Mark Driscoll spoke on fear in the opening session of Catalyst Atlanta.

He began by stating: Every leader is afraid of something.

Fear in the mind causes stress on the body.

Your body will start to manifest that stress. Some suffer with depression, can’t sleep, eat or drink too much, they get stomach problems or headaches. Or some just start reading lots of books on the rapture thinking “God, aren’t we done yet?”

Jesus said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your life?”

Fear is not always a sin, but it always is an opportunity. We can fear or trust in the Lord.

Questions to consider addressing fear:

What are you afraid of? - Some of you are afraid of conflict or failure.

Who are you afraid of? – Often someone other than God takes that place in your life. We start giving glory to them by attempting to satisfy them. We place people in positions of fear and we make them functional gods. Proverbs says the fear of man is a trap.

To examine that question more consider: Who’s opinion matters way too much to you? Is your appetite for praise unhealthy? Are you committed to people or things that God didn’t call you to?

Mark then shared 5 statements about fear:

Fear is vision without hope - (Fear is how we see things in the worst case scenario. This is the future and it’s going to be painful, so I’m stressed about it and living in dread toward it.)

Fear is not always rational, but it is always powerful – (It has a huge impact on us.)

Fear is about getting what we want or don’t want. (It’s self-absorbing.)

Fear preaches a false gospel – (We look for a solution we must find to save us rather than relying on God.)

Fear turns all of us into false prophets – (We predict a future that will never happen causing ourselves stress.)

Then Mark asked us to consider: What’s the solution?

The Bible gives a simple answer: FEAR NOT

It’s the most frequently mentioned command in the Bible.

God didn’t simply give us the command. Throughout the Bible God reminds us, “Fear not, for I am with you.”

Everything may not be okay in your life, but if God is with you, you’re going to be okay.

Driscoll closed with a story about his son being afraid. He comforted him by reminding him, “Fear not, your daddy is with you.”

This was a great reminder not to live in fear as believers. It’s especially timely for many of the pastors I know…including me. God is calling us to huge tasks. I see fear as a major stumbling block to following God’s will. We must not allow fear to disrupt or derail us.

Since this issue is on fear, and I suspect some may struggle with this, I refer to a couple posts I’ve written on fear:

7 Questions When Facing Fear

5 Reminders for Ridding Your Life of Fear

I love when a verse I’ve read many times jumps out at me like I’ve never read it before. It happened to me this morning. I’m reading through the book of Acts right now and came across these verses:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

Acts 4:13-14

It was a great reminder to me…God uses normal people!

Don’t feel you have what it takes…

Feel as though you don’t “measure up”…

Consider yourself a “common man” (or woman)…

You are a perfect candidate for God to use in a mighty way!

Consider this question:

Where are you lacking that God can use you for His glory?

That’s not to say we shouldn’t learn all we can, grow in our knowledge and understandings, but it is saying that where we start isn’t as much an issue. When we are called of God, we have everything we need to be successful in His strength!

If you’ve attended The Nines or any other free online conference, you’ll know how this works. This free online event is focused on church finances. It’s called Fund Your Church Now and it takes places on October 20. Here are the details:

What is it? Fund Your Church Now is a FREE online event to help your church go from financial breakeven to breakthrough. Some of the top church leaders in North America will talk about the practical things they have done to fully fund the church or ministry they help lead. No travel required…just watch from your computer.

When is it? October 20, 2011 from 1pm – 4pm EST. Register here.

Who is speaking? Bob Franquiz, Dino Rizzo, Carey Nieuwhof, Shaun King, Joe Sangl, Tim Stevens , Pete Wilson, Casey Graham, Robert Morris, and others.

Who is behind it? Fund Your Church Now is hosted by Giving Rocket.

If you are a church leader, this free online conference looks like it’s worth your time. Register here.

Perhaps it is because I am in my second church plant, but some of the most frequent questions I receive come from church planters. The two questions I get asked most: If you were planting another church…

What would you do differently?
What would you do the same?

Those are great questions, because the first few times I had to answer them it made me think through some of our best practices and some of the mistakes we’ve made along the way (and we’ve made plenty ).

So, here are my answers…

The same:

Caged momentum - If I were planting a church again, I would make people wait. I’d make the core team wait to launch, I’d make people wait for small groups until we were ready, and I’d make the students wait for a student service until leaders were in place. Whatever the ministry, I’d make people wait until we had things as planned as possible. There’s also the principle of missing an opportunity, but the power of caged momentum cannot be dismissed and I’d do it again. I wrote more about that principle HERE.

Holy discontent – I would look for people to help launch the church who have a strong desire for something more in their spiritual life, but who haven’t been able to find it. I wrote about that HERE.

Give my vision away – I’d give others ownership in the plant. I’d let them decide how we do children’s ministry or what we do to serve our community. The more they own the more they’ll be motivated to do. I wrote about that HERE

Different:

Not shy away from church people – Early in our church plant, in an effort to stay true to our mission of reaching the unchurched and so as not to offend other churches, we tended to run from those who already belonged to another church. In the process, we injured some people who were also sensing God doing something in their life and we made ourselves very leadership poor. I wrote about that HERE.

Built structure in early – In an effort not to be bound by traditions and organizational bureaucracy, we had little formal structure when we began. As we’ve grown adding structure become unavoidable to prevent chaos. We’ve learned it’s much more difficult to add structure once the organization is established. I would add the intended structure early, but in a way that allows for continual growth. You can read more about that HERE.

Challenge people more – I wouldn’t shy away from challenging people to higher standards in their personal life, even while trying to reach people who may be new to their faith. We’ve learned that people want and need to be challenged, along with feeling loved, accepted, and valued. I wrote about that HERE.

There’s my list. Keep in mind these are my observations. Others on our team may have different answers.

Have you ever started something from scratch? What are some things you would or wouldn’t do again?

I’ve seen it many times…

You have an idea…it’s not a bad idea…it may be a great idea…

You just don’t know yet…

Here’s my advice…

Spend your energies at first on deciding whether it’s an idea worth pursuing…

The what…

Before you spend a lot of energy on the mechanics of the idea…

The how…

You may have to talk about some of the how to decide the what, but spend your first, best and most energy on the what…

For example: Let’s say you have an idea to add a third church service to allow for more growth…or maybe you are thinking of going multi-site…or the idea could be to plant another church. Don’t spend too much time on the how…until you decide the what.

Is this an idea worth pursuing?

Are you willing to give it a try?

Yes or no?  

Spending too much time on the how before you address the what:

• Gets you bogged down in needless details…
• Wastes energy that could be used elsewhere…
• Solves problems you don’t yet and may never have…
• Creates division about change prematurely…
• Builds momentum before it’s time…

Once you decide the what, you’ll have more passion, clarity and energy to address the how.

Do you often find yourself addressing the how before you decide the what? 

In making a first impression…

The little things matter…

A number of years ago, while I was pastoring another church, I felt I needed more buy-in from them in helping to lead the church. They were a great group of people, passionate about reaching the lost, but they had begun to neglect some of the little things that had to keep a church operating. I wanted to encourage them to be more observant about what needed doing. (To be candid, the women did most of the work, so it was the men who needed the most encouragement.)

I conducted an experiment with the male church leaders. I placed a Sunday bulletin on the floor of the men’s bathroom, right in front of the urinal. It stayed there through two Sundays and no one picked it up. At the following Wednesday night leadership meeting, I brought the bulletin with me. I asked, “Does anyone recognize this?” Actually it looked vaguely familiar to most of the men.

I wasn’t trying to be cruel, but it was a tangible reminder to them that when making a first impression, the little things matter. This was a church plant. We didn’t have a custodial staff for the building we rented. We were the custodial staff. If the bulletin was to be picked up, one of us needed to do it.

They instantly recognized that every man visiting our church in the last couple weeks had probably seen that bulletin on the floor of the men’s room. We only had one urinal…and we had very good coffee. Although it was a minor thing…just a bulletin on the floor…it had the potential to leave a larger impression; especially if that same visitor returned the next week to find the same bulletin still on the floor. (Of course, in a church plant, by the second week we’ll even plug you in to pick up bulletins off the bathroom floor. )

From that point, some of the men became more observant about the little things that needed attention. They started to take ownership in their roles as church leaders. I felt I had more participation in leading the church. It turned out to be a very helpful illustration.

Question: Would this same demonstration have worked in the women’s bathroom or would someone have picked it up? (Just curious)

Any other ideas? How could you help your team learn the principle that the little things matter?

Since the beginning of Grace Community Church almost 6 years ago, we have experienced what many would call explosive growth. We’ve seen hundreds each year come to faith and reconnect with Christ. That growth has impacted every ministry in our church and been felt by every stretched staff member. It’s been an amazing journey filled with lots of excitement.

I have learned, however, that there our dangers with fast growth in any organization. I once wrote some of that HERE. This is an expansion of that post.

Here are 5 dangers of explosive growth:

Masks real problems – Growth gets the attention. Everyone is excited. Momentum is high. Problems within a team or organization won’t show up immediately…but they will eventually.

Leadership poor – I didn’t say “poor leadership”…but leadership poor. When the organization is growing fast, you can never seem to afford adequate staff or train volunteers quick enough.

Inadequate Systems – I wrote about that HERE, but basically your systems do not support your growth and you spend much of your time playing catch up to implement adequate systems to sustain growth.

People feel scattered/left behind – It’s part of the deal. With the rate of growth, communication is more important than ever, but people are stretched, often producing holes in the communication process.

Reactive rather than proactive – In a fast growing organization, “just keeping up” will be a consistent feeling emotion among leadership. You’ll often find yourself “making it up as you go”. With the speed of life in the organization, there never seems to be time to get ahead of the growth curve.

What can you do about it?

Be aware - Realize that everything may not be as seems. If momentum slows, the real problems will be revealed. The sooner you can identify these areas of weakness, the less damage it will cause in creating sustainable growth. Stay grounded in your faith as a team and as leaders so you can weather this season.

Recruit – It’s even more important in fast growth situations that you be constantly looking for new and developing leadership. There must be an intentional effort in every area to empower people and train volunteers for leadership positions.

Systematize – As much as possible, you should add structure to the organization along the way. You may never catch up with growth, but as problems are discovered it will often be a systems problem. Again, the more ahead of this issue you can be the better. Continually think strategically of what is needed to ensure you can continue to grow at the current rate. You might consider reading THIS POST as you add structure.

Communicate - This is another systems issue, but the faster you are growing the better your communication must become. Communication is always a struggle in any organization, but healthy organizations continually analyze their system and attempt to improve. In stressful times, communication must receive even more attention.

Discipline - It’s important, even during explosive growth, to discipline yourself enough to plan for the future. Leaders need to be visionary enough to look for what’s coming next and attempt to plan ahead. In spite of the constant demand due to growth, leaders must take time away from doing the work to evaluate and ensure operations are improved to maintain growth and momentum.

Scripture is clear that Heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents, so regardless of a church’s size or growth rate there is something for which to be excited if lives are changing. Sometimes God brings supernatural growth and during those seasons leaders should be especially aware of potential dangers. (Can you imagine the first century church adding 3,000 to their numbers in a single day?)

Have you ever been in an organization with explosive growth? What would you add to my list?

I’ve been a proponent the principle of “Be Present” a long time. Mostly that was a term relative to my family experience. I believe intentional parenting involves a consistent effort to be present. I’ve never seen successful parenting happen in front of the television. (But that’s the subject of another post…actually THIS ONE.)

I’ve also learned that being present is critical for success in leadership..

Unfortunately, like many of the hardest lessons of life, I learned this first through mistakes I made early in my leadership. I wrote about it HERE.

I’ve learned that whether in good times or times of crisis people look for leadership that is present. (Read more of my thoughts on that subject HERE.)

That’s why I was excited this year to learn that the Catalyst Conference theme is BE PRESENT.

The best rates end this week…so lock in now. Go HERE to register now!

Take ownership of you situation…leadership. Join me at Catalyst East this year!

Leave a comment and let me know if I’ll see you there.

In less than one minute, this video from Scott Belsky is brilliant. Watch him explain how to revitalize a project that has plateaued.

Can you put this idea to work?

Reminds me of a Jesus principle I Tweeted about yesterday:

Thanks to Catalyst for pointing me to this video. BTW, will I see you at Catalyst East this year?

In a church plant, no one can be a specialist.

In the early days of Grace Community Church, I did many things I wasn’t necessarily trained or qualified to do. That was even truer in my first church plant, which started smaller, but I suspect it’s true of every church plant. This has been the case for all of our staff. They’ve had to fill roles not assigned to their specific job description.

Specialist concentrate on what they do best.

Generalist, while they may have a specific job title, handle multiple tasks; some better than others.

At Grace, we’ve hired people for specific jobs, but we’ve had to ask everyone to do tasks which weren’t necessarily in their “job description”.

• Our groups pastor helped launch our second campus.
• Our family pastor helps with worship planning.
• Our worship pastor helps with our website.

As the church grows, you may hire more specialists, but honestly, we are living in a day where generalists are more needed than ever. To me, someone’s value to the team increases the more tasks he or she can complete, or they are willing to try.

If you are looking to add to your church staff…consider those who can and are willing to handle multiple roles.

Have you had to handle multiple tasks in your position?

Do you see a change to more generalist or more specialist roles in churches today?