Computers were supposed to bring us into a paperless society like 10 years ago, right? They certainly have made us more efficient and given us all kinds of tools we never had before. It is tempting to spend all your time as a planter sitting in front of the computer: you can get things done, prep for sermons, read blogs, etc…
Entropy rules - your tendency will be to play it safe by taking the path of least resistance, sitting in front of your computer all day instead of taking risks and spending time with people in the community.
Developing leaders is a common struggle for church planters. I learned a good lesson in leadership development last night. While in Charlotte at LifePointe, I worked really hard on a particular group of people. I baptized most of them, took ownership in teaching them, and frequently challenged them to leadership. I did many of the right things. I cast vision for them as a leader. I trained them. I had them serve alongside me. The frustration was that there was something keeping them from pulling the trigger of really engaging in leadership. The problem was I had done everything accept get out of their way. Now that I’ve been gone a while, I hear story after story about how this group of people I invested in has stepped up into significant leadership roles in the church. I failed to create a compelling need for them to be leaders. There was no leadership hole. I wanted the leadership positions I held to be filled before starting something new in the church. It seems that I put the chicken before the egg. The lesson learned is that a good leader gets out of the way.
Sometime in the last year I heard one of those ministry stories that may be evangelical legend, but makes a good point:
2 teams of relief workers arrived on site in a famine-stricken third-world area. Both teams were immediately pressed by crowds as they got off the plane. The first team, seeing the need, started handing out food and serving the people immediately. The second team pushed through the crowd to where the would make their camp and established a barbed wire perimeter. After a day or two of setting up their own camp, they began passing out food and helping people.
It may seem that the second team was calloused and selfish until you ask the question, “Which team was still serving the people after a month?” You can imagine that the first team would have burned out and returned home.
Planters, you need to be intentional, even religious, about setting aside time for soul care. Besides the one day a week that you already turn off your computer and cell phone and spend with your family (grin), you need to find a rhythm of taking prayer retreat days and a spiritual retreat week. Wouldn’t it be sad if you stopped hearing from God because you couldn’t find the time, and then ended up building the church in your own strength?
“What does it profit a [planter] to gain [a new church] but lose his soul?”
Research from multiple sources shows a clear correlation between solid church planter training and long-term health of church plants. Church Coaching Solutions, a Passion for Planting ministry partner, is now offering a multi-site track at it’s bootcamp. There are so many common factors when launching a second (or third) site to launching a brand new church this only makes sense. Click here to find out more about their June training event in Chicago.
I’m in Orlando at the conference and I’d have to say it has been everything I expected and more. The speakers have been inspirational and motivating. I’m pumped up. Jeremy and Mark, our final two, were asked, “How would you inspire church planter.” If you like what you read, click on the bloggers name to go to their blog.
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was daunting and yet exhilarating
at the same time. Although I was still young, I had looked forward to it
with great anticipation. After what seemed like an interminable wait, I was
finally in position to start moving forward. At first it felt like this was
going to be a major disappointment. Things were moving much too slow and
the first hill to climb seemed to be far too big and even uncertain. But
then.. it was as if a shot of pure adrenaline was injected straight into my
bloodstream. What followed was a series of twists and turns, hills and
hollows that took my breath away but left me wanting more. Little did I
know that my first ride on a roller coaster would be my first indoctrination
into church planting.
Church planting is more like that ride than I would ever have imagined. The
anticipation can almost leave you breathless. The wait to begin feels like
an eternity. Climbing the first hill seems like you have taken on too much.
But then you roll past the crest and God-momentum takes you on one of the
wildest rides of your life - half-scared out of your wits that you have made
the biggest mistake of your life, and half-crazed that you wouldn’t want to
do anything else.
Church planting will be full of extreme highs and plummeting lows. Just
when you think you’ve got it figured out, you’ll find yourself in a hairpin
turn that jerks you back into reality and reliance on God. But if you
enjoy being fully alive there is nothing more satisfying, nothing more
fulfilling. If you have church-planting in your DNA, this is the ultimate
experience of John 10:10. So buckle up and enjoy the ride!
Faces. We see them everywhere and every day. Some faces are recognizable and
incite feelings of love, passion, tenderness, and happiness. Other faces
give rise to feelings of anger, wrath, jealousy, or fear. It’s these faces
that must push us forward, these faces that must motivate us to reach out
with the love of Jesus.
You know the faces you need to reach. We all have them in our lives. They
are the faces of God’s children, many of whom are far away from Him. Others
don’t even know His name except in a curse. A handful of these faces knew
God once, but no longer believe He cares about them any more. Still others
feel that God couldn’t possibly love them after what they’ve done.
They are the faces of divorce, lust, abortion, drugs, abuse, violence,
death, heartache, heartbreak, loneliness, fatigue, rejection, and pride.
They are the faces of your grocery clerk, your mailman, your boss, your
neighbor, the homeless person you’ve walked by for years on your way to
work, the pregnant teen whom you believe is just reaping what she’s sown,
the bitter widow, the ex-con.
The list goes on and on, and it includes you and me.
Yet somehow, we think we don’t belong on this list. We know the truth. We
are different.
But if that is so, it’s only because someone in your life answered God’s
call to reach out to you, and help you out of the muck you were dwelling in.
God is calling again for people to go out and be His hands in the world;
hands of love, grace, kindness, friendship, and truth.
Are you going to see the faces in your life for what they are, or for who
they can be? It’s your move.
A new resource has been published and made available on www.newchurches.com. It is an assessment tool that helps determine how well a planter fits with a particular location. Tom Nebel graciously allowed us to use parts of materials that he has developed. This is just one of several FREE church planting resources available for download on the newchurches.com website.
We’ve reached round 3 of the Exponential Blogging Tournament. We are down to the final four. On tap for this week is a topic that the majority of planter’s struggle with, leadership development. In a recent survey of church planters in years 2-5, we found that leadership development was one of the most significant struggles planters face and have not yet overcome. Bloggers were asked, “How do you develop leaders in the new church?” If you like what you read, click on the bloggers name to go to their blog.
Rules:
1. 300 words or less
2. Top 2 Vote Getters Move on to Round 3
3. Voting Ends Sunday at 11:59 pm
Leadership – According to trusted experts everything rises and falls on leadership. If that’s true, that elevates the need for leaders within any organization to a very high level of importance.
However, I believe leadership identification is a larger challenge than training. Training leaders who aren’t leaders only causes frustration. Identification is much harder than it would appear to be. I believe ther are two significant hurdles to proper leadership identification:
1. A Desire to Work and Succeed – Most people attracted to a church plant want to see it become “successful”. It is new and fresh. The possibilities are enormous. There is a willingness for many to put their hand to the plow and do whatever needs to be done. The challenge is that many put their hands to plows that should be held by someone else.
2. Few “True” Leaders – Peter Drucker in “Effective Executive” laments that we seem to be getting to the point where we are searching for a “universal genius” and universal geniuses have always been in scarce supply. According to Drucker, “we will therefore have to staff our organizations with people who at best excel in one ability. And then they are more than likely to lack any but the most modest endowment in the others.”
Putting people in wrong positions is bad for both the individual and for the church. And simple availablity or willingness to help does not indicate leadership. We have struggled through this question for a couple of years. I have no magic bullets and more questions than answers. I can say that God will bring the gifts that we need into the church. Spiritual gifts are key, so I would counsel, based on our own struggle, to start with identification through gift assessment first. Then pray for wisdom and discernment.
“We have come to an impasse. I can not justify worshipping at a church that allows a person like that to serve in any capacity within the church.”
Yep, those were the words a former member of our three-month-old church used. He was even on the core team.
One of the most common quotes among church planters is, “I am starting a new church in order to reach the unchurched not Christians.” I know, I’ve said those words many times. But it’s moments like this when it’s gut check time.
When we started The Pursuit in South Florida, we knew it would be different than a new church in the Bible Belt. That is not a complaint. It’s a fact and I love it. We knew our core team was going to be a lot different than new churches where the majority of people are either churched or dechurched.
We unapologetically, will allow people to use their talents in many different roles in the church before they give their life to Jesus. Before you plant you need to determine for yourself who you will fight for.
Will you fight for the person that knows Jesus, tithes, and fills vital positions in your church that frees your time up to do things you love to do? Or will you fight for the broken and lost. Be warned. One of the two will take a lot more time to mature and be ready for leadership.
This is one thing we were crystal clear on. That’s why it was easy to tell him, “I didn’t move 1400 miles away from everything I knew to start a church filled with Christians.” He saw the exit sign and took it.
Welcome to church planting. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.
If you want to find the leaders in your church, you need to look for marshmallows. No, not people who are puffed up and white. We have enough of those already. Instead, look for six other good marshmallow leadership qualities.
First, marshmallows are tasty. They can make bad things taste good (Marshmallow Yams) and good things better (Fluffer Nutter). Similarly, leaders are enjoyable to be around. They will be people of grace, kindness, tenderness, and compassion.
Second, they bind together and are sticky. Rice Crispy Treats would be just a bowl of cereal without the marshmallows. And have you ever tried to get melted marshmallow out of your hair? Leaders bring people together and bind them around a common purpose or goal.
Third, they always rise to the top. Ever try to sink a marshmallow? It can’t be done. People naturally follow leaders and leaders naturally lead. In your church, who do people look to for solutions? Who do they go to for answers and advice? Who do they turn to for comfort and safety?
Fourth, marshmallows are multifunctional. Marshmallows are not only good for eating, they can also be used to generate laughs (Chubby Bunny anyone?) and for endless holiday crafts. Similarly, leaders are flexible enough to work in a variety of situations and flow effortlessly from one role to another.
Fifth, they’re often singed because they’re frequently near fire. A good church leader storms the gates of hell. They make friends at the fringes and take risks where they might get burned or come home smelling like smoke.
Sixth, when they get in the fire, they actually get bigger. Leaders learn best in the forge. If they can stand the heat, they will increase their leadership skills, expand their sphere of influence, and become great leaders.
When I began Kinetic Church, I vowed that we would care enough about our members to save them the torture of death-by-meeting. So we didn’t meet.
You know what’s worse than meeting? Not meeting.
Over the past three years, I’ve learned that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth meeting.
Not meeting is incredibly dangerous. When you don’t meet, you threaten the team’s health in three key areas.
VISION LEAK
Remember those good old church camp days? On Wednesday night you cried, and Thursday, you promised to change the world and save Africa…two weeks later, the vision had “leaked out.”
Here’s why: every two weeks, vision leaks.
If the leader doesn’t recast the team’s vision every two weeks, the team’s entire purpose is at risk.
RELATIONAL INSTABILITY
A team only becomes a team AFTER they have spent time together.
When a team doesn’t meet, it functions as a group of acquaintances doing a job instead of a team of soldiers on a mission. Meetings create margin for relationships to form. When you eliminate the margin, you destroy the team.
Interestingly enough, Carl George tells us that teams (and small groups) must meet a minimum of twice a month to insure strong relationships.
SKILL ATROPHY
Ever wonder why your team never seems to “get it?” Maybe it’s because they’ve never been trained! When do you want your team to discover and rehearse new skills: in the game or in practice?
Effective team leaders are tenacious about training and helping their team achieve new levels of success. Planned meetings provide opportunities for new skills to be polished and acquired.
Finally, here’s my bottom line: meeting intentionally and regularly (when organized for the purpose of renewed vision, skill development and relationship building) will exponentially increase the effectiveness of your team.
In our recent survey of new churches currently in years 2-5, we found that the healthiest new churches had launch teams over 40 people. Click here to see the stats. This is the final segment in this series of blogs. Here are links to the first three.
When Jesus called the disciples, he ask them to leave things behind including jobs, family, and home. Paul made the same ask of those who traveled with him. As a church planter, you want to reach people for Christ in the city/town where you are starting the church. A great way to exponentially multiply that effort is to have other committed Christians who know you, love you and get your vision to move with you. Such an ask might seem bold or over the top, but you don’t get what you don’t ask for. Remember, Jesus said ask and you shall receive, not wish upon a star and you shall receive. For some that you ask, this will be the most faith stretching experience of their lives. You know that if they have moved with you, they are sold out to doing whatever it takes. Their faith will be stretched and they will grow like crazy because you made the ask. Don’t look at it as if you are asking them for a favor. You are inviting them into an incredible journey with God.
2. Do a Community Survey
This is a kill two birds with one stone scenario. Community surveys are a great way to learn details that demographics reports leave out. It is also a great way to connect with people and get the word out about the church. That might actually be three birds with one stone. Consider doing a gas buy down along with the survey. Pay for 10 cents a gallon and while you are filling up the cars and washing their windows ask them to take the survey. If you will be meeting in a movie theater, do a movie ticket buy down or give away coupons/gift cards to the concessions. This helps eliminate the awkwardness some feel in doing a “cold call.”
3. Don’t Microwave Relationships
Jesus spend three years daily building the disciples into the launch team for the Church. Building a launch teams doesn’t happen over night. Plan 9-12 months on the ground building relationships before starting the church.
In our recent survey of new churches currently in years 2-5, we found that the healthiest new churches had launch teams over 40 people. Click here to see the stats.
You have a unique opportunity during pre-launch that you will never have again in the life of the church. You won’t be writing a message every week and preparing for the Sunday deadline. This short window in the life of the church should be utilized to set the DNA firmly in place. Hopefully by the time you are building the launch team you have crafted the vision and values for what this new church is all about. Now is the time to put those values into action. In the beginning, there will be a large gap between what you envision the church to be and what it is perceived as in the community (if it is noticed at all). Here are some tips for bringing that perception a little closer to reality and instilling DNA into your launch team.
1. Do something that says, “Its not about me”.
Not many church planters start out saying, “I’m starting a church that is all about us. Who cares about the lost people in our community.” If you are saying that, you might be starting a cult not a church. People in our culture are self-absorbed. Do something early to break them of that. Let them know that if they are a part of the team then they are going to serve. Provide lots of opportunities to do simple service projects together. Get them interacting with the outcasts and less desirables of your community. If they aren’t willing to do that, then you may not want them on your team. Warm bodies are great for numbers, but launch team members who don’t get it can be a cancer.
2. Let others lead.
You don’t have to do everything. In fact, you shouldn’t. When a church planter takes the burden of leadership for everything, you create a culture of staff leadership rather than lay leadership. Churches that grow fast empower and equip lay leaders. Let others lead groups, plan events, share at team meetings, etc. The more you empower people to lead early on the more likely you will create a culture of leadership. Without leaders your church will not grow. They may not do it as well as you, but until we can get cloning legalized you will have to multiply yourself in other ways.
3. Evaluate everything through the lens of target group and core values, and beliefs.
What do you want your church to be known as in the community? Who do you want to reach? After you have answered those questions only do things with your launch team that support those answers. Stay narrow and focused. Your launch team may clamor for things that fall outside those lens. When that happens its time to cast vision again and ask the group if the idea aligns with the vision and values of the church.
4. Have some fun and eat together.
Don’t take yourself too seriously. That’s not any fun. Take time to chill out together, relax and eat. Have a regular night for fun. Watch football together, watch Lost together, play Wii boxing together. Whatever it is, have fun. Laughter and food are great team builders. Nobody wants to be a part of a stuffy task oriented team. Keep them focused on your values but have fun doing it.
In our recent survey of new churches currently in years 2-5, we found that the healthiest new churches had launch teams over 40 people. Click here to see the stats. In pt. 1 of this post, I talked about what a launch team is and boundaries to set for it. At Passion 4 Planting we work hard at staying up to date with church planting and have a nearly exhaustive list of tasks for planting a church. Its packaged nicely into our Converge software and online launch plan tool. If you are interested, we’ll be giving it away for free starting at the Exponential Conference. Though building a launch team is the most important things you do in starting a church, it hard to develop a task list around it. People are not tasks. If you approach them as such, your launch team will not thrive. You need to create opportunities to connect with people in an authentic way in which you reach out to them with the love of Jesus rather than look at them as a number or how they can help you. Here are a few ideas:
1. Get out of the office/house.
You won’t meet to many people sitting in your office at the computer. Get out! If you need a place to work, go find a coffee shop with wi-fi and camp out daily. You’ll get to know the employees and regulars and through those relationships will have a chance to share your story.
2. Network, Network, and Network some more
Make an exhaustive list of who you want to network with and intentionally spend time meeting with them. Meet with principals, business owners, other church leaders, politicians, land developers, real estate agents, etc. If you need help identifying who to meet with, we’ve created a Community Targeting Tool, to do the job for you. If you need an excuse to talk to people, start planning an outreach event and ask for businesses to partner with you.
3. Do Things You Enjoy in Public (ex. sit in a jacuzzi)
My wife and I met lots of people sitting at our neighborhood pool and jacuzzi. What else are you going to do besides talk (That’s rhetorical, no comments please). I’ve known lots of pastors that join gyms as ways to meet new people. My wife and I met a launch team couple and long time friend by walking our dog in the neighborhood. If you don’t have dogs or kids, get one or the other. Its the easiest way to break the ice and you will automatically have lots of things in common. Take your kids to the park and hang out with the other parents who have nothing to do while their kids play.
4. Plan outreach events
Plan several outreach events to connect with and meet new people. Whenever you do, be sure to issue a press release. Partner with other events that are going on in the community for maximum impact.
5. Plan a Matthew Dinner
When you connect with someone its natural to get together. If they have captured the vision of the new church, ask them to host a cookout at their house and invite all of their friends (including you). This will rapidly expand your connections. It is also how the church most naturally grows. Most people come because they are invited. Build this into the DNA of the launch team early. At dinner time, ask the host to introduce you as the pastor of a new church and have them ask you to pray. No need for lectures about the church. If people, are interested they will ask. As you meet new people, invite them to your house as well. Be strategic and invite people that you think will naturally connect with each other. I hosted a dinner group for friends and then asked if they would like to do it regularly and have discussion about spirituality afterward. Each person wrote down one question they would like to ask God. Each week we talked about a different question. This wasn’t bible study time. Everyone contributed their own thoughts. But I always shared Scripture and God’s point of view. The discussions were amazing.
6. Host informational cookouts and dinners
Plan some launch team events where those you have connected with can bring their friends. These are crowd gathering events. If you plan to vision cast, make sure that people know that ahead of time. Remember the time you were hoodwinked into an Amway presentation. No one wants that experience.
5. Share your story and don’t be afraid to ask
Don’t be shy about what God has called you to do. Most non-Christians will find it fascinating that you are starting a church and ask questions. I found that being a pastor is not the leprosy disease we make it out to be. People are interested in spirituality and your story is the most powerful tool you have. Look for opportunities to share it and ask them to share their stories of spirituality as well. Finally, don’t be afraid to ask. When you have an event our when you need volunteers to serve at the church, be sure to ask. Many won’t serve out of love for God YET, but they will serve because you’ve taken the time to be their friend.
