Leadership Learning

Ed Stetzer has a great download of Leadership Nuggets from bloggers. We can all learn about leadership. Enjoy.

Attractional or Missional

Jeff Gauss presents some great thoughts about attractional vs missional models for church plants and churches. It is worth reading.

Staffing

Fellow pastor Gavin Retzer sent a great link that talks about staff hiring. Take a quick read of this little article from Pastor James McDonald:

"How About If You Learn from My Mistakes As An Employer"

Orlando and Connect 09

I just spent 3 great days with five awesome couples in Orlando at Connect 09. Four of the couples are praying about planting gospel centered, missional focused and kingdom minded churches in the heartland. God used our time in Orlando to connect with over 200 church planters as well as being challenged by several great sermons. We were challenge to live and proclaim a robust gospel. Someone needs to do something with the robust gospel was the second challenge.

What we do is done for His glory.

Church planting news from Corsica, SD

Following is Jon and Julie Lane's newsletter about what God is doing in Corsica.

Hello and greetings in the name of the Lord who alone has immortality, dwelling in unaproachable light..." 1 Tim. 6:16

Once again praying that this letter finds you in the joy of the Lord and in the service of the King Jesus Christ. It seems to be that time again to attempt to give a brief update of what the Lord is doing in our lives and this part of the world. Let me just state a few things.

1. As of December 7th, we moved into our new building for fellowship. At the present we are working (all volunteer labor) to finish the basement. The classrooms have been sheetrocked, painted and cleaned and we are presently having Sunday school in them. Also, our Wednesday night "kids club" has officially been moved over there. What needs to be done is the carpeting of the floor, completing the office and kitchen. Please pray for us in this matter as several of the men have given up most of their Saturdays and evenings to get this completed. In addition, please pray that the Lord would continue to lay it upon people's heart to give as we do not believe in debt. We have seen the Lord move in incredible ways to see this come about. He is so faithful and so confirming that all we can do is praise Him.

2. On January 14th, three of us from the church went on a mission trip to Romania and Muldova. It was my daughter, Allie, Shawn Jerke and myself. We met another friend from Iowa (Tony Allen) and then joined two other friends (Jesse and Jamie Boyd) over there. We worked with two churches in evangelism training and street evangelism. Numerous people heard the Gospel, including many Gypsie villages that seem to be forgotten or shunned, thousands of tracts went out and Bible believers were inspired and encouraged to continue to sow the seed of the Gospel. We worked with incredible translators who loved the Lord and their people. They will continue to do follow-up and minister to those who rsponded to the Gospel. One of the Pastor's openly admitted to starting to become somewhat lukewarm in their evangelistic efforts and was refreshed and empowered to reach out to the lost as the early church did.

It was neat to see my daughter adjust to the culture and see the world from God's perspective. I think we will have to send her off someday to the mission field, but praise God for that as there is no place better to be than in the will of God. Also, I saw Shawn come out of his shell. It was incredible how he boldly gave testimony of Christ, urged people to accept God's gracious offer. I have seen the Lord work in his life in such a powerful way lately which is such a blessing for a Pastor to see.

3. Several new families have come to the Lighthouse and we see so many hungry for the TRUTH of God's word and to live lifes worthy of the Gospel that the working of the Holy Spirit is evident. In a day when the church would rather court the world, than proclaim truth, we feel so blessed to be a part of this. The Lord has raised up men who feel the call of God on their lives for ministry and are growing in their gifts and being mentored. We are also praying and seeking the Lord with another church plant as he has raised up a family for that very purpose. We are seeing the children grasp the truth of God's word and really becoming His disciples.

4. Alomost last, we are wanting to see God move in a powerful way as far as souls for Christ. Please join in praying for this in the area. There are very few Bible believing actual preaching and teaching churches left, so these towns have grown cold and comfortable in their man-made religions, as Pastor's are more concerned about being politically correct than standing up and proclaiming "thus saith the Lord."

5. We are praying and looking into possible outreaches this summer for evangelism, including a mission trip to either Nepal or Ukraine. If this interestes you please let me know. We would love to have you. Also, coming up the weekend of May 17th we are having a PAstor, church planter from India coming and speaking on missions both in the morning and evening. Please join us as it will be encouraging, challenging and Christ centered.

Well, I hope that sums things up and keeps you posted on life in our family. We also take no credit in this, but give the glory to God and are just joyful that we can be used in some way to exalt Christ. May the Lord bless you and the peace of Christ surround you.

for the cause of Christ,

yours at the lighthouse

Personal update

I am spending a few day in Orlando, FL with over 200 other church planters from ConvergeWorldWide. Beryl and I took a walk this morning at about 7 in shorts and t-shirt. We took a swim last night, OUTSIDE, at 9:30 and it felt great. Oh, yes this is about church planting in the Heartland.

This morning as we meet we talked about the vision for Kingdom work between 2010-2015. The question is being asked how can we get all of our churches involved in church planting? We all agreed that not all churches will plant a church, but all agreed that every church can have a part in planting. I am excited to join in what God is doing. I will have more to say later.

Know that I am suffering for the Lord in Orlando.

Church Planting opportunities in America

I have seen the data before listed in this video, but it they made a great presentation of the opportunity the church has today. The opportunity to proclaim the gospel message is great today then it has every been. See the video here.

Growing communites in the Heartland

In doing some planning for a group of guys providing great insight into church planting in the four states that I work with I located all the communities above 6000 people in the four states on GOOGLE MAPS. You can click on the pin and it will tell you the community, size and it growth or decline. Red means it is declining, green is growing between 0.1 and 9.9% purple is growing at a rate of 01% or greater.

Improving Church Plant Survivability

Leadership Network recently gave several reports on the state of church planting USA

From the reported titled “Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches (if you have problems getting the full report let me know and I will attached it with an e-mail) the following observation were made.

“Certain factors, when present, correlate with higher baptisms (the report does not suggest baptism is a mean of salvation, but is using it as a mean of measuring a decision and some spiritual growth). Over 100 factors were tested and the following were found to be statistically significant:
- Engaging in ministry evangelism (i.e. food banks, shelter, drug/alcohol recover)
- Starting at least one daughter church within three years of the church plant
- Having a proactive stewardship development plan enabling the church to be financially self-sufficient
- Conducting a mid-week children’s program
- Sending out mailers for invitation to services and church events
- Conducting a block party as an outreach activity
- Conducting a new member class for new church members
- Conducting leadership training for church members
- Receiving church-planting training in terms of a boot camp or basic training by the church planter
- Working full-time over part-time as the church planter
- Being assed prior to the beginning of the church plan as the church planter
- Delegating leadership roles to church members.

“Interestingly, the chance of survivability increases by over 400% when the church planter has a ‘realistic’ understanding and expectation of the church-planting experience. On the other hand, conducting door-to-door or cold-calling evangelism in church planting decreases the odds of survivability by 59%.”

“The NAMB study also focused on the value of peer groups. Odds of survivability increase by 135% when the church planter meets with a group of church planting peers.”

Stephen Gray is a researcher who compared 60 fast-growing church plants with 52 struggling church plants. Here is some of what he found (his book is Planting Fast Growing Churches)
- 88% have church planting teams
- 63% have a core group of 26 to 75 people
- 75% use a contemporary style of worship
- 80% put ten percent or more of their budget toward outreach and evangelism
- 16% have a higher rate of full-time pastors than struggling church plants
- 63% of planters leading fast-growing plants raise additional funding, compared to 23% of those that are struggling.
- 74% of fast-growing church planters receive one or two weeks of training.
- Over 90% of struggling churches work with only one paid staff member. Only 17% of fast-growing plants started with only one paid staff member.

What is God doing in the Heartland?

I was doing a little reviewing of the last several months. I was surprised to learn that I have averaged contact with one possible church planter ever week. Not all of them merited more than a reading of their resume, but people are finding Converge and asking questions. Currently there are 6 guys that I am at some level of discussion about planting in Converge Heartland. God is good. Praise God for his greatness.

questions for the new year

Here are a few questions that are good to ask when you consider what God wants to do through you in 2009. Read them here.

Sticky Church

This was written by Dan Maxton/Terry Martell who are the BGC LEAD Team Coordinators. It gives a great overview of STICKY church. I am currently reading this book and believe it has some great ideas that need to be implemented in most churches.

What does it mean to be a STICKY church?

Here is an interview of Larry Osborn, pastor of North Coast Church in San Diego about his new book written about assimilation.

What are one or two things that you've learned about STICKYNESS? The first is that stickyness starts and ends with significant long-term relationships. It's not about providing better programs. It's not about developing a slick assimilation process. It's about finding practical ways to velcro people to one another to create long-term relationships.

What is unique about what you have to say in STICKY Church? I show what STICKINESS looks like, and explain why so many of the things we currently do to "reach" and "assimilate" people actually hinders the process.

For instance... programs and ministries are not very STICKY. They're sort of like Post-its; they do connect people to the ministry; but the connection is easily removed. Or how about small groups? Most of the models we're using today are broken. They work far better in theory than in real life.

Who is the book for and why should they read it? It's aimed primarily at pastors and church leaders. It's the sort of book that a pastor or leader can work through together with their staff or lay- leadership team. That's why we put a study guide and reflection questions in the back.

Share one idea from the book that's been helpful for pastors. I'm challenging some of the most widely held and seemingly unquestioned bits of conventional wisdom about assimilation, special programs, and small groups. I've had lots of people tell me, "I always thought that, but I didn't know anyone else did."

What do you hope the reader takes away from the book? It's about church health... It's simply about keeping them connected to the church long enough to fulfill the second half of the Great Commission: "Teaching them to obey all things I have commanded you." Retention matters--in everything. If we're not STICKY, it's hard to be healthy.

Church planting formula

I found this in material from my good friends with the NAB. I like the formula for Godly success in church planting.

CV(over)BV + WS X BIP = GS

CV = Compleing Vision
BV = Biblical Values
WS = Wise Strategies
BIP = Bathed in Prayer
GS = Godly Success

Kansas here we come

As a district we currently have no churches in Kansas. There is some history behind why we don't, but my prayer is that we plant churches across the state of Kansas. There are many other great detonations working in Kansas, but with only 22% attending (American Church in Crisis) a church on any given Sunday I believe there is room for ConvergeHeartland. Here are city over 15,000 and outside of Kansas City. (We have church in the Kansas City Metro area)

Kansas
Olathe – 96,000*
Overland Park – 146,000 *
Leavenworth – 35,000
Topeka – 122,000
Lawrence – 80,000 *
Emporia – 26,000
Manhattan – 44,000 *
Hutchinson – 40,000
Salina – 45,000 *
Wichita – 344,000 *
Derby – 17,000 *
Hays – 20,000
Dodge City – 25,000 *
Liberal – 19,000 *
Garden City – 28,000
Great Bend – 15,000 *
Newton – 17,000 *
Pittsburg – 17,190 *
* Indicates growth in the community.

A gift from God

This morning as I was lying in bed praying, fighting the desire to get out of bed, but not doing so because it was earlier than my normal early rising, I was struck once again with the reminder that each day is a gift from God. The way all the parts of the body function together is not some random chance of cells holding a meeting deciding how to work better together. God’s hand is clearly seen in putting us together. Reading in scripture you see God hatred of sin, and at times his destruction of the sinners. Yet, I woke again this morning, not because I was so sinless yesterday, but because of God marvelous grace. In the very beginning God saw my sin, and announced the promise of the birth of Jesus to take away the sins of the world. Why did he allow me, or you, to hear the gospel message, recognize our salvation is based completely on His work, and acknowledge Him as Lord? I don’t have an answer others than God sovereign plan, His grace. Another day of life, a gift from heaven above. God may I treat this day as a gift from you.