Long Term Church Expansion Strategy

Last weekend (Feb 15-17, 2008) I ran a youth conference in St. Joseph Missouri. We run 3 ONEBLAZE events each year. Our vision is to raise up
a new generation of church pioneers.

Normally we have around 200 teenagers between grades 7 & 12. When I say I ran it, I mean a very committed team of volunteers from Living Hope Church administered the weekend, and I simply set the vision, arranged the messages and gave input on a few things.

So why do we do it? Seriously, it's a lot of work for one weekend; travel, extreme weather (6 inches of snow Saturday night), late nights, community service projects, bands, preaching, making videos, flu epidemic, bad attitudes etc... Why? All youth work NEEDS a generational strategy otherwise it's just serving the immediate group of people -- which is a greedy vision. Sometimes it can be hard to see the long term benefits but here they are:

1. Leadership Training: Youth ministry is the BEST place to start raising up leaders. Teenagers are passionate and too young to realize the limitations that adults place on things. If I preach about the resurrection of Jesus they are trying to raise the dead the next day! During ONEBLAZE I have young people leading worship, preaching, judging spiritual gifts, leading service project teams and overseeing meetings. We try and give feedback on all these things to encourage leadership growth.
   
   
2. New Churches: Question: what is the best thing to do with leaders? Answer: send them out to help pioneer churches! This nation needs more churches (check stats on the right). Starting new churches is the best long term kingdom strategy out there, parachurch wont do it alone. Our ONEBLAZE youth events are hosted by local churches to train young people in church based serving, outreach and community impact. It's a lot more hard work than just using a Christian camp at the Lake of the Ozarks, but the long term impact is more valuable. Youth ministry is a perfect place to build vision for church planting.
   
   
3. Existing Churches: With all this talk about new churches, don't feel like existing churches aren't in the plan. ONEBLAZE ministry is all about serving and prospering existing churches. If you lead a church wouldn't you love 200 passionate for Jesus teenagers who will pay money to represent and serve your church for a weekend or an entire week? ONEBLAZE makes a huge impact in the life of a church, it injects an existing church family with raw youth passion -- what a great encouragement and opportunity for spiritual refreshment.
   
   
4. Community Impact: This is by far one of the most amazing and exciting parts of ONEBLAZE. This last weekend we went to dozens of venues to serve the community in St. Joe. I ended up at Special Olympics and cheered for the Eagles, a basketball team of adult men and women which included many athletes with greater abilities than myself! The Eagles are playing in State Basketball Championships in Wentzville, MO in March. I talked with the coaches, the players and other volunteers and explained that Living Hope Church was there to serve the community today. People were incredibly grateful and the name of Jesus is now more famous than before. The other benefit to church based youth ministry is that the local church can continue the work, so it's not the hit and run tactic of many Christian outreach strategies.
   
   
5. Personal Development: ONEBLAZE has been an amazing opportunity for me to grow in my leadership skills. Setting vision, preparing and delivering messages, working within a team, learn from church leaders, increasing my capacity, growing in faith, connecting with the community and the list goes on. But not just me, this is true for all those involved in leading ONEBLAZE. If we limited our roles by only discipling a couple of people, or ushering on Sunday mornings, or going to bible studies (not that these things are wrong) it would take years for us to develop to where we are at now. Church based youth camp is an accelerated development strategy. It creates opportunities that enables growth.
   

See ONEBLAZE.net & livinghope-stjoe.org

For info on our upcoming ONEBLAZE event this summer see this promo video:

What are you really living for?

Have you ever asked yourself, "what am I really living for?" or "what do I REALLY want to do with my life?" Well, Heather and I have known the answer for awhile - and we've been waiting. To make it simple, we are passionate about Jesus and his church, and we are passionate about the church being restored to its original intent.

Unfortunately, the church is often seen as a place of exclusivity, judgment, ultra-conservative thinking, scandal and irrelevancy. Around the world the tide is changing positively about the church, but in the U.S. we have a different story with an alarming decline of churches. We are also overloaded with all kinds of new (and marketed) philosophies, life-style habits, theories, studies and turn-around solutions which temporarily disguise our issues. The comforts of our ever advancing culture are excessive and distract us from deeper searching and important life questions.

In stark contrast to our culture the life of Jesus was incredibly personal and transforming. People around Jesus were surprised and impressed. Mark 1:21 says "Everyone there was incredulous, buzzing with curiosity. "What's going on here? A new teaching that does what it says?" Jesus Christ provides a wonderful and absolute solution to the issues we have - in ways we never expect.

It is also true throughout history. The followers of Jesus were the ones who established many of the great hospitals of todays world, initiated the greatest universities, started many of todays charities, fought to abolish slavery and much more. It is the message of Jesus Christ's radical grace that this generation needs to hear. There is still hope. If you've not thought much about Jesus please look him up - his claims and teachings are too great to ignore!

We feel personally responsible to tackle this trend in the US, not just because ground has been lost, but because anyone who follows the teachings of Jesus knows that going to new places, gathering people and forming communities of generous Christians is the foundation to our faith (See Matthew Chapter 28). It's not just an idea or an ancient text, but it's an earthy and tangible reality that we can't avoid. It's the most obvious and most pressing ramification to believing in Jesus.

Heather and I have a deep vision to see vibrant, genuine and generous churches established. We both grew up in new churches that sought to build genuine communities and positively impact the society around them. Having seen this firsthand, we are making a big life change to embrace this dream and do more of the same. We are joined to a worldwide family of churches called Newfrontiers which seeks to fulfill the great commission Jesus gave us. It is through this relationship that we intend to start a reproducing church. As Spiderman says "with great power, comes great responsibility!" - and because we have received a lot, we must give a lot.

Here's what we are planning to do:

1. Move to St. Louis Missouri in Feb 2008 for 2 years to complete a full-time church planters training course (learning how to start new churches). We currently live in Kansas City.
   
2. Learn from church leaders Rick Hein, John Lanferman and Brian Mowrey about starting and leading churches. Jubilee Church in St. Louis is currently starting a second location.
   
3. During the training course decide where to start a new church. We feel particularly draw to urban areas.
   
4. Raise support/sponsorship for the period of training. If you know us, or have randomly found our blog, please consider sponsoring us.

What kind of church will we start?

1. Not just a Sunday meeting, but a family
2. A reproducing church that will seek to plant out
   
3. A group of people who contribute generously and sacrificially to the needs around them
   
4. It will be non-denominational but associated with Newfrontiers, a worldwide family of churches that relate to one another through relationships and common vision
   
5. It will incorporate contemporary worship (whatever that means!)
6. It will teach the Bible
   
7. It will be a charismatic, word & spirit church
8. We'll let you know more as we figure it out ...
   

We will be updating the blog regularly once things start moving forward with our training. You may not see additional entries for a little while. But this blog will provide you with a way to stay connected with us as we begin the journey.

Please watch our video, subscribe to our blog and consider supporting us.