12 Lessons in Church Planting (from ChurchPlanters.com) 2 of 2

More on Lessons from Lovejoy and ChurchPlanters.com. For the first 6 lessons, see yesterday's post.
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12 Lessons Learned in 12 years (Part 2 of 2) by Shawn Lovejoy

7. Change the way people think about church

In the first year of our church, we made a decision: In everything we do, we’re going to seek to change the way people think about church. This is so much bigger than the type of music we do, or our dress, even though they are parts of the equation! It affects everything we do. Examples? Folks don’t have to be “Christians” to go on a mission trip. They might become one by going! They don’t have to be a “Christian” to volunteer at our church, much less, be a member! Our small groups are always not only open to new people, but are going after people who don’t go to church and inviting them to be a part of their group! Every group is responsible to “get off the couch” and serve and care missionally for people groups in our community. Just small simple example of how we’re changing the way people think about church both inside and outside our church in our community.

8. Go after unchurched people

We’re not worried about swapping sheep or reaching professional Christians. If they want to join our mission to reach the lost, great. If not, great. We are here to help as many people as possible find a relationship with God through Jesus. That’s our laser beam focus. Take us or leave us! We’re here to reach people who don’t like Jesus or Christians.

9. Be careful what you ask for

Did you know unchurched people don’t walk in and start tithing? And it probably won’t be a three-month process, either; probably more like three years! Unchurched people smoke and curse in the parking lot, and maybe even in the sound booth! All of these things really happen in our church. Being a hospital for sinners is messy!

10. The right team in the right seats makes all the difference

We’ve always had a great Ministry Team at our church. I am thankful for every one of them, however, the right team members with the right gifts and skills, in the right seats, in the right seasons of the church, allows a church to continue to breath and grow and reach people for Jesus Christ. The wrong team members on the wrong seats for too long will put a lid on the church’s effectiveness.

11. I must measure success God’s Way

Success is being who God called me to be and being obedient to what God has called me to do. I am so tempted to measure success by this week’s attendance. However, I’m never as good as people think I am when we’re exploding numerically; and I’m not as bad as I think I am when we’re not. My role is to be obedient to the call and stay sane, centered, and happily married in the process. That is success!

12. God is faithful.

God never gives up: on me; or on my ministry! He hasn’t given up on you, either! Don’t give up on yourself. We only fail when we give up. God never gives up. He is faithful!

12 Lessons in Church Planting (from ChurchPlanters.com)

I feel love and joy in recommending 12 Lessons Learned in 12 years (Part 1 of 2) by Shawn Lovejoy from ChurchPlanters.com.

Twelve years ago, we launched weekly worship services at Mountain Lake Church. Wow. What a ride! God has used me despite my stupidity; and I have learned so much along the way. Here’s the first part of my top twelve lessons I’ve learned in the last twelve years.

1. Having a vision is easy. Sticking to the vision takes extraordinary discipline and effort.

Every pastor and church has a vision. Every one of them I’ve ever seen is Biblical. However, even most church planters get sidetracked form their vision within the first few years. We have stuck to our guns. We’ve been “mean about the vision.” It’s made all of the difference!

2. Conviction and Courage are more important than strategy.

My passion and sense of conviction, along with the courage to stay the course are more important than any brilliant strategy I could come up with that no one has ever done before.

3. No plan’s perfect; so work our Plan!

Our ministry plan is not perfect. However, we’ve worked the plan every year the last twelve years and every year we’ve gotten better at what God has called us to do. We don’t have “vision flavor of the month” or “small group method of the year.” We’ve worked our plan. We’ve been consistent in our ministry approach. It’s made all the difference.

4. People come. People Go. Go with the Go-ers.

Don’t focus who’s leaving; focus on who stays. The ones that stay will see the mission through and experience the fruit of mission accomplished! When one leaves, God will bring five to replace them…if we stay focused!

5. God does things the way He wants.

It has almost NEVER happened exactly the way we drew it up. However, that’s the precise thing that has kept us dependent on Him! Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Prophetic verse in my life these last twelve years! So many times, what I deemed as a failure was God’s sharpening and sovereignty at work in my life and church!

6. In God’s Story, ordinary matters.

God loves to use ordinary people. I am one. The very reasons or excuses I might use to disqualify myself from being used greatly by Him make me the perfect candidate for extraordinary ministry! What are your excuses as to why God can’t use you? Those are the very reasons God wants to use you; because you’ll know it’s not about you!

In 2005, we launched Churchplanters.com to “give pastors permission”. Join us this year at #Velocity12 on Feb 27-28. Once again, we’ll give each other permission to be what God has called us to be and do what God has called us to do! Register NOW!

Top Lessons from 2011- Be Faithful in Little

My next several posts will be lessons I learned or re-learned (the hard way) in 2011. All of them were learned through experience not books or in theory. Hopefully, I can save you the pain of learning them through difficult, so learn from my brokenness.

BE FAITHFUL IN LITTLE BEFORE BEING ENTRUSTED WITH MUCH

I started out 2011, leading Lifehouse with a vision to plant one new church this Fall and start 2 multi-sites, one on Saturday evening and the other as a 2nd campus on Sunday mornings. To be frank, I even shared with our team and thought privately that it was very ambitious and seemed impossible. I suggested that it's not really how churches function, even a thriving, healthy church like Lifehouse.

Then, I figured, "our vision for the Church should be overwhelming and seem impossible."

We planted Lifehouse- Hedgesville and it publicly launched in Sept. 2011! We're very excited about what God has done and is doing through Pastor JD and LHC-H.

BUT the lesson: we didn't start 2 multi-sites in 2011. We are still working on getting a multi-site service up and going and have it in the works for 2012. We very much plan on making this happen with God's help. However, we did learn a hard lesson: Be Faithful in Little BEFORE being entrusted with much!

God entrusts us with little so we can prove faithful and fruitful. Once, we've learned the necessary skills, lived the experiences, and developed the character needed to thrive in much, God will entrusts us with MORE. Then, MUCH!

We had not proven that we could launch ONE multi-site or plant ONE new church! So, it was not only ambitious to plan to launch 3 in one year, it was unrealistic. Not because God is unable, but because Kingdom- wisdom requires us to learn, be faithful in little THEN be entrusted with more.

We are planning on launching a multi-site this year. We hope to learn all the necessary lessons and gain all the necessary experience so that we can launch another.

What lessons do you need to learn in your area of "little" so that God can entrust you with "more"?


How can you prepare yourself rigorously for the dreams God has put in your heart?

Being Jesus in OUR Community- notes from Exponential Conference

Incarnational Ministry, by Michael Frost (author of several books including ReJesus and well-known missiologist)

Just as Jesus was God incarnate (in the flesh) to the world, we must incarnate Jesus into our communities.

How do we live incarnationally in our neighborhoods to reach people with the Good News of Jesus?

1. Listen to your neighbor- take to to both talk and listen. Listen deeply. 
2. Say YES to every invitation to engage your community and neighbors. If they invite you in, go in. Invite you out, go out. Don't avoid interaction with community.
3. Say “we will serve you” and mean it and do it!
4. Be a doggedly-loyal and intimately committed presence of God to your neighborhood and community. This commitment is the leading influence of Christian impact. We need selfless, caring, grace-filled believers to add salt and light in our communities.

My personal take-away is the re-affirmation of a passionate appeal that I often articulate regarding church- BE THE CHURCH! We don't go to church, attend church, or do church. We are the church. We live, gather, scatter as the church. I love the concept that church is a verb not a noun. 

What is THE Church?

Notes from speakers at Exponential Conference (just returned this past weekend):
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Speaker Reggie McNeal on "what is the church?"
In current America/ European model, a Church just becomes another category or module of the existing culture, like politics, economics, education, and now- religion.

To truly be the church, the church must spread cross-culturally into each category of culture.

Church is deployed not just gathered.

“Church” is a verb not a noun. The Church has one constant mission- to serve, reach people for Jesus.

The Church must impact her culture by engaging and serving the community. She must penetrate and transform those around her. The evidence of her impact can be measured in lowered crime rate, lowered  gang participation, higher graduation rate, lowered teen pregnancy rate, etc.

These are life/ Kingdom-metrics. Are people being transformed in their living because of the church?

“The church” not A church. It's “being the church” not “going to church”. (I think Reggie got these from me!)

church is not the destination, the Kingdom of God is the destination.

Take a Short-term Mission Trip- SIGN UP NOW!

Do you love to travel? To see new places?  To experience new cultures?

But more than anything, do you love to make a DIFFERENCE in someone else's life?  They may not speak your language, or have their own bed, or even have enough food, but they are in need of JESUS!

Lifehouse Church East is taking 7 Missions Trips in 2011, and I seriously think you should consider going on one of them (whoever you are out there in the virtual world).

There's something for everyone, whether you're a homebody or an world-traveler:

• Dresden, Germany: June 20-27
• Quito, Ecuador: July 1-8
• Dominican Republic: July 16-23

SIGN UP THIS SUNDAY! Worry about the details later!

Every destination has a city full of hurting people who need the hope that you have. So before you say "no" because of time, money, or other concerns...promise me this: you'll pray about it.  Deal?

Deal.  (I can see all of your virtual heads are nodding yes right now.)  So while you're praying about it, pick up a MISSIONS PASSPORT at the Info Center THIS Sunday, or email brian@lifehousechurcheast.org for more info on upcoming trips.  You can also watch a video of my good friend Lisa talking about her experience on one of the recent LHCE Missions trips HERE.

Travel.  See the World.  Make a Difference. SHARE JESUS!

Most Important Leadership Lesson

Pareto Principle (know as the 80-20 rule) states that we get 80% of results from 20% and vice-versa (more about that tomorrow). I'll write a few posts on this principle.

For leaders, this means that 20% of what we spend time doing produces 80% of our results/ effectiveness. I've learned this the hard way, but have also learned a key lesson: focus on making the 20% that's most effective the focus of 80% of my energy and effort. Personally, that means giving away 1/2 my job description every 6-9 months. It requires discipline and focus. I must be intentional.

Here's a repost of a blog I write on 2/20/2008. This was a key leadership growth moment for me, and as is common, God used Laura to help me learn it. Enjoy! (It's also interesting to look back and see how far we've come).

Yesterday, I cracked open [a book] that's been waiting to be read, The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. Laura was out with some ladies and the girls were in bed, so, with some alone time, I sat down to read. Right off the bat- wow! [What I didn't include in this post: before Laura left the house, she said, "Patrick, you can't keep up this break-neck pace; it's going to kill you. You're doing too much, and you have to give some of it away."]

Now, for my confession. I love the quote and have made it a core value at Lifehouse Church: Pray like everything depends on God, work like everything depends on you (Martin Luther). My tendency is to pray, then work, and if that's not enough, I'll work harder and harder. So, I'll put in too many hours.

I know that I must train leaders, give away ministry responsibilities, and I'm doing that to the best of my ability. However, while reading the first chapter, Stanley challenges the reader to evaluate what 2 or 3 things you are good at and are passionate about doing and do that. Give everything else away to others! [The first line of the first chapter states, "YOU ARE DOING TOO MUCH!" Coincidence, I think not!]

I thought I'd already done this, but it's time to re-evaluate. My new mission is to evaluate better what I'm currently doing, narrow down my scope of ministry to only a few things, then develop other leaders to do what they love doing and trust them with ministry.

Here's my list of things I'm passionate about and will focus my energy on at Lifehouse:

1. Preaching- to relevantly and creatively communicate the Truth of the Bible,
2. Vision casting- to lead Lifehouse in toward our God-given Cause and to inspire as many people as possible to join us in fulfilling this cause,
3. Leadership development- to raise up new leaders as pastors, ministry leaders, and influencers; also, to develop new church planter.

Stanley states that if leaders will do what they're best at, we will be most effective and the whole church will grow and be significantly more impactful.

So, here's what we need:

• pastor or leader of pastoral care- counseling, pre-marriage counseling, visitation, hospital visits, personal mentoring, etc. [Thanks Pastor Joe and Lois for still pastoring and staying the course with Lifehouse!! We love and appreciate you!]
• administrative assistant/ book-keeper. [now LHCE has several PT and FT admin. In fact, most of our paid staff serve primarily in administrative roles].

Demystifying Leadership of The Church- Lesson 7 from 2010

Lots of people rightly complain that too many churches identify leaders based on an American political model. So, they'll say, "the church is full of and run by politics!" Agreed! And most of us hate politics in the church. Politics means that leaders are identified for these type  of reasons:

• influence: a person has influence in business, government, or finances SO we give them influence IN the church,
• popularity: a person is popular and everyone likes them SO they should be in leadership,
• the vast majority of people in the church like the person or vote for that person So they should, by virtue of democratic vote, be in some type of leadership,
• secular leadership: a person is a leader elsewhere SO they must be able to lead in the church,
• money: they give lots of money SO let's give them a voice for how that money should be used.

Okay, you read that list and could probably add lots more to it. But the point is, that we hate politics and hidden/ false agendas within the Kingdom of God.

So, how does the Bible state the leaders are identified? Let's Demystify the Leadership Code in The Church:

• Spiritual Maturity: Paul tells Timothy that leaders in the Church should not be novices, young and immature in their relationship with Christ (1 Tim 3:6). Maturity is not measured by years but spiritual growth, in essence, is a Jesus-follower a reading the Word, in prayer, and multiplying by sharing and showing God's love with others.
• Character: people who are growing in the Character of Christ can be entrusted with influence and leadership. The Church can only give influence to those who exhibit growing Christ-like character, and must remove from leadership those who consistently demonstrate a lack of character and are unteachable or unwilling to repent (1 Tim 3).
• Competence: obviously a person must be capable of either leading now or learning to lead, in order to be a leader in a particular area of the Church. This means they have the capacity, giftedness, desire, and willingness to lead well (Romans 12),
• Calling: along with giftedness, a person must have the heart or passion from God to lead. People don't ask to lead, they are asked by God to lead. Ephesians 4 makes it clear that God gives to the Church the gifts of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers for the equipping of the saints...
• Faithful: leaders prove themselves by being faithful in lesser areas of responsibility and influence. If a person is unwilling to do the unnoticeable tasks, they won't be faithful in areas of greater influence. Jesus taught that within His Kingdom, those who are faithful with little will be entrusted with much and vice versa. Luke 16:10-12.
• Fruitful: a person could be all of the above and still not be a leader, if they are not fruitful. Seed that lands of good soil, in Matthew 13, produces a fruitful harvest of 100, 60, or at least 30 times what was sown. We can recognize leaders within the Church by those who take the "little" that has been invested and given to them, and they produce "much" with it. They share and show God's love. They make disciples and lead people to Jesus. They develop others into servants of Christ, leaders in the Church, and help others grow.

There it is! Those ware the demystified keys of how we identify leadership within The Church according to the Bible?!

Lesson #8 from 2010: DON'T EAT!

I enjoy eating as much as anyone, especially meats and sweets. But there are seasons when we must learn to NOT eat. First, you can watch this guy to learn why you shouldn't eat "ghost peppers". But I'm not writing about avoiding foods that will light your intestines on fire, but about a critical principle in life and ministry.

DON'T EAT YOUR SEED.

If a farmer started with a single seed, what would he do? Cultivate the soil. Bury the seed. Water. Fertilize. Weed around the growing seed to protect it. At harvest, the seed might produce100 or 60 or 30 fold. Then what? Does he eat the entire harvest? If so, what will he plant in the spring?

A wise farmer knows to only eat what he must, so that he can sow even more seed in spring, and expect an even greater return the next harvest.

What's the point?

In ministry and life, we have a choice: enjoy the moment, eat our "seed" of financial resources and time OR only use what we must so that we can invest our finances and time into more fruitful ministry and the Cause of Christ.

Christ called us to be "good and faithful" AND to allow the grain of wheat to fall to the ground and die. When we follow the example of Christ, and willingly give up our life and agenda for Christ, our life (seed) produces a harvest- some 100, 60, or 30 fold.

Jesus promised, "If you are faithful with little, you will be entrusted with much. But to those who are not faithful with little, even what they have will be taken and given to those are already have much."

Are you eating away the little seed you have or are you investing it into what matters for eternity?

An ANNOUNCEMENT and REQUEST

As a church, we're looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011!

It's exciting to see our Sunday morning services filling up.  As we've been anticipating, we were actually over capacity in our 10:30 AM service this past Sunday!  While this is a great problem to have, we want to make sure we have seats for our guests and newcomers.

A Request:

If you are currently attending the 10:30 AM service, would you please consider attending the 9 AM service?  Every seat made available in the 10:30 AM service is another seat we can offer a first-time guest to Lifehouse Church East.

Here's why:

• LHE primary goal is the CAUSE of Christ and the MISSION of THE Church to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus and disciple them to become Jesus-followers.
• At LHE, we want to reach everyone in this region that we can, and want to overcome all limitations,
• as you've experienced, when a service feels full (over 75% of capacity), then we feel cramped,
• then, and worse, we don't think there is room for our friends and family,
• so, we stop inviting them.
• a packed service doesn't allow us to reach new unchurch and de-churched neighbors.

Please come at 9am and PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, and CO-WORKERS.

Join us this Sunday for part 2 of the Unquenchable sermon series.

Big Announcement COMING SOON. Find out THIS Sunday a few steps we are taking to multiple our efforts to reach this region with God's Good News. Hint: includes church planting AND new services.

Lesson #11 from 2010

Less is More. The concept isn't original to me, but I learned this lesson the hard way in 2010.

First my confession: I can be a little bit workaholic and a lot passionate. So, I tend to work really hard in the ministry and want to get and keep my hands in everything. However, I learned early in church planting that I have to spend most my time training and developing leaders then giving them meaningful opportunities to lead. Once they're proven, I don't micro-manage, but trust them to lead and continue to build God's Kingdom.

However, I create more work for myself and our team by dreaming bigger dreams and running after even greater purposes of God. Then, I have to keep giving away major chunks of my job description, so that we can continue to reach more people and impact God's Kingdom. So far so good. But, there are lots of areas that I don't want to give away or not sure if I can trust the leader, so I keep doing it, even when I don't want to.

In 2010, I had a few areas that I thought I was good at, even gifted, only to learn that I'm not that good, and even worse, I was putting my hands into areas where others were better equipped. This zapped my energy, passion, and even caused me to start doubting myself. Since I was drained, I had less energy and focus to lead in the areas where I'm very passionate and feel most gifted. Result- weary, discouraged leader who had to learn to give away more opportunities and responsibility. Less is more!

Want biblical evidence for this lesson: read Romans 12.

The teaching part of this I heard and read from Andy Stanley in his book, Next Generation Leader and his leadership podcast here. I'd recommend all leaders listen and read them.

Here are the keys to what I've heard and now, learned the hard way.

The more I try to do, the less I get done. The more areas I try to work at, the less impact I have in any area. And the more I do, the less others can do.

The less I do the more I accomplish. The less I do, the more opportunity others have and the more they get done.

Hardest part of this lesson for me: to be honest enough and self-aware enough to realize that I am not as good at as many things as I thought I was. And there are others that are much better at most things than me.

My (and your) options:

1. to feel insecure and inadequate, and try to improve in those areas, and keep spreading our selves so thin, and hope that no one notices OR


2. admit my weaknesses in humility and acknowledge my strengths, then focus the bulk of my energy in the areas of my greatest strengths.

Leaders offer the most good to the Church when they leverage their greatest gifts, and maximize their full potential in the specific areas that God has uniquely anointed and gifted them. However, leaders hurt the Church when they focus on strengthening their weaknesses, then use those marginally improved weaknesses in the Church.

We must do what ONLY we can do.

This doesn't mean that we'll have shorter work weeks, just more focused hours while we're working.

This isn't an excuses to NOT strength areas of weak character. We must grow in Christ-like character. I'm writing about areas of limitations in skill, competence, and calling. In character, we must constantly be growing, in the others- less is more.

Thanks, Lifehouse, for your patience as I grow and learn these hard lessons the hard way.

Ask yourself: what are your strengths? What can only you do? how can you do that to the fullest for God's Kingdom? What do you need to stop doing? Make a "don't do" list.

How to stay the course and NOT give up

I'm fired up! If you know me or have ever gotten an email from me- you've heard this. If you know me well, you know it's true, almost all the time. It's not an act.

So, here's how I stay so committed (with passion) to the course of ministry, responsibility, and to my community? Here's my response:

CALLING:

• A certainty that I am doing what God destined for me to do, specifically in planting Lifehouse and in raising up other church planters. Very little else fuels me for long except the confidence I have that God called me to do this- He choose me, I didn’t choose Him.
• Constant reminder from passages of Scripture that have gripped me from the beginning of my call (Jeremiah 1:4-10; Joshua 1:1-11 and 3:1-6).
• Vision is a picture of the “preferred future” (Leading at a Higher Level). I can close my eyes and see, at least generally, what my purpose is, even several years down the road. I know for a fact that I’m still on the front end of completing the work that God has called me to. Since I know this is the beginning, I’m resolute in finishing. My dream is to lead a Kingdom-impacting church for a long time (LHE) and through Lifehouse, develop as many church planters as possible then send them out to plant as many churches as possible.

FOCUS: this encompasses 2 critical areas:

• Giftedness: staying narrowed in my unique destiny, temperament, and calling. I realize that I’m not that good at a lot of things, but extremely gifted in a few areas. So, I leverage the areas I’m strong in, do those better, and keep developing/ releasing/ coaching other leaders to do everything else! This is huge! When I’m busy doing what I’m not gifted at or passionate about, I feel de-motivated, uninspired, and I won’t stay the course.
• Eternal perspective: the Cause of Christ grips me so completely and passionately that I can’t help but recklessly abandon myself to His purposes for my life, regardless of the cost, sacrifice, or hard work. My prayer everyday,

“Oh Lord, may what I do TODAY matter for ETERNITY so that the population of heaven will increase because I got out of bed this morning!”

• This isn’t always easy, that’s why I need prayer time and devotions- to keep me focused and centered on the WHY.

DREAM TEAM: having highly committed leaders around me has been one of my greatest strengths.

• This requires lots of invest of time, conflict resolution, prayer, and high level of faith in people, and a critically important ability to see the potential in others and to invite them to leverage their potential in God’s Church. I have a passion to see people WIN and excitedly BELIEVE in them more than they believe in themselves.
• Read “Building a Dream Team” in Courageous Leadership, by Bill Hybels. When other high level people join you, it’s emboldening and empowering. When they sacrifice alongside of you, it makes you believe in the Cause even more, and you recognize that the Cause is bigger than you.

PRAYER: I know it sounds obvious, but I’ve bathed every step of ministry and life in prayer, and especially in seasons of fasting. When you know your walking in devotion to God, hearing from Him, and radically living His purposes- you can’t quit!