ChurchVenture

Mistakes I Made In The First 6 Months Of Church Planting

2009-11-02T15:41:00.004-06:00

I have come up with a list of 8 mistakes I have made during the first 6 months of church planting in Chicago. I am sure there are more, but this is what I am aware of so far.

1) Public vs Private Venue

Our goal is to gather 50 people into our core group before we do a BIG launch. We are actually not using monthly preview services as the sole strategy to gather a launch team. We'll use previews but for a different reason.

For the first 6 months we were gathering in a home environment. Over 60 people visited our weekly core group meetings during this time. However, I believe that gathering people to a new church, in a pre-launch phase and in a home environment is not a great approach unless they are all people you know really well. We are trying to gather together new people to join us. I believe that people find the home setting to be too awkward and base their decision on this rather than the vision of the future.

So we fixed this. We are now gathering at a Cafe to continue to build our core group. It's costing us more money, but people are sticking better and more people are visiting. I wanted to avoid the cost of rent but in this culture the church-in-your-home model is hard to win people to even if you tell them you are in a pre-launch phase.

2) Recruiting Core People Sooner

To be fair, we did have a list of people we wanted to recruit before we even moved to Chicago, but the politically correct way to approach these people is to ask their pastors for permission. Our list of about 15 direct invitations turned into a list of 1! We were turned down and somewhat crippled from gathering core group members ourselves. This is not a complaint because I know that God is ultimately in control of this. But it is definitely something I can learn from.

I wish 2 years ago I had started envisioning my circle of friends about my desire to start a church. I think that taking steps earlier to dream with friends about the possibility of planting together would have helped recruit more people ahead of time. Perhaps I was too insecure in talking about this, but if I could do it again I would have started a LOT earlier.

To make the best of this I've started exercising our new networks in Chicago and we've already attracted a potential worship leader from Minneapolis. In the end -- this is the way God wanted us to do it so I'm cool with it. But as a pastor now, I want to be more releasing to people who want to church plant. It would kind of be hypocritical if i wasn't!

3) Creating A Budget Sooner

We have a comprehensive budget now and our core people have pledged their giving over the next 12 months, plus we have a budget seminar this Saturday. However, I should have put this together before I hit the ground and got busy with immediate needs. We've fixed this, but I should have known better.

4) Not Starting Socials Sooner

Our strength and passion as a couple is having lots of people in our home and creating an environment for extravagant fun. But, it took us 4 months to start regular social events in our home. While this isn't totally bad, we needed a bit of adjustment and networking time, I wish we had done it sooner. We have now started building a strong sense of momentum and have been able to harness our new friendships and started gathering people more effectively. This also has provided a context for our core group to invite people into than just our weekly core gatherings.

We are consistently building friendships with people and gathering them into the community now. While these events are legitimately just for relationships, our hope, prayer and strategy is to bring people into the church.

5) Not Praying Enough

I have not been committed to prayer like I should have. I have seriously adjusted this aspect of my life. I am prayer walking, fasting and consistently asking for specific things on a daily basis now. I have always been good at praying in the moment but that is simply not enough. While it takes hard work to start a church is also takes a LOT of time in prayer. I just preached on this here. As a church we also only had a monthly prayer meeting. We've moved this to every other week now.

6) Sunday Afternoon vs Sunday Morning

Our core group was gathering on Sunday afternoons which has worked for many church plants but I don't think it worked for us. Other Christians who were looking in could keep going to their churches and simply visit us. This seemed good but in the end it hurt us. Since moving to Sunday mornings things are more black and white. Any Christian from another church who is considering joining us is now in the position to actively miss their church to visit ours. If they aren't willing to do this then they probably wont join anyway.

7) Telling My Mentors What Questions To Ask Me

I have some great men that I look to for mentoring and input. I have been on the phone many times since we moved to Chicago getting help with various things. This has been very important. However, I think I should have done a better job of telling them what questions to ask me rather than just presenting a situation for their input.

I have now asked for these questions to come my way when I call them:

What new contacts have you made?
How are you following up with them?
What are you procrastinating on?
What can you delegate?
Have you initiated and protected time with the kids and with Heather?
What have you spent money on this week?
What time have you been going to bed?
How are you handling sexual temptation? (I am already accountable for this but it's good to include the question again!)
Is there anyone in the church you need to personally encourage this week?
How are your devotions? How much time have you spent in prayer and the scriptures?

8) Expecting More Gathering Fruit During The Summer

During the summer we surveyed close to 600 people in the city. We attracted about 8 of them to 2 events we did on a Saturday afternoon. I thought that response was a bit lame, although still something to be thankful for. I now realize we made some BIG mistakes. We blew our invitation on an event which we called a 'Presentation', not the perception we should have given it, which was on a Saturday afternoon -- during the beautiful Chicago summer.

The topic of the presentation was 'Encouraging Community'. While community is part of our vision and a real need in the city, most people think that Chicago has a good community. In the end we only incorporated 2-3 people from this outreach. Not bad, but not great. The summer is a good time to sow but the reaping should be expected in the fall. Reaping in the summer was very hit and miss for us.

I had kind of pinned a lot of hope on building our core group from the massive amount of surveying we did during the summer. Since this didn't have the return that we had hoped for I lost my personal emphasis on networking. Having realized this in myself I have already started scheduling more coffee appointments again and working to connect new people I am meeting into our socials.

Conclusion

It is essential to evaluate and consider what could have been done better. I have been wrestling with God in prayer over the past few weeks as I felt that we should be seeing more fruit by now. Really, what we have seen is great and to be prized. Every new person we have won over is a HUGE blessing and a validation that God has called us to be doing this.

The biggest lesson for me is that growth comes from God so that he can get the credit and that my personal level of readiness in ministry and persistence in prayer CANNOT be overlooked. It has to be central. It doesn't rest on me, but God will never grow this thing beyond where I am at. I feel like we are right on track with the adjustments that have been made and I have faith for God to build our core group up to 50 people.

I've realized that church planting is much harder than I ever thought but I am encouraged that to launch this bad boy we just have to persist. It is going to take time but, God said it would happen and so we are leaning on that a lot right now.

Please continue to pray for us.

Church Plants in Chicago New Web Site

2009-06-15T10:19:00.002-05:00

Check it out! Our brand new Chicago church web site to help new people to connect with us: DestinationChurch.org

We have a number of cool things on the new site. Firstly, visitors can take a short survey and have the chance to win $100 of meat for a cook out. We are simply trying to encourage community, and serve the people of the city by stimulating deeper connectedness. If you know anyone in Chicago, please forward the web site link to them and encourage them to take the survey. I know some of you reading this will think, oh, that doesn't mean me, but yes, it means YOU. Please send your Chicago friends to the site to take the survey and have the chance to win $100 of serious meat!

Destination Church now has it's own official blog that has just launched. If you are interested in keeping up with how and what we are communicating to our people then go ahead and subscribe, you can sign-up via email or RSS on the homepage.

Our prayer partners section is still available for new people to sign up. It's under the "Get Involved" section. If you still haven't signed up, please join the dedicated team of over 200 prayer partners that we currently have!!!

We have a lot of information on the site about a campaign we are launching in Chicago called Encouraging Community. We are giving away 5,000 bottle openers and telling people to share a drink with a neighbor. We are also giving out 3 prizes of $100 of meat and asking people to host a community cook out. To top it all off we are offering a short presentation about the importance of community involvement, the reason human trust and relationships have broken down in society, some solutions to fix it and the vision of Destination Church.

You can read the full article here which explains in more detail.

My apologies for not having blogged for a while, I've been trying to meet 20 new people a week and it's INSANE! Keep praying for us, especially as our Summer Evangelism Interns are arriving today. Orientation kicks off at 1pm, so I'll have 8 guys sitting in my living room and I'm sure some of them will wet their pants at some of the things I am going to ask them to do!!! WAHAAHAHA!!!!

Peace

How To Choose A Church Name

2009-04-20T10:19:00.004-05:00

In my last post, 119 Cool Church Names, I explained my philosophy for selecting a church name. This last Sunday I announced the name to our core group. We surveyed Christians and unchurched people to find a name that would be attractive and acceptable to both. We wanted a one word name with the word "church" following it, and we wanted something original, hard to do these days.

I had a number of people ask their friends which church they would be more likely to attend if they were invited by a friend or saw an advertisement. The four names we presented to our friends were:

Message Church
Crimson Church
Destination Church
Celebration Church

Here are the results:

Message Church

Christians really liked this name. I personally liked it too. I got the idea when I glanced at my bookshelf and saw the Message paraphrase of The Bible by Eugene Peterson. Christians liked the simplicity and the theological strength of this name. It appeared to be a winner. However, nearly 100% of the unchurched and nonChristian people we asked about this name HATED it! It sounded preachy and redundant. Of course, those outside the church expect a church to have a message, and so, because it's in the very title of the church they felt like we REALLY had a message, perhaps a LONG and hell-bent message! This was eye opening. What Christians thought was a sound name with good meaning, nonChristians found repelling. This means Message Church is a poor choice if we want to attract unbelievers.

Crimson Church

Christians were split on this name. Half the Christians we spoke to really liked it and half really didn't. It has some merit to be fair. It's artsy and young sounding, to help attract a new generation, and also has some strong theological meaning to it. Crimson is the color of blood. It represents the blood of Christ. Personally, I thought this could have worked well. However, most nonChristians disliked this name and found it suspicous. They didn't understand it. It gave them the feeling of being mystical and unclear. They felt immediately disconnected because it appears to be a name that Christians would understand, but they are somehow lacking in understanding. It is a barrier creating name. Some unchurched also felt that this sounded like a name for a TV Evangelist show! Yikes! That is a definate one to avoid.

Destination Church

Over all this was well accepted. It was the second most popular pick among nonChristians. Christians also liked this name. There was a small percentage that thought it was a little bland or that the word had been overused, but this was a small group. It is true, tt has been used in some regards as a branding word, but it is not often used as the name of an organization. It still has originality. It has great theological meaning. Our destination is Jesus. Everything ultimately finds meaning in him. It speaks of purpose, clarity and goals. Most Christians thought it sounded strong and had lots of marketing potential. NonChristians shocked us with their opinion of this name. 90% of them really liked it. They understood it. It made sense to them and they thought it sounded pretty cool actually. Some even commented that they would expect to encounter spiritual truth at this church! Crazy! People from a relativistic society expecting truth! Amazing! This was the most favorable name for both Christians and nonChristians.

Celebration Church

I personally disliked this name a lot. I thought it sounded happy clappy and weird. Nearly all Christians we surveyed thought the same thing. This name would potentially repell lots of new area Christians, which would not be a wise decision. However, and most surprisingly, this name was the MOST polular among nonChristians. Shocking! They liked it because it was positive and upbeat. They felt like church should be uplifting and so this name captured something good. They didn't really have the hangups that Christians had about it. In the end I felt it would not be smart to chose a name that Christians hated and nonChristians loved. We needed a cross over name.

The Name?

The Newfrontiers Chicago Church Plant name will be Destination Church. There doesn't appear to be any churches in the world with this name, so it is highly original for a church name, and it is clear and attractive to both Christians and nonChristians. We feel it will be helpful for attracting city people, young families, students and young professionals.

In the end a lot of this comes down to opinion. But the fact that this name doesn't turn people away is a positive.

What do you think?

119 Cool Church Names

2009-03-27T11:49:00.019-05:00

In the process of trying to think through a name for our new church in Chicago I brainstormed an initial list of 156 names. Some were so ridiculous that I had to remove them from this list, which now contains some less ridiculous names.

I will not reveal here what the new churches name is. I'll be sharing that with the core group in a few weeks. In choosing a name I wanted to keep these things in mind:

Something simple. One or two words with the word "church" after it. People need to know we are a church, so having "church" is important to me. Some exclude this, but I personally think that is a mistake. I wanted one or two words because some church names are so long it's hard to say them. I want things to be simple in this regard.
Would the unchurched be more or less likely to visit purely based on the name?
Would the name connect with Christians?
Be certain no other churches in close proximity had this name.
Something that would work in different locations around the city.
I felt that it was important to find something non-traditional, because we are targeting a younger urban crowd, yet something not too wacky that would turn away Christians who are looking for a church.

I went through the process of having a number of Christians present 4 possible names to their unchurched friends in Chicago and pose this question: Purely based on the name, which church would you be most likely to visit if a friend invited you or if you saw an advertisement? This process was VERY eye opening and SHOCKING to some degree. Christians and unchurched people had widely different reactions to the names. I could not have predicted how our unchurched friends would have responded to the options.

After hearing both sides, we have chosen a name. We'll reveal it soon, so checkout the brainstorm list and watch this space ...

119 Cool Church Names (some aren't so cool!)

ONELOVE church
Recreate church
Eklesia church
Connect church
CHURCH CAST
The Race Church
NewGlobe Church
NewChurch
Restorer Church
Defender Church
Rescuer Church
Giver Church
Act Church
The Overture Church
The Endeavor Church
First Act Church
Venture Church
Great Endeavor Church
The Exchange Church
Truth Church
The Source Church
All Things New Church
Pitch Church
The Launch Church
OutSetChurch
Link Church
Encounter Church
24 CHURCH
First Love Church
Replenish Church
Global Church
The Center Church
CONNECTION CHURCH
Epic Venture Church
The Root Church
DANGERMOUSE Church (added for tobiwan)
Renewal Church
Renew Church
OneWayChurch
Landmark Church
Century Church
Central Church
CleanSlate Church
TombStone Church
Kinetic Church
Movement Church
Motion Church
Activate Church
Dynamic Church
Rhythm Church
Pulse Church
Beat Church
Sound Church
New Music Church
Portal Church
Music of Life Church
Rhythm of Life Church
Reactivate Church
TheCause
LIFECAUSE Church
BeTheCause Church
Motif Church
Designers Church
ThePattern
LifePattern
PatternOfLife Church
TheDesign
Redesign Church
TheSketch
Objective Church
CityBeat
Fresh Church
Start Church
TheFigure
TheCrux
TheCore
Guardian Church
Keeper Church
Director Of Life Church
One Church
The Messenger
Messenger Church
Message Church
Stream Church
Streaming Church
LIGHT CHURCH
VIBE Church
Verve Church
Manifold Church
Home Church
Open House Church
Propulsion Church
View Church
Vision Church
Honor Church
Celebration Church
Churchopolis
Churchopia
Star Church
Jesus Church
New Tribe
Kin Church
Commit Church
Change Church
Resolution Church
Enthuse Church
Overflow Church
Drive Church
Enter Church
Embark Church
Purpose Church
Multiply Church
Reproduce Church
Celebrate Church
Access Church
New Deal Church
Joy Church
Crimson Church
Red Church

Check out the ESV Study Bible

200 Prayer Team for the Chicago Church Plant

2009-03-09T09:12:00.004-05:00

One of the most common mistakes that new churches make is to underestimate the level of spiritual warfare involved in church planting. Therefore, it is our desire to gather a BIG team of prayer partners who are willing to pray through a monthly (or sometimes weekly) itemized prayer list. Basically, if you are breathing and if you have an email address, you can sign up for this!

Our goal is to gather 200 prayer partners. As of a few minutes ago we had 67. I'm hoping that after this blog post we can bump it up quite a bit more! I'm counting on you! Here is how you sign up and pray for us:

Visit http://www.churchplantchicago.com/
Click "Join the prayer team" on the black box on the right
Fill in your name and email address (please make sure you spell your email correctly!)
CLICK THE LINK in the confirmation email. (VERY important step)
As you receive prayer requests please take time out of your week to pray through them.

The process is very straightforward. When you are on the site please checkout the other things we have going on. Post a comment and share it with others who might be interested.

Signing up for the prayer team will also be a good way to stay on top of our news and developments.

Please visit: http://www.churchplantchicago.com/ and become a prayer partner!

Innovative way to fund church planting

2009-02-10T13:30:00.006-06:00

Church planters either have time and no money, or money and no time. I think it is designed this way on purpose to keep us on our toes and trusting God. Having both time and money would not however increase the chance of a successful church plant. Money is not really the issue when it comes to church planting, although you still need it. So, in continuing to trust in Gods provision, I am going to reveal to you an innovative way to fund church planting that I have created.

God's calling on our lives is the real foundation to being successful. If the calling is there, the money will follow. It doesn't magically follow, it comes when you ask people for it, work for it and pray for it. And, just to let you know, I've been working hard on something I believe God spoke to me about. In an attempt the lighten the load of freelance work, utilize my skills, focus on my calling and generate additional support I have just launched a multi-author blog which I'd like you to check out.

First, please watch this 60 second video to get a grasp on the purpose of the blog.

But how does it generate funding?

Before I give away the secret I want your help. Once you visit the new site (eatjesus.com), please do as much as you can from the list below. Every action you take adds value to what we are doing and increases our support:

Comment on the first post
Subscribe via email or RSS
Join the Google Friend Connect (on the right)
Follow updates on twitter
Become a fan on Facebook
Share it, Blog it, etc ...
And, keep an eye out for the free ESV Study Bible competition coming soon

By the grace of God I managed to convince 6 other church leaders and church planters to become authors on the blog for 12 months. I chose guys who have a track record of writing good quality stuff and understanding the value of leadership blogs. This will provide me with 1 years worth of high quality content from men around the world who are engaging their culture and building God's kingdom. Authors can renew their blogging commitment or pass the baton to someone else.

The purpose of the site is to resource all levels of church leadership so that people can become self-feeders. Our church culture unfortunately reflects our worlds culture in many ways. We have become consumeristic about church life and have lost our desire to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth. EatJesus.com will be an ongoing resource to share and promote ideas, stories, principles, techniques and much more about how to develop maturity and self leadership in the people God has called us to lead.

The blog offers related products, like study Bibles, which will be promoted using various online marketing methods (it's rather handy being an expert in search engine marketing). That's it. Pretty simple, right? The quality content from an array of authors will attract interest and boost the chances of selling some Bibles and study Bibles -- seems like a pretty honest business to me.

If you read the last post and you feel the Lord tugging on your heart to directly support us then please review our pledge page. If you don't sense the Holy Spirit directing you in that way, then please visit www.eatjesus.com and subscribe, follow, comment, join, blog etc ... and financially support us without giving us a penny.

It is people like you who will make EatJesus.com a success.

An Important Message To All Our Blog Subscribers

2009-02-06T10:32:00.004-06:00

God has spoken clearly that we should plant a church in Chicago. We have almost completed our Church Planting Training program in St. Louis and are aiming to arrive in Chicago at the beginning of April. We would like to ask all the subscribes to our blog to pray for us and to consider participating in the joy that we have ahead of us. Let's do a recap first ...

So how did we arrive at this decision?

Leaders throughout my life have validated my leadership calling and gifting. In one way or another these men got me here through varying degrees of verbal confirmation and life input: Steve Whittington, Bob Hollway, Andy Back, Chris Jarvis, Pete Brooks, Steve Horne, Terry Virgo, Joel Virgo, Tommy Stanley, Dan Evans, Carl Herrington, Rick Hein, Curt Mccutchan, John Lanferman and Bryan Mowrey (I know I missed a few people).
When Heather and I first met we discovered that God had clearly spoken to us about a BIG calling on our lives. I shared a vision God had given me about my future and it almost identically matched something Heather had received as a young girl. God joined me with the perfect mate to support and encourage me through my adventures in leadership.
I grew up in Newfrontiers, a church planting movement, and have always had church planting on the map. I didn't know if I would lead a church plant, but I sure wanted to. Because of this we both undertook 3 years of Newfrontiers-USA leadership training through the Trilogy Project.
Life in Kansas City was getting frustrating. I had a successful marketing career, leadership positions in the ONEBLAZE Midwest Christian youth camp and at Grace Church in Lee's Summit had opened up. But I wasn't satisfied. God was disturbing me deeply and life didn't seem right. We had to go.
In 2008 Jubilee Church in St. Louis started a Church Planting Training program. God spoke to me one day at work and said "I'm with you all the way!" It was broad and open ended but it was all the confirmation I needed. We left everything behind to pursue the call. I now have a plaque in my kitchen that Heather made with those words plastered across it!
During the last worship gathering at ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008 God spoke to Heather and said "Chicago is yours for the taking". I had already been feeling that we needed to be in a big city and was strongly drawn to Chicago. So that was it -- Chicago!
This year has been full of miracles which further validate His calling. God miraculously zeroed out a medical bill worth $2500 -- sick, I know. For Jones we only ended up paying $25 of medical bills. He gave us the most perfect apartment in St. Louis for this year of training. God moved David and Emma Hosier from London to Chicago in the midst of an economic downturn. God provided freelance work right at the moment of financial collapse. He instantly healed a man I prayed for at the gas station. God safely brought our son into the world. And the list goes on ...

All of this was done in God's providence. He has also connected us with a small group of pioneering Christians in Chicago. He sent amazing people like Tim & Chloe Steinke ahead of us to get things ready. I can hardly believe what God has done -- without us doing anything. It is the continual working of His salvation. He does ALL the saving. His grace is sufficient.

With all that history in mind, and some seriously cool history in the making, we would like to ask all our blog subscribers to prayerfully consider financially supporting us for the next 12 months. We know this is no small thing to ask especially in our economic climate. We are confident of Gods provision for us because He has already laid it on the hearts of others to serve the new work in Chicago.

Please seek the Lord in prayer about a monthly or onetime gift to support us. If you do feel impressed my the Holy Spirit to partner with us go ahead and submit the pledge form here. Please also continue to pray for us.

In Christ,

Matt, Heather, Jones & Macrae Sweetman

Macrae Truette Sweetman

2009-01-20T19:40:00.004-06:00

Our second son, Macrae Truette Sweetman, was born today at 11:51am. He weighed in at 10 lbs 2 oz and measured 23 inches long -- now that's a big baby! He is doing really well and seems like a happy little (or big) guy. Heather is doing OK. Some vomiting, but that can happen with c-sections. Our kids couldn't be blessed with a better mother. Man, I love my wife!

The name Macrae means son of grace. I think that is rather fitting. Life is a complete gift. It's unearned yet occurs freely. He has been born because of the grace of God in our lives and on his life. He has come into existence because a creator God designed him and gave him life. What a miracle!

Seeing a new born baby is pure evidence of God's existence and our need to be connected to him. Life is so fragile and we are so helpless. Yet, life is so meaningful and emotional at the same time. We all know we should have dignity but we know that we are also in great need. Only the fact that we were created by God and have fallen away from a relationship with him makes the scenario of life understandable.

So, to all the sons and daughters of grace (that's you), may you find your joy in God and your peace in Jesus as you remember that every breath is a sheer gift of grace. Remember, your life is a gift, what do people usually do when they receive a gift from someone? Let's be thankful. Get on your knees and give Jesus glory for your life. There is no one like you, because there is no one like God!

Here are some photos of Macrae Truette Sweetman:

What are we inviting people to?

2009-01-15T10:19:00.003-06:00

I just read a very challenging blog post by Ed Stetzer which opens with a gripping line "I continue to see movements gaining traction among Christians that do not seem to have many converts". Ouch! That line got me hooked to his challenging article. I am now asking myself if we have replaced the gospel with a way of doing church? And, are secondary issues (like spiritual gifts) taking place over primary issues (like sharing our faith)?

This subject is at the core of church planting and it is something I have been thinking about a lot in the past month. I recently blogged about church planting evangelism as I have found a fresh zeal for sharing my faith with people. Since Dec 19th I have shared my faith with 11 people and I have come to discover that there is nothing more exciting and worth celebrating than telling people about the amazing GRACE of Jesus and inviting them to follow him.

Please read Stetzers post if you want to be challenged.

Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts

2009-01-12T10:16:00.004-06:00

Over Christmas I read Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts by Jim Griffith and Bill Easum. If you are involved in any way in church planting you should read this book because it reveals years of learned experience through painful mistakes and the guidance of the Holy Spirit -- these guys are church planting experts! Let me qualify them ...

In the first 22 years of ministry Jim Easum planted 5 churches and for the last 13 years has been assessing and coaching church plants. Having assessed over 1,500 candidates for church planting, trained people in over 8,000 projects and conducted over 100 autopsies on failed starts, he is an authority on the topic. Bill was a restart pastor and has consulted over 600 church plants/restarts. They have both encountered the same reasons for why church plants fail and have combined their wisdom to help future planters avoid the enormous pains of failure. I can't imagine a church planter not wanting to read this book.

The book is a short read at 118 pages and has the following 10 chapters which highlight and deal with each common failure:

Neglecting the Great Commandment in Pursuit of the Great Commission.
Failing to Take Opposition Seriously.
A Love Affair with One's Fantasy Statement Blinds the Planter to the Mission Field.
Premature Launch.
Evangelism Ceases after the Launch.
No Plan for the Other Six Days of the Week.
Fear of Talking about Money until It Is Too Late.
Failure of the Church to Act Its Age and Its Size.
Formalizing Leadership Too Soon.
Using the "Superstar" Model as the Paradigm for All Church Plants.

The first mistake is to neglect the great commandment in pursuit of the great commission. On page 6 they write "... the thrill of church planting and reaching people and building a new faith community takes precedence over the personal responsibility to grow spiritually." Page 7, "... [The church planters] goal is not to get people to come to church; their goal is to introduce people to the love of God." This actually seems like a common problem in leadership at large. Christian leaders often give and give and give and become so empty that they can burn out. Or, they get so focused on the business of the church and running meetings that they neglect spiritual renewal through discipleship.

The issue here is for a planter to be purposeful about his own spiritual growth and to build genuine love for people. Church planting is not about getting people to attend a meeting but to encounter the grace of God and place their faith in Jesus. The danger is to become so focused on the tasks, the results or the numbers that the process of spiritual transformation is totally lost. The bride becomes the focus instead of the groom. Jesus has to be central to the leaders life. To avoid this they encourage planters to attend another churches worship services in order to engage and be refreshed and also to seek spiritual reflection and camaraderie from a mature Christian outside of the plant.

One thing I absolutely love about this book is that each chapter offers specific solutions targeted to resist and defeat each challenge. These "fixes" are pure gold! They are simple practical steps directed at the planter and to coaches. Most of these solutions are not obvious simply because the mistakes which necessitate them are common traps. Implementing these fixes from the start are the only way to avoid and minimize fundamental errors.

Chapter 3, titled "A Love Affair with One's Fantasy Statement", was tremendously helpful for me at this exact moment. I have elsewhere heard this referred to as "the church of your mind" or as they say on page 22 the "church in a vacuum." Right now on the CPT program (Church Planting Training) I am planning, learning, growing and preparing to launch a new church in Chicago. It is very exciting to be constantly thinking and dreaming about the name, the logo, the fancy mission statement, the location, the series we will preach, the strategic methods we will use to connect with new people and the day we will launch with hundreds of people! Ha! We WILL conquer this! But therein lies the problem. All this planning and preparation is outside the context of the mission field. This does not negate the process of church planting training, it actually increases the need to get it right -- which I'm thankful my training is doing!

On page 23 they write "... the mission field dictates the tactics, not the fantasy statement" and "Church planting is about going out and getting more and more people. And after that it's about gathering those people and gradually forming them into a redemptive community." Articulating a set of values, a fancy mission statement and a trendy name does not mean success -- getting new converts and discipling them is the real measure of success.

Church planters are often so in love with their innovative ideas, their way of doing things or their trendy name, that they preemptively formulate, institute and therefore dictate a purely ideological and imaginary church which may or may not be effective at reaching the people around them.

Page 24 comments "Effective church planters intuitively say to themselves, 'This isn't working.' They have a come-to-Jesus meeting internally and say to themselves, 'We cannot continue down this road, we've got to adapt...NOW!'" I can tend to get dog-eared by things because I hate to quit. I will literally work at something for hours on end without a sign of quiting or rethinking my approach. I know it is a strength -- a God given ability to be steadfast and unwavering -- fighting to the end. But, it is also a huge weakness. Sometimes I will predetermine what I think will work best and then force myself to stick at it until I make it work. I need to strongly heed the advice in this book as this will not always work in church planting.

I am a planner by nature. I like to strategically think ahead and make the best preparations possible. Then, I would prefer for everything to go as planned. Yikes! I'm in for trouble if I don't adjust this way of thinking. This is another area in which God has used my wife to shape me. She is incredibly flexible and an "in the moment" type of person. This has caused conflict in our relationship which in turn has helped me mature in my understanding and appreciation for this God given characteristic. However, even with the growth I have made in being flexible and letting some things flow, rather than programming them, I still have a tendency towards control. If you have a moment please pray for me right now!

The solution for this is twofold. Firstly, I must work hard at developing a genuine love for the people in our area more than my ideological plan. Secondly, I must grow in my willingness to adapt my methods to the mission field. This is why I am currently fighting certain impulses to create a church identity before I have lived in Chicago. I want these things to be contextualized and organic to the people God is calling me to reach. Assuming something will work without really understanding or knowing the people it is supposed to "work on" is a sign of loving the church of your mind more than the people God is reaching. I have determined not to prescribe and identity from afar which I must admit is hard for me.

Page 27 makes a painful point, if you have ever been a part of something like this then I apologise for poking the pain. They write "We often hear planters say, 'We're a multicultural church,' even though they only have a handful of people. Somehow they think they're effective because they have representatives from each mission field coming to their church, but that's a mistake. They now have a church for everyone, which means a church with very few distinctives." They also say "... planters often make the mistake of winding up with a church designed for 'everyone.' The net effect of this approach is thirty or forty people--forever!" Yikes!

I have heard this language before. The desire to reach the nations is confused with having a small core group made up of a few individuals from other nations. From the experience of Griffith and Easum, this just never works. I'm not sure when people starting thinking that having 15-20 people from 5-6 different nations is somehow fulfilling the great commission when you consider that there are billions of people and hundreds of countries. The measure of success is not quantity of nations represented but indigenous growth. If a church plant is not growing then it is dead or close to death. A solid way to avoid this result is to constantly be in the community that one lives. Prayer walk it. Connect with the people there. Define what the local residents are like and then match the church plants methods to reach them. Don't be dog-eared -- adjust or die!

There is just too much good stuff in this book to review it all here so I will end with some worthy quotes:

Much of the opposition faced by planters comes from within the plant itself, p14.
Your team of intercessors needs to be "outside your plant" so they can pray deeply without an agenda, p18.
Usually the first group of people [to reach] is those people most like you, p28.
One of the recurring symptoms in failed church plants is premature birth, because the new church lacks sufficient infrastructure and development to survive on such limited resources, p34.
The gathered group [of a premature launch] is of such insufficient numerical size that it begins subtly to defend itself by citing the benefits of its size--intimacy, connectedness, and inclusiveness. Doing so unwittingly creates a barrier, making it impossible for any new people to find their way into the young church, p38.
You have to have a critical mass of people to add legitimacy and validity to it in the eyes of the public, p39.
Evangelism in NOT a 'phase' of church life; it's the "LIFE" of the church, p47.
If the pastor ceases to model inviting the public and pushing the Great Commission then the congregation will become a closed system, p47.
If you don't make contact after contact with the public, the likelihood of success is almost zero, p51.
Talk to one thousand people in the first year, p52.
The average church plant begins to decline the fourth or fifth year, p65.
Many planters mistakenly believe an increase in attendance will result in an increase in cash flow. Experience teaches just the opposite: more people actually increase the cash drain, thus accelerating the demise of the church, p78.
Stewardship of money must be taught from the moment you begin to gather people, p79.
Someone else on the team needs to spend pastoral time with people on the fringe, p87.
Don't try to launch with a handful of people and try to act like a full-service church. One way or another, it will ruin you, p96.
The health of the church plant is in direct proportion to the health of the lead pastor and their family, p97.
Future leaders need time to prove themselves on the battlefield, p102.
People must earn the reputation of being a leader within your church plant, p103.
Never become so enamored by what someone else is doing in ministry that your goal is to replicate what they are doing, p116.
If God has anointed you to plant a church, God will give you the vision, the wiring, and the abilities to do it God's way, p117.

Go ahead and order your copy of Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts by Jim Griffith and Bill Easum today.

Attracting Interns as a Church Planting Strategy

2009-01-08T17:09:00.003-06:00

I believe that God has and is calling many people to serve his purposes in church planting today. This is true in my life and for my wife and kids. I continue to meet other people who attest to this. I am so confident of it increasing that I am planning to start an Internship Program early on in our church plant in Chicago. This will help those with a calling to develop quickly and begin to fulfill the purposes of God. At the same time it will allow them to build foundations in our church plant that will last into the future -- way beyond their internship.

Today I met with Lonnie Taylor the Director of Internships at The Journey Church in St. Louis. The Journey have been very effective at attracting interns and providing a quality environment where spiritual growth can occur. This pool of passionate and dedicated interns can often prove to be a base on which God calls full time staff members and people into further leadership roles. The purpose of internships is not a step towards a paid position or to guarantee a further ministry role, but to equip and release people into the calling God has over their life.

You may use the interface on the right to listen to the most recent podcast or download the mp3 of our conversation. It's about 55 minutes long, with a few interruptions from the waitress, and at a reasonable quality. Lonnie graciously allowed me to have a draft copy of their internship program and walked me through the process and philosophy they currently have. Please learn from this in any way you can.

Interns for Church Planting Overview:

An internship is not cheap labor, it's about people fulfilling their calling and using their gifts in a way that "fits" the church.
Find the interns "sweet spot" while simultaneously stretching them to grow.
Every intern needs a mentor who builds with them relationally and modifies the format to fit the interns gift mix and calling.
Mentors evaluate interns at the end of each semester. Review goals, action plans and reading material.
Interns are required to read one book a semester and provide a report to their mentor. This should focus on their area of service.
Interns are fully self funded. They have a 30 day period before they are accepted to raise enough money to live on during the internship. This is not just a practical step but an important spiritual measure of the persons calling and faith.
Customize the internship for the intern.
Allow new interns to enter at the beginning of each semester.
Someone would be disqualified from the internship if they had the wrong motivation. I.e. they see it as a means to a paid position rather than a term of service.
Recruit interns from within the church and attract through web site. Internships are a good option for guys in seminary.
Whether or not you have a packaged internship program you will always have volunteers who serve and need spiritual mentoring so some sort of plan is necessary.

Interview with Steve Sudworth

2009-01-07T14:55:00.003-06:00

I had the privilege of interviewing Steve Sudworth who planted a church in Chicago back in 2004. Steve relates to New Covenant Ministries International and his church is just shy of gathering 100 each week. It was a real joy to learn from Steve's experience and to catch his passion for the church. You can use the interface on the right to listen to the most recent podcast or download the audio of our phone conversation.

Matt: Steve, when you first planted a Church in the City how did you go about meeting people and making new contacts?

Steve: Before we planted in May 2004, my wife and I came out a few days before just to see what God was saying about the city. One of the key prophetic words that God had given us was about the need to build community, to build family. So arriving here, May 2004, we gave every intention and every effort to be building from our home, having people in our home...anyone who would give us the time of day would look at us for longer than 5 seconds we would try to build a relationship.

As those relations grew we had as many people in our home as possible. In the states it has been much harder to get people into our home than it was back in South Africa. You first have to build that relationship of trust before they are willing to come into your home. So, we had about 3-4 people we knew in the city when we arrived. So, we worked with that group first at building relationship and trust and then encouraged them to bring people into our home and little by little we grew. So, building relationships and community were absolutely key.

Before we came out here, we spent and hour or so with one of the guys who leads New Covenant, and we asked him the question, "what advice can you give us?" and he said "when you plant a church you are not going to be the greatest preacher, you are not going to have the greatest facility. But one thing you need to do, and you can do, is to love people with all of your heart." We have really tried to embrace that-to love people fully and graciously and to express the love of Christ through our relationship with them.

Matt: In terms of you getting out there, building relationship, what would be your take on the spiritual climate in Chicago? How hungry are people for the gospel in the city?

Steve: Coming from South Africa, which even thought nation is struggling, the church in SA is incredibly strong. Someone sneezes and 3 people get saved. So, coming here it has been a real change to what we have been used to. I feel over the last 3 years my eyes have been open to this incredible religious spirit that rests over this city. There is a strong understanding of Christ, but Jesus is not a person who demands all of our worship. There is a reluctance to give oneself fully and wholly to Jesus. The issue of religion is the biggest thing we have faced.

When we meet people and tell them what we do, their response is "what? Chicago needs another church?" I think that just summarizes the general attitude that resides over this city. We believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and in a city like Chicago...I am really intentional about building relationships with other pastors and it is just hard to find spiritual churches in the heart of the city, there are some in the suburbs. There is just not an openness to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Matt: Have you found that people with a Christian background reject the Holy Spirit or embraced the Holy Spirit?

Steve: There has been both. We believe that every person who comes into the community God has chosen to be apart of us for a season. Certainly those who God has added, though they may struggle with the HS there is a sense of them wanting to embrace him. We have a church that only a handful of the core leaders have grown up in a spiritual environment. About 90% of our church has never had that experience, so we have very patiently, fearfully and wisely walking alongside of people. Not expecting them to run before they can walk. However, we have had people who have joined us and are excited about a new church experience, and then 2 or 3 months after they have been there they begin to realize where we stand on different issues and they find reason to move on. So, there have been discouragements and temptations to dilute the truth. But we want to build, unashamedly, what the Bible teaches.

Matt: Where abouts in Chicago are you gathering from and what are those people like?

Steve: We are drawing people from a cross section of the city. We were originally located in Lincoln Park, which is Caucasian, middle to upper income. We weren't fitting into that community very well and drawing people from the North, West and South, and even having people coming from Indiana, which is a bit of a drive. We moved to Bucktown, and being more centrally located we have been able to draw more people from different parts of the city. We really have not gone for a specific neighborhood or area of Chicago, but have felt that God wanted us to reach the whole city. We want to draw people from North, South, East and West. So, the neighborhood of Bucktown represents us better.

As far as struggles, the majority of our church is between the ages of 22-38...we probably have an equal number of singles and marrieds. The struggles have to do with marriage, jobs, relationships, family, not wanting to conform to the world, struggles like that are quite common. I have a real heart for men in this city, and men in this nation. And one of our biggest desires, as a leadership team, is to raise up a generation of men who are passionate and who are leading with intention. Generally, men are rather passive, especially in this city. That is one of the struggles we are taking on right now.

Matt: Steve, where has a lot of your growth come from? Fresh converts? People moving in? Transfers?

Steve: Probably it is an even mix between transfers from more conservative church and new commitments or people who have back-slidden and made a decision to once again serve God. In terms of advertising, we have not done much, not to much marketing. We have really trusted to use word of mouth, encouraging people to bring friends and family. We believe in outreach and marketing but in planting finances are tight and we also wanted to make sure we established a DNA of personal outreach versus relying on marketing. Not so say we won't use it in future, but we are not focusing on it now. As we move to events and series, we will use it but for now we are using word of mouth and inviting friends and family.

Matt: How has the church changed since you started in 2004?

Steve: I think the church has changed, not to put over emphasis on this but there has been a significant change in the church as the Lord has changed my wife and I and the gifting and calling on our lives. Especially, as we have felt a resolve to build on the principles we know to be Biblical, the church has taken on a new flavor. About a year and a half after we went through a season of real intimidation as to who we were and what we were called to be. I realized that we were compromising on values that we believe are true and right. So, as we have come through that and gained confidence in who we are, the church has really responded and that has been an incredibly exciting moment. We have learned some lessons, we aren't saying we have arrived, but we have a much clearer sense of who we are and what God has called us to. We are not striving for the worlds view of success...as in numbers and things, those are not driving us and I think that is a good thing

Matt: As far as a Sunday morning, what type of setup do you have?

Steve: 8.30 the worship team gathers to setup, we have various small groups that take turns hosting with drinks, snacks, and literature and they also arrive at 8.30. 9.30 the leaders gather with the small group and we pray for the meeting, 9.45 we are there to great people, about 10am we have worship. Generally the worship team prepares 4-5 songs, but we really try to give room to the HS to lead us. There have been times when the worship goes on for an hour so the teaching is shorter, and there have been times where we have felt the worship time needs to be shorter because the HS wants to use the teaching time to really minister to people. So, we try to be flexible as we can.

We encourage contributions, through the elders to help them. If there are opportunities for ministry, we may pause for 10 min to do that. Announcements are after the worship...we teach for about 40 min and we always try to work into the teaching the truth of the gospel. At the end of every meeting we invite people to become Christians and always make prayer available and encourage people to hang out after the meeting.

Matt: What is the leadership structure? How does your staff look?

Steve: I work full time, employed by the church. We do have an administrative assistant, who works 2 1/2 days a week. She is the only other salaried person who works for the church. The leadership team consists of myself and two other men who are elders. And then we have a team of elders, we believe in an eldership team lead church, who I have the responsibility to lead the team, but the entire team leads the church. We are all married, so our wives, while they are not ordained or pastors, they are involved in leadership decisions and meetings to bring in their perspectives.

We have a team of deacons, not in the traditional sense, but anointed men and women of God gifted to preach, prophecy, evangelism, whatever their gifting may be. We have 3 couples who are deacons and we are about to release a single lady onto our deacon team. So, those are the offices in our local church. As a local church we relate to a Ephesians 4 ministry team called New Covenant Ministries International. That is a team of apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers who are invited through relationship that we as an eldership have developed, they don't come in as hierarchy but come to partner with the local elders to bring gifting and ministry, as it says in Ephesians 4,"so the saints can do the work of service and bring us to maturity."

Matt: How do you go about raising up leaders, identifying elders, do you have a system, or material or is more organic?

Steve: We have tried to incorporate both formal and informal. The informal would be having people in our home, especially if we feel like God has his hand on a couple we would spend more time with them, asking them probing questions. Getting a sense of where they are at, challenging them in areas of character, getting a sense of what is in their heart. And then we have formal training as well. I try to get together once a quarter with potential leaders to envisions them about where the church is going, find out what is going on in their lives, hear some testimonies.

We also have a time of training which is broken into four areas. We have leadership training from the Old Testament, leadership training from the new Testament, Leadership examples from The life of Paul and the life of Jesus. As the time is right, and we invite people to come along, we make it clear that we are not asking them to become leaders we are just preparing them for what God is taking them it no, but the timing of that has to be worked out with God. So, they know even though they are going through leadership training that does not mean they will be set in as leaders.

Those we feel God is raising up as deacons or elders, from that group we will take them away and spend some time teaching on 'what is a deacon,' 'what is an elder,' 'what do they do,'...every time we get an Ephesians 4 ministry in we would set aside time for them to spend time with existing leaders and potential leaders. We ask their perspective as well...who do they see sticking out from the crowd, who would they consider for leadership. We ask them to give us some perspective on that as well. And when we travel, if there are opportunities for us to minister in other churches, we try and bring potential leaders along with us. Because going on adventures together is a great way of building leadership.

Matt: My wife and I will be moving to Chicago to plant a church and we are praying about where we are supposed to be. We feel like we are to be in the city. We feel that we want to be close to a university. We have one year old and expecting another in late January. Taking those factors into consideration, what insight would you give in terms of choosing a place to live? Combined with that, what advice would you give us if you could do things over?

Steve: To answer your first question, the trendy spots would be Lincoln Park and DePaul University, that is obviously an area with lots of young people and young families. Lincoln Park and Lakeview would be that way. For us, and the types of people we were drawing (gathering more of diverse group), that was not a good fit for us. There are a lot of Caucasians, between the ages of 20-30. There is another great community that is much more diverse which is further north. Loyola University has a branch in the North, still in the city, the neighborhood is Andersonville/Uptown. There is the medical district and UIC which is just to the south of the city. That neighborhood is transforming...in 10 years it would be a great place to plant, but there are not to many families there yet. Those are the 3 that come to mind.

In regards to advice or perspective, I think I really like what you are doing as far as taking time to look around, getting to know the city. My wife and I arrived and our two young kids, not knowing anyone, and there was a lot of pressure to make something happen quite quickly. That is part of the reason why it took us so long to find out who we were and what God has called us too. We learned a lot on the fly, not that I regret that because we have learned so much and God had a particular purpose in that.

But, I love what you are doing-taking time to learn the city and what it is God is calling you to, how you are gifted, where you fit best. If I could do things over, I would ask for 6 months of salaried support so I could just live in the city, get to know the city, the pulse of the city. I think as soon as you move here, get around the city as much as you can. Get to concerts, get to events, go exploring, spend time with people who have lived here for 20,30,40 years, be a student of the city. As we have done that over the years we feel like we are just now grasping the heart of the city. I feel what you are doing right now is outstanding.

Matt: Steve, thank you so much. I have learned so much during this short time I have had with you, I really appreciate it.

Checkout: http://www.churchinthecity.us

Real Transformation: Regeneration

2009-01-06T10:32:00.018-06:00

Wouldn't you like to know where genuine life-change comes from? If you knew, you could be more intentional about it and therefore more able to change. Do you ever wonder at what point someone experiences a deeply spiritual and personal conversion -- laying down an old life and starting a new one? Maybe something is eating away at you on the inside? Or, perhaps you've got the God bug recently? Yesterday I asked a stranger at Starbucks this question, "There are a lot of people who are interested in God right now. Do you ever think about faith or God?" He said, "I think about it all the time!" That comment told me something big was about to happen to that guy!

I'm going to explain how real spiritual transformation happens ... are you ready?

Jesus said in John 3:3 "... no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." This means that you cannot be set free from the slavery of self-centredness unless you completely start over. That's right, you need to die, and be re-born. There is no yin and yang here, no makeover, its a radical death and resurrection event! Jesus is tough but clear about it.

There is some confusion over the process of salvation. Some think that people can initiate their own spiritual transformation through their efforts of repentance, works or even meditation. Such verses as Romans 10:13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved", seem to suggest that our response causes the change. However, the scriptures are clear that the re-birth of the soul, being born again, is something that we play no part in. Our part is repentance which comes as a result of regeneration. God initiates spiritual change in us and we respond.

Titus 3:5 refers to this change as "regeneration" which is "palingenesia" in the Greek -- literally meaning "again birth" (palin again, genesis birth). We know that God starts this process because Ezekiel 36:26 says "I will give you a new heart." The word "I" in that verse is critical. God does it. Actually, regeneration is a work of both the Father and the Holy Spirit as indicated in 1 Peter 1:3 "In his [The Father's] great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope." and in John 3:8 "born of the Spirit."

What is the significance of this? It shows that being a Christian (the best life you can have) cannot come about by being good, going to church, being born into a Christian family or a certain country, but only through the divine intervention and initiation of God. The regeneration of the soul comes before we confess our wrong doing and before we verbalise a commitment to Jesus. This is illustrated by Jesus calling Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Jesus told him I'm coming into your life today before Zacchaeus repented and resolved to undo the fruit of selfishness in his life.

The Evangelical Free Church of America unfortunately has this the wrong way around in their statement of faith. It reads "We believe that the true Church is composed of such persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit ..." Regeneration actually precedes faith in Christ, not the other way around. Regeneration is not an external sign like repentance. Regeneration is a mysteriously inward event where by God gives someone a new heart and it starts to manifest itself in the way they live their life -- there is a radical transformation.

As a follower of Jesus this gives me great confidence in the work He is doing in peoples lives. The guy at Starbucks yesterday could have said I'm not interested, leave me alone! But he didn't due to the work of God bringing about a change. It is this activity of God that leads a person to place their faith in Christ. The Bible says in Romans 3:11 "no one seeks for God." So, a person saying I've been thinking about God recently, displays evidence of the work of God. No one knows the point of regeneration other than God. But, I think it's better to assume that God is at work. This increases our faith in sharing the gospel. Not everyone who shows interest in God is regenerated, at least not yet, but they are sure getting close! Why not expect that God is doing something in the people around us?

A personal conversion to Jesus is not the end of true transformation -- it's the beginning. Genuine regeneration must bring about results in life. 1 John 3:9 says "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God." This does not mean perfection, but it means an inward desire to do the right thing and to stop indulging in sin. I have seen this happen to people many times. They have a hunger to read the Bible, which they did not have before. They have a hunger to connect with other Christians, which they did not have before.

The story of Zacchaeus helpfully illustrates that a change of heart, a regeneration of the soul, is different to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Zacchaeus had a radical turn around yet he was not filled with the Holy Spirit like we see in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit initiated a change of heart in Zacchaeus but did not clothe him with power gifts for ministry. I make this distinction because while someone can be born again by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and therefore have the Spirit in their life, convicting them of sin, they may not have received The Baptism of the Holy Spirit with power gifts for ministry and mission.

Regeneration is therefore an act of God where he imparts new spiritual life to us which results in an outward repentance and transformation. This is the first stage in salvation. My sins are forgiven because Jesus came into my life and changed me, not because of the depth of my repentance. I have a desire for God now because my sinful nature has been crucified with Christ. We cannot claim this result in regards to something we have done. It is solely the initiation of again-genesis (re-birth) in our hearts by God. If you want genuine life transformation then be assured that God is at work in your life, otherwise you just wouldn't want it.

Resources:

Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W.E. Vine
Two Views of Regeneration by John Hendryx
Do You Know the Truth About Being Born Again? by Stephen Pribble

Church Planting Evangelism

2008-12-19T09:44:00.015-06:00

Saying the word "evangelism" can put a bad taste in our mouths having become associated with certain tele-evangelists with dodgy theology and zero integrity. It is also used in business settings to describe viral endorsements from clients. You may have also heard the term "brand evangelist". Whatever alternative meanings it carries today it describes the most important aspect of church planting -- one-on-one gospel sharing! I'm going to share what I've learnt from 2 books I have read.

I literally just finished reading The Faithful Witness by Jerry Wiles. It is a MUST read for all church planters -- incredibly inspiring. I also read Becoming A Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels. Both books are very uplifting, practical and life-changing. If you can read both, do so. If not, get The Faithful Witness as I found it the most spiritually stirring and the story's alone are worth it.

A Change of Mind About Evangelism

Hybels has a formula in his book, not specifically for sharing the gospel or praying a prayer, actually he says not to use formulas especially for salvation prayers, but he clearly breaks apart what a Christian needs in order to have maximum impact for the gospel in someones life. The formula is:

High Potency (HP) + Close Proximity (CP) + Clear Communication (CC) = Maximum Impact (MI)

Missing one of these elements sabotages our ability to lead people into faith. Without having a potent relationship with Jesus, being genuine friends with non-believers and being able to clearly articulate the message it just wont happen.

Wiles doesn't use a fancy formula but he says basically the same things and in a way that more deeply affected me. He starts with who we are in Christ. It was Galations 2:20 and Colossians 1:27 that the Holy Spirit used to transform his understanding of his own life in Christ which in turn fueled him in his evangelistic efforts. What 'High Potency' is to Hybels, 'Identity' is to Wiles. He writes, "... a witness is first and foremost something you are. Jesus' last recorded words on earth prior to His ascension back to heaven were these: You shall be witnesses to Me (Acts 1:8) ... Your witness about Jesus is only as good as your relationship with Jesus."

Wiles makes a strong case that Christians already have the tools to witness just like a baby knows how to breathe. He says "... stop searching for a greater ability to witness and start releasing the nature of Christ that is already indwelling you!" Now that's provocative. So provocative in fact that the day I read it (yesterday) I went ahead a prayed with a man at the gas station and he was healed and confessed that he wanted Christ. Seriously, it's not brain surgery, it's being yourself, your new self that is, the identity of Christ. If we are in Christ and Revelation 1:5 refers to Jesus as "The Faithful Witness", then what are you?

Again, Wiles is relentless with his provocation, "Only one thing can put a stop to the Lord's sovereign work in setting up appointments for life-changing witness encounters -- our unwillingness to open our mouths and share the Good News of Jesus Christ." There is no guilt or manipulation in this. Every believer in Jesus will express it differently but the truth is that every believer, being in Christ, naturally desires to share what Jesus has done for them. For this reason Wiles has the person share their faith straightaway. He argues that because people have just been freed from their sin and have received perfect peace and joy they are happy for others to know, and somewhat unable to deny it!

The truth is that people in this world feel guilty, discouraged, rejected, hurt and alone. That means they are perfect candidates to receive Jesus. The lie we believe is that people will reject the gospel. That does happen but in Jerry Wiles experience he sees 1 in every 4 people receive Jesus after sharing the gospel. He notes that Jesus had a similar success rate in the Gospel accounts. People know they need God, they just need someone to show them the way. Hybels points out that 25% of the US population would go to church if a friend would just invite them. That's 1 in 4 if you didn't realize!

The biggest lesson for me in reading these books was an identity shift. Believing who I am in Christ and believing that Jesus is working in people's lives. I dare you to test this out, change your mind and see the results. Evangelism is the most effective church planting strategy.

Conversations & Questions

We have a responsibility to initiate conversations with people. Building trust is important, but if we believe that the gospel is powerful then we should have greater trust in what Jesus can do than in our ability to be winsome. We are often afraid to bring up Jesus in fear of being rejected and ruining all future gospel opportunities.

Hybels writes, "So can we just come out and say it? Far too many Christians have been anesthetized into thinking that if they simply live out their faith in an open and consistent fashion, the people around them will see it, want it, and somehow figure out how to get it. That never happens." I agree, people need to know they can have all their sins and guilt taken away right here, right now. Hybels goes on, "Most of the time, seekers, whether they admit it openly or not, respect and admire Christians who aren't afraid to take a stand." Go ahead, start a conversation, and speak the truth.

Another helpful practice is to keep it simple by quickly getting to the heart of the matter, and to pray and to rely on the Holy Spirit. Look into peoples eyes and relate the gospel to where they are at. Don't over complicate it. Wiles makes the point, "It's more difficult to forget a direct, simple question than a long, veiled, never-to-the point conversation." Even if the person doesn't receive Christ the question will stay with them and may bear fruit later.

It's important to practice and develop your own style of question asking. Both authors warn of the pitfalls of unnatural prescribed evangelism steps. But they do offer their personal favorite openers. Wiles suggestions include:

Is anything encouraging happening in your life? Or, do you see anything encouraging happening around you or in the lives of people you know?
Have you noticed any signs of spiritual awakening in your city?
Have you been thinking more about the Lord lately? (Or I guess the word "Lord" could be exchanged for "God" as unchurched people might not be familiar with that word).
Has the Lord been good to you today?
Has anyone told you today that God loves you?

Here was the shocker for me on question 3, 'have you been thinking more about the Lord lately?', Wiles says that 90% of people say yes! He comments, "The greater the fear and frustration and concern people have about the aspects of their lives, the more tender, they seem to be toward God and the more they question the meaning of life, the purpose for their existence on this earth, and the way to find lasting inner peace." You'll need to get the book for further explanation of where to take the conversations after these opener questions.

Hybels offers these openers:

Do you ever think about spiritual things?
Who, in your opinion, was Jesus Christ?
What belief did you grow up with?
Do you ever wonder what happens to us when we die?
What do you think a real Christian is?
Where are you heading in your spiritual journey?

The Power of The Word

Another powerful and yet simple point for me was the use of scripture in evangelism. I don't know why I didn't really think about this much before but if we believe that God's word is inspired and sharper than a double edged sword AND that is does reveal the heart, then sharing sections of scripture with non-believers WILL have a dramatic affect of them. Wiles mentions that he carries copies of the gospel of John with him because many have been saved simply by reading it! He tells people "Here's a book that was written by a man who knew Jesus personally, and tells how you can know Him personally as well." If that doesn't start a conversation at least the person can read it on their own.

In this regard Hybels lays out different approaches to sharing the gospel that might be helpful. The Roman Road is a classic. You can simply share 3 verses from the book of Romans with someone (make sure you have a Bible with you) and ask them questions about what the verses mean. It's easy to remember and covers the fundamental gospel elements, Romans 3:23, 6:23 and 10:13.

When I read this method I found it easy to remember the first two because they are the same verse but chapter 10 and verse 13 was a bit more random and I thought, I bet I forget this last verse reference. So I prayed, "Lord help me remember these references so that I can use them at an appropriate time." At that moment I glanced at the clock on the oven and it was 10:13am! Holy cow -- and that clock is slightly wrong! Now that scripture reference is burned in my memory forever. Jesus is so cool. That confirmed again that God wants me to share my faith with people.

The Double Whammy

This is where Wiles wins for me. The double or even triple or even more soul winning whammy! When he travels he sees up to 8 people saved, but at the very least 1 person is saved. At a Christian conference he travelled to he inquired to the hotel/conference venue works if anyone had shared with them about the purpose of the event. No-one had. So Wiles continues to lead a maid, a young security guard at the entrance to the exhibition area, a hotel maintenance worker and eight security guards to Christ. He strategically uses one salvation to spark another -- what a genius!

Again, he's at the checkout in a store and noticed no one was around, so he seizes the opportunity. The girl at the checkout becomes a Christian, right there and then. On the way out the door he notices a man who looks down and says "You might be interested in knowing that the woman standing at the cash register, Regina, just received Jesus Christ into her heart and experienced the forgiveness of her sins ... You need that too, don't you? He nodded and said, Yes I do." The story continues as he leads the mans stepson to Christ and then his wife shows up. He says, "You might be interested in knowing that your husband and you son have just invited Jesus Christ into their hearts. You need to do that too, don't you? She also said yes."

One of the most strategic things he does is to use the immediate testimony of the person receiving Christ and presents it as a new opportunity for someone else. This builds faith and confidence in new Christians to continue to share their faith. It also causes people to be more open to the gospel in the face of a freshly converted person beaming with the joy of the Lord and radiant that they are now guilt free and destined for an eternity with Jesus. Isn't that brilliant? He notes that he has often lead 4 or 5 people to Jesus in this sequential manner at the same time.

This principle rings true because of the way people relate to each other. Wiles writes, "People tend to work or associate in clusters ... If you have the opportunity to lead one of them to the Lord, the door will often open to share with several other members of the staff or team." He frequents restaurants and other places where people have responded to the gospel because co-workers and others are now more likely to be open to the gospel having seen someone they know find faith in Christ.

Conclusion

All the church planting books I have read point to the fact that you have to connect with people who don't know Jesus -- that's the purpose of church planting. This means a high commitment to personal evangelism is critical for church planters. Wiles writes, "Can the church end up with too many people sharing Christ? No!" And, "Need a lift in your spiritual life? Win someone to the Lord! Introduce others to the living Christ." Often, the most exciting things are the things we desire the most and long to do more of. Hybels writes, "There's nothing in life that's as exciting as befriending, loving, and leading wayward people toward faith in Christ. Nothing."

This is obviously not just for church planting but for established churches. I'd suggest that these books have equipped me in the most effective way for church planting. It seems unavoidable that a high degree of consistent gospel sharing is really the best means to plant a church. Generally the mass communication stuff (mailers, etc...) attracts Christians. So perhaps, both strategies can be combined but with a strong emphasis on evangelism in church planting.

Resources

The Faithful Witness by Jerry Wiles
Becoming A Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels
http://www.effective-evangelism-training.org (I just signed up for this site, it looks a bit messy, but has some good info and a newsletter)
Acts29 Church Planting Evangelism message by Mark Dever

Circumcision: Can I get that gift wrapped?

2008-12-07T15:37:00.042-06:00

Once something has been cut off is it dead or alive? We'll come back to that question later.

There is a fundamental problem with everyone, wouldn't you agree? We are not just genetically deficient, we are morally flawed. We want things that are harmful to ourselves and others. We want things we cannot have. That's why most of us have painful relationships. We express our brokenness in different ways but we're all basically corrupted on the inside. (Don't worry, this post is going to get a lot better, and I'll explain the circumcision gift wrapping, just stick with it.)

Humans are not basically "good" as it's popular to believe. Anyone holding this view doesn't have kids and doesn't watch the news. Some people find comfort in their self-destructiveness and find ways to justify it. Others try hard to perform well and cover it up, to appear good. Unfortunately, neither strategy works. From day one, everyone has a self-centred heart -- everyone! Not to say we can't do good things, we just default to self-centredness, which we can agree is not just less than best but plain wrong.

This is a hard reality to face. No one likes to be told that trying to be good is a waste of time. Somehow we know we should be good but we keep choosing our personal needs over others. We keep trying to position ourselves above or ahead. We continue to insist that we are more important than the guy next to us and we know best. We'd prefer someone else to lose their happiness rather than us. All self-centredness is basically a deception about ourselves, the truth is that the value of our life does not out weigh the value of someone elses. The human heart is therefore naturally deceiving (see Jeremiah 17:9). The Bible refers to this condition as the "sinful nature".

The question I want to answer is not, how do I change my nature (because the answer is through following Jesus), but what nature does a Christian have?

When you become a follower of Christ are you a sinner saved by grace (a sinner-saint) or a saint completely free from the sinful nature?

It was Martin Luther, the great reformer, who proposed the concept of Simul iustus et peccator "At the same time righteous and a sinner". This view is based on verses like Galatians 5:17 (NIV) "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." And Romans 7:17 (NASB) "So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me."

This "sinner-saint" view is commonly held. At first hearing it portrays great humility but is not as freeing as one might think and can even become an excuse for sin. It can give some a wrong sense of lowliness and cause a constant repentance for "being a sinner". I disagree with the "sinner saved by grace mentality". Scripture declares that Christians were once sinners, and are now saints, saved only by the grace of God. Even the Corinthian church are referred to as saints!

Let's explore some scriptures that clarify this issue.

Colossians 2:11-12 (NIV) "In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."

When a dude is circumcised he doesn't keep the foreskin and carry it around with him for future use -- it's dead and therefore useless. Doctors don't usually offer gift wrapping services for circumcision. In the same way, when we are spiritually circumcised in the death and burial of Christ, we can't keep the sinful nature around any longer for future use -- it's totally gone.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

The "old" is the sinful nature. The old and the new don't coexist. It's fairly straightforward. If they did Christians would be hybrid creations not new creations.

The most compelling arguments come from the book of Romans. Simple reflection on these verses reveals the nature of a Christian. Paul writes:

Romans 6:2 (NASB) "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"
Romans 6:6 (NIV) "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin"
Romans 6:7 (NIV) " ... anyone who has died has been freed from sin."
Romans 6:11 (NIV) "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Romans 6:12 (NIV) "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
Romans 6:14 (NIV) "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
Romans 6:18 (NIV) "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

The confusion for some comes in chapter 7 of Romans were Paul seems to say the exact opposite of what he just wrote in Romans 6.

Romans 7:14 (NASB) "For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin."
Romans 7:18 (NASB) "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not."
Romans 7:19 (NASB) "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want."
Romans 7:24 (NASB) "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"

The weight of the words used above don't sound like Paul is simply aware of an internal sinner-saint struggle, they are more serious and contrasting than that. Saying that he is in bondage to sin, nothing good dwells in him, he practices evil he doesn't want and that he is a wretched man are not in keeping with the theme of the book and other New Testament writings. These don't give room for a duality of human natures. There's no ying and yang in Romans 7. It's 100% bad!

For example, If nothing good dwells in him why does he so confidently urge others to imitate him? How can he claim such joy and peace if he constantly does things he hates? It is interesting to note that no other passage in the New Testament reflects what Paul appears to be saying here. Peter actually says in 2 Peter 1:3 (NASB) "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness". Also, 1 John 3:6 (NIV) "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him."

In 1 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says that he is "conscious of nothing against himself." Ugh!? How can he be wretched and in bondage to sin and yet confident of no wrong doing? In 1 Corinthians 6:12 (NIV) he says "I will not be mastered by anything." How can someone so confident of being unmastered by sin in 1 Corinthians and Romans 6, be so helpless and bound in evil practices in Romans 7? It just doesn't make sense!

The most satisfying way to understand Romans 7 is that Paul is referring to an experience before becoming a Christian. Theologians like Gordon Fee, Douglas Moo and Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones hold to this interpretation. This understanding makes sense of the contrasts in Romans 6 & 7 and nullifies the sinner-saint concept which actually never appears in scripture.

What about other contradictory scriptures?

In light of this interpretation of the Bible how do we reconcile Galatians 5:16-17 (NIV) "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want."

The translators of the NIV normally render the Greek word sarx as "sinful nature", but it can also be understood as "flesh". When you see that the word "sarx" has many meanings you realize there is room for a different interpretation. It doesn't always mean sinful nature. W.E. Vines expository dictionary of bible words lists 14 different meanings. The scripture here is likely encouraging us to not live with our body in control over our spirit, but the other way around. This makes sense because verse 24 says "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." This is not talking about the body, but sinful nature. The Bible says the sinner is dead! No sinner-saints exist in the Bible.

Why do Christians still sin?

Personally, I don't want to sin. I want to do the right thing. I know I do because whenever I have willfully sinned I regret it and pray that I'll never repeat it. This lines up with what the scripture tells me about my new nature in Christ. But we still live in a frail body with the real option of sin around us. Temptations come not from the inside, like they did when the sinful nature was alive, but from the outside. Sin now tries to activate itself in the works of my body rather than in the state of my heart.

Some argue that the sins of a Christian prove that the sinful nature is still there. They are deceived into thinking that the absence of a sinful nature would make them impervious to sinful choices. It didn't work that way for Adam and Eve. They didn't have a sinful nature yet they sinned -- majorly. This sheds a whole new light on the temptations of Jesus. He didn't have a sinful nature. It means that the temptation of sin was real for him. It means that temptation can always be overcome. Now that our sinful nature is gone we are more like Christ.

The article Do Christians Still Have a Sin Nature? by Dr. Bill Gillham puts it nicely:

Romans 7:20 speaks of the power of indwelling sin (not the sin nature) working in man to produce undesirable (sinful) behavior. The power of sin simply deceives the Christian by masquerading as the old man, suggesting (deceiving) to the will that a choice be made to perform according to the old self-serving patterns programmed in previously. This is referred to as "walking after the flesh." Satan could never deceive a Christian with a direct approach as a "little man in red underwear." He must disguise himself if he is to have any hope of victory. There is one way and one way only to accomplish this deception and that is to masquerade in the thought life of the Christian posing as his unique version of the old man! The naive Christian will believe he, himself, is generating the unchristian suggestion and thus direct his defensive efforts against the wrong foe...what he perceives to be a darker side of himself!

Conclusion

Christians are not some type of heaven-hell-hybrids or sinner-saints. Christians are saints by the grace of God. Christians do not have a sinful nature, they cannot have a sinful nature. This means that all temptations can be overcome as they are not from our hearts. This view places more responsibility on the Christian to live according to their new nature. The two-nature view (sinner-saint) gives a Christian a reason to excuse sin as something they cannot always help. In fact, sin is something a Christian can always help because its not driven from their heart. There is no sin a Christian cannot overcome!

This study will be incredibly beneficial for church planting in Chicago. This is such a foundational doctrine which causes people to understand the depths of grace. Christians are not lowly people who have to drag their sin to the cross everyday. They are completely free to live a new life under a new master and to go with the impulses of the new heart God has given them.

Sources:

I Am Second

2008-12-06T14:01:00.002-06:00

What does it really mean to be a Christian? How does a person become a Christian? Why would people I know start believing in Jesus? How can I help people explore the claims of Jesus? How does a new church embody this?

I am asking myself these questions a lot recently. It's something I don't want to just know or think about but be actively engaged in.

Ultimately, following Jesus is about giving up control, admitting fault and becoming second place. Jesus becomes first place. It's hard for people to give up control. But I know that following Jesus is the most freeing thing anyone can do. It has been for me.

Checkout this web site which has videos of why people have become second in pursuit of Jesus: IAmSecond.com

Church Planting The Next Generation by Kevin W. Mannoia

2008-11-12T20:09:00.009-06:00

A while ago I read Church Planting The Next Generation by Kevin W. Mannoia. This book presents an overarching system to foster rapid church planting on a large scale. The sole focus of the book is for churches (specifically the Free Methodist Church) to work together through the predefined Century 21 Church Planting System. Ultimately the purpose is to create a environment or ethos for church planting within networks of churches. It is highly practical and descriptive of how to implement the small steps that make up the larger movement of finding, training and launching successful church planters.

Ed Stetzer at the very end of his book Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, references the Century 21 Church Planting System (page 334-335). He writes: "Many groups and denominations have adopted these systems, and they have helped raise church planting capacity. More churches are being started, and more of them are being successful." To get such an endorsement signifies the value of this book and the structure that Mannoia brings to the table.

He writes that the Profile Assessment component "raises the success rate of new churches by focusing on the most important ingredient -- the planter" (p67). The book points out that using a well designed assessment process for potential planters increases the success rate of a new church to 90%. The best way to know how someone will act in the future is to find out how they behaved in the past -- hence the value of assessment. This was illustrated well by a story of an unintentional assessment. One leader, after just being appointed as a church planter, was used as a test subject to help new assessors to be trained. The data from the assessment recommended that he not be deployed as a church planter. He found greater reward in a ministry better suited. The cost and significance of church planting are too great to risk sending the wrong dude.

Mannoia makes a strong case for the intentional funding of church plants. "Fund your church planting efforts, whatever you do. It's your future, to say nothing of the best stewardship of your finances in fulfilling the Great Commission. Planting should have a significant presence in the general operational budget." (p116) Yes! This is music to my ears. Intentional funding of church plants, along with the selection of the right guy, are big strides towards building church planting momentum. As a church planter you either have time or you have money -- you don't have both. But, in the environment being proposed here we see the possibility to be more financially stable earlier on. This shouldn't remove the faith element of starting a new church, but it should allow more fruitfulness at a faster pace. I am praying hard for sufficent funding of our church plant in Chicago.

The Century 21 Church Planting System works like this:

Parent Church Network: A group of local churches start to develop a vision for church planting
Profile Assessment System: Objectively measure the skills of potential planters
New Church Incubator: A coaching fellowship for planters
Pastor Factory: Train laypeople to become founding pastors
Church Planters' Summit: An event to initiate new candidates
Maturing Church Cluster: Specialized support for new churches over a year old
Strategic Planning Network: A network of pastors who focus on strengthening churches and planting new churches
Harvest 1000: A fund raising effort for planting churches
Meta-Church Network: Clusters of churches helping to train people through small group ministries

This system is indepth and requires some reflection and discussion in order to grasp its true value. Here are some one liners from the book that caught my eye:

Church planting cannot be tagged on -- it must be intentional and planned for. It must be woven into everything, p14.
Church planting is the life-blood of our future, p19.
Prayer is the foundation to church planting, p25.
Church planting can get a bad name because it changes the status, p35.
Plan for discouragement after church launch, p48.
If you don't constantly recruit leaders, the network will deteriorate, p86.
Mission-driven churches attract mission minded people and produce mission, p90.
The most difficult step is to think differently about church planting, p166.
Anything not connected to the mission should be revamped or stopped, p172.

This book should give a church planter a much broader perspective than just claiming a small patch of ground for himself. This macro-system should produce a vision for city wide church planting that is urgent, faster and more successful. By collaborating with like-minded people we should be able to multiply church planting efforts much more effectively to increase the noise in heaven (See Revelation 7)!

Checkout: Church Planting The Next Generation by Kevin W. Mannoia.

Chicago Church Planter Mark Willis Interview

2008-11-11T09:42:00.004-06:00

Here is my latest interview with Mark Willis, a church planter in Chicago. He moved to Chicago in June and just planted a church a couple of months ago. He is 25, he has works with all types of Christian groups and coaches church planters. Please use the interface on the right to listen to the audio or download the mp3 file.

Matt: First question, how did you get involved in church planting?

Mark: I went to college in Texas, Abilene Christian University, and went through their graduate school of theology, which is sort of their seminary there. One of the tracts that I chose was the Missions Residency for North America. That was in addition to the Master's in Divinity that I got, so it was a specific tract that they let me study with. So, it was sort of a residency, in terms of a medical residency where students are actually doing church planting and doing mission work while they are learning about it, along side mentors and coaches.

I guess I got involved in church planting in the practical day in, day out experience of what it looked like and felt like and they joys and pains of all that. The good part was that I had some friends, teachers and mentors to pick me up when I fell. I had a few scraped knees through the process but really enjoyed it.

Matt: What is it about Chicago that drew you to start a church there?

Mark: Well, I felt drawn to Chicago. And I use that word (drawn) specifically because there was no specific call to Chicago from God. A lot of people say "well, I felt called to this, or called to that," but we kind of walked backwards into it. We felt drawn by God to Chicago to plant a church. It was a remarkable series of events that told us this is where we were going to end up going. It started with us just circling a bunch of cities on a map and asking God to give us some direction. One by one he started taking cities off the list.

We had a few things we were looking for-we wanted a global city, a place where the world was coming and being sent from. We wanted a post-Christian and metropolitan area where we could spread the gospel in a post modern area, because that is sort of my bend and our passion. My wife is a portrait artist, so we were also looking for a city with a portrait market.

Matt: Which Chicago neighborhood are you in and how did you go about selecting that?

Mark: We new it would be north somewhere, we loved the neighborhoods along the red line (Chicago transportation system.) So we ended up choosing Evanston, due to some renting snaphoos that happened. So, we almost ended up here by accident. We knew we wanted to be near a Christian group here called the Reva Place Fellowship, they are connected with the Mennonite group here in the US. Part of our vision for church planting is networking with other families of Jesus that believe in a redemptive community, common work and social justice. Reva Place really embodies those things and have a track record for commitment to the Chicagoland area. We moved here without full intention of staying here in this neighborhood forever but we wanted to get to know and experience the Reva Place Fellowship and learn more about what it means to be an intentional Christian community.

Matt: So, you are living in Evanston. Is that where you are actually planting right now?

Mark: Yeah, that is part of our vision, not to see just a church plant but to see the whole region churched. So we intentionally picked a place that was not at the center of all the commotion. We didn't want to be the hub of everything. And all ready there are little groups of Christians popping up in different areas.

Part of our vision is to partner with those networks and leaders. Like this afternoon, I am going to go to the Greenhouse Church Planters Conference, which is a place where you can connect with other organic church planters and regardless of denominational lines you can help serve each other, find ways to collaborate-work together on projects, you know common worship, or service projects for the city. Part of the reason we chose Evanston is because we knew we would be moving all over the city helping little communities. We have one in Hyde Park that just started a month and a half ago, a little house church there. There is another one in Albany Park that is mostly made up of Somalian refugees. There is one in Logan Square that is mostly artists and poets. There is another on the west side that is almost all Hispanic and working class.

So these groups are very different and our intention in not to try and lump these groups together and make them look like us, but to give them the tools they need to be a vibrant family of Jesus in their neighborhood.

Matt: Now, how did you identify and get involved with these groups?

Mark: It seems that is has happened differently every time. The one we are directly involved with is in Hyde Park. We got connected through a friend, through a friend, through a friend. So just through indirect, natural relations that we have. She is a Christian and she has a lot of non Christian friends who are working with her in a very low income public school, here in Chicago. Her desire is to share the gospel with her co-workers, other teachers. To do it, we feel that sharing the gospel happens in community and as community-that the best evangelism is done in a family of faith verses one person handing out tracts to another. So, we are directly related to the church in Hyde Park and we have discovered the other ones along the way.

The big question now is how do we all relate and work together, because it is important that we do not become isolated. This may bring up a totally different point here, but I think there is some health in small group centered church planting but I think it can get unhealthy if we refuse to allow those groups to mingle and work together.

Matt: How did you get people to help you/ is there any type of team that is helping you with that?

Mark: That is a good question and I would recommend a team for those who are looking to plant a church. In this model, I would not recommend a large, parachute style 20-person team, but I would recommend at least 2 couples-6 couples at the most. We have 2 couples on the north side and 2 couples on the south side and we meet together once a week. My wife and I moved here by ourselves and that has been the hardest thing in all of this. The good news is we have a couple moving here in January and another in the summertime. So we feel like we are laying the ground work, just planting some simple seeds. My recommendation would be to do it a little different than we did it.

Matt: How are you connecting with non-believers and what are you bringing them into in terms of someone who is interested in the gospel and they are coming along in their faith, what does that look like?

Mark: Our hope is that we are sending Christians to non-believers. That these simple churches find there way into their space. So, rather than inviting some people we met at a bar to our house, lets start regularly attending this bar, and being salt and light in that context. So that is kinda our mission that we live by.

You know, we believe that each house church should have a mission that they live by, whether it be teachers, a pub, dance hall, a coffee shop, skaters, or the elderly, whatever it is, that is the planting process for each house church. But to say all of that, we are attracting people with an attractive gospel and so we are asking ourselves constantly what makes the good news good.

The gospel is about reconciliation between God and man and man and man, the gospel is about peace, forgiveness and cleansing. So we are trying to do that attracts non believers. We have been inviting them over for a dinner party, the teachers in Hyde Park, and asking them out for coffee. Last weekend we went up to a apple orchard and just spent the day out there with them and just got the chance to share life for a bit.

Matt: How do you effectively communicate the gospel to people?

Mark: I think a big piece of this is to let it be a community that preaches the gospel. One of the things we've talked about is taking a piece of the gospel and finding a way to communicate that in our lives. Kind of carnate that to the city of Chicago, to the world. So, lets say it is peace making, how could we embody peace making? So, we might stop buying coffee that wasn't fair trade, or maybe we are an advocate for spousal abuse. At the end of it we hold a coffee night where we invite non believers into a discussion about what it was like for us to embody that piece of the gospel. That is one of the ideas we have had for doing communal evangelism.

Matt: What is the format right now for what you are doing?

Mark: It is still evolving. On the micro level we have a life-transformation group model where we meet together for accountability and prayer. That is where discipleship and teaching takes place. We have the women in the house church meet together and the men in the house church meet together. The key there is that these are brothers and sisters that will be fighting for my heart, they will be helping me through the hard part. On a mezzo level, we get together once a week, share a meal, pray for each other, share about the week, and talk about it. We talk strategy for what we feel called to.

Right now our house church is going through some major healing and it is amazing to see what God is doing. We worship, do art, poetry, devotions...it kind of depends on the group. On the macro level we have plans for this, this is starting in June, but we will start to network with other groups in the city. As we plant more house churches we will hopefully find a way to bring these groups together for worship festivals, kind of a weekend long party. Maybe there is line dancing, or a big banquet table, similar to the Jewish festivals...that is sort of a long answer...

Matt: How many salvations have you seen or baptisms? What are your goals? You talked about these girls groups/guys groups, what kind of numbers are you looking at and how do you know when to multiply a group?

Mark: We have an idea that this is going to be bigger than just our little group which speaks of the kingdom, which I think is good to instill into every Christian. God is doing something much bigger than what we can see. As far as our cutoff point...I think it will depend on the specific group. Once it gets beyond 15 it becomes more difficult to have true honest, deep relationships. So, we tell people once the group gets between 12-20 people to start thinking about what the next steps are. Once a group gets to that size a group will start to taper off in their desire to bring in new people anyway, so that is when we start asking people to ask the Lord if they have a burden to do this elsewhere. I am speaking more from my training in my residency here. Almost always when we approach people with this question, there is normally 1-2 that are already thinking that way. So, instead of dividing the groups we ask them to discern in the Spirit who is the 1-2 people to go and start another group, to send out.

As far as salvations and baptisms, like you said it is a new group, so we have not seen any of that yet in our time so far. We are working alongside a few non Christians with the Hyde Park group. With the refugee network, the Hispanic network and the poet network, I could not give you specific numbers on those because we are not directly tied to those groups. As far as I can tell every group has about 70% Christian and 30% non Christian. Our hope it through time and gospel sharing we will see more people come to Christ.

Matt: How do you divide your time during the week?

Mark: Right now, it is busier because I have picked up a seasonal job to pay some extra expenses and then I have another part time job that I work throughout the year. I do have some support from individuals and the church planting organization that focuses on the Chicagoland area. So my time is pretty fluid. It is in the afternoons and evenings when I really focus on the church plant.

One thing that has been helpful is I have been taking days to walk through different neighborhoods. I feel that every church planter should take some time to do this, where they are fully immersed in the mission field in another context. Chicago is amazing for this. It is none as the "city of neighborhoods" and is made up of about 200 different communities. So, I have this city map on my wall and then go to it. I travel public transit, eat lunch there, and just try and discover what people's needs are. Another big piece of how I spend my time is creating training tools for other church planters. One of those is Pray for Chicago Project. It is using wikipedia style technology and allows people to prayer walk through different parts of Chicago. So, I guess half/half. Half the time I am doing things on my own and the other half is working on website development.

Matt: In your groups do you speak every week, do you have a traditional sermon, or is it more of a discussion format?

Mark: I would say the majority is dialogue. Sometimes we go through a specific topic and one person decides they are going to research that topic. Right now it has been more dialogue.

Matt: What would be your advice to me?

Mark: Don't put the model before the maker. There are pluses and minuses to every model. I don't know what your dreams are, but I would say to every church planter to not put your passion for church planting before your intimacy with Father. Without that deep rooted intimacy you are up the creek without the paddle. I am talking from experience. It is easy to forget about what is truly important.

Matt: Well, thanks so much Mark. I really appreciate your time.

Checkout Mark's site: godgrown.net

Books I have read so far on my Church Planting Training

2008-11-07T13:04:00.000-06:00

Here is a list of books I have read and reviewed since I started my Church Planting Training roughly 9 months ago:

I'm also reading a church planting manual and have read sections from several books for my theological and theme studies. I am currently reading Simply Strategic Volunteers: Empowering People For Ministry by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens (review coming soon).

They are all good but if I had to pick one, in terms of church planting, I'd pick Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age by Ed Stetzer. It's comprehensive in that it covers theological and practical aspects of church planting.

Interview with the Director of Church Planting for the Vineyard, Steve Nicholson

2008-11-06T13:30:00.000-06:00

A couple of months ago I interviewed Steve Nicholson, who is the national director of church planting for the Vineyard. Steve is originally a church planter. He planted in Chicago and from that church there has been more than 17 other churches planted out. Steve also does training globally with church leaders, so it was huge privilege to learn from him. Use the interface on the right to play the latest podcast or download the audio here.

Matt: Steve, how do you express your wanderlust for church planting even though you are not planting churches yourself right now?

Steve: For me, mostly it goes into training and coaching church planters. So I am pretty much always coaching and training church planters all the time.

Matt: OK, so how does that look on a week to week basis?

Steve: We have phone conversations and exchange emails. Usually, if I am coaching someone, I visit them from time to time. We start far ahead and keep going until they get the church up and running.

Matt: I see. Now, have I got that number right about your church planting out 17 other churches? Is that correct?

Steve: I think that is right, yeah.

Matt: Have you been involved in all of those?

Steve: Yes, to one degree or another, I have been involved in all of them.

Matt: How do you go about finding guys who are church planters and then training them to do so?

Steve: For me, I tend to start fairly young. So, with some guys I figure out that they are a church planter when they are still in high school. Even though they may not plant for another 10 years. But you are looking for people who are leaders, who can articulate themselves, who know how to put a team together, who can break a vision down into steps which they can actually do. You are looking for catalytic people who tend to start things and lead people everywhere they go. A good church planter looks like a good business entrepreneur.

Matt: Do you find that you get a lot of guys from the business world who are interested in church planting?

Steve: Sometimes we do, later in life. They spend time in business and then feel like they are ready for a change. They always make good church planters.

Matt: Now, this is your main preoccupation, church planting. What do you find yourself thinking about the most when it comes to church planting?

Steve: Just to clarify, I am still leading a church. I spend most of my time leading on my on church. I do spend time thinking about church planting and the biggest default is still about finding the right people. There is a lot of knowledge out there about how to plant, certainly more than there was 30 years ago. The steps to take our fairly clear. There are plenty of places to plant. The bottle neck is finding people to plant. So, that is where most of my thoughts are.

Matt: What is your strategy for getting the DNA of church planting into the church that you are leading?

Steve: First of all, when you plant 17 churches it kind of gets into the DNA. A lot of times you get it in the DNA by doing it. Two, you have to build a church where people have a kingdom mentality, where people know that we are not just here for ourselves...we are not here to be religious consumers, we are here to build the Kingdom of God. When people get that mentality they are going to want to express that in some form. The third thing, I think if you teach people to listen to the Holy Spirit, He calls them. He puts it in them.

Matt: What are your plans for increasing your church planting efforts? Is that in your thoughts? What are your plans for the next 5, 10 years for church planting?

Steve: Church planters are kind of like evangelists. You know, if 100 people come to Christ an evangelist will celebrate for about 5 min and then they are thinking I wish it was 1,000. It is never enough. The same can be for church planting, you know, it is never enough. You always want more. Like I said, I mostly try to make sure that I spot every potential planter I can and help them move in that direction.

Matt: What changes have you seen in the church planting scene? Are there any concerns yo have about the church planting scene and how have you seen it evolve?

Steve: The thing I would say, no matter where you get it, the training is basically the same. There are a few magic bullets that everyone has to do it doesn't matter what brand of church you are planting. The only different situation would be, say a Catholic church moves into a new area where there is already 10,000 catholics and start a new parish...but for everyone is it pretty much looks the same. It is a function of doing it.

On the plus side, I think that there does not have to be as many failures as there was 30 years ago. 30 years ago there were many churches being planted and a lot of them did not survive. Generally, the survival rate is higher than it was even though the general climate is more negative. My main concern, is that once in a while you get people who don't want to do it the regular way, they want to skip stuff. Or, they want to plant the "non-church" church. "We want to plant a church, but we are not going to call it a church, it is not actually going to meet...etc." Of course, you get nothing. So, we have seen more of that in the last 5 years, which concerns me because it does not work.

Matt: Have you seen much of that in the Chicago area?

Steve: No, I haven't. Part of it is that it is the mid-west. Mid-westerners tend to be more conventional.

Matt: What is your vision for Chicago? What is your heart for the city you are in?

Steve: Well, we would like to have 50 Vineyard churches, which would be about the same as the Catholics and Lutherans. It is still pretty modest. Along the way, we want to be a friend and assistance to other churches. Every once in a while we will help a church that is not planting a Vineyard church, but some other kind of church. I am always happy to do that too.

Matt: Have you done much with the emerging, multi-site approach to churches? What is your take on that and what is your experience of that?

Steve: My take is that it is certainly a way of getting fast, short term results. If you have a strong church with a lot of momentum and a very strong preacher, you can get a lot of things going very quickly by piping in the preaching and that produces fast, short term rewards.

My concern is, what happens in 30 years when those guys are not around anymore. My experience is that it takes many years of experience to train up mature pastors that are capable of leading a large organization. It takes many years for someone to become a good preacher, and I am thinking that if these gifted people do the multi-site thing and do it all electronically themselves, where are people getting any experience and training. My question is, "yeah this works now, but what will happen in 30 years when they are gone?"

Matt: My wife and I feel call to plant in Chicago. Steve, if you were me...I have never planted, I'm 28, married, we will have 2 small kids when we move...where would be a strategic place, in terms of reaching the city, to land...where would you suggest?

Steve: Usually, I tell people...number one-go somewhere where there are people like you. Unless you have a very strong missionary gifting you need to go to a place where there are people like you. If you go to a more upper class, intellectual area, then you have to be that yourself. On the converse, if you are more of an intellectual and you go to a blue-collar area, you will struggle. The leader and the place need to match.

Secondly, really big cities like Chicago are a lot harder than medium and smaller size cities. It is much more difficult to be noticed. Word-of-mouth does not help you in really big cities. If you start a new church in a city of 200,000-500,000 and your church grows to 200-300, your church will be noticed. You could have a church of 2,000 people in Chicago and nobody would know who you were. You don't get noticed here until you have 10,000 or more people. It is very hard to create this wide-spread public perception. And you can't do it using advertising because it is very very expensive, no one has that kind of money. It is a hard place.

Thirdly, you need to know that Chicago functions like 3 different cities. There is Nothside, Southside and Westside. People of one section generally know nothing about the other sections, and never go there at all. They each have their own culture and ethos and that includes the suburbs. Not only do you have north, south and west sides of the city, but also the suburbs, so you need to look into that and figure out where you would best fit. Southside tends to be more blue collar and Westside tends to be more coorporate, middleclass, republican. Northside tends to be more wealthy, more educated, more democratic, more young professionals. So, you need to know that is how Chicago works.

Matt: Do you find that in your church that you have a lot of fruit amongst students?

Steve: Yeah, we've always have had a lot of fruit amongst students.

Matt: What do you attribute that to?

Steve: Good music helps. Our style of preaching appeals to students. Our leadership is more educated people. And then once you have some you get more. So, even though I've been doing this for 30 years and am 30 years older, our median age is still only 32.

Matt: What are some of the idols of Chicago?

Steve: Money is a biggie. The whole city is really constructed of immigrants who came here to make a better life. Chicago is very much the immigrant city, it still is and they are coming here to find money.

Matt: Have you had much fruit from other nationalities being added to the church?

Steve: My church has people from around 35 different countries and is about 42% minority. So we have a very divers church.

Matt: Do you find that you have leaders, church planters emerging from those people groups, or do you find that is a harder step to take?

Steve: We have some. We have leaders and some church planters also.

Matt: What are some of the contemporary approaches that you have found that help to connect the way people think to the gospel?

Steve: One of the biggies is ministry to the poor. People love being apart of giving to the poor. You have to understand that I am a north side church...so most of the people are democratic, most are more educated and professional and have more of a social consciousness. SO, they love being apart of a church that is involved in reaching the poor. I think, the other thing is just talking about spirituality in a non-religious fashion. People want to experience spirituality. They do not want religion, or rules.

Matt: On a personal level, what would be your encouragement to me...you know we are on a church planting internship, we are in St. Louis, we are about half way through. What would you encourage me to really focus on?

Steve: First and most importantly, you have to have your vision as clear as a bell. You have to work out phrases and ways of describing your vision that you could communicate to someone in a coffee shop again, and again and again. When church planters struggle, a lot of times it is because their vision is not very clear, or they have not worked it out, how to say it to someone. Imagine yourself in different settings, describing what we are trying to do and get it worked out precisely. Meeting someone in a coffee shop and they are asking, "why should I join you?" you have to be able to communicate clearly what the vision is to them .

One guy I knew, he would start out every church service by saying, "this church started with a dream..." and then he would say something about what that dream was. You have to be able to answer that question. Secondly, I would say you always, always, always start with a team. You need at least 12 people, min 10...but the bigger the team you have, the faster things can go. But, don't take people who are going to need lots of hand holding. People who need lots of attention from the pastor because they are not going to get it. Thirdly, I would say include a prayer team. The Devil is not a sleeper.

Matt: When you say "prayer team" do you mean people locally, or do you mean something broader than that?

Steve: People who don't go on the church plant who pray for you regularly...because there is spiritual warfare.

Matt: Steve, I want to thank you for your time, it has been very beneficial.

Bi-vocational Church Planting

2008-11-05T13:35:00.008-06:00

During this year of Church Planting Training we receive support from a number of very generous people who really believe in us and what we are doing. Our support covers a lot of what we need but to make up the rest of our income it's been necessary to make extra doing freelance work. This presents a lot of time challenges especially considering the type of work I do.

I have a number of technical skills including; web site design, email marketing, digital image enhancement and search engine optimization. Through divine intervention work has turned up just at the right moment without having to do any advertising. That's a huge blessing, especially with the economy right now. I have completed a number of email marketing concepts and executions recently as well as a few web sites and a web site redesign.

On the one hand this type of work allows me to set my own schedule. On the other hand it's directly tied to a businesses success and therefore controlled by the tight deadlines of the marketing industry. Responsiveness and quality are critical to longevity as a freelancer. There is absolutely no loyalty or performance reviews and so the product has to be top notch. Plus, I find that with the myriad of constant online advancements I generally have to learn as I go, on almost every job. Innovation is a constant.

This is not an excellent setup for a church planter. I recently heard that to be bi-vocational you need a regular job that you can clock out from and be done with it. It can be easily segregated and turned off in your mind. That's not what I find with online marketing. I find that to be innovative and produce something cutting edge you have to pour a good amount of time and energy into it. Let me give you an example.

I recently re-launched Atlanta Magician Arthur Atsma's website. I really enjoyed redesigning the site and implementing some innovative aspects. Checkout the site and especially the video's at the top of the page, they are a blast. To make this website robust for the various types of clients Arthur has I needed to make it compatible with the ever increasing amount of browsers and browser versions. The site is fully compatible with all versions of Safari, Firefox, IE (version 5 and above, including version 8 beta) and Google Chrome. This is no small task -- it's a LOT of work!

If anyone reading this has any bi-vocational ideas for me, especially that my skills might fit into, then please let me know. I've always been interested in starting an online company but I realize that to plant a church I'd need a business manger to run a start-up internet business like this for me. When we church plant, I'd like a tent making business that I could give 1-2 days a week to and have someone else managing it. It would be especially cool to be able to use the business to fund church planting efforts. That's my ultimate dream.

Let me know if anyone else out there thinks the same way!

Conversations with our doubts

2008-10-29T21:12:00.006-05:00

As part of my church planting training I have initiated involvement with local University students. Students are not just a fun group to be amongst but because they are thinking through serious life issues and desire satisfactory answers, they embody an effective environment for the gospel.

Because of their intellectual pursuits many students require a no nonsense well reasoned explanation for the beliefs of Christianity. Therefore, my work has so far involved creating summaries of chapters from a book titled The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Having realized that many students, especially those outside faith, are unlikely to buy the book, I am creating one page chapter summaries with discussion questions (example here.) As you can imagine this is a time consuming process--but a worthwhile one.

So far these discussions have been held with a Campus Crusade for Christ group at UMSL and have been very enlightening and equipping. But, now we are taking it to the next level. Over the next four weeks at Webster University Jubilee Churches College group LATITUDE will be hosting "conversations with our doubts". See the video below for more info:

Each week we will discuss the following topics:

Monday Nov 3rd: There Can't Be Just One True Religion
Monday Nov 10th: Christianity Is The Enemy Of Freedom
Monday Nov 17th: Science Has Disproved Christianity
Monday Nov 24th: You Can't Take the Bible Literally

The next four weeks will be a great way for us to engage college students with subjects they wrestle with in an intellectual way and provide some solid discussion and thought provoking concepts.

Have you ever doubted your doubts about God? I challenge you to get this thought provoking book: The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

Church Staffing

2008-10-28T23:05:00.004-05:00

As part of my church planting training I just finished reading Staff Your Church for Growth by Gary L. McIntosh first published in 2000. The book tackles questions like: When is it the right time to hire additional staff or pastors? And: How should a church begin to look for support staff? Gary L. McIntosh is a professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, and has over 22 years of experience in this field.

There doesn't seem to be loads of material out there on the subject of church staffing, and nothing was personally recommended to me, so this book choice was an unavoidable gamble. I don't agree with everything in the book and found some language to be unfamiliar, but I'll share 2 main areas that I found particularly helpful.

Staffing a Church for Growth

I found this aspect of the book most applicable to church planting as it deals with the issues of who to hire first and how to keep making the best staffing choices to encourage growth.

McIntosh points to C. Peter Wager who writes: "Most churches are understaffed for growth. They are staffed for maintenance and survival, but not for growth. If your church is to sustain growth momentum, staffing must become a very high priority." McIntosh writes: "[the] observation of churches that have recently called a new staff member has revealed that many are hard-pressed to define a clear, reasonable rationale for doing so." This means that church staffing decisions are largely not very smart--and at best a shot in the dark.

The fastest growing churches are new churches. This is because the first priority of the new church is evangelism. If the core group do not win new people to Christ, the new church will not get off the ground. The early priorities of a new church are finding people, keeping people and gathering people for worship. However, as the church is successful at this, its members move into maintenance mode, taking care of what they have (people, programs, facilities) while abandoning the priorities that got them there (outreach, assimilation and worship).

This shift in priorities is the cause of plateau in many churches. With numerical growth comes organizational needs. Those in the church are acutely aware of their needs and it can be tempting to staff based on the growing needs created by the constant addition of new people. However, staffing this way leads to an ingrown church and responds to a relational issue instead of a missional issue.

On page 26 he writes: "a church that wants to grow must staff positions ... [that] help find new people (evangelism), keep new people (assimilation), and worship (celebration)." These staff members will focus on the priorities that result in continued growth. To staff for decline would be to first hire a youth pastor in response to parents concern for their own children. This position is not going to grow the church.

The book goes on to suggest that the second staff person to be hired should be a person who balances the gifts and talents of the senior pastor. You find the balance by understanding the two dimensions of nomothetic church roles, being growth focused positions. The first set involve finding, keeping and celebrating with people. The second set involve educating, overseeing and caring for people. If the senior pastor is stronger in the first set, then the additional leader should be stronger in the second, and viceversa.

The third staff person should fall outside a nomothetic role and into an idiographic role, being more relational and focused on community maturity. Idiographic roles include internal programs like various adult, youth and children's ministries. However, there is a strong encouragement to staff these positions with volunteers for as long as possible because they do not grow the church. Additional staff beyond this can be alternated between nomothetic and idiographic roles to bring constant balance to the overall ministry.

Adding a supporting staff member like a secretary, admin assistant, intern, or bookkeeper, is more flexible depending on how heavily program based the church is. A rough guideline is given of with 150 people one support staff is suggested. 300 would require 1.5 and 450 requires 2 support staff.

The issues of hiring staff is also addresses well from multiple angles. Everything from recruiting, interviews, conflict and team roles are covered.

Lone Ranger Vs Team

The book starts by attacking the notion of the "Lone Ranger" Pastor who does everything. On page 13 he writes: "Only one person has all the gifts and that is Jesus Christ Himself." Biblical reasons are given for the need to move away from this model of church staffing but another helpful insight is offered: "Just as the secular world has moved towards specialization and sub-specialization, so the church must respond with specialization to effectively minister to the complex needs of people." If the church is to be engaged with the culture, then we are to be engaged with an increasing complex culture.

He also asserts that while vision usually comes from a central person, there always seems to be a team involved to bring the vision to reality. The various different team models are discussed. One example, The "Hired Gun Model", was addressed and warned against. This involves a strongly results-orientated environment where support staff and additional pastors are accepted as long as they do what they are paid to do. The major downfall of this model is that is breeds an inadequate loyalty to the team and means the "hired gun" can be hired away by another church.

The best model for team is the relational/complementary model. There is diversity in gifting and function but with an emphasis on relationships and giftedness rather than strictly performance or popularity. The senior leader acts as a team coach, while the leadership team has room to help set the direction and agenda. A strong feeling of unity and shared ministry is developed.

The communication of a compelling vision and the development of clear job descriptions, evaluations, resources and rewards are significant elements in building a strong church staff. He writes: "Leadership and management are complementary and dependent on each other for the growth of a church ... it is entirely possible--indeed necessary if the church is to grow--for the pastor's role to move over time from shepherd to rancher." I didn't like the word rancher at first but in explanation this refers to a leader providing oversight through others, of which there are many good Biblical examples. This is a step on from the role of the shepherd which is one-on-one oversight.

Another helpful insight is that of team and subteam size. Through Biblical observation and studies "... it appears that the best staff team is most often made up of seven or less persons since a team of seven allows for a leader and two subsets of three individuals (triangles)." This helps to explain why larger teams struggle to maintain intimacy and therefore common vision. He writes: "To keep larger teams healthy, it is wise to organize them by triangles." Keeping things small in the midst of growth is smart because it facilities change and sustains the personal dynamic and mutual ownership. He admits that developing a strong team simply takes time.

Conclusion

This book had some really helpful insights into decisions about church staffing. There are of course many things I don't have space to mention. If you are interested, this is a quick read, checkout: Staff Your Church for Growth by Gary L. McIntosh

Breaking The Missional Code by Ed Stetzer & David Putman

2008-10-17T15:50:00.003-05:00

I recently read Breaking The Missional Code by Ed Stetzer & David Putman. This book is a great way for me to jump straight back into a missional church planting learning mode after having been a little silent on my blog for a while -- here we go -- kappow!

The main message of the book is pretty simple. The church is the primary vehicle for God to reach the world and local churches cannot simply copy methods, styles or techniques to be effective, but must discern their local cultures in order to be fruitful yet remain faithful.

Breaking the Missional Code does not present a secret formula to suit everyone. It presents a principle for church life: to study and observe the surrounding culture in each community and adjust the methods/forms of the church in order to best connect people with the message of the gospel. On page 228 it says of code breaking churches that "... the mission of the church to fulfill the Great Commission does not get relegated to a program of evangelism, but it becomes intricately woven through the entire fabric of the local church." Everyone is on the mission!

The book talks about the sin of preference. Page 50 says "You can't be missional and pick what you like at the same time ... That is not a problem when our preferences line up with the missional choices for our community. The problem occurs when they do not. That situation requires a change of heart." This is a conundrum for many because everyone holds certain styles to be best, effective, right or even biblical. For example, I prefer a type of worship because I have grown up with it and find that I often experience the presence of God in that worship style.

However, the book is challenging me to rethink that preference. The community we live in might have a different musical form that would more effectively allow them to hear the message of the gospel. The question is: am I good with that? Am I willing to do whatever it takes to connect with the unchurched and not just assume that the vibe of contemporary Christian worship is best for our community? I often preach 45 minutes to an hour at our yearly youth conferences. But, what if people just can't connect with that? Shoot! Dying to these preferences is going to be hard but essential if the lost are important.

Some other key themes in the book are contextualizing discipleship, emerging church strategies and the characteristics of missional leaders. This book would be very helpful for church planters and church leaders alike as it raises a call to bring effective mission back into the church where it truly belongs. Christian community is the best place for mission. Our core identity and core calling should never be divorced. The church should be what she is -- an effective code breaking missional family.

Here are some highlights from the book:

For too many, they love their preferences and their strategies more than they love the people whom God has called them to reach. Page 7
America is the most diverse nation in the world. Page 14
[Some] are convinced if you just "preach the gospel" and perhaps "love people" that your church will reach people. They are wrong, and their ideas hurt the mission of the church. Page 14
Jesus' command to "go to all nations," we think countries. But when Jesus spoke those words, there were no countries as we understand them today. Jesus' instructions mean we must go to all people groups in the world. Page 34
We have become fascinated with the very things that Jesus said not to worry about. Page 40
It seems that every pastor really wants to get into mission -- if his church was just a little bigger. They do not want to give themselves away until there is enough to share. That is not the way God does things. God calls us to give ourselves away and trust him. Page 70
Mission is an intrinsically translational task. Page 73
Leaders who break the code create opportunities. They throw themselves at the challenge of creating environments where the gospel can be planted and flourish. Page 74
Redemptive analogies are twenty-first-century parables. Page 97
Code-breaking churches teach their members to invest and invite. Page 145
... we learn our way forward and therefore we must build time into our process to evaluate what we are learning. When this happens, we build a culture where team members are willing to take risks and come up with new ideas. When we evaluate everything on a pass/fail basis, it is not unusual for a culture to be created that is suspicious and lacking in trust. Page 196-197
Vision is something people produce; revelation is something people receive. Leaders can dream up a vision, but they cannot discover God's will. God must reveal it. Page 205
Pray that God might reveal what keeps local people from trusting in Jesus Christ, and then ask the Holy Spirit to break those barriers. Page 219

Checkout: Breaking The Missional Code by Ed Stetzer & David Putman

Sweetman Family Photo Shoot

2008-09-20T21:20:00.002-05:00

This morning a good friend of ours Jodi Hertz took some family photos for us. Here are our top choices. Enjoy ...

Interview with Chicago Church Planter Rick Kuhr

2008-08-27T09:24:00.003-05:00

Recently I interviewed Rick Kuhr who planted a church in Chicago and started gathering people in January 2007. Rick is 32, married and has a daughter. Checkout this podcast and learn from Rick's church planting experiences.

You can use the player on the right to listen to the most recent podcast, download the church planting interview or read below.

Matt: How did you know you were called to plant a church in Chicago? Why did you pick Chicago?

Rick: I did a year of mission work in Spain and after that year I knew I wanted to be in a place that was needy spiritually. Chicago is one of those places...it is short on the national average when it comes to churches and there is a lack of witness in that city.

Matt: Were there people that God used or events to help shape your vision for Chicago? Or was it more like, "this place needs God, so lets go." ?

Rick: I had a friend who was planting in Boulder CO and had asked me to come with him. I wasn't sure but I knew wherever I went I would need to be called by God, I wasn't going to move my family if I wasn't called. One day, this friend who had asked me to go with him said, "Rick you need to be unleashed from this. You just got to do what you have to do." And for the guy who had asked me to go to release me, that was huge. He encouraged me to get involved in Chicago. I called the national church director for church planting (for The Vineyard) in Chicago and asked if they were doing in work in the UIC area. That ended up being the only area they were doing work in at that time. So that was a big confirmation. A year before I had been praying and actually asked my wife what she thought about planting in the UIC area and then that was the only area they were planting in. After doing bible studies on the campus for 3-4 years and asking college students what churches were there, I realized that people would travel 4-5 if not 10-12 miles to go to church! I thought that was a little crazy and saw that the need was there. I found out there are smaller churches in the area but none of them are being a strong witness in that area. So we decided to do it!

Matt: When you got on the ground, how did you go about launching the church?

Rick: We did it a little differently. Usually a leader will gather a team and then they will go out. I came in on the middle of everything. The Hyde Park Vineyard had organized it without a leader and I found out about it after it had already started forming. I operate quite relationally so that was different because I didn't have much chance to get to know people I just felt called to the area and that was prodded me to interact with people. It was really the Hyde Park Vineyard who really had gathered some people who would be committed to the plant, so that is how we originally got together. Personally, I did not do much of the gathering. A lot of the people came through the UIC bible study which I had been involved with.

Matt: How many people did you have in that initial group? How did you get the word out amongst non Christians in the area?

Rick: Part of our vision is connecting people to Jesus. We try to focus everything we do to be centered on relationships. So we did kind of everything in the beginning, from doing water giveaways, handing out flowers, door to door prayer. and flyers. Ideally people to come because they know someone. Other people have come because we have been active in the community, being aware of people, talking to people on the streets, really founding that vision of being interactive and aware of what is going on. We have done pizza at a park where there are homeless and different things like that.

Matt: How many people are you gathering right now?

Rick: Well, Chicago is really transient so our numbers can be low because we are in the university area. Last week we had 15 the week before we had 27. So, our average is somewhere in between there.

Matt: You are bi-vocational (working full time job and planting a church) how do you manage your time? How does that affect your life and your ministry?

Rick: A mentor of mine says in church planting you either struggle financially or with your time and if you are bi vocational you typically aren't going to have the financial stress but you will have the time stress. We already lived in the area and I already had a job so for me it really comes down to time stewardship. I have to take advantage of every second I can. So, when I walk to work I talk to people. I usually engage with them using a question that goes along with the theme for the coming Sunday or the time of year. My commute is 15 min so I take advantage of it and talk to people about Jesus. It is doing stuff I already do but incorporating Jesus into it. I try to multi-task and be effective. I make sure that I get time with God, ultimately that is what will effect me, my family and the people I talk to. My second priority is my family, if my family health is not doing well that will effect the overflow of me being able to love other people.

Matt: How do you find time for the church and preparing messages during the week?

Rick: My main gifting is evangelism, so apart from my walking to and from work I would spend an additional 2 hours talking with people on the streets, getting into conversations. I make sure I am consistently in the word because the directly effects everything that we do and I believe it is good to speak on a Sunday what God has been speaking to you, so that is something I make sure to do. Usually, since we have a baby, I study late at night. I don't get the most sleep. It really comes down to time stewardship. I try to utilize every moment I have during the day, from meeting up with people on my lunch breaks to praying or reading the word.

Matt: What do you do for work?

Rick: I am a personal banker. Which is great because I've been able to talk to a lot of people about Jesus. In my work I talk a lot with other people about daily life, so I am able to bring Jesus into the conversation quite easily. The whole idea of being bi-vocational is not appealing to me because I see it more as a way of life. We are all ministers of Jesus.

Matt: What other challenges have you faced? What have been some of your lows and how have you pushed through them?

Rick: I am an off the scale extrovert and have always operated out of relationship with people. So, it has been hard for me is having come into the middle of a plant where I don't know anyone, they don't know me. I had not been around long enough for people to see my actions, because actions speak louder than words. So, it can be hard to speak into people's lives when they haven't had time to really see what you are about. Second difficulty has been we had a lot of individuals who had a lot of great ideas and because I came in later in the process I think that was something that was difficult. It was a situation where the leader wasn't established. People had their own ideas, their own agenda and when that didn't pan out to be the way that the plant was going to be that was very disappointing for them, which was then expressed to me or other individuals, which was hard.

I look at church planting can be a little bit like the bi-polar disorder-everything is magnified. The great things are incredible and the victories are awesome but the defeats are in the valley, they are deep. So where there is a lack of consistency or history there is those real highs and real lows and that is something I have really had to work through. My calling here is something that I am convinced that God has given me. And through human eyes success in a church plant would be getting the church going, getting all the activities and ministries in place and having that fly. In reality, if God calls us to an area, we need to be committed to that. God honors our obedience. We could look at church plants and think, "o they don't have this going or that going." But it is in the process that we are able to love God, that is what is important. I just heard about a guy who is planting out in Montana and things have flopped from a financial standpoint and almost ruined him. It you find your value in how your church then you've missed it. It is about the kingdom of God advancing and being obedient to him. Church planting is so intense and you can be so caught up in your own little world rather than focusing on the big picture and advancing the kingdom.

Matt: What have been some of the highlights/victories for you?

Rick: We have had homeless people come to our gathering, which is cool. About a month ago we had a meeting where 1/2 of the people there were either Latino, African American or Asian. For me to get to a point where we see a diverse group is exciting! My wife and I are both Caucasian, so sometimes it can be difficult to get people to come in a multi-diverse, multi-economic area when you look different to them. It is important to have different ethnicity's on your team because that communicates to people who are different to you that they are welcome. So, that has been really exciting.

Another guy came in off the streets, and we helped him get a place at the YMCA. We helped him a job situation, transportation and he has come and we helped him get established. Talk about social justice and ministering to the heart and spirit of an individual. I have not heard of to many stories of churches seeing someone so broken being redeemed in that type of way. He is helping us with music and serving in the church he is part of the community. It is obviously hard work and a huge investment but really encouraging. A lot of the conversations on the streets have been incredible. One question I have asked is "what makes people selfish?" I had 2 conversations yesterday about this questions and they were incredible. I think people like dealing with that question regardless about where they are on the spiritual spectrum because they realize selfishness is a problem and they want to overcome it. But, touching on those issues that are at the core who we as humans are. People are aggressive about lust and pornography and anger and jealousy, different things in how they live their lives. I believe we can be aggressive about living a life of love. I believe we can be confrontational with love.

Matt: How has God provided for you in terms of finances for the church? How have you covered your costs?

Rick: We have been really blessed in this area! It is pretty simple, I don't get a salary and we don't pay for our location. We are in the same location as another church, which is a huge blessing. They said to us that we could use their place, they want to use their facility for the advancement of the kingdom. I am sure it happens but I have never heard a church receiving a blessing like that. We are incredibly blessed to be the recipient of that. So, we don't have any huge costs. That makes things pretty easy. A lot of our money goes to outreach. We have a different starting time, we start at 4.30pm and we are thinking of that for a long term basis due to people's work schedule. But, anyways, we actually get together afterwards to have a bite to eat. And coming back to community, living life together and the vision to actually see that accomplished we use that as an opportunity to get to know people. And those who come and eat, for the most part, we buy them dinner. So, a lot of the money that we spend is on things like that.

Matt: What is your vision for Chicago? What plans do you have to expand?

Rick: Our vision is to connect people to Jesus, in a general sense. And that looks like, sharing life with people. I think sometimes with churches they can go for social justice but it turns into social gospel...where it is not ministering to the whole of the person, but they just talk about the spiritual aspect. Those things are all connected and we can forget to help out the physical needs. So we want to be a community that is able to merge that. Not neglecting social justice and also addressing the real issue of the spirit being redeemed. So, community, meeting the needs of the whole person, and also being really into the scripture, really understanding it. We want to be expectant for God to speak, for him to guide us and lead us but doing that with the foundation of the word. Having that mix, kind of a double barrel action.

Matt: I am doing a church planting internship, in St. Louis. You are already doing the stuff, out in the field. What would be your advice for me?

Rick: I would encourage and challenge you to have a team. The research that has been done shows that if you don't have a team you are setting yourself up for disaster. So, I would challenge you to bring a team, people that will help you along the way. Make sure you love God and loving Jesus and loving people as the main thing. Also, maintain that balance. We are useless as followers of God if we forget that we are following God. It may sound obvious, but if we are not receiving, others can't receive from us as easy. We need to be able to have a balance with our family, our wives. There is a huge witness in loving our wives and loving our families. That responsibility in the community needs accountability. You need an established overseer. Those would be my advices. Go with where you are strong. My most recent blog is about we as individuals are meant to live in co-dependence with God and others to advance the kingdom.

Matt: Rick, thank you so much for your time, I so appreciate it.

Checkout: nearwestvineyard.org

St. Louis shows the most interest in Church Planting above other cities

2008-08-20T11:10:00.009-05:00

What is going on in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and South Carolina? Well, between 2004 and August 2008 those States have generated the most Google searches for the term "church planting".

On average there are approximately 14,800 Google searches each month for the phrase "church planting". This phrase shows more popularity than "planting a church" which has an average monthly of 480 and "church plant" showing 1,800. Even the phrase "church planting conference" only shows an average volume of 320 searches per month.

This shows a significantly concentrated interest in church planting from the Midwest and the Southeastern regions of the USA. States with the light blue color below show zero data. This means that if any searches have occurred they were two infrequent or small to be recorded.

Regional Interest for Church Planting

The numbers next to the States do not represent the number of searches but a search volume index between 0-100, where the highest volume will always be 100, in this case Tennessee.

In taking a closer look at my State, Missouri, I see that the totality of searches are coming from St. Louis. I guess no one in Kansas City is interested in church planting -- making St. Louis a good choice for us to be trained in starting new churches. A closer look at Texas reveals that Richardson and Dallas alone share the interest in the phrase "church planting". Chicago is the hub for Illinois results.

After looking at the data over the last 12 months I can see that the number one State showing interest is Missouri followed in second place by Georgia and then North Carolina takes third. This focus over the last 12 months shows that St. Louis displays the most online interest in the phrase "church planting". And before anyone makes a comment about this there is no possible way that I am skewing the numbers through my personal searches -- there are just too many searches for any one person to skew it!

One observation from the graphic above is that West Virginia shows no interest but is completely surrounded by those who do. If you are in a surrounding region I suggest you converge on West Virginia as apparently there is no one there yet whose interested in church planting enough to ask Google about it!

This data would seem to suggest that St. Louis is an excellent place to receive focused training on church planting as it shows the most interest and therefore contains the most like-minded people. Does demand equal supply? Well, if you are interested why not look into Newfrontiers Church Planting Internship based in St. Louis and supply your demand!

Wentzville Church

2008-08-18T10:59:00.002-05:00

On Sunday the Jubilee Wentzville Church launched with weekly services and got off to a great start! Wentzville is Jubilee Churches second campus. The location pastor, Rick Hein, my mentor and friend, communicated this list of highlights:

17 First-time Guests
71 total attendance
Great weather (this is actually a very significant thing)
A Launch Team that came together and served magnificently

Plus, a few people indicated a fresh faith commitment to Jesus. These results are wonderful because having people connect to Jesus is the ultimate goal!

I personally feel privileged to have seen this new venture come together. It is not a typical church planting model but embodies another form of church planting -- planting new locations of the same church. It seems to be a very helpful way to share resources and therefore move faster. The next phase of growth will be exciting.

Read Rick Heins thoughts about how the launch went.

Can the Bible be trusted?

2008-08-12T22:38:00.005-05:00

We constantly place our trust in things that fail us. Companies want to be productive so they buy PCs. Parents want the best for their kids but rob them of the highest level of security -- staying married and in love. People recycle but continue to buy bottled water and the world crumbles. First time home owners get mortgages they can't afford just so they can live the dream. We get the latest gadget only to find it's obsolete in a few weeks. Sound familiar? We think we are smart but we make dumb decisions all the time.

We make all our decisions based on what our desire is for -- nothing controversial there. But, are you smart about the amount of trust you've placed in your views? Have you considered the validity of the conclusions you draw about life? What have you placed your trust in? What we spend our money, time and resources on normally reveals what our hope is in "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Luke 12:34. Do you believe this statement? If you do, then you have some faith in the words of Jesus already.

In tackling this subject it is my desire to give the guy on the street a cross section of nuggets to draw from in handling biblical trustworthiness, the fancy term is "inerrancy" (without errors). This means the Bible contains no historical, moral, scientific, spiritual, cultural or any other type of mistake or contradiction. It is the very words of God himself, divinely communicated through some men throughout history and preserved as a record of his grace towards us prideful humans.

This is an important issue for all Christians but especially for those in the church planting scene wishing to engage doubters in a relevant and well thought out way. After all, church planting is all about reaching people who doubt Jesus and the Bible. These arguments are really a means to disarm hostility and engage with genuine doubt, not as an end to themselves. The end is to show people the real Jesus!

The exclusivity

It is highly suspicious, but very telling, that a society full of religious relativists would so disdain Christians and the Bible. But that is where we are. Diversity is celebrated, Jesus is rejected. Plurality is prized, the Bible is scorned. The rejection of the Bible is really a rejection of diversity. The suppression of Jesus is the denial of religious relativism itself -- it is strangely selective!

The high standard our culture places on religious relativism, that all paths lead to the same God, is a cover up for something else. Someone who TRULY embodies universal inclusiveness would never single out the Bible or Jesus for exclusion. So, what really is spiritual pluralism then? It can only be one thing: an exclusive belief system. To embrace all beliefs naturally excludes those that rely on exclusivity to be true. Uh? (read it again if you need to)

The faith

What then is non-belief? It is by definition a set of alternative views in which one places their absolute trust. It is a collection of faith-filled assumptions and conclusions. Therefore, all viewpoints, even doubts, are leaps of faith. In fact, to say that the Bible is untrustworthy and cannot be from God is an expression of faith. You cannot empirically prove it either way and it is not universally accepted. For example, the most venomous atheists have more faith and belief in their doubts than some Christians have in the Bible. Now that takes a lot of faith especially if you became an atheist at the age of 6 like someone I recently met.

The uniqueness

The Bible is a very unique book. It is made up of 66 individual books with 40 authors spanning thousands of years. You may be surprised to know that it contains one coherent and timeless message. The message is that God made everything, we broke it and Jesus came to fix it. Ultimately the Bible is about the person of Jesus. The theme is something that a bunch of guys over the last few thousand years, who mainly didn't know each other because they lived at different times, could never have created in their wildest dreams.

No other authors have been able to right anything like it. In fact, the very things Jesus said could really not have been thought up by anyone. The original authors were killed for writing it and none of them recanted their faith in it.

There is really no book like it. It has served as the pinnacle of inspiration for human creativity:

"More poems have been written, more stories told, more pictures painted, and more songs sung about Christ than any other person in human history, because through such avenues as these the deepest appreciation of the human heart can be more adequately expressed."
-- Cynthia Pearl Maus

The probability

There are 300+ prophecies from the Old Testament which were fulfilled in the person of Jesus hundreds and thousands of year later. Peter Stoner, a mathematician and scientist, applied the rules of probability to these prophecies. The chances of just 8 of them being fulfilled are 1 in 10 to the 17th power (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000)! The chances of 48 being fulfilled are 1 in 10 to the 157th power which is 1 in 10 with 157 zeros¹. So, the fact that they were fulfilled in Jesus makes the Bible the most astonishing and accurate book ever written.

Compare that to the mathematical probability of a single celled organism coming about by chance 1/10340,000,000, the fraction 1 divided by 1 followed by 340 million zeros². By the laws of science the Bible is more probable than evolution.

The quantity

The New Testament documents are better preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writing. There are presently over 24,000 total supporting New Testament manuscripts in existence⁶. Most scholars agree that these were written before the close of the first century and some just a few years after the actual events. The manuscripts affirm one-another in recording the truth about Jesus.

In comparison we only have 7 copies of writings that Plato authored from between 427-347 B.C., of which the earliest copy we have is 900 A.D., almost 1200 yrs after it was penned⁷. Yet no one doubts Plato existed? That takes real faith when you consider the quantity of New Testament manuscripts.

The claims

In these sections the Bible claims that it is trustworthy; Psalm 119:24, Psalm 119:130, Proverbs 1:4 & 2 Timothy 3:15. The authors of the Bible also claim that God is speaking to them; Deut 18:17-19, Jeremiah 1:9, 2 Timothy 3:16 & 2 Peter 1:21. It is important to recognize that nearly all other literature does not claim this of itself. Plus the magnitude of Jesus' claims of divinity are too great to be ignored especially considering the quality of his life.

Some might object that this is a circular argument. Surely we need an outside source to verify this? However, any search for a higher authority makes the new source an absolute authority. Absolute truth can therefore only be claimed by itself. This does not mean that all claims are true. For example, David Koresh self claimed that he was the final prophet. His life is not worth studying at all because the guy committed sexual crimes against minors amongst other atrocities.

The contradictions

Some claim that the Bible contains many contradictions which therefore must prove it to be untrustworthy. Wayne Grudem writes "it is surprising how often it turns out that a careful reading just of the English text of the passage in question will bring to light one or more possible solutions to the difficulty"³. Most people who claim these types of mistakes do not know the sections of scripture, nor the context, and are not claiming contradictions because they have honestly explored it, but because their faith in their doubts is stronger.

I'll deal with one common misconception about the time Jesus was crucified. Mark 15:25 states that it was at "the third hour" but John 19:14 states that Jesus trial was still going on at "about the sixth hour". Firstly, you'd think that scribes throughout the centuries or the early church would have changed this apparent error to cover it up, I mean it is so obvious! Unless of course there is a simple explanation. John likely wrote his book in Ephesus, a Roman city, around A.D 90 and therefore likely used the official numbering system of the Roman civil day which would make the time signatures the same⁴.

The mistakes

In Bart D. Ehrman's book Misquoting Jesus he claims that scribes changed the Bible as they copied it over time. On page 10 he also affirms that "Most differences [between manuscripts] are completely immaterial and insignificant". They apparently amount to a difference in spelling. The claims of discrepancy only affect 1-2% of the total Bible⁵, and it's a big book if you haven't seen it recently! No need to throw the baby out -- many other scholars find plausible explanations for these.

On page 175 Ehrman writes "Christian scribes of the second and third centuries were involved with the debates and disputes of their day, and occasionally these disputes affected the reproduction of the texts over which debates raged". This assumption cannot be empirically proven. This is unfortunately a leap of faith and the theory does not fit. For example, one of the earliest controversies was over circumcision for the Gentile Christians. In light of the great conflict it is remarkable that Jesus says nothing in the Bible about circumcision. Therefore, the early church felt no need to fabricate the text to win an argument as Ehrman claims.

The eyewitnesses

The amount of coherence and testimonials in the Bible concerning Jesus is staggering. Many of his followers were persecuted so strongly for their faith and tortured to death -- yet without denouncing it! It is amazing when we consider how strong and vast the evidence is for people who literally witnessed the events and recorded them. Checkout this amazing resource for a compressive list of eyewitness to Jesus.

The errancy

If Christians claim that some parts of the Bible or all of it are open to claims of error then what is the result of this? In The Battle for the Bible Harold Lindsell points out that groups who claim errancy do not usually survive. As one example he says that the overseas missionary work of the United Presbyterian Church has shrunk by more than 50% and its Sunday school enrollment and membership is in decline. Lindsell explains on page 159:

"But the weight of history and all the evidence it supplies leads me to no other conclusion than that even if these friends [Christian groups who have abandoned inerrancy] are able to stop at this point, those who follow after them will not stop where they have stopped. The second generation will follow through on the implications contained in the abandonment of inerrancy and will make concessions on the questions that pertain to matters of faith and practice as well as to matters of history, science, and chronology."

It's either all true, or all false. Christianity after all is a fundamental belief system. When you take away the earthy dynamic faith in God's divine communication then you become wishy washy and effectively never recover.

The Spirit

Finally it is important to recognize that without the help of the Holy Spirit we cannot fathom the deep wisdom of the Bible. Heck, some people were surprised when Jesus showed up and the prophecies had been staring them in the face for centuries! If you read the Bible and do not understand it in a spiritual way pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you.

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." -- John 14:26

I firmly believe in the trustworthiness of the Bible not because I have studied all the material concerning it, just as the doubters haven't studied it all. But I believe in it's truthfulness in all regards because when I read it I know it is true. When I drink it in my heart is refreshed. The person of scripture is alive and therefore his words are alive -- Jesus!

References:

hediedforme.com
nodnc.com
p98 of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology
p363 -364 of Gleason L. Archer's Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
contenderministries.org
carm.org/evidence/textualevidence.htm
carm.org/evidence/textualevidence.htm

Additional resources:

The Battle for the Bible by Harold Lindsell
Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman's
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason L. Archer's
5 sermons by John Piper on Why we believe the Bible
A deeper article on Biblical inerrancy
Here is a blog post with comments strongly disagreeing with biblical inerrancy
Here is a list of bible contradictions (which I do not agree are contradictions)

Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century by Aubrey Malphurs

2008-08-11T08:35:00.008-05:00

I just finished reading the book Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Guide for New Churches and Those Desiring Renewal by Aubrey Malphurs. I'd sum it up in this statement: it gives church planters a firm strategy for launching a new church and a plan for avoiding plateau. It is very similar to Ed Stetzer's book in many regards and Malphurs draws from Stetzer's other material throughout.

This book would be extremely helpful for anyone involved in the leadership of a church plant. It starts with a strong explanation of why church planting is necessary and proceeds to cover nearly all aspects of starting a new church. It brought up many considerations I would have never thought up by myself or perhaps even in a team context.

I recently read an article which labeled church planting as an enigma. Malphurs book, among others I am reading, in addition to my church planting internship, has helped put some flesh on the bones. This book helps the picture become clearer. A church planter friend recently told me that it doesn't matter how much training you do, you just have to make it up as you go along. After reading this book the enigma feels smaller, the preparation worthwhile and some of the guess work has gone. Although my friend is right about one thing, unless you do it the training is pointless! This is definitely an equipping book if it can be implemented.

I found myself reading this book incredibly slowly (much like the last book). Each section would spark a million ideas which I scribbled in my page margin. It covers such things as the qualities of the leader, the dynamics of leading a core group, finances, meeting location, membership, roles, giving, assimilation, evaluation, strategy, recruiting, etc ...

Here are some sections I marked that grabbed my attention:

Starting a church is one of the most exciting spiritual ventures a group of Christians may ever undertake, p21.
The bigger the vision, the bigger the investment, p55.
80% of church growth is through biology or transfer, not salvation, p64. (Note: this presents the need for new churches because the older a church gets the less people it reaches)
We must recognize that facility conditions say a lot about the people who worship there -- namely that our belief doesn't deserve the best. See biblical excellence here Eph 6:5-8 & Col 3:23-24, p70.
It has been conservatively estimated that at this time [by Acts 4] the total number of disciples was between 20-25,000. The sheer size would necessitate a significant number of elders, p108.

There are several passages that indicate that the churches in Acts, unlike the majority of churches in America today, were large, Acts 2:41, Acts 9:31, Acts 14:1 & Acts 18:8, p107.

Church planting involves hours on our knee's in prayer -- prayer is a constant, p118.
By 2050 approximately 79% of the worlds population will live in urban centers. He who wins the city, wins the world, p143.
For churches to grow and improve, they need to conduct regular evaluations, p163.
Within a year or two the initial core group will often leave the church, p169. (this happens for various reasons, some good, some not so good)
The purpose of the first core group meeting is for the leader to get to know people and assess if they are the right match, p169-p170.
Small group and children's ministry are critical, p175.
If you don't add non-believers at the core group stage it wont be in the churches DNA and you'll loose momentum, p182.
With the proper planning a hot start [an existing core with a new leader] can launch in 4-6 months, p186.
Going public with less than 50 increases failure three-fold, p188.
The average response to a telemarketing campaign is one person per one hundred or more calls, p204.
Most spiritually growing churches are growing numerically, p211.
Churches that want to be like a big family and take care of one-another are disobeying the great commission. They are not evangelizing, pursuing and edifying the lost, p216.
The number one reason people join a church is because they felt accepted, p225.
The leader should place administration in the hands of the staff and ministry with lay people, p229.
By focusing on evangelism over edification, you are more likely to reach a biblical balance between the two, p234.
You need at least 50 in the core group to grow larger than 200, p262.

It sounds very easy when starting a new church to focus mainly on the launch. This book helps break through the bubble and prepare a church planter for church growth in addition to the start. It also helps you plan for reproduction -- something all healthy churches should do.

Checkout Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century by Aubrey Malphurs.

A church planting tip: meetup.com

2008-08-08T13:44:00.009-05:00

I came across meetup.com a few days ago and it looks like it could be a very helpful tool for those involved in church planting -- or any church that is interested in mission for that matter. Perhaps it is even more useful if you live in the Suburbs and find it hard to meet people. You know, it's the old garage door problem!

Wherever you live this is a great website to get connected with focus groups within your community or create a brand new one. If you want to find people with similar interests and build friendships then this site is a great way to do that. Heck, why not even register your church small groups on them and make them open to the community? Isn't that the point anyway?

I love this website for 3 main reasons:

There are almost 50,000 meetup groups. The screen shot on the right is from the homepage and it shows people RSVPing to groups in real-time -- very cool!
When you create an event it will alert people in your area of your event. So, it does the marketing for you!
People who join it know what they are getting into, namely meeting new people in a focus group.

I searched under my zip code and found the following groups that I would be interested in and they are all within a mile. This is a small sample as there are tones:

The St. Louis Graphic Design Meetup Group with 510 designers
New to the Lou with 296 new friends
The Saint Louis Photography Meetup Group with 214 photogs
The St. Louis Boardgames Meetup Group with 430 members
The Issues You Don't Talk About Cafe with 101 participants
The St. Louis Elvis Meetup Group with 74 elvis fans (Ok, so this is real, but I am not going!)

Unfortunately I cannot attend these meetups as they conflict with church events I am participating in. Go figure! But, I may well use this site to start a focus group of my own.

Check out this video below for further explanation. Go to meetup.com, sign-up and get off-line!

Interview with a Church Planter from Hull England

2008-08-06T16:04:00.002-05:00

During our recent trip to Brighton England I took the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend Steve Whittington, who was my youth leader and mentor for a few years. Steve has planted a Newfrontiers church in Hull -- the number one worst ranked city in the United Kingdom.

Steve moved to Hull in May 2006 with 13 other adults to start the church. He now has 100 adults and a donated building in the center of the city -- you don't want to miss this story.

Use the interface above to play the most recent podcast or download the interview with Steve.

Matt: Steve, give me some information about how you launched the church and how you gathered people?

Steve: Great, well it was actually in Brighton, probably about 12 years ago, I heard a talk about church planting and it was at that time I really felt like God telling me to do that. So I went forward at a meeting and said "yeah, I want to be a church planter".

Well, it was a long process actually. I was in a great church in Brighton, a Newfrontiers church (Church of Christ the King), I learned a lot but got to the point I think in being in a large church that I didn't feel stretched any more, which sounds a bit crazy, being in a large church you might think you'd get stretched a bit more, but I wasn't.

Then I felt God call, actually an audible voice, something I'd never heard before, to go to Middlesbrough, which is up in the north east of England. I was very scared when I first heard the word "Middlesbrough" because I realized we didn't have a Newfrontiers church there when I looked on the internet. I thought "oh no, I still want to be a part of this family of churches". But I knew I wasn't ready to church plant.

The great thing was, it was in a region called Teesside, and when I looked again on the internet we did have a church. So I went to join a smaller church, about 60 people at that point, it was a great growing church. I was a full-time pastor when I was in Brighton but there wasn't a job for me so I went there, got a job and just started to serve in the church and after about a year I think, they did employ me and I would say that was my church planting training. Being in a smaller setting, being involved in leadership there and looking how to grow this church.

Matt: You took a real risk. Were you constantly having to come back to that point that God spoke to you?

Steve: Yes, definitely, because it was an audible voice, which I have never heard God like this before, and I don't think I'll ever hear him like it. It was so dramatic that it had to uproot me from Brighton, where my friends and family were. So that was the start of it. It sounds weird but I think the church planting process always took place because it was letting go of a large church were I had a lot of friends, grown up in and discipled in. But, to go to another city, another place where we didn't know anybody. To start from scratch with friendship and that was a great preparation.

So, we served in that church but still there was this inner thing I think God was calling me to church plant. And, different options came up at different points. I considered maybe God was calling me to Australia because I wanted to go were I had relationship.

Matt: How did you test that?

Steve: I tested that by just finding out about it. I went online "how do I get to australia" and what I realized is I needed a degree which I didn't have. So I talked it through with the guy I was leading a church with and we thought about going part-time and I could do a degree part-time. Looked at the options but really felt that it wasn't the way for me.

And also, having spoken to our apostolic team that were involved out in Australia it was like "we are not interested in church planting immediately, we've got to get a base [church] first" and the guy said to me "Steve, you need to do your own thing now". And it was right.

So then we looked at where to go. On the north east coast of England there is a little place called Hartlepool which was about 12 miles from where our church was and we were helping develop a church plant there. Could I go there? I realized immediately it was too small a place I needed a big city with plenty of room.

Matt: So when you said you realized "for me", what did you mean?

Steve: I don't have a small village mentality. I've lived in big cities like Brighton and Middlesbrough and the danger for me was that it was only 12 miles from Teesside, the church I was involved in, and my mission would be I'd want to reach back into where I had already come from. And so it wasn't me. I also felt like we had begun to form and shape the church and I thought "no, I want to put foundations in from the start. I want to be involved in that process". Which is what church planting involves.

So, we looked at different options, prayed about it and as a region of churches we had been praying for this city called Hull. A city of quarter of a million, with quarter of a million on the outskirts. And, a local Newfrontiers York church prayed, holding prayer meetings to pray for the city. I got stirred to think about it by the guy I was working with. My wife and I started to chat about it "is Hull the place to go?". We knew it was the right time, we had got to that place, now where is it?

We just prayed. We were going on holiday (vacation) and thought this is a good time to really reflect, have a great relaxing time, get some thinking time because often as church planters you don't get much time to think. We started watching TV, a program came on "the worst places to live in the United Kingdom", and they had done research on all different statistics and facts and come up with the worst places to go. So it was the 10 worst places. It got to number 5 and it was Middlesbrough, which is where I had already been, where we had moved to in Teesside, and when it came to the number 1 worst place to live in the United Kingdom -- and it was Hull!

It was that point that I felt God say to me "where would Jesus go?". Jesus would go to the places of bad reputation. I actually discovered it is a really nice place with fantastic people, although it does have its problems. So, I knew in that moment that God was calling us. My wife needed convincing by actually going to look at the place. I didn't need to know even before we had gone. We turned up in the city and we both felt at peace "this is the place to come". That is a long way to say how did we start.

Matt: How did you get other people involved?

Steve: What we begun to do, once we realized where we were going, was to ask "who are my best friends?" People I have a relationship with, people I trust. And I want leaders. I don't mind who joins us, who is part of us, but I need to have good leaders to start with. I think the secret of how we've been successful is by starting with a good core group.

What we did is, we spoke to some of our best friends, our small group leaders in our church at Teesside, youth workers, and said "will you come with us?" And they said yes. And I thought, if you are going to start a church plant the key thing is we are going to need worship and it needs to be good. There is nothing worse than starting a church plant with no musicians. A large part of what we want to do together is worship. And it does help having people who can help lead it.

Matt: You were very specific about targeting and approaching someone to help you with worship.

Steve: I thought "who are the best worship people in the country that I am friends with?". So I ran up and old person who used to be in my youth group, called Matt, not you Matt, another Matt, another good friend also involved in my youth group. And he was leading worship at Church of Christ the King in Brighton, leading the worship team, and I thought "he's ideal".

I rang him, totally out of the blue, I hadn't really spoken to him much over the years and just said "would you consider?", and to be honest I thought I didn't have much chance really. But the amazing thing was he had been to the North East and lead worship at one of our conferences and it was at that point they felt God stir them to move. And when I came and said Hull, to them it wasn't out of the blue, it was like "I think God is speaking to us!"

Matt: So God had already gone ahead of you and spoken to these guys about coming -- that's encouraging!

Steve: Yes. There were specific people I targeted and lot who said no. it wasn't the right time for them. In fact I asked your brother and he came up to Hull, to visit, Dan and Adrienne.

Matt: I remember talking to him on the phone when they were going through that process.

Steve: They went through the process but it wasn't the right time. And that is fine and I don't think there is anything wrong in that, to have a look, but in the end we gathered 13 adults to go with us.

There was one couple from Kent, which is down on the south coast of the UK, and he had been an elder in a church who felt like he had been called, firstly through business as a property developer, wanting to develop a house as an investment and they had looked around the country and thought where are the best cheapest properties to buy? One of those was Hull. He'd come to Hull, and as he was coming up decorating they just thought where should we go to church. They had looked around at churches but there was no Newfrontiers church and thought this city is in need of a Newfrontiers church. So they had begun to come themselves and it came to the challenge -- the doing it!

We had 13 adults and my wife and I moved in May 2006. We hit the ground. We were first.

Matt: As people began to move how did you gather people together and what did you do to form that team?

Steve: We had 2 prayer meetings before May in Hull. We said "come to Hull, come to see it" because people we having to find jobs anyway and find accommodation. Let's come and pray together, lets have food together. Some of these people were friends, but some where people I had never met in my life. At that prayer meeting everyone was coming together and I laid out some of the vision of what we are doing and we just prayed.

Right from the beginning in prayer "what are we believing God for?" The prayer was specific. We ate together. I said this is what we are going to do. We are going to pray and eat together as part of our church because I like eating! The people gradually moved up over the summer. And really we just spent a lot of time in our home, we have people around all the time, in fact not much had changed. A lot of food, a lot of gathering, and at the same time we are here for the lost.

So right from the beginning I got funding for the first year from Newfrontiers, to fund my salary, and other Newfrontiers churches in the region have funded us. £10,000 from our sending church. A few thousand from other churches which paid for our PA system. It paid for different things which was great. But I got the finance in May and I thought there is no church people. So, I am looking at venues, thinking about where we are going to meet for a Sunday thinking about when that is going to happen. One day I wake up and think I need to do voluntary work and start meeting people. So that is what I began to do. Also I wanted to get to know Hull and some Hull people.

Matt: You have a particular gift of being able to connect with lots of different types of people very quickly.

Steve: Yes. I am an evangelist. The best church planters are evangelists because you've got to be able to gather people and reach the lost. If you are a pastor, just a pastor, you are in big trouble. You'll love people, which is great, but you are not really out there for the lost. And church planting was about reaching the lost.

The first few weeks I was there, there was a guy who I met, a young guy, and he asked why I was here and I told him what were doing and he told me he was interested in first aid. I said "that is great! When I start on a Sunday I'll need a first aider", which was a load of rubbish!

Matt: So you created an opportunity for him to serve? Here is something you can do in our church.

Steve: He said I'd love to do that! I thought we'll never need him! But I'll come back to that a bit later in terms of the first Sunday.

My wife went to work for the refugee service one day a week voluntarily and she met a refugee from Zaire who had moved to Hull, actually from Democratic Republic of Congo, as they are referred to. He's a Christian church pastor and he said I'd like to come and join you. So, we gradually met people. What we purposefully didn't do is we didn't advertise.

All we did is we had one web page with my phone number on because what I didn't want is anybody turning up at any of our meetings. They didn't know where we were or what we were doing because I wanted to talk to them first. I knew it would be Christians and we needed to start with a sore group of Christians as well to find us on the web and I didn't want a load of fruit-loops because you know in every city, in every town you always get church hoppers, and they come to the latest thing, they have got past issues, they want to suck you dry, they want to take your time and we were there for the lost. We are on a mission. We will pastor on the mission like a field hospital. If people are hurt in battle they set up a tent and the tent moves on with them. You get healed in the process, on the way, we'll help you and care for you.

Matt: So, no formal marketing or mass-communication?

Steve: No because we are there to reach the lost. The lost in the UK don't respond to marketing, or very little. We wanted good relationships with other churches. If we started a mass marketing campaign all the other churches would be suspicious thinking we are trying to steal their people. We have no intension to steal people. We are there to reach the lost. That is our primary calling. And if other people want to join us on that mission that's fine, but we'll connect with them on that level.

Matt: Was there any particular group of people you were purposeful about trying to target?

Steve: Everyone. Everyone who is lost. If they are not a Christian they are our target. So the first week in the end we started with 30 on the first Sunday. It was public in terms of we were coming together. The morning we started, started setting up, we met in a church hall, I got a phone call, we had met a couple of times to pray, we hadn't done anything else.

Matt: So you had a core of 13, then you made connections and grew to about 30 with kids and then you started a corporate gathering on Sundays.

Steve: And, I would lay down a foundational vision every weeks on a Sunday. But the first Sunday I got a phone call while I was setting up from a guy who was a Christian who said "we just found your website and we are looking for a church, where do you meet?" I told him it was our first Sunday and that he was welcome to come.

Over the summer we had done a couple of outreach events. We didn't have any publicity remember. We thought lets go and pray and ask God to lead us to people. I went with a guy who is now my elder, Matt, who is the worship leader who hated doing street evangelism, more than I do, you know cold contacts.

We went up to people and said "would you like prayer?" And now again in the United Kingdom most people are never offended, everybody we asked received prayer which is amazing. It was encouraging but we thought that none of these people are going to come on a Sunday -- we are not going to connect with them. And I said to Matt why don't we just pray, we had a few minutes left before we were going to meet everybody. Why don't we pray that we will meet somebody who is a Christian who has just moved to Hull.

At that point, we hadn't prayed, we literally bumped into somebody and I said "I'm really sorry". And they were looking up on a building in Hull and looking at something written in Latin. And I said "Do you understand what that means?" And she said oh, it means God guides us. Totally cheese-ally I said "Do you think God guides you?" And she said yeah! I said "are you a Christian?" She said yeah! I said "ah, have you just moved to Hull" ... yes! ... "Are you looking for a church?" ... yes! It was a mother and her daughter from Holland.

Matt, who is fairly quiet and not into street evangelism, turned to the woman and said "have you got something wrong with your knee?" And she goes yes! He said "Well, I had a picture of you before I came up this morning of a woman in a floral dress having something wrong with their knee. Can I pray for you?" We prayed for her in the street and God healed her. So guess who turned up on the Sunday? The family with their kids.

We hadn't planned to have kids the first Sunday. I had a friend visiting to support us on the first Sunday and I said "you are running the kids work for me, is that alright". It was our first Sunday and we started kids work. So that was the beginning. It was a bit raw.

The first Sunday somebody came in, we meet on a very rough council estate in the center of Hull, and somebody came in with glass in there head -- they had been bottled. So my first aider dealt with him and we rang 999 and had an ambulance at church on the first Sunday helping him out. This is going on out in the foyer while I was preaching, which was great! Second Sunday, somebody came in with a stab wound. Ha! It was really good, it was great, I love that stuff, that's me!

Matt: So the first aid guy had a calling?

Steve: I don't think he had ever dealt with anything like it. He thought we might have someone with a cut finger.

But what we did from the very first Sunday is that we are going to eat together every Sunday. First we found a place, a church hall, with food. We wanted to build relationships, get to know one another, then the people who come can stay for lunch. And because we were busy setting up, you are always busy being a church planter, you have to transport all your stuff there. You've got to sort it all out. We thought if we tried to go back to some bodies house and be together we didn't have anyone with a big enough house. We thought let's eat!

What began to transpire is that these people coming in being 'bottled' and 'glassed' saw we had food and we said "come in for a meal". What happened is that the whole estate begins to hear about it and we had about 30 people come every week just to come for the dinner. They turned up at the end. They wouldn't come for the service but that's fine, I didn't mind that. So I said, "you come to church, this is church and we are eating here".

Matt: You spent all your money on food?

Steve: Everybody in the church brought pot luck. That's what we did. What began to happen was a couple of them began to come a bit earlier, and a bit earlier, and they started getting saved!

Matt: Now it's 2 years on from the beginnings, what have you seen in terms of conversions?

Steve: We've seen about 20 people saved now. We are up to 100 adults now and 20 are new converts.

Matt: How many kids?

Steve: About 35 kids. We've got quite a diverse thing, the people who are getting saved. Last weekend we had a young guy out of the pub culture who had become a Christian. A daughter of one of our church members who is 74 who became a Christian back in December we baptized her and her daughter came to Christ who is in her 30's.

Then we started a coffee morning. And started inviting people to come for coffee .What we did was we went out to the streets with free tea and coffee and invited people into the building. We invited two people, and they came along, came into the building, one was 76 and the other 82, didn't know Jesus at all and they loved it. Came the second week and asked to come to church and I thought they are never going to enjoy our church. We are quite loud, it's noisy and it's vibrant. It was their first Sunday and we always give a response of salvation.

Matt: Ok, so you are very purposeful about the gospel?

Steve: Every week we share the gospel. We give a good opportunity for people to respond. I gave a call for the response and who came forward? This old lady and gave her life to Jesus! Her husband couldn't walk forward, he's in a motorized wheelchair, he was waving. So I went over to him and he said I want to become a Christian as well. And so we baptized them as well.

We had had people saved from drug addiction. From that kind of background. One of the guys which I didn't refer to, had been in a Newfrontiers church, but had moved to Hull for University and fortunately wanted to stay with Newfrontiers. Please plant a church in Hull, we need a church in Hull! And so when I went to meet him I thought "he's got a vision in his mind" and I sat down with him in a coffee shop in Hull and said tell me what do you want to see in this church plant? He said what I want to see above all is my sister, who lives in Hull with a non-Christian partner, I'd love to see God work in my sisters family.

So I said "that's a good thing we can pray for them". So Warren, the partner who came from a drug addiction background, in fact was originally from Brighton, I made an immediate connection when I met him. We got on really well. He used to live in a place called Hangleton, which is where you are from, but you can't tell by your accent anymore! You used to be like mine!

Matt: Yeah, I'm a missionary!

Steve: You are a missionary, exactly!

We managed to get him (Warren) on Alpha. He was working where I was volunteering, that is how I got to know him. That is why I volunteered at this place to get to know him because he was out of work. Got to know him. Invited him to Alpha and he came along. He enjoyed it. Chatted, got to know people. Brought his kid with him which is a bit of a pain at Alpha but we thought we can put up with young kids at Alpha. He came along but didn't respond to the gospel. And then what began to happen is that he started coming some Sundays, occasionally.

One Sunday we had a guest speaker and again we were having lunches at the end. There was a word on knowledge for somebody with a kidney condition and a few of us who knew about it thought that's him! But we looked around and he wasn't there. I thought I don't understand nobody responded to that word of knowledge.

5 minutes before the end he turned up because it was dinner. They turned up as a family for the food. Somebody grabs him and says about the word of knowledge and says comes forward to the front. He came forward. We laid hands on him and he had never been prayed for in that way. He said there is a heat in my body! Mate, there is a heat! It's really warm, it's really hot! I said "ok, I think that is probably God", we didn't know what was happening. And God just came on him and we said "Warren, do you want to become a Christian?" And he said Yes!

He became a Christian that Sunday and went to the consultant that week for his treatment. They had to do a new scan and couldn't find the condition. It was a condition that couldn't be healed. They could only give him medication to control it. But he was totally healed. Now his partner, we married them, and it was our first church wedding. They have got 2 kids and have been together and we are still praying for his wife to come through.

We have lots of stories like that of individuals coming to Christ.

Matt: That's amazing! Let's wrap this up. It sounds like since you've taken a leap of faith God has been with you in some amazing conversions and miracles. What things, in hindsight, would you do differently, where are you headed now and what would be your advice to me as I prepare to plant out?

Steve: Well, you probably wont like what I have to say. You can have all the training in the world, until you do it you've got no idea. What we found is that we made it up as we went along. We had very little strategy. We knew what our church mission was, we knew what our foundations was, we knew where we were going. But, we had no idea what it looked like or what was going to happen.

And I made decisions, because I was the church leader, every week "how are we going to do it? ... Oh my goodness, we have people like this now we've got these people coming to see! Shall we let them keep coming? Shall we not? Ok, we'd like to start a social outreach project but we already have one! We don't need to create anything we already have. I think we made it up as we go along.

What would I do differently? I don't think I would do anything differently.

Matt: What is your plan for the next couple of years?

Steve: The plan is, we got given a building, by the brethren church , they gave us a facility. They are people of the word. But they were very generous to us. The church was closing down, well I told them to shut down, that's another story, and they gave us the building.

So, our plan now is we are going to meet there. It's in a strategic location in Hull, by the football stadium. Very visible. Everybody knows. We will use that facility more and more. Our vision is to just keep doing outreach. That is our main thing. We don't want to get distracted. And I think that is the key thing I learned from doing a church plant. The one thing is that it's the lost! Everything we do is mission. If it is not about mission then lets not do it. Let's no waist our time.

So for example, some of the girls in the church wanted to start a book group, let's get together an talk about book. I said "that's fantastic, only if you bring friends. If you are only going to do it once a month on a Friday that is fantastic, but only if you are going to bring friends." We need to keep meeting people. I think that is the key thing for me is that it's about mission. When you take your eye of the ball of mission and you get sucked into pastoring and all that as a church leader and that's the key thing, you have got to have people around you that are going to pastor people because you've got to lead. I just pray people in.

I have an older couple with us, in their sixties, he's been a pastor for 15 years, been a Christian for 50 years. Any problem, with any pastoral need that is going to take more than 1 appointment I say you go and see that couple because I don't want to be distracted because I am on a mission. I think Mark Driscoll said it this week at the conference, I have got to work on the church not in the church. If I am always working in the church I have not got thinking to think where are we going next?

Now within a year we became elders, myself and Matt, we became elders of the church which helped bring stability. But now we are looking how are we going to build our leadership. Where is the next elder coming from? It's got to be leadership. And within it, in the beginning, the DNA of the church, has been and will continue to be, where are we going to plant next?

From week one we say It's great you are all here, but in a couple of years you are not going to be here because some of you are going to be planting the next church. We are a church planting church. We don't get settled. And so now we have this small building, it only seats 150.

Matt: If you are 100 adults now, you are going to outgrow that place soon.

Steve: We are. We are going to go with multiple meetings probably -- multi-meetings. I mean, you come to a conference like this and you think, what are we going to do? God speak to us? You have given us this building in a strategic place but it is too small. Let's multiply the service. We are thinking now, maybe from January, let's just do it! Keep going on the mission.

Matt: Well Steve thanks so much for joining me on my podcast and it's been great to catch up with you.

For more info about the Newfrontiers Church in Hull visit: notdull.org

Community Impact

2008-08-05T11:07:00.003-05:00

Another way to measure the success of your church planting efforts is the response you receive from the community. We just received a letter from the American Czech Educational Center thanking us for how we served them.

This is a wonderful example of the mission Jesus has called us on. We are called to bless the nations!

If you cannot see the document below download it here.

Church Planting Success

2008-08-04T20:45:00.004-05:00

How do you measure the success of your ministry? It's a VERY important question otherwise you don't know if you are doing the right things or how to change them. If you never stop and measure, by asking important questions, then you are living in a delusional, self-absorbed and narrow-minded bubble!

We took the largest survey we've ever conducted at ONEBLAZE this year. We wanted to know what God did during the week in the lives of our youth and we wanted to know if our vision of raising up a new generation of church pioneers is working. So, we had a special communication card created for EVERYONE to complete in the last meeting -- and the results are in! Of our 185 campers we collected the following indications:

4 salvations
24 came back to God
33 received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (never before experience God like this)
44 used a spiritual gift or received a word from the Holy Spirit
56 were set free from fear or a wrong way of thinking
14 shared their faith with someone
20 prayed for at least one person in the community (not in the church)
12 people indicated they received physical healing
The most favorite elements of the week in descending order were worship, teaching, being with friends and service projects.
We raised $3,864.55 (If you made an IOU please send your gift to Newfrontiers-USA)

Aren't these stats helpful! The biggest negative we had was that people wanted to go back to the dorms on the Saturday to clean up after the Family Fun Day -- that's a good bad point to have.

Here are some encouraging comments made on the communication cards we used:

"I received a powerful word. Camp changed my life around!"
"God took a ton of weight off my shoulders."
"Felt God calling me to San Fransisco."
"I know God is pursuing me!"
"God showed himself REAL and WORKING to me. These meetings also helped me hear his voice more."
"I was Baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. I experienced words/pictures and became 100% positive that I will be a leader and plant churches."
"God brought me back. I prayed for the first time, prayed for someone for the first time and had a picture for someone."
"I was going through a season of feeling like I can't hear God's voice. And with Euan's talk I found I could really hear God's voice."
"God helped me to get over my shyness and fear of what others think of me by filling me with his bold confidence."
"This week got me excited about sharing my faith."
"God told me I would be a leader of one of the 100 cities."
"When can I plant a church? "

I'll leave it up to to decide, but do you think we are creating a missional generation whose desire is to impact the top 100 cities of North America by planting churches? Or, do you think we have a passive, entertainment based youth ministry with no real juice?

ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008 will be a camp to remember. I am positive that we have future church planters in the group who will look back to this week and pinpoint it as a time that kick started their future ministry ventures. We have taken at least 2 or 3 additional cities because of this week. We'll see the outworking of it over the next 10-15 years.

Be praying for this generation, they WANT to plant churches, and I consider this event to be a HUGE church planting success!

So I made a mistake

2008-07-31T17:35:00.001-05:00

I wanted to make a brief update and let people know that I prematurely uploaded a video interview I did with Rhianna from Atlanta. I reported that she had been completely healed of her Scoliosis (curvature of the spine) condition which was in fact unverified by a doctor at the time and has since been shown to be inaccurate. Broadcasting this on the internet created a lot of attention and disappointment for the family once they had it checked out.

Rhianna did experience freedom from pain during ONEBLAZE which was a real answer to prayer considering how physically demanding the week was. Those around her, not being familiar with her condition, were not able to tell if her spine had actually straightened up, and of course it is virtually impossible for Rhianna know. So, with the excitement over the pain going we all assumed a complete healing -- it was an honest mistake.

I wanted to publicly apologize about this and ask for forgiveness. I have expressed to Rhianna's Dad my deep regret about this. My desire for the youth of ONEBLAZE has been to see them grow in maturity, strengthen their relationships with their parents and release them to follow Jesus with a wholehearted boldness. In publishing the report on the internet I circumvented her parents authority which was a real lack of judgment on my part and I am truly sorry for it.

For those of us who believe in miracles it can be easy to make exaggerated claims without any accountability. I wanted to make it clear that I got this one wrong and hurt some people in the process. I hope I only have to learn this one once! As a young leader I have learned a valuable lesson.

The last thing I want to happen is for this to cast a shadow on the wonderful things that happened at ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008. During the event 7 of our youth indicated they had received physical healing, 4 became Christians and many had life changing things take place. We truly had the best conference ever and I know that a new generation of church pioneers is being raised up. I will be posting a full report on my blog soon.

ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008 Photo Slideshow

2008-07-27T17:18:00.002-05:00

What a week! 185 campers from across the USA worshiped Jesus, learned from the Bible, served the community and were changed forever with a vision to plant churches in the top 100 cities of the USA! If you attended or are interested checkout this ONEBLAZE photo slideshow (roughly 300 photos). Please forward this to any youth or counselors who don't receive my blog updates.

ONEBLAZE Photo Slideshow

Another Salvation at ONEBLAZE 2008

2008-07-26T09:59:00.003-05:00

After years of church attendance and coming to ONEBLAZE, Emily from Union, Missouri realized she needed to give her whole life to Jesus and become a Christian. She is full of joy now and feels Gods presence with her. See my short video interview ...

Prayer for Scoliosis at ONEBLAZE 2008

2008-07-25T13:38:00.005-05:00

I have made an important update about this post. Please read it here.

Rhianna from Atlanta has had Scoliosis (curvature of the spine) for about a year. One of her shoulder blades sticks out because of this and she has constant pain -- day and night. She was prayed for in one of our meetings and experienced some healing. It's been a couple of days and she still has no pain.

Rhianna is scheduled for an operation which would require 3 months out of school. Keep praying that she will be completely healed and not require this operation any longer.

(NOTE: I removed my video interview until we hear more details about Rhianna's progress)

Salvation at ONEBLAZE 2008

2008-07-24T14:29:00.001-05:00

In our second evening meeting Sam, a catholic girl from the North East, realized that she was not a Christian and decided to follow Jesus. The girls had a party in the dorms that night to celebrate!!! See the brief interview with her ...

Healing at ONEBLAZE 2008

2008-07-24T13:55:00.003-05:00

In our second evening meeting we received a word of knowledge about someone with a problem in their elbow and suffering from headaches.

Wes from Arizona responded to the word. He hurt his elbow playing tennis and after an MRI scan the doctors told him that they couldn't do anything for it. He was stuck with the problem. So, we prayed in the name of Jesus and his elbow was completely healed and he's been free from his headaches so far. Watch the video below for more ...

ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008

2008-07-23T14:50:00.004-05:00

This week is one of the most exciting weeks of the year for us. We have about 185 campers at our annual Newfrontiers-USA youth conference. Our vision for ONEBLAZE is to raise up a new generation of church pioneers. To do this we are training them to think and act differently.

Each afternoon teams of young people go into the community to serve. Some are running kids camps that focus on soccer, basketball and art, and others are doing food drives, building pirate ships for local kids or making signs for our family fun day on Saturday. This morning we trained everyone on how to engage with people and start conversations. This is a critical skill that the younger generation needs to learn in order to connect people to Jesus.

Last night I preached about the big picture. God is calling us to leave the small things and go for the big thing. He is calling us out of the Shire (Lord of the Rings), with its safe, picturesque, generational and traditional backdrop and into the great city of mordor -- the heart of the enemies activities. I gave them a vision to reach the cities of this nation. Cities have more people and more influence which makes them strategic for the advancement of the Kingdom. We'll never change things from the small rural areas.

So, big picture "CITY" and small picture "HOW TO HAVE A CONVERSATION" are two ways we have started to build the vision into this generation. Our goal is concerned with mobilizing these young people to engage in the mission of God -- which is to make disciples of all nations.

I can't wait for tonights meeting where my good friend Seth Hein will speak about sin and the wonderful nature of God's grace! My other good friend Sean Stewart will also be interviewing ONEBLAZERS about how their service projects went and relaying any exciting stories.

This camp is very different on a number of levels and it is amazing to have my wife and son around for much of the activities. Hearing Heather pray in our meetings and seeing people play with Jones is such a joy. We are one big family together on a mission.

Together on a Mission

2008-07-14T10:21:00.007-05:00

Heather and I just returned from the Newfrontiers leadership conference Together on a Mission in Brighton, England. Here are some of the highlights:

Simon Brading (I think he's about 20) lead us in worship throughout the week and did a fantastic job. We received a number key prophetic words in our worship times and Simon helped this flow through his sensitivity of song choice and leading us in responding.
I got to interview an old friend of mine Steve Whittington who is a church planter in England. It should appear on this blog in the next few weeks.
I am so proud of my wife who sang a prophetic song from the stage.
Terry spoke on Stephen and Philip from the book of Acts. On his Philip message he effectively taught on two stages of Philips ministry. He was proven in character and submitted to the apostles even in the midst of phenomenal public ministry success. Terry wonderfully showed how to preach in word and deed. Preaching Christ and seeing miracles.
Dinner with Mark Driscoll. In conversation I learned that he is always funny, humble (he genuinely wanted to learn from us) and the most missiological person I think I've met.
After a series of positive remarks about Newfrontiers Driscoll said from the platform "And now I will hurt you". This is my favorite quote from the week because it's humorous, masculine and greatly beneficial. He had A LOT of helpful insights into our movement. Encouragements and corrections.
Increasing our fruitfulness through more kinds of church planting. Introducing multiple services and multiple campuses in addition to new plants. Driscoll effectively destroyed the misconception that to BE the church we need all the same people worshiping together in one room at the same time. We need to start more services not so that our existing members have more options, but to reach new people and those who are not going to make it to a 10am Sunday meeting. The same thing goes for new campuses for those who live further away. Brilliantly obvious!
Targeting the cities. Cities are the culture forming wombs of our societies and the further upstream we become the more we affect the regions within our nations. And then the nations to the world.
Newfrontiers UK is currently planting about 10-12 new churches a year. We need to be planting 70-100 for the size we are.
We need to be on the look out for more men in their 20's as a source for church planters. Yes, they will be arrogant, foolish and risky, and yes they will be perfect for church planting!
Heather and I received a powerful prophetic word from Julian Adams. We attended his seminar entitled "Things Above" and he picked us out of the crowd and spoke of leadership gifting, church planting experiences, more synergy in our marriage and too many other things to mention. Download message 12 on this page. You'll find it at time signature 16:00 - 19:00.

This was the leadership conference NOT to miss. However, if you did miss it then you can download all the Together on a Mission main sessions here. Use the nav on the left to see the seminars, training tracks and mobilise sessions. I'd specifically encourage you listen to Mark Driscoll's messages -- even if you have heard a lot of his stuff before.

I just had dinner with Mark Driscoll ...

2008-07-08T17:51:00.002-05:00

We are at the Newfrontiers leadership conference in Brighton UK and just got through the first day. After the meeting tonight some of the guys from the States decided to go for a beer. I took the initiative to invite Mark Driscoll to join us and he agreed. I bought him a large battered cod and chips and I think he liked it -- although he didn't drink any beer!

Myself and Bryan Mowrey (and a few others) got to chat with Mark and Scott (president of Acts 29) for about an hour. We discussed the process of church planting, baptism in the Holy Spirit and participation in worship. What an amazing opportunity to pick their brains and make a connection.

I very pleased about our time with Mark and his influence on our Newfrontiers churches.

Off to England!

2008-06-28T21:23:00.003-05:00

We received 2 plane tickets for Christmas last year -- best Christmas present ever! Our Christmas is going to be realized on Monday June 30, 2008 when we fly to England for 2 weeks and visit family, friends and attend the Newfrontiers Leadership conference.

Our blog and Twitter might be a bit quiet for a couple of weeks but please be thinking and praying for us. Here are some top of mind requests. Please pray for ...

Jones to handle the flight well.
God to speak to us at the conference about his plans for our future. We need direction on where to church plant.
Heather's nausea as she battles morning sickness (all day long!). By the way, if you don't follow our Twitter, we are expecting our second baby on January 25, 2009!!!
Continued financial provision for us.
For all the preparations for ONEBLAZE in St. Louis to go smoothly in our absence.

ONEBLAZE in St. Louis begins a week after we arrive home. The fun just never stops!

Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age by Ed Stetzer

2008-06-24T14:29:00.001-05:00

I just read Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age by Ed Stetzer and it is a fantastic book for church planters. In fact, anyone involved in church planting should read this book. It has a lot of practical "how to" advice as well as solid reasoning behind planting. It effectively unpacks postmodern thinking and provides some helpful approaches to reach this generation through church planting.

The part that spoke to me the most was the chapter on worship. I think I may have shed a tear even! On page 267 Stetzer writes "The purpose of worship is also to allow unbelievers to observe the divine-human encounter and to yearn for their own personal relationship with God". Yes! Communal Christian worship is all about thirstiness. Believers should be desperately hungry for Gods presence and the worship environment should help foster a thirst in those who do not yet believe.

Ultimately, the church is about the presence of God! It's one of the main themes in the Bible -- God being with his people. This greatly stirred my soul and increased my confidence in putting together a worshiping community who drink deeply of Jesus. I need to invest good resources into making worship a big deal! There is no better way to reach people with the gospel.

In the end this is not just the best reason, it is the only real reason for someone to become a follower of Jesus. When people can feel His presence. When they are made aware of a supernatural person who is INCREDIBLY close by, then, and only then, will genuine transformation occur. There is nothing like an encounter with Jesus to change your world view. Preaching will help. Visual aids will help. Testimonies will help. Living right will help. But the main thing is God's presence!

Here are some other highlights of the book:

Biblical church planters focus on the great commission by reaching the unchurched, not seeking to attract area Christians, page 4.
Charismatics and Protestants are planting the majority of churches, page 14.
The church needs to realize that mission is its fundamental identity, page 22.
Planters must not present any message other than Christ, page 37.
It makes more sense for the pastor to spend time with potential reproducers, page 92.
Post-moderns have been educated in politically correct schools that Christianity is bigoted and small-minded, page 131.
Spirituality is at a popular high, page 137.
highpointechurch.org knocked 15,000 doors in Seattle and launched 6 months later with 500 first timers, page 206.
People give to vision, not need, page 255.
Marketers cannot reach everyone every time, but they do reach someone everyday, page 260.
Mill Creek Community Church did 55,000 dial-ups which generated a list of 2,151 prospects and gathered 200 people at the first service, page 260.
Do not have more than 3 preview services, page 262.
Complaints should be expected no matter what methods of communication you use. The only post-moderns offended by mass-outreach are Christians. Spiritually seeking post-moderns are generally not offended, page 263.
Hold new people going through membership with a high standard, page 291.
Growth requires growing a relationship list, immediate follow-up process, assimilation, small group strategy and legal recognition, page 300.
Church planters need to be the best advocates and sponsors for the next generation churches, page 320.
It is not advertising, music or organizing -- it is touching, winning and congregationalizing the lost, page 330.

Checkout: Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age by Ed Stetzer

Interview with a St. Louis Church Planter: Jason Gardiner

2008-06-24T06:34:00.003-05:00

I recently met with Jason Gardiner of ChurchSTL.org at a local Starbucks and interviewed him about the new church he has planted in St. Louis. You can use the podcast interface on the right to listen to my most recent interview, download the interview with Jason Gardiner or read the transcript below.

Jason is 39 years old and grew up in San Francisco, California. He was involved with YWAM for 10 years, on staff with a large church for 7 years and served an international parachurch ministry for 4 years before planting a church in St. Louis.

During the interview we met a local realtor out of the blue who is a Christian and loves to help new churches find meeting locations – what a great opportunity for a church planter! Jason and Angie exchanged details and hope to work together as the new St. Louis church looks for their own facility. They currently meet in an elementary school. The whole interaction is recorded in the audio. Listen (or read) and enjoy!

Matt: Jason, thanks for joining me today. Tell me the basics about the church?

Jason: We launched on January 27th of this year (2008) and the church really has a focus on community and also on young people. I surveyed the St. Louis church demographics and found there is very little being done effecting the college age on a city wide level. So the hundreds and thousands of people between the ages of 20 – 30 have very few churches with a concentrated effort.

Very few churches actually have a pastoral effort or pay pastors a salary to reach out to that age group. The kinda churches big enough to bring somebody on staff pro bono that age group. I kinda call it the generation who has been kicked to the curb – even though that's where our future and our leadership comes from.

That's where we go to college to be trained to be world changers whether it's secular or in our Christian lives. Yet the church fails to engage them with an intellectual-spiritual dialogue and make place for them and room for them to be a leader and trained. So, our church has very much a young leadership culture in it.

Matt: What got you thinking that way? (focusing on students)

Jason: Well, I've worked with young people of college age ever since I started ministry in the mid 80's. I love them because I find that college age is so moldable for the purposes of God. If you take a 45 year old who, whether he was saved when he was young or gets on fire again after he's lived life a bit, I find that most people in their 30's and 40's are still trying to repair their fyco scores, still trying to pay off their credit cards, they have 2.5 jacked-up kids and trying to replace the damage they did in their 20's.

So, instead of trying to fix these broken people let's just not let them get broken in the first place. Let's reach them before they screw up their lives and take a decade and a half to try to figure out what they did wrong. Let's just develop them into leaders then.

You see in the Bible a culture of young people whether it's Daniel or Jeremiah. Young people who were standing up in their generation and leading the nation. I believe that wasn't just a scriptural anomaly but I believe that is a pattern that God loves – taking people who will take him at his word. So if God says I can heal the sick they are just naïve enough to believe it. They don't have all this life experience that tells us "Well, actually I had 84 friends who died from cannibalism and, oh my goodness!" So often our experience dictates our theology instead of really just believing the word straight up on face value.

Matt: What was your strategy? How did you build up to the launch?

Jason: Over a couple of years I really built some relationships with some people. I would call them the disenfranchised, the kicked to the curb generation I mentioned earlier. So some of these folks didn't attend church, they loved God and yet there was no joy in their Christianity. Some of them were attending church like every other month. Kinda like the "I'm tipping God today for showing up, I'm doing the kingdom a favor!"

I started building relationships with some younger people and over the course of a couple of years developing some good authentic relationships. They even began asking questions "would I start a church here in St. Louis?" That really became the start of me thinking about it. It wasn't for me like "Oooh, St. Louis is needing my kind of church". I wasn't the start of the process. It was a number of people coming to me and saying "hey Jay, let's do it!" and I was like "alright". And then I spent probably a year praying about that and bringing it before the Lord and letting God confirm it through various different ways.

We started then meeting with several people in my living room. No bells and whistles or marketing.

Matt: How many people were you gathering at that time?

Jason: About 6. Then that grew to about 14.

Matt: Over what kind of period?

Jason: About 4 or 5 months. It wasn't like I had a meeting and 900 people showed up on the first day, it was building relationships and developing the integrity. I really learned that if I invest in people I have the right to speak into their lives. They will willfully place themselves in a submissive relationship were they are like pastor-talking so that you can start pointing out peoples blind spots.

Most pastors or church structures don't actually ever earn the right to speak into people so when blind spots are brought up it's usually through confrontation or an incident in a church. People just get offended and go instead of really receiving the correction, like the bible says: if you correct a wise man you make him wiser, creating an environment where you can actually bring up people's blind spots and work them through it, just like the proverb says: faithful are the wounds of a friend, well we want to be the kind of church that we stab each other in the chest not in the back. Where we can have the hard conversations but we grow through it and become stronger for it. So, people started growing and changing. I believe that one of the great tools for church growth is: changed lives, change lives.

Matt: How did you transition your house meeting to a weekly public meeting?

Jason: That is a great question. I am still trying to process exactly how we are doing this. One of the things that I felt we would have a large component in our church would be worship. There is whole boat load of doctrine behind that statement. I honestly believe the most fundamental and one of the great statements mankind has ever contributed to the Christian experience is the reduction of the Westminster's creed which says: the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

I think that worship is the clearest expression of that which is of course the picture of the throne in heaven in Revelation which is of course worship. I believe that having a place created in the local church where people can genuinely have face to face encounters with God is the absolute foundation of us living out that expression: the chief end of man.

When I was a teenager I was a drug dealing punk. I was raised in a Mormon church, so I was in a cult.

Matt: So you were really messed up!

Jason: I was jacked-up – capital "J"! I had a father who was a Catholic so we were just a religious mutt. I was using drugs. I was completely confused and I had been to religion – I had been to Catholic churches and I've been to Mormon churches my whole life.

But when I had a genuine encounter with Jesus my life dramatically changed. Nobody needed to tell me to throw away my Black Sabbath albums or stop smoking pot and taking acid. It was just the overflow of gratitude that came from the revelation that I was going to hell and that he took my place on the cross and that if I would just exchange my dead life for his life and obey him and his word that I would have a wonderful purpose and a great life. It was like a do-over. It was like Jason 2.0! It was like a whole new opportunity ahead of me.

It took me a long time going to church to figure out that Christians didn't live Christianity very much – they appended Christianity. They pay pastors to perform and impress them with edutainment rather than being a church that gets them off the couch and into the game!

The thing is we want to create a place for genuine encounter in worship. So, I had a buddy of mine who was on my staff with me in California at the church, and before we started this bible study, we started to dialogue of the possibility of them joining me in this adventure and of course I went to the senior pastor, who is a good friend of mine, who of course I was associate [pastor] for him, asked his permission, did the whole I want to steal one of your guys thing. He went "go for it", and then I said "can I steal the youth pastor and inter director as well?"

So I started having discussions with these 2 buddies who I had pastored, I was their supervisor on staff. Over the course of 3-4 month they just really felt like they would move their families out here and be part of the team and once we started having a genuine worship component. Where it was a real life-giving experience for people who had heard good music, but there is a difference between good music and being in an environment of the presence of God in the area of worship. You have your Hillsongs and your Delirious. It's not about reproducing chord charts – it's about the atmosphere of life.

So in some senses I wanted to cut the middle man out of church – the pastor! No more priests, people needing to build their spiritual life depending on whether the pastor feed'em or not, whether they brought a life changing word on Sunday or not. But they have direct access for themselves in the presence of God. When that started happening growth was really very much the byproduct.

I really found that scripture as we lift him up he'll draw people and so changed lives change lives. People started weeping and crying. Not contrived, not forced and not one of these "Come on man, raise your hands, wave them in the air like you don't care", not a hyped up cultural style. But, just an atmosphere where without the hype and manipulation, people would start crying spontaneously in the middle of worship and after church they would be like "phew, I needed that! God really touched me." And we are like "Wow, really? Praise God for you!"

That's what we wanted to happen and so one of the first forms of evangelism that we saw is a person who's now a friend, 6 months into the church, raging alcoholic, living on the streets, homeless, he got a flyer, it was probably like a garbage flyer, you know what I'm saying someone threw it, but God's into recycling as well. This guy picked up this flyer, walked onto our church, there are like 20 of us, drunk off his brain, and umm, homeless, pretty much smelled, and ah we are singing "Rain Down" by Delirious and he just starts balling. No Christian background. Just pagan drunk, capital "P". All of a sudden this dude gets saved spontaneously because God drew him.

I am going to say this not because I am better than anyone else, because I'm not. He said "This is the first church I've been to where Jesus is at!" And right there lays the heart of our church. We want to make church as accessible with as little hurdles and religious forms as possible and if we can just show off how good he is to people and really make him famous and put him at the center of it. We found that Jesus is like a great banquet table. The more attractive He is the more we can make that banquet table people will just pick up a piece of fruit of that banquet table and take a little bite and taste and see that "God is good". He is not weird like I thought, He's not religious. Life is not a bunch of chance. Life is about "I can". There is potential.

Matt: What is the balance now of your method of reaching out? Is it still just relational and viral or is it more?

Jason: It's very viral right now. With the statistics on marketing and as a church plant one of the large battles anyone has, including us, is the battle of resources.

I was just talking to one of the national Christian ad companies, that is a church planting ad agency, there stats on mailers, flyers, cold calling is about .04 per action. So, for every 1000 you might get about 4. When you start breaking that out to 30-40 cents a hit you really need $50-60,000 to bring in 30, 40, 50 people into your doors. And even then, when you do, church planting research says 50% bail. So it's a low low return. I am not saying it is not right. I got a buddy of mine who started his church on his first Sunday with over 400 people. Dropped to 200. Then first year got a 1,000. Six years later got 9,000. So I mean hey, it works!

We are spending our financial resources on investing on our core group. Buying them book and CD's, having meetings, we are feeding them when they come over. We are actually training, again, I am not trying to sound arrogant, like "we are actually training unlike other church", but we are putting our money into our people and into our team and empowering them and helping them grow and experience Christ so that, again, I really just believe that changed lives change lives.

You know, before Jesus died the disciples denied him and fled. They were like rats of a ship when he was handed over to be crucified. Now you can say whatever you want at that point but as soon as they saw the risen Christ some fundamental changes, what happened between the cross and Pentecost? They were hiding in an upper room and then the Holy Spirit filled the church, whatever that looks like, something fundamentally changed in them where they were on longer afraid to be put to death or to talk about the change that had been brought in their lives.

[At this point a realtor introduced herself to us and wanted to help Jason find a facility for his new church to meet in. She has a specific passion to help churches find facilities. What a great opportunity. God is good at setting these things up! Listen to it at minutes 14:56 – 21:00]

We were kinda talking about how we are going from here and that kind of thing right there [God given opportunity with a realtor] is a great example. We are excited, we are talking about our lives being changed and about this church plant and so here you have a little encounter and somebody happens to eavesdrop. Church growth really happens naturally.

Matt: What have you tried that didn't work?

Jason: I am not big on what I call bandwagons. You have the "worship band wagon", and when I say worship I mean style, not the doctrine. There is the prophetic movement in the 80's. There was the seeker sensitive movement and now there is the missional movement. You name it. There is the apostolic movement in Pentecostal circles. There is a new revival in Lakeland Florida movement going on.

And you know, really, people are always not sure what they are looking for they just know they haven't found it. And so, I call it "rent a vision". When you don't have a blueprint for what you are doing and you reach out there and it's transferable, this or that, and you jump on somebody's bandwagon and a decade later you look back and go "wow".

I just believe that we just need to have as leaders a clear blueprint from the word of God of what Church is doctrinally and what the basic doctrines of Christianity are and put our head down and be faithful to it. I heard that saying, not sure who said it, but men are always looking for better methods, God is always looking for better [changed] people.

Matt: What have been the lows and how have you dealt with them?

Jason: Initially there is the fantasy perhaps that ah, you know the thing is going to takeoff; we are going to rock the city. Not that we are not doing great on that, we are 4 or 5 months old and we are 80 people which is on the bell curve we are doing ok. But there is that sense of we could have had a 200 people by now. So it's that kind of natural sense of the readjusting to the expectations that we can't depend on something, the false expectations.

And then there is that whole barrier of the resource. Both at a person level and at the financial level. That you overcoming, you are constantly. Here is a classic example, I met with a great family, they were tossing up buying into what we were doing or buying into a megachurch down the street that had 5,000 people. Now, I am not saying the megachurches are not great. Praise God for them. We are all on the same tea, the bells and the whistles that an established long-term church has.

So on that secular level you are kind competing with people with a consumerism mentality, kind like "what's in it for me?" I got Bobby here, he has youth group of 20 kids, and this one has a youth group of 100 kids so that consumerism is like McChurch. "I'll have a little bit of church with this and a big Mac and this and that".

So fighting the consumerism in the culture where people are looking initially to attend something that meets their needs instead of looking at it from a biblical point of view of what do they bring to the table like in Acts chapter 2 is says that people were selling their possessions to give to those who as they had need. So instead coming to the church of "here is how I can serve because I am alive in Christ" they are looking at it more like "how does the church meet my needs and fit into my busy schedule?"

Matt: How have you kept yourself spiritually close to God and feeding yourself?

Jason: Piper has a great statement that is one of my ruling personal values that: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. It goes right back to that Westminster confession: the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. When am I absolutely emotionally and intellectually enthralled and captivated by Him and I'm meeting with him on a personal level not just to put my sermon together or I've got a 3 o'clock appointment and I'm driving and thumbing through scriptures at the red light. You know what I'm saying? It's what Pastors do. Pastors.com! Again, it's like rent-a-vision.

When I avoid living the cheap life like that where I have to get up everyday at 6am, seek Jesus for several hours for myself, for my wife and my family and the sheer pleasure of hearing him say "Well done good and faithful, I love you son". That personal relationship. And so when I am satisfied, like obviously you can tell the excitement in my voice, it's not just because we are doing an interview, it's just where I am living. But, that overflow of excitement touches somebody fifteen feet away and they are excited, they speak up for Christ, and we have a great little conversation here. That is the magic for me, is when I genuinely tap in.

As a pastor here is the difference. I am able to lead my church out of the overflow of what is coming into my life instead of constantly emptying myself, giving out to all my people to the point of my reserve levels are like a drought starting to go under, you know, I am starting to run thin. So I've been in full-time ministry for 20 years and what I've learned is that I need to live out of the overflow of my personal relationship with Christ and not out of the mandate and expectations my people put on me to be their pastor.

I am living for an audience of one. I am not on call. I am not you know the person who if it's 11 at night and there is a couple who are having a big meltdown, you know, I had one of those recently and I loving said, they know me so they know my heart, and I said "look, you know, how long you've been married?", "13 years", "you are having a meltdown". Pastor come, its midnight! I said "here is the bottom line of it, this has taken you 13 years to get to this point so you've been making choices to get to where you are tonight, you actually want where you are, whether by omission or commission, you have been making choices that end up here and it can't wait until 10 in the morning? I'll see you in the morning. Do you have a knife in your hand? No I don't! Do you have a gun? No! Ok go to bed and we'll fix this in the morning".

But my point is this. My people in the church don't rule my life and neither do their expectations. I am living for an audience of one. I am living for treasure in heaven. I am not living for a large church where I can write a book, go on a speaking tour and have a big 401K. I am doing it for the sheer love of the game.

Matt: As a church planter you need to be a generalist. How do you manage your time?

Jason: Well, because I saw this battle coming there where a couple of proactive things that I did before I launched this church. If you will, my eldership, and by the way that eldership they are all on a one year kind of interim, you know they are trying out for the team. At the end of the day I have to like'em. I am committed to working with people that I actually like, you know what I am saying?

Actually I don't want to work with people that I want to fire on Monday. Like "dear lord, what happened to those PowerPoint slides" and then you know on Monday I am cursing their name! I want to work with people that I love and I like. You know what I am saying? And so what I did was I really took my time getting into this.

As I mentioned earlier I talked to a few people so my entire team, my first key level of leadership all have at least 7 years of full-time ministry in large churches and successful ministries. So I have a fully trained youth pastor who had a youth group of 500 kids who ran an intern program of 50 live-in students. A worship leader song-writer who had 4 services a weekend with big bands, reporting projects. I have a church administrator. I have an experienced cell group pastor who had always been involved in that.

One of my confirmations to do this is that I believe in New Testament team leadership and I want to avoid this CEO American church. You know the personality cult. Because of my former job working for a Christian celebrity, who shall be unnamed for the benefit of … them, I got to meet everybody famous in American running large churches and have one to one conversations with them, it was my old job, and we'd go into business right at them and one such person who had 30-40,000 people in their church opened up on an occasion and told me that there biggest problem was that their church was a personality cult. And if they advertised that the senior pastor would not be there because he is speaking somewhere else about a third of the church would not show up that next Sunday. And they can barely make payroll because their tithes go down so dramatically because that "man" isn't there.

I believe in team leadership. One of the keys for me to launch out and step into this is that I was not going to be alone trying to wing this. But, I asked God for a seasoned team of mature leaders who have proven gifting. 1 Timothy 3 talks about before you choose an elder, not just a deacon, first let them serve and be tested. And so I didn't want my soft spot for somebody become my blind spot in choosing my leadership team. "I like you, you're my buddy plumber Bob! And plumber Bob might have a call on his life but it might not be to church eldership. But, plumber Bob with the best intentions ends up jacking up half the church because he doesn't know how to communicate, he ends up getting into politics.

People play off one parent against another in leadership, they go "that pastor, not that one". He doesn't know how to squelch gossip. He doesn't know the basic human elements of church leadership. He gets caught up in stuff that offends people, wounds them. I didn't want to do that. Now, our second level of leadership have also been involved for years in running cell groups in local churches.

My core of 40 people for the most part all have extensive experience. So therefore they are able to rally people around them because they know what they are called to do and they do it well. I call it the KFC principle. Kentucky Fried Chicken, they do one thing and they do it well. So, they do Chicken right. And so one of our slogans is let's do church right! Let's just do a few things and do them well. Very few people would drive across St. Louis for a four. You've heard of the Marcus Buckingham concept about you know, live out of your strengths and not out of your weaknesses, so I have staffed my weaknesses. People will drive across St. Louis for a night.

I am able to focus my time and energy on developing a culture of leadership within the church. And I have individual leaders who can handle everything related to the worship, everything related to the cell development and training and the leadership development of the church. Somebody to handle all the ministry of youth. We just had a seasoned children'''s pastor join our church. So we have an experienced children's pastor, a youth pastor, an intern director, a worship pastor and a cell pastor on my team and there is me.

Matt: That's awesome! And you have 40-50 people!?

Yes. These leaders of mine are now the 2 Timothy 2:2 principle. Paul is writing to Timothy his disciple encouraging him to find faithful men that he can entrust the message to. So that they can find faithful people to entrust it. There are 3 or 4 generations there of leadership. In other words there is a culture and a DNA of leadership that God invests in people, not in processes and structures.

I spend 80 percent of my time with people who are moving the ball down the field. If I have somebody who has secret sins, they are addicted to cannibalism, they have weird stuff in their life, we are going to help them get free, but the first question I ask them is: are you involved in one of the 8 cell groups in our church and what is your cell group leaders name, have you called them? Because I am committed to helping people win. And by doing that, if people have to go above the cell group leader to the pastor and therefore get more quality ministry because it's the "senior pastor", look, people who have the addiction to cannibalism, of course I am mocking it but that's just my budding sarcasm – I'm working on that!, but I undermine and cut off at my knees my next level of leadership.

I am committed to raising up Ephesians 4 ministries which says that pastors, the five fold ministries are there to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. So my job is to equip you to win. You are the one on the field playing the game not me. Most churches have it backwards. Most churches are reverse engineering it. They are paying professionals to do it yet they are struggling to find volunteers to fulfill the roles in the church.

What I am doing is to purposefully not be the best at what I do. Because if you have a Martin Smith as a worship leader you'll never raise up another worship leader in that church because they will be intimidated to sing next to Martin. Because Martin does it better. So I am committed to leading in a weakness so God can be glorified as apposed to leading out of this big strength and I am the best counselor and the best preacher. I am pushing my team forward all the time and publicly being generous with my words. Man, these cell group leaders rock, this associate pastor rocks and we are building up confidence in a team as apposed to the a man.

So my time is spent with my leaders. How to encourage them, how to strengthen them, how to help them with a confrontation issue. Well, here is how we help people win. Be committed to completing instead of competing. And so I help teach to the team how to deal with confrontation and politics which is 90% of where churches fail and so my time is spent with my leaders. I am developing a future DNA instead of dealing with the people who suck those pastors will to live out. And those people are never what you build a church on.

Because let's say I placate Sister Sally now who has a complaint that the music is too loud, well, she is an offense waiting to happen. Experience tells me she is going to be offended 2 years down the road anyway so let's juss go ahead and have the offence now and get rid of her. Because she has 800 other churches in St. Louis she can take that opinion to.

The bottom line is I am looking for people who are willing to forgive and cover sin, not morally like "oh that pastors out getting drunk", I'm not talking about overt, I am talking about opinion. And the people that get offended over opinion and attitude are not the people who you are going to build the church on.

The bottom line is they are going to have that opinion, keep that opinion, this is probably church 3 for them in the past year anyways. I'd rather offend them now and just say "hey, I know a bunch of pastors, I'll call them for you, I know you think you are the greatest worship leader in the free world but hey look I am Simon Cowl, you are on Christian American Idol and the distance between your perception of your great gifting and why no one here has recognized it, and you actual performance is huge".

Most Christians judge themselves on their intensions but everyone else judges them on their behavior. Most Americans just need a good loving Pastor to just bust them out and say "that sucks!" No one is being edified by that by the way, the whole Litmus Test for Spiritual Gifts in the local church according to 1 Corinthians 12:7 is that your spiritual gift is given for the common good. So it's up to the rest, when you see people run for the doors.

You can think you are a worship leader but I'm telling you that 34 people are plugging their ears and running for the doors like rats off the ship, they are testifying that your gift is not as great as you think you are. I'm loving you enough to point out your blind spot. If you can't handle the truth, if you are a Jack Nickleson in A Few Good Men "You can't handle the truth", then there are probably 800 other churches in town ready to live with your deception. So, that is when we are set free anyways. The more true we are the more brokenness we live out of the greater our freedom is. I don't mean to pontificate. You can just tell that I have some passion.

Matt: It's clear that you have your priorities set. This is where you want to spend most of your time because it's the most fruitful.

Jason: I just believe that everything in the kingdom is based on "be fruitful and multiply". Now I am not making this a major doctrine, I just believe that everything in nature that in general is healthy naturally reproduces. And within that seed that falls from the tree isn't just a seed for one more tree but the potential that is within that seed is for hundreds of seeds given that right condition.

So in that fallen seed from a tree there is another forest of trees in that seed and over generations one seed drops a seed a makes two, those two before 4, those 4 become …, and thus the principle of multiplication not just addition. So I believe that if I invest my time into people who have the ability to reproduce then in the short term it might look like we only picked up 4 people this year, but next year it will be 8 people and the next year it will be 16, then 32, then 64 and within 8 generations we are at a 1,000. But it is quality not just quantity.

In Matthew 5 where Jesus says consider the lilies of the field and see how they grow, he is not just asking for a basic simple observation. The Greek verb he is using there is super intensive, it's not just an observational "look and see how they grow" it's a call to the super deep underground realities that caused that flower to grow. The root systems, what is not seen in the simple observation.

He is saying hey, study why the lilies grow. And the lilies grow because they are in good soil. They have enough sunlight and there are principles which cause that lily to grow. And that is what he is saying. He is saying don't live in an arbitrary carefree disconnected passion. He is saying look, study!

Now, what caused people to grow as well is setting you up for success. And when you succeed and you are being passionately filled with Christ, everything in nature tells people, I call it the all-by-itself principle, the lilies of the fields don't struggle to grow and grow a church, they just do that out of the overflow of health. Because they are according to Colossians routed and being built up in Christ.

Matt: Where have you been able to draw financial resources from and are you full-time?

Jason: I am full-time right now and we have a church in California called the Fathers House which is kinda acting as our covering church where I was on staff and a number of the other members where on staff. They have given us a couple of generous checks to help buy trailers and some sound gear and what not.

Basically what we did is before we launched the church in January (2008) we had about 3-4 months of that small in my living room meeting. And we encouraged people to start investing right away. So, in the 6 months we've raised $60,000 and all of that has gone into resources and tools and curriculum and books and trailers and gear and video and websites and Mac computers and you know flyers and posters. I am just now starting to take a minimal salary.

I positioned my life where I could live on a reduced salary for probably another 4-5 months based on current growth projections. The bottom-line to is how we structured the finances is that of our 100% we take in we are going to live of what I call the 80-10-10 principle the church. We are going to tithe 10%, we are going to save 10% and we are going to live our general budget off 80%. And, of that 80% only 30% is allocated to salary. Then the other 60% of that 80% will be allocated to local outreaches and investing in local areas like offices, curriculum, youth groups, we break down the budget from there.

I am not going to have a top heavy salary church. But we are only going to be using a third of the 80% to pay staff. So, when I can pay for more staff, that we have within that 30% a reasonable budget, then staff member number 2 comes on.

Matt: What is you long term vision for St. Louis? What is your advice for me as I train to start a new church?

Jason: My long term vision is, again going back to that healthy thing in nature, that my goal is not arbitrary like "oh I want a 1,000 people!". To me that is like walking up to a tree and saying "come on, produce more fruit!". It's arbitrary, you know. Me thinking of or conjuring up a particular number that that would make my own ego in ministry. And then therefore gearing everything around that, again that's like CEO Christianity.

But whatever size our church gets to, which I believe is if it's healthy it will grow. My real goal is to help my leadership team all become senior pastors with successful thriving local growing churches as well. And so, my goal is not just to have a good church, but to raise up and launch local healthy churches.

We are going to plant a church all the way in India. I feel that the best way for us spiritually to position ourselves for God to invest in us is to be investing in a third world mission plant environment itself. So, we have 18 people never been overseas, paying the money to help plant a church in India this year. We are all going and they are going to be involved in a long term mission work from day one in our church.

We believe in planting churches. We believe in local churches. My passion for long term vision is that we are planting successful, life-giving churches that are planting successful, life-giving churches.

Now, in terms of advice to you. Man, just find out what Jesus is saying and get your head down and get busy. Now, with that, if you join a network that can help fund you or you have relationship that can gather around you to help create funding you probably got to go either on of those two roads on a practical level.

What I am seeing from experience now, not just being on staff on a big church, but starting it on day one, is you probably need anywhere between $50-150,000 to get a church off the ground depending on how big you want to start. Like I said, my friends started with probably $100,000, the first service had 400 out the gate. He spent all $100,000 on that first service. So, big risk, but it paid off. Now, 6 years later he has 9,000 people in his church. Go figure!

Or you could do it more of the way I am doing it. I just gathered in some friends, some interested people that had bought into a vision and into my life. Here is a philosophy that helps me. The Greek culture was interested in information, amongst some of their highest goals, therefore we have the Platos, the Socrates, we have the great philosophers that where informational.

The Jewish culture wasn't so interested in what information that you know, they weren't so much interested in what you know, they were more interested in who you know. So in the Jewish culture you didn't get a degree in information you got a degree in someone's life. It was: who are you mentored by? You are a protégé of who? And we see that played out in where Paul was trying to minimize some of the debate that was being created by "I follow Apollo's, I follow Paul" but yet the invitation was follow me as I follow Christ.

The Jewish culture was big on doing life together. One of the best ways to plant a church is to find a core group of 10, 12, 15 people and do life with them. And based on that relationship, and if it has life to it, God can give gifting, character is earned. And so if you have people of character and commitment it speaks life and people are hungry to be apart of something that has life and that has legacy. The unbroken chain of 2,000 years of church history. They want to be connected to something ancient and yet relevant and when people find genuine community they will buy in and it doesn't matter if it is 25 people in a living room or 400 in an elementary school or 600 in a new built sanctuary.

Anyway, those are some ramblings. At the end of the day I don't know, I haven't got a clue!

Matt: Jason, thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

Checkout: www.churchstl.org

Men & Women: Equal but different?

2008-06-16T15:03:00.004-05:00

The role of men and women is a hot topic in today's culture. In general men have become followers -- being selfish, submissive and reactionary. This lack of loving leadership in men often leads to two extremes. Either frustration, aggression and abuse or passivity, indifference and isolation. Men often feel like failures because of this.

On the other hand women have become the leaders -- taking a lead with responsibility and authority. This compensation leads to two extremes. Either domination and control over men (usually non-violent) or the disrespect and distrust of men. Struggles between men and women often result in insecurity and brokenness in both.

It is highly important for church leadership to understand this topic from a biblical and cultural perspective and be able to lead confidently in respect and love. This brief study deals specifically with roles within the church. There are two main positions. 1) Egalitarian, meaning God created male and female as equal in all respects and 2) Complementarian, meaning male and female were created by God as equal in dignity, value, essence and human nature, but also distinct in role whereby the male was given the responsibility of loving authority over the female, and the female was to offer willing, glad-hearted and submissive assistance to the man.

Conclusions from the Bible:

Men and women share the same nature (made in God's image) and are equal in dignity and value. Both are to rule the earth. Gen 1:26-27.
Men and women are also equal because gender is not a consideration for salvation, Gal 3:28. Also true of gifting, 1 Cor. 12:7-11.
Women (wives, in this text) are to be treated with honor because they are fellow-heirs of the grace of life in Christ. 1 Pet 3:7b.

Even though we are equal in value, there is evidence that men and women were created for different roles:

Men were created first which indicates an intentional design of responsibility and leading, Gen 2. Also see, 1 Cor. 11:8-9 & 1 Tim. 2:13.
God entrusted Adam with instructions for Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit, Gen 2:16-17.
Eve was created as Adam's helper, Gen 2:18.
The original word for helper is "Paraclete". It literally means "called to one's side for help". It is used in to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14:16. It is a HIGHLY honorable word for women because it is used of God. It is not denigrating.
Adam named Eve, a sign of authority, Gen 2:23 & Gen 3:20.
God approaches Adam as the one ultimately responsible for sin although Eve sinned first, Gen 3:9.
Sin is a disruption of God-intended gender roles. Women will therefore desire their husbands authority, Gen 3:16.
Jesus stood against cultural beliefs that were in opposition to God's kingdom, Matt 15:3-9. Yet, Jesus chose 12 men, not women, to be his primary leaders (governmental) indicating this is not just cultural, Matt 10:2-4. (Note: Jesus had, and has, many female followers)
To be deacons (a role open to both genders) in the church, men and women should be of certain character, 1 Tim 3:8-12.
Eldership (governmental rule over the church) is restricted to men of certain quality. If they are married, they must have one wife and they need to be able to lead their families, 1 Tim 3:2 & Titus 1:6. (Note: If they are widowed or divorced they should still be "one women" kinda guys -- appropriate in relationships.)
Teaching and preaching is a key function of elders for primary direction in the church (governmental direction). Women, and non-elder men, should not be the primary teachers but can teach under the oversight of the elders, 1 Tim 3:2, 2 Tim 4:2 & Titus 1:9. (NOTE: Elders are not given the right to delegate their primary (governmental) leadership role and tasks)
Women are encouraged towards all roles within the church excluding eldership. This is because of God's design, not because of ability or value. Women are specifically encouraged and given instruction about how to contribute to public meetings (example: prophesy), 1 Cor 11:5 & 1 Cor 14:34-36.
To save on time and length I have purposefully excluded references to household governing and exclusively focused on church roles.

What are the critical points?

Men and women are different. Men should be men, women should be women. We should not try to be like the opposite sex as this goes against God's plan for us.
Men are not better than women, and women are not better than men. Men are not given authority because they are more important but because of God's design. Men and women are designed and desired to fulfill different roles.
Believers in Jesus should desire to discover how God wants us to live from his word not what is easier to fit into culture.
Doing things God's way always works best. It is important to be convinced which way God wants it to be.
Women can hold any leadership role in the church (example: worship leader) except that of the office and responsibilities of an elder. This is not because women are unable, quite to the contrary, many women have success in leadership. This is because of God's design. This is to reflect the beauty of God's divine authority and submission within himself (example: Jesus submitting to His Father and the Holy Spirit as our counselor). This view of women holds them higher in value than the Egalitarian position because they are especially chosen to be submissive like Jesus and a counselor like the Holy Spirit.
Men must be submitted to authorities in the church and primarily to God. If a man is not submitted to God he is not worth following -- he is not worthy of respect. Men should model submission to their wives. Men are NOT ultimate authorities -- God is.
Women and non-elder men are able to teach in church -- if they can! But, this should be under the oversight and authority of the elders.
As we find life in Christ we should look to restore ourselves to Gods design -- rather than living in the brokenness of sin. Men should loving lead their wives and wives should willingly help their husbands. This reflects the interpersonal authority and submission of a Trinitarian God. The willful harmony is glorifying to God.

Summary:

Loving authority and joyful submission are a beautiful combo. It is the nature of God. The more we can grasp loving authority (without force) and joyful submission (without ignorance) we will bring glory to God.

Gender roles are ultimately a way to worship God. It must never be an excuse or opportunity to suppress women and elevate men. Men and women alike should be released into their God given gifts within the church under the oversight of godly elders and based on the teaching of the Bible.

Resources:

Summaries of the Egalitarian and Complementarian Positions on the Role of Women in the Home and in Christian Ministry
Article: What is the role of an elder? (John Piper)
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Wikipedia article on Complementarian
Mark Driscoll on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (This is an amazing message from a complementarian perspective)
DVD marriage course: Love and Respect
Egalitarian Christian Council
Wikipedia article on Egalitarianism

Welcome to our blog!

2008-06-09T10:32:00.002-05:00

Our blog was recently featured in a national magazine The Link and also in a Newfrontiers-USA video which was shown to about 800 people at the Midwest Celebration conference.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to welcome any new visitors and give a brief overview of some of our recent posts. To receive new posts please use the email or RSS subscription feature at the top of our blog.

Blog Recap:

Checkout the first post where it all started. This entry outlines our plans and explains some of the background to our decision.
This post reports what had happened in the first month of moving to St. Louis and starting the internship. Learn about some of the contacts we had made and the activities we had started.
I interviewed a Church Planter in Kansas City and learned a great deal about his experience. You can listen to the phone call or read the transcript.
I did a church "theme" study on how to involve students in church planting. I found this study particularly stimulating. This article was given to church leaders as a handout in a recent seminar on college ministries.
I completed a theological study on Baptism in the Holy Spirit. This was very helpful to me as North American culture diminishing the expectation of encountering God's presence. This study renewed my passion and desire for more of God.
I did a book review on The Multiplying Church by Bob Roberts. I highly encourage you to read this book as it will increase your vision for the church.
I interviewed a church planter from Portland, Oregon. This guy launched with 150 people and has some great things to share with us.
I just completed a theme study on Online Marketing for Church Planters. This post was fairly long but does contain the secrets of creating a successful web presence.

Please comment on posts if you have questions or thoughts. I'm always interested in how we can improve the content for our subscribers.

If you are new to our blog please watch our video and support us through prayer as much as you can. Please also consider supporting us financially if you feel God might desire you to do so.

Online Marketing for Church Planters Part 1

2008-06-02T16:27:00.013-05:00

Recently, Jubilee Churches city location in St. Louis discovered that 8% of their new guests came from online advertisements. Jubilee is running one type of online ad campaign which means this source of guests is not maximized and has great opportunity for improvement.

I wanted to explore the different online marketing tactics that a church planter could use to create interest in their launch and build greater connections with people. So here it is! Please comment below if you like what you read or you have additional ideas.

Blog or Web Site
You need a site, blog or at the very least a simple page to do basic web marketing. That's obvious right? Well, yes and no. The real key is not just having a website or blog but driving traffic to them.

Blogging:

If you are going to blog make the content really good and really regular.
No single blogging solution will contain all the features you might want. Compare blog software and match your specific needs at weblogmatrix.org.
I use blogger.com because it integrates with other Google products I use. Plus, this increases the chances of being found by other blogger users. You can also get a dedicated URL, example: www.yourdomainname.com (without the yourname.blogspot.com)

Website:

If you need more than a blog and want a fully fledged website then I strongly suggest using a Content Management System (CMS). They move the maintenance burden away from the designer/programmer and allow administrators, secretaries and other volunteers to adjust content without having to wait weeks, months or even years on the techies! There are tones of free ones out there.
No single CMS will have all the right features. You can use a tool like cmsmatrix.org to compare various CMS's side by side.
A good all rounder CMS is Joomla -- and it's free! To get this up and running you'll need:

Some basic web hosting. See www.ehostpros.com ($35/year)
A domain name. See godaddy.com ($10/year)
A web designer/programmer to install and setup Joomla. Feel free to contact me if you are looking for suggestions as I have a number of contacts who can perform this function.
Setup or create a custom template, or use an existing free one. The custom option will usually cost you some $$$ if you don't know a website designer who's willing to serve you.
Training on how to use the system.

An even easier solution would be using Google's free page creator. You could do this with no technical skills, but you probably want someone with a good eye and reasonably savvy.
If you Google "church websites" you can find tones of resources and organizations that specialize in this. Although I'm sure it's costly. For a church plant the above solutions are fairly inexpensive or free.

Promote your web presence
The most mystical of all web promotion is the organic search engine ranking. Basically, if you can get onto the first page of Google then you've made it. Well, I'm going to tell you how to get into the first 10 Google results. Read on ...

Search Engines
The number one key to a high search engine ranking is getting quality backlinks. Yes, that's right, the more inbound links that other web sites make to your web site or blog ultimately determines your position.

For example, if you Google "Church Planting" the first result (as of today) is www.churchplantingvillage.net, but the 9th result is www.churchplanting.net. Why are they ranked differently when both have the same words in the URLs? Easy. Go to Google and type in the following "link:www.churchplantingvillage.net" (without the quotes). In the top right Google says "1 - 10 of about 139". This means that Google has found and indexed about 139 inbound (backlinks) to this website. Now do the same for the other domain "link:www.churchplanting.net" (again, without the quotes). It says "Results 1 - 1 of 1". This means Google has only found and indexed one incoming link to that website. Other links may exist, but Google has either not found them or does not like them.

This is the most simplistic way to understand search engine page ranking.

It is vital that the links are quality. A quality web site is usually highly ranked, with a proven history, often older and does not attempt to trick the search engines.

The search engines can detect what are called "black hat" techniques where keywords are stuffed or hidden on the site. Or, some sites subscribe to link farms and even generate fake incoming links. The search engines always find out, believe me, I've seen it happen. A quality inbound link is worth so much more than 100's of links from insignificant blogs or unrelated web sites. Take every legitimate link that you can get, but fight harder for the quality links.

To rank well for the phrase "Church Planting" for example, the phrase needs to appear on the website multiple times, although don't overdo it. It should appear in the title tag, the meta tags, the first sentence on the site (and a few other times in the text), as an image name, as an alternative image name and as a link. It is even better if you can use it in a header tag and also place strong (bold) tags around one of it's instances. This is really the best thing you can do on your site to improve your ranking.

Another example, when you Google "Church Planting" the fifth result is www.acts29network.org. If you then Google "link:www.acts29network.org" you can see that it has 1,120 inbound links. This is way more than the 139 links for the number one result www.churchplantingvillage.net. What explains the difference in ranking? One possibility is the quality of the inbound links, the other is that Acts29 do not include the key word "church planting" in their title tag and other places. It's more of an art than a science.

It is important that you use keywords that you know people are searching for. For example, if you Google "Matt Sweetman" (without the quotes) my professional design web site comes up: www.mattsweetman.com. However, this is not particularly helpful because people are highly unlikely to find my services this way -- something I'm not too bothered about as I rely on word of mouth.

The point is that if you are not well known don't use your name as a main key phrase for your church. Do some research on competitors or what similar sites are using. These tools also help with research:

The main keywords for a church are likely to be something like "churches in [location]", but it's worth doing some research using the above tools.

Other things like having well built or "clean" code, the speed of your page loading, etc ... can make a small impact in ranking.

The next question is, how do you generate quality backlinks?

Generating quality links

Write good content often. "If you build it they will eventually link to you" is the motto. Content is king. The reasoning of the search engines is "if it's good people will link to it, if it's bad, people will not link to it". For the most part that is true.
Ask websites owners to link to you. Any business, organization or individual you have a connection with might give you a link as a favor.
Find some highly ranked websites that are not direct competitors of yours but are in the same industry and call them. Ask for a link. Offer a link in return or pay for one.
Interview someone who has a website or a blog, preferably someone important or at least popular. Post the interview on your blog and send them the link. If they like it, they'll link to it and send their visitors your way. For the record, I conduct interviews on my blog not for this reason, although it is a good side-affect. Interviews with church planters are a part of my internship studies.
Post your articles or blog entries onto social news websites like Digg.com. It's fairly easy to do and if you get lucky and make it to the homepage you'll likely generate 3,000+ backlinks in one day! But, you'll need to carefully craft your content to match the appetite of articles that get featured. This is a great opportunity to get creative with your writing! For example, this is an article I wrote and published on Digg, it got 22 diggs, please digg it again if you like it.
Create an annual award and subsequent ceremony for something in your community. Make it a really big deal, hype it up, drag it out, make tones of nominations, invite some big wigs, partner with other organizations -- make it legit and do it EVERY year! Spend some cash on a good trophy or plaque. Get it in the paper. But the key is, post it on your web site/blog and watch the links come in! This is just an excellent way to get into the community anyway.

To make this more constant you could create a "Community Member of the Month" award. This could really create some momentum and provide constant community connection and potentially generate lots of links to push you higher in the search engines.

Become a lender on kiva.org a micro-financing site. Not only is this a brilliant way to directly sponsor someone across the world and reduce poverty, but it's also a totally legit way to get a backlink to your site. Once your loan is repaid you can keep it as credit and continue to lend it out. Loans start at $25. See my profile here: http://kiva.org/lender/mattsweetman

This strategy is long term -- there are NO shortcuts. You will be unlikely to see results from this for at at least a year, or maybe 6 months at the earliest depending on how competitive your keywords are. Don't set your hopes on this as it can be very disappointing. To begin with go for some of the more immediate tips below while slowly building towards an organic ranking.

Even if you achieve a high ranking on a competitive keyword your ranking can change over night or even disappear and never come back if it's built on the wrong foundation or superseded by a competitor. Work hard at quality and you should be fine.

Paid search engine links
You've noticed those other links on the right hand side of the results page or right at the top? They are different than the regular results. If you didn't know already people pay each time you click on those. How much it costs depends on how much competition there is. It's a pay per click (PPC) model. I've seen some cost 5 cents per click and others cost over $10 per click. The nice thing about this system is that you can set a monthly budget for your ad campaign and once you hit your top dollar then the ad disappears until the first of next month.

So, you can say I only want to spend $20 a month and it will cap it there. For example, Google "Churches in Charlotte" (without the quotes). Currently there is a paid ad on the side for "City Church Charlotte". Please don't click on this ad otherwise you'll hamper their effectiveness to reach people by using up their budget, unless of course you live in Charlotte and desire to go to their church. If I was planting a church in Charlotte I'd pounce on this opportunity as there isn't much competition for Google ads which would keep the cost down. I'd also place ads on Yahoo, ASK and other top Search Engines.

To set these types of ad campaigns up you need a web page, a credit card, a postal address (that matches the card) and an idea of what the ad should say. To setup these campaigns go to Googles, Yahoo's or Ask.com ad centers.

Alternative Sources of Traffic
Search engines are the Big-Mama of your online presence. But there are many other legitimate and effective ways to draw visitors to your site and potentially generate some backlinks.

Ads & Classifieds
Use craigslist.org to post info about church events, especially a new church launch. It is surprising how many people use this service especially to sell items locally. My brother-in-law received several calls within minutes of posting his car for sale onCraigslist . There is a community section with all kinds of posts and info from local people. This will provide you with a link to your site and you can include a phone number which in my opinion is even better. If you can get someone on the phone then you are very likely to be able to connect with them and see a more substantial relationship develop. Get creative with your listings to standout from the clutter.

Think about Ebay. Maybe there is a way to use it in conjunction with something local and link it to your website. Please comment below if you have an example. The more various types of links you can create the better.

Social Networks
The gospel is viral by nature. The new, and instantaneous, social mechanisms of today are the myriads of social networking sites out there. And, if you can utilize them to spread your cause it can be is very rewarding.

Currently, it seems that Facebook is the "in thing". See this fantastic free e-book titled Facebook for Pastors for a deeper look into this. More than one-third (34%) of visitors to Facebook.com are 18-24 years old, read full article here. What a great demographic to reach!

In short you can use Facebook to display ads to targeted individuals, keep connected with contacts you make in the community, communicate church info through a "group" and just simply understand the culture better. The church group on Facebook has a lot of benefits, but the main advantage is that it keeps new contacts in the loop and can spreads within social nodes (groups of connected Facebook users) so that when someone joins the "Church Group" all their Facebook friends see it and some will check it out. It's a totally legitimate and highly relevant source of traffic -- kinda like a passive referral.

You can use social news sites like Digg.com to try and generate interest. Facebook could be a good place to promote an article you want people to digg.

The recent social micro-blogging craze, Twitter.com, is another great way to generate incoming links to your website. Church planter Matt Payne from Portland Oregan in a recent interview said he uses Twitter to follow local people. Even recently he had a local unchurched man contact him through Twitter regarding a pastoral issue. Often times if you follow people on Twitter they can be intrigued and want to follow you in return.

Checkout my Twitter page: http://twitter.com/mattsweetman you'll notice the URL on the right hand side. It's another legitimate link to my blog and another pathway that people can get to my site, especially if I make interesting Twitter updates, people are more likely to check me out. I currently have 79 followers on Twitter. Each one is a potential return visitor and linker to blog posts I make.

You can search on Twitter for people in your area with similar interests. What a great way to connect with local people and maybe generate some Twitter followers. People are fascinated by micro-blogging so why not use it for link building and connecting?

A great resource for staying on the cutting edge of social networking is Mashable. I receive their daily update via email.

Online Video
So how can you use YouTube.com to your advantage? If you are going to ad videos to your website then just host them on YouTube. Use their code to embed it into your website. DON'T HOST IT YOURSELF. This is important because you are creating another way for people to find your content online -- for free.

We created a short video (in one take) to let website visitors know about our church planting internship and to ask people to consider sponsoring us. See it here. Currently it has had 624 views. That is actually a lot considering our blog is new. How did this happen? Search for church planting on youtube and notice that our video is ranked 8th! This has created another avenue for people to find our blog. The key is to give it a good description and title and put accurate info on your profile page. It's also another link to your site. See mine: http://www.youtube.com/user/thesweetmans

If you don't create any video's right now don't worry it's easy. Short personal videos are very powerful on websites. You don't need anything slick. Our short intro video was done in one take, with no editing software and uploaded to YouTube.

See another example of one I did here: www.oneblaze.net. Make your life easy and get a Flip Camera: theflip.com I think it has an auto upload to YouTube feature as well.

YouTube restricts videos to 10 minutes, but Google video does not! If you video your Sunday messages then this can work well for you. Either slice your video into smaller sections and store it on YouTube to generate more traffic or stick the whole thing on Google Video. It's free by the way. See my hour long preach on the Incarnation of Jesus on Google video. Adding a URL to the video would work as another source of traffic.

There are other social networking video sites that could prove to be excellent for traffic and link generation. However, at this point I must present a warning. A lot of smaller video sharing sites can tend to have sexual content on them. So, I'd suggest just sticking with YouTube and Google video as they do a reasonable job of nixing adult content.

Men, if this is a weakness for you install XXXchurch software on your computer and get an accountability partner and DON'T FOLLOW ANY OF MY ADVICE ABOVE about Online Videos, it's not worth it. Or just delegate online video marketing to a woman!

To be continued ...
Ok, that's enough for one blog post. I am going to finish this up in a part two section and give info about the following things: eNewsletters, RSS, podcasting, widgets and more resources available to church planters.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A theological study

2008-05-29T16:38:00.015-05:00

Throughout history there have been many Godly Christians who have held very different beliefs about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This subject has massive impact to the practice of ministry within the church. It impacts prayer, worship, new Christians, teaching and discipleship. So it is important to have a strong theological understanding.

As a church planting intern it is very important to grasp this doctrine from a biblical perspective so that I can effectively and appropriately incorporate it into new church ventures in the future. This study does not cover all aspects of the doctrine, but looks to answer this question: Is Baptism in the Holy Spirit synonymous with conversion or a separate experience available for all believers?

What happens in the Bible?

Redemption is the story of the Bible (John 3:16). The result of redemption is reconnection to God i.e. being in God's presence. This is what God wanted at the beginning and gets at the end. Therefore the Bible is full of people who experience an intimate relationship with God. God's presence is tangibly experienced by people throughout scripture. The New Testament sees this multiplied especially with power-encounters and spiritual gifts.
The Old Testament looks forward to a time when the Holy Spirit will be poured out in a larger measure. Joel 2:28 "I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy".
The gospel's look forward towards what Jesus will do, namely baptism in the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3:11 "...He [Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
The epistles look back assuming it has happened. Eph 1:13 "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."
The book of Acts shows us how it happened. Acts 8:16 "because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus".
Not one epistle tells a believer to be baptized in water or by the Holy Spirit, yet both occur independently in Acts. This is probably because both forms of baptism are the norm, they are assumed.
How would a first century Jew understand the phrase "receive power"? Simple. From what they knew of when the Spirit came upon characters like Gideon, David, the Judges, the prophets and the priests. Just as these insignificant and fearful people were suddenly transformed, given power gifts and often thrust into leadership roles, so they would be too. Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you".
All four gospels share the same statements by John the Baptist regarding Jesus being the Lamb of God and bringing a baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is also repeated in Acts. This introduction is the primary way Jesus is to be understood, substitution for sin and filling with God's power. John 1:29 "Look, the Lamb of God [Jesus], who takes away the sin of the world!" and John 1:33 "... he [Jesus] who will baptize with the Holy Spirit."
Jesus makes bold statements about his purpose on the earth, a Baptism of fire as John predicted. Luke 12:49 "I have come to bring fire on the earth".
Jesus, being the Son of God, received the Holy Spirit after water Baptism. This shows that having the Holy Spirit descend on you, or poured out on you, has nothing to do with receiving forgiveness of sins, but rather power for ministry -- preaching and healing. Luke 3:22 "the Holy Spirit descended upon Him" Luke 4:14 "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit" v15 "He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all". Luke 5:13 "He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately the leprosy left him".
Jesus says to his disciples pre-Pentecost that they already know the Holy Spirit and that he is already with them, but will also be in them as a counselor. This shows a distinction between these two things "know" and "being with", to "being inside a person". John 14:16-17 "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth ... But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
One of Jesus' main purpose, according to John, was to be a Baptizer in the Spirit. However, Jesus did not say much about it especially at the beginning. Jesus had not yet dealt with sin or been seated in the place of all authority and so the Spirit could not be poured out until after that time. John 7:37-39 "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."
The book of Acts, being narrative, is qualified as being directly inspired by God and beneficial for doctrine. We can therefore discover a practical post-crucifixion first century experience and doctrine of Holy Spirit Baptism. 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness".
The disciples in Samaria received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit after they were saved. Some label this as a "Samaritan Pentecost" but the Bible does not claim it to be the first out pouring on the Samaritans. During Pentecost in Acts 2, with the vast amount of nations involved, some Samaritans could have theoretically had a direct or indirect experience. This makes a definitive "Samaritan Pentecost" an unstable and unprovable position. Labeling this event a particular Pentecost requires a "Paul Pentecost" label later on in Acts and subsequent labels for each people groups first experience of Gods power -- an "Eskimo Pentecost" for example. Superimposing "labels" where the bible does not would undoubtedly pigeonhole ones theology and potentially conceal biblical truth. Acts 8:14-16 "When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."
Peter explains that the day of Pentecost (the first mass Baptism in the Holy Spirit) and the Samaritans experience (a subsequent mass Baptism in the Holy Spirit) are equally the fulfillment of the same promise in Joel 2:28-19 that Jesus taught about. This shows that the Pentecost experience was not an isolated one-time only event, but it is a one-time event for all believers. Acts 11:15-16 "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'"
Paul (formerly Saul), a Jew, experienced Baptism in the Holy Spirit separately from conversion, after Pentecost. Ananias refers to Paul as a "Brother" meanings a Christian Brother, one already saved, and as one about to receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 9:17 "Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
The Gentiles at Cornelius's house receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit during conversion, as they were receiving the gospel from Peter. After they exercised spiritual gifts, a common sign of Holy Spirit Baptism, they were baptized in water. This particular sequence shows that it can happen at conversion as well as afterwards. But there is no question of a power encounter in addition to repentance and forgiveness. Acts 10:44-46 "Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God."
The believers at Ephesus received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit after they had believed and after they were baptized in water. Paul asks if they had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit after they had believed. If Baptism in the Spirit and conversion are synonymous then the question could be interpreted "Were you converted when you were converted?" -- which is a mute question. Why would Paul, the primary author of New Testament theology, ask such a ludicrous question? Acts 19:2 "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" v5-6 "As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied."
Baptism in the Holy Spirit is part of the salvation package. Biblical salvation in the New Testament is not just repentance but it encapsulates: repentance, faith, water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism. These characteristics are always present in the biblical narrative. Can someone be saved without water baptism? Yes. Can some be saved without Holy Spirit Baptism? Yes. But the Bible expects and assumes that believers will desire to receive all that God has for them. The totality of salvation is still to come and will not fully come until Jesus returns. These verses show that salvation is a process and that Baptism in the Holy Spirit is identified as a separate event. Romans 13:11 "our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed". Titus 3:5-6 "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior". Gal 4:6 "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts". (Note: in this verse sonship had already happened, and because of this the Spirit is sent which indicates a separation of identity and Spirit power).
Positions which emphasize Baptism in the Holy Spirit and conversion being at the same time, or being the same thing, often rely on this scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:13 "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit". Consider these points:

The context/subject of this passage is the unity of believers within the practice of spiritual gifts. This is not intended to be doctrinal statement that inseparably links Baptism in the Holy Spirit with conversion -- otherwise it would make a stronger case for that. Read the whole chapter to get the point.
The baptism referred to in this passage is actually "into one body" which could easily mean water baptism. It does not say "baptized into the Spirit", but it says that this is by the Spirit. Baptism by the Holy Spirit is not the same as Baptism in the Holy Spirit. For example, we don't get baptized by water. Rather, we get baptized in water by a person. The language that describes Spirit baptism it is usually: pour out, upon, anointed, fall on, promise, filled, receive, gift, given, seal and pledge. These phrases do not appear in conjunction with this section. The Contemporary English Version states it like this "God's Spirit baptized each of us and made us part of the body of Christ". I can't find another translation that puts it like this, and I'm not a bible translator by any means, but I think that either way it is unclear to build a doctrine on this especially when so many other scriptures make it clear.
Also note the word "one" before Spirit. Paul is trying to emphasize that we work for the same boss, unity is the primary theme here.
Again, this affirms that Paul assumes salvation is a whole package. He taught and practiced water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism as a whole deal. There is no separation in his mind. If you are around Paul and you believe in Jesus you will receive water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism.
What does "all made to drink of one Spirit" mean? Well, Paul personally baptized a few of the believers in Corinth and could confidently state that they had been made to drink from the one Spirit from first hand experience. As a church they were very active in spiritual gifts which would make a statement like this fitting for them. Again, drinking of one Spirit, assumes a step in salvation that Paul always took if it does refer to Spirit Baptism. It could also just be a reference to unity "one spirit". The word "spirit" in the original Greek could be taken either way.
Because of these points the Corinthian passage does not contradict the narrative sequence of salvation in the book of Acts: repentance, faith, water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism.
Note: John Piper says "I don't think that what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12:13 is the same as what is happening in Acts ... I think the essence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit is when a person, who is already a believer, receives extraordinary spiritual power for Christ-exalting ministry." See article here.

Often times those who believe that Baptism in the Holy Spirit is synonymous with conversion deny the activity of power gifts for today. This doctrine is somewhat inconsistent because although all believers are supposed to receive power at conversion they cannot use it for anything. It has no more application -- it's redundant. This would make Baptism in the Holy Spirit at the same time as conversion utterly pointless. Why believe in receiving power from above if the reason the original disciples received it has ceased? Some cessationists now acknowledge the fact that God can sovereignly heal people -- but continue to deny other spiritual gifts. Another inconsistency.
As we have seen from the book of Acts, one can be a disciple of Jesus, having been baptized in water and unified with the Spirit of Christ, but not have received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Therefore verses like Romans 8:9 "... if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" do not apply to believers who have not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What does Baptism in the Holy Spirit achieve?

Assurance of Salvation

Because we have been saved by Jesus He sends his Holy Spirit which causes a deep cry within our spirits toward God. This results in a Godward passion from the identity that God is our Father. Gal 4:6 "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
Receiving the promise of power creates a mark, or a seal, a guarantee for the believer for the totality of salvation. This guarantee is not for God's benefit, as if he would forget, but for ours. It is an inner assurance for us. It is the presence of power within that makes those nagging doubts ("Am I really saved") go away. Again, if we don't have it we are not any less a believer. Salvation is based on faith, not feeling. This is therefore about inner conviction rather than butterflies in your stomach.Eph 1:13-14 "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory"

Power gifts for worship, witnessing and the edifying of believers

A main result of Holy Spirit Baptism is the delivery of Spiritual gifts, boldness for worship, witnessing and the edifying of believers. Acts 19:6 "Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied"
Other references: Lk 4:14-18, 24:48-49; Jn 15:26-27; Acts 1:8, 2:4-12, 2:14, 2:17-18, 4:31-33, 5:32, 6:5-10, 9:17-20, 10:45-46, 13:9-10, 19:6; 1 Ths 1:4-8

The initiation of more "fillings" by the Spirit

At the beginning of the book of Ephesians Paul makes it clear that they have already received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14 and 4:30). In chapter 5 verse 18 he commands them not to be intoxicated with Alcohol but to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Urg!? If they have received it how can they receive it again? This phrase literally means "be being filled" with the Spirit. It is an ongoing experience of God. Eph 5:18 "Don't destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life".
Paul continually prays for the Colossian church that they would be "filled" with Spiritual wisdom. This is not a reference to Baptism in the Holy Spirit. We see instruction here to actively engage with the Spirit for "fillings". Again, this is Col 1:9 "we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding"

What does it NOT achieve?

It does not make some Christians better than other Christians. If that is ever taught, communicated or imposed then it is wrong wrong wrong.
It does not necessarily improve your maturity or character. Just as knowledge puffs you up, so power gifts can puff you up. But the solution is not to remove either knowledge or gifts. It is actually far more important to love others more than we love ourselves. However, this does not remove the desirability of Baptism in the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts as they are great vehicles for people to see and experience God's love. But, it is a warning to use them for the benefit of others, which is how they are intended. 1 Cor 13:2 "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
Character is developed through experience and walking by the Spirit through each situation. Just simply exercising gifts and having power encounters does not result in Godly wisdom and humility. Being led by the Spirit, following him by walking along side produces fruit. We can live by the Spirit through using His gifts, but if we never walk by the Spirit we never mature through situational opportunities. Gal 5:16, 22 & 25 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh ... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law ... If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit". (It's possible to live, but not walk).
The Corinthian church excelled in Spiritual gifts but lacked wisdom in practice and maturity as disciples -- these things are not synonymous. Paul wrote to them saying "My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That's why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned." (1 Corinthians 3:1).

How can this be practiced in the church?

Taught in membership.
Practiced in worship times both corporately in large and small gatherings.
A step in the process of water baptism (not forced but an environment created for explanation and receptivity).
The only biblical qualification to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to be thirsty. It is otherwise open to every believer. If someone is theologically not convinced or not hungry for more of God then attempting to lay on hands and pray is not going to be beneficial. Opportunities for this to happen need to be created: John 7:37 "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."

Resources:

Jubilee Church in the news

2008-05-27T20:22:00.003-05:00

The local South Side Journal just featured an article about Jubilee Church. They mention about ONEBLAZE and the free kids camp we are running. Exciting stuff ... although it's a really bad photo of Bryan!

Read: Jubilee Church livens up former funeral home