I have been having a great time watching my son Noah become a swimmer. When we took him to his first lesson in June he was scared of the water and wouldn’t put his face in if his life depended on it. He was really scared.

Just last week as he was kicking up and down the pool with flippers on, turning onto his back, and then onto his face every three seconds. A mom turned to me and said, “how old is your son? He is really good!” I told her he was three and she gasped in disappointment and said, “Gosh, I don’t know if my son can ever be that good.”

I assured her it is possible, just keep coming. A few months ago my boy was kicking and screaming, and now…he is kicking his way through the pool.

Planting is like learning to swim

Planting ministry is a lot like learning to swim in this way:

Both are completely scary at first and the unknowns are infinite.

When planting and learning to swim you can’t compare yourself to people ahead of you or you’ll drown in disbelief.

I have been planting a Greek Ministry Area in Los Angeles the last year and what that means is that I am dreaming and working to start ministry for InterVarsity on 17 schools that have Greek Systems (fraternities and sororities) in Greater Los Angeles. There are a lot of unknowns and it scares the crap out of me sometimes.

In the same way my boy was freaking out when asked by his teacher to put his head under water and glide, there have been a few days I have balked when God has said to me, “put your head in here, and lets go.”

Why does my son not want to put his head under water? Why don’t I want to do some of the things it takes to plant? We don’t like being out of control of course.

Here are a few things I have learned about planting by reflecting on swimming.

Just follow the Teacher

The thing that has amazed me about watching Noah learn to swim is the fact that it is just 15 minutes every week. He goes every week and follows what the teacher shows him to do. Even if he is scared, he gets in the pool and goes for it. I have to hand it to the kid. Now, just a few months later, he is doing it. It got me thinking.

I don’t know how we are going to get the 17 schools planted. I really have no clue. Our first one is going great, UCLA, but the two we have tried to plant this fall are starting out a little shaky to say the least. Loyola Marymount has been shut down and the administration has asked us not to start ministry there…ok, great. USC is taking off at a snails pace. Students are not that interested there right now. Why? I have no idea.

But Jesus is asking the team and myself to follow. He wants us to keep showing up every week and to follow the teacher and his orders. Jesus knows what he is doing. But it is confusing. Why is one school, USC, where we are putting a lot of time in, taking off so slowly? But then another school, Long Beach, where we haven’t even gone, is starting to take off? Two students at Long Beach want to start Greek IV this fall and are going to do a preview meeting in a week. This is exciting and maddening at the same time. Why is this not happening also at LMU and USC?

We Can’t Compare

The first day I took Noah to swim and saw the other kids going up and down the pool, I thought to myself, “no way he is going to get this.” The mom last week said the same thing to me. How funny, Noah is the kid that others are comparing against now. If you are going to plant things, you can’t compare to those ahead of you. It is not fair to compare the USC ministry to the UCLA one. Every ministry has to start at zero and some take off more quickly. Just like some kids learn to swim faster than others. But all kids and ministries start at zero. Be patient and keep showing up. Keep your head down and do what the teacher says. He will show you how to swim.

Keep Showing Up

My team and I need to keep showing up every week ready to follow the teacher, Jesus. He knows the plan, and he knows how to get us where He is going. I love how Noah has grown so much as a swimmer just by showing up. I hope to grow as a planter just by doing the same. Let’s keep showing up in unplanted areas and talking with people and sharing vision. It will catch eventually and we will be swimming.

Every Move is A Little Harder

Planting UCLA last year had some challenges, but that ministry is really turning out well. As we have moved into year two and are attempting to plant USC and LMU while growing UCLA and training two interns, greater challenges have emerged. This next move is hard to do and a little scary.

Noah was thrown into the deep end right after passing his first level “survival test”, and now after getting UCLA going, we are in the deep end too. It is choppy out here and a little nuts. I don’t quite have the stroke for this pool, but we are learning with the teacher. It is hard. Yesterday at swim lesson Noah wanted to quite in the middle. He didn’t and kept going, but he kept telling the teacher, “I am scared”. That is the first time I heard him say that in over a month. But it is a new move and a new pool. Fear is back.

Fear is Par for the Course

If you aren’t a little freaked out, then you aren’t in a place where you can drown. If you aren’t in a place where you can drown, then you can’t really learn to swim. Seeing LMU get shut down, getting rejected at USC over and over is a little unnerving and brings up some fear. We have to fight this off every time we meet as a team. This water we are swimming in feels dangerous and like it could swallow us up some days. We have to remember we are learning to swim and the teacher is right next too us. We aren’t going to drown. The waves just make it feel that way. We have to choose to come back and keep swimming. Fear can be there, we just can’t let it own us or stop us from moving forward.

**Update at USC…read this awesome conversion story that happened two weeks after I wrote this post!**

Unexpected Things Always Happen

In this first year of planting many things have happened un-expectantly. We received a $50,000 matching grant twice, we had new leaders out of the blue join our team at UCLA, we now have the Long Beach group starting up. But then we have LMU shutting down, and USC leaders quitting. Planting is a fun gig if you can roll with the unexpected. We have to keep fighting for the belief that God will do more than we can expect or imagine. We may feel like were flopping around in the pool now on one campus, but in a few months we could be swimming well ahead.

Speaking of unexpected, just last week a fraternity guy at UCLA started following Jesus and subsequently asked Nick to lead a small group for guys in the house. Sounds like Levi doesn’t it? Read the full story here. Meet Erik

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