The Bivouac

Wednesday Planter: "To thine own self, be true"

2011-04-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." - William Shakespeare

If you're gonna be a church planter, you've just flat gotta know yourself: your personality, your emotional needs, your strengths and weaknesses, and where you fit into the world - and just as important: where you don't.

In 1994, I worked for a slowly imploding family-led NGO and, unfortunately for me, I was not part of the family. We clashed. In an effort to try to "fix" me, our patriarch took the whole staff for a pysch review to have our personalities looked at and to learn why we didn't mesh. (My favorite part of the review was when my boss shouted about me, "He's not a team player!" The Pshrink pulled out the paperwork and said, "Actually, he's the only who is a team player.") As a part of that review, I received hundreds of pages of objective observations/information about myself. As I read it, there was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that it was accurate. It was as if someone had looked into a hidden box in the secret closet within my heart of hearts - a place I didn't even want to acknowledge existed. I saw on paper, for the first time ever, my quirks, my actual - not "perceived" - strengths, my real weaknesses, and the challenges of my personality.

Hearing a Pshrink describe me was painful, but it was a good painful - like relocating a dislocated shoulder or having the stabbing pain of a broken tooth end when it's pulled. It was information I could use. It was a resource that gave me the chance to change and to do something about me, and it gave me a way to measure the change.

I still read that paperwork a couple times year - and it's been 17+ years ago since I was a part of that, but it reminds me of my nature and keeps me moving forward.

I've become content knowing I best serve in a blue collar, average Joe setting. I simply love and understand common people who are just trying to get by day to day and who struggle with living out the Christian life in a grimy, gritty, not-so-friendly world. And I can help them, not because I'm better, but because I'm only a little further down the trail in my own spiritual journey.

The bottom line is this: Because I knew those things about me, I could do something about me. And I did.

If you're interested in church planting, all I can say is that if you think you can skip or don't need the assessment process, you probably think you're the exception to many other things, too, and the universe levies a heavy tax against that level of arrogance and ignorance.

Wednesday Planter: Are you called? (A holy discontent)

2011-04-06T00:01:00.001-05:00

(This is a longer than usual post, but it is because there are so many things about this that we get wrong - and the Kingdom pays for it.)

People have often asked me, "When did you feel 'called' to church planting?" Honestly, I never did and still don't. For me, it was a matter of seeing a challenging need and feeling I could meet it. There was nothing romantic or mystical about it. No fire on the mountain. No sense of floating or destiny. No burning, tearful moments of anxious prayer. No feeling of exploding if I didn’t. It just made sense to me.

There's a lot of debate on this subject. The whole idea of a "divine calling" gets bantered around a lot - and it gets used very loosely by a lot of people who don't wanna have their wishes questioned, so they yank out a divine trump card intended to protectively closes down the conversation and stop the questioning.

I think the most common thing I see is guys who have personality challenges and social skills issues that keep them from fitting in somewhere else, so - at best - they wanna be a part of something bigger than themselves; at worst - they wanna be in a position of "authority"...so they feel "called" to full-time ministry. (Weak men are always drawn to positions of power.) This somehow leads them to church planting.

All of that has brought me to the conclusion that if someone has to tell me they are "called to vocational ministry" (especially when they are not currently active in one), they are not - just like the guy who has to tell you he's handsome. You can see whether he is or not with your own eyes. If he has to tell you, it's because he's trying to convince himself, not you, but he desperately needs you to participate in the delusion.

I never wanted to be a church planter. In fact, I even got out of the ministry for a year. All of my vocational ministry life, I've been a square peg in a round hole. I've always been around congregations who - at that time in their life anyhow - valued form and decorum over reality and effectiveness. There was always a lot of posturing and politics - a lot of roles and posing. I've really tried, but I'm just not that kind of person.

My heart, since I was a teen working in our church's bus ministry, has been for the average Joe, teaching him, and seeing him come to Christ, but all the politics and busy-work of ministry prevented me from that. I could see what needed to be done, but my congregations all fought it. They were more about taking care of their own. I would work hard to bring my friends and neighbors to church, and after they'd come, they'd say, "We love you, but we don't get all that posturing and form. We just wanna know what the Bible says. We don't wanna hafta join some club and become like people we don't respect."

After a year long break from ministry (and my massive battle with depression due, in large part, to my rejection of how God had wired me), we accepted a ministry with an older established church Midwestern congregation. Almost immediately, I realized there was a big problem with many of the congregations of our State: there was the "graying" of the Church. Many of the congregations were very stable, but they were aging and not attracting younger people, and in decline. The two-fold problem with this became very clear:

1. It was simply a matter of time until congregations literally died of old age.

2. There seemed to be no serious effort being made to reach the younger generation of Iowans.

Congregations talked about the need to reach young people, but in reality very little effort was being directed toward actually reaching them.

I came to see what I call "The Problem of the Unwanted Harvest." Congregations all prayed for the salvation of many people in their community, but they wanted them to get saved at the church down the street. They didn't wanna hafta deal with the stress and baggage of new believers within their own little already comfortable church families. My heart ached to be the Church Down the Street.

I'd been asked to serve on the Board of Directors of the Christian Evangelistic Mission of Iowa (CEM) and had done so for several months when the other board members began to ask if I’d be interested in planting a new church in the Quad Cities.

About that same time, I'd driven to Kansas City to participate in a church growth conference to learn what I could do to help our congregation break through the 200 Barrier. I loaded up all of the information I could gather about our congregation including stats, newsletters, and maps, and headed out to be there when the doors were unlocked at the conference site.

The conference speaker was C. Peter Wagner, and I was sitting in the dark auditorium when he and the janitor flipped on the lights, and immediately we hit it off and spent several hours over the next day-and-a-half talking about growth ideas for our congregation. At the end of the day, Wagner said to me, "You know, it's gonna be very hard in an older congregation to do the things you need to do and make the changes you need to make to reach the people you need to be reaching. Older Christians in older congregations have a vested interest in keeping things they way they are. Have you ever thought about planting a new congregation?" "No," I told him, "that's not something I've ever wanted to consider." "Well," Wagner said, "I think you should consider it. You've got the right ideas and approach. If I were you, I'd find a way to start a new church with the new style you're thinking about.”

I went home and began to share this plan with our elders and deacons, but the deacons pretty much didn't accept the idea and, it became clear to me, probably never would. (That congregation has continued to struggle since.) Steph (my wife and best friend) and I began to pray about what to do - convinced the status quo was not the Lord's will for His church - and within a period of about ten days, we received unsolicited inquiries about planting new churches in California, Texas, and Colorado!

We slowly determined that a new, non-traditional congregation was the way the Lord was leading. Our love for the Midwest opened us up to to investigating CEM's suggestion for a new congregation in the Quad Cities, specifically Davenport, Iowa. I made several trips here to the area to assess the need and learn about the people. I studied the growth and ministries of other congregations in the area, visited with countless people, and surveyed a large number of unchurched people about why they weren’t involved in church. After much prayer and study, we resigned our ministry in Des Moines and on Labor Day 1997 moved to Davenport under CEM's sponsorship to plant a new congregation.

Once we were located here, the Lord began to draw people to Adventure — slowly at first, and then more quickly as the final launch date approached. God brought us people with little or no church background — people with a desire to participate in a place of grace, a place where people matter more than tradition, a place where a person's future matters more than his past — a place where it was never church as usual.

Over a period of months leading into Labor Day of 1998, Adventure developed and grew until the day of its official birth, September 13, 1998.

Back to my original point: Do I feel called to here? No, and never once have I claimed to be. It was just obvious to me that this was a place where we could serve the Lord and thrive in ministry the way Jesus wanted it to be. In hindsight, it was clearly the right thing.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #10: Identity and reputation are not the same thing.

2011-03-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

I started learning this concept back in late 1994 just before I moved to pastor my first church in Iowa. I first saw it when I was checking up on that congregation during my interview process with them. (I'll guarantee I did more research into them than they did into me.) I called four unrelated congregations in the area, explained who I was, and asked those churches what they knew about the congregation I was interviewing. Three knew nothing except where it was once I gave the address, and the remaining one didn’t even remember seeing a church at that location. One of the three who remembered it only when I gave the address pastored in a church building about 100 yards south of the one in question – on the same street!

I worked hard at that congregation to make sure it had an identity within the community, but due to their reputation (in some cases a lack of one) I was starting with their deficit. The experience helped me realize how important this concept is.

I put a lot of effort into identity management when Adventure began 12+ years ago. To this day, when people see our logo or even my Jeep, they know who we are, but I've learned about something even better than identity.

I was driving to a meeting at my office one day when I saw a woman parked between the lanes on the interstate (yes, we have interstates in Iowa) with a flat. I made eye contact with her but kept going because I didn’t have time and was sure she’d call someone and be fine. As I pulled off my exit, I felt a pang of guilt and headed back to help her.

I pulled up behind her, got out, asked her to stay in her car, and if she could pop the trunk from the inside. She did, I replaced her flat with her spare, and went up to tell her good bye and to have someone check that spare for her. Her cheeks were wet with tears when I went up to the window. She told me something that shook me: “I saw your Jeep go by, and I saw you see me. I’ve never been to your church, but I’ve heard things, and I knew you’d be back to help me. Thank you.”

Your identity will get you recognized within a community, but your reputation will determine how you are viewed and whether or not you're accepted. Put your emphasis on developing your reputation, not your logo. Think in terms of the reputation and the identity will take care of itself.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #9: People attend where they prefer, not where they are impressed.

2011-03-23T00:01:00.001-05:00

I like cool stuff. I've always liked the bleeding edge of creativity. I like being unique. I like doing things that make other people just go "huh?"

I was pushing Saturday evening service as an outreach more than 20 years ago, and the congregation I proposed it to (the one I was pastoring at the time) nearly lynched me. One guy - an elder and a local school district administrator - actually asked me if I really thought the apostles (or any early Christians) would have ever gone to church on Saturday night. So much for the state of public education. :) That's how it's always been for me - a square peg in a round hole.

When I came to Davenport to plant, I was given more freedom than most pastor-types can even imagine in their wildest dreams...and with that came the freedom to be so novel and to be so *"purple" that people would flinch. I still like being that way, but I've learned that being novel and getting people to look at what you're doing and listen to what you saying isn't the same thing as reaching people. It's also not really that good of a goal.

A lot of people knew who we were, but they didn't love us. Being purple got us known, but I still wanted people to prefer us...I wanted them to want to be here with us. We had people, no doubt, but it wasn't until things got boring to me and people still kept on coming that I started to get it.

We were so broke at the time that we kinda gave up on being so unique and just tried to pay the bills. Then when I'd ask new people how they heard about us, it wasn't the direct mail, the (serious waste of money on) TV ads, or even our special events. The truth was that out best outreach was the changed lives they saw in their friends - and it was those changed lives that gave the personal invitation from their friends actual credibility. It was actually accomplishing our goal that made us purple.

That realization caused me to focus more on meeting basic personal needs via our teaching from God's Word and other ministries than worry about being unique. I still like uniqueness (that's part of how God has gifted me), but it's actually about people, about meeting their needs, about seeing their lives changed for the better, and about keeping the focus on those things instead. And now, there's been a different by-product: people not only love our uniqueness, they contribute to it! But better yet, they love us.

And they continue to choose us over many other things they could be doing or places they could be going!

-----

*Godin, Seth (2009). The Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. NY: Portfolio. ISBN-10: 1591843170 / ISBN-13: 978-1591843177

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #8: From perfectionist to friend.

2011-03-16T00:01:00.001-05:00

I'm a perfectionist. When I was in high school, I often spent 30 minutes just on my hair! I think I was the paleontological ancestor of the metro-sexual. Ha! (I'm sure I would hate that kid today if he were still around!)

I think my perfectionism hurt me in my early ministry days. No. Actually I know it did. I didn't call it "perfectionism." I called it "excellence" because that made it God-honoring and sounded professional, but it was still perfectionism - something that masks the fear of not being accepted by others. Doing things “polished and shiny” was my goal. Then I had an epiphany in a really strange location.

It was a restaurant called "Meers" outside of Lawton, OK. It’s a dirty, out-of-the-way, greasy, dilapidated building (last time I was there it was insulated by being wrapping in plastic - the WHOLE building). I went there twice with a friend. The first time, the waitress addressed him by his first name. The second time, she addressed me by mine. It was a strangely welcoming event. I felt as if I were with friends.

I barely remembered her, but she taught me a lesson: People skipped Red Lobster and the Beefeater with their servers in starched and pressed uniforms and drove 25 miles into nowhere to eat in a plastic lined shack because the server knew their name. Their decision was made by personality preference - over quality, by choosing welcomed over catered to. They were choosing where they were comfortable over what made a better social impression. They simply wanted to like where they were.

In reality, the food was just "okay" at Meers, but it was the atmosphere of friendship and the preference people had for that atmosphere that caused the half-hour drive and the sale. Whoa.

Too many of us want the church experience to be perfect rather than comfortable. You can’t have both.

So I've worked hard to put my perfectionism to rest and instead worked to create a place that people would choose to enjoy. Things are still done well - competently, but I'm not so anal about perfection. And guests are greeted on their first visit with the words, “Welcome home.” Some smile. Some cry. Some don’t get it until later. But it works.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #7: From my head to my heart.

2011-03-09T00:01:00.004-06:00

This post will be twice as long as usual because of the scope of the struggle and who it affects.

I used to be a legalist. It comes from my perfectionist personality and my spiritual heritage of being from a group who loved their reputation as “People of the Book”. When you're a legalist, you learn to esteem knowledge with great sincerity and enthusiasm. However, legalists tend to believe the more they know the stronger they are in their faith. They subtly trust in head-knowledge rather than heart-faith (not necessarily mutually exclusive, but not the same thing). My faith was in what I knew, not what I trusted in. (Btw, a legalist will readily object to what I am saying and accuse me of disrespecting God’s Word. If you’re doing that right now, the alarm sirens going off in your head are about YOU, not about me.)

Two things helped my knowledge become actual faith by making the leap from my head to my heart.

The first came when I met a severely mentally handicapped young man. I don't even remember his name or the circumstance of our meeting. I just remember that he talked about how much he loved God, how'd he given his life to him, and how he loved living every day for him. That really bugged the snot out of me. That kid had something I had not yet experienced, and that was beyond my ability to understand. This kid could barely speak, let alone understand the Christian snob languages of Greek and Hebrew. In fact, he couldn't read at all! All he could do was listen to what he was taught and believe it.

It forced me to be honest with myself: I didn't love God so much as I knew He was Sovereign and gonna get His way anyhow, so I didn't have a lot of choices but to do what He said. Doing the right things were my defense, not actually loving Him. I figured a lot of people "loved" Him and yet weren't gonna be in Heaven.

The second came when I was studying a rabbinical commentary (like any good MacArthurite legalist – or disciple of Rob Bell! Ha!) and read the footnotes on the story of Abraham and Isaac. I'd always thought that God had flatly ordered Abraham and that he had no choice but to offer Isaac. After all, God was sovereign. Abraham had to obey or he was toast. "Take your son..." Yeah, let him be the toast instead.

Then I learned about a little participle in the Hebrew: na'. When na' is added to the imperative command in the Hebrew, it "softens the command to an entreaty" (The JPS Torah Commentary on Genesis, 1989, page 151). It makes it a request between friends. "Abraham had absolute freedom of choice. Should he refuse, he would not incur any guilt" (ibid). So it hit me that a hero of the faith actually demonstrated trust because of the relationship rather than the fear of punishment. Wow. And had Abraham chosen not to offer the boy, God would not have counted it against him as guilt.

I heard a guy say once that most people will miss Heaven by 18 inches - the distance from the brain to the heart - but it was only then that I understood it. Strange that a character from the OT would introduce a student of the NT to grace.

I'm not discounting "fearing" God. One of my favorite scenes in the movie Evan Almighty is when God (Morgan Freeman) shows up in the car Evan's in and Evan (Jim Carrey) jerks and screams in terror. God laughs and says, "It's okay, son, that's the beginning of wisdom”. :)

The thing is, under the New Testament, God calls us "friend." Who fears a friend? Remember this verse?

John 15:15 - "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you."

Friend. God is still sovereign, but I actually like Him - no, make that LOVE Him - and while I still respect God extremely and profoundly, I don't live and act out of fear of Him. Maybe that's what the Bible means when it says:

1 John 4:18 - "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love."

I think I really like being a Christ-follower. And I love that I don't hafta be fearful to be one, nor do I hafta fear God or what He wants from me. In fact, it's not scary at all anymore.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #6: From self-focused to Kingdom-focused.

2011-03-02T00:01:00.000-06:00

I've worked in a string of several very shallow, very selfish congregations. That sounds harsh, but it's true. It's also true that each of those shallow, selfish congregations had a shallow, selfish pastor at the time I was there. So, honestly, we both got what we deserved. :)

We live in a me-oriented society - so people (including Christians) are trained to be selfish from their first breath. That carries over into the church-at-large, too. Many Christians believe that the Church exists to serve and cater to them, but not to actually grow them or challenge them.

Rather than baptize people when they made their confession of faith, I saved up those baptisms until Sunday when we could do them in front of the church and people could say, "Man, that pastor's sure doing a good job getting those people baptized." You know, it was job security - as I've said before, I didn't see those people so much as additions to the Kingdom as I saw them as job security, the proverbial loaf of bread.

I had to move from fulfilling a perverted personal need (the need to be liked and affirmed) to instilling a kingdom motivation inside me: the desire to be like Jesus. Unfortunately, my unhealthy need for approval was burying the healthy choice I needed to make. I was trapped in a life-paradigm I couldn't get out of.

A pastor friend I admired finally confronted me: "I don't know what to do with you. You're so concerned about what people think. You're so locked into doing rather than being. You wanna do what the apostles did, but you don't wanna be what the apostles were. Ministry wasn't a career for them. It was a lifestyle. It had nothing to do with a paycheck. They would have done it - and did - for free while doing other things. Until you come to that point, you're never gonna get it."

Those were some of the most painful words ever spoken to me, and it took me several more years of professional abuse and quite a few hours with a Christian counselor before I could start to get it. Honestly, I know that I still don't get it, not at the level I should, but at least I've headed in that direction and away from my own phobias and insecurities. That feels good.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #5: They're "people," stupid, not “prospects”.

2011-02-23T00:01:00.001-06:00

Here's a dirty little secret most pastors won't share: They keep "prospect" lists - like a potential sales list...a sort of "people I need to get to buy into us" list. I even know pastors who have quotas. For years I believed a statement made by a pastor I respected and wanted to be like: "A pastor who isn't leading two people a week to the Lord isn't worth his hire."

I used to keep Prospect Lists - two of them, in fact: One a short-term list, the other a long-term list. The short-term list had the names of the people I thought I could persuade to join the church within the next six months. Anyone longer than that was on the long-term list.

I realize now that at that point in my life, I had more in common with a hooker than a shepherd. After becoming healthy and returning to the ministry in 1995, I was struck by this verse:

"...for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread (Proverbs 6:26)..."

In other words, the hooker looks at you and says to herself, "If I can entice him to join me for a few minutes, it'll be worth X-number of dollars to me, and with that, I can buy (whatever)." I looked at my prospect lists and knew in the past I'd said to myself, "If I can entice him to come to church, that'll please my eldership and that's job security and financial security for me..." Ouch.

I dropped that list.

I stopped seeing them as "things to be conquered for Christ" and started seeing them as friends at a different point on the same journey as me - friends who will listen to those they trust and love. My goal is now to be that loving, trusted friend who can tell them what was over the next horizon on their spiritual journey - and who could walk with them as they looked at the horizon.

And suddenly, my ministry began to grow. Go figure.

Btw, I don't lead two people to the Lord in a week EVER. The Holy Spirit does that. But I often have the privilege of being there when they "get it." Sometimes that's zero in a week. Other times, it's 15 or 20 people in a week.

It's amazing what happens when ego gets out of the way and God gets to be God on His terms rather than mine. :)

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #4: Jesus builds the church; I don't.

2011-02-16T00:01:00.001-06:00

I used to flat old-school work my butt off and I prided myself on it. Yet my perfectionist side considered me a failure. I could not get my stupid churches to grow. I could blame a lot of different people and different things, and those would all be valid, but since I believe everything rises and falls on leadership, I can't hide behind those other things. I had to take responsibility for my part. I wasn't a leader. And I considered myself a failure - such a failure that I left pastoral ministry for a year and even messed up my body's ability to regulate itself and its moods, so I wasn't just a crash and burn. I was an epic crash and burn.

Then I went to a godly counselor in Columbus, IN, named John Brumbaugh, graciously paid for by our then-church home (a great congregation named New Hope Christian Church). John took me on a several days long cathartic journey that brought out my failings, my insecurities, my arrogance, and let me purge them for my own health.

One day he mentioned a verse where Jesus was talking to Peter about the foundation of the church, but it was the center section that hit me and rocked my life: "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matthew 16:18 NIV)." In all of my years of study and education, how in the world did I miss that? Jesus said He would build the church. In fact, He didn't ask me to do anything of the kind.

With that new perspective, I went back into ministry and for the first time in my life actually enjoyed it - and it was a fairly unhealthy, dysfunctional church! :) I had learned that my role wasn't to do God's construction work for Him, but to make sure that I didn't interfere - and that no one else did either.

That's why I have a pang of conscience when I use the term "church planter" in reference to myself. I'm not really a planter. God's the Planter. I'm just a gardener that works to keep the weeds out of His way as much as I can. I still work my butt off, but my focus is now His, not mine pretending to be His.

For the Monday Morning Hangover: It's always the eyes, Part 2

2011-02-14T00:00:00.001-06:00

A woman had begun attending worship services with us, and she was pretty unhappy in her marriage (her fifth, I believe) and with how her children were turning out (duh). She needed a lot of affirmation throughout her life, but she had learned to fake having seizures as a means to get that attention. She blamed them on an accident that had happened years earlier, and all I could do was take that statement at face value.

The way it played out was like this: EVERY service, she would pretend to be disoriented and acted as though she did not know who she was. Several women would run to her and comfort her, take her off to the side, pat her hands, wipe her face with a damp cloth, etc.

While I had originally take her explanation at face value, I had always been suspicious because 1) She was driving and had a license, 2) I had watched her eyes - she always knew which women to look for before having a "seizure", and 3) Another woman at the church had said to me, "I was in grade school with her, and she's always done stuff like this for attention".

One Sunday, I had decided to wait for the event to happen and kept an eye on her eyes as I waited. Then I saw it her began to set up the event, and I said to one of my friends, "Here it goes: She's gonna find herself a high traffic area near (so-and-so) and then she's gonna drop to the floor and do her thing, but watch her face. She'll 'wake-up' looking for someone specific." (She even followed the key woman around until the woman was free - and then down she went.)

After a few minutes, I went over and asked all the women to leave us alone so we could talk. I spoke to her like her Dutch Uncle for about three minutes and essentially told her that if she ever had a "seizure" again at church, I would call an ambulance, send her to the hospital, make sure that the ER reported her seizure to the Iowa DOT (which would then ban her from driving until she was seizure free for 180 consecutive days), and I would expose her to everyone for her insulting behavior against those who actually endured real seizures.

I saw in her face that she knew she was unequivocally busted. With that, I I told her, "Here's how this goes down: We're gonna get up and walk out of here smiling and happy. You are gonna be miraculously healed (or whatever you need to say to make this work) and you are never going to have seizures here again. Got it?" She nodded yes, got up, smiled, and that was that.

She was at services for about another two years or so and never had another seizure again at any church event. (Then we had to ask her to leave as a matter of discipline in another matter.)

The eyes are the window to the soul, and sometimes you have to address the soul to alter the physical behavior.

Could you be the campus pastor for Adventure's new campus?

2011-02-11T00:00:00.002-06:00

Muscatine is a beautiful old Mississippi River town and a great place to raise a family. Located just below the nose of Iowa on Iowa's east coast, it is about 30 minutes west of Adventure's Davenport campus in the Quad Cities, and about 45 minutes southeast of Iowa City. The town's population is around 23,000 and Muscatine serves an area population of around 50,000. The geographic setting includes the Mississippi River, hills and bluffs, and is an outdoors paradise. Detailed demographic information is available upon serious inquiry.

This new campus will serve as both an extension of the main Adventure campus - one congregation in two locations - and as a new church plant. It is scheduled for a mid-September 2011 launch.

Adventure New Muscatine Campus Pastor Position Profile

Are you a natural born leader? Do you have a passion for God and for people? Have you always felt like a square peg in a round hole? Do you feel God calling you to work and thrive in a less-structured, nontraditional, post-contemporary atmosphere? Then you may be the right fit to become our Campus Pastor at the new Adventure Muscatine Campus in Muscatine, Iowa!

How you are wired:

A Relational Person – You understand how to influence people positively and enjoy empowering a diverse group of people.
A Self-starter – You understand that “If it is to be, it is up to me.”
A Connector – You enjoy networking with people and building teams and understand the power of “we”.
An Evangelist – You easily identify and lead people in opportunities to know and experience Christ, are a gifted story-teller, and understand how to motivate and inspire through one-on-one interactions and platform communications.
A Strategic Thinker – You can see the big picture in the distance and can envision the steps it takes to get from here to there.
A Person of Character – You’ve demonstrated integrity over the years in your words, relationships and actions.
A Likable Personality – You enjoy being surrounded by people, make friends easily, and have the gift of good natured sarcasm. You make people laugh, they like you, and you can take it as well as dish it.
Experience – You’ve helped lead healthy, growing ministries, but not necessarily as the lead pastor.

What you will do:

Champion the Adventure mission, vision, and values.
Identify, recruit, and develop staff and volunteers for various ministry teams.
Lead the campus staff, both paid and volunteer.
Cooperate with the Adventure lead team to shepherd the Adventure DNA at the local campus as expressed in Adventure’s “Campus Constants” (See below).
Pastor the local campus family including periodically performing pastoral care responsibilities like weddings, funerals, baptisms, child dedications, and life coaching.
Manage the campus budget.
Connect with the other campus pastors and staff under the leadership of the Adventure lead pastor or his designated representatives.
Organize, operate, and maintain local small groups.
If gifted, participate on the teaching team for the weekend services (not required – and at the discretion of the lead pastor or his designated representatives), and the anticipated iCampus.

What success looks like:

Growing your campus spiritually and numerically as measured through stories and metrics including: Attendance, Giving, Groups’ participation, Baptisms, Volunteers, Outreach involvement.
Accomplishing individual goals established with the lead pastor or his designated representative(s).
Executing the “Campus Constants” (including the financial goals and time lines).
Helping identify and mentor potential other campus pastors and leaders.

Campus Constants

We consider ourselves to be one congregation in multiple locations. Muscatine is our first official new campus, and others are anticipated later on. With that in mind, these are 10 constants that each campus will embrace:

1. Mission - To bring people to Jesus and membership in His family, develop them to Christ-like maturity, and equip them for their ministry in the church and life mission in the world, in order to magnify God’s name.

2. Vision – Our vision includes both short- and long-term views:

Short-term: To reach people via relationships one at a time and lead them on a life-changing journey to follow Jesus.
Long-term: To grow a movement of reproducing congregations and campuses serving southeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois committed to reaching the 70% of people in our region who are unchurched and likely live outside of a relationship with Jesus.

3. Strategy – This strategy will serve as the foundation for spiritual growth:

Love God through worship. We believe that our daily lives should be lived as an act of worship and as we gather weekly for corporate worship.
Grow in God’s grace through small groups. We believe that life change happens best in a Christ-following community of small groups.
Serve God through teams. We encourage people to serve others based on their spiritual gifts, talents, and passions.
Share God through outreach. We desire to reach people for Jesus by relationally impacting local communities and those around the world.

4. Shared Curriculum – Every ministry environment including kids, students and Sunday services will offer the same teaching at every campus, except in cases where a different need is perceived by the Adventure lead team.

5. Teaching Team – The teaching team will set the schedule and will serve as the primary communicators either in person or by video.

6. Leadership Structure – Every ministry of the congregation at each location will operate under one leadership structure that ultimately comes under the authority of the pastoral leadership team and the Lead Pastor. Leadership authority flows through the campus pastors and influence flows through the ministry champions.

7. Leadership Development – The campuses will encourage relationships and environments where volunteer leaders and teams are developed to allow for future reproduction of volunteers and leaders - as well as new congregations and campuses.

8. Financial Model – Every campus will share these financial goals:

Within 12 months, offerings from the campus will cover its ongoing weekly ministry expenses (rent, consumables).
Within 24 months, the offerings from the campus will cover its ongoing weekly ministry expenses including staff costs.
Within 30 months, the offerings from the campus will cover its ongoing weekly ministry expenses including staff costs and its prorated portion of central services expenses (insurance, printing, video production, etc).
Within 36 months, the offerings from the campus will cover its ongoing weekly ministry expenses including staff costs, its prorated portion of central services expenses, and will also contribute to new church-wide endeavors including launching new churches and campuses.
At the appropriate time pending financial health, 10% of a campus’s general offerings will be designated toward missions-oriented giving with a church planting focus.

9. Communications and Web – Every campus will operate under the same communication strategy including a centralized web site for the congregation representing all locations (each campus will maintain its own social media page for local interaction). Additionally, there will be a centralized web-based database to track people, groups, events and finances.

10. Central Services – There will be one centralized process or system for administrative services including banking, paid staffing, payroll, benefits, capital expenditures, lease agreements, etc.

IF this sounds like you and the kind of environment in which you'd like to serve, send your resume and questions to tony@adventurecommunity.org.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #3: Not everyone worships or learns like I do.

2011-02-09T00:01:00.002-06:00

I am from an American home-grown church movement that officially began on the frontiers of the late 18th Century. From the beginning, we’ve often been called "The People of the Book (Bible)" because of our hard-core commitment to Scripture and it's authority. I'm proud of that heritage, and I wouldn't have our teaching do anything BUT rely on The Book.

But ultimately, history has borne out a problem with our approach: We have a lot of seriously book-smart people with lots of head knowledge, but not a fair amount of heart application. That makes for legalists who don't consider the spirit or the context of God's Word.

Back in the 1980's, Leadership Magazine carried an article that talked of how there are basically three kinds of people who attend church (I'm paraphrasing from memory now): Those who respond to auditory stimulation, those who respond to visual stimulation, and those who respond to content stimulation.

Auditory-focused: Those who respond to auditory stimulation don't place high value on what the building looks like or even so much what is taught. They are focused primarily on the sound value: Is the music good? Is the sound good? Are there distracting noises? Can I clearly hear what is going on or being said? Is it pleasant for my ears?

Visual-focused: Those who respond to visual stimulation don't place high value on what they hear or what is taught. They are focused primarily on the visual value: Is it clean? Is it respectfully maintained? Are the colors right? Can I see things being done well and competently? Is it pleasant for my eyes to observe?

Content-focused: Those who respond to the teaching content don't place high value on anything but the content. They will meet in dirty barns and put up with horrible music and sound just to have what their brain considers solid teaching.

It has to do with individual learning methods. God wired each of us differently from many others, yet we all fall into one or more of these three categories.

The challenge? I’m a content-oriented person, but we need to be more concerned about the whole person. Without compromising the content, the church-at-large still needs to be more intentional, more experiential, more engaging on all levels - not just the one learning style we like. Our priority should always be teaching the Word of God skillfully and accurately, but if we can engage the whole person in a multi-sensory experience where what they learn goes deeper into them, why wouldn't we be eager to do that?

For the Monday Morning Hangover: It's always the eyes, Part 1

2011-02-07T00:00:00.002-06:00

Several years ago, a couple of concerned parents brought their unmarried daughter and her boyfriend to my office to have them confess that they were pregnant. These were good kids who had just made a mistake (albeit a very serious one), but I quickly learned that this wasn't about restoring and helping the kids, but about the girl's mom and how she believed people would perceive her.

A few minutes into the meeting, the kids were tearful and repentant without any prodding from us, but mom suddenly started hyperventilating and fainted dead away, drawing all attention to her. We all immediately responded to aid her, and over the next minute or so, when I suggested calling 911, I happened to be looking at her face when she began to "come to". Her eyes cracked open slightly, but they were purposeful in where they looked. I began to suspect this was all a show.

A few days later as I sat at my desk, mom came in again. After a few minutes, she "passed out" and fell onto the floor. I sat still at my desk for a moment. Then I turned and went back to working on my computer. After about two minutes, I detected motion out of the corner of my eye. I kept typing but focused my attention to that motion and realized I was seeing one fourth of a head and one eye slowly peering up over the edge of my desk to see what I was doing - and then it slowly disappeared. A minute or so later, I heard her say as she started to move, "What happened? Oh, I'm okay now. I'm fine." And she got back up and sat on my sofa.

I looked at her and said, "I expect that from two year olds who don't get their way, but that is shameful behavior for a grown woman. If you ever do that again, I'm gonna bend you over my knee and paddle your bottom like you're two years old. Do you understand?" She quietly nodded yes and left my office.

About a month later, right before I left that congregation for a new job, her husband came in to see me. He said, "I know my wife came to see you a few days ago, and I don't know what you told her, but I want to thank you. Whatever you told her has really made a difference. She's like a new woman. She less like her mother and more like the woman I married. Thank you."

I smiled and told him, "Sometimes there are some things we just can't hear from family that we can hear from friends." :)

Leadership Friday: Continuing Education

2011-02-04T00:00:00.003-06:00

A lot of my friends know that I'm doing things a little differently in my education. Many of my peers followed two common paths:

1. They went to a four year Bible college for a B.A. degree, and then on to a seminary for a Masters degree in something theological (the most common seeming to be a M.Div).

2. They went to a liberal arts school for a secular B.A. degree, then to seminary for some theology degree (again, generally a M.Div.).

I thought long and hard about it, and my path has been different.

For my undergrad degree, I went to an intense Bible College where the total focus (at least at the time) was Scripture. That was Ozark Christian College. It was a biblical undergrad education that was second to none. I would not trade the knowledge gained there for a barge load of gold.

For my graduate work, I went the less common route of a secular Masters degree in communication (M.Com/MaComm/MACOM - lots of different acronyms). I absolutely LOVE my school - Spring Arbor University - and have been able to do all of it online. The staff in the communications department is second to none and has been a joy to work with. (Honestly, in my first few classes on communication theory, I kept thinking to myself, "Why the heck was I not taught this in Bible College?!!!!!")

I'm often asked why I opted for that route.

Let's be honest about one of the dirty little secrets of ministry that no one says out loud: Preaching pastors have a shelf life.

We all know there comes an age point where getting a job in a respectable church setting becomes next to impossible, and many then struggle to find a job where they can make a living apart from ministry, or they end up babysitting smaller, often dysfunctional congregations - forced to stay because they need the income, while having their life drained from them by their situation. There are exceptions, but they are just that: The exceptions.

I decided not to be that unprepared guy if I could help it at all. It's kind of an old adage that we can only minister effectively to those within ten years of our own age, or if we are extremely gifted, we might be able to minister to those within a couple years of our children's ages. What happens when we hit that age wall? What happens when hopes and dreams meet unpleasant realities? (I've asked - in writing - the presidents of three Bible Colleges if they had considered anything for helping those who hit that wall or for preparing students for when that wall comes - and none of them, including two at Ozark - my alma mater, ever responded to me to even acknowledge my correspondence.)

Contrary to what Christian seminary recruiters will tell you, if you are forced into the secular work force (and with the decreasing church numbers around the nation, this is likely - the few churches who remain cannot hire all of us!), theological degrees will be worth nothing in finding new employment in order to provide for our family. We are spiritually irresponsible if we do not prepare to care for them financially and effectively.

Thinking ahead, I would like to continue it teaching. It's all I've really done for the most part. So I checked with the HR people of several local public school systems and with several secular colleges and universities (emphasizing my years of public teaching) and was told - almost uniformly - "We can't really say it out loud, but a liberal arts B.A. and a theological M.A. are not going to interest us. Two theological degrees is quietly viewed as worse than no higher degrees at all in our (secular) setting." However, with a secular M.A., my years of teaching would actually mean something.

I listen to a lot of pastors on pod-casts, and most of them do a pretty poor job of creating content and delivering it effectively. In fact, I'd say most of us over estimate our teaching ability. This communication degree has exposed that beyond doubt.

So, as the end of my shelf-life approaches, I have two things I am considering: Teaching communication to young pastors in a Bible College setting to help them be more effective in their ministry, or to teach on a secular campus as a missionary behind the scenes. I could also go into the local school systems and teach.

I don't want my ministry among the churched or the unchurched to end simply because I have hit a certain age.

I'm certainly not against a theological M.A. degree of any kind (especially if you don't have any theological B.A. degree), but I do think we need to be more wise in thinking through the investment of our time and be more honest in the assessment of our life potential. As we get older, our increasing numbers cannot all be employed within the church establishment (or religious schools), nor should we suppose that we are the exception who will be employed.

Think through your options more wisely. Trust God, but have a plan as well, and He will guide your path.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #2: The "Cool" Factor.

2011-02-02T00:01:00.002-06:00

Never underestimate the power (nor importance) of "cool", or at least “decent”.

My family lived in a big apartment complex while pastoring a very traditional congregation that had been hemorrhaging people for years. Leading by example, I worked to get our apartment friends to visit our congregation, but very few ever visited twice. They'd come to our apartment to seek spiritual answers or Bible study and they'd ask for prayer and pray for me, but our congregation was a one-shot event for them. Then I heard a shocker that froze my blood: People I’d shared Christ with were now attending church – elsewhere. It was a good congregation—good solid teaching, great ministries, rapid growth—but it wasn't ours. That hurt.

I eventually asked about it. God spoke through their words: "We like you and your teaching, but everything else is so unfriendly and boring. We found a church that's actually cool, and we like it. It speaks to us on a lot of levels." BAM.

That seems rather carnal if you're secretly shallow and more into religious appearance, but pretty deep if you really wanna reach people.

There are a lot of churches out there in any given town who all believe the same thing, who all teach biblical truth very well, who hope to expand the Kingdom, but why do people choose one congregation over the other? I think it's what I've now heard called "the Cool Factor."

For the church, the Cool Factor is about nurturing the kind of bond with people where they are secure enough to drop the old barriers and open themselves up to being taught God's Word in new, creative, relevant ways. It’s not about giving up theological distinctive, but about how they are presented. What the Cool Factor looks like will vary from congregation to congregation and community to community, but it's gonna be a presentation that consistently grabs the attention of a person and creates a dialogue between the church and the unchurched.

Remember: It’s not theology OR “cool” methodology. That’s a false dichotomy. It’s about the marriage of truth with relevant presentation. That’s cool.

For the Monday Morning Hangover: "Pastor, we wanna make sure we buy the right Bible"

2011-01-31T00:00:00.000-06:00

I love working with new Christ-followers.

One day I got a phone call from a a lady who had taken a friend to buy her first Bible. As they were standing in the Family Bible Bookstore, they became confused with all the types of Bibles on the shelf, so they called me. The call basically went like this:

Caller: "Pastor, we're at the Family Bookstore to buy a Bible, and we wanna make sure we're getting the right kind of Bible."
Me: "Okay, so what did you find?"
Caller: "We found that NLT that you were talking about, but we're not sure it's the right Bible. We think there might be some books in it that aren't s'posed to be there."
Me: "Is it a Catholic Bible? Are you seeing the Apocrypha?"
Caller: "Well, no. The lady working here says it's not a Catholic Bible, but we're not sure. It's got a strange book in it we don't recognize."
Me: "Really? What's the name of it?"
Caller: "It looks like it might be pronounced 'lamentations'. That can't be right though, can it?"
Me: "Yup, that's a real book. It's supposed to be in there."
Caller: "Really?!"
Me: "Yup."
Caller: "So it IS s'posed to be in there?"
Me: "Yup."
Caller: "Wow. Okay. We didn't see that coming."
Me: "It's safe. It's supposed to be there."
Caller: "Okay, if you say so. It just didn't seem right. It just sounds like such a really sad book, but we serve a happy God, so we just thought someone might be trying to sneak something in on us."
Me: "Good catch. But it does belong there."
Caller: "Okay, if you say so. Just didn't see that coming. We'll buy it."

:)

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #1: "New" Requires Change. Change Requires Risk. Risk Requires Permission to Fail.

2011-01-26T00:01:00.001-06:00

At Adventure, we admit failure. In fact, we encourage people to risk it in ministry. If they're never failing, they aren't taking risks, and that means they're not changing — and if there's no change, there's no hope of growth. (This is hard for me because I’m a perfectionist. In fact, even admitting being a perfectionist is a challenge because to confess perfectionism is to confess being imperfect – something tough for a perfectionist!) :)

I look back on our launch in 1998 and think how many things we totally screwed up, but those same mistakes ultimately added to our strength and our appeal later on.

One of the funnier things was that we hand delivered cook-out invitations to 2500 homes, giving two dates and locations to choose from, and promised people friendly conversation with no obligation. We prepared for the onslaught.

The first night, five people showed up, all in one family, and it was the wife of a pastor who was coming to cheer us on.

The second night, we moved our cookout to a new spot. Three people come (one family). The whole idea was a strategic failure.

Yet that pastor's family who came by that first night was a contact that 7 years later would give us the opportunity to love and minister to 40+ inner city kids from broken homes who needed - now have - a loving church home.

The three who came the second night, was a family who owned a direct mail company. They offered to handle our direct mail at only the cost of the postage — a savings of several thousand dollars for us!

Over the years, we’ve done more things that failed than succeeded, yet none of those positive things would’ve happened had we not been willing to risk failure.

We frequently tell the stories of our failures, and we laugh (some are simply hilarious). But what has often appeared to be a failure at the time has turned into a success later on. Because of that willingness to fail or let people fail, we've done some unique things you won’t find in many other congregations.

The bottom line: New requires risk. While not all change is progress, all progress involves change and risk. Risk requires the opportunity to fail, to change, and to try again. If you’re a perfectionist like me, get over it. Success requires the possibility of imperfections – and lots of them.

For the Monday Morning Hangover: When church doesn’t hurt enough… :)

2011-01-24T00:00:00.001-06:00

We had an attending family who was exactly that: Attending – nothing more, nothing less. However, they were regular and never missed a weekend. They often sat in the same spot and made good eye-contact through the teaching time – the kind of people a pastor likes to have to watch so he can see if he’s connecting or not. They laughed at my jokes, interacted with me during the service – and even though they never seriously contributed ANYTHING other than their attendance, it was good to have them there. Then one weekend, they were gone. No big deal, I thought, probably travelling or sick. Then came the next weekend, and they were again gone. Then the third weekend came, and they were still absent.

I called them to check up on them and tell them that we missed them, and they informed me that they wouldn’t be back to church. I asked if there was something that had happened or if I could talk with them about it more, and the father answered, “Oh, no, Pastor Tony, nothing is wrong with you or the church – we’ve loved every moment of being there, and the kids looked forward to it. THAT was the problem. We want our church-going to count for something, and we’ve enjoyed Adventure so much that it’s like not even going to church. So we’re going back to our old church. The kids aren’t happy about it, but at least now they can learn something about sticking with something they don’t like and that’s good for them. We’re sure going to miss attending Adventure, but we’ve got to do something to show that we are committed to God no matter what.”

When he finished, the silence hung in the air like the flash after a stun grenade. I gathered my thoughts and asked him, “So, if you’re not miserable at church, you think God isn’t honored by that? You HAVE TO BE miserable in order to validate worshiping God?” He hesitated and then answered, “Well, yes. That’s kind of how we see it.”

And they were gone back to honoring God like many did in 16^th Century Germany. :)

Leadership Fridays: Malicious Service Disruptions

2011-01-21T00:01:00.004-06:00

As crazy as it sounds, there are people who want to disrupt worship services - for any number of reasons from simple internal disagreements to outside invasions.

A transgendered man had begun attending our services and our people - true to their form and reputation - welcomed him as a person. Within a few days it became clear that his intention was not to find Christ or to get his life together, but to raise money for a sex change surgery. He began approaching people and asking them for money every weekend. When they would hesitate to give him money, he would accost them, accusing them of being "hateful", "intolerant", and "unChristian". I was forced to approach him and tell him he was welcome to continue attending - but that the requesting of money had to stop.

He immediately became quite angry and warned us that the next weekend he intended to return with "friends" to disrupt our services and to teach us "a lesson about intolerance". Finding ourselves now targeted by a militant transgendered group, we were forced to take action in an attempt to prevent any disruption.

His threats forced me to issue a "no trespass order" to preserve the peace, and I then contacted an attorney about creating a warning sign to protect our services. This sign is the result of that conversation.

Because I don't believe the days are gonna get any easier for those of us in the Church, I wanna share this sign with you so you can have this resources in the eventuality that it is needed in your situation. (I hope you never need it, but it is better to be prepared for something that doesn't happen than to be ill-prepared for something that does.)

The text of the sign reads:

ATTENTION:
NO CASH IS KEPT ON THIS SITE, NOR IS IT DISBURSED FROM THIS SITE.

ATTENTION:

WORSHIP SERVICES & CHURCH-SPONSORED EVENTS ON THIS SITE ARE PROTECTED BY FEDERAL LAW FROM DISRUPTION OR INTERFERENCE.

TITLE 18, U.S.C., SECTION 247
CHURCH ARSON PREVENTION ACT OF 1969
Prohibits [1] intentional defacement, damage, or destruction of any religious real property, because of the religious, racial, or ethnic characteristics of that property, or [2] intentional obstruction by force or threat of force, or attempts to obstruct any person in the enjoyment of that person's free exercise of religious beliefs. If the intent of the crime is motivated for reasons of religious animosity, it must be proven that the religious real property has sufficient connection with interstate or foreign commerce. However, if the intent of the crime is racially motivated, there is no requirement to satisfy the interstate or foreign commerce clause.

Punishment varies from one year imprisonment and a fine or both, and if bodily injury results to any person, including any public safety officer performing duties as a direct or proximate result of conduct prohibited by this section, and the violation is by means of fire or an explosive, a fine under this title or imprisonment of not more than 40 years or both; or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or accordance with this title and imprisonment for up to 20 years, or both, and if death results or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined in accordance with this title and imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or maybe sentenced to death.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transitions in Planting

2011-01-19T00:01:00.000-06:00

Personal Transitions in Planting

My whole entry into church planting was spurred by a series of ministries I had in congregations which (at least at the time) had no interest in being effective or in changing. They feigned interest in reaching new people, provided those new people thought like them, dressed like them, talked like them, and did what they were told by them. That raised serious concerns for me.

My brother Tim was the first up close church planter I knew. My brother Matt was the second. They spurred me on by showing me how we could break out of the traditional mold and reach people many Christians would simply write off.

Since my ordination in 1983, it’s always jumped out at me was how the rest of the world was changing its styles, tastes, focus, and energy, but the church wasn’t: The church saw change as a threat. Communities were growing, yet congregations in them remained flat or declining. I pondered, “Why is everything booming but the church?”

I eventually realized businesses and communities were thriving because of change, something in which the church seemed to have no interest. My Bible College years found me — much to the chagrin of a couple profs — questioning what was essential for the church and what was not. I didn’t question theology. I questioned methodology. I began working to distinguish the difference between biblical teaching and modern practice. (In my childhood, you'd have thought short-hair, suits and ties, and hymns WERE biblical!) To this day, I know if I ask a pastor whether he understands the difference between biblical teaching and his denom’s practices – and he glazes over – he's in trouble.

The conclusion I came to is that in order for the church to be relevant to real life and to survive into the future, it needs to understand the change taking place around it, and transition its methodology (not theology!) to reach people.

At Adventure, we say up front in our Articles of Incorporation and our By-Laws: “Each generation of this congregation will continually prepare itself to minister to the following two generations.”

The message stays the same, but how it's delivered and presented must change. That requires a lot of personal transitions for church leaders. Over the next ten Wednesdays, I wanna share with you the transitions I had to make for this to happen for me personally.

For the Monday Hangover: "Good God, sign me up for some of that!"

2011-01-17T00:01:00.003-06:00

When we decided to target the unchurched, we landed in the middle of the target. Our format takes on the feel of big informal class more than traditional church services, and since our target is the unchurched, they don’t often know the traditional behaviors - especially back in the days when we first started.

One weekend around Easter, I was sharing the whole reason for Easter and making a pure Gospel presentation and talking about how once God forgives our sin, He promises to remember it no more. I was about 20 minutes into a 35 minute sermon when I saw a hand go up in the back of the room. I ignored it at first, but then it started waving back and forth, so I figured I needed to respond if for no other reason than everyone else saw it.

It was a big old guy who’d survived Vietnam with a couple of Purple Hearts and a pretty hard life since. I called on him and he said, “So, if I’m getting this right, you’re telling me that if I become a (insert quote fingers for visual effect) ‘Christian’ and ‘get saved’ that no matter what I’ve done, God forgives it and doesn’t hold it against me?” I replied, “Yes, as far as God’s concerned, it’s erased from your record. He doesn’t count it against you.” And I went back to teaching and restating it all again.

About two minutes later, up went his hand again – and he started waving it immediately.

I called on him again, and he said, “So, let me make sure I’m getting this right. If I trust Jesus to (insert quote fingers again) 'save me' and ask Him to 'forgive me and be my Savior' and then let Him be the 'boss of my life', you’re telling me that no matter what I’ve done, no matter how bad it was - even if it was really, really bad, no matter how bad it was, as far as God’s concerned, it’s like it never happened when He looks at me? And when I stand before Him, He's not gonna bring it up?” I smiled at him and said, “Yup, that’s what I’m telling you.”

It fell quiet for a minute, and then I heard from shout, “Well, good God, sign me up for some of that!” And a new child of God was born. :)

Leadership Fridays: Life Coaching v. Counseling

2011-01-14T00:01:00.005-06:00

IMHO, a lot of young pastors (I was one) are naively misguided with the best of intentions. We want to help people. We want to bring to them God’s compassion. Unfortunately, the counseling process is often the opposite of God’s call on us. I don’t do counseling. In fact, I’ve never met a lead or senior pastor who is both 1) in a growing church and 2) any good at counseling.

A large component of our congregation is in recovery of some sort or another: From addictions or abuse, both active and passive (Active meaning they willfully initiated it – alcoholism, substance, gambling, porn; Passive meaning they were afflicted by someone else – sexually, physically, financially, relationally, etc.).

When people ask me if I will counsel them, I explain “I am a triage specialist, not a therapist”. I will then apply the Four Sentence/30-second Rule, and will give them a referral to the appropriate professional people.

If I determine it isn’t counseling but coaching, I’ll meet with them again, but with expectations. Life coaching is a collaborative process in which the coach looks at the player’s attitudes, behaviors and actions directly and gives direction from an outside point of view. He’s not so concerned with how they feel about something as what they do about it. Feeling follows behavior. Let’s work the right behaviors first. If you can’t punch through the feelings to make right choices, well, no one can help someone who isn’t willing to help themselves - and that's why I'm no occupational threat to counselors. I will coach someone for as long as they are making an effort, but I will refer a counselee to a professional counselor.

A specific question follows the process: "How do I know if the player being coached is seriously making an effort at it?" One simple test: Each brief meeting with them gives them three to five things to work on for the next week. I ask them to, within 24 hours, email me what was on that list (as well as to remind me anything else I told them I would provide). I log it into my iPhone to send them a note 48 hours after the meeting if I still have not received their to-do list. Unless there is a really good reason, if I have not heard from them within 72-hours of our meeting, I’m done. If it’s important enough to merit my time, it’s important enough to merit theirs as well.

Wednesday Planter: Ten Quick Things I’ve learned about Church Planting, Part 2

2011-01-12T00:01:00.002-06:00

(Continued from one week ago)

6. God only reimburses money you spend wisely.

Never horde money. It's for ministry. Use it for wise ministry and God will keep reimbursing it.

7. Change is one of the most important traditions you can establish.

Talk about change constantly. YOU must change and improve personally and openly. Change keeps your people flexible and adaptable to whatever situations God brings your way.

Yes, you're gonna have traditions even in a non-traditional plant, but at least you get to determine what they are! :) Keep them few, but make them healthy, meaningful ones knowing that someday some young kid is gonna come in, disrespect them, and change them - which is exactly what SHOULD happen.

8. Never criticize other congregations.

Let's admit it: Most church plants are in reaction to something negative somewhere else in the planter's life. Not all, but I feel VERY safe in saying "most."

Be careful that you don't criticize others in trying to sell your vision. Don't juxtapose yourself against someone else. If you do that, you will draw critical people to you...the very people who will eventually hinder and sicken your ministry - and eventually they will turn on you.

Sell the positives of what you're gonna do, not how you're not gonna have the (real or imagined) negatives of someone else.

9. Choose who you lose.

It is equally as important who you choose to lose from your congregation as who you choose to keep. Dysfunctional people who are not immediately teachable need to be lovingly invited to go elsewhere. Never be afraid to ask someone to leave. Part of the job of a shepherd is to remove unhealthy sheep and prevent exposure to the rest of the flock. Sickness is contagious.

You've probably noticed this already, but healthy people don't stay around sick situations for very long. If you keep losing the people you'd like to have stay, you need to get really honest really quick and deal with the situation.

10. If you "need" people, you'll never have a healthy ministry.

Many planters are not themselves healthy. They have a strong need for approval. If you need the approval of people, you'll never be able to lead in a healthy manner because you'll always be afraid of displeasure - even when you shouldn't be.

For the Monday Hangover: Of Veggie Tales and Target Groups

2011-01-10T00:01:00.001-06:00

The weekend of our launch, we were only expecting a handful of kids, so our volunteers prepared for about a dozen kids under the age of 13 (We had been to a couple of other launches, and that seemed reasonable). However, we ended up with nearly 60 kids in that group.

Our volunteers came running in a panic because we did not have the materials necessary for such a group. Wanting to get on with the adult portion, I told the workers, “Run out into the trailer, grab the TV with the VCR in it, and put in a Veggie Tales. We fix it for next week. Just get through this week.” Off they went.

The bomb didn’t hit us until the next week. Our target group was unchurched 18-39 year olds with families. We landed right in the middle of them, but how far into the middle of them was not readily apparent until the second week. These kids knew absolutely NOTHING about God or the usual Bible stories we take for granted. Our children’s workers spent the next month explaining that Daniel was actually a human being and that there are no singing vegetables or fruits mentioned in the Bible. :)

Leadership Fridays: The Four Sentence/30-second Rule

2011-01-07T00:01:00.004-06:00

God has given me the privilege of pastoring a fairly good-sized, Midwestern congregation with a high percentage of new believers (about 70% of our people consider us their first church experience). I’m also doing that with a great part-time children's ministry director, two part-time people helping with book-keeping, and dozens of the greatest volunteers in the world.

Still, that leaves me as the focus and face of the congregation when it comes to needing counsel or direction. I also have a ton of people with ideas who want to bounce them off of me (many of those ideas are what have made Adventure the great church family it is). HOWEVER, the demand for face-time is huge. Let me put it into perspective: If I spent one hour with each adult in the congregation and met with 10 each per day five days a week, I would have time for nothing other than meeting with people for nearly three months.

So I’ve learned a little trick that saves me wasted time with people thinking out loud or offering ideas on a spontaneous whim. I say to them, “Right now, in four complete sentences or less, or 30 seconds or less, tell me about your idea (problem, struggle, whatever).” If they can’t do that, I suggest to them that they are not clear enough with their own head for me to help them, and I ask them to work on it and get back to me. That serves two key purposes immediately:

1. It helps them to boil it down to the core, something they’ve usually not been forced to do – and the amazing thing is the revelation they have when doing so.

2. It helps me know the best way to help them – if it’s counseling, I know who to refer them to (I don’t do counseling); or if it’s a usable, appropriate idea, I know which ministry team leader they need to visit with and can refer them that direction.

It keeps my time free, doesn’t waste theirs, and gets them what they really need – help or empowerment – rather than face time with an authority figure (which might often be what they want, but not what they need).

Wednesday Planter: Ten Quick Things I've Learned Church Planting, Part 1

2011-01-05T00:01:00.002-06:00

I've actually learned a lot of things, but here are ten that readily come to mind. I’ll give the first five today, and the last five next Wednesday.

1. Where God guides, God provides.

Learn to discern when something is just a simple, faith-building challenge and when it's a divine "no." Sometimes, God is allowing you to have your faith tested. Other times, you're just being stupid and stubborn. Learn to recognize the difference.

2. Meeting expectations is second only to managing them.

Never oversell your plan or your goals. Manage the expectations to realistic levels. If you exceed them, you've got a team-building win.

3. People are gracious: If you make a mistake, admit it and move on.

Never deny a mistake. When you do, you lose credibility and relational cash. When you admit it and adjust, you become more credible and actually gain relational cash.

Don't underestimate the positive power of making mistakes. At least when you make a mistake, it means you're trying something new! This creates an atmosphere where volunteers and ministry leaders are free to try new things, too. Maybe most of them will fail, but the things that succeed are worth the previous failures. In this realm, failure is a GOOD thing!

4. If people don't like you, it doesn't matter what you believe.

John Maxwell said, "People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision." If they aren't buying into your vision, you need to honestly assess yourself. A friend says, "Most people overestimate two things consistently: The good smell of their breath, and their people skills."

If you're not the kind of person who already has lots of friends, you're probably not going to make it as a planter. People will not follow someone they don't like AND respect.

5. Don't confuse being a day-dreamer with being a visionary.

I know too many who sit in their office and dream of being somewhere else where they don't have a board or council and things are "better." Understand: Day-dreamers are wishful thinkers who wanna be somewhere else and lack the skills (both people and leadership) to make things happen. They struggle and can't ever figure out why they are NOT succeeding.

Visionaries, on the other hand, know where they need to be and can both sell the vision and recruit the people.

Honestly, most planters I know are day-dreamers, not visionaries - hence the monster failure rate we see around us.

(The final 5 things next Wednesday!)

For the Monday Hangover: Christmas Angels and God's Waiting Room

2011-01-03T00:01:00.000-06:00

It was just before Christmas several years ago, and our kids ministry had decided to make Christmas cards for a local nursing home. They also thought it would nice to go Christmas Caroling to deliver their Christmas cards to the residents at the nursing home.

One of our young girls, dressed as a Christmas angel (complete with golden halo), went into a room to deliver a card to the resident - who was sleeping lightly at the time. The presence of our young girl apparently stirred the elderly, bed-ridden resident. Noticing the motion of the resident waking, our young "angel" turned and stood wearing a big smile beside the bed. The aged resident opened her eyes to the sight of a grinning, young cherub standing at her bedside.

Note to self: When visiting a nursing home, children dressed as angels should always be accompanied by a plainly dressed adult and under no circumstances should they ever enter a sleeping resident’s room.