our inner being.

Give ourselves away
Serve (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)
Tell (Matthew 28:18-20)
Sometimes referred to as our HORIZONTAL ministry (our ministry to others on God's behalf) or our OUTWARD focus, these deal with living out our love for others as we seek to help reconcile them to God.

These are the words and phrases we use to describe the three core reasons the Church exists – and the six areas each of us should work on in our lives as Christ-followers.

Why is that so hard, and why is Quarry Ridge doing the whole “Church Start-Up” thing?

There can be various reasons why a new church starts up. The main reason is that God ordains it; it’s His plan. Another reason might be that there is an opening or an opportunity for a new church in a particular area. There could be a lack in the spiritual growth in the lives of Christ-followers causing Christian leaders to opt to start fresh rather than salvage something that isn’t working. There can be many more reasons – but most fall under these two: God starts a new work where there is an “opening” or a “lack.” The leaders of Quarry Ridge sensed God leading us to start a new work because of a boom in housing starts in Sylvania township, as well as a large and growing non-Christian population in the area. In addition, we all had a strong desire to grow more deeply as disciples; we sensed a sort of “lack” in our spiritual lives that would only be met by stepping away from the comfort of an existing congregation to embrace the “wild” of starting a new church.

God started Quarry Ridge, and called and gifted a small group of believers because of an opening: we saw that He had provided an opportunity for a new church to make a difference in a growing community and a new group of people moving into the area. We were blessed to be able to partner with God to open a new “frontier!”

God started Quarry Ridge, and called and gifted a small group of believers because we were yearning to grow and be used by Him. We came from different churches with different concerns and different opinions and God used these differences to grow us up and grow us together.

What we have found is that there is one unifying trait that has been universally present in the lives of the people who helped start Quarry Ridge and who have stayed through the rough times associated with opening a new frontier: a pioneering spirit!

God called us – and imbued us with a pioneering spirit – in order for us to work hard together to start this new work. This pioneering spirit has been a necessary ingredient for our work of starting a new work for God. It’s the same spirit that sends missionaries to Muslim countries; it’s the same spirit that sends the well-to-do into the financially- and socially-oppressed ghettos of America; it’s the same spirit that sends the young-at-heart to the rural areas of our country where churches need building and clinics need staffing; it’s the same spirit that jumps in where help is needed, but no one has yet answered the call.

1. A pioneer for Christ is willing to do without.

• We know we won’t have huge programs and large missions budgets and after school programs and camps.

• We know that we’ll have no building for awhile, and when we do it won’t be a cathedral, but more along the lines of a portable school building.

• We know we’ll have few frills when it comes to worship and not so many bells and whistles for our children’s education and youth events.

But we also know – that as we do without – we have so much more that the Lord gives us. In a church start-up, where we are aware that our children and youth ministries do not have all the bells and whistles, we are very much aware that the best Christian education and training takes place in our homes where we have over 3,000 hours a year to impact our children for Christ. We’re assisted by our young church who has less than 100 hours a year to talk to our children about Christ – but the vast majority of Christian education is done at home as we walk together and eat together and rise up each morning and go to bed each night.

As we willingly do without the “wow” factors, we gladly accept a better alternative: the men and women of our church family role-modeling Jesus to our children! Our boys and girls learn so much from the men and women of Quarry Ridge. In Titus 2 we are told: “. . . train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure. . . to be kind. . . so that no one will malign the word of God. . . encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned. . .” (Titus 2:4-8)

The adults of Quarry Ridge are learning to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance - to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers. . . and they are teaching our young people what is good. If we had to pay for the training these adults give our children – we couldn’t afford it no matter how big our church might be!

2. A pioneer for Christ has a desire to push the boundaries.

• We’re out here in the boondocks launching a new work for Jesus.

• We’re doing things differently – emphasis on community, D-Teams that insist on growth, and hands-on missions rather than sending money.

• We do “Gatherings” and “Summer Blast Events” to attract people and to use as tools to invite and include our friends and family.

• We’re alone, raising our own financial support, choosing our own mission fields, training our own leaders.

3. A pioneer for Christ appreciates hard work.

• We toil and strain to load in and set up – only to tear down and load out after a couple of hours – and we do that week after week for the last 230+ worship celebrations over the last 4½ years!

• We have adopted our community, even though many of our core group drive 10 miles to get here each week – and might drive it more than once a week for D-Teams, rehearsals, and meetings.

• We donate coffee and food without reimbursement, and go to fabric stores, and attend workshops, and do research on music, and learn new skills – all to help the Lord start this new work.

The pioneer says: “I can do it - and you can’t stop me!”

The pioneer says: “If I have to, I’ll do it all.”

Pioneers are required in a new work; do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs who have become equal to the challenge by surrendering to the Lord. This “God-sized task” is only accomplished by God’s strength working in and through us!

Still, we’ve found that our pioneering spirit can tend to work against us! People come to visit on a Sunday morning, and when they see working so hard, they think “they’re too busy” and they leave and never come back. Some who come share our pioneering spirit, and most of them have stayed and jumped in with both feet. Some who come – since they’re not wired to be pioneers – sneak our the back door when the work gets a bit too uncomfortable. People might come visit on a Sunday morning or come to visit one of our D-Teams where we welcoming them with open and friendly arms. But when our busy-ness and pioneering attitude makes us appear unable to slow down and unavailable to begin life-changing relationships with them, they feel left out and ultimately leave. If they share our pioneering spirit, those who visit will stick with us and jump in to join our work. But if we do not invite them in and include them in our life together, those lacking the pioneering spirit will slowly move away.

We have to work hard each and every week to invite and include the people of the community – after all, they’re why we’re partnering with God to start this new church! A church grows numerically by us inviting people to come along with us to investigate the claims of Christ. The problem is, people with pioneering spirits get so focused on the work set before us that we fail to invite anybody! Our only visitors tend to be people who accidentally stumble across our encampment on a Sunday morning and wander in to see what’s going on! If they share our pioneering spirit, they’ll stick around and get busy with us – if they’re not pioneers, the environment we exude could frighten them away!

Having this pioneering spirit is wonderful! It’s a gift from God, and necessary for any new work He institutes like Quarry Ridge. But we’re wrong if we think that everyone who comes here must have that pioneering spirit. The Holy Spirit does not give everyone the same gift-mix! We have many who are pioneers – and many who come from now on will not have that pioneering spirit! They’ll wonder why we work so hard. They’ll wonder why we aren’t that friendly. They’ll perceive that we’re cliquish. They’ll start to “intrude” on our domain!

And that’s OK – because, as pioneers break the new territory, the settlers must come in and make it into a home! Here is what we must remember when we are working so hard with our pioneering spirit: We must make sure we embrace the Pioneering Missionary Zeal – it’s our duty to befriend and invite and include people in our church – it’s how we’ll grow! We must remember to pour our lives into their lives; to build relationships of trust and integrity and then grow even deeper, life-changing friendships.

Paul told us in Romans 10:14-15: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

This is HARD WORK – make no mistake about it. The start-up church is an enigma – but we’re God’s tool for reaching a lost world, and we’re the ones in it partnering with Him to do the work!

Ever plant a garden? You have to locate the perfect spot to make a garden. Then you have to clear the trash and debris away before you can turn the soil. As you turn the soil you also need to amend it. This might take hours, days or weeks before you’re ready to plant seeds! Then you plant carefully - in rows or sections – then water and fertilize. Then you wait – and wait – and wait until the sprouts come up – only to thin the plants out to promote growth. Then weeds become a problem – so you weed carefully and keep watering and fertilizing and weeding and thinning the plants until they finally bloom or produce fruit. (Even then you’re working every day to pick newly ripened fruit or dead-head the flowers to keep the plants producing. You also have to keep the heavy-laden plants upright or they’ll fall over and rot.) All in all, it’s time-consuming, exhausting work.

Kind of like starting a church!

Another example is the hand-turned mill wheel - a huge, multi-ton stone that sits on a grinding surface that has to be turned to grind grain. Turning the capstan to get that huge stone turning takes enormous energy. Once it’s turning the stone’s own inertia helps it turn, but getting it going is a huge undertaking. Knowing how the machine works certainly helps – after all, if you don’t know what the mill is for, or that the wheel has to turn you won’t get much done; you have to know what direction to turn the wheel, or how to get the wheel started, and how to engage all the gears.

But that’s only the start; at some point you have to begin supplying the power to get the wheel turning. If the people working the capstan work against each other to turn the wheel, huge amounts of energy are applied, but they cancel each other out and nothing good happens. You have to have the people working together and all turning in the right direction. Even then – imagine the immense power that must be expended just to get the mill wheel turning. This is what we call “building momentum.” It’s what we’ve been working on from the time we opened our doors.

Building momentum is difficult.
• We have a lot of work to do – with only a few people.
• Few people are willing to work hard enough to get it going.
• Some who come to join us don’t share our pioneering spirit.
• We want new people, but it’s hard to share with newcomers.
• Most visitors come in and say to themselves: “I think it would just be easier to find something already established!”

Finally, though, with God’s help and in His timing, we’ll get that crazy mill wheel to spinning. We’ll get the church started in earnest and get the community noticing it and coming to see what’s up and to check out the claims of Jesus Christ. When that happens, it’s called “breakthrough momentum.” That’s the point we’ve all been dreaming about for the last four years! But, “breakthrough momentum” is dangerous. We get to thinking:
• “We don’t deserve this.”
• “This might only be a dream. These people may leave.”
• “This growth is only a façade – something’s going to happen.”
• “We’re scared to grow – how can we spread ourselves so thin to keep so many new people around?”

Then maintaining that momentum that we worked on for so long can actually become disappointing. It’s almost a tragic letdown:
• Beware what you wish for – you might just get it. (New building, new staff, cool stage, comfortable chairs. . .)
• We have to beware of “Now what?”
• Prosperity can kill a church – far more readily than poverty, toil, and struggle.
• Think about this, too: a spinning flywheel doesn’t wait for anybody! We have to be careful or our chant will become: “Get on, get off, or get out of the way! We’re spinning now!”

Still – it’s the goal of the pioneering spirit to build that momentum and work hard and pray for the breakthrough momentum to come! Why would we do this? Why start a church if the work is so hard and the demands are so great?

The world is lost and wandering far away from the God who loves them. WE are the ones to whom God has entrusted the ministry of reconciling these lost people back to His loving embrace. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Americans through the ages have sought life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - and to gain it and protect it they have mutually pledged to one another their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. As followers of Christ, we must commit no less!

This is what Paul tells us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

This is an exciting time to be a Christ-follower, and Quarry Ridge is an amazingly exhilarating place to be serving! We’re serving side-by-side with one another and side-by-side with the Lord Himself as He lays the foundations of this new church. Starting this new work has been, and continues to be, worth the efforts we’ve been called to give and the sacrifices we’ve been called to make.

Pioneering spirits are required in a new work such as this. We’re looking for do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs who have become equal to the challenge by surrendering their lives to the Lord. We’re committed to a God-sized task that can only be accomplished by God’s strength working in and through us!