Nuggets from "The Church Planting Wife"
The following are nuggets from The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart. It's the lines I would have highlighted if I'd had a hard copy.
I recommend this book for any woman whose husband is considering full-time ministry, but it is also for any woman who wants to take ministry to the next level by being more others-oriented, more bold in sharing the Gospel and making a difference in her community.
"Your experience in church planting will inevitably be determined by the condition of your heart. Thankfully, if you surrender to our good and loving Go, He will do the primary work of guarding and cultivating your heart." (pg 25)
"So often, we incorrectly believer that we are responsible for ministry outcomes: changed hearts, transformed lives, and the movement of God." (36)
"Through the discouragement of the first year, God continually revealed the pride behind my believe that I could produce spiritual fruit apart from Him." (37)
"Without dependence, we start going through the motions and playing the role." (41)
"If I trust that God has called my husband to church plant, and value my husband's ministry to the church and our family, I am more likely to offer him my help and support. But when I fail to acknowledge the responsibility God has given my husband or put undue pressure on him, thinking only of how it affects me, I am more likely to hinder his work." (53)
The idea that friendships will not come easily and I must work to find heart friends and remember that good friends are gifts of grace from God (paraphrased from 73-74)
"If you submit to be broken and as you cultivate a humble heart, church planting will become a joy and a blessing. In order to experience the joy and blessing, we must eradicate pride. Every day." (95)
"A servant says, 'I'm here to serve my Master and to learn to grow in the process.' Perhaps our growth is the very reason we are where we are, doing what we're doing." (95)
I want to create snapshots of when God moved in my life to bring me to this place, so that I can remember them when the excitement, passion and certainty of the call is fuzzy.
"The only thing that will enable us to be effective and joyful church planting wives on a long-term basis is being with Him, hearing and receiving from Him, and following His leadership." (147)
"God likes anticipation and it seems He has a purpose in making His children wait... There is a mysterious value from heaven's point of view to being in the darkness of life and still choosing to believe in a God who seems to have forgotten us. Darkness is part of the school for the soul, to delve into what really matters." (181)
Your marriage will be challenged and your husband will need you and your full support. (200)
"Most people don't get such a front-row seat to the action,but you and I do, and that's something to be thankful for." (201)