confessions of a church planter

i tell all couples during pre-marital that they need to keep dating each other after marriage, and especially kids.  tonight, we practiced what we preach.  i can't wait to go out again with my wife!

need to confess?

when i got there, i was ushered up to a room so i could avoid the hundreds of teachers the county of anderson who swarmed ncc for a conference.  me and some of the cool cats were chatting away when perry walked into the room. it was one of those moments where you just try to stay cool and not say something stupid.  well, i didn't say something stupid...right then.  you know how people say, "there are no stupid questions."  that's a lie!  i asked a stupid question.  perry referenced "prime times," but then said he'd come back to him later in the talk.  well, he never specifically said, "ok, this is what i meant by prime time," which is what i was looking for.  instead, he contextualized the "prime times" within his explanation of his preaching rhythm over the year.  i didn't connect the dots.  so, when we had time to ask questions, i asked, "you referenced prime times, but didn't come back to them.  could you say more about that?"  yep.  stupid question.  he was kind, however, in his response.  

overall, the first meeting didn't disappoint.  i feel awkward blogging about what we learned, but i'll simply recap by saying that today perry talked about how he leads himself (which was one of the questions i asked in my application) and the 5 questions he always asks himself.  we closed with an hour of questions.  i feel privileged to be in this group, and i pray that our staff at The Vine and church benefits from what i'm learning as a leader.  

need to confess?

then, i met with sebren.  while there, i ran into KQ.  though he and i don't get to hang as much as i'd like, he's still one of my favorite people.  he even bought our lunch.  sebren starts telling me a cool story about God's providence and plan.  i can't tell you details of his story, but let's just say that he's just a puzzle piece and a pawn.  

finally, i talked with my brother, stephen, again.  he's starting a church in suwannee.  church planting is tough, but it's really tough when there's no money.  so, church planters have to raise funds or they have to let God raise funds for them.  today, he got a call from the pastor of the church that's hosting the new church's money.  the other pastor told him that there was a significant gift deposited into the new church's account.  i know the amount.  let me just say that it would be the largest gift our church would've received.  this gift was unsolicited.  God's up to something bigger than my brother.  he's just a puzzle piece and a pawn.  

one last thing.  for those of you wondering, i got selected to be in perry noble's coaching network.  how i got selected, i don't know, but what i've learned is i'm just a puzzle piece and a pawn.

need to confess?

so, i'm sitting in this meeting.  i'm looking around at all the folks and i'm saying to myself, "this is it: making disciples making disciples.  they got it.  they're getting it.  they've connected to the vine and to The Vine b/c they're producing fruit!"  one particular couple has a special place in my heart.  prior to launch they asked me to come over to their house to share with them the vision of the church.  after they almost had a heart attack when i told them there would be no sunday school classes, i explained to them the concept of a "cell" group.  when i gave the hypothetical example of the husband becoming a leader, they both laughed.  i laughed inside b/c their small group was the first to organically multiply and he now leads one of the groups.  they got it or Jesus got them.  

it'd be easy to say that have record attendance on sunday was the most rewarding thing for me, but it wasn't.  it'd be easy to say that the baptisms were the most rewarding thing for me on sunday, and while i'll take 4 baptisms over record attendance, it wasn't the most rewarding thing about sunday.  seeing disciples making disciples was the most rewarding thing for me on sunday!

need to confess?

• if you're going to report, report honestly.  i know that there are a lot of pastors out there (and i'm one of them) who are tempted to fudge a little on the numbers.  it's easy to say that our numbers are a little higher or that others' numbers are a little lower.  part of that might be that we live in a culture where bigger is better, where fast growing churches are recognized, or we have denominations that put the pressure on us or compare us to other churches. numbers count!  attendance is AN indicator.  it's not the only one, however.  b/c they matter, report honestly.  don't embellish.  "accurate weights are his delight."
• celebrate what God's doing, not what you've done.  we baptized 4 folks yesterday.  they're starting to add up over the course of this year.  man, it's easy to take pride in those 4 and in the record high attendance yesterday.  who's doing the growing?  who's doing the redeeming?  we have a part in it, but God's the one getting it done.  if you combine that with 1 corinthians 1:26-31 (another passage i read this morning), God was pretty much communicating to me that it's ok to celebrate, but make sure that proper credit is given where credit is due.  in case you're wondering, credit is due to God.  i remember hearing francis chan at last year's catalyst conference.  essentially, he said that he knew he was in trouble when he looked at his wife and said, "if Jesus started a church down the street, ours' would be bigger."  wow! that's scary.  he knew it.  we know it.  and God says, "disgrace comes after pride."  celebrate, but celebrate God, not the records or the baptism.
• humility is proper perspective, and proper perspective brings wisdom.  here's wisdom for you:  ask God for more people to steward.  promise God to give Him all praise and glory.  give God all the praise and glory!

i felt God leading me to jeremiah 1 this week.  why?  i wasn't sure, but what God made known to me this week was that here was a kid who heard the voice of God and discovered his purpose for life.  did i mention that he was just a kid?  oh yeh, i did. well, he was a kid.  the two questions i hear most are:  how do i know if God's speaking to me? what's my purpose in life?  jeremiah has the answer to this as a kid.  why?  well, we really don't know, but God kept pressing me on jerry's dad, hilkiah.  hilkiah was a priest.  priests take the people to God and God to the people.  if his job overlapped into his family life, he's taking his kid to God and God to his kid.  it's one of the best things you can do b/c after all, in Christ, you're a priest.  the purpose of parenting?  raising a dependent-upon-God, responsible adult.  how do we take our kids to God and God to our kids?  Jesus!  

i love proverbs 22:6.  it says, "train a child a in the way he should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from it."  jesus says, "i'm THE WAY."  train your child in Jesus, and you've taken your kids to God and God to your kids.  when you do that, you're going to raise a dependent-upon-God, responsible adult.  

that was the message.  then, we baptized four folks.  there's nothing like baptisms!

in the afternoon, frank and vicky decker hosted our cluster group leaders for some briefing on our upcoming cluster groups.  it was a great time of vision-casting, and i'm stoked to see how people are going to grow this fall through Bible study and prayer in community.

after that, i went to a hospice facility to visit a grandmother of one of my favorite persons in the world.  those things are awkward for me.  to be honest i'm not very good at them.  i sat on her oxygen tube twice!  you're in trouble if i ever come to visit you in the hospital!  

so, that was my day.  how about you?

need to confess?

• it could be that the person who has issue with you has issue with everyone.  that person could be a poor team player.  the only way that will become evident, however, is through repetitive behavior.  in church it's easy for the people to operate on their own island or silo.  church staff are so passionate (or should be) that at times they get territorial.  but, territorial people must sync with the vision of the church.  they must play for the team.  they must want the church to succeed over their individual ministry area b/c they realize that if the church succeeds they succeed.  if a person regularly has a negative response to change, that must be addressed immediately by the person responsible for casting the vision or managing the team.  side note:  perry noble had a great blog about four different types of staffers.  check it at http://www.perrynoble.com/2008/08/06/four-types-of-staff-member/
• if a person gets frustration with spillage (that word's not right) or splashing, it might mean that there was poor communication.  one of the most difficult things to do when you're on a team or staff is anticipate all the players who will be impacted by your decisions and changes.  that's only the first step.  once you figure out who those people are, you must communicate with them as soon as possible.  there will be accidental moments of forgetting to inform, but it can't be a pattern.  one of the exercises that would be good for staff is to make a list of all the people affected by your decisions.  

friday, liz and i decided to make all of the changes necessary to go to a "cash-only" financial plan.  while we've never had credit card debt and paid our balance every month, we still weren't being the best stewards of our money.  God's blessed us tremendously, and we want to make sure that we don't want to unknowingly squander any of it.  this month, we started dictated where every penny is spent and all monies are accounted for in our spending.  without debt, this will allow us to save more and give more.  part of the reason for this household decision is the teaching of dave ramsey.  his course, financial peace university, is being taught by our financial pastor, pat jarvis.  pat's got it going on and is right in his sweet spot with this course and with his personal counseling sessions.  his passion is contagious and it's spilled into most of our staff and certainly it's spilled into me.  he and i will be attending a session in the fall that will teach us how to lead our church to be the best stewards of God's money at The Vine.  for the first time in my life in church, i feel 100% confident that we're actually teaching stewardship and that when we have a "stewardship" campaign, it will be truly "stewardship."  therefore, it actually teaches people how to handle their money.  ultimately, i'd love to see the end result being people who are entrusted with a lot b/c they were faithful with a little.  part of that obviously includes generosity to God and others.  i recently discovered that if every Christian tithed, tomorrow the Body of Jesus Christ could end world hunger.  however, less than 4% of "evangelical" Christians tithe.  you know why most of them don't tithe?  it's not b/c they don't want to, it's b/c they overspend on things they can't afford.  there's so much debt that God gets the crumbs.  God never wants the crumbs, he wants the first-fruits from the top.  people need to stop robbing God, but they've also got to stop robbing themselves too!  anyway, i'll stop preaching.  if we can teach our church how to manage their money, we'll be able to do more than anyone could ever expect or imagine!  

need to confess?

from that meeting, i moved to another meeting at longhorn's (oh, how i love thee).  the sr. pastor from sugar hill umc, james mooneyhan, and i got together to catch up.  since we're technically a daughter of sugar hill umc, i thought it'd be good to get together.  fortunately for me, even though i invited he paid!  he also was a great source of encouragement on a personal level. he was also extremely encouraging about the possibility of support from shumc, our "mother" church.  

from that meeting, i got together with frank decker, our small groups' pastor at starbucks.  i love starbucks.  i miss starbucks. i actually miss anything with flavor.  anyway, i digress.  frank's insanely busy and insanely spiritual.  so, i always appreciate and grow from our times together.  we've got great plans for our cluster groups this fall, including offering financial peace university and the alpha course.  we were rolling in our conversation about small groups when my wife interrupted our meeting.  she's notorious for interrupting meetings so i wasn't thinking anything of it.  however, i made liz a promise that i'd always answer her phone call regardless of what meeting i'm in. she informed me that she was on the way to the emergency room with my oldest daughter, laney.  laney'd been sick since monday.  when liz took her to the dr, the doctor told her to go straight to the hospital.  they got laney fixed, but we still don't know why she was sick.  i'm grateful for hospitals, but it makes for a long day when you spend 5 hours there.  i've said this before, but you better understand God when your child is hurting or sick, especially when they don't understand their own pain or circumstances.  your role, in that moment, is comforter. they may never understand, but they know love when they experience it.

that was wednesday.

(to be continued)