Coming Alive

Who knew?  Getting teenagers out to an event is a piece of cake!  This evening The Patio sponsered a teenager pool party here in Reedy Fork.  Honestly, I woke up this morning expecting 5 or 6 kids.  In my mind I was working out how I would build up excitement for our volunteers who I were sure would outnumber our guests. 

When I got to the pool 45 minutes before the party there were already fifteen to twenty kids there.  The highest one time count was 47, but they were coming and going so much that we easily cleared 50.  I didn’t even know there were this many teenagers out in Reedy Fork.  It really drives home the need we have for someone called to youth ministry…cough, cough, ahem.

We are going to do this again at the end of summer (if not sooner) and we will be working on some ideas on how to better connect with the kids who came and get the word out about what we do, but overall I would say that tonight was a huge success!

80% of church planters fail.  Actually maybe it is 75%…or 90%.  Of the 412 times this has been quoted to me I have yet to be convinced that the person actually KNOWS how many church plants fail.  It is one of those, “87% of statistics are made up on the spot” statistics.

Nevertheless, I hope I never hear it again.  And if you are one of those guys who say it…stop.  

I am more convinced than ever that there is nothing to be gained from sharing this thought with anyone.  Is it to encourage?  

“Look at you, you are in the 20%!  You are so much better than those other guys!”  That seems not only boasting, but theologically problematic.

or is it to discourage?

“You are going to land in the 80% dude…better stick with something easier, like youth ministry or just sitting in my church and tithing”.  Of all the guys I have met who have felt called to church plant not one has ever had second thoughts because of the difficulty of success.

One more thing.  Who gets to decide who is in what group?  Who succeeds and who fails?  When I look through the Bible it seems to me success and failure has a lot more to do with our response than our results.

Maybe I’m frustrated b/c I have been doing this long enough now to know some guys who for one reason or another are no longer church planting.  I hesitate to call them failures (but I don’t hesitate to call those who do – spiritually arrogant…nope, no hesitation there).

A few years ago when I was just starting out as a church planter I visited a well-known mega-church in the area.  It was a wonderful experience – the music, the teaching, the welcome team and the parking team were all perfect.  I loved every minute of my visit.  

Later I was talking about the church to a guy who knew the pastors and innerworkings of the ministry there at the church.  He told me what made that church so special was that their “4th string servants would be leadership at just about any other church”.  He wasn’t boasting or criticizing…just stating something he believed (and I would probably agree) is a fact.

“4th string”?  What in the world is “4th string”? – Aren’t those the guys who ride the bench?

In the context it is probably referring to the servants who are working in “minor” roles, like opening doors on the welcome team or helping people find parking.  Doing those things that, in a church that size, needs to be done.  Here’s the deal though, it sounds to me that there is a logjam for serving.  If the guy opening door has the giftedness to be a leader/teacher/preacher what is the guy who has the giftedness of “helps” doing?  What is the “one talent” guy getting to do?  

If your “4th string” can be a starter it sounds like you need an expansion team.

Freakin start a church with those people!  And don’t tell me that it’s a matter of calling, b/c in a church of 100 people I would lay down money that 10 of them would plant something if adequately taught and empowered to do so!  If that sounds like an exaggeration let that be evidence of how much the emergence of a “clergy/laity” split has hurt the Kingdom movement.  

Want to start a church?  As long as you are a follower of Jesus is likely you are qualified (or could become qualified) to do so.

Kristan is doing a Beth Moore study right now through the book of Esther.  I have NEVER read anything or heard anything by Beth Moore before.  The other night I happened to glance over her shoulder and catch one quote, completely independent of any context whatsoever:

“Think about it, Sister.  Couldn’t the craving to do something great keep us from doing something good?”

I still haven’t gone back to read that study yet, but that brief quote challenged me so perfectly that I may never have to.  While I served in a legacy (traditional) church we came across the book, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.  A good book in it’s own right.  The main idea we took was – “the enemy of great is good”

We ran with this.  I ran with this.  Good was not good enough.  We made excellence a core value b/c of this book.  Everything we did was run under this lens.  That lens has real problems:

- Focus on failure rather than celebrating successes
- Underinvesting in things that have less of a tangible return
- Hiring based on charisma/skill sets rather than character
- Grieving the HS by missing his gentle whispers…sometimes he isn’t calling us to change the whole world. 
- Reducing “Good” to “Bad” and “Great” to “Average/expected”

In one sentance Beth Moore was used to convict me of almost a decade of a faulty ministry worldview.

The phenomenon that is occurring in front of our eyes is a re-birthing of the church-God is taking an event-based institution and re-forming it so that it is becoming life- and relationship-based.  
George Barna

A couple of days ago I picked up a new book, The Elephant and the Rabbit, by George Barna and Tony & Felicity Dale.  I am only a third of the way through the book, but it has been so encouraging and refreshing.  Any person who serves in vocational ministry or finds themselves frustrated by conventional church should read this book.  The authors are clear not to criticize or undermine the work of traditional churches, but so far the book is a celebration of church happening in a way that is wonderful…and necessary.

They refer to this happening, people moving from traditional event based churches to something more relational and community oriented, as a movement.  For me, this is profoundly encouraging.

3 years ago this August I left a traditional, event-based church that I loved because I felt a new thing.  I didn’t know there was movement or a happening going on.  Only now, years later, am I becoming aware that we are part of what I believe is a huge move of the Holy Spirit in our country to reset the church – back to something more communal, more connected, and more relational.  

I am thankful for the work of traditional churches in my life.  In the 7 years I was a part of one I grew spiritually and made some great friends.  The majority of it was a wonderful experience…

But I will likely never go back.  After experiencing what I experience here at The Patio I just can’t see my church life centered around a building where I spend an hour a half a week and have to drive 20 minutes to get to.  

I greatly enjoy stepping out my front door every morning into my church, my community

I have to say that Jeff knocked it out of the park this morning!  Going into today I considered it a blessing just to have the week off to enjoy a message from the congregation, but Jeff’s testimony really moved me.  

Gotta give it up to Chris and Cassi for music again.  Awesome.  Good stuff is happening Sundays at The Patio.

My problem with the leadership thing…

First of all I should probably mention that I am well aware this shouldn’t be the reality, and it isn’t true across the board.  However, this post is based on my 10 year experience of Christian ministry…

The amount of focus being put forth to becoming a “great leader” is in inverted proportion to kindness and gentleness.  

In other words, the more interested in being a good leader a person is, the more likely they are going to be kind of a jerk.  

The worst part is that these guys aren’t jerks (most of the time).  Guys who began in ministry b/c they loved serving God and His church all of a sudden turn into CEO’s spending more time in leadership meetings than in prayer; more time evaluating their staff than serving them; and more time looking for ways to improve their ministry than taking time to celebrate what God is already doing.

Now, I think evaluations can be valuable and I think that ministries should constantly seek to improve.  However, most people on our staffs haven’t yet become jaded by shine of leadership improvement and will respond poorly to their PASTORS evaluating them having never served them (or with them); and critiquing ministries they have never celebrated.  

I totally believe that I have lost at least one person on my staff b/c I wasn’t mature enough to serve and celebrate.  Instead, in a naive desire to improve, I evaluated and critiqued my way into having to replace a man God had provided.  

The worst part is that I was totally on the other end at one time.  I learned from my own experience that most people, if forced to choose, will take a pastor over a leader any day.

For the last two weeks an online application to a leadership network put together by one of the premier guys has sat open on my desktop.  I’m sure there are hundreds of pastors turning in applications to be a part of this.  The best part is that I know a couple of guys who could put in a good word for me with this dude.

I deleted the application today.

I just don’t want to do it.  No doubt about it, I would have a great time.  I would learn a ton.  I would make many great connections with some innovative pastors.  

Maybe I am being naive…or arrogant, but there is something about all this leadership stuff that I am growing tired of.  The most unfortunate thing about it is that there is no good argument for not constantly participating in these “leadership growth” type things.  I’m not foolish enough to think I have arrived, or that it’s not relevant to our situation, or that b/c our church is small I don’t need to be a good leader.  I won’t even make the “I’m a pastor not a leader” argument.

If that network called me tomorrow with a personal invitation and a waived fee I would politely decline…and I feel like I need a good reason for that.  Right now I don’t have one (at least one I can put into words)

So, stay tuned, I plan on exploring that on here in the coming weeks.