Author Archive

Foundations: Remembering What’s Really Important

Friday, January 29th, 2010

With all of the practical advice our trainers had to offer at the conference sessions, it would be easy to be overwhelmed.  Each trainer went over enough material to fill a full-week conference on its own, and they did it in about ninety minutes!  Suffice it to say, if you were here with us this week, your task of learning and applying all of the material has only begun.  That’s why it’s important to keep in mind what Steve Childers shared at the closing session.  It’s important to remember “The Main Thing.”

The Success Syndrome

In the book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, R. Kent and Barbara Hughes share how they had to reorient their understanding of success before they were happy in the ministry.  Nobody wants to be a failure.  But the point here is that success ought to be measured according to the proper criteria.  Church planters are as prone as anyone else to measuring their effectiveness against unhealthy, counter-productive, and even dangerous benchmarks.  If your top goal as a church planter is to grow your church beyond 200 people – or even 50 – then you ought to be taking a step back and asking yourself why growth is important to you.  Statistics can be helpful in gauging the health of your church.  But real success ought to be measured according to God’s Word.

For example, look at what Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 25:14-30 (“The Parable of the Talents”).  Even though one servant is trust with much and another with little, in the end they are each equally blessed.  Why?  Because each servant was faithful with what the master had given him.  Likewise with church planters.  The size of our churches are not indicative of our level of success.  Rather, according to Steve, we are successful in ministry by “faithfully pleasing God with the resources and responsibilities he has given [us].”

The Tyranny of the Urgent

Another source of trouble in the ministry can be all of the unexpected things that creep up and demand our time.  If we’re not careful we’ll find more and more of our days spent dealing with things according to their level of urgency and regardless of whether they align with our ministry vision.

The root of the problem here is that we all tend to deal first with the things that are right in front of us (urgent).  Instead of blindly following this approach, we should be mindful of our goals and do the things that serve them.  This won’t mean always saying no to urgent matters that come up.  But it does suggest that not all urgent matters are important.  Distinguishing these two factors allows us to more effectively prioritize our schedules.  Freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the urgent allows us to accept that our time is limited and that we cannot do everything that is asked of us.  Instead, you should focus on the things that are important.

The Main Thing

Once we have liberated ourselves from both the success syndrome and the tyranny of the urgent, we can more clearly consider who we serve and what He is asking of us.  Remember that it is God Himself – not church planters – who is building His church.  Our work, then, should be done in the kind of faith that allows us to trust Him.  This doesn’t mean we give up considering our vision, our Ministry Focus Group, or even our financial situation.  But it means that we trust God with those things and do our work in the faith that He is sovereign and controls the outcome.

Practically speaking, Steve suggests five things to help us “make the main thing the main thing”:

  1. Understand the difference between your goals and desires. You have control over your goals.  You do not have control over your desires.  Learn to work towards your goals and pray for your desires.  For instance, you can make it a goal to share the Gospel will five people this week.  You can control that; so work toward it.  But to see five people come to faith this week … that’s a desire.  Be praying for that.
  2. Pursue the God of grace, not the grace of God. To paraphrase John Piper, grace is a means to God, not vice versa.  Be humble enough to realize that you don’t love God as you ought, and ask for grace that you may love Him better.  Also keep in mind that the very purpose of your ministry is to connect people of the same God of grace.
  3. Remember that the way up is the way down. Very often the solution to waking up a floundering ministry is to get to the heart of the minister’s pride and self-reliance.  This again is a very humbling experience.  Be honest where you have sinned and repent.
  4. Also remember the priority of people over programs. Most gifted church planters are visionary when it comes to organizing a working ministry based on effective programs.  But those some men and women can also struggle not to let people get lost in the margins.  If your programs aren’t producing mature disciples, then you need to take another look at them.  A ministry that is perfect on paper is meaningless when people are not being effectively shepherded.
  5. Process living versus product living. I’ve heard this stated alternately, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  You’ll be a lot happier in the ministry if you’re not always focused on the next thing that you need to do – the next milestone you need to reach or program you need to implement.  The alternative is a life spent devoted to “the cult of the next thing.”

So what is “The Main Thing.”  It’s not the ministry.  The main thing is loving both God and people.

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Foundations: Finances

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

GCA was pleased to have Fred Marsh come in and share with conference attendees some strategies for fund raising.  This module is a necessary part of the “Foundation” curriculum because, in many denominations, church planters are responsible to raise their own support.  Without funding at the denominational level, the planter is responsible to “drive the funding process.”  Coming from the Presbyterian Church in America’s Mission to North America, Fred’s material assumes this “independent” fundraising model.

Here are some goals for church planters to set for themselves as they seek to formalize a financial plan:

  1. Use your church planting plan in fund raising.  Some potential donors will want to know that you have your act together.  You should be able to explain your vision and mission to anyone who asks, including donors.  This is probably common sense to most of us, but it bears mentioning.
  2. Determine your initial financial Financial Support Model.  This model will vary depending upon your denomination, whether you have a “parent” church, and a host of other factors.  Exhaust all of your options before you decide on a course of action.  For instance, you may consider a bi-vocational or “tent making” ministry early on.
  3. Develop a financial budget for the next 2-3 years.  This is where the “rubber” of your Financial Support Model meets the “road” of your actual donor network and financial needs.  Thinking this far ahead will help you understand how realistic your vision is.  It will also show donors that you’re serious about seeing your church planting plan put to action.
  4. Identify prospective donors.  Again, this is common sense.  If you’re going to be doing any amount of fund-raising, then you need to figure out who you are going to approach.  There will be some donors who are able to give a lot.  Others will be able to give less.  Everyone deserves your attention.  Keep in mind, though, that it’s not wrong to give large donors personal attention.  If you don’t do this, they may never understand the difference that their generosity can make.
  5. Design a structured, personalized process for contacting and following up with donors.  Remember, your donors will be with you for many years.  Very generous donors will also want to know that their gift is making a difference.  So it’s imperative for church planters to be communicating with donors and telling them how their gifts are being used.
  6. Develop the necessary policies for financial management and accountability.  Church planters have found themselves in hot water in the past because they were the sole parties responsible for making a myriad of financial decisions.  It’s in everyone’s best interest if some plan for management and accountability is put in place.  I know a church planter who has a whole financial team consisting of regular attenders helping him make important decisions.  That’s just one option.
  7. While you need to have a detailed budget, it is generally unwise to make it public.  It’s too detailed for most donors.  Instead, let them know how much money you need to raise (excluding your core group).

One more thing: There are people out there who are blessed with wealth and a spirit of generosity who are looking to get involved in funding a ministry – one that they can get behind and in which they can believe.  Those people are the one’s to seek out.  You are not trying to persuade people to give against their wills.  The goal in fund-raising is to mobilize generous, godly people and to give them an opportunity to come beside you in ministry.

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Foundations: Styles

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

How does the church do ministry in this culture?  How do we do ministry in a cultural context through the lens of the five Ministry Purposes?  Andre Rogers helped us think through these questions, and shared many examples from his own ministry.

The church planter must help determine how these biblical purposes should come to expression in the unique Ministry Focus Group being served.  This means that one of a church planter’s tasks is to discover the stylistic expectations of his culture and, as appropriate, embrace them, adapt them, critique them, or reject them.  At the same time, we should be using our own stylistic decisions to serve the cause of the gospel.

A church planter from Ukraine shared a story with us about planting a church in the western part of that country.  The culture is more traditional there than in the east (which is near Russia).  Even though both areas can be broadly called “Ukrainian,” they have different needs.  A more traditional style of worship resonated with people in the western part of the country, while more contemporary services worked in the east.  On the other hand, in the west a contemporary service seemed disrespectful, while the east would have found a traditional service out of touch.  The different cultures necessitated different styles of worship.

So we need to adapt our style to the culture of our Ministry Focus Group.  The goal is “contextualization without compromise.”  Where this isn’t being done, we’re probably guilty of one of two errors.  The first is under adapting to the culture.  The root cause here is probably ethnocentrism.  We feel that our own style preferences are best and seek to impose those views upon our Ministry Focus Group.  The second error is over-adapting to the culture.  This is called syncretism, and involves embracing all of the style preferences of your Ministry Focus Group (including preferences that might hard your proclamation of the Gospel).

So how can we know what to embrace and what to reject when it comes to style?  The Lausanne Covenant has some helpful words: “Because man is God’s creature, some of his culture is rich in beauty and goodness.  Because he is fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic.”  In other words, there are no easy answers here.  Church planters must be able to determine what stylistic elements they can pull from the culture in order to serve in the proclamation of the gospel.

Keeping the following points in mind can help us determine what styles to embrace:

  1. Go where the wind is already blowing.  If there are already successful churches in the area you hope to reach, then find out what they’re doing right.  Don’t be afraid to “jump on the bandwagon” so long as those styles can be adapted to serve your Ministry Focus Group.
  2. Choose ministry styles that serve your Ministry Purposes.  We’ve already discussed the importance of having a clearly defined set of purposes for your ministry.

One more tidbit that a veteran pastor shared with us during the conference session: “We should not be defined by what we are against, but what we are for.”  This doesn’t mean that we never critique culture.  It just means that we should be known for the cause we serve and not the things of which we disapprove.  Keeping this in mind will help us reach those who disagree with us with the gospel without compromising our integrity.

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Foundations: Purpose

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Why do church planting?  Most of what you will read here assumes that you agree church planting is something that we should even be doing.  Yet, even if you do support church planting as a worthy cause, it’s worth taking a moment to back up and give this question some thought.  After all, we have churches already.  Why start new ones?

Before we can answer that question, we need to take another step back.  Why does any church – young or old – exist at all?  Put another way, what are the church’s priorities in ministry?  Answering these questions puts us well on our way understanding the purpose of church planting.

As I write this, GCA Director of Training Bob Orner is still teaching the Foundations module.  He began by giving us the biblical reasons for the church’s existence, based on Acts 2:42-47 (via the Redeemer Acts Curriculum).  Practically speaking, Bob gave us five reasons:

  1. Worship & Prayer (v. 42).
  2. Learning & Discipleship (v. 42).
  3. Fellowship & Community (v. 42).
  4. Outreach & Evangelism (v. 47).
  5. Mercy & Social Concern (v. 44).

So a healthy church (biblically speaking) does not have the luxury of picking some of these and rejecting others.  Rather, it will balance these five things as it reaches out to its Ministry Focus Group.  This doesn’t mean that every healthy church will look the same.  Pastor’s and church planters should prioritize and emphasize the above purposes based on the following factors:

  1. The unique gifts and ministry philosophy of the church planter.
  2. The emphasis of the church’s core group or leadership team.
  3. The unique needs of the Ministry Focus Group.

The end result is a ministry that is “serving out of strength.”  That is, the church both effectively balances and prioritizes the five ministry purposes and, at the same time, knows its own strengths and passions in order to do those things best.

With all of this in mind, the purpose of church planting in particular should be clear.  It’s to produce healthy churches.  Actually, it’s to produce more healthy churches.  Actually, it’s both.  And for church planters, keeping our purpose in mind helps us better understand how to move forward in our communities.

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Church Planting: Using Technology and Social Media

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

This year’s conference consists of 13 sessions.  In keeping with past years, there are two tracks.  The Foundations track is for church planters who are just getting started.  They may still be in the planning stages, or in the first year or two of planting.  The “Essentials” track is for planters who are a little bit further along (3-5 years) and is designed to help them determine the next steps in the development on their churches.

I’ll be blogging my way through the “Foundations” track.  Because of the density of the material and the pace at which we’re moving through it, there’s just no way for me to cover everything.  So I’ll only be sharing one module with you today.  I’ll try to cover two on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Technology and Social Media

This session was presented by the duo of Tim Brister and Drew Goodmanson.  It’s actually not part of the “Foundations” track proper.  But it seemed like such a unique module that I couldn’t resist sharing it with you.  (And, of course, as a blogger I’m probably a little biased!)

Technology is changing.  It’s more immersive.  It’s all around us.  And if we want to reach the culture around us, we will have to learn to speak in their technological language.  In other words, the Church needs to be using all avenues of communication to share the gospel.  In America today, this means websites, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs just to name a few.

This doesn’t mean we should accept technology uncritically.  What it does mean is that we shouldn’t react against it per se.  We know that technology – and social media in particular – impacts the amount of time we spend directly interacting with one another.  So what we need is to have a theology of presence such that we can understand the positives and negatives of technology and its affect on relational intimacy.  Where this hasn’t been done, we have yet to fully comprehend our relationship with the gadgets that surround us.

With regard to social media, church planters need to understand that they have four audiences that they are trying to reach: non-Christians, new Christians, regular church-goers, and church leaders.  In some sense, it’s unrealistic to expect a one-size-fits-all approach to reach and inform all four of these groups.  So a good approach to a church’s online presence is going to be multi-faceted.  It just has to be.

The project of managing any organization’s online presence is called Internet Presence Management.  This involves first figuring out which online services are being used by the people you want to reach (be they an un-reached group that you want to evangelize, or the average attendee at your church).  There’s no doubt that there are a lot of options here: Facebook ads, clever domain names, and private member portals (e.g. the “unifyer” service) only scratch the surface.  It’s easy to get exhausted trying to consider all of the options.  I could feel a collective sigh of relief as Drew stressed that the goal isn’t to keep up with everything going on here.  Just find out where the people are that you want to reach online and do those things well.

If you’re willing to put in some time (or hire an expert), search engines make it possible to speak to people who you otherwise wouldn’t.  Instead of finding them, they might come into contact with your message on Google. Doing this well entails presenting your material in such a way that it will rank high in search engine results.  For example, a church in Orlando would do well to tailer their website such that it ranks highly (i.e. within the top five results) for someone searching “Orlando church.”  This process is called search engine optimization (SEO), and it’s a process best left to the experts.

Here are some interesting tidbits that Tim and Drew had to share. Traditionally, web site design has convinced almost no non-Christians to attend a particular church.  For Christians new to an area, on the other hand, the website has replaced an ad in the phone book as the first filter in determining what church to attend.  43 seconds is the average length of time that a visitor spends on a website.  That means that, if all of the important information on your website can’t be reached quickly, then visitors will simply move on.  Aside from the homepage, the most popular page visits tend to be “I’m new” pages.  Visitors will not come if your website is outdated (77% say this is somewhat to very important).

Talking with Tim and Drew after the session, it was clear that they do not support the use of all of this technology for its own sake.  Rather, they recognize that these are the media that people are using today to gain and share information.  As church planters, leaders and evangelists, who naturally want to seek the lost, we need to go where they are.  As it turns out, they’re online.  That being the case, the gospel needs to get online.  And it needs to “go viral.”

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North American Church Planting Conference Starts Today!

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Conference RoomToday we’re excited.  Today marks the beginning of our North American Church Planting Conference in Orlando, FL.  We have spent awhile getting things ready and even now attendees are showing up to register.

We’ll be updating this blog periodically over the course of the conference with lessons our attendees are learning from the trainers.  So be sure to check in with us over the course of the next few days.  Even if you couldn’t make the trip to Orlando, we want you to stay informed!

If you’re the type of person who is interested in statistics, the following might be of interest to you.  Here is who will be attending this years’ conference:

  • Over 200 People
  • 28 States
  • 10 Countries
  • 20 Denominations
  • 23 Trainers

Even if you’re not down here with us, please feel free to keep in touch with us over the course of the conference.  You can always reach us at our Twitter and Facebook pages.

We’ll be sure to update you tonight on some of the things we learned today.  In the mean time, please be praying with us for everyone at this conference.  We hope people leave here feeling refreshed and with a renewed sense of focus and vision.

For the nations!

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