Church Planting - New Churches

Church Planting in Europe: Post Script

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:24 GMT

Here is the final video put together by the Central and Eastern Europe team. I do hope you will considering partnering with the folks there in church planting. Here is the link where you can find all the info about the ministries there.

Come, Join us in Europe from CEE Admin on Vimeo.

While I was there in Europe, I also spent a couple of days in Rome. I will be talking more about this later. Darrin Patrick and I will be leading a group to Europe (Rome and Marseille) May 22 through June 1, 2009. More on that soon, but here is an interview at the Vatican talking with Chris Watts about church planting in Rome.

You can learn more at the Upstream Collective.

Best of Church Planting Blogs

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:26 GMT

Here's to hoping your Independence Day weekend is spectacular…

How to Be Sure Direct Mail Fails

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:00 GMT

Here are a few ways you can be sure to have dismal results from your direct mail campaign:

Don't write a ‘Call to Action' – Just impress them with killer graphics and a super-cool logo, but don't encourage them to do anything as a result of reading the card.
Use a lot of christianese in your copy – You want to impress them with your theological understanding and make it clear who is in and who is out of your club.
Don't seed your list – Make sure you don't put your name and the names of friends and family on the list so you have no way of knowing which day the postcards were actually delivered.
Don't create a tracking mechanism – Don't even think about creating a special landing page on your website, purchasing a second domain name for the campaign, or creating PURLs (personal URLs). Also make sure you don't include a ‘how did you hear about us' section on your Sunday morning connection cards. Why would you want to know how many people showed up because of the postcards anyway?
Don't launch your website before the campaign – That way they have no way to further research your new church, so they'll have to show up to find out more!
Rely on Direct Mail as your only point of contact – Make sure you don't get your name out in the community through outreach and community service events first. That way when they get the card, it will be the first time they've ever heard of you.
Send only 1 or 2 pieces – Don't get their attention and break into their consciousness by sending more than 4 cards; better to fly under the radar and end up in the trash bin.

Follow these simple steps and you can easily torpedo your whole campaign. Which is cool, because you have plenty of money to start the new church, right?

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It's Guerrilla, But C'mon...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:46 GMT

My wife just loaned our car to a total stranger. For real. Check out her blog for the details.

The big question of the day: Will we ever see our car again? Gulp.

(And by the way: If you are a church planter, you should have your wife reading my wife's blog. Everywhere I go I have church planters telling me how much their wives love it.)

I've Been Carjacked?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:09 GMT

A perfect stranger just drove away in my minivan...

Vince has a new book coming out in February called, "Guerrilla Lovers." The premise of the book is that as Christians we need to love people in a way that surprises them. Guerrilla warfare is a type of warfare where you "sneak attack" your enemy (think Vietnam War). In the same way we need to "attack" people with God's love. It's an awesome book that's challenging and inspiring.

So when was the last time you loved someone in such a way that shocked them; that made them question your sanity? A love with no strings attached and no creepy motives...

I came home from the gym this morning and found an old man in the street by my house. We said hello and I headed up my driveway. He stopped me in my tracks and said, "Do you have any jumper cables?" I thought I did so I started to look in my trunk. Once I found them I brought them over to him where I saw a younger girl working on her car. She asked if I could jump start her car. After several tries it wouldn't work. Her battery was deader than dead.

She was totally frazzled and upset. She had to bring her Uncle (the old man) to the bus station and her car was dead. Without even thinking I said, "Why don't you take my car?" She said, "What? I don't even know you!" (She just moved into the neighborhood with her cousin this past weekend) I said, "I don't care, you need to take him to the bus station and you need to buy a new battery, so take my car!" She finally agreed, jumped in and drove off. As I walked away she said, "The world needs more people like you in it."

What could you do this week to show someone God's love in a really practical way? Could you make cookies for your neighbor? Could you buy your garbage man a gift card to Home Depot? Could you shower your kids' teacher with presents for no reason?

People will think you are crazy. They will wonder what in the world you've been smoking! Even Vince questioned my sanity when I told him about my car. But it's worth it anyway! So here's your assignment. Do something Guerrilla Lover-ish this week and tell us about it in the comment section on this post.

Happy Guerrilla Loving!

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Captivating Baltimore

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:21 GMT

Just got back from two days with my friend Tally Wilgis, who is launching Captivate Church in Baltimore. What's interesting is that he's planting two churches - one in the suburbs and one in the inner city.

Tally was raised by a single mother in one of Baltimore city's toughest neighborhoods. He went on to attend Liberty and help start several churches in Texas and Virginia... but now he's back to his native roots.

The old, inner city church he attended as a kid - recently GAVE HIM the million dollar facility and the bank account. But knowing that an urban church can quickly become a charity in and of itself... he's first starting a suburban church that will eventually provide people, resources, and a reconciling bridge between two cultures.

I was blown away by the team he's built and the money he's raised. Quite possibly the most successful preparation campaign I've ever seen in church planting. I'm going to be one of Tally's biggest cheerleaders.

Captivate Update

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:47 GMT

A ton has been going on here in Baltimore as we work to Captivate the city. These updates will not do our efforts justice but will give you an idea of how God is at work.

1. We held a block party for the first time in our inner-city location. The block party was complete with games and food as well as three Moon Bounces. Well over 200 people came out with next to no marketing. I personally had a dozen people ask us when we'd be starting the church in their neighborhood. There is a thirst for something real.

2. We also held an Upward Basketball camp in the city for the same neighborhood. We had over 70 boys and girls come out to participate in the basketball and cheer camp. We shared the gospel many times during the week and two children responded with professions of faith. Additionally we were able to show Jesus' love in very practical ways as nearly 30 adults were able to invest in these kids and give them a model of the church that is far different from what they may see in their neighborhood day to day.

3. Our block party truck is out and about in the Towson/Timonium areas. We're holding events around town where we can make contacts and cast vision for this new church coming to the area.

4. We're gearing up for our first baptism next Tuesday night. We have two guys from our College bible study being baptized after their profession of faith. We're looking forward to throwing a party!

5. We're praying for a few more partners. God has given us favor with churches and individuals who are supporting our effort and we heard of a few groups actively interested in getting on board. For this to happen would be amazing. We're in a position where a few partners could make a huge difference. Please join us in praying for favor with the people God has brought our way.

6. Ben Arment came in for an on-site consultation over the last two days. Ben was able to provide some solid observations that will help us down the stretch as we prep for our first year. I hope to get to a post about the visit but I will encoruage you to give Ben a call if you're doing any type of endeavour where you could use some outside 'eyes'. He has the ability to encourage and nudge in a way that others have buy-in. Ben is certified in Myers-Briggs personality types and was a huge help to various team members and communications among our team. A final note is that your team and community will feel comfortable telling an outside guest something that they wish they could tell you directly. A consultant like Ben is able to respond to them and/or pass the information along to me. Ben isn't the first 'outsider' I've had in and he will not be the last.

7. We're praying like crazy about our facility situation. Please join us.

A Rhythm Beyond Random

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:01 GMT

I have had this conversation with many pastors over the last couple of years. It goes like this: “we started our church in outreach to the community using a kind of shotgun approach to service. We took on lots of different projects to get our name out there and to build a better attitude about the [...]

Back in the Saddle

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:32 GMT

Well this has been quite a month. Two months actually. The result is that any blog updates have been pretty sparse. If you are watching for multi-cultural stuff, sorry about that. My world has been pretty consumed with family stuff. You can see the posts below. I am finally caught up from being buried, and am gearing for several weeks of mission trips. I am leading trips to New Orleans and to the Appalachia mountains the week after. Pastor Amado is leading a group to Arizona to work on an Apache Indian reservation. We are definitely broadening our Missio Dei horizons. Please pray for our teams. The week we get back, Pastor Rick is taking 20 High School students to the city of Chicago for a week as well. Please lift them up in prayer. We've celebrated as a family and we're getting back in the groove. This week Pastor Rob and I are in Louisville, KY for the North American Christian Convention. Every where I turn someone is stopping and probing about doing multicultural ministry. And I just saw a new website that looks pretty interesting. I am going to find some time to look deeper into it. Check it out: www.thenewculture.org. Please be faithful to Missio Dei!

Wishing We Were Still There!

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:27 GMT

Margins Aren't for Church Planters

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:42 GMT

I'm writing this as a response to Ron Klabunde's post 10 Ways to Create Margin. Its a good read and something every planter should think about. Margins go hand in hand with health. Church planters will be told over and over make sure you have margin in your life. The root biblical concept is Sabbath. We weren't made to run 24/7. Here's the problem. Margins aren't possible. Not only are margins not possible but to extend the writing analogy the words don't fit on the paper anymore. They go off onto the desk and up the wall. Ron's point is correct: as the organization grows it gets even worse. Every minute of the day you will be faced with great demands for your time. This is why pastors don't develop leaders, deepen their faith, study, disciple people, etc. They have too many urgent things that have to be done. The interesting thing is that when emergencies arise suddenly there is time. If your kid breaks his arm you'll find time to take him to the doctor. Suddenly what was urgent can wait. So if crises can interrupt the urgent things, then why not time with your wife, vacation, personal time with God? The harsh reality is that you will spend your time on what you value. If all your time is going towards preparing for Sunday morning, then the show has become an idol. Pray that God makes urgent in your life the most important things.

Join God's Global Mission in Taiwan

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:53 GMT

I want to tell you about a mission / vision trip that I am putting together with the Upstream Collective and the International Mission Board to Taiwan this Fall. We will depart from the states on September 19, arrive the next day on the 20th, and will complete the trip on September 26th.

Each day we will be taking a look at various ministry venues for church planting in that part of the world. I will be leading a session each morning with the group. We will also hear from some of the leaders of the Upstream Collective network each day as we talk about missional living in an urban and cross cultural context. We have some slots left for this trip. If you have an interest in going you need to fill out an application on theupstreamcollective.org and they will be in touch with you.

Hope to see you in Taiwan.

One Prayer Interview - Benny Perez

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:59 GMT

Benny pastors The Church at South Las Vegas. He's a very compassionate, wise leader. Here's what he had to say…

1. What is the biggest leadership lesson you’ve learned over the past year?

The biggest lesson is When and How to have staff move on. It has been very difficult this year having Pastors leave the staff and some staff members leave the staff.

2. What is God showing you personally?
To truly trust in Him and Him alone. I can do all the study and bring in all the consultants but I must go back to the place of prayer, solitude and trust in the Lord that He will help me during Transition.

3. What is the top ministry challenge you’re currently facing?
Balancing a budget with an ever-increasing church. What is faith and what is presumption.

4. What do you do for fun?
I love to golf and ride motorcycles. Also love to walk around the mall with my wife.

5. What books are you reading?
Death By Meeting – Patrick Lencioni; It by Craig Groeschel; Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal.

Seriously????

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:17 GMT

I took this picture today on my iPhone! There aren't really any words to say...

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I've Been Strobel-ized!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:15 GMT

This weekend Lee Strobel preached at Central Christian Church in Vegas. If you get a chance, go to Central's website and listen to the message. It's a good one. For those of you who, like me, can't imagine sitting down and listening to a sermon on the computer I thought I'd give you some highlights. I think it's especially important for church planting wives.

The theme of the sermon was based on his new book, "The Unexpected Adventure." He posed the question, what if Jesus physically lived in my house? Would He treat my neighbors differently than I do? What would He and I do the same? What would we do differently from each other? He had three points:

1. Before Jesus talked to his neighbors about God, he talked to God about his neighbors. He talked about how important it is to bring our relationships before God. He used the example of Jesus being crucified and how, even during His agonizing pain, He prayed for those who were crucifying Him. "Father forgive them..." Even on His deathbed He was talking to God about the very people in his life that were killing him.

He also told a powerful story about the importance of praying for our lost family and friends and not giving up...ever!

2. Jesus would make it clear that His door was always open for questions. It's pretty clear in the Bible that Jesus doesn't mind people asking him questions. We sometimes get the idea that God is annoyed by us and our questions, lack of faith or understanding, etc. In Luke 7 John the Baptist questioned Jesus' identity. Jesus didn't get mad at John for his questions, and later even said that no one was greater than John.

He shared an awesome story about a debate between a Christian and an Atheist that took place at Willow Creek. Click here if you want to watch the debate.

How open is your "door" to questions about God? We don't have to have all the answers; we have to listen, pray and be available to our non-Christian friends and family.

3. Jesus would be authentic in His relationships with His neighbors. He would be 100% authentic, full of integrity, with no signs of hypocrisy. He talked about how non-Christians scan the lives of Christians (especially those in ministry) for discrepancies and in-authenticity.

He shared a story about a girl named Maggie who hated church because she had been abused by people who called themselves Christians. After joining a small group and hanging around Christians she became a Christian. She said that she decided to become a Christian because , "I ran into a bunch of people who were like Jesus to me." They were humble, gentle and they loved her.

So a few questions ran through my mind during the sermon. I thought I'd share them with you.

How's my prayer life? Do I regularly pray for my lost friends and family? Is there anyone I've given up on praying for?

How accessible am I to people? Is my schedule so full that I don't have time to sit down with a neighbor and talk? Am I known as someone who is a good listener? Am I approachable?

Are there any signs of hypocrisy in my life? Is there anything I do that I would be embarrassed if people knew? Is my private life consistent with my public life?

Do I live a life of love?

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Shmoozing with Presidents

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:35 GMT

My friend @JaysonTeagle who runs Maximum Impact Club sent me a few photos from my interview with Disney Resorts president Al Weiss last month. Of all my experiences at Catalyst, this ranks as one of the best. Such an amazing leader, strong believer, and champion of church planting. I'd show you the interview, but then they'd have to kill me.

Velocity Reflex

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:41 GMT

As we mentioned yesterday, velocity can be defined as the speed at which something moves in a certain direction. We may never have thought of it this way, but we’d all love to have velocity, right? Direction? Momentum? Making a difference? And getting there as fast as possible? That’s what we’re talking about during this series, and yesterday, we unpacked some HUGE EVENTS coming down the line designed to be used by God to give our lives and our church spiritual and mission velocity! Mark your calendars for these events:

I’ll start with the biggest news and then back into everything else! On Sunday, Aug 9, we WILL celebrate our Grand opening of our New Worship Auditorium!
Tuesday, 6/30: Our first “Fast & Furious Tuesday”: A special day (besides Sunday) dedicated to seeking God’s Kingdom FIRST in an intensified way, in our our lives. We’re asking you to join us in a special day of prayer & fasting every Tuesday for the next 40 days (I’ll blog more about this first thing tomorrow AM).
Wednesday, July 15: “MERGE: Revved Up” will happen at our N. Forsyth campus. On this night we’ll celebrate all that God’s done thru our W. Forsyth campus and also commission our latest church planting residents, the Hendersons as they leave to go back to Australia to start a church that changes the way people think about church!
On Sunday July 19, our WEST and NORTH campuses will MERGE as we get ready to move into our new auditorium! This is going to enable us to have even GREATER synergy, and therefore velocity, as a church (I’ll release a video blog on this later today).
Wednesday, July 22: Growth Groups start back! We’ll begin doing life together more, praying together more, and dreaming God’s future for our lives and our church more THIS WEEK!
Friday 7/24- Saturday 7-25: We’re calling it: “V12”: an all night prayer event at Mountain Lake Church! We’re asking every person and family that calls our church home to nail down a 30 minute slot to pray at our campus. As a church we will pray all night, and doing so, identifying with Jesus: “One day soon afterward Jesus went to a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.” Luke 6:12 (NLT)
Sunday August 2: Sneak Preview of our bldg! ON this Sunday we WILL worship in our new bldg for the first time. this is not our Gran Opening. Just a sneak preview!
Sunday, August 2: On this same day, and we will also dismiss our church by services to go BE the church in our community the rest of the afternoon! We’re calling it: “Servolution”. Sign-up’s will begin in a couple of weeks!
Sunday, Aug 9: Did I mention we’re celebrating our Grand Opening of our new auditorium in six weeks?! We want to be prepared spiritually, relationally, and missionally, to be the church that makes God smile! Get prepared!

As you can see, there’s a TON going on! Over the next 40 days I am praying that God pours out His Spirit on the families at Mountain Lake Church, changes us, and changes this community through us! Don’t miss out on the journey!

The Week In Brief(s) (6/28/09)

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:09 GMT

Every Sunday I'm sharing a recap on some of what happened that week. It will be quick (in brief) and I'll write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

1. On Sunday I spoke at Gateway. Always a great experience. It was extra cool because I got to bring my daughter, and had people who drove to Austin for it, and got to have lunch afterwards with some really good friends.

2. I was really honored that Verve was chosen for the Be Heard Project. I think it's an amazing idea. People give $4 a month. They choose four great projects/ministries to support. Each gets $1 of your giving. Imagine if thousands of people do this. Imagine Be Heard being able to give checks for tens of thousands to church plants and for a Youth Center in the West Bank and ... wow. I signed up to be a financial supporter and I encourage you to do the same.

3. Met with one of the few people I knew in Vegas before moving here, and it's looking like he and his family may become a part of Verve. I'm psyched!

4. Met with Shane Phillip, pastor of The Crossing. Shane is a good dude and helped me with my perspective on some decisions we're facing.

5. Met with a guy who is starting a church in Vegas (but more in the suburbs) this Fall. Seemed like a good guy, but his church will be totally different from ours for sure.

6. Robb and I, and my friend Bart, had a strategic planning meeting, talking through some of the issues we're facing. It's awesome to have great guys to do this with.

7. Lots of phone calls. Had my coaching call, my call with my spiritual mentor, my call with my project manager. I HATE being on the phone but it's all helpful so it's worth it.

8. Worked with my publisher and several graphic design people and friends on a book cover for Guerrilla Lovers (which comes out in February).

9. Continued our search for a facility. We have a great option in a movie theater on the south end of the Strip, but we are looking for backups just in case, and for a place that we could potentially have a non-Sunday morning service, and maybe even a space to lease 24/7.

10. Worked on our Creative Arts Planning Strategy/System. I'm much more of an "organic" kind of guy than a "structure" kind of guy, but I've learned that being organic can only get you so far. We're gonna have a consistent way of doing things that is as effective as possible.

11. Flew to Sacramento to speak at Adventure Christian Church.

TO PRAY ABOUT THIS WEEK:

1. Please pray for the people who have moved and are moving to Vegas to help start Verve. Pray that God blesses them in all kinds of ways, but for sure pray for JOBS.

2. As we continue to do our "needs assessment interviews" towards launching our community service organization, the Verve Foundation, please pray that God opens doors and gives us wisdom in how to proceed.

3. Please pray for our finances. That we'll be able to raise more money, and that we'll be wise in how we spend the money we have.

Acts 29 Vision

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:10 GMT

The Vision of Acts 29:

Rigidly committed to remain a church planting network, the vision of Acts 29 is to be worshippers of God who seek to influence as many people as possible to become worshippers.

Various Updates and Ramblings!

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:54 GMT

This has been a really busy week! I'm so excited for a nice, relaxing weekend. Just wanted to update you on a few things:

* I have potential meetings with two different organizations in Vegas that work in the sex trafficking industry. Please pray that I'm able to meet with them next week and that it's productive and that God really gives me wisdom about getting involved.

* Logan Sekulow has started a new ministry called the Be Heard Project. You donate $4 a month and 4 different ministries get $1 each. I'm pretty sure the ministries change every month. Verve is one of the 4 featured ministries this month. Go to the website for more info.

* I started leading some girls in Jennifer Rothschild's book, "Me, Myself and Lies." It's a 6-week study. Beth Moore is facilitating the study on her blog. I'm super excited.

* Any girl born in the seventies has a special place in her heart for both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Charlie's Angels made me believe that I could fight crime and still look hot. Thriller made me believe that I could dance and destroy monsters at the same time. Both died this week; what a bummer. I saw Michael Jackson in concert in 1984; that was one of the highlights of my childhood. I also collected Charlie's Angels trading cards (they had a piece of a puzzle imprinted on the back of every card. If you collected all the cards, you were able to finish the puzzle. As hard as my sister and I tried, we never completed the puzzle).

* I went on a field trip with my son today. There's something unsettling about driving in a bus full of kids past billboards of Holly Madison's boobs and strippers in thongs. I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore.

* We've had Matt Caron living with us since the beginning of February. He's from Virginia Beach and attended Forefront. He's headed home to spend the rest of the summer with his family and then he's coming back in August to go to UNLV, where he'll live in the dorms. He took Vince and I to dinner last night at an amazing restaurant that overlooked the whole city. The food and view was out of this world!

* My new "best" Vegas friend's name is Melissa. Her son and my son are in the same class (and both their names are Dawson...how crazy is that?!) and on the same baseball team. I went to a Pampered Chef party at her house on Tuesday night. I got to meet lots of women; it was so cool. I decided to have a Pampered Chef party at my house for my neighbors. Vegas is known as one of the most un-neighborly cities in America. It's weird...everyone drives up, opens their garage doors, pulls in, and closes it behind them. People don't hang around outside; it's not very easy to get to know your neighbors. So, my idea is that I'm going to invite all the ladies on my street to my house for a Pampered Chef party (with no obligation to buy, of course) and hopefully we'll all get to know each other. Please pray that this actually happens and that people actually show up. It's on July 22nd.

* Vince is headed to Sacramento, CA this weekend to preach at Adventure Christian Church. One of my oldest and dearest friends lives there; I'm incredibly jealous of Vince!

* Tickle (A.K.A Junior) died a few minutes ago. He was a darkling beetle that my daughter raised from a mere larva at school. She loved that beetle (and even held it, which makes me want to barf), but got over his death within a few seconds. Which makes me wonder why our world has revolved around that stupid beetle for so many weeks. And, the number of cockroaches that enter my house on a daily basis is enough to make me throw up. If Tickle entered my house uninvited I would have killed him. Which again makes me wonder why our world has revolved around that stupid beetle for so many weeks.

* If you have an iPhone and haven't downloaded the free update, do it now. It's awesome!

* The fact that most of my friends and family live on the east coast makes telephone calls a little challenging. For instance, I didn't call my Dad on Father's Day. What kind of daughter am I? I kept reminding myself to call him and when I finally decided to dial, it was after 11pm on the east coast. Unbelievable!

* One more thing...I am in the middle of Beth Moore's, "Esther" study and it's awesome. I am a Beth Moore addict and have literally done every study she's ever put out. This one is one of the best. Go buy it!

Have a great weekend!

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Best of Church Planting Blogs Round-Up

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:23 GMT

Here's our weekly round-up of the best church planting blog posts we've seen:

And a few book reviews:

Applying for 501c3 Tax Exemption

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:00 GMT

There is some confusion about whether or not churches need to apply for 501c3 exemption with the IRS. The answer is yes and no.

Churches are Automatically Exempt

According to IRS Publication 1828,

To qualify for tax-exempt status, [churches] must meet the following requirements:
• the organization must be organized and operated exclusively for religious … purposes,
• net earnings may not inure to the benefit of any private individual or shareholder,
• no substantial part of its activity may be attempting to influence legislation,
• the organization may not intervene in political campaigns, and
• the organization’s purposes and activities may not be illegal or violate fundamental public policy.

So,

Churches that meet the requirements of IRC section 501(c)(3) are automatically considered tax exempt and are not required to apply for and obtain recognition of tax-exempt status from the IRS.

Why Go to the Trouble?

The IRS 1023 form, used to apply for 501c3 exemption, is something of a beast. There are lots of essay answers and you have to compile financial data. It is not impossible, but I don't know any pastors that got into ministry hoping to fill one of these bad boys out. Oh, and it costs $750 to apply.

The official reason to apply is not to determine if the church is exempt or not. All churches are. The question it does answer is whether your organization is a church or not. Wouldn't it be awful to get audited by the IRS five years in and then have them come back and say, “No, you're really a political activity committee,” or “You're actually a financial counseling service.” Then all of the contributions ever made to the church could be nullified, and therefore taxable to the donors. Ouch. Fortunately, the IRS has never been in that business and generally takes an arm's-length approach to churches.

Practically speaking, what it does is grease the donation wheels. Probably you didn't know that churches are automatically exempt before reading this. Chances are really good that the manager at the local store that you are soliciting for a donation for your c0mmunity service event doesn't know that either. Some will not donate anything until they have an IRS 501c3 determination letter with your church's name on it in their hands. Sure, you could argue, “But we don't need one!” But let's face it, some corporations that provide nonprofit discounts and donations have a beauracracy that requires having that determination letter. Wouldn't it be easier just to be able to hand them one?

So, you can decide for yourself whether to apply or not. Just know that it is way easier to apply at the beginning, because you get to use proposed budget figures for the financials. If you wait several years in, you'll have to provide actual income & expense figures. That's a taller order.

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Nine Prayers of a Missional Leader Part 5

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:47 GMT

“Father, grant me the courage to make the right missional decisions.”

Winston Churchill said, "Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning." Missional leaders are not thin-skinned when it comes to keeping the church engaged in God’s missional purposes. They are willing to take a hard look at themselves and their organization to evaluate their effectiveness. They are willing to ask difficult questions such as, “What are we doing or not doing that is hindering us from being at the center of God’s mission?”

Missional leaders are willing to push themselves out of their own comfort zone, like Peter did when he walked into Cornelius' house and broke all kinds of cultural barriers for the sake of the gospel (Acts 10:22-48). Peter was willing to be misunderstood and to stand up for the missional decision he made (Acts 11:1-18).

Courageous leaders are also willing to be misunderstood for the sake of the mission and are willing to risk criticism head on, like Paul and Barnabas did when they went to Jerusalem to face the concerns and questions that were arising from the ministry (Acts 15:1-4).

These types of leaders rise to the challenge when key decisions need to be made and they use their influence to see that it is carried through. James is a example of this, when at the Jerusalem council he declared, "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.” (Acts 15:19 NIV) That decision wasn't essential in seeing God’s mission move forward into new regions but it was critical in aligning the church in Jerusalem with God’s plan.

Spiritual leadership at its core is basically keeping God’s people on God’s agenda. As Joshua was leading God’s people forward into His purposes, we see that strength and courage was going to be needed.

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:6-9 NIV)

Courage isn’t something that leaders can muster up. Spiritual leaders find courage from three sources: 1) understanding God’s purpose (Joshua 1:2) 2) by trusting in God’s promises (Joshua 1:3-4) and 3) experiencing God’s presence (Joshua 1:5).

What courageous decisions do you need to make this week to keep yourself, your family, your church, or your organization on mission with God?

Next time: “Father, help me focus on my strengths and trust others to fill the gaps of my weaknesses”

Excerpt from Gary's book: NextSteps for Leading a Missional Church

Join Gary "live" at an upcoming "NextSteps Workshop" August 27-28th

Be Heard

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:05 GMT

I want to let you guys in on something really cool. Logan Sekulow is a friend of mine and someone I admire a lot. He's come up with a pretty brilliant idea called Be Heard. Be Heard is this deal where they're asking people to give $4 a month (though you can give more). The $4 will be donated, $1 each, to four different causes. Their goals is to have tens of thousands of people taking part. How cool is that? What if they got 100,000 people involved? Can you imagine being able to give $100,000 to important projects? This could change the world. And it would only cost each person $1 a month!!

This month the four causes are: (1) A project promoting justice in Zimbabwe, (2) Opening a Youth Center in the West Bank, (3) A Pro-Life documentary, and (4) Helping to start this new church on the Vegas Strip called Verve!!!!

I just signed up to get money deducted from my credit card every month. This is such an easy way to make a difference. Why don't you sign up right now?

Do It, Don't Blog It

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:48 GMT

I was a guest speaker at a church, waiting for my time to go up to the platform. That's when I saw something curious. The staff person responsible for coordinating the worship service was busy typing away on her laptop. Perhaps a last minute change to the PowerPoint, I thought. But as I walked behind her, I saw that she was consumed with typing a message on someone's Facebook wall. It felt out of place to me, given that she was the person responsible for leading God's people in worship but she seemed mentally someplace else.

I had a similar experience while visiting a Christian college. Sitting in the back of the classroom, I noticed that about a third of the students were surfing Facebook or MySpace while the professor was passionately teaching the New Testament. He probably assumed they were busy taking notes.

Old Testament and Church Today

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:15 GMT

What does it mean to be a missional church? Our mission… the church's mission… today should be that of God's mission. Understanding God's mission in the old testament and church today are important pieces of discovering what it really means to be a “missional” church. We see our role described in the words of Isaiah– to [...]

The Week In Brief(s) (6/21/09)

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:08 GMT

Every Sunday I'm sharing a recap on some of what happened that week. It will be quick (in brief) and I'll write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

1. Finally finished our Ministry System. I think it's really going to help to have established the "Verve way of doing things" and to have that on paper so its commonly known, and so we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel.

2. Met with the President of Stadia: New Church Strategies.

3. Got some bad news. Our financial supporters are sending their money to an organization, and we have set times where that organization sends set amounts of money to our local checking account. So this week they let me know they wouldn't be able to send the planned for amount of money. Why? Because we don't have that much in our account. Ouch. Sooooo... If you have committed to, or have been praying about supporting us financially, please do.

4. Got some great news. One of our hopes is that we could not only invite people to come to church, but that we could minister to casino workers in their casinos. Ideas include being a chaplain to, or doing life skill seminars or support groups in a casino. Well, we came into town, started pitching the idea, and ran into walls. Well, we've been meeting with a guy at the Hard Rock Casino and the other night he let us know that he talked to the Director of Human Resources and a Vice President, and they have given us the green light to start doing life skill seminars and possibly support groups!! This is awesome news as it will allow us to help people, and will help us to establish some credibility on the Strip.

5. Did an hour of comedy (stand up, videos, skits, improvs) for a CIY / Canyon Ridge Youth Conference. It was fun! The highlight was when we had the "Craziest Dance Move" contest, and some kid dropped his shorts. They were starting to fall on their own, so he went with it and ripped 'em down. Classic.

6. Went to lunch with Kevin Odor, the pastor at Canyon Ridge. He is one wise dude.

7. Spoke at and shared the vision for Verve at a luncheon for the board of directors for The Provision Group.

8. Walked through two potential leasing spaces.

9. Bought a computer, video camera, and editing software.

10. Flew to Austin, Texas to speak at Gateway Church.

TO PRAY ABOUT THIS WEEK:

1. Please pray that God continues to keep the door at the Hard Rock open, and that we'll be able to really help people there.

2. We've got a couple leasing space options we're taking serious looks at. We need wisdom! There is one that seems absolutely fantastic. Please pray that if God wants us in there, He works out all the details.

3. As time marches on, we're going to have to make some tough decisions about philosophy of ministry on the Strip, strategies, kind of stuff.

Did Jesus actually say do these things?

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:18 GMT

monvee will Reshape Spiritual Formation

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:03 GMT

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit around a table at Panera and talk about the future of spiritual formation in local churches. I heard the vision from Mark Bankord, the Directional Leader and co-founder of Heartland Community Church in Rockford, Illinois, and Eric Parks, the Chief Creative Officer of monvee.

Here are a few things that distinguished monvee from anything else I’ve seen to help people growth in their faith:

It’s web-based. People can access it at any time.
It doesn’t involve the creation of new church programs, but it connects people to their local church.
It walks people through a discovery process to identify their personalized spiritual growth plan. This is not a one-size-fits-all strategy or program.
It recommends resources and practices to help people experience growth through their time, their mind, their experiences and their relationships.
Even though this is a web-based solution, it helps bring people together.
It is built to get smarter and recommend better resources as more people use the system.
It measures spiritual growth rather than ministry participation.
It has helpful dashboards built into the system to help church leaders monitor their spiritual growth of their people.
Oh…and it doesn’t hurt that guys like John Ortberg and Dallas Willard have been involved in shaping the solution.

monvee is in beta right now. In fact, your church may be interested in participating. If so, church leaders can learn more about the beta phase and apply to join.

I’ll try to keep you posted as I learn more about this new tool to help churches help people grow spiritually.

More Fun on TonyMorganLive.com:

A Little Perspective!

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:00 GMT

I came up with this phrase several years ago: "People come in and out of your life like underwear!"

If you've ever started a church you know that one of the places that this happens the most is in your launch team. People get excited and join your team. Some are there for the long-haul, but a lot of people come in and leave shortly thereafter. Some people join your team and then realize that it's not the place for them. Other people stay with you, but as soon as the church launches they take off. There can be theological differences, personality conflicts, schedule conflicts, and a multitude of other issues that cause the person to leave.

As a church planting wife, this can be really hard on us emotionally. We invite people into our lives, we open up our hearts and homes to them and then they leave. Unfortunately, it's just par for the course.

We've already had several people leave our launch team and we're not even launching until February. We've still got a long way to go...

I thought of a few things that have helped me along the way. I'll share them in hopes that it helps you. Please feel free to add to the list by adding a comment!

1. Stay close to God. He's really the only person that won't leave you. He's with you for the long-haul. In the end, He's the only one that will stick with you. Make your relationship with Him a priority now. He's also great at comforting the brokenhearted. So when you are struggling emotionally, He is not only there, but can help you in a way that no other person can.

2. Love people, but don't cling to them. Obviously we need to love people. But because people come in and out of your life it's important that you love them with boundaries. If you put all you've got into a person and they leave or let you down, you're in for a heap of pain and trouble.

3. Don't put heavy expectations on people. Don't expect them to fill a void in your life, meet your every need or be your "saving grace." They are just a person who is flawed and broken like you. They will disappoint you in some way at some point. No one will love your church like you do; it's your baby. Don't expect people to love it like you and be as committed as you are. You will be sorely disappointed.

4. Stick close to your husband. Talk to him about how you're feeling. Share your sadness and disappointments with him. If you don't feel like you can be honest and open with him, consider getting some marriage counseling. Open and honest communication with him is so vital on this journey. (Side note: Sometimes your husband is the reason why the person has left. He has said or done something or didn't do or say something that has made the person leave. Take sides with your husband, at least publicly. Nothing can ruin a church like a divisive marriage. Trust in his leadership. If you totally disagree obviously share your feelings with him, but at least support him in public.)

5. Talk to one or two close friends who you know will respect your privacy and protect your heart. Vince and I are going through a bunch of stuff right now and to be honest I miss my girlfriends in VA. I want to get some coffee and verbally barf all over them. For now I have to rely on the telephone. Either way, talk to them.

6. Realize that God will fill the void the person has left. He knows that people come in and out of our lives. He provides for us when people leave. Ministry areas get filled, new friendships form, etc. Try to see the big picture instead of focusing on the loss.

7. Don't let bitterness creep in. It's easy to allow resentments to build when we've been hurt. We've got to live in forgiveness-mode. We've got to give people grace!

8. Along with number 7, don't build emotional walls around yourself. We've got to give God the opportunity to knock down the walls we've built. In order for you to have healthy relationships you've got to be wall-free.

9. Have a life outside of your church. Do things that are fun to you. Sometimes we just need perspective. It's easy to allow the church and the people in the church to consume us. Take a break, go on vacations, join sports teams and clubs that have nothing to do with your church. I guarantee you'll breathe easier!

10. Enjoy the journey. How many people can say that they were part of starting a new church? You're part of an elite group of people that, if the Bible were still being written today, would probably have a few verses written about them. Don't get bogged down with the negative stuff and the drama. You're on an adventure of a lifetime!

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Search Engine Optimization for Your Website, part 5

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:53 GMT

So you've spent way more time than you had anticipated creating the new website for your church plant. Then you went and did your best to optimize it with on page SEO techniques like making sure you have meta descriptions and keywords for each page. Your site has been up for a while – do you have any idea how many people have visited the site? Do you know which pages within your site are most viewed? The answers to these questions and others can help you fine-tune your site based on your visitors' behavior.

Enter Google Anayltics

Google Analytics is a free service that you can sign up for to get all kinds of metrics about your website. Take the Google Analytics tour for a great overview. It takes about 45 seconds to set up your free account. The hardest part is copying and pasting some HTML code to each page of your website. Depending on how you manage your site (the “back end”), you should be able to do this yourself without too much trouble. Or you should be able to ask your designer/site host to do it for you.

Either way, knowing what happens on your site is way better than just hoping that it works.

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Two-week best of church planting blog post round-up

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:50 GMT

It's been a slow week but here's our round-up of the best church planting blog posts we saw over the past two weeks. Got a blog or post you want us to review? Let us know in the comments.

Yes, I'm Alive…

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:55 GMT

Let me start off by saying THANK YOU for all the emails and prayers. I've been blown away by the amount of grace and encouragement that has been sent our way. Even some of my biggest critics have emailed to let me know they are praying. I truly appreciate it.

I've received over 3,000 emails and I haven't responded to any of them due to the fact that I need to process some things and take some time to get my head clear. As many e-mails as I have gotten, there seems to be basically the same questions asked over and over. So many of you have been such a vital part of my life over the last few years whether it was through attending Revolution or reading my blog, I feel like the least I can do is answer some of the generic questions. At this time I'm going to pass on answering questions about my family as we are still sorting through all of that, but I'll do my best to answer some of the other questions you've asked.

How are you doing?

That depends on when you ask. :) My emotions literally change by the hour. I would say overall, I'm good. As crazy as it sounds, I am so glad to not be carrying around the guilt of hiding what I was doing. While my situation right now it is not what I wanted or thought would happen a few months ago, it is what it is. I'm focused on my relationship with Christ and I'm focused on the next steps in this adventure called life.

The bottom line is life continues and I can wallow around doing nothing or I can get busy letting God point me in the right direction for the next steps in my life.

What is next?

Honestly, I have no idea. I thought I would die pastoring Revolution Church so I never once thought about what I would do outside of ministry. I have a few leads on jobs and even have a couple of job offers, but I'm praying through those right now. Everyone always told me I would be a great in sales so we'll see if that is true or not in the coming months.

Just because you have an affair and lose your job doesn't mean the bills stop coming so finding the right fit in the job market is a pretty big priority right now. Your prayers for wisdom in this area are appreciated.

Will I be returning as the pastor of Revolution?

No. That chapter of my life is over. Let me say again that I agree 100% with the decision by our board to ask for my resignation. I was in blatant sin that at this time disqualifies me from pastoring. I know this is hard to accept by so many people who attend Revolution because Revolution is a place of grace, forgiveness, and for less than perfect people. It still is all of those things but as I said in my resignation letter there are consequences for sin.

What is the future of Revolution?

I have no idea. As I said above that chapter in my life is over. My prayer is that it will stay a place that is doing whatever it takes to reach those far from God. That is in the DNA of Revolution and Canton needs a place that is doing whatever it takes to reach those far from God.

I do know this: Revolution is God's church. Contrary to popular belief it was not the Gary Lamb show. God has a man and a plan to lead Revolution to greater things and greater impact. I look forward to seeing it happen. God used me to start Revolution and DeAnna and my children will still be attending there, so to say I have a vested interest in seeing her do great things would be an understatement.

Will I be starting another church?

Hands down this has been the #1 question asked. There is no easy answer to this question. I have no idea what the future holds and I have no idea how God will lead in the coming days, months, and years. All I can tell you is that today, June 19th, 2009 that starting a church is the farthest thing from my mind.

I believe with everything that is in me that God is not through with me in a full-time ministry role but I do believe He has me on the sidelines right now to get some things right in my life. I've been asked by a few people to do some church planting coaching and consultating on being portable, but even those things are not something I'm ready to tackle today.

Let me close out this post by again saying THANK YOU. I would love for you to continue to pray for me as I seek God as to what the future holds. I know some of you will disagree with the fact that I'm posting online and I understand that, but I've lived my life online for 5 years and have many online relationships as a result. Being online from time to time allows me to communicate with those people in my life and it allows me to feel some sort of normalcy.

BTW, I will be posting another post this week that you don't want to miss. I have received over 30 emails from pastors (all anonymous) confessing to be involved currently in sexual affairs. As I read these emails it was like someone punched me in the gut. NO ONE knows what you're going through like I do and I want to give you guys the reality of what your involved in but I want to take some time to allow God to get my thoughts straight before I post.

What is Gospel Intentionality within a Church Community?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:40 GMT

Today I received an email from a pastor on Gospel Intentionality. In this email he requested help for his church family to gain a better understanding of what gospel intentionality looks like. What exactly is gospel intentionality?

Steve Timmis posted a series of Tweets on this: Living ordinary life with gospel intentionality means …

… buying from local shops.
… frequenting a local coffee shop or pub.
… playing for a local sports team.
… always tipping generously in local restaurants.
… being the kind of neighbor everyone wants to have as a neighbor.
… volunteering at a local charity shop along with a couple of others from church.
… doing ordinary things in community.
… opening your home to, and sharing your food with others.
… walking the same route to work at the same time or catching the same train each day.
… we do EVERYTHING for the sake of the gospel!

These ideas are fleshed out more in the book Total Church. “Total church” is their way of capturing the idea that church is not one activity in our lives. Church isn’t a meeting you attend or a building your enter. It’s our identity, our community, our family. It’s the context for the totality of the Christian life.

In a post on this gospel intentionality at Edwards blog, Jonathan Dodson comments: “We need not only to do these things, but also understand how they are an expression of the gospel…or they will devolve into meaningless practices or legalistic works.”

This is the 'stuff' we go through at Kaleo. Recently, in our missional community we have had two families begin the process of searching for a home. Both were considering a location farther away from the community where they could get more home for the money. In our gospel intentional way we asked them what were the motivations behind this. If we are called to be a community on mission with the gospel at the center of everything we do, wouldn't our decision of where we live profoundly be impacted by this? If we are gospel intentional we make decisions with what is best in mind for our witness, our faith and God's glory. What motivates us to move outside the city to buy a bigger home? Comfort? Investment? Safety? If the answer isn't calling than ultimately this decision is not being made with the gospel at the core. The good news of who God is tells us our comfort, value and protection reside in Him not in our home. We ultimately need to get down to the heart issues of what motivates people in all our decisions, because if we are not walking in line with the gospel we are worshiping something other than God.

These two families have begun to re-consider what they want to prioritize. They recognize that if they moved 20 minutes away it would impact their ability to be gospel intentional. Certainly, if God was calling them to move and their motivation was the gospel at the center, we would embrace this and help them move but our missional community doesn't see this as the case. These people have been willing to submit this decision and heed the counsel of the community because of the gospel intentionality they desire. (Note: This is not gospel ‘intensity' these conversations are not heavy-handed or us trying to make decisions for them.) All of us seek to expose our lives to each other and the community around us so that when any decision or circumstance is brought up we examine it through the idea of God's calling on our life to live as a redemptive people who are servants of our great King. To the world this may sound crazy but to us it is a beautiful mess of sinners celebrating a life under the reign of a God who loves us and has adopted us as His.

We are calling our community to process this in how they dress, where they live, what activities they participate in and how we interact. It is all of life.

Lamentations: The Enslaved Princess

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:55 GMT

This post is part of the series: Lamentations»

Before I recap the first message from Lamentations, here's a couple of housekeeping things:

You can download the free 110-page guide here: Lamentations - Sermon Guide. The guide includes a devotional for every day during a 9-week period, along with readable commentary on each section of Lamentations. It uses Lamentations to point to Jesus, as well as providing personal applications for us all. Hopefully this guide will be a very valuable resource for you.

Another question I've received a lot lately is this: Why Lamentations? Wouldn't a new church better be served by examining 1 Timothy? Or Genesis? Or the letters to Corinth? Right now, for us at Harmony Church, it's a pastoral need. We, as a church, don't pray like we should. And we, as a city, don't have the complete view of God (as both merciful and just) that is so clearly presented in Lamentations. So we're in Lamentations, as it will address both of these issues. But what about you? Why should you go through Lamentations? I'd answer your question with a question: when is the last time you've heard the Gospel explained from Lamentations? We ignore the book as pastors. It's difficult. It's not fluffy. It's weighty. It doesn't provide subject material known to “grow churches”. But Jesus preached from Lamentations. And we should be like Him, right? You can complete the logic. That being said What was the first section from Lamentations on?

The Enslaved Princess

In the first section of Lamentations, we are presented with a man who is greatly disturbed by what has been going on in his city. His city, Jerusalem, has been destroyed by the Babylonian people, and the city that was once a lovely princess is now a distraught slave. She has been afflicted, destroyed, and is now suffering. The man presenting her story alludes to the fact that her suffering is due to her rebellion (v5). This leads to a surprise role for God: enemy. Because of her rebellion, she has in effect declared war on God, who has no choice but to involve Himself in the fight for His own reputation. You can listen to the full message here: The Enslaved Princess or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. The full outline, notes, application and such again is included in the Lamentations Guide, as linked to above.

Other parts of the series:

Lamentations: The Enslaved Princess

One Day Emphasis for Small Communities

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:07 GMT

I am excited to see my friends from the BGCO working hard to serve their churches. In a tumultuous time in my denomination, Anthony Jordon has led the BGCO to serve their congregations well. At a time when some are saying we don't need a change, Anthony has been urging his churches to become more missional. I appreciate his friendship over the last several years and, more importantly, his steady leadership.

Well, my friend Bob Mayfield is part of the team there and he asked me to come out and do a training event that will be used for 10,000 leaders this August. Now, this training is not for pastors, but for leaders of small communities-- small group leaders and Sunday School teachers. And, training 10,000 leaders is a pretty great opportunity to encourage some folks, so I was glad to do it... and the videos will be coming out soon.

Let me add that I think this kind of approach will be big part of the future. Last year, I did a similar thing with the Assemblies of God. We shot the video at a television station in Chicago and then then used it in meetings across their region. It takes such training to people and not just to pastors. You can see those videos here.

They have planned a "One Day" training for leaders of small groups and classes to help them live on mission. Below is a preview video and you can find more information about the "One Day" initiative here.

What Happens In Vegas...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:30 GMT

It's so weird living in Las Vegas. This place is insane. I've heard a lot of local people say that living here is just like living anywhere else in America, with the exception of the Strip. They are liars. Let me give you some examples:

1. One of my new friends, Melissa, owns a gym. They gave me a one-month free trial membership. I've been working out and getting ripped! Ha Ha! We work out with strippers, porn stars, cocktail waitresses and dealers. These people don't look like normal people. They wear practically nothing to work out in, and they are "perfect" looking; think Greek gods and goddesses. I bet that if I went to a gym in VA Beach it would be hard to find someone who was a stripper or a porn star.

2. Vince and I went out to dinner on Saturday night. We got dressed up and hit the town! I have never seen so much butt and boobs in my life...at dinner! The stiletto heels were causing so much pain. These poor girls were practically limping. The price we pay for fashion! I've been out to dinner plenty of times in VA Beach and have NEVER seen women dressed like this.

3. My kids go to a good school in a good neighborhood. From the distance it looks like a totally normal school, with pick up and drop offs by lots of parents. The difference is that a lot of the moms don't look like regular moms. You've got moms in Daisy Duke shorts, cut off shirts and I'm pretty sure the majority have boob jobs. Again, not typical to anywhere else I've ever lived.

4. Billboards are a normal sight in America, but billboards in Las Vegas are a frightening sight. There is a local internet porn company that pays people $500 to "drop their trunks" for their website. According to a recent article, they get 200 calls a day. They have billboards up all over the city. I guess that explains all the phone calls. There are also hundreds of billboards for casino night clubs and topless swimming pools.

I say all this not to bash Vegas, but to ask for your prayers. Because this is unlike anywhere else we've ever lived, our ministry needs to have aspects that are unlike anything we've ever done. Starting a church by simply sending out some postcards isn't going to work here.

We had lunch today with a pastor from a large church in town. He kept calling us "missionaries." At first I was like, "What are you talking about? I'm not a missionary. Missionaries are people who leave their country and immerse themselves in a foreign culture." Then I realized that except for leaving my country that's pretty much what we're doing.

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The Sometimes Surprising Price of Success

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:12 GMT

No, this post isn’t about growing pains as your church gets bigger and bigger or what to do with the budget surplus all that extra tithing is leaving you with (though if your problem is the latter, email me).

I’ve been thinking this week about the cost we pastors and our communities pay when people actually begin to do what we’re asking them do to: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”

So far this year, we’ve had a hard time making budget just about every month. And as a smaller church, that matters. As I looked at the numbers, I began to wonder what was happening. Were people giving less because of the financial crisis? Were we angering people and provoking a “hold back” response in giving?

But as I tried to see the big picture of where our community is, I realized we’re actually just paying the price of success.

Recently we’ve sent some wonderful folks around the world—One family to Glasgow, Scotland, for church planting. One couple to Sudan to do medical and relief work for some of the poorest of the poor. Another couple to Bangladesh to rescue women from the sex trade and to help people begin businesses that will enable them to pull themselves out of poverty.

All these people have taken with them not just the hearts and prayers of our community. They’ve taken our financial support and the financial support of many members of our community.

In other words, giving isn’t down. I have a feeling that, on the whole, we’re actually giving more. It just doesn’t show up on our books.

How to Get Your Website Noticed

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:00 GMT

Church planters are always asking me, “How do I get my site to show up on Google?” When you publish a new site its like being a bottle in the ocean. The object is to be found, but the odds are low. Getting your site to rank on Google is the art/science of Search Engine Optimization or SEO. There are services you can pay to do the work for you, but I don't recommend it because you can do all the work yourself. If you are the kind of person that pays to have gas put in their car or pays the UPS store $10 to put your item in a box for you then you might be a good candidate. But if you are a church planter on a tight budget (which is redundant because every church plant budget it tight) do a little research and do the work yourself.

Step 1: Add your URL to Search Engines. Google and Yahoo are the two most used. Click the links for instructions.

Step 2: Place free online ads. Here's an old post about this step. In addition post a free listing on the following sites:

Step 3: Get Social. Social Media is your friend. At a minimum the church should have:

A Facebook Page: Facebook provides lots of places for you to link to your website and for others to link to your website. Links are king with SEO. Think of links like votes in a popularity contest.
Twitter: Every calendar event, every blog post, every new page created, every church announcement should be tweeted. Every tweet should have a link back to the website. Remember links are king.
YouTube: I personally am not a big fan, but did you know that YouTube is third in search? That means only Google and Yahoo are used more for searches on the internet. Setup your own YouTube channel and put all your church videos there. In the description of the video put a link to your site, because links are king. Vimeo is another great site to upload video too. Both of these sites have applications for Facebook so your videos will go right to your Facebook page.
Flickr: Post photos to Flickr. Just be careful of putting photos of kids up. Make sure you have parental permission. There is also a Facebook app for Flickr that will post your photos to your Facebook page.
Blog: If you're not blogging you should be. Blogs are an easy way to make annoucements, teach the Bible, share your story and contribute to the community. And of course with each post you can have a link to the website, because links are king.

There are literally hundreds of social media sites. My advice: pick the most popular and stick to those. If you have teens in the church that want to start a social media ministry, then let them update to their hearts content. But you don't want to spend all your time online and not in the real world. Think of each of these social media outlets as another bottle in the ocean with the same message. You get enough bottles out there and people are going to start finding you. Don't expect that by doing these things you will show up first on Google. It takes time. Remember to be diligent about keeping your website current and posting new content to social media sites. Do this and over time you will show up and you might even win the popularity contest. And if you only take away one thing, remember links are king.

The Theology of Resistance in Church Planting

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:33 GMT

One of the best newsletters on church multiplication I personally read is one written by Dr. Bob and Noreen Vajko veteran church planting missionaries who function now as church planting consultants with TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) Recently they dealt with the Theology of Resistance in Church Planting, Here are Bob's thoughts:

As missionaries work in church planting, the question of “where” to plant a church is a key factor in an effective and enduring church plant. This leads to the question of what to do in order to plant a church in a resistant area in any given country. I would like to look at the biblical data and then move from the theology of church planting to the question of the application of what is gleaned from this data.

What is Resistance?

The word “resist” has an interesting etymology coming from the Latin “resistere” and means “to take a stand” or “to exert force in opposition.”
This is exactly what we talk about when we deal with the concept of “resistance” to the message of Christ.
Michael Pocock states that “The resistant are those who have or are receiving an adequate opportunity to hear the gospel but over some time have not responded properly.” (Woodberry 1998, 5).
In particular certain parts of the world, certain ethnic groups, and those adhering to certain religious groups have shown themselves resistant to the life-changing message of Christ.

What Causes Resistance to the Gospel?

Belonging to an ethnic group that is opposed to Christianity.
- We see this in many parts of the world today and especially among certain ethnic groups.
- Usually this means that becoming a Christian means being a traitor to your given ethnic group.
Belonging to a religion that is considered superior to Christianity.
- This is the case with most of the major religions of the world.
- To become a Christian is to betray your previous religion.
A misunderstanding of the message of the gospel.
- Many are resistant because the message of the gospel is tied in with cultural baggage that is not a part of the gospel.
- Many are resistant because they have not heard a message that is related to their context and the gospel seems to be either incomprehensible or foreign.
Resistance to the person bringing the message.
- After the 2^nd world war, a German missionary seeking to work in Francewould normally find resistance not because of the message but because of the link with a previous invader.
- The same would be true of Japanese missionaries going to China right after the war with China.
Certain times and seasons of resistance.
- Amazingly enough there are times when resistance is broken down because of some change in the circumstances.
- There is also the question of the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit who, as Jesus stated, "the wind (same word as Spirit in Greek) blowa where it wishes..." and there are special times and seasons where suddenly an openness to the gospel shows itself.

How Can Resistance be Overcome?

By love.
By prayer.
By a new presentation of the message of Christ.
By better contextualization.
By a new understanding of the message.
By planting churches in concentric circles thus increasing receptivity. “Nothing increases general responsiveness like the spread of evangelical churches. Every Christian has scores of relatives who know him intimately. Every congregation is a center of influence.” (McGavran 1963, 64).

Resistance and Church Planting

It is evident that it will be more difficult to plant a new church in a resistant area or among resistant peoples.
It will be helpful if we think about “pockets of receptivity” in resistant areas.
- This has been mentioned previously in HPMC where we discovered in a new city where people where moving in at an unusually rapid rate) an amazing openness to the gospel in France whereas the general population was more resistant.
- This can happen within a given ethnic or demographic group where some people are more open for a number of reasons
The question of urbanization and resistance. Newer areas in a given population open the door and provide receptivity.
The question of demographics and resistance. Areas where there are younger people are more open and less resistant.
The multiplication of churches within a given area increases receptivity as can be seen in the quote of McGavran above. We experienced this in the Paris area as new churches helped to plant new churches and thus increased responsiveness.

Sources:

Liao, David E. E. 1972. The Unresponsive: Resistant or Neglected? The Hakka Chinese inTaiwan Illustrate a Common Missions Problem. Chicago: Moody Press.
McGavran, Donald A. 1963. Church Growth in Mexico. Grand Rapid MI: Eerdmans.
McGavran, Donald A.. 1980. Understanding Church Growth, Revised Edition. Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans.

To sign up for Bob and Noreen's Newsletter email bobvajko@gmail.com

Check out Gary's thoughts on the subject No Respnse to the Gospel

Four Months to Live

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:42 GMT

Had coffee with my friend Steve Swisher yesterday, who took the reins of a struggling church plant here in Virginia Beach several years ago.

The church was hobbling along, functioning in survival mode, when his bookkeeper told him, "This church has just four months to live. Then we run out of cash, and it's all over."

Rather than cut his losses, Steve asked himself, "What would I do if I had nothing to lose? What decisions would I make if I had only four months to live?"

He immediately shut-down the church's old way of doing things... said goodbye to some divisive and uncommitted people... and then relaunched the church.

He crafted a new image, changed the church's name, rented a new location, and hired a new worship leader. The most committed people enthusiastically poured themselves into the restart.

The church is turning around with 150 people and climbing...

Amazing story in the making.

Andy Stanley on The Cost of Indecision

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:30 GMT

Ever been in a position as a church leader when it was time to stop talking and make a decision?

Sometimes I think we talk TOO much instead of making decisions in the church. After all, we think it would be great if we had everyone on our side before the decision was made. We're afraid of making people mad; we're afraid of conflict; and yes, we're afraid people who don't get their way will (can I say it?), leave.

Andy Stanley has a great example of leadership that he shares in Leadership Journal. Listen to his example....

When we started North Point Community Church, our leadership team suggested that our adult education be built around a network of small groups that met in homes.

This was in contrast to the adult Sunday school model we had all grown up with. We expected some pushback on this issue. Most of the folks helping to plant the new church had grown up going to Sunday school. It was all they knew. But we felt that a campus-based adult Sunday school program was not the best way to accomplish our mission.

Every time our leadership gathered, the issue of our small group strategy would come up. Some key leaders were not convinced that this was the best route. Others assumed we were adopting this strategy only until we had our own facility. People were quick to point out that other churches had tried home-based groups with only limited success.

For a year we listened. It's important to have "unfiltered discussion," to hear everyone's perspective. We did our best to answer questions and build consensus. We studied what other churches were doing. We piloted about a dozen groups to work out the kinks in the system.

But after a while I realized no new insights were being brought up. We were repeating the same arguments to each other. It was time to bring the discussion to a close.

The moment of truth came on a Wednesday evening in a rented facility next door to our property. All of our key adult leadership was present to discuss our plan to move into our soon-to-be completed facility. Toward the end of the meeting a woman raised her hand and shared her concern about our small group strategy. She was genuine, but her question was one I had answered a dozen times before.

In the past I had not taken a firm stand on this issue. I was only about 80 percent certain that our small group strategy would work, but I knew we had to give it 100 percent of our effort if it was going to succeed.

This time I put diplomacy aside and was very direct. Understand, these people are my friends. These folks had supported me through the most difficult transition of my life. They were volunteers. These men and women had sacrificed their time and financial resources to ensure a good start. But in spite of the uncertainties, it was time to be clear.

When the woman finished, I smiled and quickly reviewed the discussions we had been having for the previous year. Then I said, "After tonight we are not going to discuss 'if' anymore. We are moving forward. From now on I need you to focus your energies on 'how.' There are many unanswered questions. None of us has ever been part of a church that was organized around home groups. We have a lot to learn. Feel free to question our implementation, but not our direction. As of tonight, we go forward."

That was seven years ago. Currently, over five thousand adults are involved in small groups. The men and women who were in attendance that evening became the champions of our small-group ministry. Once it became clear which play was called, everybody got on board.

Were we certain of the outcome? No.

Were we clear about our direction? Absolutely.

Were we certain that this decision was the right one? No. If we had waited for absolute certainty we would still be talking. But a decision had to be made. A clear decision. And that decision, made in the intangible realm of ideas and projections, was eventually judged in the real world of attendance.

FOR DISCUSSION: How do you know when it's time to stop talking, make a decision and move forward? Are there areas now that you need to make a call and move on? What are your thoughts?

You can read all of Andy's article at Leadership Journal right here.

New Coaching Opportunity!

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:57 GMT

I talked about this in the www.church-strategies.com newsletter this week, but I'm starting a new Leadership Coaching network for Senior Pastors in August. It will be a 6-month tele-coaching network that focuses on the following topics:

Session One: The Personal Development of the Senior Pastor

Session Two: Church Governance

Session Three: Developing other Leaders

Session Four: Building an Effective Staff

Session Five: Preaching for Life Change

Session Six: Advanced Outreach Strategies

You can pick up an application at: http://church-strategies.com/coaching.html

Just to give you an idea of the difference coaching makes, here's what a couple of guys had to say about their involvement in my current tele-coaching network:

"Planting Discovery Church has been one of the most exciting and challenging periods of my life. One of the best resources that I had access to during this season has been Bob Franquiz and his coaching network. The topics always addressed real pressing issues that I was either facing currently or that were just around the corner. His willingness to share from both his vast reading and own personal experience was highly valuable. I would, without any hesitation, recommend Bob Franquiz and his coaching network..." - Lead Pastor in Indiana

"This coaching network has been worth far more than the cost. As a church planter the cost of anything is a major factor. You owe it to yourself, the leadership God has entrusted to you and you owe it to your church to invest in this coaching network. The reality is we all need to hear from people who have been where we are trying to go. Jump on this opportunity. Oh, by the way, I believe that the insight and encouragement from this coaching network directly lead to our church being supported by a church that probably would not have supported us had I not learned the skills this network taught me (yes, the support to our church was financially more than the cost of this coaching network). Trust me, it is well worth it." - Lead Pastor and Church Planter in CT

If you want to be part of this coaching experience, pick up an application at: http://church-strategies.com/coaching.html

Leadership Book Interview: Unfashionable

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:16 GMT

Tullian Tchividjian's new book, Unfashionable boldly addresses the issue of what it means to be the church in the world, while refusing to be of it. This is a theologically driven book that calls the church to "contextualize without compromise." Tullian's is a voice of reasoned, biblical sanity when many who are having this discussion are talking past one another with unhelpful and exaggerated rhetoric. I spoke with Tullian recently and asked him to talk to us about this new book.

ES: Tullian Tchividjian. I hope I got the name right.

TT: You got it perfect. I'm actually very, very impressed. It's Tchividjian, which rhymes with "religion."

ES: Which rhymes with religion. That's how I learned it. I remember sitting in New York City, and you telling me that. So I never forget. Well, so glad to talk to you about Unfashionable. I really enjoyed the book, but if you remember, during our conversation you asked me to endorse it. I almost didn't. I was kind of reading, and it seemed very negative about engaging culture, but then I'm thinking I know Tullian, and he's very positive about engaging culture, and you have kind of blazed this trail between the two. There's this one quote in your book that says, "It's both sad and ironic that the shift is now putting the church in the wrong place at the right time. Just when our culture is yearning for something different, many churches are developing creative ways to be the same. Just as many in our culture are beginning to search back in time, many churches are pronouncing the irrelevance of the past." So tell what's the big idea here that's driving Unfashionable, Making a Difference in the World by Being Different when you're a pretty culturally relevant guy? What's your message here that you're trying to communicate?

TT: Well, about two and a half years ago I was asked by an interviewer what troubling trends do you see emerging in the evangelical world amongst young evangelicals, specifically in America? And I said, right away our fascination with fitting it. And I said to the interviewer that it seems that when you scan the landscape of evangelicalism across America, many churches and Christians have come to the conclusion that the best way to reach the world is to become just like the world, so we go out of our way to convince the world in a thousand different ways that there's really nothing different between us, between the church and the world, that we want to go out of our way to convince the world that we're really the same.

And so the overarching thesis of Unfashionable is this: Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world. They don't make a difference by being the same. And over and over again in the book I borrow this line from sociologist Peter Berger where he said that the church is to live against the world for the sake of the world. And so there's this tension that exists between being in the world, but not of the world. What I seek to do in the book is really tease out what does it mean to be in the world, but not of the world; what does it mean to live against the world for the sake of the world; what does it really look like for Christians to make a difference in the world by being different from the world? My goal is to really spell that out theologically, to spell it out practically. I talk about the fact that according to Jesus, Christianity is not cool. Jesus says some pretty remarkably unfashionable things, like if you want to live you must die, that if you're eye or your hand causes you to sin, pluck it out or cut it off. He just - the way up is down, the way down is up. I mean everything in God's kingdom moves backwards according to the world's standards, so to speak. And so I try to tease out that tension so that the reader can understand what it really means to engage this world in an unfashionable way.

ES: And I think you do a wonderful job with those. Very encouraged and challenged by the book. It seems that right now, we're in the midst of a conversation on this. How do we engage culture? How are we in the world, but not of it? Your book stands out, I think, as a fresh voice in the midst of that, perhaps for me, because the ways in which you are calling people to be different than the world are not the ways that many of the; to be blunt, the angry voices of some parts of evangelicalism are saying, "Listen, put your suit and tie back on, cut your hair, don't listen to any music that was written in the last 100 years." and then you're godly. So in what ways are we talking about being different cause I mean I know your church plant does some progressive things. Now you're serving at Coral Ridge. In what ways, give me some examples what you are taking about and some ways that you're not talking about?

TT: Yeah, that's good. Well, obviously, by unfashionable I'm not talking about the clothes you wear, your hairstyle, the music you listen to. I'm talking about something much deeper, and I'll give you a couple of examples. There are some silly and there are some more serious mistakes that I think the church makes by trying too hard to fit in. A silly way would be, for instance, and I talk about these things in the book, walking into a Christian book store and seeing, instead of Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts, a breadcrumb and fish t-shirts.

ES: Those Testamints.

TT: Yeah, Testamints. I walked into one Christian bookstore a while back and there was this comparison list between secular bands and Christian bands. So if you like Dave Matthews Band, you'll love such and such. If you like Counting Crows, you'll love such and such. If you love Beyonce, you'll love - . We're trying way way too hard to convince the world that we're really no different than they are. We've basically created a parallel universe, a copycat culture. And so that's kind of silly because, and it's somewhat frustrating because we think, are we really being creative in a pioneering way, or are we just looking around at what's cool in the world and then copying it with a little sprinkle of Jesus on top?

So those are silly ways, but there are some more serious ways, I think, in which we are capitulating to what's fashionable. For instance, it's very, very common in our culture today, as everybody knows, for there to be a tremendous amount of ambiguity regarding the notion of truth. I mean it is vogue to be vague, for instance, that the more uncertain we are, the more cool it is, that we don't want to fully embrace the fact, our culture I'm talking about, we don't want to embrace the fact that there is such thing as universal objective truth that is true for everyone everywhere all the time. I mean there are very, very few people in our culture today who would admit that that is true. They would say there is no absolute truth. We've heard it a thousand times.

Well, the church has always been the pack of people on this planet who have embraced Jesus' words in John 14:6, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the light. Nobody comes to the Father but by me. We have been that society in society. The church has been that society in society where truth is belief. We do believe there is objective universal knowable truth, that we cannot know truth exhaustively, but we can know truth truly because God has revealed it from outside of us. Well, these days there's so much pressure from the outside world to become ambiguous about the reality of truth that you find even many voices in the Christian church today shying away from their firm belief that universal objective outside of us truth exists for everyone, revealed by God to his people. And so that's a much more serious, much more dangerous way that we're trying to be fashionable, that we're trying to fit in the notion of truth, which is a big one, obviously.

So I'm not addressing what kind of music we should play in worship, because those things, to me, are just, they're unimportant. You can be too fashionable and be traditional. You can be too fashionable and be contemporary. You can be unfashionable and be traditional. You can be unfashionable and contemporary. That's not what I address at all. I'm addressing much more of this idea that we have adopted or absorbed a worldly mindset in the way that we think about money and relationships, truth, all of those things that I outline in the book. And I define worldly

ES: There's a lot of things in the book from the atonement to greed to loss of truth. The book covers some strong ground and kind of calling people back to an unapologetic, unfashionable view of life, church and ministry.

TT: Yeah, yeah. Yes, that is. This book was penned with tremendous passion. I say in the book that if I did not write it, I was going to explode because it was brewing, it had been brewing in me for about 15 years. And it really is my clarion call. I'm 36 years old. I'm a South Florida native. I am on the front lines of practical ministry as Pastor at Coral Ridge. And so this is my clarion call to young evangelicals to embrace the fact that we are odd, that we're never going to fit in. But the irony and the thing that I think we need to embrace, the paradox here, is that when you study church history, what you discover is that the church has always served the world best when it has been most counter cultural, when it has been most different from the world. I'm not talking about curling up in our holy huddles and sucking our thumbs and waiting for the rapture to come. I am talking about full blown cultural engagement. But it's the way we engage culture that I'm really, really addressing.

The book assumes the fact that we are to engage this world. In fact, I have a few chapters that talk about the absolute call from God to his people to engage this world to transform this world into the world to come because God is on a mission to do just that. But I'm talking more in the book about how do we do it? Do we do it by being the same, or do we do it by being different? And if we do it by being different, what does that really look like practically speaking? And so that's what the book seeks.

ES: The book has gotten widespread acclaim. You got a great list of endorsers. But at the same time, but people are still missing the point. There's the one side that says we've just got to engage culture, we've got to use every tool, we've got to be relevant and cutting edge, and they have all the cliché. Then you've got this other side that says unhelpful things like contextualization will be an anathema to the Apostles, we don't need to worry about those things. So you're trying to come in and bring a third way, and saying, we do need to be engaging, even relevant to culture, but we deeply oppose the culture where culture opposes the word and its teachings.

TT: Yeah. I identify in one of the chapters entitled Where in the World Are Christians, I talk about the fact that there are always two ways to fall off a tightrope. There are always two extremes we need to avoid in any given situation, and that is true when it comes to Christianity and culture of the church and the world. And the one extreme we need to avoid is to avoid being culturally removed, totally disengaged from the world. The other extreme we need to avoid is to avoid being culturally relaxed, so absorbed with the culture that we're really no different.

So there's a big section in the book on contextualization, and I wholeheartedly agree that contextualization is not only necessary, but is absolutely unavoidable. I mean we all live our lives within a particular context. I give some examples of, some simple examples even, of when I am trying to teach my three kids something about God, I'm going to teach my seven-year-old a little bit different. I'm going to use words and pictures and tone of voice and things like that that are different with her than I would with my 15-year-old. And I'm going to talk to my 15-year-old about those things in a different way than I'm going to talk to a 55-year-old. I mean every English translation of the bible is an effort to contextualize biblical truth translated from the original languages into a language that English-speaking people like me can understand. And so we have to be contextualizing. And so I make sure that the reader understands we're talking about full-blown engagement. I mean in fact, I've taken more hits actually as a result of writing this book because I talk so much about transforming culture.

There's a big debate going on these days regarding whether or not we should be engaging culture or whether or not we should just be the church. And I don't think that the bible allows us to build a dichotomy there. How do we transform this world? We transform this world by being the church. So it's not an either or. It's definitely a both and. It's making a difference by being different. It's making a difference in our community by being a different community.

ES: So it's a challenge to find that balance. What would you say to these young pastors who right now are really pursuing relevance? Would you tell them to stop? Would you tell them to add something to it? Would you tell them to reconsider? What would you say to them?

TT: I would say that to be truly relevant you have to say things that are timeless, not trendy. That's what I would say. I address this in the book, that in order to be truly relevant you have to be otherworldly. You have to operate according to a different ethic, that there is a deep relevance to being irrelevant, so to speak.

When we try too hard to fit in we actually become irrelevant because we're not saying anything different. I mean it's almost like we lose our voice. We lose our unique niche, the church does, when we're trying too hard to fit in. We become indistinguishable from a world that desperately wants something different.

If you just look around at the world today, and you read a quote which piggybacks on what I'm about to say, but if you look around at the world today, the world is desperately crying out for something otherworldly. I mean the fascination with sort of pop spirituality, angels, aliens, all those sorts of things indicate that there is a deep longing in the human soul that craves something beyond this world. Well, when Christians put their greatest tool up on the shelf in the name of being relevant, we end up becoming really, really irrelevant. And, I have to wonder sometimes about whether or not Christians and pastors who try so hard to fit in and be relevant are really doing it because they have a deep passion to reach the world or if they have a deep passion to be accepted. And I know that's a struggle that I find. I can try so hard to be fashionable and be cool and fit in and do it under the guise of I'm trying to reach the world, but I know what's going on in my heart. I know what's really going on. What's really going on is I just want the world to think I'm cool. I don't want people around me to think I'm odd and unfashionable and strange. I want them to think I'm like them. Like I can be cool, too. Christians can be cool, too.

ES: I've actually heard people say that, yeah. And that's a desire, I think, to communicate. I think for some people it's a desire to build a bridge, and I get that.

But I think ultimately it's, there always comes a point where there are things for which we stand, there's always the stumbling block of the cross, but even more so it's just there are places where we say, we differ. And if we don't have that then we lose the saltiness.

Ironically, we look at the, many mainline denominations chased after relevance in the 60's, and today nobody pays attention to them. In a great twist of historic irony, in a desire to engage the world they became like the world, and then the world didn't pay attention to them anymore.

TT: We're talking about timeless truth that has been relevant for generations and has been relevant throughout the centuries. And like I said before, I think if we want to be truly relevant we have to say things that are timeless and not trendy because if we spend our life as a church chasing the latest trend we'll always be behind the 8-ball. I'll never forget, and I mention this as an illustration in the book. I'll never forget the time that a Hollywood actor pulled my Granddad aside in the late 1950's when my Granddad was becoming a very, very famous preacher of the Gospel, and he said, "Billy, don't ever try to do Hollywood because Hollywood will always do it better than you. You give the world the one thing Hollywood can't, the timeless truth of the Gospel." That's relevant.

ES: Speak to the pastor who says, "We are unfashionable. We don't try to look like the world. We stand against that worldly music. We stand against worldly culture. We tell our people don't watch TV. We're separate." They're basically striving to be the new spiritual Amish, and they're doing it because they want to be unfashionable. What do you say to that person about culture?

TT: I would say that God is on a mission to make all things new, that God is on a mission to transform this present world into the world to come, that when Christ came the first time He inaugurated this process of universal transformation. When He comes back a second time, He will consummate or complete this process of universal transformation, making all things new, bring heaven to earth so to speak. But in between the times, in between Christ's first coming and His second coming, God has called His people, He's equipped His church to carry on what Christ began and will one day complete. And so, what I tell people like that is God has transformed us to become agents of transformation. He has, He has renewed us so that we would become agents of renewal. There is a reason why Jesus calls His disciples salt and light. We know that salt and light only make a difference when it makes contact. Salt can only preserve something that's rotting when it makes contact with what it is that it's rotting. You know, light can only shine in the darkness if it makes contact with the darkness.

Another line that I use in the book, which has really helped me over the years, is we need to "contextualize without compromise." We need to make contact with the world while colliding with the ways of the world. And so to the people who say well we are just going to set up big thick walls to protect us from those nasty pagans on the outside, and we're going to sing our songs and do our deal and just hope and pray every day that the rapture comes and rescues us from this nasty place, well they are just categorically failing to understand the overarching message of the bible, which is that God is on a mission to make all things news, and He's called His people and equipped His people to be his agents of renewal in between the times.

ES: Excellent. Thank you so much, Tullian, for taking the time to talk. This is a very helpful book. I'd recommend it to people to read. I've given it to many both contemporary church pastors and many maybe those who are not engaging culture. And I find it to be a good balanced look at these things.

If you don't have it, pick up Unfashionable today. It an excellent book on an issue that's hot right now (and always "relevant"). And check out the solid discussion questions in the back of the book.

Tullian will be on the blog today, interacting with all of you and your questions. So jump into the comments and join the discussion.

Swedes & Scandanavians, the BGC, & Converge Worldwide

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:57 GMT

Today, I am in Garden Grove, California speaking to the Converge Worldwide / Southwest Baptist Conference. For those of you uninitiated to all things Baptist, there are about 431,034 Baptist denominations. This one descends from the Swedish Pietist movement.

Wikipedia explains:

The Baptist General Conference grew out of the great revival of the 19th century, but its roots can be traced back to Swedish Pietism. In 1852, Gustaf Palmquist emigrated from Sweden to the United States. Forty-seven days after his arrival, he and three others organized a Swedish Baptist church in Rock Island, Illinois. Frederick Nilsson, who was instrumental in leading Palmquist to Baptist views, arrived in America the next year with 21 immigrants. Some of these united with the Rock Island church, while others organized a church at Houston, Minnesota. Nilsson traveled widely, founding and strengthening churches. Anders Wiberg was another pioneer among these churches from 1852 until 1855, when he returned to Sweden as a missionary.
Christian experience was a major emphasis among these Swedish Baptists, and they prospered from the awakenings in the 19th century. Immigration, aggressive evangelism and conversion through revivals brought rapid growth to the denomination. John Edgren founded the Swedish Baptist Seminary in Chicago, Illinois in 1871.

In 1879, when the Swedish churches had grown to 65 in number, they formed a General Conference. The members of these churches assimilated into American society and gradually lost their separate ethnic identity. By 1940, most churches were English-speaking. In 1945, the Swedish Baptist General Conference dropped "Swedish" from its name and became the Baptist General Conference of America. Swedish Baptists had maintained an alliance with the American Baptist Publication Society, American Baptist home and foreign missions, etc., and later the Northern Baptist Convention. Some Swedish Baptists expected to merge with that body, but the groups moved toward different developments of theological emphasis. The conservative Swedish Baptists pulled back from growing liberalism of the Northern Baptists, and in 1944 formed their own Board of Foreign Missions. This moved them toward independent existence, which they have maintained to the present.

Today, they are a newly renamed group, now called "Converge Worldwide," and have almost 1000 churches in the U.S.

In 2006, the BGC had 194,000 members in 950 churches in the United States. These churches are also organized into 13 district bodies: Columbia, Florida/Caribbean, Great Lakes, Heartland, Iowa, Mideast, Michigan, Minnesota, Midwest, Northern California, Northwest, Northeast, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest. There are a further 105 churches in Canada organized into 5 district bodies. These congregations cooperate together nationally through the Baptist General Conference of Canada.

I have had the privilege of consulting with them as they merged their national and international mission boards a few years ago (focused on the idea that "one worldwide mission" requires "one mission board").

Based on a research project I did for Leadership Network, I have said that they are the leading mid-sized to large denomination engage in North American church planting. (I will unpack that more in a new and forthcoming book, our in 2010, on church planting.)

Great folks and honored to spend the day with their leaders today.

Why are we so afraid of NT house churches?

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:40 GMT

I have been thrilled to see the growing interest for house churches in the North American context and especially amongst my Southern Baptist brethren. As IMB-SBC missionaries, most of us are engaged in training, teaching, and planting NT house churches much like the one described below.

A while back on sbcImpact! blogging friend, Geoff Baggett, asked his readers (mostly Southern Baptist) House Churches: Will They Really Work In North America?

The following phrases were lifted from the 67 comments generated from that post. To be fair to those commenting, I would encourage you to read their complete thoughts in context. Most are fairly common objections about house churches heard quite often...

...accountability and proper doctrine would be my two red flags

...the rise of house churches is more of mark of unhealthiness

...house churches are dominated by people who do not want to submit themselves to the leadership of the church

...the lack of biblically trained leadership would often create an environment rich in heresy

...early churches meeting in homes, is that descriptive or prescriptive?

...I tend to think of this as more a reaction against the mega church and mega-wannabe

...I think that house churches work better in some cultures than in other cultures

...To me, the key biblical point is not where the church meets. The key point is whether the pastor meets the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

...House churches work well in places where there is persecution and a need for secret meeting places.

...I don't think it would work in my context...

Rather than spend time refuting each of the above concerns, I would rather share what DOES take place in a house church gathering (at least in our Guayaquil, Ecuador context.)

After reading, you can judge for yourself if any of the above are relevant concerns.

1) At 6:30 pm we began with 15-20 adults and several children, meeting in the home of the church planter, which also doubles as a beauty parlor during the week. All the hair dressing equipment had been moved to another room to make space for the plastic chairs that were set up in a circle. It was very hot and crowded, but nobody seemed to mind (except the visiting missionaries!)

2) We sang a cappella 2 hymns, 1 psalm, and 1 praise chorus, all chosen at random by those present from tattered song books and a few xeroxed copies. No instruments--nobody there could play--no praise band, no over-head projected screens, no PowerPoint presentations, no choir, no microphones, pulpit, or any of the other "essentials" that many consider necessary in order to have "church." The singing was off-key, but it was a loud, heartfelt joyful sound!

3) Several people shared testimonies of how God is working in their lives and what God had been teaching them this past week from His Word. There was an open time of prayer with several people praying for one another as they were led of the Spirit.

4) The church planter led in a participatory inductive Bible study of Matthew 10. The focus was on persecution and how we are to confront it as Christians. There were no theologians quoted, books referenced, Greek word studies--just pure Bible, verse by verse. The illustrations were all from their own personal life experiences. Lots of participation, questions, and dialogue. The visual aid was a piece of newspaper print with the main points handwritten and taped to the wall.

5) We next observed the Lord's Supper as commanded by Jesus...1 Cor.11:23ff was read, followed by several moments of silent confession of sins. 3-4 people shared testimonies of what Christ meant to them and how grateful we all were for what Jesus had done for us. While partaking of the elements we sang a love song to Jesus. [NOTE: Here one might have reason to raise an eye brow--they used Ritz crackers and grape Kool Aid instead of unleavened bread and wine--but nevertheless, what was done, was done in remembrance of Jesus.]

6) An invited guest was introduced and it was quickly ascertained she was not a believer. At that point 2-3 shared with her their stories of how Christ had turned their lives around. A couple of others shared relevant scripture verses with her. The lady asked us to pray for her sick husband. Several people gathered around her, and did just that. The woman appeared very moved by the prayer and concern.

7) The offering was then collected with nearly everyone putting something in the small basket. I was one of the last to give. It appeared like there was less than $5 in total. All the proceeds of the offering were to go for #8 below.

8) Several minutes were spent going over details for next Sunday's evangelistic blitz of the whole neighborhood. This little church is dead set on winning their whole community to Christ. The offering collected tonight would be added to the previous weeks offerings and help buy needed tracts, Bibles, and EvangeCubes for the outreach event. If any money was left over, they planned on using it to buy cool drinks for all those who would be out sharing in the hot sun.

9) As they continued to talk about the planned door-to-door evangelistic blitz, refreshments were brought out. Each of us was served on a saucer a half slice of white bread, an empanada (fried meat pie), a spoonful of tuna fish (straight out of the can), one tiny cookie, and a small glass of soda pop. There were only eight glasses for 20+ people so most had to share a glass (we guests got our own glass and didn't have to share.) We sat around visiting, laughing, and sharing for about a half hour. I noticed that while we ate, several continued to gather around the visitor and were making her feel at home in the group as they chatted with her.

10) As the clean-up proceeded, the other IMB missionary, who was also visiting, was asked to share about her work with the Chinese. She taught us a song in Chinese, and we prayed for the Chinese in our city. Many questions were asked of her to better understand these odd "Samaritans" that live among us. Everyone was moved that there are so many Chinese in Guayaquil who do not know the Lord, and are actually Buddhists rather than Catholics.

11) A little after 9pm the meeting came to a natural close. Everyone hugged, kissed one another on the cheek and we all went home happy that we had been together in the "house of the Lord."

*********************

THREE QUESTIONS: What part of the above is not New Testament? What would be objectionable, even by Baptist standards? Do not these kind of gatherings closer resemble what we find in the pages of Acts and the Epistles than today's churches?

Again, go through the above list of house church concerns/objections and see if any are really relevant to what actually took place in what is, a typical house church gathering in Guayaquil.

Your thoughts and observations are welcome!

Better yet, contact us by email (in our profile) and help us reach an unreached/under- reached county of our province. Maybe by coming down and helping plant a church will help dispel any remaining doubts about house churches being New Testament churches.

The Week In Brief(s) (6/14/09)

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:08 GMT

Every Sunday I'm sharing a recap on some of what happened that week. It will be quick (in brief) and I'll write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

1. I was actually in town last Sunday, so I was able to go to church in Vegas. Went to Destiny Church, which is about a year and a half old. Heard a great sermon by Terry Jimerson.

2. Our Launch Team meeting last Sunday was about being grace wholesalers. We talked about why, what it means, what could keep us from being grace wholesalers...

3. Met with the Vegas team of Youth Works, which is an organization that provides youth groups a chance to do week long mission trips. They have established a site in Vegas this summer, and will have teams of 40 to 70 kids coming in for seven weeks. They offered to make us one of their partners this summer that they have the teens minister with/to. So ... we are having them do "prayer drives" for us. Every Tuesday night they will drive through a neighborhood near the Strip, down the Strip, and by the theater where we'll probably be meeting. There will be three stops along the way where we will do a little teaching/vision casting. I'm pumped about getting 300 to 400 teens praying for us!

4. Robb and I attended a meeting for a new coalition that our Verve Foundation will be a part of. Apparently there are a lot of grants available for coalitions - groups of non-profits working together to improve the community. About a dozen groups will be represented in this coalition.

3. We continue to do our "needs assessment" - where we are interviewing dozens of people to determine unmet needs in Vegas that we might be able to help out with. Robb and Cherie are knocking it out of the park with this! This week one of our interviews was with the guy who owns the Triple A baseball team here in Vegas.

4. Read a booklet called "On the American Frontier," which is the report from another group that did a needs assessment series of interviews. You may ask, "Wait, if someone has already done this, why are you?" Answer, or at least part of the answer: Relationships!

5. Met with my friend Devin, who is the pastor of a great church up in North Vegas. He said several things that caught my attention and have me thinking...

6. Robb and I met to plan out ... comedy. CIY and Canyon Ridge Christian Church are partnering together to put on a big youth event this week, and have asked us to do an hour of fun entertainment for the kids. We have very little time to pull it together, but still I think it's going to be great.

7. Had yet another church planter come to me to ask for some direction. It's like a couple a week. That's cool.

8. Still looking for a building we can lease for 24/7 space, so we can do multiple services and support groups throughout the week.

9. Worked a lot on our "ministry" (volunteerism) system/book. I am not a systems guy, but I want our church to have a great and consistent way we do things (and which we can tweak as necessary). That will help people grow, and our church to grow. But, man, putting these things together is kicking my butt.

10. Jud Wilhite, pastor of Central Christian Church here in Vegas, mentioned our church plant in his message this weekend. So great to have their support! He called me a "great guy." He obviously hasn't gotten to know me too well yet!!!

TO PRAY ABOUT THIS WEEK:

1. This week is crazy - all kinds of people in town, extra things I need to do and speak at, plus all the normal things I need to get done. Please pray for extra energy and passion for me. Thanks!

2. I'll be speaking at Gateway Church in Austin on Sunday. This is my fourth time preaching there, and other than Forefront, it's probably my favorite church.

3. Please pray that if God wants us to have a building to lease, we'll find it soon. The clock is ticking...

Planter Feedback on Needs Assessment

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:13 GMT

I spent a few minutes today on the phone with a planter who has been on the ground for about 4 months. I will protect his name to avoid any confusion in his town, but here is what he feels about the impact of needs assessment: Needs assessment has been a great vehicle for me to [...]

Facebook Vanity URLs: The Perfect Church URL?

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:04 GMT

I always thought Twitter was the most vane social networking site, but as of this Friday night, Facebook will be in the running. Starting on Friday June 12, at 11:01pm central, you'll be able to choose a username for your Facebook account to easily direct friends, family, and coworkers to your profile. Think of this as your personal URL. Narcissicists and the vane rejoice!

But seriously this does have some pretty interesting implications for the web. Its getting harder and harder to get a decent URL. Sure you can still find a decent .cc, .mobi, .tv, but gone are the good .com URLs. The popular thing now is to make up a new word just so you can have a decent .com. For churches this presents a good opportunity. You now have the opportunity to get the perfect URL. No more www.newlife4mechurchsiteonline.com. Welcome to www.facebook.com/newlife. That is if you grab it first. According to Facebook Pages will be supported with vanity URLs as well as personal profiles:

“If you are an administrator of a Facebook Page, you will be able to choose your username at facebook.com/username just like a user selecting a username for their profile. There will be an interface for you to choose usernames for the Pages you administer.”

This is great marketing opportunity and one that many churches will miss out on if they are not anxiously waiting late into the night on Friday to get their perfect Facebook URL. Why is this a good opportunity?

Facebook is the #3 most visited site in the US, behind Google and Yahoo.
Facebook is used by more than just the kids. The largest growth demographic is women 50+. Don't ask where I got that. I think I read it on TechCrunch a couple months ago.
People spend an obscene amount of time on Facebook. As a church it is crazy not to have a presence. Church Marketing Online has a series of great posts on how to incorporate a Facebook strategy.
Facebook gives churches one more way to be found on search engines.
Facebook is a great way to give targeted information to people connected with your church. Vanity URLs will make it easy to find your church online.

Just a head's up. I can't imagine that Facebook's servers will be able to handle the millions of people logging on at the same time to get their vanity URLs. Be patient and expect slow page loads. To get the details of where to go to get your vanity URL or for additional questions check out theFacebook Help Center or the Facebook Blog.

So what do you think? Should churches get a Facebook Vanity URL?

Open Doors

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:41 GMT

We are starting a church here in Vegas, but also (and first) we are starting a CBO (Community Based Organization) - basically a community service non-profit. Eventually it will basically be one of the ways our church serves our community.

But by starting it separate, and first, it gets us into a lot of doors we couldn't as pastors. There's nothing deceptive. We call and ask for a meeting (with a government, business, or education leader) explaining that we are starting a new community service organization (which we are). Then in our meeting we also share that we're starting a church, and that the church will provide a lot of the volunteer base for our community service.

This gets the word out about our church plant. But it also gets us meetings that we couldn't if we just said, "We're pastors starting a new church, will you meet with us?" We've had meetings with Vice Presidents of international businesses, the head basketball coach of a top 20 college program, prominent artists, the owner of the Triple A baseball team, and more.

Want to learn more about this? Check out Compassion By Design.

The Immature Church

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:49 GMT

Been thinking out loud about how immaturity is basically self-centeredness. If I'm right, then what would an immature church look like?

I think most people think of an immature church as one where the people are not all about their Bibles. But I wonder if an immature church is one where the leaders are all about their church. Know what I mean? Some pastors would say, "It's all about God's Kingdom, not us," but all signs point to the idea that really it is all about them. That's self-centeredness on a corporate scale.

Then there are other churches where it's obvious that it's not all about them. I think of Cornerstone-Simi, who from what I understand commit 51% of their budget to causes outside themselves (while other churches continue to spend 100% on themselves). I think of Life Church, who give away all their resources for free (while other churches continue to charge). I think of Kensington Community, who give 20% of their income to church planting (while most churches have never helped give birth to another church).

What would be the evidence for or against the claim that your church is self-centered and immature?

First Western European Church Planters

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:55 GMT

First Western European Church Planters!

We are excited to announce that we assessed and approved our first church planters in our newly formed Acts 29 Western European Network. Stuart and Rachel Dean are starting a church in Lindfield England in West Sussex (39 miles south of London).

On a few occassions in the past, our church planter assessors have emerged from their assessments by stating, "We have just been to church!" I didn't know what they really meant. I do now. When we assessed Stuart and Rachel, we experienced a Holy Spirit enriched, God-glorifying assessment. Stuart and Rachel blew us away with their love for Jesus and commitment to His call in their life in spite of their personal struggles with Rachel's health.

New Western Europe Director Steve Timmis with Stuart and Rachel Dean

For more information about our Western Europe Network, contact Steve Timmis.

To contact Stuart, email him here

The Trophy Wife #2

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:58 GMT

On June 6th our newspaper printed an article about the wife of the UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) president. It goes along so well with the last post that I couldn't resist sharing it with you.

"Bonnie Ashley, the wife of UNLV president David Ashley, apologized Friday for her clashes with campus staff that have been characterized by others as abrasive, rude and intimidating. In an email to the Board of Regents and Chancellor Jim Rogers, Bonnie Ashley-who had referred to herself in emails as the university's 'first lady'-said she did not realize she was 'causing so much distress' in her efforts to carry out her hostess duties."

It turns out that the Board of Regents is going to meet later this summer to determine whether or not to renew her husband's contract. I'm sure there's more involved in the decision, but I bet his wife's behavior will play a part. Can you imagine if your behavior cost your husband his job?

We know someone whose wife would sit in the car on Sunday mornings while her husband went to church. He was the pastor. She sat outside and waited for him.

Let's take a minute and evaluate ourselves (me included). Do you act in a way that negatively reflects on you or your husband? Could your actions or words cost your husband his job? In the article Ashley said, "I am most apologetic, as in my quest for improvement I was not always as gracious as I could have been in the carrying out of those plans." Are people turned off by your treatment of them? Could you be described as someone who is gracious?

After reading the article I don't think that Ashley intended to hurt people. She was just a woman on a mission who lacked tact. So often we don't realize how we come off to people. Which is why I think it's important to ask the people closest to us to answer the above questions about us. Prayerfully consider their answers and make sure that you are "gracious" in your response :-)!

Featured on newchurches.com

churchplanters.com WEST COAST

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:45 GMT

Have you heard that churchplanters.com is going WEST COAST? Our speker lineup is stellar and indigenous and understands planting churches in that foreign country called the West Coast! Mark you calendars NOW for this regional one day conference to hear from:

Dave Gibbons - Dave is the founding pastor of NewSong Church, a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-continental, multi-site church in inner-city Los Angeles, North Orange County, Irvine, and Bangkok. An in-demand speaker and strategic consultant around the world, Dave is founder and CEO of Xealot, a nonprofit venture focused on transforming marginalized communities globally through strategic leadership development and special projects. He is also author of the recently released book The Monkey and the Fish. www.davegibbons.tv

Alan Hirsch - Alan is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. Known for his innovative approach to mission. Alan is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. He’s the author of three important books: The Shaping of Things to Come, The Forgotten Ways, and ReJesus. www.theforgottenways.org

Darrin Patrick - Darrin founded The Journey in 2002 with a desire plant a church in the heart of St. Louis, Missouri. Darrin is Vice President of The Acts29 Church Planting Network. Darrin’s passion is to equip the church to live the gospel in the world. Darrin is working on his first book, The Man, The Message, The Mission. Today, The Journey runs four services across three campuses, while continuing to be aggressive in church planting in St Louis and beyond. www.journeyon.net

Larry Osborne - Larry is the Senior Pastor at North Coast Church, which is recognized as one of the Ten Most Influential Churches in America for its pioneering work in the area of multi-site, video venues and sermon-based small groups. Larry is also the author of STICKY CHURCH: Slamming The Back Door Shut, A CONTRARIAN’S GUIDE TO KNOWING GOD: Spirituality For The Rest of Us, and THE UNITY FACTOR: Developing A Healthy Leadership Team. www.northcoastchurch.com/pastors/

John Worcester - John has planted and pastored seven churches in a variety of settings. He has also created a non-profit organization called Church Planting Leadership that has trained over 5000 church planters from over 30 countries, and 42 denominations. While on the Saddleback staff John created a Purpose Driven Church Planting Basic Training curriculum that helps church planters contextualize and practically apply the Biblical principles found in the Purpose Driven Church.

David Putman - David is one of the Pastors at Mountain Lake Church where he serves as the Strategic and Operational Leader. His responsibilities focus on issues related to "growing" the church's impact in its community and around the world. David has been a part of MLC prior to its inception.
David is co-founder of www.churchplanters.com. He is also author of Breaking the Discipleship Code and co-author of Breaking the Missional Code with Ed Stetzer. His third book Simply Jesus Detox for the Overly Religious is due to be released in January 2010. www.findingthejesusway.com

And me!!!!!

Standing Up Compassion Leaders

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:13 GMT

What is the leadership plan for compassion and community ministry in your church? There is an important tension around this issue that both new and existing church leaders need to wrestle with. With community ministry, everyone needs to own it, but someone(s) needs to lead. There are three common mistakes made that keep serving others [...]

Signed, Confused

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:35 GMT

One thing that's weird about starting a church is the feeling that you're not sure what you should be doing. After doing ministry the last eleven years after I planted the church, I can't remember ever feeling that way.

But even though I've done this before, and even coached church planters in what they need to do, and have a church planter to-do list with hundreds of items, there's still a weird sense of, "What should I be doing?"

Right now my family is out for a few hours and so I'm working, but I'm like, "Is this really what I should be working on? Wait, what should I be working on? Oh crap, I think I should be doing something else!"

If you think to pray for me today, the prayer I've been praying for me lately is, "God, give me the wisdom to know what to do and the passion to do it."

London Church Planting Conference - Day One

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:57 GMT

Acts 29 Church Planting Foundations Conference
London, England

Over 100 men from 12 different countries assembled at St James Church in Clerkenwell for the inaugural Acts 29 Church Planting Conference to launch Acts 29 in Western Europe and to establish Steve Timmis as its Director. The men were anxious to learn and to interact with other church planters and church planting leaders.

Standing on the outside of the church in London where we are having the conference.

“Church is the result of mission and the means of mission,” said Steve Timmis. He argued that the New Testament is a model for mission. It is reaching out where there are no existing works of gospel evangelism. Steve said that every church is called to be a church planting church. Church planting was not vital to evangelism; it is central to it. Steve illustrated it through Acts 13 where the local church sensed a call to proclaim the gospel by planting churches. They chose Paul and Barnabas, their senior pastor and associate. They didn’t choose the interns who had just finished Bible College. They chose their best men. Church planting doesn’t happen circumstantially, but rather intentionally.

Over 100 men from 12 different countries attended the Church Planting Conference. The men were intrigued, challenged, energized and eager to learn.

David Fairchild led a session on “Keeping the Gospel Church” from the Book of Galatians chapter one. David summarized the gospel as “Jesus Christ, God’s promised rescuer and ruler lived our life, died our death and rose again in triumphant vindication as the first-fruits of the new creation to bring forgiven sinners together…under His gracious reign as His Kingdom people.“ David urged the attendees to make an unwavering commitment to the gospel in our church planting. He identified 10 ways we have a tendency to distort the gospel.

Religion Moralism Prosperity (health and wealth) Sectarianism (only for a few) Easy believism without repentance Legalism Passivism (being “nice”) Hedonism, Institutionalism Works-based faith

The men enjoyed periods of worship and filled the old church (built in 1796) with robustly sung hymns.

Jeff Vanderstelt led a session about “Being a Leader who Grows Leaders.” He pointed out the fact that Jesus’ Great Commission includes making disciples. If our churches are not raising leaders, then we are not making disciples who can make disciples. This same mandate is found in Deut. 6 where fathers are to raise children who will raise children. A good Dad raises his children to lead their own families, not to keep their 40-year old children in their basements. A good church planter raises up leaders who will lead, sometimes better than the planter. 2 Timothy 2:1-2 encourages us to develop leaders who will develop other leaders.

In the final session of the day, David Fairchild talked about “Keeping a Gospel Heart” and he confessed the difficulties he had when he planted Kaleo church out of a heart of anger and not a heart of gospel. He made an interesting statement. He said “It is possible to preach about Christ without preaching the gospel.”

Our day ended with a quick trip to the spectacular St. Paul’s Cathedral (where Princess Di and Prince Charles were married) and then pizza with the volunteers of the Church Planting Foundations Conference.

Taken from the Inside of St Paul's about the same time Tyler (and the security guard) told me it says "No Photography." Oops.

Tomorrow, Steve Timmis, Jeff Vanderstelt and I will share with the men who are eager to learn and network with us.

Nine Prayers of a Missional Leader Pt 4

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:22 GMT

Have you ever read the "Present with the Lord" sections in your Alumni magazines or newsletters? Many of us may have because we know that one day our name will be listed there. Years ago as I was Ieafing through mine I came across a couple of pastors who where remembered for their faithful service in local churches, faithfulness to their families and interestingly enough, they were also remembered for the number of men and women they helped enter into full-time ministry. So with that thought in the back of my head, the next time I scanned through another Alumni magazine I saw another pastor remembered for his service, his family and those he mentored into full-time ministry. Was I starting to see a pattern here? I saw it again and again! Then I noticed that these pastors served during the 30's, 40's and 50's! My conclusion was people remember what is important to them. Faithful service and loving family, along with the raising up and the sending out of leaders were badges of honor to these generations of leaders. I am very confident that faithful service and family are very high on our list, but I have to wonder...is raising up and sending out leaders in the harvest field a value for our generation? We celebrate building, budgets, attendance, the number of staff we have but there is little talk about the leaders we send out.

This leads us to our fourth prayer that will enlarge the heart of a missional leader: “Father, help me empower others and release them into your harvest field.”

This can be a dangerous prayer for a leader because leadership development is a costly and risky business. The making of leaders is filled with all sorts of pitfalls, setbacks, and victories. Consider the example of Barnabas, the first century "leader maker". At great risk to himself, he invested into the life of a young convert named Saul. He risked his very life and he risked his reputation in bringing him to the rest of the Apostles (Acts 9:26-27). Years later, at great cost to himself, he went to find Saul in Tarsus and gave him a platform in the Church in Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). When the Holy Spirit spoke and told him to leave Antioch with Saul to take the gospel to Asia Minor; it was no mistake that he brought along a young apprentice, named John Mark (Acts 13:5). When he saw God uniquely empowering Saul, who become Paul, he stepped back and in an enableing move, let Paul take the lead (Acts 13:42-46). Finally, when a decision to reinvest in a wayward apprentice needed to be made, Barnabas took an empowering posture and put the development of a young leader ahead of the task. This decision cost him dearly (Acts 15:36-42). As leaders we need to count the cost of praying this prayer because investing, empowering and releasing leaders can be a messy business.

We are called to pour our lives into others, first on a discipleship level (Matthew 28:19-20) and second on a leadership level (II Timothy 2:2). It is surprising how little we pray about identifying, raising up and sending out workers into the harvest field. Praying for workers was critical to Jesus' missional training process. "After this the Lord appointed seventy-twoothers and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'"(Luke 10:1-2)

As he was sending out workers he taught them to pray for more workers. Let us earnestly ask the Lord of the harvest to bring us more workers to send out into His harvest.

Next time: “Father, grant me the courage to make the right missional decisions.”

Excerpt from Gary's book: NextSteps for Leading a Missional Church

Join Gary "live" at an upcoming "NextSteps Workshop"

NewThing and the Carroll's are Going to Europe!

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:12 GMT

This picture goes back a few years when Bill Carroll, Jeff Prosapio and myself went to England and France to experience and learn from the alternative worship movement in Europe. We had heard a lot about Taize worship that started and was practiced in Taize, France. So we left Paris and drove about 3 hours to Taize to for the experience. When we arrived we were confused because this little village couldn't have had more than a couple hundred people and the only church in town looked severely under-used. The reason we were confused is because there are two Taize in France and we were at the wrong one. The other was another 6 hours away. This is Bill and I looking at the map and the two Taize's in France.

Since that time Bill and his wife Rachel have fallen more and more in love with France. After faithfully serving at Community for the last 12 years they are getting ready to take off with the whole family to plant a church. We are all going to miss them immensely. Bill is a tremendously hard worker and the most tenacious recruiter and developer of artists that I have ever seen. I am currently finishing up a book with Jon Ferguson on the reproducing church and much of the chapter we wrote on reproducing artists is from what I've learned from Bill. It is a skill that all our arts directors value and that's a huge part of Bill's legacy. Rachel was the founding director for CCC's School for the Arts. We have about 400 students in our school and it has been a huge help in us developing artists young and old. More recently she served with the creative arts team in Kid's City. Rachel is a super talented artist and tremendously creative leader.

At the end of this summer Bill and Rachel will take off for France and after going through language school will plant the first of many reproducing churches in Paris. We are thrilled that they not only go with our blessing and financial support but also as a part of NewThing. This will be the first of what we believe will be many new churches NewThing will plants in Europe. Thank you Bill and Rachel for passionately giving yourself to the mission of "helping people find their way back to God". You have served us, the people in Chicagoland and God with great love and integrity. We are so proud of you, love you very much and will be praying for you.

Americans Doing it Their Way

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:36 GMT

We Americans value independence, exploration and going out on our own... unless you're one of those new college grads who have moved back in with mom and dad because you don't want to get an unpleasant job and live in a small apartment and pay your dues. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Americans like to do things their own way. We always have, and that doesn't seem to be changing. In fact it continues to impact new areas of American life - like faith and spirituality.

A recent nationwide Barna survey points out that while Americans are tiring of traditional church forms and experiences, they continue to see themselves as deeply spiritual, open to religious experience.

The study showed that,

-88% of American adults say that "my religious faith is very important in my life."
-75% say they sense that "God is motivating people to stay connected with Him, but in different ways and through different types of experiences than in the past."
-50% say "a growing number of people I know are tired of the usual type of church experience."
-64% say they are "completely open to carrying out and pursuing [their] faith in an environment or structure that differs from that of a typical church."
-45% say they are "willing to try a new church."

Don't miss that one. The Barna Group notes,

A staggering number of Americans - almost half of the nation's 230 million adults - are open to changing their church home, demonstrating their lack of connection with their present community of faith and their desire to have a more significant connection. It may also be a reflection of people's increasing lack of loyalty to both organizations and personal relationships, and the growing sense that there is always something better available if you can simply find it.

71% say they are "more likely to develop my religious beliefs on my own, rather than to accept an entire set of beliefs that a particular church teaches."

People often call this approach to religious belief "buffet theology," where individuals simply pick and choose what they believe based on personal preference. "I'll take a little of this, none of that, some of this over here, I can't tell what that is so I'll leave that alone..." While that criticism is valid, we should also be asking why Americans are so distrustful of organized religion, systems, and meta narratives.

This recent survey offers a lot of interesting data, so check it out, but I'll point out one more thing.

Across the board, the research showed that women are driving these changes. This is particularly significant given prior research from Barna showing that women are more spiritually inclined, are the primary shapers of family faith experiences, and are the backbone of activity in the typical conventional church. Specifically, Barna discovered that women were more likely than men to pursue their faith in a different type of structure or environment (68% of women, 59% of men); to sense that God is motivating people to experience faith in different ways (79% vs. 60%, respectively); and to be willing try a new church (50% vs. 40%).

Check out the article and come back here to discuss.

How does the church respond to these trends? What should churches and church leaders do, do different, or so the same?

A Prayer for Another Fallen Servant…

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:55 GMT

Word came over yesterday that yet another pastor had fallen. Many of you are familiar with the ministry of Gary Lamb of Revolution Church. Yesterday, Gary was forced to resign his church after admitting to a six week 'emotional and physical affair' with his personal assistant. Gary has had a very public persona on-line through his blog, twitter, etc. He has been known as a passionate church planter, an outspoken leader, and a bit of a renegade. I've had the opportunity to meet and talk with Gary several times over the years and consider him a ministry friend. So, when word hit yesterday at his blog, it caused me (as many others) to have a ton of different feelings and thoughts. I want to share some of those with you here today...

These thoughts are random… so bare with me.

1. This is, perhaps, one of the first falls from grace that includes an element of social networking. As an avid blogger and twitterer, I know that power of social networking. When I go to conferences and gatherings, people recognize me from my small 1x1 picture on my blog and on twitter. People feel a kind of personal attachment with me (even though we’ve never met). I feel that same, kinda weird feeling about them. It’s hard to explain, but you really do feel like you get to know someone online… their likes, their dislikes, their personality, their passions, their work, their family. These is a bond. With yesterday’s announcement, Gary Lamb stirred up the bond that he had created with those who know him. But this fall was different… not only did this affect his family, friends, and local church, it also hit hard a few thousand people all over the country who feel they knew Gary personally (even though they had never met). In fact, there have been over 150 tweets alone in the last 24 hours from people who have commented that they are praying for Gary and all involved.

2. Of all the comments online so far, most are supportive of Gary, which I think is good. Most offered support for Gary and his wife. Fewer offered support for the gal caught up in the affair, but that was probably because no one knows her or her family. A few of the comments were a little more transparent… thinks like how upset they were or how they had a terrible feeling in the pit of their stomach.

3. I must give credit to Gary that he took ownership of 100% of this, and stated that he was 100% behind the leadership of Revolution Church in asking him to step down. He said that he had disqualified himself from leadership of the church (which I believe to be true at this time). Hopefully Gary will be able to truly back-off from the church and let them heal. So many times, I see this kind of situation happen, and while there is immediate repentance, it is quickly followed by a sense of entitlement of what the church owes this person, and how quickly they can be restored to leadership. I hope that doesn’t happen here. Everyone needs time to heal.

4. Another interesting part of this story is the documented online history that Gary has online during the past six weeks (during his admitted affair). According to his tweets, Gary and Revolution Church were seeing some amazing things happen for the Kingdom. This included a family vacation, a marriage retreat, his assistant watching his kids and then hanging out with his wife, and baptizing a ton of people at the church. Even during this season of sin, there was an appearance that all was well and God was blessing.

5. My thought (and I’ve blogged on this before). You just don’t wake up one morning and sleep with your assistant. Satan had to have achieved smaller victories in Gary’s life over time to make this one possible.

6. The ramifications of this extend far beyond the online community, the church, and family. It also spreads to the community that Revolution Church is trying to reach. So many people are looking for an excuse to write off a successful church and it’s message. For those people, this is the only excuse they need.

7. There will be some that will say they saw this coming. Others will come down like a brick on Gary. Yet others will pick apart everything Gary has said over the years from the pulpit or in his blog. That’s really not necessary. God has used Gary Lamb in a great way; and may use Gary in a great way in the future (though that’s still uncertain).

8. And for all of us who may feel self righteous from time to time, we need to get over ourselves… because this could happen to us. Matter of fact, some reading this, it is happening to right now. Another group is real close to making a similar decision as Gary made six weeks ago. Stop it. You will most likely be humiliated. You will humiliate your wife and kids, your church, and your family. It’s not worth it.

I guess that’s it right now. My prayers go out to Gary, his wife and kids, Revolution Church, and to his assistant and her family.

Todd

Is shepherding a spiritual gift or a church office?

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:10 GMT

One of the on-going topics that continues to generate discussion amongst my peers is the role of women in church planting, and especially as these begin to take on more and more of a shepherding role with the new believers being added to the flock they have helped plant.

One of my missionary colleagues writes...

Could it be that, in the biblical sense, that a woman could be a pastor in the city/region church just as there were women prophetesses and a female apostle in the city/region church, but that women...not be elders in the house churches?

I confess these thoughts have gone through my mind as well: women functioning as Ephesians 4 apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in the city/region church, and only men as "elders" of local assemblies.

In most of the churches we relate to we don't refer to leadership (whether men or women) as pastors. We don't use titles. All of us are hermanos(as) brothers/sisters. We teach that ALL believers are servants and ministers of the Gospel. Both men and women alike are charged with fulfilling the Great Commission. That package includes: going, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching.

Peter's own words in 2Pet2: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood...that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light..." You=all of us.

Our part is to "make disciples." His to "build his church." When half of the work force are women, it only makes sense that a good percentage have shepherding gifts, as well as all the other lists of spiritual gifts mentioned in Paul's writings.

So, is shepherding/pastoring a spiritual gift (function) or a church office?

Because of what we have seen and experienced over the years, I personally lean towards shepherding as a spiritual gift (function) given for building up the body of Christ. I have seen plenty of evidence that the Spirit indeed gives this gift to certain sisters, just as He gives this gift to certain brothers.

What I have a hard time finding in the pages of the NT is where shepherding/pastoring is referred to as a church office. I don't see church offices in the New Testament. But do see much attention given to serving one another and to spiritual gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ.

That some sisters are given the gift to shepherd other believers seems perfectly normal--except, of course, when you make shepherding an OFFICE, and we know from the Baptist Faith and Message that women pastors is a no-no! But, then again, I don't see in the NT where pastor/shepherd is ever referred to as an office.

In Paul's two lists of ministries the Holy Spirit has given to the church for her edification--1 Cor.12:28 and Eph.4:11--only in the later do we find pastors being mentioned, and in neither are these referred to as offices. (If you see something different, please share book, chapter, verses. And if you use 1 Tim.3:1 where 'office' is used in some English translations, please point out to me how the term 'office' is arrived at from the Greek.)

Would it then be correct to say only men will be "elders" of local assemblies, but any believer (male or female) who possesses shepherding gifts, be encouraged to use their spiritually imparted gift to build up the church? In such a scenario, male elders (plural) would share the shepherding and care of the local church with all those who possess the gift and aspire to shepherd/oversee/pastor.

So, to recap, women cannot be pastors--in the sense of title or office. Why? Because offices and church titles are not to be found in the NT. But it also seems Biblical to say any sister who is spiritually gifted in shepherding ought to exercise their gift. Agree? Disagree?

Still open for input and instruction from anyone out there caring to share your thoughts on the matter. What's your take on this matter? Please share your understanding of these matters with us so that we might be corrected if we are wrong, and affirmed if we are headed in the right direction.

Coaching Networks

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:45 GMT

This summer LifeWay will partner with NEXT to host a coaching network at LifeWay Headquarters in Nashville starting July 21. This is a small group of lead pastors meeting one day each month with an experienced pastor/coach.

We believe it is critical to the health of the church that pastors enlarge their thinking, network with other church leaders and establish some intentional learning relationships. We'll present specific tools to help pastors gain leadership perspective, expand the church's missional efforts while still addressing the details of weekend services, staffing, conflict & growth. I'll join a session or two as will others from our team.

As pastors, there's a tendency to get buried in the day-to-day problems of the church, even to the point of missing the mission of the church. Gaining proper perspective is foundational to leading well. Jesus modeled the way on the importance of pulling back in order to gain perspective. In Mark 1:29-39, we find Jesus ministering to hurting, sick, needy people all day and well into the night. At some point in the wee hours of the night, Jesus said, "I'm done," and He left. The text says that He went to a solitary place to pray and recharge. He needed perspective in order to lead more effectively.

If you are challenged in a particular area, or you've decided that 'business as usual' won't cut it this year, then come be a part of this group. In addition to Nashville, we'll start a network at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham July 13. Check it out at nextcoachingnetworks.com.

The Week In Brief(s) (6/7/09)

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:07 GMT

Every Sunday I'm sharing a recap on some of what happened that week. It will be quick (in brief) and I'll write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

1. On Sunday I preached at Real Life Church in Valencia, CA. It's a great church and it was a cool experience, especially since I strategized about it with the guy who started it the year before he started it.

2. Had a good Launch Team meeting last Sunday night. We talked about being "God Stalkers" and we all agreed to fast from something this week and to add something to our life this week, both with the intention of helping us to pursue God more wholeheartedly. I fasted from TV all week and from food for a day, and added a "personal retreat day."

3. This week I met with...

A future church planter. They are coming out of the woodwork and asking to meet with me. It's become like a weekly thing!
Two local pastors to learn more about doing ministry here in Vegas.
Two pastors from a church that is supporting us, who happened to be in town.
Two guys from the group that markets Las Vegas. Like they're the one's who came up with "What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas" and "Only Vegas"
Samantha, who is going to be doing a part-time internship with us in our Creative Arts Ministry
A bunch of guys at a "Christian Business Men's Luncheon"

4. Robb and I volunteered at a fundraiser (for local food banks) at the Hard Rock Casino.

5. I had to do a lot of financial stuff - working with staff people on fundraising stuff, working with our bookkeeper on budget stuff...

6. I worked a little on some messages I'll be preaching at a few churches this summer.

7. I've continued to keep learning more and more about life and ministry here in Vegas. Thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned:

I think the first word out of every person's mouth who we interviewed, when we asked what the greatest problem in Vegas is, and especially for people who work on the Strip, was "addictions."
One guy told us that there are a fare amount of community service organizations in Las Vegas, but basically none of them are focused on the Strip or people who work on the Strip.
"Las Vegas will never become an old town, because we don't allow our buildings to get old. We tear them down and build new ones."
When talking about what's unique about Vegas, one guy commented that there are lots of people here who don't have a penny to their names, and there are also lots of people who have a billion dollars in the bank. He said that in his hometown in Kansas, there are NO people who don't have a penny, and NO people worth a billion dollars.
We asked two guys who market Las Vegas what they thought the greatest asset of Vegas was, they said, "Adult freedoms."
Another person talked about Vegas' culture of excess, pointing out that there's no last call here - the bars never close.
Someone told us about the people in charge of "Player Development" at a casino. Each manager of player development will have about 20 people (from around the country) they oversee. Their goal is to get these people to come and stay at their hotel, and leave their money in the their casino. And they basically do it by pastoring those people. They call them, check in on them, send birthday and anniversary cards, ask how their children are doing, etc., etc. Pretty sad that, for the sake of money, they do a better job being attentive to their people's needs than most pastors or small group leaders do for the sake of God.
One local pastor told me how people in Vegas have a great need to be led. That the type of people here make it a "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Jesus" kind of culture, rather than a "Follow Jesus" kind of culture. They need leadership, a human example to follow. He challenged me to really step up into that role.
It's definitely an interesting town, and learning it's culture and people is interesting. I think that when we eventually have to make decisions based on all this it's going to be complicated and a little frustrating.

TO PRAY ABOUT THIS WEEK:

1. The open door we may have at the Hard Rock. We've started developing a good relationship with an influential guy on their staff, and hope that they'll let us help their employees. Talking about possibly doing "Life Skill" seminars, or being chaplains. Please pray this all works out!

2. We're still looking for a good location that we might be able to lease and have a 24/7 spot for services, seminars, support groups, etc.

3. This week we again have some important meetings: With a Youth Missions group that is planning on having teenagers live for a month in Vegas as missionaries, and maybe help us while they're here. And with a non-profit community service coalition it looks we're going to become a part of. And with a guy who is a local business leader, and who owns the local Triple A minor league baseball team. And more. Please pray that God is leading the way and that we don't get in His way...

Church Planting Slogan

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:38 GMT

“We have done so much, with so little, for so long, that we can now do anything with nothing.” – Dave Marcis

Sounds like a church planter to me.

Best Church Planting Blogs of the week

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:57 GMT

We hope you enjoy our weekly round-up of the best church planting blogs we read this week:

We Want to Share Your Stories - Send Them to Us

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:35 GMT

Over the years I have heard hundreds of amazing stories of how the Spiritual Journey Guide has made a difference in how pastors and ministry leaders engage in spiritual conversations.

I am finishing up a new book entitled, Spiritual Conversations: Creating & Sustaining Them Without Being a Jerk (It is a working title - send me your thoughts). In this book I hope to offer a biblically centered approach towards evangelism through examining how "Lordship and Rapport" must work together for one to be fruitful in their spiritual conversations. It will take a close look at the training pattern that Jesus used in Luke 10, as well as the "person of peace" principle that Jesus taught his disciples. It will be filled with practical advice and usable tools that I have gleaned from the 20 books I have read on evangelism as well as the 29 years of experience (June 1980 is my spiritual birthday) I have had as a practitioner, trainer and coach.

We would love to fill it with your stories! So submit your story in 250-400 words, with your name, and church or ministry information to: Gary Rohrmayer at gary@yourjourney.org Send us your best stories that are from one of the following categories:

How it has helped you increase your spiritual conversations.
How you helped someone take the next step towards spiritual discovery.
How you helped someone take the next step towards missional living.
How have you used it in a small group setting?
How have you used it in a worship setting?
How has it helped you in assessing where a person is spiritually?
How has it helped you relationally sustain a spiritual dialog?

The deadline is July 1st

The Spiritual Journey Guide

Through four simple diagnostic questions you can help the spiritual searcher identify and discover the barriers on their spiritual journey and you can identify how deeply the Holy Spirit is at work in their lives drawing them towards Christ. (Click to see a Sample Version)

The goal of this process is not to lead a person towards a forced prayer of repentance but to help them develop a personalized plan towards spiritual discovery or spiritual maturity.

Announcing Re:Train â and the Church Planters Cohort

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:08 GMT

If you haven’t caught the buzz already, be sure to check out Re:Train, Mars Hill Church’s new, Missional Leadership educational training center.

This year, only 50 will be admitted to the Resurgence Training Center’s inaugural class, kicking off August 16.

Within that number will be a cohort for future church-planters overseen by Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Director. If you have a desire to plant a church through Acts 29 and are looking for both practical and academic training -- this is all that and includes coaching from top leadership within Acts 29 and Mars Hill Church. This is an incredible opportunity.

With such a small class this first year around, and many applicants, we stress that you apply for this as soon as possible.

Make sure to check “Church Planter” under the Purpose in Seeking Enrollment section of the application so we can identify you correctly.

The program launches in August for a year’s worth of training from excellent teachers such as Sam Storms, John Piper, Ed Stetzer, Mark Driscoll, Gregg Allison, Rick Melson and Bill Clem.

Get the catalog with details here, but hurry! You have 26 days… the application deadline is July 1.

Social Media Strategy

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:37 GMT

Social media ain't about one-night stands, it's about relationships

'nuff said

featured on newchurches.com

Connector Churches

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:52 GMT

Building Church Leaders is sharing some information from my newest book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them, pointing the nine traits common to churches who are effectively reaching young adults. I am a contributor to the site, but it turns out I don't contribute as much as I should. So, when they use what I have already written, I say, "Thanks."

Let me encourage you to check them out here: Building Church Leaders

Creating Deeper Community Churches that are effective at attracting and developing young adults place a high value on moving people into a healthy small group system. Young adults are trying to connect and will make a lasting connection wherever they can find belonging.

Making a Difference through Service
Churches that are transforming young adults value leading people to serve through volunteerism. More than being pampered, young adults want to be part of something bigger than themselves and are looking to be part of an organization where they can make a difference through acts of service.

Experiencing Worship
Churches that are engaging young adults are providing worship environments that reflect their culture while also revering and revealing God. More than looking for a good performance, young adults desire to connect with a vertical experience of worship.

Leveraging Technology
Churches that are reaching young adults are willing to communicate in a language of technology familiar to young adults. Young adults sense that these churches are welcoming churches that value and understand them, engaging them where they are.

Building Cross-Generational Relationships
Churches that are linking young adults with older, mature adults are challenging young adults to move on to maturity through friendship, wisdom, and support. Young adults are drawn to churches that believe in them enough to challenge them.

Moving Toward Authenticity
Churches that are engaging young adults are reaching them not only by their excellence but by their honesty. Young adults are looking for and connecting to churches where they see leaders that are authentic, transparent, and on a learning journey.

Leading by Transparency
Churches that are influencing young adults highly value an incarnational approach to ministry and leadership. This incarnational approach doesn't require revealing one's personal sin list so much as it does require that those in leadership must be willing to express a personal sense of humanity and vulnerability.

Leading by Team
Increasingly churches reaching young adults seem to be taking a team approach to ministry. They see ministry not as a solo venture but as a team sport--and the broader participation it creates increases the impact of ministry.

Is your church reaching young adults? If so, are any of these traits proving to me more instrumental than the others in your context?

Off to some rest

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:44 GMT

Heading to vacation with the family. See you soon!

Never Quit: The Falwell Legacy

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:47 GMT

Never Quit: The Falwell Family Legacy

By Pastor Scott Thomas

This week, Mark Driscoll and I were honored to have spent some time with Jonathan Falwell and a few members of his team including David Early, Matt Wilmington and Charles Billingsley. It was an extremely meaningful trip for Mark and me. We felt loved and befriended in an authentic way.

Scott, Jonathan and Mark in Lynchburg

We met some of his key pastors and had a fun meeting where we talked at length about church planting, multi-site and missional evangelism. We all went out to eat and then visited Thomas Road Baptist Church’s new 930,000 square foot facility. That’s like a million square feet for Jesus! The highlight of the trip was when Jonathan drove Mark and me around Liberty’s campus that ended at Jerry Falwell’s grave. For both of you that don’t know Jerry, he was an evangelical Christian pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (now Liberty Christian Academy) in 1967, Liberty University in 1971, and cofounded the Moral Majority in 1979. Jonathan said his Dad raised over 3 Billion Dollars during his lifetime.

Mark and Jonathan at Jerry Falwell's Gravesite

We somberly observed the gravesite that was just outside of his former office that overlooked the baseball field, a pastime favorite of Jerry’s. Jonathan told stories of Dad and explained the many nuances of the beautiful site. When Jonathan asked us if we wanted to see his Dad’s office, we both agreed like a puppy getting a treat. And what a treat it was! Jonathan was visibly touched afresh by entering into Dad’s office that lay intact as it was found when Jonathan found his Dad the day he died on May 15, 2007.

Jonathan and Mark in Jerry's Office

On the wall near the Jerry Falwell Memorial Garden were brazened sayings often heard from Jerry during his ministry. One said, “We do not determine a man’s greatness by his talent or worth, as the world does, but rather what it takes to discourage him.” Another said simply, “Never Quit.”

Never Quit. It struck me that it was that saying that will be the legacy of the Falwell family. Five things I saw in Jonathan that he did not quit.

Jonathan never quit on his Dad’s mission to “use every means to reach every available person at every available time." It was joyful to hear about their church planting plans and how they are reaching across typical barriers to link arms with networks that were not likely partners in the past. His voice lilted as he talked about the open doors to share the gospel with those of other nations and other religions. Jonathan never quit being a pastor. Walking through the church on a Wednesday night, you could see a pastor’s heart exude with joy as he met old and young alike. He is their shepherd with a willing heart. Jonathan never quit dreaming. He talked about his Dad’s incredible vision and yet Jonathan spoke of dreams he had for the future. He realizes that the work did not die with his Dad, but is handed down for many future generations until Jesus comes back. Jonathan never quit his love for family. His 9-year old twin children came into the restaurant and embraced their Dad like he was their best friend whom they had not seen in weeks. His wife’s countenance communicated that she was happy, secure, respectful, loving and although she would like to have more of Jonathan, excited to share him with a couple of pastors from Seattle. Jonathan never quit his church. Jonathan is a world-class leader that could lead any ministry he chose in any place he chose. But he said, “I am called to be a pastor and I am called to Thomas Road.” There is no doubt in my mind that he will ever quit on that calling.

Very few days are as meaningful as this one. I am grateful for Jonathan's heart to close the gap between world-class leaders and make the issue about the glory of Jesus and His Kingdom and the desire to see us cooperate in the unity of the gospel.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Phil. 1:27

We flew back to Raleigh that evening humbled, challenged at a lifetime of service and proud of the leadership of Jonathan who inherited his Dad’s personality, generosity and passion for the lost. We were also grateful for a new friend with whom we want to stand side by side for the faith of the gospel.

New Post: Resetting Missional DNA

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:41 GMT

Find it at http://www.david-mills.net/?p=260

One Year Ago Today

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:48 GMT

One year ago today I secretly flew to Las Vegas. My wife knew, and the leadership team at my church in Virginia Beach knew, and maybe two other people. I came to Vegas to pray about whether I would really move there to start a new church on the Strip. I already felt like I knew it's what God wanted me to do, but several people told me to not make the decision without "getting Vegas soil under my feet."

I spent three days here in Vegas praying, and it sucked. I had gone to Vegas hoping to have a magical feeling, with rainbows and flying unicorns in the sky, all letting me know I should move there and how great it would be. But the whole time I was there I fluctuated between having no feeling and a feeling of dread.

I happened to be reading through Ephesians at the time, and one day it was the verse that talks about "standing your ground" when "the day of evil comes." When I read that my first thought was, "Yeah, I'll need to remember that for the tough times after I move to Vegas," but then it was like, "No Vince, you idiot, it's right now, it's today." Because I was so tempted to do what I wanted to do - stay in Virginia Beach and not move to Vegas, but I knew what I was supposed to do. So I thought, "Vince, you need to man up, be obedient, and stand your ground."

And that's what I did, and here I am in Vegas. The rest is, well, the future. So ... we'll see.

Winners of the 'The Inklings'

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:35 GMT

Zondervan gave away its new book The Inklings to the first five registrants of STORY. Here are the five lucky winners:

Tally Wilgis - good, good friend and awesome church planter in Baltimore, Maryland. Bringing his whole team to STORY!

Ron Edmondson - long-time blog friend, coming up for STORY and to hang with his son who will be a freshman at Moody this fall.

Joshua Symonette - amazing pastor-friend in Washington, DC - met him at Whiteboard. Former NFL player - turned - talented pastor and leader.

Greg Rohlinger - the inspiring leader of Palm Valley Church in California. He's such an encouraging, charismatic leader - bringing his team!

Brandon Hoops - never met Brandon, but I love his passion for creativity. Coming from Columbia, MO, and is apparently a darn-good photographer.

Daniel Ott from Southland Church in France

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:42 GMT

I recently was in Rome, Italy and Marseille, France connecting pastors in the states with church plant opportunities in Europe. I was there with The Upstream Collective and the International Mission Board.

Daniel Ott was part of our team. Daniel is on staff of Southland Community Church, an independent Christan church in Lexington, KY.

Here is my interview with Daniel:

The Trophy Wife

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:13 GMT

I just started a new Bible Study by Beth Moore on Esther. Today I was reading about Queen Vashti and her refusal to literally be a "trophy wife" before the King and all his drunk guy friends. The king requests her presence so he can show her off and she says, "NO!" I can't say I blame her. It'd be like your husband having a bunch of guys over to watch a football game. They are all drinking and acting like dorks, when your husband calls you into the room and asks you to put on your old high school cheerleading outfit and perform a cheer for them. Just the thought of it makes me want to slap someone!

So the king is infuriated and calls together his closest friends and asks them what to do. The voice box of the groups says, "Queen Vashti has done wrong, not only against the king but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes. For the queen's conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands...There will be no end of disrespect and discord." (Esther 1:16-17, 18)

I have to admit that this story makes me angry on so many levels. But along with that anger comes conviction. As a church planting wife I am an example to other women. There's no way around it (I wish there was). Because of my "position" I am watched. If you are a church planting wife, the same holds true for you (or a pastor's wife, ministry leader, or pretty much any woman in some kind of leadership capacity). Queen Vashti's behavior had an affect on the women of her day. So much so that they made a law in response to her behavior that "all women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest." (Esther 1:20)

How many times have I done something that totally disrespects my husband in front of others? How many times have I said something that completely cuts him down while others are listening? Unfortunately, when I act like a jerk and other people are watching or listening it has an impact on them. Whether they verbalize it or not, someone is probably thinking, "I can't believe she just said that!" or worse yet, "Jen talks to her husband that way. Why can't I?"

I'm not saying that we have to be perfect and act like robot slaves to our husbands (or prance around for our husband's friends...yuck). I'm just saying that given the choice I would rather be a positive example to women than a negative one.

Featured on newchurches.com

Church Expansion and Growth

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:36 GMT

A recent study by LifeWay Research in partnership with the Cornerstone Knowledge Network showed a correlation between ministry expansion and church growth. Seven types of expansion were included in the survey:

Building new or additional ministry space at the same site where your church is located.
Building a new facility at a new site.
Adding an additional worship service or venue on site.
Adding an additional worship service or venue off site.
Beginning to offer streaming video of worship services or teaching on the Internet.
Directly participating in helping start a new church or churches.
Merging with another church.

Mark Kelly summarizes the findings:

Of these seven types of ministry expansion, the pastors surveyed indicated that adding an additional worship service or venue on site is most closely related to higher growth in attendance, followed by building new or additional ministry space at the same site where the church is located. Churches that expanded in those two ways experienced significantly higher levels of growth in average worship attendance over a five-year period, according to the pastors surveyed.

It's an interesting study worth looking at. Read the study first at Lifeway Research and at The Christian Post.

This study actually includes both opinion questions and the reporting of facts by pastors.

The fact questions included asking pastors if their church had made any of the 7 changes in the last 5 years. We also asked their current average worship attendance and their attendance 5 years ago. The recollection of the church's attendance 5 years ago could be off slightly for some. After all, this was a phone survey, but it should be close in most cases. Overall, we do consider the number of growing churches reported in this study to be a little higher than when annually reported data is available for comparison.

We ran statistical tests on these facts as reported and the first point in the story is related to these tests. The title we released the information with was stated in the negative, "Ministry expansion doesn't automatically lead to attendance growth." The fact is that causality is not something that we can test at all. However, since it is safe for us to rule out causality if there is not even a statistical relationship we felt comfortable stating this as we did in our release.

The opinion questions show that more than two-thirds of Protestant pastors agree (strongly or somewhat) that 5 of the ministry changes we tested "lead to additional growth." Pastors whose churches have actual made that type of change are more likely to agree, and this was true of all 7 we tested.

We wanted to see what the rest of the pastors believe.

It is interesting to note that all pastors did not agree without hesitation. A look at the PowerPoint that is now up on the LifeWay Research website shows that more pastors somewhat agree than strongly agree in all cases. Also, keep in mind our questions did not ask whether the pastors believe this is the only thing that leads to growth. For example, I can understand why many pastors did not want to disagree that you get some visitors when you open a new building and that some stick around.

The statistical tests we ran that showed a real relationship between two of the changes and growth also prove that only a small portion of the attendance growth is explained by the items we tested. There indeed are other things that lead to growth and some of the spiritual things related to growth would never be able to be tested through research.

Jump into the comments below and share your thoughts and experiences. Has expansion of your church led to, or been a result of, growth.

Marketing Plan for Manhattan Church Plant

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:21 GMT

New York is a big city. As such it presents several challenges to existing church planting models. Things have to be done differently. I'm currently working with a planter in Manhattan. We are working on putting the marketing plan together. Before you freak out and start commenting on how evil marketing is for a church, take a look at this quote from Seth Godin. “Marketing tells a story that spreads. Sales overcomes the natural resistance to say yes.” What we are focused on is telling the story of Incarnation to New Yorkers. We aren't trying sell them anything or manipulate them. So how do you get your story heard in such a large crowd filled with noise?

One thought has occurred to me. People are creatures of habit. They like the familiar and routine. Most people will walk the same route, take the same subway or bus, eat at the same restaurant, etc. Is there a way to get into the route of the target person for the church so that the focus is telling the story over and over on those routes. The problem I see is in Manhattan you could do twenty different marketing strategies and every one of them never hit the same person twice. If multiple exposures to the story are good then how do we get them?

Here's your chance to help out with a church plant. What would you do to get the story out about a new church in Manhattan? Your creative ideas are appreciated. Please comment and get the conversation going.

Church Website Cooperative Project

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:45 GMT

Kaleo Church along with several other churches plan on cooperating and implementing a new church web strategy. This strategy is influenced from a study that examined the analytics of 50+ church websites. In this research there were answers to questions such as: Why do people come to a church website? What are they doing? Where did they come from? How long are they on the site? This study resulted in several case studies of best practices. In addition to this, a second research survey of 1,000+ congregants helps us understand much about people's use of a church website as well as the desired functionalities they would like to see from their church. What are new people seeking at the church website? What about people who have gone to the church for years? How important was the website in their decision to attend the church? These studies have caused us to re-think how we are using the web and create this new strategy based on these findings.

This project will be led by me and I will help translate these findings into a strategy that we believe will become the best practices of church website use. For example, many websites do a poor job of connecting to new visitors and encouraging behaviors that are of value to the church. We will employ a triperspectival design process to quickly and effectively present the churches vision (normative), impact the visitor toward sharing this vision (existential) and seek to encourage behaviors (situational) that the church desires. These behaviors could include:

• Low Value Behaviors: Subscribe to RSS, podcast, engage Church Twitter account or Facebook.
• Medium Value Behaviors: Sign-up for an Email or complete a Web Form.
• High Value Behaviors: Show up to a service, home group or other relational meeting.

The strategy will target new visitors, the existing church community seeking to move them deeper into relationships and involvement, church media resources, event management, social media integration, online donations, amongst other key elements.

This first cooperative will have a limited number of spaces available. If you would like to participate or if you'd like more info feel free to contact me directly.

Strategy For Hire

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:22 GMT

First Ben... then Tony... now Carlos...

In the church world I'm spotting a trend. I think it could become a good one.

Recently several key voices in Christianity have started the transition out of staff roles at one church to make themselves available to the church at large. These transitions are coming from some of the best minds I know in ministry.

Ben Arment recently left his role with Catalyst Conferences to run with his dream of "History Tellers". The first major product of this new venture is called Story Chicago. The concept is terrific. I've had the honor to know Ben for a number of years and to say that he's now in his sweet spot would be an understatement beyond all understatements. Ben has had this dream of History Tellers in his mind for over a decade. Check out his blog for more of that story. Ben is also available for coaching/consulting type of work and its rumored that he knows a thing or two about web and print presence a la the Revolution. Our church plant is utilizing his services later this month to provide some outside assessment.

Tony Morgan recently came off of staff at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC and is going to pursue his next adventure. From what I understand he will continue to focus on his writing as well as some coaching and consulting. Ohh yeah, he's also doing a "Killing Cockroaches Summer Tour". I'm not sure if he's using a Winnebego but it sounds like a pretty cool tour. I wouldn't be shocked to see him out with more news in weeks to come but for now at least the consulting a

Carlos Whittaker announced yesterday that he too is moving from the comforts of church payroll to play a unique role in the church-at-large. Now instead of his talents being utilized exclusively by North Point Ministries he can now spread the love to your church if you so wish. Carlos as you know is one of the most transparent and authentic dudes in Christianity today. His online presence at RaggamuffinSoul.com has become more than a static blog (cough:: like mine ::cough) and actually taken on elements of a community. Carlos will be using these strengths he's harnessed in that arena to assist North Point Ministries as they launch "North Point Online". Additionally he's recently been signed as an artist with Integrity

I share all of their stories just to illustrate a few things:

- Pray for them. These guys are all amazing and talented in their own right but they'll be the first to tell you that they need the prayers of the body more than ever. Honor them by putting them on your prayer list. They have taught so many of us so much so lets be faithful to lift them up.

- Be challenged by them. Each one of us has a calling of God on our life. I'm so encouraged to see men of God step out on faith. If you're reading this and there is a call of God that you're ignoring... be challenged and be encouraged by their faith.

- Support them by hiring them. Each of these guys has to now feed their families as entrepreneurs. If you are in a position to hire a consultant to wrestle with some issues you've got going on... or you just want someone to give you a new perspective... contact them and throw out a proposal. If that doesn't work out go purchase Tony's book, attend Ben's conference or purchase Carlos' album. Support these guys as they work to build up the church.

Finally again I encourage you to ask yourself, what dreams do you need to chase?

Thanks guys for leading the rest of us.

Just A Dream and a Prayer Request

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:55 GMT

In January of 2000 I went to a church planter's retreat and was put in a hotel room with a guy I didn't know named Kyle Idleman. We were two years into our church plant in Va Beach, and I found out that Kyle would be starting a church in L.A. pretty soon. We stayed up late each night imagining what his church would be like, and talking through what might be the most effective way to reach and grow people in L.A.

A little later we went to a church planter's conference (in Vegas, ironically) and intentionally roomed together, again spending hours strategizing what his church should look like.

Well, Kyle ended up starting Real Life Church in Valencia, later left for another church, and they brought in a great guy named Rusty George, who this year asked me to come speak for him. So yesterday I got to speak at Real Life. I was impressed with the church, and had a great time, but the coolest part for me was thinking back to years ago when the church was just a dream and a prayer request and now seeing it in reality.

Real Life now has about 1,300 people and have had almost 100 baptisms in the last couple months. So if right now you have a church that is only a dream and a prayer request, keep dreaming and praying because God has a way of using that...

Distinctly Spiritual Leadership

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:26 GMT

Just read The Divine Commodity and I thought I'd share a few thoughts this week, as they apply to the church we're planting here in Vegas.

The author, Skye Jethani, takes the modern American churches (especially mega-churches) to task, for a variety of reasons. One is that church leadership use a corporate model and follow business principles in leading the church today. He quotes a famous pastor as saying, "There is nothing distinctly spiritual" about the way he leads his church.

Now if trying to learn principles from good business leaders is a crime, I am guilty. I've had my staff read "Good to Great" and will pimp "The E-Myth" to any church planter who will listen. But ... there has to be something distinctly spiritual about the way we lead, right? Because we're not the leaders of our churches, God is. And the ways we allow God to guide us so that He can lead the church are distinctly spiritual. Right?

I like the way Perry Noble puts it, "Leadership is as easy as listening to God and doing what He says." And that is definitely distinctly spiritual.

Faith Leavers

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:19 GMT

In reviewing some of the Pew research on the status of religion in America, I found some interested research about people who leave church as adults. One obvious concern is the large number of people who leave religion as adults. But their reasons for leaving should be instructive to those of us who love [...]

How to change traditional churches into New Testament churches

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:15 GMT

*Victor Choudhrie's 15 essential steps for changing traditional churches into New Testament churches.

1. Replace professional clergy with Priesthood of all Believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. (1 Peter 2:9)

2. Replace Church building with "House of Peace." (Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13)

3. Replace programmed Sunday service with daily informal gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day and not just for a couple of hours a week lest she become unfaithful. (Acts 2:46-47; Hebrew 3:13)

4. Replace tithing with sharing the enormous financial resources and goodwill available in Christian homes. (Deut. 8:17-18; Acts 5:32-34)

5. Replace the "Crumb and Sip" Holy Communion with simple "Community meals" eaten together with gladness from house to house. (Acts 2:46; 1 Cor 11:20-23)

6. Replace loud music with speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs making melody in your heart. (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16)

7. Replace the spectator church to participatory, interactive, prophetic and Missionary sending church. (1 Cor 14:26-31; Acts 13:13)

8. Replace organizational and denominational churches with citywide network of house churches. (Romans 16:3-15)

9. Replace barren church with multiplication. The Bride must not remain barren, but reproduce and fill the earth. (Acts 1: 8; 1 Cor 9: 19-30)

10. Replace submitting to one man - by submitting to each other. We must encourage, comfort, exhort, edify and serve one another. (Galatians 5: 13; Eph. 4: 2, 15)

11. Replace purposeless church with a goal oriented mandate to disciple nations. (Romans 15: 20; Matt. 28: 19)

12. Replace powerless and fruitless church with militants who heal the sick, raise the dead, expel the demons, bind the ‘strongman’ and plunder his possessions. (Matt 11:12, 12:29)

13. Replace all presidents, directors, chairman, secretaries and all the other non-biblical titles with apostles, prophets, and the fivefold ministry gifted elders. Change from a dead organization to living organism. (Eph 4:11; Titus 1:5-9)

14. Replace all Sunday schools, Bible schools, and prayer cells and cottage meetings and call them full-fledged churches. So that they can disciple, baptize, break bread, equip and send missionaries. (1 Cor 16:19; Col 4:15)

15. Replace all selfish goats who are members for hatching, matching and dispatching with sheep who take care of the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, sick and the prisoners. (Matt. 25:31-46)

Victor Choudhrie is a cancer surgeon by profession. He is a senior Fellow of the American and British colleges of surgeons. He quit his job as the Director (CEO) of the Christian Medical college, Ludhiana in Punjab, India in 1992 to take up full time Church planting ministry in central India. His wife Bindu is also in full time church planting ministry, equipping women to be house church leaders and trainers. God has blessed this ministry abundantly. Large numbers of grassroots level leaders have been trained who have planted thousands of house churches all over India as a result.

In the thick of things

Sun, 31 May 2009 10:37 GMT

Hey Cyberworld… I know it's been like forever since I posted anything on here. I'm still alive and kicking. It has been a crazy bunch of weeks since my last post. The big dealio is that Christie and I now have a high school graduate. I'll put pictures on after tomorrow. And after tomorrow night we'll have a second high schooler. We are so proud of Tyler (just graduated from Plainfield Central High School- in the top 20 of his graduating class of 670 students If I can brag). He's headed to Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids in a few months. We are equally proud of Reid who graduates tomorrow PM from Indian Trail Middle School. He's headed to Plainfield East High School in the fall.

We have been running with the boys, graduation parties and all that goes with this time of year. Baseball games are keeping us busy as well. The Dodgers are 5-8-1 after todays game. I missed becuase of spoke for Gente Unida today after preaching the morning three services…. Talk about being wiped. I kicked off our summer series entitled Missio Dei. The summer at Westbrook is all about the Sending of God. I mean who really cares how many people come to our church, if we don't leave our church and serve the very people that He died for!

It has been a full and rich weekend. To the graduates in our family to the hundreds of people who came to help us celebrate to the worship time today…. Praise the Lord!

Interview from Marseille

Sun, 31 May 2009 01:36 GMT

Here is my interview with a French pastor, Julien, who tells a fascinating story of his journey to be a bi-vocational church planter in France:

A neat journey...

Why I blog

Sat, 30 May 2009 06:54 GMT

Today the 100,000th page was clicked on the M Blog. I know this isn't a big deal to anyone else, but for me it represents a milestone in something I felt the Lord leading me to do going back a little over three years ago now. Not to mention that it is pretty amazing to me that anyone at all would ever take the time to read my attempts at putting thoughts into cyberspace. Most of what we have to share is definitely a work in progress, constantly being modified as we continue to learn from the Lord.

Why do I blog?

Everyone has their own reasons, but for me it began a few years back. It dawned on me one day that I was personally doing very little to make disciples of the nations.

Guayaquil is our "Jerusalem", not the ends of the earth. Though we are international missionaries living in a cross-cultural setting, I was personally not doing much of anything to engage our own Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. What difference was there between what we were doing, and all those other churches out there equally focused almost exclusively on their own Jerusalems?

After some prayer and soul-searching, I decided to try and reach beyond our Jerusalem and begin to impact in at least some small way the Judeans, Samaritans, and nations beyond.

Blogging is one of the ways we have been able to do this. No, it is not the blog itself that impacts, but the PEOPLE reading who are actively engaged in being witnesses to their own J,J,S, and ends of the earth.

Example: Last week a brother who had read some of our writings, contacted me by email and we set up a meeting to talk about ways we could partner to reach his "Jerusalem" (and what is for us, our "Judea"). We were both mutually encouraged, and have begun praying that the Lord of the Harvest would send a team from somewhere to help us engage his area of the province in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Without the blog, and his having read the article, this meeting would probably never have taken place.

Many times a blog post written by myself or others touches upon an aspect that another brother is dealing with personally. Private emails and public comments are exchanged which often stimulate new ideas and function ala Hebrews 10 to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together...but encouraging one another... for more effective service.

Examples of this would be posts like What are we doing here? or Returning to Ecuador being used to encourage fellow laborers out there likewise going through times of questioning their own ministry, and hearing from fellow laborers that, we too, feel and sense these same kinds of weaknesses.

Likewise, I have received from other people's posts key insights, ideas, suggestions which we have used in our own church planting ministry. These examples are almost too numerous to mention. But in this way we are impacting one another's ministries for the good of the Kingdom.

One of the unforeseen ministries that has quietly evolved out of blogging, is the stream of emails and inquiries generated coming in from all over the Spanish-speaking world. Sometimes they are from fellow missionaries, but most come from brothers and sisters who have questions and do not know where to turn for answers. There are few resources available in Spanish for the who, what, when, where, and how of simple church, and church planting in general. I observe a swelling tidal wave of people beginning to explore and reexamine the NT in light of church practice--especially related to the "nuts and bolts" of doing simple/organic/house church practice. I have mailed out dozens of copies of our materials over the past three years to church planters all over the Americas. Sometimes I hear back from them, sometimes not. Related to this is a good amount of time spent weekly answering inquiries generated by people passing on posts and information originating from material read on the "M Blog." In this way we are able to have an influence not only our own Jerusalem, but on far-away places which we normally would never have a chance to engage.

As time has gone by, we have added to the blogging other projects to engage our Judea and Samaria that are beginning to yield tremendous fruit. One of these is our "Guayas for Christ" project to reach our Judea.

To engage our Samaria, our church planting team is currently partnering directly/indirectly with several ministry projects which seek to engage overlooked, or marginalized people's in our midst: the abandoned elderly, AIDS victims, street kids (gangs), women in prostitution, delinquent youth, and homosexuals.

This whole Acts 1:8 mindset is being caught by the churches in our network. It is exciting to sit with them over discussions of how they might be able to impact places like India, the surrounding provinces, and the jungles of Peru. Money doesn't seem to be the central issue; rather discernment of the Lord's will, prayer, faith, and how if we sacrificed more, we might be able to send at least one person as a short-term missionary.

So, in a nutshell, that is why I blog. Thanks for reading and especially for all you do in obedience to engage in the task of making disciples of the nations.

Keeping Websites Simple

Sat, 30 May 2009 02:34 GMT

There are several great website solutions nowadays. Church planters I work with are using Clover, Church Plant Media, WordPress, Joomla, and even iWeb. There are several other great solutions as well. The problem with all of these is that they require hard work on the part of the planter to keep the sites updated. Even when set up well by professional to begin with, many sites will slowly lose their quality over time simply over the use of pictures. Many church planters don't have the graphic arts skills to choose and edit photos to keep their sites looking great. Many solutions also require a monthly fee to use the Contact Management Systems. While CMS is a great solution for many, it still requires time and artistic intelligence.

Where there is a problem you can always count on someone to develop a solution. Brown Cow Creative has done just that with their Red Barn web hosting. Quick Disclaimer. Scott Johnson who started Brown Cow and does the majority of design is a friend of mine. He helped plant a church in Charlotte about the same time as I did. With that said, Scott does great design work and has helped out with several of the church planters I work with. Here's the deal: Brown Cow will host your site for $10 a month. For an additional $40 a month they will also do updates and maintenance for your site. So that means no more uploading pictures, creating announcements, and trying to troubleshoot your site. Scott does it for you. What this also means is that you can have a custom site built. No more templates that look identical to what everyone else is doing. Create something unique that will really communicate your brand and tell your story.

Don't Derail Your Email

Fri, 29 May 2009 05:44 GMT

With each new form of communication, it takes just a little while for common courtesy and etiquette to develop/evolve. The rules for Twitter are starting to coalesce, but it usually takes any newbie a while to catch on.

Email isn't new anymore, though, and therein lies the problem. It is such a quick & easy form of communication for church plants that you have to use it, but it's been around long enough that you should be familiar with proper email etiquette. Breaking any of these 25 Golden Rules of Email could completely derail your communication. Here are the ones I see church planters commonly break:

#6 Do Not Use “Reply All” Blindly - someone you don't intend may slip into the distribution list
#7 BCC is Your Friend - when sending out broadcast emails, send it to yourself and BCC everyone else to protect everyone's privacy
#8 Subject Lines Matter - if you can't distill your message to five or six perfect, pithy words, you run the risk of not getting read at all
#9 One Topic per Message - sticking to a single subject makes it much easier to search and refer to past messages when necessary.
#13 Avoid Huge Attachments - first and best option: Share a link rather than the actual file
#14 Attach What You Promised - [so guilty!] - but now Gmail, Outlook and Thunderbird have forgotten attachment reminders. Use them!
#25 Create a Useful Signature - at the very least include your full name, title or church name, e-mail address, and phone number. Don't make people have to look up your phone number if they need to call.

Here's to better communication!

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Fri, 29 May 2009 04:34 GMT

Week preceding May 29, 2009

16 Questions That Will Help Me Make It In Ministry - Part Seven

Fri, 29 May 2009 01:40 GMT

7. Am I Trusting Him To Provide?

In Matthew 10:8-10 Jesus clearly communicates to His disciples that He is going to take care of their financial needs.

The wrong question to ask when Jesus clearly commissions us to do something is “How much is going to cost?” because we can allow that question to lead us into a place of direct disobedience.

The only question we should wrestle to the ground, “Is this clearly what Jesus wants?” If the answer to that question is yes then we’ve got to understand that if it is God’s will then it is God’s bill.

God doesn’t give us as leaders worry-free guarantees because if He did the element of faith would not be necessary. If God has called you to plant a church, the resources for that church plant will be there. If God has called you to build facilities the resources for building those facilities will be there. If God has called you to pour into youth and children the resources to pour into youth and children will be there. There has to come a point when we trust Him to provide for our needs, even when we don’t see how it is possible.

God KNOWS how to take care of His people…but often times when He commands us as to WHAT to do the “HOW to do it” comes later–as we seek Him. He has all of the money in the world–heck–He paved His streets with gold! Bill Gates' children don't worry when their computers crash…we should not worry when our Heavenly Father gives us BIG VISION…because HE has the resources to make it happen!

Five Things I Learned from Billy Hornsby

Thu, 28 May 2009 17:43 GMT

Five Things I am Learning from Billy Hornsby

by Scott Thomas

When I went to London with Mark Driscoll, he kept saying something that I had not heard from him prior to that trip. Maybe, like some verses in the Bible, I just missed Mark ever saying it. He repeatedly said, “I am here to learn from you.” Since then, Mark has returned from trips or speaking events and has updated the Executive Elders of Mars Hill what he learned. It has been super helpful to us to learn insights from discussions he has had with John Piper, Craig Groeschel, Rick Warren and others.

In that spirit, I want to share five things I have learned on my trip with Billy Hornsby, the President of ARC (church planting organization co-founded by Greg Surratt of Sea Coast) headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

1. Never Complain

Billy mentioned that he hates complaining because God hates complaining. Complaining can derail a church, an organization and a family. Billy embodies a spirit of resting in the sovereignty of God in the midst of suffering. Billy’s wife, Charlene has cancer in her liver and pancreas and she has surpassed the date of her oncologist’s predicted life expectancy. You NEED to watch the video of Charlene’s testimony of her fight with cancer. Pastors are notorious for complaining, explains Hornsby. He said complainers spit in the face of God because they are always expecting more from God, as if they earned special privileges from God. Billy has Level 5 melanoma (invasion of the deep, subcutaneous tissue) that generally spreads into the lymph nodes. Prognosis is not hopeful so Billy is living his life to plant as many churches as he can. ARC wants to plant 100 churches this year—a number that is ridiculously high. I think they may do it with Billy’s intentional leadership.

2. Adore Your Wife

Billy and Charlene were married 42 years ago at age 17. I stayed in their home and watched a devotion to each other that is unequaled to any other marriage. After 42 years, they called each other cute pet names, kissed each other for no apparent reason and expressed to me how that neither can realize their life without the other. Billy said, “Son, other than Jesus, she is the best thing in my life.” He is a Cajun who only uses the term “son” when he wants to emphasize something as true. Their home was immaculate and when she brought Billy his breakfast (followed by a kiss on the forehead), it looked like a plate served at a restaurant.

3. Discipline Your Children

Billy has three girls and all of them are serving the Lord faithfully and are living in Birmingham. He didn’t worship his girls like we see many parents doing. He loved them like a father and disciplined them to respect his words and God’s words. “We never had to yell at our girls because they knew if we asked them to do something, they would do it without whining.” He said his girls are people he wants as his friend now because he didn’t try to be just their friend when they were small by letting them get away with disobedience and rebellion. His goal was to raise good adults, not just good kids—that requires a parent who takes responsibility to discipline consistently. He is one of the few fathers I know that have great kids (grown and otherwise) who spoke of them in a way that honored the Lord’s grace more than the children’s actions.

4. Take Time Off

This was actually discussed in the context of a rebuke to me for doing nothing but working. I received this as truth. He said something that resonated with me strongly: “Nobody in your church or your organization will care if you work too much and don’t take time off. You are the only one that will take responsibility for your days off and your vacation.” Then he hit me in the gut by saying, “Then when nobody notices, a guy gets angry at others like it’s their fault, and it can’t go anywhere but ugly from there.” Billy says that even God took a day off and “son, we ain’t no better than God.” If you are around Billy for five minutes, you will discover that he is not validated by his work. He works hard, but he also takes time to play. We were able to take time to fish and shoot guns because Billy took a couple of days off because he is working on the weekend. Billy has a good message for many pastors and church planters, I suspect.

5. Delegate Quickly

Billy said his spiritual gift was delegation. “If you want a job done right, you have to delegate it to the right person.” Many church planters encourage their members to make the planter as their functional savior by doing for others what they could do for themselves. This isn’t a new problem birthed by church planting. Moses had this problem and his father-in-law rebuked him. A pastor is called to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph. 4) not to be the guy in the spiritual ice cream truck taking orders from the overly-fed consumers. Some church planters need to quit running the bulletin, balancing the checkbook, setting up the building, overseeing every ministry, counseling every dysfunctional family and then trying to preach in their spare time. To be effective, many business experts say, you have work ON the organization and not just IN the organization. It is equal to the captain of an army who is trying to lead a group of guys while he is cleaning the latrine and being the chief cook. It doesn’t make sense for anyone.

We don’t have to agree with everything a person practices to learn from them. We have to be humble to learn from others. God, grace us with friends like Billy with whom we can learn for the glory of God and good of your Kingdom.

You can visit Billy’s personal blog.

Interviews from Two Countries

Thu, 28 May 2009 15:00 GMT

Here are two interviews worth checking out. First, I interview Luigi who talks about the church he is a part of in Venice. It is a fascinating story of an indigenous believer now serving as an elder at his church. Second, is Scott. Scott is the real deal-- a church planter with a heart for the people to whom God has called him. I was told that less that 10% of missionaries return to France after 1 five year term. Scott is coming up on his third. He has my respect and you should give him a moment of your time.

Luigi in Rome, Italy
Luigi, like many in Rome, grew up Catholic, but was led to Christ through the ministry of an American missionary. After a year of hearing the gospel, and then attending worship he says he could see the difference between the religion he grew up with and the gospel and was converted. He is now an elder, leading worship and preaching at Christian Bible Church (it sounds much cooler in Italian). He stays connected to the community through his electronics business. Luigi talks about the religious culture in Rome (people are Catholic, but typically do not attend church but 2-3 times a year) and explains why the church of Jesus Christ in Rome needs support from their brothers and sisters in the States.

Scott in Marseille, France
Here I talk with Scott at the Notre-Dame de la Garde about gospel ministry in the post-Catholic city of Marseille. Here there is a very small Evangelical presence and a growing Muslim population in the midst of a very secular culture. Scott shares some of the difficulties of missionaries coming into this area, and explsins that the key is relationships and time. He also talks about how North American Christians and churches can get involved.

A Real Important Day

Thu, 28 May 2009 06:45 GMT

I love old people. The older you are, the more I love you. I took Marissa to an assisted living home every week for almost 4 years. The only bad situation I've had is with my brother-in-law's 90 year old uncle. I met him at my sister's wedding and he told me about his Playboy subscription and then flirtatiously said, "I will see you in my dreams tonight!" After vomiting in my mouth, I quickly ran away from him!

I sat with Vince and Dawson during the 12:00pm service at Kensington Community Church this past Sunday. There were two empty seats between me and a very old man. Because it was Memorial Day, they did a tribute to people in the military. They sang a beautiful song and showed tons of touching black and white images of the military.

Because of my love for old people, it wasn't surprising to me that my attention was fixed on the old man next to me. He sat slumped in his chair, looking sad and depressed. The deep sadness showed in his eyes. His wife put her hand over his. I was sure he had served in the military because of the way the images and song were affecting him. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I imagined his life and the pain that he had endured. The friends he had lost. The experiences of war that had stuck with him.

Things got weird when all of a sudden I pictured Jesus sitting in the empty seat next to the old man with His arm around him saying, "I've been with you through it all." I was brought to tears. And then I pictured Jesus saying to me, "Can you tell him that for me?" I thought I lost my mind. Did I faint or something? What was happening? Like I'm going to walk up to this total stranger and tell him that Jesus has a message for him! AWKWARD!

After debating with myself during Vince's whole sermon, I decided that I would talk to the old man.

After the service ended I took a deep breath and sat next to the old man and told him the whole story. His eyes got full of tears and he said, "Thank you." We talked for a while and he told me that after attending church for most of his life, he finally understood God's love for him. He said that Vince's sermon was so easy to understand and that he finally got it! He thanked me again for passing on the message from God and said, "Today is a real important day in my life."

He bought one of Vince's books after the service and had me sign it. I wrote, "I've been with you through it all" and dated it.

It was seriously one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I'm so glad that I decided to talk to him. I'm so glad that I listened to God and stepped way out of my comfort zone. Just like that old man, it was a real important day in my life.

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Love and FEAR

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:42 GMT

My friend Dean Trune teaches that we need to love God and fear God. Our love for God drives us towards Him. Our fear of God drives us away from temptation and sin. He believes that for most who fall away from God, the problem wasn't a lack of love but a lack of fear.

Today's reading (1 Corinthians 10) backs that up. The first four verses are all la-di-da, then in verse 5, "Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert." Then we're told in verse 6 that we're supposed to look to their example to keep from saying yes to tempation. We're to learn from them to fear God and the consequences of sin.

It's pretty sobering, especially (for me) when the list of examples is given, and it says not to grumble as they did, so we won't have to suffer the consequences they did. I can be a bit of a grumbler, and the whole "destroying angel" idea doesn't sound appealing to me.

As for being a church planter, this is complex because people are tired of hellfire and brimstone preachers, which I understand. But at the same time, we need to teach people to fear God and the consequences of sin.

Any thoughts?

Setting Up Email With Google Apps

Wed, 27 May 2009 02:09 GMT

So you just got the perfect URL for the new church and now your dying get your email setup. The hosting company likely wants you to buy their email service and charge you $5 a month. Don't do it. Email should be free and with Google Apps, it is. Google Apps allows you to setup your email using the fabulous Gmail interface. It also gives you access to Google Docs, Sites, Chat and Calendars. These tools can be extremely beneficial to a new church and did I mention free? There's a little tech involved to get it setup, so we're providing step by step instructions complete with screenshots. Click here to download.

Church Planting Interview: Chris Barras

Wed, 27 May 2009 01:45 GMT

Chris Barras is a friend of mine who planted Area 10 Faith Community in Richmond, VA last September. Chris and I were interns together at Rocky Mountain Christian Church after college. We were reunited last year as I worked with Chris on Area 10. I took time out to interview Chris and find out what makes Area 10 so unique. Its more than just there name. Chris moved to Richmond 2 years before beginning the work of planting a church. He worked part time at Velocity Christian Church but his main job was as a manager of a local Starbucks. Chris moved his family to downtown Richmond believing that if he were to plant a church then he needed to be one of the locals before doing so. This enabled them to connect with lots of people and accelerated building the launch team. They simply called on friends and neighbors they had become friends with and the group quickly grew. During this time, they discovered that there was a need for a gathering place downtown for young families. An idea was birthed to start a business alongside the start of the church to meet a need in the community and provide 24/7 space for the church. Thus Cartwheels and Coffee was born. It's a place for kids to come play and for parents to drink a good cup of coffee. The church was to meet in the historic downtown Byrd Theater build in the 1920's and Carwheels and Coffee was established right across the street.

Doug:

Cartwheels and Coffee was a lot of work in addition to planting a church. Has it been worth it?

Chris:

We just baptized the first person whose connection came through there. We would do it again. I believe in it. It gives us credibility in the neighborhood. It forced us to have a 24/7 facility. That’s a big deal. It gives us a place to do a lot of things. Putting the business there has got us good will in the community. We still have people walk in the first time and say this is genius. Its pretty cool to have people walk in your church building and say that. It gave my launch team something to do and get behind. It was stressful to handle launching both but what do you do. Financially its supported by the church and is not going anywhere.

Doug:

How have you assimilated people?

Chris:

That’s the thing that we need to be better at. I wish it were smoother. Every first time visitor gets a personal invite to join my family downtown for ice cream on the church. We did this weekly when we started. It gave me the opportunity to connect with people and cast the vision and tell them how they could fit in. We also do the 411, an information lunch after church. We do each of those once a month now. We are doing good there but the next step after we aren’t handling well. I haven’t been proactive calendar wise to get those events on the calendar and promote them. We are trying to do some fun events through the Summer to keep people connected. I still hand write notes to all first time visitors. I started keeping a spreadsheet of all first time visitors or regular attenders I don’t know. I call anyone who wants to volunteer. I make all the first touches. I can go through all the contacts of new visitors and spend all week trying to get in touch with them. But, I can’t get back in touch with those I didn’t get a hold of last week.

Doug:

Chris, I know you don't take attendance at Area 10. Why? What do you measure?

Chris:

It comes out of what you value. I’m surprised I didn’t think more about this before we launched. When you have time to catch your breath later you think what are we doing? We measure Changed Lives, Committed Leaders, Community Impact. With Community impact we started with measuring community service hours. We are at 1081 hours since we launched in September.

Doug:

Do you have goals for these areas?

Chris:

Not this year. We will. We are just trying to figure it out right now. And we are trying to be strategic to plan an event each month. For changed lives, we measure how many are baptized and how many stories are we getting from people saying this is the greatest thing ever. I keep a file with all of these stories. For Committed leaders, its how many groups did we start? We don't measure attendance. For one thing you can look and see how many people are there. Sunday attendance doesn’t tell me a whole lot if we are focused on changed lives, committed leaders and community impact. If we do those things then attendance will grow. Sunday attendance numbers just mess with me too much. When they are down I get depressed and when they are up I’m prideful.

Doug:

What advice do you have for those planting churches?

Chris:

Be unique. There is too much out there going on where I’m going to use this guys system for this and this system for that. There is a lot of copying going on. Just go off by yourself and come up with something new. People are doing church like “So You Think You Can Dance.” Its just American Idol but not as good. Its dumb. Stop doing it. Go do your own thing. That’s why we called the church Area 10. No one is going to call there church that because its local to downtown Richmond. Don’t be trendy. Find something that is you. For us we had small children so we decided to do the cartwheels and coffee thing. I didn’t think whacky humor fit who we were so we don’t do it. People see through it when you aren’t authentic. Find your unique thing. I have a background and interest in missions so we are going to do that. Stop reading people’s books and copying them.

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