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.