The love of the father

I just uploaded some pics I took today at Stone Mountian, and as I saw my daughters face I couldn't help but think that here's no limit to what I would do for my little girl. I would sacrifice anything and everything just so she could have the chance to be what God created her to be, and to be happy serving Him. I would never let harm come to her for any one of you. That's not to be harsh, that is the reality. I would kill or die for my family. That's how were all programmed, but you have a father in Heaven loves you so much more than that. His most precious gift he had to offer was Jesus Christ. Though many of you will reject Him, he still crushed his Son for you...So you would have a "chance"

You may be poor..God still loves you.
You may have serious health issues...God still loves you.
You may have warrented serious emotion baggage...God still loves you.
You may be angry at God...God still loves you.
You may have been abused and feel like you've never known love...God still loves you
You're every day may be a struggle...and yet, God still loves you.

When I look at the face of my precious daughter, I'm selfish. I'm a daddy. Programmed to protect, and willing to destroy any threat to her. All I can think about when I look at her is me. When God looked at His son's face as it dripped blood while he hung there dying on the cross, all He could think about is you...

Your circumstances will never displace God's eternal love for you. You are his greatest creation...You are the one thing that he was willing to give anything for, the object of his affection. You are so loved.

This is how we do church

It's been a while since I've logged an entry, but really felt this one was worth writing:

During the past couple of months the launch team of Life Church has really developed some biblical community. We've got people in there that would take a bullet for one another. One faithful member of our launch team who has given sacrificially, who has taken my family out to eat because this person knows I'm stretched financially had a serious prayer request. The request was "pray for me, I don't know how I'm going to afford to put gas into my car to get to work this next week". First, WOW! That's what church should be like. Not a bunch of glad handing, fake smiling, "I'll pray for you brother", don't really care about each other phonies. In this case a member of the church was hurting and trusted their brothers and sisters in Christ enough to share something very personal. Whats even more amazing is that before this person was able to leave another launch team member slipped them a check for enough money to fill their tank, and to get a little bit extra. That's church people! That an prime example of what Acts was about. It's not about individual wealth, but rather taking care of the entire bride. I am constantly blown away by my launch team members. What's even more impressive was the faith of the person who had no money. I asked "do you want me to hold your tithe check?", and this person's response to me was "why?!! that isn't my money, it's God's". This faithful person came bringing their offering to God, knowing that God, and only God could provide. They had no idea how gas would get in their car, but their faith wouldn't allow them to cheat God. I was humbled at such an incredible example of what being in love of Jesus looks like, and I'm honored to be the pastor of Life church. Ladies and gentlemen  this is how we do church. Life Church!

Blown Away: When faith meets providence

Lately, God has been taking me on a journey of faith that has pushed me farther than I've ever been before. Launching a new church is difficult...which is why most guys just end up taking pastor positions at churches that make them miserable. Now, I'm not knocking pasturing an existing church, praise God we have men who are called to that. It's simply that in my experience most guys in ministry are miserable, and the statistics back that up.

The reason most guys who are call to plant a church that don't is because it tests you emotionally, physically, and above all spiritually. Then there's the 1,000 lbs gorilla in the room that no one every wants to talk about: Money. Taking a "church job" ensures a salary, possibly even with benefits...church planting not so much lol.

Then (since I'm being honest) probably the hardest to deal with is that fact that it tests your leadership capacity. Church planters ask themselves questions like: "will people really follow me?", "do I really have what it takes to do this?", "will God really do this through me". Now, there's no doubt that God has to make a person a certain way to be a church planter, and he undoubtedly has to call that man but for many this still isn't enough to take the plunge. Maybe you're not a church planter, but you long to take the next step in your faith, I want to quickly touch on biblical hero's of the faith to encourage you. Like myself these men weren't given the answers. In fact God calls us to live by faith, and not by sight. Look at what God can do when you put your "yes" on the table and really believe that God can do what he says he can do:

Abraham: God told him "Go into the land that I will show you". WOW! when is the last time God relocated your family with zero vision of the move and you listened?

Moses: God told him to "lead my people out of Egypt" Moses didn't speak well, and when he obeyed God allowed Moses to lead approx. 4 million people. Yeah, that's right. It's not like he lead a mega church, he led the population of Houston, Texas.

Jacob and Caleb: When everyone else failed to trust God because of the giants in the promise land, Jacob and Caleb remembered how great their God was and insisted on taking the land that God has promised.

Jonathan: After being tired of sitting around ready to take the Philistines he grabs his armor bearer and tells him "Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf". What incredible faith! What would seem like certain death his response is "perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf" and grabs victory. 1 Samuel 14...you need to read it.

Joshua: After following the Lord in slaying the Amorites he needed more time, so he had the audacity to pray for the sun to stand still so he could have more light to finish the job, and God did it!

There are so many more, but these stories I've mentioned all have a common theme: They didn't have all the answers, in fact most of them admitted not having the answers. It's their faith that allowed them to trust in the Lord, and realize that's exactly what God wants us to do. God knows you can't do it by yourself. That's why he's waiting for you to realize that , and turn it to him. The most incredible moments of the Bible are when men and women allowed their prayers, and faith to drift to place where only God could operate, that's when he gets the most glory, and that's where his blessings lie.

Life Church is now in it's 3rd month. There are a million reasons why should fail, but were having audacious faith that God is big enough to do what he says he can do, and we are trust him with reckless abandonment. As an update. Last night we had more people than ever before, and we collected more money than ever before. There are no millionaires, and most of us are under 35, with several college students in the mix, yet God is pouring out his blessing on our church. How is this movement happening? What are we doing? Nothing, were simply operating in a area where only God can provide, and instead of trying to organize a move of God we are simply being obedient and preparing for one, the rest is up to him. I'm just grateful to be involved.

Go God!

Hell is stirring

When Saul became the apostle Paul, he began what was an incredibly hard life. Even during the course of his salvation he had to endure blindness at the sight of Jesus. (what a scary concept to loose your sight) Whats more incredible is that he endured: shipwrecks, snake bites, beatings, stoning, and imprisonment.

If I had a laundry list like that I don't know that I'd have Paul's outlook on life. Most of us do something like this: "why God why!!!!!!!!! why did my tire blow out on the way to work?" (then we go through our list and remind God of it) "I mean, come on! I tithe, I serve in church, I don't cuss, or even drink! You owe me!"

(as a quick disclaimer, I'm not trying to trivialize your problems, a flat tire is never fun, I'm just attempting to draw some perspective)

I imagine myself meeting Paul one day, and him walking right up to me and saying "sissy", then turning around and laughing. What I mean is the things I complain about are so insignificant compared to the trial he faced. Listen for a second to the attitude that the apostle Paul had when dealing with suffering.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'for your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered,' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angles nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor heigth nor depth, nor anything else in all creations will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" -Romans 8:35-39

Wow! In the mist of all that he had endured he still couldn't see anything coming in the way of the love of Christ. I have noticed in my life when things go bad I often question does God love me less today? My prayer for myself is to see things like Paul did. Another thing that's interesting is that Paul viewed suffering as a mark that he was doing the right thing. Persecution was simply apart of Christianity to him. In light of that here's some suffering that's going on with Life Church Canton:
-I'm dealing with some health issues
-a launch team member just had a septic tank back up ($2900)
-a launch team member just had a motorcycle wreck
-a launch team member just had a miscarriage
-a launch team member's whole family has been sick
-a launch team member just had a child total their car in a wreck
-a launch team member is dealing with added stress with work

Most of these things are costly, and very hard to deal with, but something we have realized as a launch team is that Hell is stirring. To me this is significant, and I have 2 reasons:
1. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus mentions that Hell actually has gates. Gates are defensive mechanisms. I believe our job as Christians are to storm the gates of Hell, and I believe that's exactly what were doing, which is why we see such opposition.
2. In Acts 19:15 a demon tells some itinerant priests "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but what are you? This indicates that if you're not a threat to Satan then he's not much a threat to you, because if he doesn't even know you, you must not be living that kind of life that effects him.

Life Church is on mission, and we know what were called to do. As we build our launch team I think we have stirred the gates of Hell. One of the greatest honor's I could ever accomplish is that the demons know my name.

Please continue to pray for our church, we will need it to do battle as we seek to change our city!

Post Easter High and update

It's been a little bit since I've blogged, but things are going awesome! I've been busy working on our legal stuff with startchurch.com and Life Church Rome. We've got our bi-laws and constitution done (amen). All of our systems are getting done this month. Anyway enough with the boring stuff. Easter was awesome! Jason hit it out of the park! The band took it to the next level...the house was packed, and people got saved! I gave our launch team the week off, but were back on this week. God is really blessing the process. People are having spiritual awakening in their lives. They are sacrificially giving, and they are FAITHFUL! I'm bragging on our group because they really are incredible, and I consider it a privilege to serve them.

I'm challenging our people to double. We want 10 more families. One of our core values is that we want to do things with excellence, and to "do" church with excellence we are going to need about 40 adults. We've got over half of that now, but I'd like to see us double and get people locked in before summer is in full swing. The church is doing great, and every step I have learned something new. Anytime I think I know it all God blows my mind with how much bigger his vision is than mine.

If you want to be apart of something that will out live you, and if you want to invest in something that will change your city for Jesus come check out Life Church Canton, and be apart of what God's doing!

This week is a big deal !

So this week has already been awesome and is only going to get better. First, our Life Group was incredible. We have great people with great discussion and insight to God's word and His church. Then when I took the offering we actually had people who tithed. (last week I called for commitment) It was awesome to see God's people giving sacrificially and obediently to His church. Even though our people are awesome we are small so money is of course coming in, in much less increments than at a big church. Well, we needed to pay our bill to start church. They are a company were using to handle all of our legal stuff. After last week we were short a couple hundred dollars of what we needed...Then God provided! A check was handed to me on Monday for enough to cover our bills, and then some! God knew our need and met it. That is the awesome God we serve!

After that quick praise, on to the BIG DEAL:
This week Life Church Canton is heading up to Life Church Rome. We are going to worship with our extended family up in Rome this week. They are going to be able to put faces with their prayers, and we are going to get to see the bigger picture. Life Church Rome has been used to win over 300 to Christ in less than 3 years...That's the kind of church I want to be hanging out with!

Then if that wasn't cool enough Pastor Jason is going to come and join our Life Group Sunday night. I'll be teaching on Simple Church, and he'll be talking about how his church grew from just a few families to a church over 400. He'll also be challenging us, and encouraging us. It will be an incredible Sunday for Life Church.

It's not too late to get involved! If you are interested in being a part of the launch team for Life Church you should come Sunday night. Contact me if interested.

The 1000 lbs gorilla

So this was the week that we talked about it. He's been lingering in the room for a while now, but I've chosen to ignore him for a while...last night was the time to address him.

1,000 Gorilla ='s money if you weren't sure...

We've had 3 amazing weeks with Life Church. Our life group has already bonded really well together, and we've tackled some tough biblical issues together, but last night was the night I outlined some expectations. See anyone is welcome to attend life group time. In fact anyone is welcome to attend our launch meeting sessions, but from now on things are going to change. Up until this point nobody was officially on the launch time. I wanted to give everyone ample time to feel me out, and see if the Holy Spirit was leading them to our church. This past Life Group I ask for 3 things:

1. Commit to help launch for a year (...ish)
2. Commit to serve in a ministry of the church
3. And...dun, dun, DUN!!!!....Tithe The reality is that ministry takes money, luckily God has an awesome plan for that! Man get's to keep 90% of what is really God's anyway, as long as he or she gives back to God 10%. Though the church needs money to do things like rent space, pay pastors, keep the lights on etc. The tithe is more about the faith position of the believer. The believer will receive much more from tithing than the church does (though this is a tough concept because money seems more tangable). However, God talks A LOT about money in the Bible. In fact in Malachi He actually asks us to test Him. Jesus and Paul visit the issue as well. The reality is that God promises to take care of us if were obedient to Him. So that's what I did last night. I addressed the 1000 lbs gorilla, and asked for those who are committing to be on a launch team to tithe starting next week. What's even crazier is that some people already started tithing! While were starting small God is already using our people to BE the church. People in the early days of Life Church will very much understand the tangable applications of their tithes. They will see God use their sacrifice to transform lives! They will see it turn into supplies to do church with, they will see a space transformed into a worship center with their sacrifice...So the reality is that the church isn't just after your money. The church is here to help you stay in good standing with God. His economy is very different from man's economy, and reguarless how our economy is doing he can bless with out condition...though I often only witness him blessing those who are faithful to Him...

So whether or not you're a part of Life Church, or some other church. See your tithe as what it is. A tangable way of telling God "I trust you". If you're simply tipping God. STOP! you heard me...whatever church you're at stop tipping them. God wants your best, not your left overs. In fact your pastor would probably advise you to do the same. See the scriptures say that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (modern day translations God has more money than Bill Gates X McDonalds X Coke, he doesn't need your money, he WANTS your heart. We also talked about Biblical community and we discussed how we've lost some of that in America, and what the church can do to get that back. So whether or not your being led to our church or not. Please pray for us. Even if you're coming but aren't sure whether or not your in, please still keep coming. Our group isn't closed. And if your not going to be on our launch team it's ok...REALLY I love you and love just having you there :) and it's ok if you haven't decided yet. No cheesy sales pitch here, I only want you to commit if you've been led by the spirit. Thanks for all of you who are supporting us,and praying for us. YOU ROCK!

Life Group (sorry for the format today, blogspot won't let he hit enter)

We had our second official meeting last night, and it was awesome. We had some new faces, and very importantly most of the original ones. The statistics aren't great when studying church planting. Life Church is already breaking some of those! God has given us some incredibly talented people! It's awesome to see them already using gifts. Last night we had some technical difficulties, and 3 of my (self proclaimed) geeks got right on it. There are people who can teach, people who have the gift of service, etc. etc. God has already brought us such an amazing group. If you're reading this and you're wondering if it's too late to get involved...It's not! There are so many ways people can be a part of Life Church. 1. You can join us for our Life Group meeting on Sunday night's @ 6:00pm at Steve Williams house. 2. You can help support us; This can be an number of things. It could mean financial support, it could mean prayer support, it can mean helping us promote Life Church. 3. The main thing is it's never too late to get involved; our group isn't closed, we eagerly welcome new people, and are excited for people to "catch" the vision and jump on board. The other important thing to know is that we understand Life Church won't be for everyone. If it's not for you, it's OK...really :) Here's a quick recap of last nights topic: The Church "Giving God your best" We looked at the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7, and saw how Jesus addressed religious people and issues in his day. We learned: -Giving God your best has nothing to do with wearing the fanciest clothes you can afford to church, but rather in every aspect of your life giving God your best. As Paul teaches us in Romans true worship isn't compartmentalized, but it's every single aspect of your life. -Jesus spoke against the outside appearance. Over and over again we can read Jesus saying "you have heard that it was said..." Then he challenged what the religious leaders of his day were teaching. He taught radical things likes committing adultery isn't a physical act, but you can do it in your heart. Jesus is concerned with our hearts, not just how we look. If we reduce Christianity to how good we are at "appearing Christian", then we have missed the whole point. During our Launch Team time I covered: Mission: Living a changed life to see lives changed Vision: To reach 20% of our unchurched community DNA: 1. People matter (you matter to God, and you matter to us) 2. Make Bold moves (Jesus was bold and changed the world, we want to be like Jesus so were gong to be bold) 3. Exercising audacious faith (God says to trust him in all things, so we are...with audacity) 4. Volunteer driven (there are too many churches who rely only on the pastors to get anything done...it's not biblical so were not going to do it) 5.Excellence in Everything (giving God our best won't be compartmentalized, we are going to strive for excellence in everything, I'm never willing to settle for good, when we can do great for God) 6.Developing leaders (in order for Matthew 28:19 to happen we need to always be equipping leaders, so that's what were about)

I heard something simple, yet profound today

People dealing with spiritual warfare often go directly Ephesians 6, and deal with the armor of God. I've been guilty of this concept: I "put" on the armor and believe it's something like a magical force field that keeps me away from any harm, or any battle. That as if putting the armor on takes us out of the fight of spiritual warfare. Scripture doesn't teach this. Ephesians 6:11 says "Put on the whole armor of God, that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil." The reality is that the Scriptures teach battle is a sure thing. Paul knows we'll fight against Satan, he's just trying to teach us how we "might be able to stand" against him. Wow! So for all of us that think simply memorizing Ephesians 6 is like an immunity pill, then we are in for a rough awakening when Satan is still beating on our armor...I always picture armor like a knight like in the movie Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger. Even though they wore armor it still hurt to get knocked off the horse. This is what Paul is teaching us. Mount up, and suit up, because this is still going to hurt, I'm just showing you how to survive it.

It's officially started

March 20th 2011 was an exciting day for Life Church Canton. We had our first official small group. I had only told a handful of people, and put a teaser trailer on facebook, and we had 13 families show up for our first meeting. I had been praying for 7. Honestly there's no real spiritual reason for that, but simply that Elevation church had 7 families that started them. So I thought, we'll that would be awesome to start with what they had. Instead God exceeded my expectations, and almost doubled the number I was praying about. Were going to meet again next week, and I'll continue talking about the Church. This past week we saw 3 main things:

1. The church is not a building, it's the people.
2. Traditions don't ever supersede scripture.
3. Removing the focus from Jesus to our morals is idolatry.

Next week were going to look at the Sabbath, and what giving God your best looks like. Our launch information will be on the "what":
1. Mission
2. Vision
3. DNA (core values)

You won't want to miss! If I don't see you there, please be praying for us.

Matt

Church Plant Update

This post is for those who are interesting in knowing about what's going on with my church plant. I'm going to give you a condensed version of where were at so far.

-God made it clear to me that my time serving in Texas was to position me for to plant a Church.
-My family moved back to Georgia with nothing more than a calling to serve Him.
-I started getting scared and started questioning whether or not I should just take a staff job.
-Michele and I stepped out on faith and surrendered to this plant.
-Almost the next day People started contacting me about being apart of the plant (I hadn't even advertised it yet..total God thing).
-About a week after Jason the lead pastor of a church plant in Rome contacted me because he heard I was planting a church and wanted to see if he could help.
-We met for lunch and hit it off. God has given us the same heart for ministry, so we have decided to collaborate.
-This means were forming a network, his church will provide coaching, finances, personnel, equipment, and staff and in return we will give financially to the network once were on our feet.
-Jason and I have continued to meet weekly and he's coaching me through the tough first steps. I just met with the staff, and they are also going to help us get started.
-I'm working with a company called startchurch.com who's helping us with the legal side. Between the two were are going to have everything ready to plant with lots of wisdom guiding us.
-To begin were starting a small group. It will start on March 20th at 6:00pm at my parents house in Lake Arrowhead. (Email if you'd like to attend and need directions)

The purpose of this small group is so I can cast vision for the church, love on the people that God has drawn to this movement, and gather my launch team. The launch team is the group of people God has called to plant a new church. They are the ones who will be the very first partners of the church, and will help with various aspects of leadership and ministry in the church. Email me at pastorbeers@yahoo.com if you'd like to ask any questions. If you're interested in attending the first small group meeting contact me and I'll make sure you have directions. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and please keep us in your prayers.

Matt

I don't have my journal handy

So tell me if I'm type A after reading this: I have 3 journals. 1.) It's for what God's doing in my life, personal events, frustrations, and in the very general sense a journal 2.) My second journal is where I take notes that I like when listening to good preaching, and or when I want to remember something from God's word, or a sermon idea 3.) My 3rd journal is a way to catalogue my highlighted passages in any books I'm reading...Wow even writing that makes me feel a little OCD.

Right now I have something cool that God gave me, but I don't have access to any of them so I'll just use this blog as an entry for journal number 2:

I grew up hearing "this is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people (imagine the hand gestures)

-This fundamental flaw of theology misses the point that the church isn't a building. We are the church! When we reduce the bride of Christ to a man made structure we are replacing the true church with something created by man.The irony is that the only thing created to reflect God is man, and by making His church about something we've created, it's like were saying "nice try God, but..." See how this idea is dangerous, and needs to be fixed?

Negativity. Are Christians the experts?

If there's something I've learned in the ministry it's that Christians are negative. More than just the "average" Christian, but lots of ministers are negative. "our building is too small", "our worship band isn't cool enough", "our church is never going to grow", etc. etc.



I've heard it said that the Christian army is the only army on the planet that shoots it's wounded. Ministers are often the ones taking aim. Pastor's bash other pastors from their pulpit. Minister's judge other churches ministries from their office, and neither are afraid to share their opinion on why they are a better leader, preacher, minister than you.



One thing I've come in contact with while starting this church plant is negativity. I've already addressed it in a previous post, but sure enough it has surfaced. It's actually kind of funny (but sad at the same time) the things people will say to you to discourage you from planting a church. I read in Steven Furtick's book that one pastor said "welcome to the neighborhood kid"...I'm guessing he wishes that conversation went a little bit different. Because I've never had a tenure anywhere I've been told "I need more time following before I lead". The reality is as practical as that sounds, biblically most leaders don't fit that mold. Our Biblical patriarchs were called by God and they followed. That's why God blessed them, not because of their resumes but because of their hearts. Imagine what the world would be like if Timothy didn't lead simply because he was young, or Paul because of the criticism he received about the issue of apostleship, or even Jesus (he after had to obey the will of the Father). I'm glad these men all chose to obey their calling.

Pastors, ministers, and Christians I want to encourage you today to be an encouragement to others in ministry, and to your congregations! The church has enough work to do, we don't need to be occupied by civil wars. Let's preach like their are lives at stake! And love people like Christ did!

Next Steps

Jason (lead pastor of Life Church in Rome, GA) and I had another great meeting today. We put an action plan in order. I'm going to start the process of gathering my launch team. Were simply going to start a life group so that we can begin to build stronger relationships, and so I can pour vision into them. I've had lots of verbal commitments, now it's time to see where the rubber meets the road. I'm looking for my committed core...I'm praying God gives me an awesome team!

Holding Pattern

Being a Type "A" or "Choleric" it's not in my nature to slow down...ever. I've always been the guy who dares you to tell me I can't, or the one who will put in twice the work you do to meet the goal. My 5 greatest strengths according to Tom Rath's Strengths Finder 2.0 are: Maximizer, Activator, Futuristic, Input, and Self Assurance. Basically they mean I'm gifted get the maximum results from a person or team, put thoughts into action, catching a vision and selling it, crave more information with the intent to archive it for practical use, and completely believe in myself. As you can guess I don't do well without a plan, I don't like entering into things without proper research, I can't stand slow moving organizations or people, and I'm not one to hang around if the vision is weak. I often identify with 2 Timothy chapter 2. Timothy is was after all a young preacher, and Paul titles the chapter "A Good Solider of Jesus Christ" which I like the thought of a minister acting like a solider. I'm a charge Hell with a water pistol type, and right now God has got me in a Abrahamic position of Faith. Abraham was given a directive: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you." Gen 12:1. That's it. God told him to go, and that He would provide that location at an undisclosed time. I don't do well with stuff like that. Which is probably why God isn't revealing every step of this church plant clearly to me. I'm in this place where God has told me to plant, but isn't ready to give me all (or even most) of the details. Typically God has to tell us things that are contrary to our nature. The Lord is giving my patience by building it into me. He's teaching me to move in His time. I'm good at doing things and simply asking God to bless it. I'm interested in doing God things and in turn being blessed.

Which is why Life Church in Rome getting involved is a big deal. They've walked through some trials that I might not have to. I'm excited about our partnership in this church plant. I don't know what every step is going to look like, but I'm willing and ready to take it on. I'm meeting again with lead pastor Jason tomorrow, and were going to talk about some of the next steps. My prayer is we will accurately discern one another in this process so that God gets the glory, and His church can be built.

On a tangible level. I spoke with startchurch.com today and they are ready and willing to make changes needed to assist our partnership with Life Church, and we are well on our way in our process to become legal. Our next step is fleshing out what this combination of vision will look like so that we can get to work on planting this church.

Moving along

Mike has finished with our promo video for our vision night (which looks great), and I've gotten all of our forms back from startchurch.com. It's overwhelming to me! There is so much legal stuff that I've never had to mess with as a staff guy. I can see how valuable an executive pastor, and a business administrator is. Well once I file all of our forms with the IRS we'll actually exist as a church, and we are going to be moving forward with our launch team. These are exciting times, but I'll be glad when all the legal stuff is far behind us :)

This has been an exciting month

The past couple days have been very productive for our church plant. I can actually say "our" because I have started to assemble our launch team. It's small right now, but those who are called are both eager, and have already started to help with the finances. We've found a company who helps churches get started on the business side. They have a payment schedule worked out that we can handle, and they will take care of everything it takes for us to get legal. I have to admit, that aspect of church planting is the scariest to me. I can do the pastor stuff, but outside of balancing my family budget I have no experience with business administration. I get nervous at the thought of payroll, social security, housing, salaries, taxes, w2's etc. There are some great resources available, but it still doesn't change the fact that I'm a preacher, not an accountant. One of my very first needs is going to be either a company who assists churches with their administrative needs, or I'm going to need to hire a business administrator. I'd love to hear what other church planters do for this hurdle.

On a positive note, we have secured a location for our pre-launch meetings. A church I served at when I was 22 agreed to let us use their worship center on the weekend. They have very limited resources available for audio and visual needs, but it's a space with lights and seats. It's beats meeting in the park during February. My brother who will eventually become our creative arts director is working on our promotional material for our vision night. Once he finishes i'll start getting the word out to everyone I can think of. At the very least we hope to make some prayer partners. Our hopes are to inform potential launch team members about our vision, and challenge them to commit to joining the launch team.

So, these are exciting times. Only God knows where our journey will take us, we are just clinging to this vision with reckless abandonment, and believing God will do mighty things.

Building momentum

This was a week of ups and downs. (more ups than downs) I had 3 meetings this week. The first one was very discouraging. I went to meet from someone who's been a spiritual advisor to me in the past. My intent was to find a strategic partner, and instead I received some unsolicited advise on why I shouldn't plant a church. What was worse was I spoke with another person who wanted to assure me that my spiritual advisor was correct. By the end of our conversation I felt like I just had a professional debate. This was discouraging to say the least. Not that I all the sudden was going to forfeit God's call for a couple of opinions, but coming from guys I know and trust I effected my mood more than I anticipated.

Later that week I went to meet with my pastor, and former boss. I think it was the most encouraging conversation we've ever had. He shared his heart on ministry in general. He told me about when he quit a job paying $50,000 in the early 80's to serve in full-time ministry. I shared my vision, and he was excited to hear it. He told me things I already knew, but in that moment I really needed to hear. He told me if God's called you to do something don't ever worry about the people who think you're crazy. He said people are always going to doubt you in ministry, and you can't let that effect the call. He told me he would help as much as possible. Just to have his support morally was refreshing, but to have some financial help, and some assistance with with the legal side of establishing the church is key.

Today I met with one of my key leaders. We sat at Starbucks for close to 3 hours talking vision, mission, and strategy. It was awesome. It pumped me up talking to someone else who "gets it". Even though I'm only on step 3 of about a 700 item list I actually feel like a church planter. The call to plant a church reminds me of my call to ministry. I knew what I was suppose to do long before I actually admitted it. Responding to this call is about as scary as surrendering to full-time Christian ministry. The reality is setting in. Today was another one of those day's where I said to myself this is really going to happen. I'm so excited to see what God is going to do in the next year of my life. It really feels like were starting to build momentum.

Chasing the Lion, not building a resume

I've had a unique set of circumstances contributing to my spiritual and leadership development. By age 17 I had already gotten the chance to preach for over 400 young men at Georgia Boys State. Before I turned 21 I lead worship for a church of 500's youth group. I had seen ministry, and done ministry more than most before becoming an adult. These were defining moments in validating my call to the ministry. Since my call I've earned a Bachelor's of Science In Christian Ministries from Shorter University, and I'm 9 classes away from a M.A.R in Christian Leadership. While it's been almost 10 years since I surrendered to full time ministry I still get treated as if I just started. One reocurring theme I've found since I turned my profession over to God is people are going to be negative, and they are going to try and discourage you, but in spite of all that you have to be willing to chase the lion. (or if you haven't read the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day) In other words you need to remember that John 3 calls us to move as the wind blows. What's important is the Hewbrew word that means wind also means spirit. God's word reminds us to move when the spirit moves you, and it may be much like the wind. Here's some challenging things I've encountered since age 18:

-2001: After I made a public decision about my pursuit to full-time ministry a former youth pastor of mine at the end of the service said "you know, it's not all games and pizza parties". He then went on to tell me why this was basically a bad idea.

-2002: I'm driving an hour each way from college to my home church to lead the youth band, and I'm doing practices a couple hours before youth starts. Right when we start a dad of one of th female singers comes up to me and informs me that he'll be staying for practice because I'm not old enough to supervise people properly. He then proceeded to tell me "I don't know what you think you're going to do until you have teenagers, because you can't lead a youth group until you have teenagers of your own."

-2003: I'm still leading the same youth band, still driving an hour each way every Wednesday night (while studying Christian Ministies at college) and I'm preparing them for camp. We usually hired a professional band for camp, but this year our youth pastor felt we were ready to lead. While at camp serving as the worship leader, one of the female adult volunteer's scold's me pubically for 3-5 mins about how rowdy the boys are being in their bunk, and that I need to do something about it. I had to explain that my job that night was pool duty (making sure kids didn't sneak out to go swim), and that the leader in charge of that room at that moment was her husband...she didnt' apologize.

-2004: I'm now 21 years old and a Junior in college. I agree to serve as a chaperone for the youth trip in Gatlinburg, TN for winter extreme. My (at the time) girlfriend and I were already in Gatlinburg because we were coaches for a cheerleading gym that just had a competition. That weekend I was in charge over 80 girls all under the age of 18 (my team won first place). The next day the church arrives and the youth pastor starts telling the kids who the leaders are. Immediately after my group is assigned to me, my girlfriend, and the other college aged leader a female adult volunteer publically (in front of all the kids) makes a angry plea for how college age students aren't responsible enough to take high school students around Gatlinburg. The youth pastor crumbles under the pressure and exclaims "if you don't have a mortgage you can't lead a group"...we were in groups of 8...1/10 of the responsibility that I had just a day before.

-2005: May 28 of 2005 I married my college sweetheart, and almost like magic I suddenly was seen as an adult. I was now a youth pastor at a small church, and I did ministry without too many negatives. People were actually excited to see a young couple serving God.
-2008: At this point my wife and I had our first child, and I was serving full-time at my home church as a staff member. I had much success at this position. Under my leader we increased our baptisms from 46 to 100 the very first year I was there. I felt the call to leave that church. I missed having a flock to shepherd. When I went to resign I was told that I hadn't really accomplished that much, and that I have so much to learn before I spread my wings...I resigned anyway.
-2011: After serving a thriving church in Texas I returned to my home town to follow God's direction. During my time in Texas God allowed me to baptize 30 students, and lead over 50 to the Lord. Our student ministry went from 20 students to over a 100 in less than 2 years. I cast a vision and church bought it giving me $50,000 to update the student building. It was a great time, and I grew a lot there. Now that I'm back I firmly believe God has plans for me to plant a church. After sharing that vision with my home church ministers I feel like I've moved back to pre-marriage status. Here's what's been said:
-You're too young.
-You don't have enough experience.
-You need to learn more.
-Yeah, your degree's are great, but they don't really help.
-It's great that you read church leadership, and leadership books all the time, but that's not real life.
-There are already a bunch of church plants.
-We don't want to see you fall flat on your face.
-I believe in 1 Tim 4:12, but Steven Furtick is the exception.

All I can say is praise the Lord we serve a mighty God who's way are higher than our ways. By the credentials we put on ministers Jesus Christ couldn't pastor any of our churches; he wasn't married, he was only 30 when he started his ministry, and he didn't have enough experience.

If you're a young leader, and God has given you a vision follow it. We are freuds and liars if we challenge our people to live lives of faith, but don't don't live like it. When I moved from Texas to Georgia it wasn't because I had a job lined up, it's because God told me to. He isn't interested in our resume's as much as he's interested in our hearts. If all I ever do is honor him with my integrity then I would count my "career" in ministry a success.