A Day in the life of a Church Planter: The alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m., so I can get to the gym by 6. I am training with weights and then running four miles on the treadmill, so I can get in shape for Warrior Church, a new service we plan to offer at a local gym.

Afterward, I get home to make my son’s lunch and see him off to school by 7:30. My first appointment of the day is with a local gym owner in the community. I’m going to pitch the vision and see if he catches it. He does. He says the best words a church planter can hear: “Yes.” We can use his gym on Sunday mornings to offer a service for veterans.

Then I race to Church of the Savior in Allen to get a quick hug from the Rev. Michael Hurst and his wife, Gilda. They let me print color copies of the Prayer Experiment cards my congregation will use during Lent, saving my church plant about $100. Every little bit counts. He searches through the worship area and the sacristy to see if there is anything else our budding congregation could use in this season. Nothing this time.

Then I race home, which is also the church office, to meet up with our Office Manager who works with me on Thursday afternoons. We need to reconcile the bank statement and the books before rolling up our sleeves to create two bulletins. Every bulletin we have made has been from scratch until now, since we hit our one-year anniversary of having services, and can re-purpose old bulletins. We congratulate each other about that and take a minute to reflect on how far we’ve come.

Afterward, I return emails and phone calls as I drive to my 5:30 p.m., appointment. I touch base with our Deacon about community contacts for our new service. She has two leads for me. I talk to the lay leader starting our Mothers of Preschoolers group to discuss hiring another nursery worker. I coordinate interview times next week, fitting it in among our three Ashes to Go locations, Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner, and our Anniversary - Ash Wednesday service. I set up our vestry members with Safe Church training. On the way home from the appointment I find out there is a pastoral care call I need to make. I finish at 8 p.m.

This life as a church planter is thrilling.