Church Planting The Among Upwardly Mobile

One thing that I never really thought of before helping plant a church was the loss of good friends due to job changes and 'moving up' the corporate ladder. This is a tough thing to work through. With Common Ground Church being a 'parachute drop' church plant with no local congregations helping us, we really worked hard to generate a lot of good relationships with people according to the vision God had given us. Those relationships were (and ARE) a key factor in the success of the launch and now 2 years of existence. Unfortunately, because of the demographic we are (30 somethings w/ kids), and because of Maple Valley's status as a Seattle suburb for upwardly mobile workers, our church has had several great families depart for other places which is truly a heart-tugging loss. So, even if we are working hard, listening to God, and working to love the families God has given us, we must deal with the loss of good families due to nothing more than that family's desire to move on...it hurts sometimes. Lord, help us to do our best to love families for as long as You provide them...amen. I also pray that God would help me not get overly guarded with people - not letting them get too close because of the fear that they'll move away...only by Your strength, Lord.