If I Planted A Church Today…
I’ve written before about things that I would had done differently before on this blog. The other day, I was thinking about the things I would do NOW if I were to just now be getting into church planting. So if you’re thinking about church planting, here’s a short list of things I would start doing as soon as possible…
- Put in more time to spend with your wife and children – Church planting will eat ALL your time if you let it. And it WILL take a lot of time. So you may have to cut down on golfing or fishing
- Read more than normal – If you’re not a reader now, become one. Read lots of books about lots of things; church planting, theology, business, culture, marriage, etc. Become a student again.
- Spend time in your plant area – Don’t work from an office. Work at Starbucks, Panera, or a local dive that has wi-fi. Meet people and become known by the people you cross.
- Pray – Duh…but you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard, ” I wish we would had prayed more about that”
- Let a mentor invest in you – Find a pastor that will pour into you that is a little further ahead of you and one that is way further ahead of you. There are lots of coaching networks out there that can be great for this, but I bet there is pastor near you that wouldn’t mind investing in you.
- Read blogs – There are TONS of blogs devoted to things that will help you in church planting. When I started in church planting, there were not near as many.
- Remain Fluid – When things don’t work out the way you want, be fluid, adjust and devise a new plan around your old plan, but make sure it’s God’s plan.
- Stop spending crazy amounts of time looking for a location. Instead, invest more into your leaders. The location will happen I promise.
- Never forget you’re planting the Gospel, not just a church. You’re planting something for GOD’s Kingdom, not yours
Ridge Church Update
From time to time I like to update on what is going at Ridge Church. To stay in the know with everything, head over to Ridgechurchblog.com. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s been happening lately…
- We’ve now been in our building for almost 5 months. I was only about 70% sure at best this was the right move for out church, but with each day, I’m more and more confident we did the right thing.
- We still have really not advertised yet, and so all the growth we’ve seen from the move has been from personal invites.
- Oak Ridge is one of the HARDEST places to advertise for anything. Only 2 billboards in town, can’t put up street signs because of a city ordinance, and the local media stinks. It’s tough but we’ve got to figure it out.
- Who out there is doing the best job in a similar situation? Hook a brother up!
- This past Sunday we saw our highest attendance on a non-holiday weekend! Yeah…I can get up for that
- The current series, Losing My Religion has been a hot topic series. It’s started the year off with a bang!
- The next series, Real Marriage based on Mark Driscoll’s book, should be another conversation starter
- To be fair and honest, I wasn’t entirely excited about planting a church in Oak Ridge. But the longer I’m here, the more I love this city for what God sees in it.
- I’m really excited to see what God is doing in our Ridge Kids and Ridge Students so far this year. Ridge Students has already seen several students accept Christ and Ridge Kids is blowing up in size. It’s gonna be a crazy year for kids at Ridge Church!
- Speaking of crazy, I told our Ridge Students if they hit a certain number, I’d come lead worship for them. Yikes! I think they’ll do it
- I’m really looking forward to this year of ministry. The momentum is swinging and I think we’re picking up steam.
- I’ve heard some great reports of random people in our city talking about what Ridge Church is doing in the community. I’ll take that buzz all day!
- One simple phrase is helping us tighten up loose screws each week….THAT CAN’T HAPPEN. I strongly encourage you to inject it into your culture as well. It’s totally transferable
Extreme Home Makeover & The Church
If you live in the Knoxville area, you know that ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover was in town for a week doing a home build for a very deserving family (one we’ve actually been able to partner with in the past through Restoration House). The media buzz has been amazing and in some ways, almost overwhelming.
Every tweet from local media seemed to be about every tiny detail of the build. It was really amazing to see so many people volunteer to help and so many people simply just follow the story online or through the local news. On the surface, Extreme Home Makeover is impacting the life of a family, which I think is awesome. By the way people responded and followed the story, it’s obvious that people deeply care about impacting the lives of others positively. Again…AWESOME!
My lovely wife posted this question on Facebook this week….(@Denira)
So I absolutely LOVE the whole extreme makeover thing and love the all the updates. But It has made me wonder what our cities would be like if this many people selflessly gave their time and resources to others on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis? What if the church was the catalyst for this type of project and not a tv show?
BOOM! I love that! The local church SHOULD be the catalyst for this type of project! And, thank Jesus, many churches ARE doing this type of work on a daily basis, impacting the lives of people, every single day, because of the GOSPEL.
See, ultimately, ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover is about making that $$. And that’s ok. I get that. It’s business and ratings. But the church is about impacting others with the Gospel for the honor and glory of God (or should be).
To me, and maybe I’m biased, but that’s a story that deserves a little more coverage. It’s sad to think that many churches, who do these types of thing on a daily basis, gets overshadowed completely by a multi-media corporation who comes into town for 7 days with lights, cameras and celebs.
The camera’s aren’t on….the lights aren’t very bright….and we have no celebrities….BUT we have JESUS.
I think that’s a story that should be BLASTED.
So Sunday You Laid An Egg…
It happens eventually.
No matter how good of a communicator you are, you will lay a big 0le stinky egg on stage one Sunday. It happened to me this past Sunday.
Or so I thought….
As a pastor/preacher/communicator, I am my own worst critic. As soon as I step off the stage Sundays, I can usually give you an analysis of how I thought I did. This past Sunday, even though I loved the topic and I was really prepared, I felt as though I laid an egg with my message.
As someone who communicates the most important message in the world every week, sucking it up is not what you want to do.
But praise be to God, that it’s not up to you how your message comes across. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit.
I’m thankful that God still used what I thought was an egg to speak to people.
I’m constantly reminded that JESUS said HE would build HIS Church. Not me.
Then I’m reminded of this as well...For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. – Matthew 10:20
THANK YOU JESUS
Preach the Gospel to the best of your ability and then get out of the way. Your egg may not stink as bad as you thought.
Network, Network, Network
I love networking with other churches, ministry leaders and pastors. In fact, I’ve written about it several times on this blog, the power and benefits in networking.
Just this week, I get to network with two of my mentors/coaches from Mission Church, a good friend who also happens to be a pastor, and I’ve connected with several guys on Twitter.
It doesn’t matter what area of ministry you are in; volunteer, ministry leader, or pastor, never underestimate the power and benefits of networking with other leaders in the church.
7 or 8 years ago, this was pretty difficult to do, and in a lot of ways, just wasn’t happening as often. But today, I see a landscape that is more about advancing God’s Kingdom than our own kingdoms.
So if you’re in the ministry in any way, take some time today to reach out to someone else to connect and network with. It’ll be well worth your time and effort to do so.
