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Keep On, Keeping On

March 13, 2012 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Leadership with 20 Comments

I know there are a lot of church planters, pastors, and volunteers who read this blog. I know that many of you are in situations where you’re setting up and taking down church each week. For the first 4 years of Cross Point we were doing four services in an elementary school which forced us to set up and take down each Sunday. It was exhausting to say the least.

With that in mind I thought you might need a little reminder today that what you do really matters!!

This is part of a post recently written by Tam Hodge, the wife of Brent Hodge whose the pastor of our Cross Point Hendersonville campus.

I know there are many who serve in this capacity with churches who set up and tear down every week. It can get tiresome. It can become very frustrating. In fact, you may have grown resentful. But let me offer you a word of encouragement…

You are not just getting up early – You are going before those who will show up for the first time to meet their Savior.

You are not just breaking a sweat – You are sweating in thanks to the One who purposed you to tell the nations.

You are not just setting up 150 chairs – You are providing a place for the wounded to come and sit in the lap of their Healer.

You are not “doing church” – You are creating an experience.

You are not clocking in and out – You are investing in lives!

For every chair you set out…For every crayon you put in a basket…For every coffee creamer you place in a bowl…For every cable you run across a gym floor to an amp…For every sign you hang…For each and everything your hands commit to you are creating an experience for those to come. You are creating an atmosphere for others to come into and rest. A place for God’s people to enter into to find hope, encouragement, friendship, counsel, healing…life. A safe place for others to meet God.

I know this is hard work. I am exhausted from serving today. I feel like I’ve done a months worth of P90X. And every single second of it is worth it. None of this is about us. It is about God and the ones He sent his son to love on.

So whether you hold babies, set up chairs, turn knobs on the sound board, preach you heart out, hand out programs or count the money in the back room please know that what you do REALLY MATTERS.

Keep it up!

Where do you serve in your local church?

Six Reasons The Next Generation is Leaving The Church

February 1, 2012 in Church Leadership, Church Planting with 69 Comments

So we’ve all seen the stats. It seems like the church is rapidly loosing influence with the next generation. Barna President David Kinnaman examines the 6 reasons in a new article in Christianity Today.

The six reasons he lists are…

1. Isolationism. One-fourth of 18- to 29-year-olds say church demonizes everything outside church, including the music, movies, culture, and technology that define their generation.

2. Shallowness. One-third call church boring, about one-fourth say faith is irrelevant and Bible teaching is unclear. One-fifth say God is absent from their church experience.

3. Anti-science. Up to one-third say the church is out of step on scientific developments and debate.

4. Sex. The church is perceived as simplistic and judgmental. For a fifth or more, a “just say no” philosophy is insufficient in a techno-porno world. Young Christian singles are as sexually active as their non-churched friends, and many say they feel judged.

5. Exclusivity. Three in 10 young people feel the church is too exclusive in this pluralistic and multi-cultural age. And the same number feel forced to choose between their faith and their friends.

6. Doubters. The church is not a safe place to express doubts say over one-third of young people, and one-fourth have serious doubts they’d like to discuss.

Your thoughts? Would you add any?

Death Mode

December 12, 2011 in Church Leadership, Church Planting with 26 Comments

I think there’s a growing and disturbing trend in the church today. There’s often this assumption that spiritual maturity is happening if you’re attending more services this year than last year. That spiritual maturity is happening if you know more about Scriptures this month than last.

But often our hearts are growing colder and colder toward the person that is far from God.

Luke 5

30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

I’m telling you, when a church loses that vision it’s in real trouble.

When a church starts caring more about their own personal agendas.

When a church starts caring more about their own preferential style.

When a church starts caring more about their own comforts.

That church is in death mode.

I don’t care how many great programs you’re offering.

I don’t care how amazing your music is.

I don’t care how amazing your building is.

At that moment you’re in death mode.

How’s your heart for those far from God these days?

Ego Leak

March 10, 2011 in Church Planting, Leadership with 22 Comments

Yesterday, I was doing a little study in Philippians and once again I was floored by these six verses. The application of these verses can alter the way we lead and live..

Philippians 2:3-7

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

Continue Reading…

Worth A Thousand Words

February 1, 2011 in Church Planting, Leadership with 75 Comments

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I’ve got two pictures for you today that are worth a thousand words and then some. For me they represent why I get out of bed every day.

The first is of our most recent Cross Point campus that was planted in India. The small group of believers that we’re working with there asked us a couple months ago if they could plant a new church called Cross Point that would follow our church values. It’s our smallest campus but maybe the one I’m most excited about right now.  They just moved to their second location to accommodate their growth. This is the first Christian church ever planted in this particular village. First one EVER!

Continue Reading…

Backstage Leadership

October 22, 2010 in Church Planting with 3 Comments

Calling all church planters. Join me for a Backstage Leadership discussion on ChurchPlanting coming up on November 30th. Come enhance your leadership. Spend 90 minutes learning with Mark Batterson and yours truly. Bring your best questions, and we’ll spend our time in Question & Answer dialogue going deep on the inner workings of church planting. Whether you’re in the early stages of building a team, or a year into weekly gatherings, any church-planting question is free game. Backstage was started for those questions when you don’t need a book or conference on the topic, just a specific answer from someone with experience on the issue. Since Backstage Leadership is a distance learning program, you get all this great content without any travel! You can register for the event HERE.

Church In Rural America

May 13, 2010 in Church Planting with 55 Comments

Many of you know the first church I planted was in Morgantown, KY. So many of the experiences that I write about in Plan B came from my time there at Morgantown Community Church.

Morgantown is a city of about 3,000 people in the city limits and an addition 9,000 or so in the entire county. I’ve always had a real heart for the Rural church in America. While often overlooked, it’s these churches that are positioned to make a real difference in our country today.

That’s one of the reasons I’m excited about a new book by Shannon O’Dell, entitled, “Transforming Church in Rural America.” If you pastor or lead in a rural community you need to pick this book up.

I’m excited to give a few copies of this book away over the next 24 hours or so. Just leave me the name of your church and the rural community you lead in.

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