Re-direct

I had hoped that this blog would be a great place for church planters to discuss things specific to church planting.  There are already some great people doing this, so check out the links on the side and participate in those communities that are all ready doing this very well.  Please join in the conversation on my personal blog as well here…

Church Crowds Out Personal Growth

I am learning a lot during this process of planting church. One of the biggest lessons is simple yet I have to learn it again and again. It is so easy for me to allow the needs of the process, people, and tasks to crowd out my life, and God is more concerned with my trust and attention than He is anything else. 21 years ago my dad gave me a really cool 1970 Formula 400 Firebird. It was fast and good looking. I met many of the local police officers in the car, and even a D.A. and a Judge! I loved the car, and wish I still had one like it today, but I got in a lot of trouble in it and sometimes the trouble put a wedge between my dad and me. My dad still regrets giving me the car because of everything that happened in it – even 21 years later!

I wonder if God feels the same way about giving us opportunities to lead churches. We love them, they are fun (sometimes), we spend a lot of time with them, and eventually we get so caught up in the day to day pressure of growing and maintaining a church that we lose sight of God in the process. I think that breaks God’s heart. Even if really good things are happening, if we are not spending time with God in the process, He misses us! And eventually we lose sight of Him because of all that is drawing our attention. We must stay focused on God Himself, that is why He called us in the first place. No matter how much is going good, He misses us when we are pulled away by church stuff. I need to spend way more time in prayer, just talking and listening to Him… that is what it is all about. I don’t want Him to regret giving me this incredible opportunity.

Paid Staff In Church Plants?

What positions do you think are most critical to getting a plant started?

Which ones would you or do you pay?

We pay me full time, and part time the Worship Leader, and an associate pastor that is in charge of groups and organizing lay leaders for the other ministries – children’s, youth, outreach, etc…

I am thinking we may need to bring on a children’s coordinator… It seems a lot to ask one person to miss the service every week. And rotating teachers through is not sending the message that this area is important. So we may break down at the beginning of the year and pay for a part time someone.

what are your thoughts about this?

Need Workers?

Came across this in my morning study. I love Oswald Chambers!

The key to the Master’s orders

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will sendforth labourers into His harvest. Matthew 9:38.
The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work, that is, not work as the word is popularly understood to-day, because that may mean the evasion of concentration on God. The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilization or education or even evangelization. The key is prayer. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.” Naturally, prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is stupid from the ordinary commonsense point of view.
There are no nations in Jesus Christ’s outlook, but the world. How many of us pray without respect of persons, and with respect to only one Person, Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced by distress and conviction of sin, and this is the harvest we have to pray that labourers may be thrust out to reap. We are taken up with active work while people all round are ripe to harvest, and we do not reap one of them, but waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities. Suppose the crisis comes in your father’s life, in your brother’s life, are you there as a labourer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? ‘Oh, but I have a special work to do!’ No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, one who is not above his Master, one who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls to no special work: He calls to Himself. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.

Working Together

Today some of us went and cleaned out a storage unit that was collecting junk that belonged to the church. Old chairs of the folding genera, old music and books from a by-gone era, things nobody cares about any more that cost you $80 a month to store. It was a great time of working, talking and sharing stories and history together. I think I will plan more “get your hands dirty together” days because of the space it creates for us to impact each other’s lives away from the pressures of the “to do list.

How do you connect best with people in your start up?

Technology

This is my first post from my iPhone. I have found the device to be a fantastic tool for my lifestyle. What have you run accross lately that has helped you do what you do better and more efficiently?

Signing Leases

In order for our church to build the 2.9 million dollar building we are putting up on our land, we have to lease space in the building out. We are hoping to have a public high school lease the space, but because of the delays on the project they are dragging their feet. We have put them up in portable buildings on the property, gone through the expense of permitting the permanent building with the State ($10K & 2 1/2 week delay) and are finishing the space according to their needs. We also had originally partnered with a day care provider to lease out some of our space too. They have since gotten cold feet and don’t seem to be interested any longer. So I find myself in another faith stretching situation. Without lessors we cannot afford to pay back the building loan. The doors are scheduled to open in January now, and I have to find at least one tenant and walk the school gently but purposefully through the lease process. It has been heavy on my mind this week. God is big enough to handle this, He has brought us this far. But I still find myself troubled over the prospect of having to find a tenant, and playing hardball with the school. Just another example of the ups and downs of church planting!

Church Planting | The Mountains & The Valleys

Last night our association (Pikes Peak Baptist Association, part of the Southern Baptist Convention) had a business meeting and celebration of what God is doing in our region. Many church leaders were there from all manners of churches; small, large, new, old, ethnic, contemporary, traditional… it was a pretty good time considering how these things sometimes go. One of my friends is new to church planting; like just getting started new. He was visibly upset as he had just walked through a couple of tough experiences, losing their meeting place, losing a core couple. It is such a bumpy journey, and I can so relate. He had an opportunity to share in front of the group and mentioned how lonely planting is; and I totally agree. Then this morning I came across inspiring words from Oswald Chambers in today’s reading of My Utmost For His Highest and I had to share them, hoping that if you are planting a church you read these words and it is somehow encouraging to you. Remember, God is with you in the peaks as well as the valleys…

The sphere of exaltation

Jesus leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves. Mark 9:2.
We have all had times on the mount, when we have seen things from God’s standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, something is wrong. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down among the devilpossessed and lift them up. We are not built for the mountains and the dawns and aesthetic affinities, those are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in, and that is where we have to prove our mettle. Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount. We feel we could talk like angels and live like angels, if only we could stay on the mount. The times of exaltation are exceptional, they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware lest our spiritual selfishness wants to make them the only time.
We are apt to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching, it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz., into character. The mount is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a great snare in asking—‘What is the use of it?’ In spiritual matters we can never calculate on that line. The moments on the mountain top are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.

Interview

I have had the pleasure of meeting a great man in another country through the modern conveniences of the internet.  He writes a great blog, go check him out.  He recently interviewed me for one of his coffee break’s, I love the idea and it is my pleasure to be his first interview.

Church Planting: Fundraising

If you are a church planter, you know that fund raising is one of those necessary steps.  In your experience, how have you achieved the best results?