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How Much Does It Cost To Plant A Church?December 2, 2011 How much money does it take to plant a new church or multi site campus? I can't tell you how many times i have been asked that question. But, that question has no easy answer. Understanding the delicate balance between over-funding and under-funding is a complex question. There are many variables to consider when asking that question.
Six questions you must consider when planning a planting budget.
1.Where are you planting? A city-center or hyper-rural area? Theses two areas are the hardest places to plant and take radically different approaches.
2. What are your expectations? If you are looking to plant a church of 75 you don't need the whole enchilada. If you are trying to plant a church of 1,000+ you will need more dollars.
3. Who is planting the church? If it's you, do you really have the chops necessary to plant the church in that location and realistically reach the expected outcome?
4. What model of plant or style of plant are you starting? High-impact/fast-growing or core-to-crowd/slower growth?
5. Can the place you are planting sustain the model of plant you want to launch?
6. How much are you bringing to the table? Listen, if you can't raise money for a plant, then you can't create buy-in nor cast vision very well. Those are two essential ingredients in launching a church successfully. If after a few months you can't raise substantial dollars, you may want to reconsider if God has really called and gifted you to plant or whether you are planting out of rebellion.
These are just a few of the questions you have to ask before designing your planting budget. All that being said. If you are not willing to invest multiple thousands into a church plant, don’t even begin. Remember the old adage, “you get what you pay for”? Whoever coined that phrase must have been a church planter. If you are a denominational leader and you want to start a fast-growing church by rubbing a couple of dimes together, remember, “You get what you pay for.” The quickest to kill a church plant or at least doom it to a life of anemic survival is to shortchange it. On the other hand, if you are a church planter and you think that a denomination or sponsoring church should give you everything your heart desires, you’re wrong as well. Too much money can have a negative effect on a new church. Church plants are intended to become self-supporting as quickly as possible. Far too often, the cries from church planters for “More! More! More!” is answered with more, and the plant falls into a welfare pattern. Church planting is, in many ways, a lot like raising a child. You would never think of having a child and then not spending some money on her. The baby cries out with hunger pangs, you buy formula and feed her. The baby yawns; droops in your arms, and you supply her with a crib. You would naturally tend to her basic needs. As she grows and learns to walk and talk, however, she will begin to desire different things. But you don’t give her everything she reaches for, do you? If you give a child everything she asks for, she becomes spoiled and dependent. A church plant is exactly like this. It will have many needs, but that doesn’t mean a denomination or sponsoring agency should supply all those needs without question. | |
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Posted 12/2/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Hiring A New Staff MemberNovember 19, 2011 Companies are notorious for hiring based on skill and firing based on fit. The Church is no exception. Leadership is one of the most important aspects in the life of a church plant. Make one mistake and it can cost you momentum, money and credibility. Find the right leader and your ministry can take off in ways you never imagined. When it comes to the issue of leadership in a new church, few things compare to its potential. Every veteran Pastor can tell horror stories about leaders-gone-wild. So, if you are feeling the pressure of finding the right person to help you with your new church, or if you are in the midst of one of those personal horror stories right now, take heart, you are in good company. Conflict will occur in your church! It is simply unavoidable. That is if you are attempting to do great things for God. No matter how good or careful you may be, you will have conflict arise within your leadership. And when it happens, the first thing ‘wrong’ leaders do is leave the church to go elsewhere. How does a church planter respond? Part of you wants to celebrate and another part of you wants to meet him/her in a dark alley. There is a difficult balance of reaching out to the lost and paying bills coupled with the negative ‘hit’ that occurs when faithful leaders, servants and tithers leave the church, you cannot understand. No matter the reason, most pastors cannot help but have some question as to the impact of anyone’s departure from their church. But don’t forget that this is God’s work. Embrace the change and move with it. Whatever you do, don’t compromise or spend valuable time chasing leaders like this. You have enough on your plate. Keep this mantra in mind, “Move with the movers and love the rest.” If you don't stay flexible and move with the movers, the movers will get moving and you will be left with a church of whiners who are focused more on themselves and their own needs than they are the mission of the church. Here are four simple things to keep in mind:
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Posted 11/19/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
One More ThingNovember 3, 2011 “She wanted the wisdom it would give her…” Gen 3:6
The grass is hardly ever greener on the other side. What we thought would bring us joy and fulfillment really brings pain and frustration.
God created and placed Adam and Eve in the most pristine place in history; the Garden of Eden. God provided everything they needed for a life of joy and luxury and yet it wasn’t enough.
Eve wanted more. Tempted by Satan in the Garden, Eve took the opportunity provided and fulfilled her desire for wisdom. Yet, that one thing, which was suppose to bring greater fulfillment, came at a great price. Once they ate the forbidden fruit, shame flooded into their lives. What they though would bring greater fulfillment and satisfaction, actually destroyed joy and ushered in shame.
How often are we like Eve? God places us in a position of leadership, “empowers us with everything we need” to live a life of Godliness, and grants us his favor. Yet, that one thing, that one forbidden piece of fruit, calls to us and convinces us; “If you have this one thing, your life will be complete. You will be a better leader and life will be more full.” Only to find out that what we thought we needed, really brought us great pain and sadness. That which was suppose to bring us a new sense of joy actually destroyed what we had.
One simple word describes this scenario; Contentment. As a leader, you have a natural drive that pushes you to do more, be the best and accomplish great things. But that drive, unchecked, can also lead to your downfall. Often is the case that our greatest strength can also be our biggest detriment. To counteract that drive, we must learn, as the Apostle Paul, to be content.
Find your contentment in Christ. Don’t be driven by your desire for more power, success, sex, money, prestige, or etc… Satan will dangle that fruit in front of your face and tell you, “This one more thing will bring you what you want.” Yet, in reality, it brings your downfall.
What is your "One Thing"? | |
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Posted 11/3/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
Small Town/Small Church LeadersOctober 19, 2011 I just spent the last few days at the The Sticks Conference with a group of leaders who answered the call to do ministry in the small towns and villages that dot our country. Doing ministry in small town USA more than likely won't land you a speaking engagement at one of the major pastor's conferences we flock to every year, but these leaders are to be praised for their hard work and determination. Doing ministry in the sticks isn't viewed as sexy, vogue, or hip like ministry in the city. So, many flee, avoid and loss sight of the value of bringing a fresh expression of the Gospel to these dry places. Sadly, over the last few years, a majority of church organizations/denominations have decided to turn away from planting efforts in these small towns and focus solely on the city. Honestly, who can blame them? According to the latest census data approximately 81 percent of our nations inhabitants live in the City.•• (By U.S. Census Bureau that is any place larger than 50,000 in population) So, roughly 250 million of 308 million live in the city leaving only 58 million people in these "rural" areas. Of the nearly 19,500 cities, towns and villages across our nation only 718 of them qualify as "The City" leaving 18,782 places which many no longer target for ministry. These dry places are desperate for a fresh expression of the Gospel. With the vast majority of Americans living in cities,(and it is projected to grow to a greater percentage) why should churches, organizations and denominations pour resources into these seemingly insignificant areas of the U.S.? That's a fair question. One I used to ask as a denominational leader as well. The answer for me is really quite pragmatic. Planting a church in small town USA is cheaper, has greater potential for community transformation, and can have regional impact reaching thousands living in outlying areas. I also believe we may be able to reach the city with greater effectivness and suppliy greater resources if we find a away to plant, restart and refocus our churches in rural America. The potential for reaching the city from rural locations is greater than visa versa. Small towns are clanish and usually closed off to outsiders. On the other hand, the city is so transient by nature, that this barrier is limited. With more and more people moving from the rural areas to attend college, start and new life or find a way to make a living, our possibilities are endless. Is it possible that we can launch a strategy to transform the city from rural outposts? At any rate, I am proud of those who have answered the call to grind it out in the trenches of rural America. Keep up the good work and let no one tell you that you can't become world changers because your church or your town is too small. Ignore their small faith and live a God sized vision!
••CRS Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition
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Posted 10/19/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
Reblog: What Defines A Successful Church?October 18, 2011 Success is not neccesarily a numbers issue. I know plenty of large churches that may look successful on the outside, but are not doing God's work. I also know of small churches, considered by many as "faithful guardians of the truth" who are nothing more than a social club. The reverse is also true, there are plenty of churches, both large and small, doing great work for the Kingdom of God. Although, numbers are not the only thing we should look at, every number represents a soul and so numbers are valuable to God. So, if it's not numbers that reveal whether a church is successful or not, what can we look at to define success? What are the landmarks of a succesful work? Is it determined by the radical new children's program, quality of worship, size of congregation, bank account or building? Here are twelve markers of success. In my line of work, success of a new church is too often determined solely by the size of launch and a maintained growth pattern. Both are important, but not the only factors to use when determining whether a new church is successful. A successful new church should… 1. Financially self-sustaining within two-years. (Urban Plants may be longer) 2. Self-governing after two-years. 3. Multiplication minded. (Involved in planting other churches from day one.) 4. Giving 10%, from day one, towards missions (Out of weekly offerings). 5. Growth which comes primarily through conversion. 6. At least 45% of attenders actively volunteering in the church. 7. Engaged in transforming the community. (Not just individuals) 8. Growing numerically. 9. Developing new leaders for ministry. 10. Members are continually and actively inviting their neighbors to church and sharing their faith journey with those around them. 11. At least 80% involved in small groups by year-two. 12. Actively involved in foreign missions work. | |
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Posted 10/18/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Drift HappensOctober 11, 2011
Drift Happens! In fact, drift seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Drift happens within the boundaries of every organization, denomination and church. The key to overcoming drift, is seeing the problem and facing the facts before it’s too late. Jim Collins, in his book Good To Great calls this practice, FACING THE BRTUAL FACTS. The problem with facing these facts is that it is tough on the ego. That is probably why most leaders would rather not. But we will never rally go beyond where we are unless we are willing to face our problems head on. Every leader must stop and ask, when they see that the organization is drifting from a movement to a monument, “How can we find our momentum again? How can we energize this movement before its to late?” (The reality is that if you wait too long to ask that question, it may be too late. Every leader and organization should spend time renewing and refocusing each year.)
The simple solution is, to get back to the basics. Too refocus and narrow down your strategy is always a good idea, but it goes much deeper than that. We have to look back and rediscover what drove the founders of your movement and recapture that driving force. As it concerns the church, the answer is simple: The Great Commission was the driving force of the early church. Today, however, I fear that the Church across our nation has replaced the Great Commission as a driving force with a drive to be comfortable. Many have also traded in the call to grow the kingdom with a call to grow an empire. With that menatlity, many have lost the missional drive that launched their church in the first place.
Jesus called his people to action in the Great Commission. “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.” Matt 28:18 – 20. Again in Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." This is what drove the early church.
How did the early church understand the Great Commission and practice it? Once we understand that, we can put it into our own context. The church today views the Great Commission as a program or outreach event, but the early believer’s understood it in the context of "going" and "spreading" the Gospel. Early believers lived out this commission by establishing of new communities of believers everywhere they went. Keeping a Great Commission mind-set will keep your church from experiencing Historic Drift. | |
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Posted 10/11/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
The Call of A Thousand VoicesOctober 3, 2011 In 1976 Sally Field starred in the Emmy Award winning movie Sybil. Sybil was a young adult who suffered severe abuse as a child and as a result developed a coping mechanism that enable her to disassociate with the reality of her pain. Over the course of her young life, Sybil developed thirteen different personalities. Some of these personalities made her appear psychotic; some of them made her appear as a sweet reserved little girl. One of these alter egos made her want to kill herself on a daily basis. However, as Sybil grew up and started to live in the adult world, her once helpful coping mechanism made it increasingly more difficult to be a productive person in society. Her different personalities became a barrier to maturity. No one knew the real Sybil. In fact, the noise of a dozen voices, made it hard for even Sybil to discover and make sense of her own identity.
As Jesus was traveling to the Gerasenes, as recorded in Mark 15, he met a man filled with a thousand voices. While we are never privy to this man personal life nor how he got into his present situation, one thing was made very clear; his condition was very severe.
“Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.” (2-6, NIV)
As this man came close to Jesus the evil in him cried out, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me.”
Jesus asked, “What is your name?”
The evil spirit answered, “Legion, for we are many.”
Imagine the inner turmoil of a thousand voices, each competing for his attention, each telling him to do something evil, cruel or harmful. Never a moment of rest, never a sense of peace, never an opportunity to think rationally. Each voice competing to be heard, each voice screaming louder and louder for his attention. Each one claiming to be right, each one offering suggestions and direction.
As I sit here staring at my bookshelf and I see dozens of church planting titles, by godly men and women over the last two decades. People like Bob Logan, Rick Warren, Peter Wagner, Lyle Schaller, Aubrey Malphurs, Ralph Moore, Ed Stetzer, Brian McLaren, Robert Webber, Alan Hirsch, David Garrison, and George Hunter. Each of these individuals are heroes of the movement. Each of them have forged new paths and opened new doorways that have propelled church planting to new heights. Yet, each of these authors and churchmen are distinct and teach varying degrees of what the church should be, do, and how it should be planted. I wonder, as I think about the future of church planting in the next few decades has the movement become fragmented? Is this movement taking on the characteristics of Sybil, or legion? Have we created a schizophrenic and confusing “call of a thousand voices” each competing for the attention of the new generation of church planters? Each voice competing to be heard, each voice screaming louder and louder for attention. Each one claiming to be right, each one offering suggestions and direction.
Since my book, Planting Fast Growing Churches hit the market two years ago; I have become more and more aware of the multiple controversies that exist in the church-planting world. While healthy in many ways, I fear these controversies could cause a rift in the movement. In fact, in many ways this has already happened.
Just google church planting and you will discover endless pages with thousands of voices; each proclaiming their particular discipline is the only way to plant a church in this new generation. Will your new church be Missional, incarnational, or attraction? Will it be programmatic, purpose driven, cell-based, organic, or a house church? Each of these new planting disciplines are vying for the attention of our young entrepreneurial, church planters. Can we find any sanity in the midst of the voices?
There is common ground among the voices. We can find timeless principles that all agree on and we can create a new system that incorporates the best of the Missional, Incarnational, and Attractional disciplines. I believe that the next generation of church planting will depend on how well we are able to integrate the best practices of each model into a holistic approach. | |
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Posted 10/3/2011 in Church Planting | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
Planting Principle Driven ChurchesJuly 4, 2011 Webster’s dictionary defines a principle as a fundamental or primary rule, or general law from which everything is derived.
If we are to find success in church planting, we have to focus on planting principles not processes. Processes will come and go, but principles will last forever. Regardless of what process you decided to use, these five principles will keep you on track. | |
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Posted 7/4/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Planting A Church For MenJune 26, 2011
A Study in 2000 from Switzerland provides insight on the importance on male attendance on the religious development of children in the country. 'In summary, if a father does not go to church, no matter how regular the mother is in her religious practice, only one child in fifty becomes a regular church attendee. But if the father attends regularly, then regardless of the practice of the mother, at least one child in three will become a regular church attendee. Even though that research was done in Switzerland, I believe that it will hold fairly true in the U.S. as well. The disparity between "one in fifty" and "one in three" is huge! Just stop and think about those numbers for a while. That should cause us o consider how we are designing our church plants. From the color of the curtains to the use of PowerPoint backgrounds, we need to target the men. If we are honest, much of what we do appeals more to women. While we need and are thankful for those women who have faithfully served our churches over the decades, we must reach the men. I heard Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle share on a video The Good Soldier, if want to win the war, you have to win the men. Steve Gallimore, pastor of Tennessee Valley Community Church, recognized this need several years ago and launched a NASCAR series. The church was located in an old car dealership and the stage and worship room was completely set up for this theme. The stage had a set of gummy tires from a racing car and when the service started the speaker roared with the sound of squealing tires and smoke machine added a sense of realism to the burnout. While many may find that kind of service sacriligious God used this series to bring hundreds of men into a saving knowledge of Christ and kept them active in the church. | |
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Posted 6/26/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Good Leader's Make Strategy And Planning A Way of LifeJune 8, 2011 I’m sure you have all heard the adage, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. Chances are you heard it at a church or business seminar, or saw it on a plaque on someone desk. Unfortunately, even though most of us have heard it, we ignore its truth. Let me be the first to admit that I like to rush into things to quickly. I get in a hurry, feel under the gun, or just lose my patience waiting on someone else to get their work done. I know I’m not alone. Whatever the case, this adage is one of the most ignored axioms among leaders.
Most hard charging, type-A, ADD leaders are so productive because they get things done and learn on the fly. However, they end up paying a toll for their lack of attention to proper planning. You would be surprised how many business men I have run into who have a great idea, but no concrete strategy to complete the task. The same holds true among pastors and church planters. Many start a new program in the church or attempt to launch new church without a proper and thoughtful business plan. A good plan is one of the greatest assets for a leader.
Nehemiah, I believe, was a calculating planner. I find it interesting when he finally approached the King and the King asked, “How can I help you”. Nehemiah had it all planned out. He didn’t stumble. He didn’t falter. He didn’t have to make it up as he went along. Over the four-month period of Nehemiah’s praying and fasting, I believe he was laying out a plan and preparing to answer every objection the King might throw his way.
Jesus said to a crowd that was gathered around him.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, This fellow began to build and was not able to finish. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?” (Luke 14:28-31 NIV)
One of the biggest mistakes a leader can make, when entering into a new phase of business, church or even your own life is a failure to make adequate plans. That doesn’t mean that all your plans were right, or that they were even will even work. It does ensure however a direction and an attempt to do the hard work necessary to attempt anything great.
For those who are leaders in the church: the work we do holds more value than simply creating a successful, program, outreach, or launching a new campus. What we do holds eternal value and therefore must be given due diligence before we launch out in any new direction. Just because we feel God as called us doesn’t mean we don’t have to do the hard work of preparation. As Paul said to Timothy, “Study to show yourself approved”. (2 Tim 2:14) Then, like Nehemiah, once you are prepared, you can boldly and confidently move forward to accomplish what you believe God has called you to accomplish.
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Posted 6/8/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
Urban Planting Is Harder Than ExpectedMay 14, 2011 Over a year ago I felt driven to look at church planting within the urban centers of our nation. After releasing my findings over two years ago on Planting Fast-Growing Churches, I felt compelled to take these findings and refine them for a more Urban setting. In the next couple of weeks I want to share with you 15 key findings of the study. The first key finding has to do with the level of difficulty of planting in a more urban environment. Here is what we discovered. Rapid growth is very difficult in urban settings.
In my study of fast-growing church plants in 2007 i discovered that 7% of plants across the U.S. were reaching 200 within three-years. So, while the number of fast growing churches in the Urban settings my be a little discouraging, these churches are growing at a stronger pace than their suburban counterparts. We asked the planters themselves to what they attributed that difficulty. Here were some of their responses. 1. Finding a facility is tough. Locations are not always the best and the cost factor limits what we are able to use.
2. The cultures we encountered in the city was not something we were prepared for. (more on this later)
3. A strong consumeristic attitude is prevalant in the city. More so than what was encountered in the suburban setting.
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Posted 5/14/2011 in Church Planting | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
A Game ChangerMay 4, 2011 Ok, I admit, I am a fan of American Idol. The Bible says confession is good for the soul. So, there it is out in the open. | |
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Posted 5/4/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Repost: Living in the "What if...."April 29, 2011 Thought this was a good repost after the Exponential conference.
If Only... Those are two of the most haunting words in the English language when joined together. If only I hadn't..... If only I could..... If only it would..... If only I was able to ..... Fill in your own ending to those phrases. We all have them don't we? Even in our ministry we tend to look out over the horizon of things to come and gaze behind us saying if only.... If only God had given me a bigger ministry. If only I was able to speak like..... If only I could have the chance too ..... If only had more money we could.... Each of us, at some level, long to be more and do more than we are currently doing. Maybe we have accomplished a great deal. Maybe, in our eyes, we haven't accomplished much. That desire often flows from a longing to do something significant for God. I don't know about you, but I have a desire to make a mark in this world, to leave a legacy. The Call to ministry is tough and often borderless. The question is; Can we really find peaceful satisfaction in ministry? Can we truely learn to be at rest with who we are and how God as created us? I wonder if Daivd, a man after God's own heart, wrestled with a question of significance? 1 Kings 5:3-4 is an interesting couple of verses. I have read it many times before but this time it stood out in a profound way.
David was a warrior. He expanded the kingdom of Israel, brought peace, prosperity recognition to the nation of Israel. Yet, he also had a deep longing to build a temple for God. Yet, God denied him the privilege. This great man, king with no equal, was denied the privilage of honoring his God with a beautiful place of worship. Makes me stop and wonder if he felt incomplete? He wanted to build a temple for the God he loved and worshipped and stockpiled endless resources to prepare for the temple's eventual building. Yet, during his lifetime, he never saw that dream come to fruition. That particular longing of David's was never fulfilled. Here's the point. David was loved and celebrated by God. He was a the greatest leader who ever governed Israel. He accomplished greater feats than any before or after. He loved God with his whole heart and was called by Jesus a man after God's own heart. Yet, his desires were incomplete at the tine of his death. He wasn't able to accomplish everything he wanted, but then that was that God's calling for him? David had to find peace with God's calling of him as a warrior and King. He had to find a way to understand that there were limitations to his calling. He didn't do everything he wanted to do, but he did accomplish God's call for his life. We have to do the same. I f we are to be truely efective in ministry we have find peace and satisfaction in our calling. Stop and look at who you are and what you have been able to accomplish through God. Could it be that this is all you were intended to do for His kingdom? Could it be that this is what you were designed accomplish? Your faithfulness has enable the kingdom to expand, you have helped other find truth and significance. You have led some down the road to eternity. Is that enough? I think if we live in the "What if..." we miss the blessing of God's design for our ministry. We can get so focused on what we are looking to accomplish, we miss what God has already accomplished through us. | |
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Posted 4/29/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Four strategic parts to making the "ASK" (fund-raising)April 26, 2011 Today I attended a pre-conference session at Exponential 2011. It session was hosted by Generis. Lead by Jim Sheppard (Generis) and Chris Willard (Leadership Network); it was, in my opinion, it was one of the best nut and bolts, practical sessions on fund raising I have ever heard. Bar-none!
Making the “ask” is one of the toughest things a planter will ever do. It is the planter’s responsibility. If it doesn’t happen, it is your fault. Yet, asking for funds is fear above all else. Why? 1. The fear of rejection 2. The fear of not being liked 3. The fear people will view you as a money-grubber or beggar 4. The fear that you may ruin relationships while asking for funds.
Fund-raising should not be looked at as something that will get you to where you want to go. Rather, it should be seen as an opportunity to help people grow in their walk with God. (The pocketbook is often the last thing to be saved.)
Today’s session covered multiple areas, but here is a quick synopsis. Four strategic parts of making the “Ask” every planter needs to know.
1. Discovery – Who are the donors. Get to know them. You shouldn’t ask for money until you’ve a heart connection. Don’t view potential donors as a check or a person to be manipulated. Rather as people who have been called by God to grow and discover how they can make a difference. Find out what they are passionate about and then help them connect in ministry through giving. 2. Cultivate – Spend time raising the temperature of your relationship with the potential donor. People give to vision, but primarily to relationship. 3. Solicitation – Enough said. “ASK!” Often this is done without the other two steps. 4. Appreciation – Make sure you continue to show overwhelming appreciation for a donor’s gift. No matter how large or small. Your act of appreciation will actually cultivate your relationship that could further cultivate the donor for future giving.
I am part of the discussion panel tomorrow and will share more from that session. Stay tuned, I will blog about Exponential everyday this week. If you can’t be here, at least I can pas along a few nuggets. | |
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Posted 4/26/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Easter is coming. Are you ready?April 18, 2011 In few short days, he Christian world will celebrate Easter. The most holy of all Christian days. As Paul stated, "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith" 1 Cor 15:14 On this day of days many people, who never grace the doors of the church, will come to see all the hype. They are not there by happenstance. I don't believe in chance or luck. Rather, I believe every one who comes into the doors of your church this week are there by divine appointment. God has been working in their lives and they are coming to find answers, comfort, and transformation. I believe they will come seeking answers to one of four basic questions: 1. If God is real, does he really care about me? 2. What can God do to fix my life from is present downward spiral. 3. Do these people really care about me? 4. Where do I fit in? Yet in the midst of the hype and hustle, I think there is another important element that can't be forgotten. On the cross, Christ gave of himself everything. He left nothing back! He gave unto death because he loves this foolish, self-centered, fallen and sinful race. He Gave! remember that thought. Easter service cannot be allowed to become nothing more than a concert and a call without a mission. Our attractional elements are good and proper, but they serve a purpose. That purpose doesn't stop when someone gives their life to Jesus. Rather, that is just the beginning. Let this Easter be about living. love AND serving your community. Find a way to help people shift the focus off themselves and onto those around them. Call them not only to repentance, but also to a live of continuous and ultimate giving. After all the cross and resurrection was not simply for the sake of salvation. The goal is Christlikeness! That is seen only as we give ourselves away for the sake of those foolish, self-centered, fallen people around us. Easter is coming are you ready? | |
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Posted 4/18/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Take Care Of Your FamilyApril 11, 2011 Church planting can become an all-consuming task. You have to become a Jack-of-all-trades and hardly ever a master of anything. The tasks required of a planter can simply overwhelm them. Recruiting meetings, strategy sessions, fund raising, vision development, marketing and outreach events, and much more are all necessary if a planter what to be successful. But that is just the beginning. In reality, every planter has three jobs; planter/pastor, husband/father, and leader.
So, what does the typical planter do? Work harder, pray harder and worry more! What too often takes place in this process is the loss of intimacy in the family. The work of planting the church causes you to push aside your life with your children and your spouse. While your investment in the church plant grows, your investment in family slows and sometimes halts altogether. Anyone who has planted church can attest to pressures between family and the mountain of work needed to accomplish the plant.
According to some of the latest research, by the Religious Research Association, divorce among the clergy is a growing trend. Around 24 percent of women and 19 percent of men, in the pulpit, are getting divorced. That is an astounding statistic. It simply goes to show that even the pastor’s home is not free from the potential problems faced by every married couple on the planet.
Peter Scazzero, author of The Emotionally Healthy Church, wrote something I think we all need to pay attention too:
The overall health of the church or ministry, or plant (my words) depends primarily on the emotional and spiritual health of its leadership. In fact, the key to successful spiritual leadership has much more to do with the leader’s internal life, than with the leader’s expertise, gifts, or experience.”
I don’t know about you, but that causes me to stop and reevaluate. We must be willing to accept the fact that the best gift we can ever give our church plant is a spiritually and emotionally healthy heart, mind, and family, particularly as it relates to our family relationships.
The greatest advice I, or anyone could ever give you is to have a plan before you get into the battle. Jesus was teaching the crowds one day and he was trying to tell them about the importance and cost of discipleship. Jesus said; “What king, going to make war against another king, does not first sit down and consult whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?” His point! Don’t be foolish, understand the situation you will find yourself in and have a plan for how you will handle it. | |
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Posted 4/11/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Church Planting and the Great Co-MissionApril 6, 2011 Throughout his ministry, Jesus exemplified the importance of evangelism. He spoke boldly and truthfully of the Father wherever he traveled. As his time on earth came to a close, he laid out the next phase of his ministry. The Great Co-mission, in Matthew 28:19, was his call to the Church to participate in the practice of evangelism: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Just before his ascension, Jesus reiterated these words. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NIV). The Great Co-mission was to be understood as a call to start new communities of believers wherever the disciples traveled. | |
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Posted 4/6/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Risk is a prerequisite for leadershipApril 5, 2011
If you ever plan to be a leader, in any situation, it will involve risk. There is no way around this fact. Leadership requires an openness to go where no one else will go, do what others wont, become what others dare not be, and attempt what most say can never be done at the risk of failure. Nehemiah was just such a leader. After hearing the news of the condition of his countrymen, Nehemiah had an emotional meltdown. He was so deeply burdened that he cried, fasted and prayed for months over the situation. Yet, Nehemiah was unable to allow his emotions to become public. As a Cupbearer for the King, he was charged with keeping his emotions in check. Nehemiah knew if he allowed his sadness to be seen in the courts of the King, he would risk everything. Possibly even his on life. So, Nehemiah prayed to God, “Grant me success today by making the King favorable to me…” (Neh 1:11) As Nehemiah approached the king, he could not hide his sadness any longer and the King took notice. The King asked Nehemiah, “Why are you looking so sad?” While the text doesn’t say so, I can almost see Nehemiah starting to sweat profusely and swallowing hard, as he composed himself in front of the King. However, the text does tell us that Nehemiah was terrified as he approached the king and shared his burden. On top of his sadness and courage to share the problem, Nehemiah had the audacity to ask the king for help. While, this may not seem too risky to you, it could have cost Nehemiah his life. Nehemiah was willing to take a risk in order to help his people find meaning, wholeness, healing, and purpose in life. He was wiling to “buck the system” and lay it all on the line for the sake of progress. Whether you lead a small business, or a large corporation you must be willing to take risks for the sake of progress. If you lead a church, risk is simply part of the calling. As with Christ, when you pick up the mantle of leadership, you lay down your desire for safety and ease. Those who are leading churches and feel it is a safe place to work until you retire, think again. Without risk there can be no forward motion. Without a willingness to risk, you will be a “blind man leading the blind”. Here is a saying you can take to the bank: Those who never attempt anything great, never accomplish anything of lasting substance. Those who are averse to risk, who love to play it safe and move with the political winds within their corporation or church, need to resign and find something more fitting that mindset. Forward motion will require risk. Failure to lead people forward is to doom them to apathy, drift, mediocrity, and ultimately death. What are you being called to risk? What are you avoiding in order to remain in your cocoon of safety and ease? | |
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Posted 4/5/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Corporate Self-EsteemMarch 30, 2011 The size of a congregation will, by and large, set the agenda for its future viability and effectiveness. We become what we think we are. The congregations attitutde about themsleves will set the pace for the future of the churches effectiveness. As Solomon wrote, "as a man thinks in his heart, so he is." Prov 23:7. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts.The self-image of a congregation is very important in its effort to grow. I am not questioning the commitment and call of churches that do not grow. I am simply stating, mainly from my own experience in working with churches for the last twenty-three years, that ministry is slowed, and the danger of falling into a survival mode will be a greater probability. Smaller churches struggle to grow. The reasons for this struggle are multiple. Smaller churches, while effective in some ways, tend to be more family oriented and do not allow visitors to feel at home as readily. Lyle Schaller refers to churches under the two hundred mark as “Collie” churches. Some people tend to wonder why these churches remain on a plateau in size or why church shoppers often do not return after that initial visit. Collies tend to have strong affection for members of the family, but they often bark at strangers. When any church falls into this mode of operation, growth becomes almost impossible. Myriads of books and articles have been written about the growth problems of the small church. The key to avoiding these problems is for a new church to reach the two hundred mark as quickly as possible. New church plants that do not grow rapidly will develop a small church mentality, stifling their ability to reach out and impact the community. Planting new churches should be an attempt to overcome growth problems, not emulate them. Crowds attract crowds. To create new missions that break out of the mold of the self-serving, survival-minded, family-run organizations, leaders must find a way to plant churches that grow rapidly in size in a very short period of time. When a church is able to grow rapidly and gain momentum, it will create a healthy attitude among the members, A primary difference between growing and declining churches is their attitude. Growing churches feel they have something worthwhile to offer to their community. Their high level of self-esteem provides the energy and strength to share the gospel of Christ with people in the community. Church plants, as well as established churches, that do not grow beyond the 150 average in attendance, will often lose momentum and fall into the smaller-church trap that will result in a low sense of congregational morale. Church plants are more vulnerable to a sense of low morale due to heightened expectations for success. When not met with immediate success, most church plants fall prey to discouragement. The attitude of most members involved in an established church is usually fairly level. Most have settled into a routine way of doing church. Members may pray for, expect, and hope to grow, but the level of expectation for dramatic and rapid changes is not as high as in a new church. In contrast, the expectation of those involved in a church plant is one of rapid growth within a short period of time. When expectations are not reached at the level anticipated, a sense of failure is certain. Once an attitude of defeat settles into the hearts and minds of the church planter and the new congregation, they begin to view themselves as small, weak, unattractive, powerless and frustrated with a limited future. Unfortunately, this attitude is the state in which many church plants find themselves. If conventional wisdom is true, two-thirds of church-planting attempts will begin to develop a small-church self-image. Any church looking to break out and grow needs to reach the two hundred mark quickly or face a myriad of problems. Rapid growth will help a new church maintain momentum and offer it a sense of credibility. That growth will also give the church the ability to offer holistic services that can answer the felt needs of the community. A new church that does not reach this mark will struggle financially and may develop a sect-like attitude. The church plants size will perpetuate the problem. Both rapid or slow growth churches will generate a sense of corporate self image that can dictate the future impact of any church in its community. | |
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Posted 3/30/2011 in Stephen Gray | 3 Comments - Add Comment |
Recession Has Had ittle Effect On American's ReligiosityMarch 23, 2011 According to a recent poll from Gallup. The current economic crisis has had little effect on the American’s need for religion. Despite the difficulties facing our nation, there has been no evident change over the past 15 months in either Americans' self-reported church attendance or the importance of religion in their daily lives. Forty-two percent on average have reported attending church every week or nearly every week during that time, and 65% have reported that religion is important in their daily lives. Read more…
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Posted 3/23/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
People Matter (Even when they get what they deserve!)March 21, 2011
As you begin to read the book of Nehemiah, you quickly realize that Nehemiah wasn't aware the facts of the problem in Israel. Things were really bad. One of Nehemiah’s contemporaries, Haggai, wrote that Israel was experiencing severe drought, hunger, thirst, and poverty of every sort. And yet, here was Nehemiah living in the palace far removed from the problem of his countrymen. Israel was receiving their just rewards. The had lived in disobedience to God and selfishly attempted to build their lives without God as their center and foundation. Much like a frustrated parent, God allowed Israel to do things their own way and experience reality without him. Sometime the hardest lessons we learn in life come from our own stubbornness to do things our own way and we suffer the consequences of that decision time after time. That is where the saying, “He made his own bed, now let him lie in it.” came from. We understand that often we simply deserve the problems and chaos that comes our way. But Nehemiah reacted with compassion. Once he heard of the devastation in Israel, he was broken. In fact, Nehemiah indicates that he spent about four months agonizing over the problem and praying for a solution. During that time he interceded for Israel, asked for forgiveness on their behalf, and began to think of how he might find a solution. Here’s the point: People screw up! That is a fact. They always have, and always will this side of death. Regardless of the situation, people matter. Unfortunately, the corporate world, much like the church world, can be a cold and unforgiving place that tends to dehumanize people who have screwed up. Whether a manager, pastor or a CEO, we have to keep in mind the inherent value of people. Sure, they may do some despicable things and need to be released. They may steal from your company, they may cheat on their wife and family, or worse. But they are still people who have, as the scripture tells us, been created in the image of God. Every individual, even the most despised, deserves to be treated with the basic dignity of someone who has been created in such a power image. In the church world, this seems to be a forgotten concept. There is a saying in the church, that I wish weren’t true, Christians are the only ones who stab their own wounded”. While the Christian world doesn’t own that saying exclusively, it sure seems to be carried out with great efficiency. Yet, it should not be so. We are all flawed and unless you have forgotten, there are times when you have done your own despicable things, you just haven’t gotten caught. As leaders, we set the culture for our people. How we treat those who have done you or your company wrong, will be caught by those around you. Don’t misunderstand, I am not advocating for an easy, let them off the hook, feel good paradigm. Consequences for behavior and how an individual is treated, (forgiveness) are two different issues. While those who have done wrong may need to suffer the consequences of their behavior, they are still people created in the image of God and should be treated with the utmost dignity and compassion. This leadership principle is very simple; People matter, even when they are receiving their just rewards for poor behavior. Never rejoice in the wrong doing of others. Never create a “Gotcha!” culture within your place of business, church or corporation. Great leaders learn how to treat people with the dignity they deserve, even in the midst of chaos. | |
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Posted 3/21/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
10 Steps To Creating A Good Church BrochureMarch 17, 2011 A brochure is never a substitute for a personal visit. It is not intended to get someone to join your church. It is simply a tool to inform people of who you are, what you believe and your church’s vision for the community. It is only one of many tools a church can use to share your dream. So, how do you create a professional, compelling brochure? Here are eight steps for you to consider.
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Posted 3/17/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Leaving A LegacyMarch 15, 2011
Reflect on the words of Gary McIntosh D.Min. Ph.D Aging has a way of making us look at life from a different perspective than when we were younger. Like many people, in the first half of my life I was concerned about making a living and being successful in my chosen profession. In the second half of my life, however, my thoughts are focused on being significant to others, particularly my own family. In short I am concerned about leaving a legacy to my children and As the authors point out in Legacy Churches, a similar cycle takes place in churches (or it should). During the first years of a local congregation’s life cycle an emphasis is placed on winning people to Christ, growing the worship attendance, and building a stable ministry program. Unfortunately, after a church becomes stable, it tends to travel a predicable life cycle that leads naturally to decline and closure. While a few churches are able to avert this natural cycle, eighty-five percent of churches will eventually close. None of us, of course, likes to think about a church closing. Yet, between 4,000 and 8,000 churches do so every year in North America. These churches must look at their life from a different perspective. They must decide how to leave a lasting legacy! Stephen Gray has provided a seasoned, practical, and biblical approach that all churches can follow to leave a lasting legacy for generations to come. I am in one hundred percent agreement Here is the exciting news. Legacy Churches is now a part of Kiros Legacy Partners (website soon to come). This group has the capacity, experience and ability to help potential legacy churches close with dignity and re-engage in Kingdom work. Your church may know of a potential Legacy Church that can partner with you and help your church reach its full God potential.
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Posted 3/15/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
Change = CostMarch 9, 2011
Harold Wilson, a British parliamentarian, once said; “He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is a cemetery.” Change is not something most of us like. Change often involves risk, chaos, confusion, instability and uncertainty. Any leader who chooses to travel down the road of change, we will inevitably experience a world of frustration, a loss of comfort, and a time of chaos. Nehemiah was no different. Nehemiah, a slave used by God, had grown comfortable with his present situation. Nehemiah had it good! He was the food taster of the King. Realistically, he was the most powerful man in the kingdom, he decided whether the king lived or died and the King knew it. I’m sure the king made sure Nehemiah’s every desire was taken care of. He could not risk having Nehemiah as an enemy. So, the king kept him close and placed a great deal of trust in him. Nehemiah probably had everything at his fingertips. The king kept him fat and happy. So, when Nehemiah was deciding to follow after God’s call, he would have to count the cost. It is tempting, as a leader, to maintain the status quo, especially when everything seems to be going so good. As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Even though we know that a refusal to accept the need for change will lead to drift in our organization, we avoid change at all costs. Likewise, in the church, we have grown comfortable with the way things are. We have our pews the way we like them, the proper color of carpet on the floor and the perfect paint on the walls. Our friends and family come and we enjoy a time of fellowship together and the music is just to our taste. Everything in the church is designed to make us feel good and make us comfortable. In many ways we have become so comfortable with the way things are, we have forgotten about the human rubble all around us cause by the devastation of sin. We have lost the edge on our co-mission with Jesus. Jesus taught a very simple yet profound lesson to those who were following him in Luke 14 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.” Sounds like common sense to me. Nehemiah could have reject his new calling and remained in a place of comfort and ease, but he would have missed out. He counted the cost and chose the path of change. Because of his choice, he was able to participate in and witness something that no one had ever thought possible. His heroic actions brought about an epic adventure; the stuff of legends. As leaders, we will all decide at some point which path we will travel. The path of least resistance will lead us to safety and comfort, but will offer little more than a mediocre life at best. As a leader, you will always be left wandering, “what if?” The leader who decides to walk down the path of change must be ready to count the cost. This path will lead you into a period of uncertainty and difficulty. It may ultimately cost you more than you expected. Your corporation, business, or church may temporarily suffer. However, on the other side of the chaos is conquest. The real question is: Are you willing to count the cost? Are you willing to experience temporary discomfort in order to enjoy enormous success and growth. One thing is for sure; Change=cost. | |
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Posted 3/9/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Perception is kingMarch 7, 2011 The power of perception can never be underestimated. Once an individual forms a perception about your church, it is very hard to undo. Richard Reising in his book Church Marketing 101 states that good "marketing is the management of perception." Why? Because too often perception becomes reality to those outside the church. Whether their perception is right or wrong, how an individual perceives your church can determine whether or not you will have a chance to reach them with the Gospel. Let me show you an example. Creating a good perception of your church is half the battle. Here is an example: Look at these two churches. What do you see? Which church do you think an unchurched individual will be more likely to go inside?   Church 1 Church 2 I don't know about you, but church 1 is a little frightening. Church 2 however, wow! Here is what the unchurched individual doesn't know; What's inside?
Inside Church 1 Inside Church 2 Church 1 may have a whole lot more to offer, but the unchurched can't get beyond initial perceptions, no matter how good things are on the inside. I am not simply talking about the look of a building. Realize that everything you do creates a perception of who you are. The look of your mailers, the production of your services, the way people are greeted at the door, the atmosphere of the worship area, and etc... Everything is creating perceptions. I remember my parents teaching me the power of first impressions. I was sixteen and received my first speeding ticket. They convinced me to dress in my Sunday best, a suit and tie at that time, as I went before the judge. Every other kid in that courtroom was dressed in blue jeans and t-shirts. The judge was a real piece of work. I was convinced he hated teenagers. Every one of the teens who stood before that judge was being raked over the coals. Unfortunately, my turn came. I swallowed hard, and stood up to face my judgment. I will never forget what happened next. The judge looked at me and said, "Son, you look like a fine young man, I'm going to forgive your speeding ticket this time, but you still have to pay the court cost. Have a nice day." You could have hear a pin drop in the courtroom. I realized then, that Mom and Dad weren't as dumb as I thought. Man, I wish that still worked today, but that is another story. Some people's perceptions you can't control. What you can't control you leave up to God. What you can control you work hard to get right. Work hard as you start your new church. Remove as many obstacles, stumbling blocks, and excuses as you can from the unchurched or dechurched. Create an atmosphere both inside and out that is welcoming, warm, and authentic. Above all do everything with as much excellence as you can afford. Do your best to generate a positive perception.< | |
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Posted 3/7/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Nine Essentials for lasting change.March 2, 2011 I read this post from Artie Davis the other day and thought is was worth reposting. What do you think? Having guided businesses, churches and organizations through many large changes and observing others who have navigated the same waters, I have noticed some essentials in making change occur and lasting…
1- CommunicationFor real, lasting change to occur it has to be clearly and masterfully communicated. Which means you need the ability to communicate the idea well, and a platform from which to communicate it. Cater your presentation to those you are communicating to. Different audience, different form of communication. Absorption is the goal! 2- UrgencyChange comes when a sense of urgency is present. Change falls prey to procrastination far to often. Those we lead need to understand and feel the urgency and necessity of our shift. If it feels like something isn’t really urgent, it will get filed away to “another day” and stall or kill the change initiative. 3- FaithLasting change has to be a God thing. It must be be authored by God and not by man. If you know it’s a God thing, that fact will give you faith when things don’t seem to be going well. If you didn’t cook it, you aren’t responsible for the way it tastes. 4- PassionPeople don’t follow a “lukewarm” leader. People and other leaders follow the leader that is on fire with passion! Lasting change will never come through a leader that presents the new direction in a “matter of fact” way. It has to be burning deep within her soul. Passion goes viral when the leader lives it, communicates it and has fire for it. 5- DeterminationChange is hard, and when leading a change, resistance and push back may be in abundance. But…Never stop. The God authored agent of change can’t quit. Pulling the plug option must never be on the table (This is God authored remember). All obstacles must be met by an undeterred leader. 6- InnovationCreativity is an incredible God thing. The smart leader will embrace his “inner artist” and seek it out from among those around him and use it to the fullest. Innovation arises from the ability to take what you have and marry it to a solid vision, then something new and exciting emerges. It gives breathe and life to the “how” of the new change. 7- NeedWe don’t change for the sake of change. The beginning stages of change are birthed through an honest examination of the end product. When what is being produced becomes completely unacceptable, and we can accurately measure what a change would produce, then the power of the need becomes the fuel for lift off. 8- PlanLasting change comes on the wheels of a well thought out and prayed through plan. The simpler in the over all scope the better. The new plan must be explainable by those who follow, so they can answer questions about it. No one really likes change, but present a change that is difficult to explain, and you’re dead in the water. 9- InfluenceLeadership boils down to INFLUENCE. If you don’t have a high degree of influence, your chances of pulling off a lasting change in an organization are slim at best. So if your tenure or trust is short, you would be wise to hold off on any large changes until your influence is firmly in place. Is there another essential you would add? Make it a perfect “10″ | |
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Posted 3/2/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Don't Be Married To The ChurchMarch 1, 2011 Don’t be married to the church? What? Why would anyone ever blog about that? As a preachers kid I understand this problem in ways I wish I didn’t. As a pastor of 21 years I have not only experienced the effects of this problem in my life, but also helped to promote it in many ways. In my father’s generation, it was widely accepted that the church always came before the family. Why? Somehow his service, to the church, was considered an act of sacrifice and showed real commitment. Anything short of total life sacrifice simply wasn’t true commitment to the high calling of pastor. Donald Joy, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, reminded me of this danger today as I was reading Men Under Construction. Joy said, “The church has one husband: Jesus. That’s enough! We can’t have bigamy scandalizing the church. Be the husband of one wife…and Jesus will affirm you for it, but don’t go flirting with His bride.” (page 108) I think that sums it up nicely. Don’t make the mistake of sacrificing the gift of family with a a new mistress called the church. God’s call to you is to be a Christian first, a spouse and parent second (if married) and a pastor third. The consequences of getting this out of a proper perspective can be catastrophic in more ways than one. | |
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Posted 3/1/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Starting A Multisite CampusFebruary 24, 2011 Day one at the Radicalis Conference Geoff Surratt shared, in a church-planting break out, about multi-sitting. Geoff shared his wisdom about when and how to start a multisite campus. Here is a brief outline of lessons he learned.
1. The Sr. or lead pastor must own and have a compelling vision.
Why not to start multisite campus: Kick starting growth. If you are not growing now, starting a campus is not a solution.
When to start a campus: § After you have utilized multiple services and are out of room. § Can’t reach any more people fro Christ due to room issues. § You find an area where there is no life-giving churches reaching lost.
2. Chose the right leader - Five Characteristics of a good campus pastor § Enthusiastic, visionary leadership from the 2nd chair. § Team Builder § Self-starter with a managerial work ethic § Good communicator § Genuine care for people - Five characteristics that will sink a campus § Unavailable or unapproachable § Non-delegator § Inflexible § Responder rather than initiator § Lacks Passion
3. Choose the right location § Right distance from the original campus – The better the main campus, the farther away the campus will need to be. § Right size – seats 300 to 500 § Right address § Right Price – price it according to how many you envision starting
4. Offer the same experience – You need to reproduce yourself or they won’t come. § Good worship experience § Good teaching § Good children’s ministry § Good technology
5. Embrace a one-church philosophy. | |
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Posted 2/24/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
The Granola FactorFebruary 23, 2011 Church plants attract all kinds of people from every walk of life. Many times they also attract every freakish, nut-job in the community. That is the nature of the beast. These fanatics will come into your church with all kinds of presuppositions about how a church should be governed, what it should be believe and how attendees should dress. Some will want to argue end-times eschatology. Others will tell you that any music played in a minor key is of the devil. You may even have some fruitcakes come into your church who want you to trim your mustache to a certain length or wear white, long-sleeved shirts like Jesus. While many will come in your doors to experience something new and exciting, make no mistake, others will come in with personal agendas seeking to impose their will on you. Jesus dealt with people like this all the time. The Pharisees wanted him to perform only the miracles and signs they insisted were proper. Jesus was never to perform any miracle on the Sabbath and he and his disciples had to wash themselves in the prescribed manner. Some of Jesus’ followers didn’t want him to talk about hard issues like eating flesh or drinking blood. Even, Peter himself tried to hijack Jesus’ agenda by trying to convince him that dying on a cross was foolish talk. What do you do with people like this? You use them to fulfill the work of God’s kingdom. Building critical mass is the challenge of every church planter. It is imperative that a planter builds momentum as quickly as they can. That means you can not be too picky! I heard Andy Stanley once say that momentum is caused by the concepts of something being new, improved or improving. That is why church plants are so successful in the very beginning. No doubt, in every new church plant, there will be people who show up, get involved, begin to give and then show their true colors. But you need them to build what God has called you to build. A new church plant will need everyone it can to join in on the fun. Basically, when we started, if you had a pulse, we could use you. We are not talking about providing care for our children but just about everything else was fair game. We connected with and included many people in ministry that we would probably not put into ministry at this stage of the game. We would even ask people to just show up and fill a pew. Those first weeks and months are so important from an energy and momentum standpoint. The more people involved, the more energy in the service. When new people would show up, they observed all this scaffolding and thought, “There must be something going on here.” Some of those new people will ‘stick.’ They will see the ministry going on, resonate with it, and join you in serving in the new plant. But it can get kind of tricky trying to see through their ‘offer to help.’ On the one hand, some are genuinely looking for a place to serve and help. Others may have a personal agenda or less than true motives. Judging someone’s motives and intentions is a difficult and dangerous endeavor, but you must try to evaluate everyone who gets involved in the church. Trust your gut instinct, it is often right. Many times, these freakish people want to serve but only on their terms. Many come from a ‘congregational’ governance background. Others have a bad experience in a previous church, and want to make this new church to fit their liking. They want to serve the church but they hav | |
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Posted 2/23/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Growth And Assimilation - Wrap upFebruary 19, 2011 I want to wrap-up this short survey on Growth and Assimilation with this blog.
Churches that grew by more than 15 percent in 2010 were only about 16% of the total group that took the survey. (26 out of 160) The rest (84%) grew by less than 15 percent in 2010. The majority of churches that took this survey, (47%) grew by less than 5 percent.
The 16 percent of churches that experienced greater growth in 2010 stood out in several ways:
Here are the actual numbers of those who participated. What percentage of growth do you estimate your church experienced in 2010?
Response 6% - 10% 22.4% 38 10% - 15% 8.8% 13 15% - 20% 5.4% 8 20%+ 12.2% 18 Not sure 5.4% 8 | |
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Posted 2/19/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Musings About MissionalFebruary 17, 2011 I was sitting at my local Fivebucks a few days ago enjoying my over-priced coffee and conversing with a new friend about my frustrations over the on-going Missional vs. Attractional conversation. He challenged me with a question that has forced me to come to terms with why I hate this divisional debate so much. He asked: “Is it because you think your right, or you think-they think your wrong.” Good question? Do I dislike this debate because I feel threatened? No, was my quick answer.
It became obvious to me, at that moment, I needed to clearly define my opposition or simply be labeled as a malcontent with no substance behind my ramblings. Which, by the way, has been known to happen. “Squirrel!” (Sorry you had to have seen Pixar’s movie UP, to get that.)
So, here are my musings about missional. Four quick issues I have with the debate. One is personal, one behavioral, one practical, and one biblical.
Personal: Over the last few years I have been involved in planting (what many call) highly “attractional” churches. Through these churches we have seen literally 1,000’s come to Christ, grow in their faith, and become life-changing agents in their communities. But since these new churches do not fit into the new paradigm of “missional”, those saved from these ministries are at best marginalized as shallow, and at worst illegitimized as not really saved. Why? Good question? One I can’t answer, but one that gets me fired up! BTW: those aren’t my thoughts, read some of the rhetoric about fast-growing, large, or mega-churches. See if you don’t come to that conclusion. Funny how every pastor prays for revival or growth, but if it happens at another church, it is either watered-down, worldly, or of the devil.
I agree with, and have experienced the same as my friend Geoff Surrat. (I love to name drop, makes me feel important.) He wrote in his blog, “I've never seen a purely attractional church. Every church I've been connected with is deeply concerned with helping people become disciples of Christ… I'm sure that there are churches in America who care only about making the turnstile spin on the weekends, but I've never experienced one.”
Behavioral: I hate division in the church. It seems like church leaders are good at picking fights with one another. Don’t get me wrong, some things are worth fighting for. The orthodox foundations of our beliefs about God, salvation and Jesus must be defended. However it seems we more often fight over what we perceive as orthopraxy more than orthodoxy. (Ooooh, big words! See I can sound intelligent even if I’m not.)
Practical: What defines a “missional” church? Size, action, preaching style, cool dressing preacher? It would seem to me that being “missional” has put on social justice clothing. Admirable, and necessary, but not distinctly Christian. Anyone, whether Christian or outright pagan, can fight poverty, clothe the naked, give a drink of water, set slaves free. In other words, do good things to people. I have a couple of atheist friends that give more of their time and talents and act nicer than most Christians I know.
Being missional is more than just doing “stuff”. It is about being holy as Christ is holy. Living out of a deep relationship with Christ in a way that permeates every aspect of our lives and compels us to love God and love others as God loves us. John Wesley stated that once we fully understand God’s grace, we cannot do anything other than reflect His glory and live a life pleasing to Him?
Biblical: Here is where I think this debate rubs me the rawest. (If President Bush can say strategery, I can invent a word – rawest). Being missional is the normal call on every believer’s life. Yet, it seems to have been hijacked and reduced into a model of “doing” church. The implications are huge. Calling a model “missional” and stacking it against another model “attractional” implies one way is biblical, and the other isn’t. I suppose you could put it another way. Your church is either “missional” or by the nature of not being missional, you are “anti-missional”. I know some of you may not agree with me, but that is the implication. It wouldn’t be so bad if “attractional” was put against “organic” or some other biblical neutral term. But to use a biblical mandate and reduce it to a model causes division by its implication.
Likewise, if you are “attractional” does that mean “missional” model churches are anti-attractional? You see how silly this is? Any church truly living on mission will become very attractional. Try and stop it!
Make no mistake, I believe the church in America needs to re-connect with the mission of Jesus. We need to become more missional in our own communities, and we are! All in all, I simply don’t see any prescribed methodology in Scripture. There are not “Thou shalts” about how to do church. We are all called to be on mission, called to be Christlike, and even called to be sacrificial. But, we are not called to a specific model of how to “do” church. Two things, in my opinion, are the only metrics for a church model: Are they Great Commission and Great Commandment churches?
I don't want this blog to sound negative, not my intention. Just my thoughts on the use of the term "missional". But let me finish this way. The solution is to pour our energies into ushering in the Kingdom of God in our communities. Live in the skin God created for you and how he designed you to do ministry. Everyday is a new adventure and new stories arise about how lives are being changed for the glory of God. In spite of differences in ministry models and philosphies, we are winning battles one life at a time. In that we rejoice becuase God is glorified! Let's find a way to set aside our difference, focus on the war at hand and storm the gates of Hell!
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Posted 2/17/2011 in Stephen Gray | 2 Comments - Add Comment |
Growth And Assimilation - Part 3February 16, 2011 Getting people in the door is one thing, retaining them is really quite another. Gary McIntosh wrote in his book, Beyond The First Visit: A Complete Guide To Connecting Guests To Your Church, “A church keeps about 85% of its guests who come back for a second visit the week after their first visit.” If that is true, then more care must be given to designing and perfecting an intentional follow-up process. In the survey I asked:
Once a visitor attended your service, did you have an intentional, planned follow-up method? Out of the nearly 160 pastors that answered this question, 25 percent indicated that their church did not have an intentional follow-up process for first-time guests. As the churches were divided according to their growth percentage in 2010, however, 100 percent of church that grew by 15 percent of more had an intentional method of following up with first-time guests.
The methods used by the churches that had an intentional follow-up process were interesting. A clear divide appeared between those churches that grew more than 15 percent and those that grew less than 15 percent in 2010. I asked: What were your main processes for following up with a first-time guest? Here are the top three answers for both groups.
Across the board, churches that grew less than 15 percent sent out a personalized letter to first time guest as their primary way of following up (65%). Second to this was a time of “meet and greet” with the pastor after the worship service(45%). Third was the use of email. (35%) Churches that grew by more than 15 percent used email as a primary method for follow-up (90%). Second to this was a sending a personalized letter (62%). Third was a phone call (50%).
What do these numbers mean? I’m sure there is more to the growth of these churches than a simple follow-up process, but I do think these numbers tell us three things:
What do you think? | |
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Posted 2/16/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Growth And Assimilation - Part 2February 14, 2011 In the last blog I shared with you that if a church is going to grow, it must be intentional about growth. We can’t just wait around and expect people to find us. We have to aggressively pursue them. Fast-growing churches understand that they have to be intentional about the process. Fast-growing church also understand that if you are going to go fishing for people, you have to have more than one line in the water. While we would hope for the best and expect our people to invite their friends to Church, we would be naive’ to think that they are doing so.
It really shouldn’t surprise anyone to realize that if you are intentional about inviting your community to Church, and will employ multiple methods, you will experience greater growth. Honestly, this shouldn’t be an earth shattering surprise. However, question four asked: On average, how many first-time guests visited your church each month in 2010?
The results of that question were a little surprising. Those churches that used primarily word-of-mouth (46%) were experiencing only 1 to 5 visitors a month. The majority of churches using multiple methods (50%) were seeing 30+ new people walk through their doors each month. I would say that is a pretty big difference.
It’s expensive to use multiple methods to reach out to a community. In this economy, many churches can barley afford to keep the lights on. What’s the solution? Think about it as an investment. If you were able to gain one family from your marketing or outreach strategy each month and that family started to give back to God, His way, your money problems would go away.
My question is simple: Why is it that the first thing to be cut during hard times is always the worst thing to cut? (Marketing and outreach.) The very thing we need to continue to grow always seems to be the first thing on the chopping block. The next is evangelism.
If you are going to grow your church during these hard economic times, you have to be willing to take the risk of putting multiple lines in the water and design an intentional strategy that includes serious investment in marketing, outreach and evangelism. | |
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Posted 2/14/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Growth and Assimilation - Part 1February 11, 2011 Last month I asked pastors across the U.S. to take a quick online survey about Growth & Assimilation. Over 160 of you took the survey and it yielded some interesting results. First I want to thank those of you who participated. I will share the results over the next few days. Much of the results are no surprise, but there are a few things that I think need some reflection.
Fist, it is important to understand that pastors were invited to take this survey primarily through the use social networks: Twitter and Facebook. Those who took this survey have internet capability and are connected, in some way, to these two social networks. Keep that in mind as we look at the findings.
Churches were asked: Does your church have a process for inviting and tracking first-time guests?
Of those churches that grew by 15 percent or more last year, 100 percent of them declared they had an intentional method for inviting and tracking first-time guests. On the other hand, only 65 percent of churches indicating less than 15 percent growth last year had an intentional process for inviting and tracking.
Over 35 percent of the church that grew by >15% had NO intentional method at all.
Secondly, churches were asked: What method do you use for inviting visitors? Those churches that grew by 15 percent or more used multiple methods for inviting visitors. The top three were Yard signs, mass mail, and word-of-mouth. These churches obviously took an intentional approach to having multiple lines in the water. Those churches that grew less than 15 percent, by overwhelming majority (90%) focused solely on Word-of–mouth.
While I would hope every member of a church is excited enough to invite their friends, is word-of-mouth is word-of-mouth sufficient all by itself? Not according to the numbers. If your church is to experience significant growth, you have to find a way to build more intentionality into the way people are invited to be a part of your ministry. | |
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Posted 2/11/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Is the "Institutional" Church Anti-Biblical?February 9, 2011
Over the last few years the demonizing of the institutional church has ramped up. The Church, as it stands, has been called the “bad guy” in the midst of all kinds of cultural and societal changes. As Ben Witherington states in a blog critique of Pagan Christianity the big bad guy, within this movement “is not sin, suffering, the Devil, or any of those things. The big bad guy is going to be what is loosely called the Institutional Church…” If this demonization came from outside the church, it would be easy to overlook. However, that is not the case. The greatest attacks leveled at the Church (and here I mean the institutional church) are often from among those within the Church. Most cloak their demonization in a lofty concern for returning to the ancient ways in order to revive the Church. The institutionalization of the church, blamed on Constantine, is viewed, by many within this new movement, as an offense to the ancient ways of the Bible. One advocate states that Constantine’s legitimization of the Christian faith and subsequent institutionalization of the Church was “absolutely disastrous to the Jesus movement.” One of the great failures of this new movement, in my opinion, is a failure to accept institutions as viable, transformational entities. From the time of Christ’s ascension and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, spoken of in Acts 2, the Church has progressed and fulfilled the Father’s glorious purposes. All manners of forms, formats and styles, throughout history have been applied to further the Gospel, none greater than the other. History is replete with revivals and Spiritual awakenings happening within the context of the “institutional church”. I fail to see the power of their arguments. Maybe I am just not smart enough to see it. That is a distinct possibility. Another problem, as I see it, is a failure to recognize the early and rapid development of the Church’s leadership structures. It is hard to deny that the church had a grassroots movement. It is equally hard to deny that leadership structures, as seen in the Council of Acts 15, did not exist. This council decided on and made sweeping statements for the church at large. Culture always has, and always will change. That is one constant we can count on. It would be very difficult to prove that culture has not changed since Constantine’s “institutionalization” of the church, and yet that seems to be the underlying claim. Somehow, our culture has so evolved that we have to now radically change our paradigms. Everything we used to know, as Brian McClaren would claim, must be thrown away for something new. I usually don’t do this, but let me give you a long quote. I think Ben says it about as good as anyone can. “frankly there are no such thing as ‘institutional churches’. Churches have institutions of various sorts, they aren’t institutions. Furthermore, the Bible is full of traditions and many of those developed after NT times are perfectly Biblical. It’s not really possible to draw a line in the sand between ‘Biblical principles’ and traditions. The question is which traditions comport with Biblical tradition and which do not. And there is a further problem. It is ever so dangerous to take what was normal in early Christianity as a practice, and conclude that therefore it must be normative. It may have been normal in the NT era for non-theological reasons, for example for practical reasons. To tell us that the church is really people, people united in Christ and serving the Lord, is to say nothing for or against the ‘institutional church’, or for that matter its institutions. Everyone agrees that the church is people, more specifically people gathered for worship, fellowship, and service. Everyone agrees that the church is a living thing and organism, not an organization. So what’s the beef here, and where is the real thrust of the critique?” It is difficult to take, historical, descriptive practices and turn them into prescriptive mandates.
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Posted 2/9/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
Being Jonah?February 4, 2011 As I sat in Bible study last night I was struck by the similarities between the story of Jonah and many of our current battles among church methodologies, styles and ideologies. Let me explain. | |
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Posted 2/4/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Change is never easy! But it is necessary.February 3, 2011
Over the last few days I have been contemplating the necessity for change. Change in my own personal life, change in my work life, change in my church, change in the organization of which I am a part. Whether we like it or not, change seems to be a constant. It is also very needed. Peter Drucker, recognized by many as the godfather of management, wrote: “Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes — it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm." Too often we fight change, avoid change, fear change, kill change or flat out reject change. But should we? Change is never easy, but is usually very beneficial for us. If we stop changing, we stop growing and growth is the only real evidence of life. Saint Augustine once wrote, “If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.” Paul wrote in 2 Cor 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” I guess that means for the Christian, change should be welcomed and embraced. Notice I didn’t say enjoyed, although some change is enjoyable. Change is often far from being something we enjoy. As I was reading the Psalms the other day God laid these verses before my eyes. (Ps 32:8-9) The Lord said, “I will guide you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” So far, so good! I like this verse. I love knowing that God is guiding my pathway and watching over me. Gives me a sense of peace. But then the Lord said, “Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and a bridle to keep it under control.” Senseless horse or mule!? Not sure I like that visual. My mother always said I was like a bull in a china shop. The opposite to the senseless horse is one that will follow its master out of a relationship and trust. Think about it for a minute. How often have we acted like the senseless horse in the face of change? When things don’t make sense in our world and change catches us off guard, how do we react? Whether change is related to work, home, church or our own personal growth, we tend to fight change, don’t we? How willing are we to simply follow the master, even when it doesn’t make sense, isn’t enjoyable or when it doesn’t feel good. How often does he have to bridle us as senseless beasts? The Lord says to each of us, “I will guide you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” He knows us best and ultimately has our best in mind. So embrace, expect and welcome change knowing that the Father is using it to change us from glory to glory. Change is never easy, but it is necessary. If we stop changing, we stop growing and growth is the only real sign of life. In reality the issue is this: CHANGE OR DIE!
Over the last few days I have been contemplating the necessity for change. Change in my own personal life, change in my work life, change in my church, change in the organization of which I am a part. Whether we like it or not, change seems to be a constant. It is also very needed. Peter Drucker, recognized by many as the godfather of management, wrote: “Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes — it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm." Too often we fight change, avoid change, fear change, kill change or flat out reject change. But should we? Change is never easy, but is usually very beneficial for us. If we stop changing, we stop growing and growth is the only real evidence of life. Saint Augustine once wrote, “If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.” Paul wrote in 2 Cor 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” I guess that means for the Christian, change should be welcomed and embraced. Notice I didn’t say enjoyed, although some change is enjoyable. Change is often far from being something we enjoy. As I was reading the Psalms the other day God laid these verses before my eyes. (Ps 32:8-9) The Lord said, “I will guide you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” So far, so good! I like this verse. I love knowing that God is guiding my pathway and watching over me. Gives me a sense of peace. But then the Lord said, “Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and a bridle to keep it under control.” Senseless horse or mule!? Not sure I like that visual. My mother always said I was like a bull in a china shop. The opposite to the senseless horse is one that will follow its master out of a relationship and trust. Think about it for a minute. How often have we acted like the senseless horse in the face of change? When things don’t make sense in our world and change catches us off guard, how do we react? Whether change is related to work, home, church or our own personal growth, we tend to fight change, don’t we? How willing are we to simply follow the master, even when it doesn’t make sense, isn’t enjoyable or when it doesn’t feel good. How often does he have to bridle us as senseless beasts? The Lord says to each of us, “I will guide you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” He knows us best and ultimately has our best in mind. So embrace, expect and welcome change knowing that the Father is using it to change us from glory to glory.
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Posted 2/3/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Friendly FireFebruary 1, 2011
According to Webster’s dictionary the word fidelity means “The quality or state of being faithful.” Fidelity is synonymous with words like devotion, faithfulness and allegiance. No doubt these are qualities every planter or planting team hopes to find in the people that surround them. Yet, far too often those on the front lines, planting new churches experience the exact opposite. Sometimes even from the most unexpected people. In war they call it friendly fire.
As in the case of Jesus, sometimes our most avid and staunch supporters end up denying they even knew you. Many church planters have been blind-sided and sidelined by the loss of fidelity from co-workers, primary investors, friends, team members, denominational supervisors, district leaders, even family members. You may think that it will never happen to you, but think again.
So why do church planters experience a loss of fidelity from friends, family, supervisors and colleagues once they start the church planting process? Every planter has experienced this at some level. While our list is not exhaustive, by any means, we believe that these are the top five reasons.
1. The Call This particular reason is most prevalent as it concerns your extended family. Can you imagine what Abrams family thought when he told them his plan for moving? God called to Abram “Get out of your country, from your family. Imagine the humor in the conversation Abram had with his family about his new journey. The conversation probably went something like this. “Abe. What are you doing?” “Leaving.” “Where are you going?” “I don’t know!” “Then how will you know when you’ve arrived?” “I don’t know.” “How will you provide for yourself?” “I don’t know.” “What will happen if things don’t work out?” “I don’t know,” “So, why would you do something so crazy?” “Cause God told me too.” Maybe you have already had conversation like this. When God places a call on your heart and you begin to follow through, many will not understand it. We have heard of parents turning their backs on their own children because the parent felt their son or daughter was off on a fool’s errand. 2. Money More battles have been fought over this issue than we care to mention. Church planting takes an endless stream of money and many in the established church don’t understand. Furthermore, some feel that the money should go to help struggling churches rather than toward a new church. If we have heard it once, we have heard it a dozen times, “Why are you spending so much money on planting new churches when you should be helping us?”
3. Territorialism This is probably one of the most prolific complaints against church planting. The problem is this complaint doesn’t come from those outside the walls of the church but by those in the church. Most of the time the person heading the charge is the pastor.
It doesn’t really seem to matter how far away you are, you will always be too close. After all, the little church of 50, already established, has a claim on the 200,000 people of their city. The own the mud! They have been in this city for 50 years and have reached an average attendance of 50. But they are on the verge of breaking out, if only they had a bigger building, more money, less competition from other churches, etc…
We call this an “Empire” mentality. Honestly, most pastors seem to be more interested in building their own little empire than building the Kingdom of God. They will passionately fight for their ability to hold sole rights to the souls of their community even though their facility will not hold even a fraction of those who live on their own block. 4. Style of Worship The style of worship you chose to use could also become a sore spot and cause a loss of fidelity, A young planter in the Tennessee area fund this out the hard way. After launching his new church with a format and style foreign to the rest of the churches in his district, he was ostracized and shunned. Still to this day, even though he has the largest, healthiest, and strongest church in the district, his own colleagues won’t have much to do with him. 5. Jealousy Truth be told, this is probably where most problems rest. Almost every pastor I know talks about how they would like to see the hand of God on their church in a powerful way. They would like to see the Holy Spirit move and bring hundreds of new people into a live-changing relationship with Jesus. The only problem is their prayer is more focused on them and their ministry than on the actual move of God. Most love to talk about growth and salvation unless it is someone else’s.
Many pray for growth and hope God does marvelous things and when it starts to happen in someone else’s church the pastor immediately disapproves God’s movement by claiming that the other church is either watering down the gospel or behaving in a way that is not proper. Isn’t that strange? We all want to see revival, as long as it happens in our way and on our turf. | |
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Posted 2/1/2011 in Church Planting | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
Life In The MarginJanuary 29, 2011
Dr. Swenson starts the book by sharing how progress, which was suppose to give us more time to do the things we want, has actually robbed us of proper margins in our life. The technology that was suppose to take our work and simplify it, has actually served to help us live marginless lives that are destroying our relationships, emotions, finances and spiritual selves. As I was reading this book I kept thinking to myself, "This is a really good book for church planters to read." Church planters live outside the margin most of their life. Planting a new church is a call, in many ways to live outside proper margins. We race around setting up meetings, organizing marketing campaigns, setting up gyms, theaters and cafeterias, only to tear it down again. Often the week becomes a blur and planters get burned out while running on the hamster wheel. Interestingly enough, I find myself on the same wheel. Traveling from state to state, working with multiple planters, staff members, lay people and board members. How easy it is to get trapped in the vicious cycle of performance. If you are a Type-A, you struggle with this more than most. What is the answer? Slowing down and creating proper boundaries in life. Remembering that God's call to us is primarily to be in relationship with Him and then with the family he gave us. Neglecting these areas of our lives was not God's intended purpose when he called us and yet I see the train wrecks many planters make of these two relationships. Here is a plain and simple statement: The best gift you can give your congregation and staff is a healthy emotional, spiritual and relational you. If you can keep that in perspective, God will do the rest. Don't fall into the trap of losing the margins in your life. Busyness does not equal effectiveness. | |
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Posted 1/29/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Over the last few days I have been engrossed in a book called
10 Deadly Sins of Dying ChurchesJanuary 27, 2011 Every year an estimated 4,000 churches close their doors? (That is 334 each month, 83 each week, 12 each day). Fortunately, in 2010 denominations, networks and churches, for the first time, planted more churches than closed. Every living organism has a life-cycle; churches are no different. If those who lead the church are not careful, they will find themselves on the downward slide of that life-cycle. Why are churches across America dying? Here are 10 deadly sins churches commit that lead them down that road. Each of these sins, to varying degrees, can be seen in stagnant and dying churches. 1. Doctrinal Drift 2. Evangelism Atrophy 3. Failure To Be Relevant 4. Vision Drift 5. Personal Conflict 6. A Priority Of Comfort 7. Biblical Illiteracy 8. Hording 9. Failure to Follow 10. Idolatry | |
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Posted 1/27/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
4 Essential Leadership TraitsJanuary 26, 2011 Good leadership is essential for any organization to move forward. In hard times, it is even more important. What traits does a leader need to posses in the midst of hard times? 1. Honesty And Credibility. You can’t hide, fake or bluff your way through tough times. If you don’t know the answer to the problems or need help finding solutions, ask. Allow those you are leading to see you as someone who is humble, honesty and willing to seek counsel. They will respect you for your authenticity. 2. The Ability To Inspire. Tough times bring on frustration, uncertainty and anxiety in most people. As a leader you have to focus on what could be. Help those who follow you become realistically optimistic about the future. They need a vision that will excite and drive them to work for something better. 3. Be Willing To Face The Brutal Facts. Gather all your information and look at reality as it is. Your ability to see reality will help you generate a vision of what could be. 4. Boldness. In this time of uncertainty everyone is tightening the belt. Ministry is slowing or coming to a halt. It may save you cash in the short-run, but it will be detrimental to the future of the ministry. It will take a risk-based faith to step out and strategically do something new when there is little money and no guarantee of success. Yet, faith is critical for the church in the midst of tough times. God has not changed even though everything else around us has. What good will it do to limp to the finish line and find nothing there? “What good will it do for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?” Don’t stop doing the right thing. Its not about what you can afford to do, it is about doing the right thing. God will do the rest. | |
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Posted 1/26/2011 in Stephen Gray | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
The 6th thingJanuary 21, 2011 Since I blogged about The top 5 things planters wish they had known before planting a church" multiple people have asked me; "What was the 6th thing?" So here it is. The sixth issue: Where to find, and how to develop leaders? 58% of those who responded to the survey found finding leaders to be a challenging and surprising problem. It's a great question and most planters struggle with this issue. When I planted in Springfield, MO. I expected everyone would want to jump on board. After all, my vision for a new church was stunning. How could anyone resist joining me on my adventure? (Oh Brother!) I was very naive and over confident in my abilities. I'm sure I'm not alone with my confession. Finding a good leader is tricky. Developing them is essential. Check out Christianity Todays articles on developiing leaders. How have you found and developed your leaders? | |
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Posted 1/21/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Top Five Things Planters Wish they Had KnownJanuary 20, 2011 Last week I sent out a tweet inviting church planters to answer one basic question: What are five things you wish you had known before you planted. A hundred of you took the challenge and answered the question. Here are the top five recurring things these planters shared.
1. How lonely, stressful, and hard on my family planting would be.
I heard my friend Gary Baldus make this statement at a church planting training event: “ 100 percent of church planters have no idea what they are getting into, 100 percent of the time!” How true! No mater how much you prepare, until you are in the heat of the battle, you will never fully know. The pressures on the marriage and family are one of the reasons most organizations won’t pass a planter through assessment if the marriage has problems. The pressures of planting will only amplify any problems.
2. How much Spiritual warfare we would experience.
My simple response to that is: What did you expect? Satan is not going to roll over and let you pass without a fight! Satan hates pastors! I am convinced he has a special kind of hatred for church planters. This is why developing a strong prayer network is the first thing every planter must do. Most planters are “Type-A”, driven people and pay little attention to less tangible issues until they are overcome.
3. How difficult it would be to raise up new leaders who would own the vision.
Raising up leaders is hard to begin with. Add to that process downloading personal ownership of the vision and you have twice the work. Good leaders often come with personal agendas, so be careful who you invite into your structure. A bad leader can quickly hijack your new church and destroy all you’ve done. How do you avoid this? Don’t give titles or roles away for at least six months. Rather, give jobs away. BTW: the best leaders will always be those you lead to Christ and disciple. Spend the vast majority of your time developing these individuals as leaders.
4. How to understand the culture in which you are planting and create something that will connect with culture.
The fact that this was mentioned gives me hope for planters. There is really no easy answer to this problem except hard work. I have found the best way to understand the culture is to live I the area you are targeting for 6 to 9 months, with a secular job, before you start the planting process. I know that seems like an eternity for most planters, b ut you can't rush this process. If you can’t wait that long go to the community leaders, take them out for a meal and ask them to give you a clear picture of the community.
5. How big of a blessing is would be to lead something that transformed lives.
What can I say about this? Nothing! It speaks for itself. | |
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Posted 1/20/2011 in Church Planting | 1 Comment - Add Comment |
10 Common Church Planting MistakesJanuary 15, 2011 Church Planting is tough and always carries a potential of risk and catastrophic failure. So what are the top ten mistakes made by leaders as they plant new churches? These are the mistakes I have seen repeated time after time with the church planters I have trained and coached.
1. Planting a church around your own likes and dislikes instead of contextualizing for the culture your in.
2. Failing to take spiritual warfare seriously.
3. Allowing complainers to shift your original vision.
4. Launching in haste – (Premature Launch)
5. Placing all effort on the launch with little thought of what to so once the church goes public.
6. Failure to focus on evangelism after launch.
7. Fear of talking about money until your pressed into a corner.
8. Placing people in leadership too quickly.
9. Failure to focus on your family properly.
10. Failure to plan for anything but the Sunday morning service.
If you have experienced these mistakes reply and share your story. If you have one to add, by all means share your story. | |
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Posted 1/15/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
5 Strategic Church Planting QuestionsJanuary 14, 2011 Planting a healthy growing church is a lot like baking. You have to get all the ingredients right in order to make the perfect cookie. Over the last few years I have developed a recipe for success that has helped launch dozens of healthy, growing churches with proper leadership.
Here are the 5 strategic questions every person has to weight out.
1. Who will and what leadership ability do they have? (Matt 25:14 -30)
Three basic types of leaders: - Five Talent - Two Talent - One Talent “each according to his ability” Matt 25:15
We have to come to terms with the fact that not everyone can lead at the same level. Church planting expectations should equal a planter’s abilities.
2. Location – Where is the plant going to be launched? Each context has different, leadership, funding and ideological needs.
P1 – Urban Setting P2 – Suburban Setting P3 – Mid-sized to Small Town Setting P4 – Rural Setting
3. Size of church – What size of church is a win? All sizes are valid and should be celebrated if they are Great Commission churches! The size of a church should be determined by the leadership ability and setting of a church.
AC – Anchor Church (500+, no lid) RC – Regional Church (400-600) CC – Community Church (200-400) FC – Familial Church (150 tops) HC – House churches EC – Ethnic Church CP – Campus/satellite
4. Methodology - What methodology will you use? No method has a biblical mandate. Therefore no method should be considered right or the only way.
- Missional - Attractional - Both
5. Funding – How much will it cost? Here is the one no one likes to talk about. Every planter wants more money. However, funding should be determined by taking into account the other four strategic questions. | |
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Posted 1/14/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Assaulting The GatesJanuary 12, 2011 Just finished re-reading Paul Borden's book "Assaulting The Gates: Aiming All God's People At The Mission Field." I highly recommend the book to anyone seeking to move toward becoming a missional church. The thought that started my mind racing has to do with what Borden calls the "Pacification of the church." His words ring too true! In most churches, districts, denominations, or associations (whatever your flavor may be) across America we have allowed the mission of the church to be replaced. Once a driven, passionate, soul winning movement, we have become an institution that values peace and harmony at all costs. By in large the Church has become a place where strife and friction are no longer tolerated. In fact, peace has been so elevated in the economy of the church that it has been put up on a pedestal, admired and worshiped. The church has now become a place designed to meet our personal needs and dissent is not tolerated even if those who are correct are right in pointing out that the church, denomination, district, association or etc, has lost its way in relation to the mission Christ has called us too. If any real debate does creep into the church it is often over issue of structure, methodologies or styles rather than essential issues like sin, evil or righteousness. Why? Too often those in leadership fear the loss of money, people, clout and influence. A leaders temporary, earthly status trumps their calling to preach Christ to a needy world. Think on this quote from Paul Borden; "In this process of pacification we have lost the idea that the church of Jesus Christ is to be militant against sin, the forces of evil, and unrighteous systems; we have forgotten that the church is called to convert those who use such systems to create injustice, war, and great inequities of civilization. We have lost the idea of being a soldier of the cross, an army marching for the salvation of people, and lifeboat captains rescuing the perishing." What we want now is "a wonderful place to worship each Sunday and meet the needs of me and my family without upsetting anyone." Worse yet, "the silent majority of most churches would rather allow the spiritual terrorist church bosses to keep the congregation from mission rather than raise issue that might upset the church's illusory peace." I don't know about you, but that causes me to stop and think! Has peace in the church become a higher value than mission? Are we willing to militantly follow the call of God and lead our churches in the proper direction or will we allowthe "immature majority" of our churches to govern the direction of the church? Could this be the reason so many churches are experiencing decline and plateau? | |
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Posted 1/12/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
What Unifies Us?January 7, 2011 Here is a statement you can take to the bank, "Your opinion will never change anyone's heart!" The scripture doesn't say, "You shall know Steve's opinion and that opinion will set you free." :) Rather, it says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." We operate far too often on opinions and personal tastes when it comes to "doing" church.
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Posted 1/7/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment |
Fast-TrackingJanuary 6, 2011 According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, putting something on the fast track means “to speed up the process or rapidly advance.” One of the greatest temptations many planters will face is the desire to launch their church before the proper time. Yet, launching the church prematurely could destroy the church’s potential. Rarely will the end turn out well if a planter fast-tracks the launch of their new church. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you might think. Why? This what we have experienced as the top three reasons. 1. Pressure 2. Pride 3. Poor Planning One of the strangest stories Jesus ever told is found in Luke 16. Jesus is talking with his disciples and begins to tell a story about a lazy manager who is mismanaging his master’s household. The manager finds out that he is going to get fired and starts to make friends by cutting in half what some business owners owe the master of the house. In effect, he is stealing from the master to ‘make nice’ with some potential future employers. Jesus closes the story out like this; “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
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Posted 1/6/2011 in Church Planting | 0 Comments - Add Comment |