Adam Solorio

Preaching To The Wind

or Why Prophetic Imagination, Not Finances, Is A Church Planters Greatest Need

What is a church planters greatest need?

The question is not, "what prevents men from planting new churches?" That question has a different answer for each man. Some would say it's a lack of resources or finances. For some, fear. For others, personal relationships. However, that is not the question.

The question is also not, "what one thing will ensure my church plant is a success." First, success isn't found in numerical or financial abundance. These things are wonderful and can be the fruit of success but they are not in theirselves the evidence of success. Success is found in faithfulness. Secondly, there are multiple other factors that can combine to challenge the health and vitality, and the ultimate growth, of a newly planted church.

The question is, "what is a church planters greatest need?" What is the ground level need of a church planter. That answer is not finances, not resources, not courage, not even the acceptance or encouragement of other men. It is a prophetic imagination. A clear vision from God of what He will do in their city through the labor of a faithful man.

I think it goes beyond "vision". The word "vision" has become so overused in leadership teaching that it has ceased to have any real meaning at all. Simple vision is something that can be conceptualized by the human spirit. We are called to make disciples of all nations and radically transform every community we enter with the truth of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Ghost. If we're going to do that we must have more than ambition and a carefully crafted mission statement. We must have a word from God concerning what He intends to do in our city.

In Genesis 26 we see a curious thing. Isaac is sowing seed in a famine. He is dropping living seed into the parched cracks of dead ground.

Why would he do such a thing? Because God had given Isaac a prophetic vision of what Gerar would be, a place that blessed the man who lived there, if only Isaac would stay and obey the call of God.

“There was a famine in the land…The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land of which I will tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you; for I will give to you and all your descendants all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heavens and will give your descendants all these lands. By your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” So Isaac lived in Gerar.” (Genesis 26:1-6, MEV)

Church planters and missionaries have been granted, like Isaac, a vision in the Spirit of what life could look like in every city, and will look like, when the seed of God's Word is sown in their famine. We must be able to speak what should be into situations that are not yet. Like Ezekiel we prophecy to the wind fully believing God to bring a church to life.

God showed Ezekiel his valley of dry bones, it happened in the Spirit, and He asked Ezekiel to imagine that those bones could live. God asked Ezekiel to have prophetic imagination.

“He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” (Ezekiel 37:3, MEV) Ezekiel's response was essentially, "that's up to you God!" If God wants it to be, it will be. So Ezekiel obeyed the call of God and preached to the bones the word God gave to him and God caused muscle and skin to form on those bones (Ez. 37:4-8, MEV).

We must be willing to simply obey the call of God and speak into a valley of very dry bones and preach an army into force. Sometimes we preach to nothing. Sometimes it's worse than nothing, we preach to a bone yard. Many church planter's have a view that is littered with the bones of what used to be there. Either way, God is calling the North American church to stand on a hill overlooking our city and have the vision and faith to prophecy to the wind.

Church planters greatest need is prophetic imagination. If he has finances, resources, human connections, and ability, what good is it if he doesn't have a word from from God? The sum of our ability pales in comparison to what God could do through us as willing and empty vessels in His hands. We must let God give us a vision for an army born out of a bone yard and then prophecy to the wind.