Author: Emily Dunlap

How Church Planting Led Me to Love the Local Church 

by Emily DunlapLeave a Comment on How Church Planting Led Me to Love the Local Church 

Spending a lot of time at church is not the same as loving the church and its members.

Church planting was never on the radar. It was a vaguely familiar term for me, but it was something other people in faraway places did. We were not seeking it out when we moved to Atlanta, GA, for my husband to go to school. In fact, the idea of leaving our comfortable small town to live in the heart of a large city was scary. Our plans were clear – move to Atlanta, live there for exactly 2.5 years while Daniel completed his program, and leave the day after his graduation. Just get through this short season and go back to our “normal life.” 

In February of 2018, we walked into the rented law school auditorium where M28 Church gathered weekly for worship for the first time. The church was smaller that what we were accustomed to, and it was young – only about 4 years old. We were greeted with kind smiles and hellos, and worshiped God with the congregation that Sunday. We liked the church and planned to go back, maybe even get more involved for the duration of our short 2 years in Atlanta. 

It’s 7 years later, and we are still here, and that is largely because of this church family. Over the course of the last 7 years, the Lord has changed, sanctified, and challenged me. He continues to use our local church family to encourage, love, and care for me and our family. Our time serving at M28 Church has led me to love the local church and understand its purpose and importance more than ever before. 

Daniel and I did not plant M28, nor were we part of the launch team. However, God led us here while the church was still very much in the planting stage of its life, and He used (and continues to use) our experiences in serving in a planting context to deepen my love for both the universal Church and the local church body. Here are a few specific ways God leads me to this deeper love. 

1. He gives me a greater gospel urgency.

Two areas that our church focuses on are faithfulness to God’s Word and love of our neighbors. Faithfulness to the Word of God is top priority. This is evident in all church gatherings (Sunday services, small groups, etc.) and in the informal conversations that happen among members of our church. As we spend time in the Word of God we increase in our knowledge of who God is, who we are, our constant need for God, and the work He commands each of us to do in His name. With this ever-increasing knowledge comes love for our neighbors and a sense of urgency to share the gospel with lost people here, there, and everywhere.

Every person is born in sin, which causes us to be apart from God. BUT – He loves us, pursues us, and redeems us through Jesus Christ. Serving in this urban, post-Christian context, alongside humble believers whose greatest desire is to walk faithfully with Christ challenges me everyday to respond to the lostness around me with boldness in sharing the truth of the gospel.

2. He exposes my own need for the local body of believers.

From day one, the people in our church were welcoming and kind. We connected well with people there and enjoyed the services, small groups, and other activities. However, joining M28 Church was not a decision based solely on the great people we met. We are followers of Jesus, and as such, we need Christian community. Time and time again, the Lord uses this church family to carry me when I can’t keep walking on my own, to bear my burdens, to remind me of His goodness and push me to turn my eyes to Christ even when that feels impossible. God does not expect us to live this Christian life in isolation. In fact, he commands the opposite (Hebrews 10:19-25). We need each other. 

3. He reshapes the motivations of my heart.

Seeing my brothers and sisters in Christ do amazing work while faithfully using their gifts to serve the Lord, helps me in so many ways. God has shown me my own gifting and the responsibility I have to obediently serve Him and His Church with these gifts. Working alongside humble leaders, whose confidence is in Christ and not in their own abilities, challenges me to lead and serve in a more Christlike manner – not for my own glory but for His. I’m encouraged to grow and lead, not for my own gain, but for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom of God expanded. 

By God’s grace I’ve spent my life in great churches. I had to learn, though, that spending a lot of time at church is not the same as loving the church and its members. The Lord has worked mightily in my own life through the faithful witness of this local body of believers, known as M28 Church. I am eternally grateful for this gift and for the true and lasting joy we share in Christ. To lock arms with these brothers and sisters has changed me and continues to shape me more into the image of Christ. I praise God for the great joy of serving this city, with these people. I praise Him, for His plans are far greater than mine! 

Resting in Christ: Finding Solace in a Noisy World

by Emily DunlapLeave a Comment on Resting in Christ: Finding Solace in a Noisy World

No matter how loud and demanding the noise around us becomes, we can trust that Christ has finished the work, and we must rest in Him. 

I am confident that I am not alone in feeling overwhelmed and often discouraged by the noise that consumes our world today. It feels like there are innumerable voices speaking loudly about any given topic at all times. From large-scale issues around government and politics, to the smallest details of life like what brand of diapers I should buy for my daughter, the chatter has reached a demanding fever pitch. Each voice and point of view requires nothing short of complete loyalty and disdain for differing opinions. The requirements for acceptance change constantly, and when you dare to disagree you are dismissed, disrespected, villainized, cast out, or metaphorically crucified. It’s frightening. The enemy wants us to believe that these things are the end-all be-all. He wants us living a fatigued existence, believing that our identity and our salvation are found in the world’s temporal and fickle expectations. 

God speaks frequently and directly in His Word about these issues of identity and the assurance of our salvation in Christ. In Colossians chapter 2, Paul provides necessary reminders of Christ’s sufficiency and the life and freedom found in Him. These truths are especially comforting to me when I consider the noise of our current moment.

1. Christ is Sufficient.

6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude. 8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. (Colossians 2: 6-8, CSB)

Walking with Christ requires us to find our fulfillment in His total sufficiency. Paul’s readers were inundated with false teaching about the person and work of Jesus Christ. These deceptive and destructive heresies threatened to subvert the foundation of truth on which their faith had been established, and we know this happens in our own context. Our culture attempts to entice us with philosophies and worldly values that denigrate the person and work of our Savior. Therefore, we must be on guard. 

So how do we recognize false teaching? It’s simple. All false doctrine has at least one fundamental flaw: the distortion and denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ. One commentator says, “Faith in Christ must be exclusive and cannot be enhanced, either by addition (through religious practices and good works) or by subtraction (by abstaining from sin or depriving yourself of privileges).”1 After warning the Colossians to avoid the empty deceit of false teaching and admonishing them to hold fast to the true gospel, Paul reminds them of who they are. 

2. We Have Been Made Alive.

9 For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler & authority. 11 You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him. (Colossians 2:9-15, CSB)

Before we are in Christ we are dead. We are not simply unenlightened, “on a different path,” or “finding our way.” We are dead in our sin, separated from God, destined for an eternity apart from Him, an eternity of death and punishment. But… Christ has made us alive with Him. Christ, in whom “the entire fullness of God’s nature (v. 9)” is embodied, hung on the cross and took on the wrath of God for the sins of the world. He died and was laid in a borrowed tomb. Three days later He rose from the dead, once and for all defeating sin and death and making a way for us to be eternally reconciled to God. As believers in Christ, we are new creations (2 Cor. 5:17). Our sins are forgiven. We died to the old, sinful self and were raised with Christ to eternal life. The same power that raised Christ from the dead has also made us alive. Christ is sufficient, and in Him, we are made alive (v. 13). 

3. Therefore, Live In Freedom.

16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. 18 Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind. 19 They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God. 20 If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: 21 “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? 22 All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. 23 Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value  in curbing self-indulgence. (Colossians 2:16-23, CSB)

The false teachers we read about here were imposing on the Colossian church a list of rules and regulations for them to follow in addition to their faith in Christ. They were putting expectations on these believers, claiming that they were from God, when in reality, they were not. Just like the Colossians, we experience false teachers in our day. You can pick up your phone and see this clearly. Scroll social media or any news site for any length of time.

  • If you’re a “real Christian,” you will vote democrat.
  • If you really love God, you will vote republican.
  • You are doing everything the wrong way. Buy my 10-step guide, and you will become who you should be.
  • Work harder. Do more. Strive. Be a boss babe (whatever that means). It’s all on you. Make it happen.
  • Follow the rules if you want to be a “good Christian.”

The list could go on and on. The world makes empty promises of life, fulfillment, and salvation while consistently letting us down. The noise around increases, demanding all of us, then rejecting us. These voices are fickle liars attempting to distract us and draw us away from the person of Christ. 

But, take heart! We are no longer bound by our sins or the Law because Christ came to fulfill the Law. Yes, faithfully walking with the Lord requires obedience to Him, but this obedience is an outpouring of a life saved, a heart renewed, an old creature made new. Adherence to rules, regulations, and other people’s expectations will never save us. Only God has that power.  No matter how loud and demanding the noise around us becomes, we can trust that Christ has finished the work, and we must rest in Him. 

If you have never responded to the gospel and surrendered your life to Christ, let me implore you: now is the time. Believers, spend time with the Lord in prayer and reading of the Word. Fill your mind with the truth of the gospel, consistently preaching it to your own heart. Then, the truth of the gospel and who Christ says we are in Him becomes our standard, instead of the expectations put on us by the world.  “As believers, our death in Christ frees us to serve him with loving obedience and allows us to seek him with renewed passion.” 2 In Christ, we are liberated from the enticing deception and exhausting demands of works-based righteousness! So, therefore, live in freedom. 

  1. R. Scott Pace and Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Colossians and Philemon, ed. David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, of Christ-Centered Exposition (Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2021), 60. ↩︎
  2. Ibid., 82. ↩︎

Reflections From a Bossy Know-It-All

by Emily Dunlap1 Comment on Reflections From a Bossy Know-It-All

Exercising your spiritual gifts is not a matter of you deciding what is most useful or needed. It is a matter of humble obedience to our God who created you, who saved you, and who empowers you with the Spirit to “Go, therefore, and make disciples.”

At an early age, it became obvious that I was a leader. As far back as the children’s Christmas program at church, I put myself in charge. I was a self-appointed choir director, teacher, and overall boss-lady at the ripe old age of 3. I was no doubt the most qualified for the job. Similarly, as soon as I was old enough to be in a classroom, I wanted to be the teacher. I was a 4 year old preschool student, and I wanted nothing more than to be the teacher, in the front of the room imparting knowledge on my fellow students. I loved to learn, and I could not help but tell others about all the things I was learning. 

As I grew up, I continued to lead in whatever group I was in – sports teams, church groups, school clubs, etc., and I never lost that desire to teach others all of the things I was learning. Some may call it being a know-it-all, but we do not need to quibble over terminology at this point. Even as a young child, there was within me an innate desire and drive to lead and teach others. 

I became a Christian at the age of 8, but it was not until I was 16 that my faith became my own. I understood the gospel and surrendered to Christ as a young child, but it wasn’t until a crisis of faith as a teenager that I fully surrendered to His lordship over my life. Soon after, I sensed a call to vocational ministry. As a young woman from a conservative church background, I had no idea what that meant. I knew I was not called to pastor a church, and I had no desire to do children’s ministry. But I could not shake it. I knew without a doubt that God was calling me to work in vocational ministry. Still unclear on what that should look like, I attended a small Baptist college, where I earned a Biblical Studies degree. I was so eager to learn more. My eyes were opened to the depth and width of in-depth biblical study and theological education. I could not keep my mouth shut. It was like I was the 4 year old in the preschool classroom again. Everything I was learning had to be shared! It had to be taught to others. Wouldn’t everyone be as passionate as me about Systematic Theology if they only knew more about it? At that point in life, I would have never called myself a teacher, but I couldn’t help but to teach, even when those around desperately wanted me to stop.

I quickly learned that while so many in my life encouraged me and empowered me, my voice was not welcomed by some. I never lost the burden or desire to teach the Word, but I began to live in fear. Fear of my own motivations. Fear that I was not smart enough to take on this task. Fear that if a brother overheard me teaching that I would be sinning. Fear that I was too much, that there was no place for me as a leader and a teacher in the church. Fear that God got it wrong when He made me and gifted me. Looking back at myself as a younger woman, I was living in the belief that although I wanted the gospel preached and the lost saved, God could not use me to do this work. I wasted so much energy and focus on trying to make myself smaller. I served in ways that I was not good at or passionate about, because those were the roles in which I saw other women serving in the church. 

At the tender age of 21, I graduated college, fully burned out. I was running myself into the ground, striving to fit an imaginary mold that I believed was required for faithful service to the Lord. The desire to lead never disappeared. The love of knowledge and teaching never diminished, but I walked through each day deeply bound by selfish pride and disobedience. There was no possible way that God was calling me to lead and teach within the Church. Period. 

But praise be to God! He is so very kind and patient with His children, even this bossy know-it-all. Over the next few years, God provided so much healing and growth. God speaks to us through His people, and He put leaders around me who identified and called out the gifting they saw in me, discipled me, and challenged me to grow.  He gave me opportunities and experiences to confirm the gifts he gave me, and to humble me to see those that I do not possess. He allowed me to work and serve in roles that were not the right fit, so that I could learn what I do not love and what I do not excel in. He placed me in roles that have helped me better understand myself and the ministry He calls me to do each day. He blesses me immensely with incredible opportunities to see Him working and to participate in that work. 

Now, in my work at my local church and in the non-profit organization I work with, God graciously allows me to use the gifts he gave me to serve Him and build up His church. I no longer live in fear. My confidence is not in myself or my abilities, but in Christ who saved me. I cannot point to a specific event or instance that caused me to suddenly grow in confidence. Rather, as time passes, I am ever more sure of my need and dependence on Christ. It is a day-by-day, moment-by-moment surrender to the Lord. It is looking to the Word and to the work of God in my own life and being reminded of His faithfulness. 

I know that I can fully trust the Lord, because He is holy, faithful, and eternally trustworthy. No matter the job title, responsibilities, or daily work God puts before me, I pray for the strength and humility required to do it faithfully and obediently. My deepest desire is to hear my Father say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” 

We are not equipped for or expected to carry the load of the Great Commission alone. God fills all believers with His Holy Spirit, and He brings us into His family. We are individual parts of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-31), all working together. “But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as He wanted” (1 Cor. 12:18, CSB). This is incredibly comforting. All gifts from God are needed for the health of the body of Christ. He arranges each “part” exactly as He wants. Exercising your spiritual gifts is not a matter of you deciding what is most useful or needed. It is a matter of humble obedience to our God who created you, who saved you, and who empowers you with the Spirit to “Go, therefore, and make disciples” (Matt. 28:19).

Looking back over years of being the “bossy” one and the “know-it-all,” I see God’s hand in it all. He transformed my gifts of leadership and teaching into something beyond what I could have imagined. God continues to sanctify me. I am far from perfect, and I will always experience failure until I am in heaven. But I can praise God for the years of humbling me and refining me, and I look to the future with excitement and expectancy. I can honestly say, maybe for the first time in my life, that I am confident in who God made me to be and the work He has set before me. I must only trust Him with it. I continually pray for deep trust in my Father, a heart of humility, and open hands. This is not my work, but His. May I do it faithfully.