By Thomas Mobly, Church Planter in Oklahoma City, OK

Have you ever been waiting for God to do the “next big thing” in your life, in your church, in whatever context you’re in? When my wife and I moved to Oklahoma City in 2017 (where I am originally from) with our friends Nathan and Lynzie Brewer, there was so much excitement in the anticipation of what God was going to do in this new chapter of our lives. We had never helped plant a church before. We weren’t even the ones who came up with the idea to plant Grace Harbor Church in OKC. We were the ones invited in. Nevertheless, we were willing and eager to go and be a part of something new and exciting! 

Over the past five years of planting a church we’ve been blown away many times by how God moves in big ways. There are so many stories I could tell you that would probably leave you speechless and in awe (seriously, ask me sometime). These big displays of God’s greatness fill us with excitement and wonder, and they humble us, as they should! But over the past five years not every single day has been filled with the big displays. There has, by no means, been a lack of God’s greatness, but the truth is that much of church planting work requires faithfulness from us even in the days that are seemingly ordinary. 

There’s something about the ordinary that may cause ministry to seem disenchanting at times. Things can become routine and stale when the big displays aren’t always right in front of us. But I believe God has not called us to become complacent in the ordinary. The work of church planting is sometimes a long season of digging up dirt, putting down seed, and watering. 

It’s the kind of work that allows us to walk alongside a mother and wife who is suffering from an illness that never seems to go away despite how many doctors she sees. It’s the kind of work that lets us witness this family grow in their faith through suffering as they and their small group continue to pray for healing 

It’s long term relational investment in meeting with our Afghan refugee neighbors right here in OKC. It’s working with an Afghan Christian man God brought to our church with the vision of planting Afghan churches here in town. There are about 1,000 Afghan refugees in OKC. About a quarter of those are within five miles of us. 

It’s ministering to a brother in Christ who is struggling to find purpose in his life right now because his work is just not providing it, and everything in his world is changing around him. But it’s also seeing him faithfully serve his family and church family, using his gifts to minister to others behind the scenes. 

Ordinary ministry work is walking with God-fearing parents who have a child that is dismissing faith in Christ completely. It’s prayerfully and consistently building relationships with neighbors in our city and right next door, living out and speaking the truth of the gospel. It’s making sure we don’t forsake the discipleship happening right at home with our own families. 

There is an older brother at our church named John who has spent most of his life in the work of ministry and pastoring. He’s now retired and ministering in a different way here at Grace Harbor. John grew up in Illinois on a farm. He often tells us that the work of ministry (and in my opinion, church planting specifically) is similar to farming. He says sometimes the work we’ve been called to do is to plow and pursue. We plow in the fields God has given us, planting and watering, all the while eagerly pursuing the will of God and waiting to see him give the growth. 

Church planting, I am finding, requires faithfulness in the little things–in the ordinary. But I am also finding faithfulness in the ordinary brings joy and fulfillment in our work. Because while we have been called to be faithful in the ordinary, God’s faithfulness to build his church is anything but ordinary. In addition to the big displays of God’s greatness, it’s within the small, sometimes unattractive and difficult, uneventful times that God is working in extraordinary ways as well. 

When we started planting we did have a somewhat big vision for Grace Harbor Church. But thankfully God has graciously course-corrected us in that vision while sustaining us in our slow growth over the past five years. For some the sixth year of a church plant is when the vision you began with is coming into full bloom, but in some ways for us we believe God is giving us a new and fresh vision for Grace Harbor Church–one that he has cultivated and faithfully grown within us and the people here at Grace Harbor. It’s because of God’s grace, faithfulness and never-ceasing love for us that I am so very thankful to be doing the work of church planting, pastoring, and ministering here in Oklahoma City . . . even in the ordinary.