Stop being concerned about whether “Your” church plant will succeed or not. It isn’t “yours” in the first place. Your reputation is not the one on the line… Jesus’ is. He will do a good job if we let him. If we have our own identity and reputation at stake in the work we will tend to take command. Big mistake. Let Jesus get the glory and put his reputation on the line…He can take care of Himself without your help
I love this description of the @Sentralized Conference:
At Sentralized there are no “green rooms” for VIPs to hang out in. In fact, there are no VIPs. Our speakers are only speakers when they are doing speaking. Otherwise, they are one of “us”.
I’ve heard many church leaders say, “We want to be known more for our sending capacity than our seating capacity.” I’ve met very few who truly embrace that reality and know how to do it. I can’t help but think sometimes that all the talk of Christian leadership in churches is a bit like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You’re expending energy — maybe even accomplishing something — but it’s not changing the overall trajectory of where this ship is headed.
At the end of the day, what most pastors want (and have been trained to want!) is minions to execute the most important vision of all. Their own. In doing this, they effectively kill people’s ability to get a vision of their own.
Nevermind that this approach is antithetical to the Gospel.
Christian leadership is about listening for vision from God within community and then being given the authority and power to execute that vision — to take new Kingdom ground. That’s the birthright of every Christian…to hear the voice of their Father. But in the way we do leadership, suddenly it’s like we are pre-Reformation where only the select and the elite who are given this privilege. And let’s be clear: Our ego has a lot to do with this.
It’s happening
Imagine the scene if you will.
I run to Wal-Mart to grab a couple things to complete our dinner for the evening…okay it was the most important part, the meat. As I’m searching for “my list” I’m looking around and noticing people, as I always do these days, looking for ways to strike up conversations. It’s a constant habit when you are a church planter. You look for anytime and any place to be a divine opportunity.
That sounded way to spiritual.
As a church planter you are desperate for anyone, anywhere to care about your new church.
So I notice someone wearing a Memorial Marathon shirt. I start thinking of ways I could engage her in conversation without sounding like I’m hitting on her or appear that I’m stalking her. I am genuinely interested in connecting with other runners. In that split second I’m thinking all this, I notice someone looking at me.
Weird. I barely know anyone.
Turns out she is someone who attends one of our partner churches and heard me talk about the new church and is interested in helping.
Now this may not sound like much to you. But it signifies something important to me. When you start having conversations about your new church in Wal-Mart…it feels like something is actually happening.
And it is. Slowly but surely I see the Spirit opening up doors and conversations.
What kind of church will this be?
This was asked by my partnership team. And at the heart of the question was what would distinguish us from the hundreds of other churches in the OKC area. It was not a question of competition but rather of what would make us different in order to reach different people.
Will we be a
teaching church
political church
worship focused church?
My response was that we would be a “sending” church.
Our “one mission” is to love God through loving others in order to send them on mission.
We will need to send people wherever God calls them and sometimes that takes them away from our church. Yet that resonates exactly with what Jesus said:
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19 NLT)”
We will send them on mission to their workplace…their neighborhoods…to organizations devoted to doing good in the world…across the globe to make a difference and to plant churches.
It won’t be easy. In fact it will be down right hard to send friends away on mission. (We know this personally as ones who have left friends to go on mission.) Yet that is exactly what Jesus has called us to when he said to “go” and make disciples.
The best part is seeing how God uses us when we “go.” And a close second is the family reunion at the end of the world.
Tech and family: What has worked for you?
This week we will finally get “the internet” at our new house. Funny that I would choose to even write about it because just a few years ago it would not have been that big of a deal.
Going without these past 3 weeks has been really good for our family. We’ve played more games. Everyone was outside more. In general we just hung out together more.
But because my office is at my house and apparently we live in a world where we can almost not function without it, we are getting it back.
LIke everything else, technology has to be managed or it will manage you. In light of that we are thinking through some strategies to manage it all. Some we have done before and others will be new.
-time limits per kid on the computer;
-No technology days (or hours of the day, like when the sun is shining!);
-no getting out of it you have to play games with us night;
-your time on a piece of tech must be equal to your time outside;
-dinner time together…around the table!
These are just a few and I’d love some more suggestions on things that have actually worked. Let me have them!
Partnership
Partnership. We couldn’t start a new church without it. Period.
One of the coolest things about this launch is that the new church has the support of churches from Oklahoma, Texas and Indiana. It’s very cool to see so many come together to help people find their way back to God in OKC.
I have had the honor of having my partnership team meeting here in OKC Thursday and Friday. It’s been great to have most of the team together. This team serves in the place of Eldership to guide and guard the new church in her infancy. It’s a great group of guys and I am privileged to have them serve in this capacity.
The purpose of our time has been to talk mostly about “behind the scenes type of stuff” that are foundational to the start. The exciting part is that we have spent time talking about our vision for not just starting one church but about starting a church planting movement across OK.
It’s a great adventure and I can’t wait to see how God unfolds His plan!
First Week
We are settling in nicely to our new home. We still have a lot of stuff to unpack. Amazing how 5 kids come with a lot of stuff!
So what am I supposed to be doing?
That is the question I’ve been asking for a couple weeks now. I even asked my Church Planting Coach that very question. “What do I do my first week?”
I don’t suppose there is any right answer but when there are a thousand potential tasks you simply have to decide what the most important ones are for you. My coach encouraged me to really focus on the most important thing I could do as a church planter: get my family settled.
I needed to hear that and I definitely needed to do it. My tendency is to rush to the next thing and that would have been a very big mistake. So we have focused on simply unpacking and getting to know the area.
-Finding Wal-Mart - Check
-Eating at Chick-Fil-A - Check
-Unpacking - on going
-Having fun as a family - Check
-Getting to know our neighbors - Trying…if only they would come out of their hosues!
Coming next week…Navigating the lines at the DMV.
