The following post was written by our Church Planting Resident, Robbie Schmidtberger.
One of the most frequent questions that I get is: "what is it that a church planting resident does?" Recently two people who know the answer—Katie Sica and Jim Brown—both asked me the same question: "what do your days look like?" So I wanted to take some time to answer that as I suspect that many of you are wondering the same question.
Simply put, my job is to plant Iron Works West Chester. Certainly I have responsibilities at City Church, like developing the School of Discipleship and teaching Emotionally Healthy Spirituality with our Pastoral Assistant Wayne Pansa. But during the week my sole focus is on West Chester. Each week is different as the work continues to develop. One week recently I spent time fundraising and meeting with people to share more about our vision. The next week, on the other hand, was quite different. I met with the contractor who is renovating our worship space, an insurance agent, and dealt with other administrative details. Every day of each week I ask myself the question: what needs to happen today so that Iron Works West Chester is one inch closer to being a reality?
Beginning in February, I started splitting time on Sundays between City Church and Iron Works Phoenixville, as I’m preaching in Phoenixville every other week. Iron Works Phoenixville is going to serve as our governing oversight, while Pastor Jason serves as my church planting coach.
Truly Pastor Jason has been incredibly supportive of my ministry, and City Church continues to be a perfect place to develop Iron Works West Chester. Over the course of the next few months, we will be stepping out in faith that God will establish the work of our hands.