If you've followed Arise for any length of time, you've probably noticed something: our life together is built around a Disciple Making Community, not a big production. That's a decision we've made on purpose, and I want to be honest about why, because it's one of the most important ones we've made.
The temptation to sprint
The common way to plant a church is to sprint toward a crowd. Book a venue, build a band, print the flyers, get a room full of people on a Sunday, and call it a church. There's nothing evil about any of that, but it's easy to end up with something that looks like a church without the thing that actually makes one.
We didn't want to rush to fill a room. We wanted to build something that lasts.
Disciples first, then everything else
So here's our order of operations, and it's on purpose: disciples first. Our core rhythm is the Disciple Making Community, a group doing the slow, unhurried work of following Jesus together, gathering every Sunday at 10:00 AM at Mural City Coffee for coffee, prayer, open Scripture, and honest conversation.
Why that order? Because everything a church does is only ever as healthy as the people carrying it. Fill a room with strangers and you have an event. Fill it with disciples who've learned to follow Jesus, pray, open the Scriptures, and love each other in the ordinary weeks, and you have a church that can hold up under weight. We'd rather spend our energy building people than building a production.
Not a waiting room
I want to be clear: this isn't a holding pattern. We're not biding time until the "real" church starts. What happens in our Disciple Making Community is the real work of the church, making disciples who make disciples. It's our core rhythm, and it's here to stay. As we grow, these communities multiply across our city into new groups, days, and times, because that was always the engine, not a stepping stone we kick away later.
Worship has its place in all of this too. We're building toward Gathered Worship, when our communities come together as one to praise Jesus, hear the Word, and share the Lord's Table. We'll announce the first gathering on social media, our website, and by email, so follow along and you'll know when it's here.
Every dawn starts small. We're okay being small and real, because we're praying for something that outlasts any one gathering.
Room to build from the ground up
Here's the invitation hidden in all of this: there's room for you to help build this from the foundation. Most people who join a church walk into something already finished. Here you could help form it, praying, gathering, serving, and shaping the kind of church Dothan will know for years to come.
If that stirs something in you, I'd love to talk. Text Pastor Brian, come to a Sunday, and see what it looks like to build slow and build right.
Pastor Brian