One of the great dads in our church shared this with me.  Awesome!  Sobering.

Recently a friend of mine in ministry had the “dream opportunity” of a lifetime presented to him. He was asked to apply for the job.  He did.  He didn’t get the job.  The process, however, opened up his heart to a move from his current position.  Still, he questioned why God would stir his heart so much about a position He never intended to give Him.  Thankfully, I had a brief moment of brilliance and was able to answer his dilemma.  Actually that’s not true.  I have learned from years of experience the answer to my friend’s question.  You need to know that sometimes God provides opportunities just to prove that he can. 

When God encouraged Elijah that He had plans for him, He showed Elijah the wind, the earthquake and the fire, but the Lord was ultimately in the gentle whisper.  Still we know from elsewhere in Scripture that God is fully capable of providing wind, earthquakes and fire. Sometimes God just allows us to see His power to remind us that He has power when He chooses to use it. 

Recently I read Craig Groeschel’s book “It”.  Chapter 7 is a must-read for every pastor.  Groeschel’s church (LifeChurch) has adopted the motto “God often guides by what he doesn’t provide.”  He goes onto say, “If you don’t have something you think you need, maybe it’s because God wants you to see something you’ve never seen.”  I love that. 

Are you struggling with what you don’t have or with things you feel you have missed out on that God hasn’t provided yet?   Perhaps God is just proving to you He can provide when He chooses to provide.  Perhaps He is just building your faith and ability to trust Him!  

The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. (Genesis 8:21 Emphasis mine)  

This is another one of those posts that can make a lot of parents mad, but when raising children it is important to remember this verse.  The intent of person’s heart is evil from childhood.  We don’t have to teach our children to be selfish.  We need to model generous living, because selfishness will come naturally.  We don’t have to teach our children to covet what others have.  We need to model contentment for them, because greed will come easily on its own. 

As parents, we should recognize this fundamental truth about our children. As sweet as we think they are, and they can be sweet, they are born with a natural propensity towards sin.   As parents, we are to disciple them so that their bent towards evil is one day redeemed by grace.  Our job is to plant within them the desire for God and His righteousness so that they will have a changed, saved nature, with a desire to overcome evil with good.

Recently I heard a quote on a movie (don’t remember which one).  “Two things we give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” I think that quote captures the essence of parenting.  We must give children deep enough roots so when their wings carry them away they are ready to face the world.  

Here’s a tough but great question for evaluation:  Is your parenting intentional to build the right foundation for your children so they will be prepared for life or are you simply feeding their “natural” tendencies?  In other words, are you more concerned about giving them what they want or leading them with what they need? 

(I told you…tough question. Someone needs to ask it.)  

I am in the midst of a life transition of sorts. It was subtle at first, but over the last couple years, as our church has grown in size and our ability to make an impact in the Kingdom has increased, it has become more recognizable.  I am moving from more of a receiver to an investor into other people’s lives.  I am honored to invest in younger men, many who are pastors also. 

I don’t share that to make myself appear important.  The older I get the more I realize I am nothing apart from Christ, but the fact is that people look to me for direction, support and encouragement.  I hesitate to even use the word, because I feel I still have so much to learn, but people actually are looking to me for wisdom.   It is a weird feeling to realize people actually think I have answers. 

I realize I can’t take people where I haven’t been, so I have always been a wisdom seeker.  I have always sought out godly men who are further along in life than I am, but are heading in the direction I want my life to go.  It is honestly getting more difficult to find men older than me who meet that criteria and are willing to invest in others.  So, the question remains.  If I am going to invest in other people, who is going to invest in me? 

Do you agree it is difficult to find those who are willing to invest wisdom in younger people?   What can we do about it?  

Also, do you have a mentor?  Are you willing to mentor someone to help them with the wisdom you have gained?  

I received these questions as a comment to my post from earlier today about church planting.  I decided to answer them as another post since many do not read comments.  

1.    Since you started with mostly unchurched people, when did you establish an elder team? Also, from whom did you use for this?

We received great advise from several churches, including Rob Bell’s church, that as founding pastors we should not give away the vision to soon to elders who may not own the same vision yet.  We waited two full years before we officially had elders. Right now, three and a half years later, we have three elders, my co-pastor, one of our core members, and me.  We plan to add elders in the next couple years as God leads us to the right men. These also will need to be men who, in addition to the normal Biblical requirements, will have been with us long enough to understand and own the vision of our church. 

2.    How many did you launch with and what environment did you gather in? I’m curious what you did for worship when you launched. Being an attractional church, good music seems to be an important key.

We began with 22 core members (11 couples) and 3 full-time staff members (and their families), who were prepared to work bi-vocational if needed.   We met in my living room and in smaller meetings for five months, but other people heard about what we were doing and wanted to be a part before we officially launched.  We then borrowed a coffee shop operated by another church and met there on Sunday nights doing training two months before launch with a group that had grown to about 50 people.  In the month prior to launch, we moved to another churches facility on Sunday nights where interest continued to build and we had over 100 people joining us for training. 

We added music when we moved to the training period at the coffee shop and in the church facility.  We didn’t have a full band, but we did have a style similar to what they could expect to see once we launched.

3.     How important was your focus on small groups from the beginning? What percentage of your membership regularly gather in small groups during the week?

We have tried to be prepared for every environment before we launch it. We aren’t afraid to make people wait until we get things right.  Therefore, we “practiced” groups with the original group of 50 or so people who were with us for the first official training in the coffee shop.  We divided into four groups and after going through about 12 weeks together we found leaders from within these practice groups and officially launched ten initial groups.  Right now we have average about 70% of our Sunday attendance involved in groups, when you include adults, youth and children.  (We do signups a few times a year and will again this Sunday, so that number is an average over time.)  

Keep the questions coming.  Love it!  

A seminary student who was doing a paper on church planting recently interviewed me.  For those planters who follow this blog I thought you might want to hear some of my answers.  If you have other questions for me, please ask. 

1,  What is the Vision?

The vision of Grace Community Church is to “make growing disciples of Jesus Christ”

2.         What is the strategy for evangelism, assimilation, and discipleship?

Our strategy is based on a “simple church” ideology. (Not after the book of that title, but similar in design to that philosophy). We try to get people to Gather. Commit and Serve.  We gather on Sunday mornings to worship. We commit through small group to build meaningful relationships with others. We carry out our mission to reach the world by serving others. Its a progressive system we think will help people become growing followers of Christ.

3.         What are key values that should be expressed by or philosophy of ministry related to: Worship Service, Adult groups or Sunday School, Service to the Community?

*Community investment

*Authentic Relationships

*High quality efforts at whatever we do

* Welcoming Environments

*Generosity to others

*Exciting children’s environments

4.        When will the church be ready to birth another church (or if already have, what were the factors that led to this sponsorship)?

We have assisted literally dozens of churches either through consulting, investment of resources or sending out workers. We would hope that our first duplicate site would come within the next year or year and a half. We will most likely duplicate so we can reach people no one is reaching in a specific community. We have dozens who travel a fairly long distance to come to Grace. We may start by providing a place for them in their community.

Part 2: 1.       Concerning your view of the weekend service

            a.         What occurred – timeline?

We have 2 services at 9 and 11. We are considering our 3rd now. We began with 1 service and at the 6 months mark went to 2 services. We changed locations once to allow for more people.

            b.         What do children do? Youth? Babies?

We have worship/small group environments for babies through Pre-K and K through 5th grade each Sunday. We are delighted that children often bring their parents back to church. Our goal is to create an irresistible environment for them.

2.         Could you tell how to:

            a.         Join this church?

Membership at Grace is begins by attending an informational meeting held 4 times a year where we explain who the church is, our history and philosophy. Once a person professes a faith in Jesus Christ and commits to our Gather, Commit, Serve strategy through involvement they can commit in membership.

            b.         Find a group or class?

We have sign ups for groups 3 times a year but we discuss groups frequently throughout the year and continually start new groups as the need arises.

            c.         Get your baby in the nursery.

We have a very welcoming greeting team beginning in the parking lot. People are led through the sign up process. Many people pre-register their children from our website prior to attending Grace the first time.

3.         Describe how a seeker would “process” through this church to become a serving leader. How many years would it take?

The window to become a serving leader in our church could happen very quickly. We are always talking about service and recruiting.  We do an all-church volunteer opportunity each year where we encourage everyone to serve one day. Many are introduced to service this way. Also we encourage service in our community by alerting people to opportunities outside the church.   

PART 3 – ANALYZE

1.         Who is this church reaching? Is this the same group they intend to reach?

We have reached well over 50%, possibly as high as 70%, of people who were not active in any church a year before attending Grace the first time.  That was and is our target group.

2.         What are the strengths and weaknesses of this church as a discipling community?

Strengths. We have an exciting and attractive environment. People easily feel they can be a part of something.

Weaknesses. We lack enough quality leaders. We do not have some of the structures in place we need systematically to assimilate people through the strategy.  

3.         How well is the vision of the pastor propagated to the core leaders? New members? The congregation? How often is this vision reviewed/renewed?

We talk about vision constantly in different ways. With a simple strategy it is easier to communicate with people. With an elder structure of leadership we are able to control the focus of energies for the church always closely pushing towards reaching the vision. 

4.         Which “systems” are present and working well? Present but need help? Apparently not present? How easily can people “flow” from one system to another?

Because we don’t have many layers to our ministry, we don’t have many systems but the system of getting plugged into groups is working well. The system of getting people to serve needs on a weekly basis needs work. Our system to teach awareness of financial responsibility and raising funds for future building is an issue we haven’t completely figured out yet.  Our system of replacing leaders needs refining. Finally, our system of worship planning works reasonably well, but our system of implementation needs more work.

5.         Is this church reproducible? Has it reproduced? Why or why not?

Yes we think we are reproducible. We have not spun our own church plant yet, because of the rapid growth of the home church. We have chosen to invest in other starts rather than do our own. That is a long-term vision of the church.

6.         What aspects of the church would you like to emulate in a church plant? Change?

We planted with people who had a passion for spiritual growth but were dissatisfied with the church choices in the community. We called it a “holy discontent”. We would look for that again.  Also we would try to repeat the things we are noted for and that have become trademarks of Grace that I mentioned above, such as a heart of generosity and community investment. 

A change would be to look for more leaders to start with. We shied away from churched people not wanting to take from other churches but it left us with a void of leadership we are just now filling.

Again, what questions do you have?  

I have shared this strategy a lot.  When you are facing one of those stress-filled weeks try this:  

1.     Take index cards and write on each one what you are most concerned about this week.  (one concern per card)  

2.     Lay them face up on a table in front of you and share them with God.  He knows them better than you do, but do it anyway.  

3.     Pray something like this, “God, this is what I have before me this week and I can’t handle it all.  I’m asking you as my Father, who loves me more than I can imagine, to give me direction, success, wisdom, patience and understanding in every area of my life.  Lead me along the path you would have for me.  I’m trusting completely in you.  If this week is a success it will depend on you.  I love you Lord. In Jesus name, Amen”.  

4.     Do the best you know how to do, but leave the stress of the week in God’s hands. 

Please understand this is not a formula for success. I don’t believe those exist in any relationship and God is certainly not defined by my prayers.  This is, however, based on Hezekiah’s actions in response to receiving a letter that threatened his entire kingdom.  (2 Kings 19:14-19).  I have tried this numerous times and God always responds.

Sometimes that response has been to relieve me of all my stress.  Most of the time, however, this process has helped me refocus and feel a sense of calm among my circumstances knowing that my God is ultimately in control. 

Try this as you begin your week and see what happens.  

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.  Mark 11:22 NIV

I’m sorry. This was the best I could find.  I searched for a Bible verse that would be inspiring today; something really simple and pointed.  I had hoped to pick a verse that speaks to you in volumes, yet doesn’t make you grab a dictionary.

I really wanted something you could perhaps even memorize and take with you throughout the day that would remind you of an important principle; a life principle even.  I envisioned that it might be something Jesus said because then you would know of its accuracy.

Sometimes Jesus talked in parables, which were easily understood by the group He was addressing, but that may need explanation to those of us outside the field of expertise.  I wanted something applicable to all of us, regardless of our vocation or interest.

I guess what I really wanted was the bottom line, basic theology.  You know, the kind of thing that if you didn’t get anything else, you could hold onto.  This would be a verse that you could teach your family.  People could catch on to it, it would cause people to reflect on their relationship to God and the importance He needs to have in our lives.  I want to find a verse that if you live by that verse and make decisions based on that verse, that you will be living a life pleasing to God. 

For today, this verse will have to do: “Have faith in God.”  I’ll keep looking.  

I love this.  I love a good letter anyway, but this is history, it’s classy, and it shows the reality of life at the top!

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.   Proverbs 12:18 NIV

How mighty are the words we use!

When I was growing up, if someone called you a name, you stuck your tongue out and said, “Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words will never hurt me.”  It sounded good coming from an elementary kid, but in reality it wasn’t true.  No, in fact, sometimes the pain of words stays with you longer than the bruises do from sticks and stones.

Often my wife has to remind me not to be so harsh with my words.  It is not that I intend to be mean, I just sometimes fail to think before I speak.  It seems those closest to me end up being the ones hurt the most.  (Can you identify or am I alone here?)

How important it is for us, the “salt of the earth,” to watch our words closely!  We need always to temper our speech with love.  Our greatest desire should be to show the love of Christ through our actions, including the way we respond to the people around us.  It never ceases to amaze me just who is watching and listening.  

If only we can tame the tongue we may have a handle on witnessing to a lost and dying world!

Oh, be careful what you say today!