ChurchVenture

Start disciple-making sooner (and a book I wrote)

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Since starting Destination Church in Chicago we have experience the good, the bad and ugly of church planting. We started with a very small team and after officially launching a couple of years ago we are now touching the 150 mark. This number of course only tells part of our story, but by Gods grace we have continued to grow numerically and in spiritual maturity. Through this experience I’ve been working on a special project to more effectively integrate people into the life of the church, even from day one.

Since the start we’ve given books to our first-time guests as a “thank you for coming” gift. It always makes a positive impression and the content of the various books has motivated some to quickly make important decisions for God. However, I have never been fully pleased with the content of those books. They never really seemed to say everything I wanted, and they never seemed suitable for both believers and unbelievers alike. So I wrote my own, and I’d like to share it with you in the hopes that it would be a help to your church as well.

The book is titled Unforgettable: Your purpose in Christ and is available on Amazon, as well as in the Kindle format. We give this book out each week to our first-time guests with encouraging results. It’s only a starting point to move people into deeper commitment, it certainly is not a comprehensive plan for discipleship. Beginning on Monday October 29th it will be available for free on Kindle for a five day period. I want to give churches the opportunity to check it out and consider it as a tool for discipleship in their churches.

The initial goal of the book is to win a return visit from each first-time guest, whether they are a believer or not. This helps improve the assimilation process, which leads into a process of spiritual growth. If people don’t come back, how can we influence them? It inspires and challenges people to take simple steps towards being a disciple of Jesus within the church community. It places a high value on church, which seems lacking from other resources. This is something church planters and church leaders are passionate about. The book takes a very direct approach, but what we’ve learned is that books are a method of self-discovery, where readers are greatly impacted by new concepts because they are learning for themselves.

If you lead a church, or are interested in showing this to the leaders of your church, please take advantage of this free Kindle version. It’s a short read, at just fifty pages, and might take you around 30-40 minutes to read. Give it a shot and pick up your free Kindle version of Unforgettable here. It’s only free for five days.

Receive a 20% discount by ordering print copies from unforgettableness.com. Those outside the USA may need to order from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.eu.

If you find the book helpful, please consider leaving a review at unforgettableness.com/review.

Pick up your free Kindle version of Unforgettable here.

Mistakes I Made In The First 6 Months Of Church Planting

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:41:00 +0000

I have come up with a list of 8 mistakes I have made during the first 6 months of church planting in Chicago. I am sure there are more, but this is what I am aware of so far.

1) Public vs Private Venue

Our goal is to gather 50 people into our core group before we do a BIG launch. We are actually not using monthly preview services as the sole strategy to gather a launch team. We'll use previews but for a different reason.

For the first 6 months we were gathering in a home environment. Over 60 people visited our weekly core group meetings during this time. However, I believe that gathering people to a new church, in a pre-launch phase and in a home environment is not a great approach unless they are all people you know really well. We are trying to gather together new people to join us. I believe that people find the home setting to be too awkward and base their decision on this rather than the vision of the future.

So we fixed this. We are now gathering at a Cafe to continue to build our core group. It's costing us more money, but people are sticking better and more people are visiting. I wanted to avoid the cost of rent but in this culture the church-in-your-home model is hard to win people to even if you tell them you are in a pre-launch phase.

2) Recruiting Core People Sooner

To be fair, we did have a list of people we wanted to recruit before we even moved to Chicago, but the politically correct way to approach these people is to ask their pastors for permission. Our list of about 15 direct invitations turned into a list of 1! We were turned down and somewhat crippled from gathering core group members ourselves. This is not a complaint because I know that God is ultimately in control of this. But it is definitely something I can learn from.

I wish 2 years ago I had started envisioning my circle of friends about my desire to start a church. I think that taking steps earlier to dream with friends about the possibility of planting together would have helped recruit more people ahead of time. Perhaps I was too insecure in talking about this, but if I could do it again I would have started a LOT earlier.

To make the best of this I've started exercising our new networks in Chicago and we've already attracted a potential worship leader from Minneapolis. In the end -- this is the way God wanted us to do it so I'm cool with it. But as a pastor now, I want to be more releasing to people who want to church plant. It would kind of be hypocritical if i wasn't!

3) Creating A Budget Sooner

We have a comprehensive budget now and our core people have pledged their giving over the next 12 months, plus we have a budget seminar this Saturday. However, I should have put this together before I hit the ground and got busy with immediate needs. We've fixed this, but I should have known better.

4) Not Starting Socials Sooner

Our strength and passion as a couple is having lots of people in our home and creating an environment for extravagant fun. But, it took us 4 months to start regular social events in our home. While this isn't totally bad, we needed a bit of adjustment and networking time, I wish we had done it sooner. We have now started building a strong sense of momentum and have been able to harness our new friendships and started gathering people more effectively. This also has provided a context for our core group to invite people into than just our weekly core gatherings.

We are consistently building friendships with people and gathering them into the community now. While these events are legitimately just for relationships, our hope, prayer and strategy is to bring people into the church.

5) Not Praying Enough

I have not been committed to prayer like I should have. I have seriously adjusted this aspect of my life. I am prayer walking, fasting and consistently asking for specific things on a daily basis now. I have always been good at praying in the moment but that is simply not enough. While it takes hard work to start a church is also takes a LOT of time in prayer. I just preached on this here. As a church we also only had a monthly prayer meeting. We've moved this to every other week now.

6) Sunday Afternoon vs Sunday Morning

Our core group was gathering on Sunday afternoons which has worked for many church plants but I don't think it worked for us. Other Christians who were looking in could keep going to their churches and simply visit us. This seemed good but in the end it hurt us. Since moving to Sunday mornings things are more black and white. Any Christian from another church who is considering joining us is now in the position to actively miss their church to visit ours. If they aren't willing to do this then they probably wont join anyway.

7) Telling My Mentors What Questions To Ask Me

I have some great men that I look to for mentoring and input. I have been on the phone many times since we moved to Chicago getting help with various things. This has been very important. However, I think I should have done a better job of telling them what questions to ask me rather than just presenting a situation for their input.

I have now asked for these questions to come my way when I call them:

What new contacts have you made?
How are you following up with them?
What are you procrastinating on?
What can you delegate?
Have you initiated and protected time with the kids and with Heather?
What have you spent money on this week?
What time have you been going to bed?
How are you handling sexual temptation? (I am already accountable for this but it's good to include the question again!)
Is there anyone in the church you need to personally encourage this week?
How are your devotions? How much time have you spent in prayer and the scriptures?

8) Expecting More Gathering Fruit During The Summer

During the summer we surveyed close to 600 people in the city. We attracted about 8 of them to 2 events we did on a Saturday afternoon. I thought that response was a bit lame, although still something to be thankful for. I now realize we made some BIG mistakes. We blew our invitation on an event which we called a 'Presentation', not the perception we should have given it, which was on a Saturday afternoon -- during the beautiful Chicago summer.

The topic of the presentation was 'Encouraging Community'. While community is part of our vision and a real need in the city, most people think that Chicago has a good community. In the end we only incorporated 2-3 people from this outreach. Not bad, but not great. The summer is a good time to sow but the reaping should be expected in the fall. Reaping in the summer was very hit and miss for us.

I had kind of pinned a lot of hope on building our core group from the massive amount of surveying we did during the summer. Since this didn't have the return that we had hoped for I lost my personal emphasis on networking. Having realized this in myself I have already started scheduling more coffee appointments again and working to connect new people I am meeting into our socials.

Conclusion

It is essential to evaluate and consider what could have been done better. I have been wrestling with God in prayer over the past few weeks as I felt that we should be seeing more fruit by now. Really, what we have seen is great and to be prized. Every new person we have won over is a HUGE blessing and a validation that God has called us to be doing this.

The biggest lesson for me is that growth comes from God so that he can get the credit and that my personal level of readiness in ministry and persistence in prayer CANNOT be overlooked. It has to be central. It doesn't rest on me, but God will never grow this thing beyond where I am at. I feel like we are right on track with the adjustments that have been made and I have faith for God to build our core group up to 50 people.

I've realized that church planting is much harder than I ever thought but I am encouraged that to launch this bad boy we just have to persist. It is going to take time but, God said it would happen and so we are leaning on that a lot right now.

Please continue to pray for us.

Church Plants in Chicago New Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:19:00 +0000

Check it out! Our brand new Chicago church web site to help new people to connect with us: DestinationChurch.org

We have a number of cool things on the new site. Firstly, visitors can take a short survey and have the chance to win $100 of meat for a cook out. We are simply trying to encourage community, and serve the people of the city by stimulating deeper connectedness. If you know anyone in Chicago, please forward the web site link to them and encourage them to take the survey. I know some of you reading this will think, oh, that doesn't mean me, but yes, it means YOU. Please send your Chicago friends to the site to take the survey and have the chance to win $100 of serious meat!

Destination Church now has it's own official blog that has just launched. If you are interested in keeping up with how and what we are communicating to our people then go ahead and subscribe, you can sign-up via email or RSS on the homepage.

Our prayer partners section is still available for new people to sign up. It's under the "Get Involved" section. If you still haven't signed up, please join the dedicated team of over 200 prayer partners that we currently have!!!

We have a lot of information on the site about a campaign we are launching in Chicago called Encouraging Community. We are giving away 5,000 bottle openers and telling people to share a drink with a neighbor. We are also giving out 3 prizes of $100 of meat and asking people to host a community cook out. To top it all off we are offering a short presentation about the importance of community involvement, the reason human trust and relationships have broken down in society, some solutions to fix it and the vision of Destination Church.

You can read the full article here which explains in more detail.

My apologies for not having blogged for a while, I've been trying to meet 20 new people a week and it's INSANE! Keep praying for us, especially as our Summer Evangelism Interns are arriving today. Orientation kicks off at 1pm, so I'll have 8 guys sitting in my living room and I'm sure some of them will wet their pants at some of the things I am going to ask them to do!!! WAHAAHAHA!!!!

Peace

How To Choose A Church Name

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:19:00 +0000

Special update: I wrote a book for churches to give to first-time guests. It’s had a huge impact at bringing more people back as second-time guests and adding them into the church community. Get the Kindle version of Unforgettable: Your purpose in Christ here and the print version from unforgettableness.com. Those outside the USA may need to order print copies from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.eu.
In my last post, 119 Cool Church Names, I explained my philosophy for selecting a church name. This last Sunday I announced the name to our core group. We surveyed Christians and unchurched people to find a name that would be attractive and acceptable to both. We wanted a one word name with the word "church" following it, and we wanted something original, hard to do these days.

I had a number of people ask their friends which church they would be more likely to attend if they were invited by a friend or saw an advertisement. The four names we presented to our friends were:

Message Church
Crimson Church
Destination Church
Celebration Church

Here are the results:

Message Church

Christians really liked this name. I personally liked it too. I got the idea when I glanced at my bookshelf and saw the Message paraphrase of The Bible by Eugene Peterson. Christians liked the simplicity and the theological strength of this name. It appeared to be a winner. However, nearly 100% of the unchurched and nonChristian people we asked about this name HATED it! It sounded preachy and redundant. Of course, those outside the church expect a church to have a message, and so, because it's in the very title of the church they felt like we REALLY had a message, perhaps a LONG and hell-bent message! This was eye opening. What Christians thought was a sound name with good meaning, nonChristians found repelling. This means Message Church is a poor choice if we want to attract unbelievers.

Crimson Church

Christians were split on this name. Half the Christians we spoke to really liked it and half really didn't. It has some merit to be fair. It's artsy and young sounding, to help attract a new generation, and also has some strong theological meaning to it. Crimson is the color of blood. It represents the blood of Christ. Personally, I thought this could have worked well. However, most nonChristians disliked this name and found it suspicous. They didn't understand it. It gave them the feeling of being mystical and unclear. They felt immediately disconnected because it appears to be a name that Christians would understand, but they are somehow lacking in understanding. It is a barrier creating name. Some unchurched also felt that this sounded like a name for a TV Evangelist show! Yikes! That is a definate one to avoid.

Destination Church

Over all this was well accepted. It was the second most popular pick among nonChristians. Christians also liked this name. There was a small percentage that thought it was a little bland or that the word had been overused, but this was a small group. It is true, tt has been used in some regards as a branding word, but it is not often used as the name of an organization. It still has originality. It has great theological meaning. Our destination is Jesus. Everything ultimately finds meaning in him. It speaks of purpose, clarity and goals. Most Christians thought it sounded strong and had lots of marketing potential. NonChristians shocked us with their opinion of this name. 90% of them really liked it. They understood it. It made sense to them and they thought it sounded pretty cool actually. Some even commented that they would expect to encounter spiritual truth at this church! Crazy! People from a relativistic society expecting truth! Amazing! This was the most favorable name for both Christians and nonChristians.

Celebration Church

I personally disliked this name a lot. I thought it sounded happy clappy and weird. Nearly all Christians we surveyed thought the same thing. This name would potentially repell lots of new area Christians, which would not be a wise decision. However, and most surprisingly, this name was the MOST polular among nonChristians. Shocking! They liked it because it was positive and upbeat. They felt like church should be uplifting and so this name captured something good. They didn't really have the hangups that Christians had about it. In the end I felt it would not be smart to chose a name that Christians hated and nonChristians loved. We needed a cross over name.

The Name?

The Newfrontiers Chicago Church Plant name will be Destination Church. There doesn't appear to be any churches in the world with this name, so it is highly original for a church name, and it is clear and attractive to both Christians and nonChristians. We feel it will be helpful for attracting city people, young families, students and young professionals.

In the end a lot of this comes down to opinion. But the fact that this name doesn't turn people away is a positive.

What do you think?

119 Cool Church Names

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Special update: I wrote a book for churches to give to first-time guests. It’s had a huge impact at bringing more people back as second-time guests and adding them into the church community. Get the Kindle version of Unforgettable: Your purpose in Christ here and the print version from unforgettableness.com. Those outside the USA may need to order print copies from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.eu.
In the process of trying to think through a name for our new church in Chicago I brainstormed an initial list of 156 names. Some were so ridiculous that I had to remove them from this list, which now contains some less ridiculous names.

I will not reveal here what the new churches name is. I'll be sharing that with the core group in a few weeks. In choosing a name I wanted to keep these things in mind:

Something simple. One or two words with the word "church" after it. People need to know we are a church, so having "church" is important to me. Some exclude this, but I personally think that is a mistake. I wanted one or two words because some church names are so long it's hard to say them. I want things to be simple in this regard.
Would the unchurched be more or less likely to visit purely based on the name?
Would the name connect with Christians?
Be certain no other churches in close proximity had this name.
Something that would work in different locations around the city.
I felt that it was important to find something non-traditional, because we are targeting a younger urban crowd, yet something not too wacky that would turn away Christians who are looking for a church.

I went through the process of having a number of Christians present 4 possible names to their unchurched friends in Chicago and pose this question: Purely based on the name, which church would you be most likely to visit if a friend invited you or if you saw an advertisement? This process was VERY eye opening and SHOCKING to some degree. Christians and unchurched people had widely different reactions to the names. I could not have predicted how our unchurched friends would have responded to the options.

After hearing both sides, we have chosen a name. We'll reveal it soon, so checkout the brainstorm list and watch this space ...

119 Cool Church Names (some aren't so cool!)

ONELOVE church
Recreate church
Eklesia church
Connect church
CHURCH CAST
The Race Church
NewGlobe Church
NewChurch
Restorer Church
Defender Church
Rescuer Church
Giver Church
Act Church
The Overture Church
The Endeavor Church
First Act Church
Venture Church
Great Endeavor Church
The Exchange Church
Truth Church
The Source Church
All Things New Church
Pitch Church
The Launch Church
OutSetChurch
Link Church
Encounter Church
24 CHURCH
First Love Church
Replenish Church
Global Church
The Center Church
CONNECTION CHURCH
Epic Venture Church
The Root Church
DANGERMOUSE Church (added for tobiwan)
Renewal Church
Renew Church
OneWayChurch
Landmark Church
Century Church
Central Church
CleanSlate Church
TombStone Church
Kinetic Church
Movement Church
Motion Church
Activate Church
Dynamic Church
Rhythm Church
Pulse Church
Beat Church
Sound Church

New Music Church
Portal Church
Music of Life Church
Rhythm of Life Church
Reactivate Church
TheCause
LIFECAUSE Church
BeTheCause Church
Motif Church
Designers Church
ThePattern
LifePattern
PatternOfLife Church
TheDesign
Redesign Church
TheSketch
Objective Church
CityBeat
Fresh Church
Start Church
TheFigure
TheCrux
TheCore
Guardian Church
Keeper Church
Director Of Life Church
One Church
The Messenger
Messenger Church
Message Church
Stream Church
Streaming Church
LIGHT CHURCH
VIBE Church
Verve Church
Manifold Church
Home Church
Open House Church
Propulsion Church
View Church
Vision Church
Honor Church
Celebration Church
Churchopolis
Churchopia
Star Church
Jesus Church
New Tribe
Kin Church
Commit Church
Change Church
Resolution Church
Enthuse Church
Overflow Church
Drive Church
Enter Church
Embark Church
Purpose Church
Multiply Church
Reproduce Church
Celebrate Church
Access Church
New Deal Church
Joy Church
Crimson Church
Red Church

200 Prayer Team for the Chicago Church Plant

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:12:00 +0000

One of the most common mistakes that new churches make is to underestimate the level of spiritual warfare involved in church planting. Therefore, it is our desire to gather a BIG team of prayer partners who are willing to pray through a monthly (or sometimes weekly) itemized prayer list. Basically, if you are breathing and if you have an email address, you can sign up for this!

Our goal is to gather 200 prayer partners. As of a few minutes ago we had 67. I'm hoping that after this blog post we can bump it up quite a bit more! I'm counting on you! Here is how you sign up and pray for us:

Visit http://www.churchplantchicago.com/
Click "Join the prayer team" on the black box on the right
Fill in your name and email address (please make sure you spell your email correctly!)
CLICK THE LINK in the confirmation email. (VERY important step)
As you receive prayer requests please take time out of your week to pray through them.

The process is very straightforward. When you are on the site please checkout the other things we have going on. Post a comment and share it with others who might be interested.

Signing up for the prayer team will also be a good way to stay on top of our news and developments.

Please visit: http://www.churchplantchicago.com/ and become a prayer partner!

Innovative way to fund church planting

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:30:00 +0000

Special update: I wrote a book for churches to give to first-time guests. It’s had a huge impact at bringing more people back as second-time guests and adding them into the church community. Get the Kindle version of Unforgettable: Your purpose in Christ here and the print version from unforgettableness.com. Those outside the USA may need to order print copies from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.eu.
Church planters either have time and no money, or money and no time. I think it is designed this way on purpose to keep us on our toes and trusting God. Having both time and money would not however increase the chance of a successful church plant. Money is not really the issue when it comes to church planting, although you still need it. So, in continuing to trust in Gods provision, I am going to reveal to you an innovative way to fund church planting that I have created.

God's calling on our lives is the real foundation to being successful. If the calling is there, the money will follow. It doesn't magically follow, it comes when you ask people for it, work for it and pray for it. And, just to let you know, I've been working hard on something I believe God spoke to me about. In an attempt the lighten the load of freelance work, utilize my skills, focus on my calling and generate additional support I have just launched a multi-author blog which I'd like you to check out.

First, please watch this 60 second video to get a grasp on the purpose of the blog.

But how does it generate funding?

Before I give away the secret I want your help. Once you visit the new site (eatjesus.com), please do as much as you can from the list below. Every action you take adds value to what we are doing and increases our support:

Comment on the first post
Subscribe via email or RSS
Join the Google Friend Connect (on the right)
Follow updates on twitter
Become a fan on Facebook
Share it, Blog it, etc ...
And, keep an eye out for the free ESV Study Bible competition coming soon

By the grace of God I managed to convince 6 other church leaders and church planters to become authors on the blog for 12 months. I chose guys who have a track record of writing good quality stuff and understanding the value of leadership blogs. This will provide me with 1 years worth of high quality content from men around the world who are engaging their culture and building God's kingdom. Authors can renew their blogging commitment or pass the baton to someone else.

The purpose of the site is to resource all levels of church leadership so that people can become self-feeders. Our church culture unfortunately reflects our worlds culture in many ways. We have become consumeristic about church life and have lost our desire to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth. EatJesus.com will be an ongoing resource to share and promote ideas, stories, principles, techniques and much more about how to develop maturity and self leadership in the people God has called us to lead.

The blog offers related products, like study Bibles, which will be promoted using various online marketing methods (it's rather handy being an expert in search engine marketing). That's it. Pretty simple, right? The quality content from an array of authors will attract interest and boost the chances of selling some Bibles and study Bibles -- seems like a pretty honest business to me.

If you read the last post and you feel the Lord tugging on your heart to directly support us then please review our pledge page. If you don't sense the Holy Spirit directing you in that way, then please visit www.eatjesus.com and subscribe, follow, comment, join, blog etc ... and financially support us without giving us a penny.

It is people like you who will make EatJesus.com a success.

An Important Message To All Our Blog Subscribers

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:32:00 +0000

God has spoken clearly that we should plant a church in Chicago. We have almost completed our Church Planting Training program in St. Louis and are aiming to arrive in Chicago at the beginning of April. We would like to ask all the subscribes to our blog to pray for us and to consider participating in the joy that we have ahead of us. Let's do a recap first ...

So how did we arrive at this decision?

Leaders throughout my life have validated my leadership calling and gifting. In one way or another these men got me here through varying degrees of verbal confirmation and life input: Steve Whittington, Bob Hollway, Andy Back, Chris Jarvis, Pete Brooks, Steve Horne, Terry Virgo, Joel Virgo, Tommy Stanley, Dan Evans, Carl Herrington, Rick Hein, Curt Mccutchan, John Lanferman and Bryan Mowrey (I know I missed a few people).
When Heather and I first met we discovered that God had clearly spoken to us about a BIG calling on our lives. I shared a vision God had given me about my future and it almost identically matched something Heather had received as a young girl. God joined me with the perfect mate to support and encourage me through my adventures in leadership.
I grew up in Newfrontiers, a church planting movement, and have always had church planting on the map. I didn't know if I would lead a church plant, but I sure wanted to. Because of this we both undertook 3 years of Newfrontiers-USA leadership training through the Trilogy Project.
Life in Kansas City was getting frustrating. I had a successful marketing career, leadership positions in the ONEBLAZE Midwest Christian youth camp and at Grace Church in Lee's Summit had opened up. But I wasn't satisfied. God was disturbing me deeply and life didn't seem right. We had to go.
In 2008 Jubilee Church in St. Louis started a Church Planting Training program. God spoke to me one day at work and said "I'm with you all the way!" It was broad and open ended but it was all the confirmation I needed. We left everything behind to pursue the call. I now have a plaque in my kitchen that Heather made with those words plastered across it!
During the last worship gathering at ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008 God spoke to Heather and said "Chicago is yours for the taking". I had already been feeling that we needed to be in a big city and was strongly drawn to Chicago. So that was it -- Chicago!
This year has been full of miracles which further validate His calling. God miraculously zeroed out a medical bill worth $2500 -- sick, I know. For Jones we only ended up paying $25 of medical bills. He gave us the most perfect apartment in St. Louis for this year of training. God moved David and Emma Hosier from London to Chicago in the midst of an economic downturn. God provided freelance work right at the moment of financial collapse. He instantly healed a man I prayed for at the gas station. God safely brought our son into the world. And the list goes on ...

All of this was done in God's providence. He has also connected us with a small group of pioneering Christians in Chicago. He sent amazing people like Tim & Chloe Steinke ahead of us to get things ready. I can hardly believe what God has done -- without us doing anything. It is the continual working of His salvation. He does ALL the saving. His grace is sufficient.

With all that history in mind, and some seriously cool history in the making, we would like to ask all our blog subscribers to prayerfully consider financially supporting us for the next 12 months. We know this is no small thing to ask especially in our economic climate. We are confident of Gods provision for us because He has already laid it on the hearts of others to serve the new work in Chicago.

Please seek the Lord in prayer about a monthly or onetime gift to support us. If you do feel impressed my the Holy Spirit to partner with us go ahead and submit the pledge form here. Please also continue to pray for us.

In Christ,

Matt, Heather, Jones & Macrae Sweetman

Macrae Truette Sweetman

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:40:00 +0000

Our second son, Macrae Truette Sweetman, was born today at 11:51am. He weighed in at 10 lbs 2 oz and measured 23 inches long -- now that's a big baby! He is doing really well and seems like a happy little (or big) guy. Heather is doing OK. Some vomiting, but that can happen with c-sections. Our kids couldn't be blessed with a better mother. Man, I love my wife!

The name Macrae means son of grace. I think that is rather fitting. Life is a complete gift. It's unearned yet occurs freely. He has been born because of the grace of God in our lives and on his life. He has come into existence because a creator God designed him and gave him life. What a miracle!

Seeing a new born baby is pure evidence of God's existence and our need to be connected to him. Life is so fragile and we are so helpless. Yet, life is so meaningful and emotional at the same time. We all know we should have dignity but we know that we are also in great need. Only the fact that we were created by God and have fallen away from a relationship with him makes the scenario of life understandable.

So, to all the sons and daughters of grace (that's you), may you find your joy in God and your peace in Jesus as you remember that every breath is a sheer gift of grace. Remember, your life is a gift, what do people usually do when they receive a gift from someone? Let's be thankful. Get on your knees and give Jesus glory for your life. There is no one like you, because there is no one like God!

Here are some photos of Macrae Truette Sweetman:

What are we inviting people to?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:19:00 +0000

I just read a very challenging blog post by Ed Stetzer which opens with a gripping line "I continue to see movements gaining traction among Christians that do not seem to have many converts". Ouch! That line got me hooked to his challenging article. I am now asking myself if we have replaced the gospel with a way of doing church? And, are secondary issues (like spiritual gifts) taking place over primary issues (like sharing our faith)?

This subject is at the core of church planting and it is something I have been thinking about a lot in the past month. I recently blogged about church planting evangelism as I have found a fresh zeal for sharing my faith with people. Since Dec 19th I have shared my faith with 11 people and I have come to discover that there is nothing more exciting and worth celebrating than telling people about the amazing GRACE of Jesus and inviting them to follow him.

Please read Stetzers post if you want to be challenged.

Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:16:00 +0000

Special update: I wrote a book for churches to give to first-time guests. It’s had a huge impact at bringing more people back as second-time guests and adding them into the church community. Get the Kindle version of Unforgettable: Your purpose in Christ here and the print version from unforgettableness.com. Those outside the USA may need to order print copies from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.eu.
Over Christmas I read Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts by Jim Griffith and Bill Easum. If you are involved in any way in church planting you should read this book because it reveals years of learned experience through painful mistakes and the guidance of the Holy Spirit -- these guys are church planting experts! Let me qualify them ...

In the first 22 years of ministry Jim Easum planted 5 churches and for the last 13 years has been assessing and coaching church plants. Having assessed over 1,500 candidates for church planting, trained people in over 8,000 projects and conducted over 100 autopsies on failed starts, he is an authority on the topic. Bill was a restart pastor and has consulted over 600 church plants/restarts. They have both encountered the same reasons for why church plants fail and have combined their wisdom to help future planters avoid the enormous pains of failure. I can't imagine a church planter not wanting to read this book.

The book is a short read at 118 pages and has the following 10 chapters which highlight and deal with each common failure:

Neglecting the Great Commandment in Pursuit of the Great Commission.
Failing to Take Opposition Seriously.
A Love Affair with One's Fantasy Statement Blinds the Planter to the Mission Field.
Premature Launch.
Evangelism Ceases after the Launch.
No Plan for the Other Six Days of the Week.
Fear of Talking about Money until It Is Too Late.
Failure of the Church to Act Its Age and Its Size.
Formalizing Leadership Too Soon.
Using the "Superstar" Model as the Paradigm for All Church Plants.

The first mistake is to neglect the great commandment in pursuit of the great commission. On page 6 they write "... the thrill of church planting and reaching people and building a new faith community takes precedence over the personal responsibility to grow spiritually." Page 7, "... [The church planters] goal is not to get people to come to church; their goal is to introduce people to the love of God." This actually seems like a common problem in leadership at large. Christian leaders often give and give and give and become so empty that they can burn out. Or, they get so focused on the business of the church and running meetings that they neglect spiritual renewal through discipleship.

The issue here is for a planter to be purposeful about his own spiritual growth and to build genuine love for people. Church planting is not about getting people to attend a meeting but to encounter the grace of God and place their faith in Jesus. The danger is to become so focused on the tasks, the results or the numbers that the process of spiritual transformation is totally lost. The bride becomes the focus instead of the groom. Jesus has to be central to the leaders life. To avoid this they encourage planters to attend another churches worship services in order to engage and be refreshed and also to seek spiritual reflection and camaraderie from a mature Christian outside of the plant.

One thing I absolutely love about this book is that each chapter offers specific solutions targeted to resist and defeat each challenge. These "fixes" are pure gold! They are simple practical steps directed at the planter and to coaches. Most of these solutions are not obvious simply because the mistakes which necessitate them are common traps. Implementing these fixes from the start are the only way to avoid and minimize fundamental errors.

Chapter 3, titled "A Love Affair with One's Fantasy Statement", was tremendously helpful for me at this exact moment. I have elsewhere heard this referred to as "the church of your mind" or as they say on page 22 the "church in a vacuum." Right now on the CPT program (Church Planting Training) I am planning, learning, growing and preparing to launch a new church in Chicago. It is very exciting to be constantly thinking and dreaming about the name, the logo, the fancy mission statement, the location, the series we will preach, the strategic methods we will use to connect with new people and the day we will launch with hundreds of people! Ha! We WILL conquer this! But therein lies the problem. All this planning and preparation is outside the context of the mission field. This does not negate the process of church planting training, it actually increases the need to get it right -- which I'm thankful my training is doing!

On page 23 they write "... the mission field dictates the tactics, not the fantasy statement" and "Church planting is about going out and getting more and more people. And after that it's about gathering those people and gradually forming them into a redemptive community." Articulating a set of values, a fancy mission statement and a trendy name does not mean success -- getting new converts and discipling them is the real measure of success.

Church planters are often so in love with their innovative ideas, their way of doing things or their trendy name, that they preemptively formulate, institute and therefore dictate a purely ideological and imaginary church which may or may not be effective at reaching the people around them.

Page 24 comments "Effective church planters intuitively say to themselves, 'This isn't working.' They have a come-to-Jesus meeting internally and say to themselves, 'We cannot continue down this road, we've got to adapt...NOW!'" I can tend to get dog-eared by things because I hate to quit. I will literally work at something for hours on end without a sign of quiting or rethinking my approach. I know it is a strength -- a God given ability to be steadfast and unwavering -- fighting to the end. But, it is also a huge weakness. Sometimes I will predetermine what I think will work best and then force myself to stick at it until I make it work. I need to strongly heed the advice in this book as this will not always work in church planting.

I am a planner by nature. I like to strategically think ahead and make the best preparations possible. Then, I would prefer for everything to go as planned. Yikes! I'm in for trouble if I don't adjust this way of thinking. This is another area in which God has used my wife to shape me. She is incredibly flexible and an "in the moment" type of person. This has caused conflict in our relationship which in turn has helped me mature in my understanding and appreciation for this God given characteristic. However, even with the growth I have made in being flexible and letting some things flow, rather than programming them, I still have a tendency towards control. If you have a moment please pray for me right now!

The solution for this is twofold. Firstly, I must work hard at developing a genuine love for the people in our area more than my ideological plan. Secondly, I must grow in my willingness to adapt my methods to the mission field. This is why I am currently fighting certain impulses to create a church identity before I have lived in Chicago. I want these things to be contextualized and organic to the people God is calling me to reach. Assuming something will work without really understanding or knowing the people it is supposed to "work on" is a sign of loving the church of your mind more than the people God is reaching. I have determined not to prescribe and identity from afar which I must admit is hard for me.

Page 27 makes a painful point, if you have ever been a part of something like this then I apologise for poking the pain. They write "We often hear planters say, 'We're a multicultural church,' even though they only have a handful of people. Somehow they think they're effective because they have representatives from each mission field coming to their church, but that's a mistake. They now have a church for everyone, which means a church with very few distinctives." They also say "... planters often make the mistake of winding up with a church designed for 'everyone.' The net effect of this approach is thirty or forty people--forever!" Yikes!

I have heard this language before. The desire to reach the nations is confused with having a small core group made up of a few individuals from other nations. From the experience of Griffith and Easum, this just never works. I'm not sure when people starting thinking that having 15-20 people from 5-6 different nations is somehow fulfilling the great commission when you consider that there are billions of people and hundreds of countries. The measure of success is not quantity of nations represented but indigenous growth. If a church plant is not growing then it is dead or close to death. A solid way to avoid this result is to constantly be in the community that one lives. Prayer walk it. Connect with the people there. Define what the local residents are like and then match the church plants methods to reach them. Don't be dog-eared -- adjust or die!

There is just too much good stuff in this book to review it all here so I will end with some worthy quotes:

Much of the opposition faced by planters comes from within the plant itself, p14.
Your team of intercessors needs to be "outside your plant" so they can pray deeply without an agenda, p18.
Usually the first group of people [to reach] is those people most like you, p28.
One of the recurring symptoms in failed church plants is premature birth, because the new church lacks sufficient infrastructure and development to survive on such limited resources, p34.
The gathered group [of a premature launch] is of such insufficient numerical size that it begins subtly to defend itself by citing the benefits of its size--intimacy, connectedness, and inclusiveness. Doing so unwittingly creates a barrier, making it impossible for any new people to find their way into the young church, p38.
You have to have a critical mass of people to add legitimacy and validity to it in the eyes of the public, p39.
Evangelism in NOT a 'phase' of church life; it's the "LIFE" of the church, p47.
If the pastor ceases to model inviting the public and pushing the Great Commission then the congregation will become a closed system, p47.
If you don't make contact after contact with the public, the likelihood of success is almost zero, p51.
Talk to one thousand people in the first year, p52.
The average church plant begins to decline the fourth or fifth year, p65.
Many planters mistakenly believe an increase in attendance will result in an increase in cash flow. Experience teaches just the opposite: more people actually increase the cash drain, thus accelerating the demise of the church, p78.
Stewardship of money must be taught from the moment you begin to gather people, p79.
Someone else on the team needs to spend pastoral time with people on the fringe, p87.
Don't try to launch with a handful of people and try to act like a full-service church. One way or another, it will ruin you, p96.
The health of the church plant is in direct proportion to the health of the lead pastor and their family, p97.
Future leaders need time to prove themselves on the battlefield, p102.
People must earn the reputation of being a leader within your church plant, p103.
Never become so enamored by what someone else is doing in ministry that your goal is to replicate what they are doing, p116.
If God has anointed you to plant a church, God will give you the vision, the wiring, and the abilities to do it God's way, p117.

Go ahead and order your copy of Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts by Jim Griffith and Bill Easum today.

Attracting Interns as a Church Planting Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:09:00 +0000

I believe that God has and is calling many people to serve his purposes in church planting today. This is true in my life and for my wife and kids. I continue to meet other people who attest to this. I am so confident of it increasing that I am planning to start an Internship Program early on in our church plant in Chicago. This will help those with a calling to develop quickly and begin to fulfill the purposes of God. At the same time it will allow them to build foundations in our church plant that will last into the future -- way beyond their internship.

Today I met with Lonnie Taylor the Director of Internships at The Journey Church in St. Louis. The Journey have been very effective at attracting interns and providing a quality environment where spiritual growth can occur. This pool of passionate and dedicated interns can often prove to be a base on which God calls full time staff members and people into further leadership roles. The purpose of internships is not a step towards a paid position or to guarantee a further ministry role, but to equip and release people into the calling God has over their life.

You may use the interface on the right to listen to the most recent podcast or download the mp3 of our conversation. It's about 55 minutes long, with a few interruptions from the waitress, and at a reasonable quality. Lonnie graciously allowed me to have a draft copy of their internship program and walked me through the process and philosophy they currently have. Please learn from this in any way you can.

Interns for Church Planting Overview:

An internship is not cheap labor, it's about people fulfilling their calling and using their gifts in a way that "fits" the church.
Find the interns "sweet spot" while simultaneously stretching them to grow.
Every intern needs a mentor who builds with them relationally and modifies the format to fit the interns gift mix and calling.
Mentors evaluate interns at the end of each semester. Review goals, action plans and reading material.
Interns are required to read one book a semester and provide a report to their mentor. This should focus on their area of service.
Interns are fully self funded. They have a 30 day period before they are accepted to raise enough money to live on during the internship. This is not just a practical step but an important spiritual measure of the persons calling and faith.
Customize the internship for the intern.
Allow new interns to enter at the beginning of each semester.
Someone would be disqualified from the internship if they had the wrong motivation. I.e. they see it as a means to a paid position rather than a term of service.
Recruit interns from within the church and attract through web site. Internships are a good option for guys in seminary.
Whether or not you have a packaged internship program you will always have volunteers who serve and need spiritual mentoring so some sort of plan is necessary.

Interview with Steve Sudworth

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Special update: I wrote a book for churches to give to first-time guests. It’s had a huge impact at bringing more people back as second-time guests and adding them into the church community. Get the Kindle version of Unforgettable: Your purpose in Christ here and the print version from unforgettableness.com. Those outside the USA may need to order print copies from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.eu.
I had the privilege of interviewing Steve Sudworth who planted a church in Chicago back in 2004. Steve relates to New Covenant Ministries International and his church is just shy of gathering 100 each week. It was a real joy to learn from Steve's experience and to catch his passion for the church. You can use the interface on the right to listen to the most recent podcast or download the audio of our phone conversation.

Matt: Steve, when you first planted a Church in the City how did you go about meeting people and making new contacts?

Steve: Before we planted in May 2004, my wife and I came out a few days before just to see what God was saying about the city. One of the key prophetic words that God had given us was about the need to build community, to build family. So arriving here, May 2004, we gave every intention and every effort to be building from our home, having people in our home...anyone who would give us the time of day would look at us for longer than 5 seconds we would try to build a relationship.

As those relations grew we had as many people in our home as possible. In the states it has been much harder to get people into our home than it was back in South Africa. You first have to build that relationship of trust before they are willing to come into your home. So, we had about 3-4 people we knew in the city when we arrived. So, we worked with that group first at building relationship and trust and then encouraged them to bring people into our home and little by little we grew. So, building relationships and community were absolutely key.

Before we came out here, we spent and hour or so with one of the guys who leads New Covenant, and we asked him the question, "what advice can you give us?" and he said "when you plant a church you are not going to be the greatest preacher, you are not going to have the greatest facility. But one thing you need to do, and you can do, is to love people with all of your heart." We have really tried to embrace that-to love people fully and graciously and to express the love of Christ through our relationship with them.

Matt: In terms of you getting out there, building relationship, what would be your take on the spiritual climate in Chicago? How hungry are people for the gospel in the city?

Steve: Coming from South Africa, which even thought nation is struggling, the church in SA is incredibly strong. Someone sneezes and 3 people get saved. So, coming here it has been a real change to what we have been used to. I feel over the last 3 years my eyes have been open to this incredible religious spirit that rests over this city. There is a strong understanding of Christ, but Jesus is not a person who demands all of our worship. There is a reluctance to give oneself fully and wholly to Jesus. The issue of religion is the biggest thing we have faced.

When we meet people and tell them what we do, their response is "what? Chicago needs another church?" I think that just summarizes the general attitude that resides over this city. We believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and in a city like Chicago...I am really intentional about building relationships with other pastors and it is just hard to find spiritual churches in the heart of the city, there are some in the suburbs. There is just not an openness to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Matt: Have you found that people with a Christian background reject the Holy Spirit or embraced the Holy Spirit?

Steve: There has been both. We believe that every person who comes into the community God has chosen to be apart of us for a season. Certainly those who God has added, though they may struggle with the HS there is a sense of them wanting to embrace him. We have a church that only a handful of the core leaders have grown up in a spiritual environment. About 90% of our church has never had that experience, so we have very patiently, fearfully and wisely walking alongside of people. Not expecting them to run before they can walk. However, we have had people who have joined us and are excited about a new church experience, and then 2 or 3 months after they have been there they begin to realize where we stand on different issues and they find reason to move on. So, there have been discouragements and temptations to dilute the truth. But we want to build, unashamedly, what the Bible teaches.

Matt: Where abouts in Chicago are you gathering from and what are those people like?

Steve: We are drawing people from a cross section of the city. We were originally located in Lincoln Park, which is Caucasian, middle to upper income. We weren't fitting into that community very well and drawing people from the North, West and South, and even having people coming from Indiana, which is a bit of a drive. We moved to Bucktown, and being more centrally located we have been able to draw more people from different parts of the city. We really have not gone for a specific neighborhood or area of Chicago, but have felt that God wanted us to reach the whole city. We want to draw people from North, South, East and West. So, the neighborhood of Bucktown represents us better.

As far as struggles, the majority of our church is between the ages of 22-38...we probably have an equal number of singles and marrieds. The struggles have to do with marriage, jobs, relationships, family, not wanting to conform to the world, struggles like that are quite common. I have a real heart for men in this city, and men in this nation. And one of our biggest desires, as a leadership team, is to raise up a generation of men who are passionate and who are leading with intention. Generally, men are rather passive, especially in this city. That is one of the struggles we are taking on right now.

Matt: Steve, where has a lot of your growth come from? Fresh converts? People moving in? Transfers?

Steve: Probably it is an even mix between transfers from more conservative church and new commitments or people who have back-slidden and made a decision to once again serve God. In terms of advertising, we have not done much, not to much marketing. We have really trusted to use word of mouth, encouraging people to bring friends and family. We believe in outreach and marketing but in planting finances are tight and we also wanted to make sure we established a DNA of personal outreach versus relying on marketing. Not so say we won't use it in future, but we are not focusing on it now. As we move to events and series, we will use it but for now we are using word of mouth and inviting friends and family.

Matt: How has the church changed since you started in 2004?

Steve: I think the church has changed, not to put over emphasis on this but there has been a significant change in the church as the Lord has changed my wife and I and the gifting and calling on our lives. Especially, as we have felt a resolve to build on the principles we know to be Biblical, the church has taken on a new flavor. About a year and a half after we went through a season of real intimidation as to who we were and what we were called to be. I realized that we were compromising on values that we believe are true and right. So, as we have come through that and gained confidence in who we are, the church has really responded and that has been an incredibly exciting moment. We have learned some lessons, we aren't saying we have arrived, but we have a much clearer sense of who we are and what God has called us to. We are not striving for the worlds view of success...as in numbers and things, those are not driving us and I think that is a good thing

Matt: As far as a Sunday morning, what type of setup do you have?

Steve: 8.30 the worship team gathers to setup, we have various small groups that take turns hosting with drinks, snacks, and literature and they also arrive at 8.30. 9.30 the leaders gather with the small group and we pray for the meeting, 9.45 we are there to great people, about 10am we have worship. Generally the worship team prepares 4-5 songs, but we really try to give room to the HS to lead us. There have been times when the worship goes on for an hour so the teaching is shorter, and there have been times where we have felt the worship time needs to be shorter because the HS wants to use the teaching time to really minister to people. So, we try to be flexible as we can.

We encourage contributions, through the elders to help them. If there are opportunities for ministry, we may pause for 10 min to do that. Announcements are after the worship...we teach for about 40 min and we always try to work into the teaching the truth of the gospel. At the end of every meeting we invite people to become Christians and always make prayer available and encourage people to hang out after the meeting.

Matt: What is the leadership structure? How does your staff look?

Steve: I work full time, employed by the church. We do have an administrative assistant, who works 2 1/2 days a week. She is the only other salaried person who works for the church. The leadership team consists of myself and two other men who are elders. And then we have a team of elders, we believe in an eldership team lead church, who I have the responsibility to lead the team, but the entire team leads the church. We are all married, so our wives, while they are not ordained or pastors, they are involved in leadership decisions and meetings to bring in their perspectives.

We have a team of deacons, not in the traditional sense, but anointed men and women of God gifted to preach, prophecy, evangelism, whatever their gifting may be. We have 3 couples who are deacons and we are about to release a single lady onto our deacon team. So, those are the offices in our local church. As a local church we relate to a Ephesians 4 ministry team called New Covenant Ministries International. That is a team of apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers who are invited through relationship that we as an eldership have developed, they don't come in as hierarchy but come to partner with the local elders to bring gifting and ministry, as it says in Ephesians 4,"so the saints can do the work of service and bring us to maturity."

Matt: How do you go about raising up leaders, identifying elders, do you have a system, or material or is more organic?

Steve: We have tried to incorporate both formal and informal. The informal would be having people in our home, especially if we feel like God has his hand on a couple we would spend more time with them, asking them probing questions. Getting a sense of where they are at, challenging them in areas of character, getting a sense of what is in their heart. And then we have formal training as well. I try to get together once a quarter with potential leaders to envisions them about where the church is going, find out what is going on in their lives, hear some testimonies.

We also have a time of training which is broken into four areas. We have leadership training from the Old Testament, leadership training from the new Testament, Leadership examples from The life of Paul and the life of Jesus. As the time is right, and we invite people to come along, we make it clear that we are not asking them to become leaders we are just preparing them for what God is taking them it no, but the timing of that has to be worked out with God. So, they know even though they are going through leadership training that does not mean they will be set in as leaders.

Those we feel God is raising up as deacons or elders, from that group we will take them away and spend some time teaching on 'what is a deacon,' 'what is an elder,' 'what do they do,'...every time we get an Ephesians 4 ministry in we would set aside time for them to spend time with existing leaders and potential leaders. We ask their perspective as well...who do they see sticking out from the crowd, who would they consider for leadership. We ask them to give us some perspective on that as well. And when we travel, if there are opportunities for us to minister in other churches, we try and bring potential leaders along with us. Because going on adventures together is a great way of building leadership.

Matt: My wife and I will be moving to Chicago to plant a church and we are praying about where we are supposed to be. We feel like we are to be in the city. We feel that we want to be close to a university. We have one year old and expecting another in late January. Taking those factors into consideration, what insight would you give in terms of choosing a place to live? Combined with that, what advice would you give us if you could do things over?

Steve: To answer your first question, the trendy spots would be Lincoln Park and DePaul University, that is obviously an area with lots of young people and young families. Lincoln Park and Lakeview would be that way. For us, and the types of people we were drawing (gathering more of diverse group), that was not a good fit for us. There are a lot of Caucasians, between the ages of 20-30. There is another great community that is much more diverse which is further north. Loyola University has a branch in the North, still in the city, the neighborhood is Andersonville/Uptown. There is the medical district and UIC which is just to the south of the city. That neighborhood is transforming...in 10 years it would be a great place to plant, but there are not to many families there yet. Those are the 3 that come to mind.

In regards to advice or perspective, I think I really like what you are doing as far as taking time to look around, getting to know the city. My wife and I arrived and our two young kids, not knowing anyone, and there was a lot of pressure to make something happen quite quickly. That is part of the reason why it took us so long to find out who we were and what God has called us too. We learned a lot on the fly, not that I regret that because we have learned so much and God had a particular purpose in that.

But, I love what you are doing-taking time to learn the city and what it is God is calling you to, how you are gifted, where you fit best. If I could do things over, I would ask for 6 months of salaried support so I could just live in the city, get to know the city, the pulse of the city. I think as soon as you move here, get around the city as much as you can. Get to concerts, get to events, go exploring, spend time with people who have lived here for 20,30,40 years, be a student of the city. As we have done that over the years we feel like we are just now grasping the heart of the city. I feel what you are doing right now is outstanding.

Matt: Steve, thank you so much. I have learned so much during this short time I have had with you, I really appreciate it.

Checkout: http://www.churchinthecity.us

Real Transformation: Regeneration

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Wouldn't you like to know where genuine life-change comes from? If you knew, you could be more intentional about it and therefore more able to change. Do you ever wonder at what point someone experiences a deeply spiritual and personal conversion -- laying down an old life and starting a new one? Maybe something is eating away at you on the inside? Or, perhaps you've got the God bug recently? Yesterday I asked a stranger at Starbucks this question, "There are a lot of people who are interested in God right now. Do you ever think about faith or God?" He said, "I think about it all the time!" That comment told me something big was about to happen to that guy!

I'm going to explain how real spiritual transformation happens ... are you ready?

Jesus said in John 3:3 "... no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." This means that you cannot be set free from the slavery of self-centredness unless you completely start over. That's right, you need to die, and be re-born. There is no yin and yang here, no makeover, its a radical death and resurrection event! Jesus is tough but clear about it.

There is some confusion over the process of salvation. Some think that people can initiate their own spiritual transformation through their efforts of repentance, works or even meditation. Such verses as Romans 10:13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved", seem to suggest that our response causes the change. However, the scriptures are clear that the re-birth of the soul, being born again, is something that we play no part in. Our part is repentance which comes as a result of regeneration. God initiates spiritual change in us and we respond.

Titus 3:5 refers to this change as "regeneration" which is "palingenesia" in the Greek -- literally meaning "again birth" (palin again, genesis birth). We know that God starts this process because Ezekiel 36:26 says "I will give you a new heart." The word "I" in that verse is critical. God does it. Actually, regeneration is a work of both the Father and the Holy Spirit as indicated in 1 Peter 1:3 "In his [The Father's] great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope." and in John 3:8 "born of the Spirit."

What is the significance of this? It shows that being a Christian (the best life you can have) cannot come about by being good, going to church, being born into a Christian family or a certain country, but only through the divine intervention and initiation of God. The regeneration of the soul comes before we confess our wrong doing and before we verbalise a commitment to Jesus. This is illustrated by Jesus calling Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Jesus told him I'm coming into your life today before Zacchaeus repented and resolved to undo the fruit of selfishness in his life.

The Evangelical Free Church of America unfortunately has this the wrong way around in their statement of faith. It reads "We believe that the true Church is composed of such persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit ..." Regeneration actually precedes faith in Christ, not the other way around. Regeneration is not an external sign like repentance. Regeneration is a mysteriously inward event where by God gives someone a new heart and it starts to manifest itself in the way they live their life -- there is a radical transformation.

As a follower of Jesus this gives me great confidence in the work He is doing in peoples lives. The guy at Starbucks yesterday could have said I'm not interested, leave me alone! But he didn't due to the work of God bringing about a change. It is this activity of God that leads a person to place their faith in Christ. The Bible says in Romans 3:11 "no one seeks for God." So, a person saying I've been thinking about God recently, displays evidence of the work of God. No one knows the point of regeneration other than God. But, I think it's better to assume that God is at work. This increases our faith in sharing the gospel. Not everyone who shows interest in God is regenerated, at least not yet, but they are sure getting close! Why not expect that God is doing something in the people around us?

A personal conversion to Jesus is not the end of true transformation -- it's the beginning. Genuine regeneration must bring about results in life. 1 John 3:9 says "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God." This does not mean perfection, but it means an inward desire to do the right thing and to stop indulging in sin. I have seen this happen to people many times. They have a hunger to read the Bible, which they did not have before. They have a hunger to connect with other Christians, which they did not have before.

The story of Zacchaeus helpfully illustrates that a change of heart, a regeneration of the soul, is different to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Zacchaeus had a radical turn around yet he was not filled with the Holy Spirit like we see in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit initiated a change of heart in Zacchaeus but did not clothe him with power gifts for ministry. I make this distinction because while someone can be born again by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and therefore have the Spirit in their life, convicting them of sin, they may not have received The Baptism of the Holy Spirit with power gifts for ministry and mission.

Regeneration is therefore an act of God where he imparts new spiritual life to us which results in an outward repentance and transformation. This is the first stage in salvation. My sins are forgiven because Jesus came into my life and changed me, not because of the depth of my repentance. I have a desire for God now because my sinful nature has been crucified with Christ. We cannot claim this result in regards to something we have done. It is solely the initiation of again-genesis (re-birth) in our hearts by God. If you want genuine life transformation then be assured that God is at work in your life, otherwise you just wouldn't want it.

Resources:

Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W.E. Vine
Two Views of Regeneration by John Hendryx
Do You Know the Truth About Being Born Again? by Stephen Pribble

Church Planting Evangelism

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Saying the word "evangelism" can put a bad taste in our mouths having become associated with certain tele-evangelists with dodgy theology and zero integrity. It is also used in business settings to describe viral endorsements from clients. You may have also heard the term "brand evangelist". Whatever alternative meanings it carries today it describes the most important aspect of church planting -- one-on-one gospel sharing! I'm going to share what I've learnt from 2 books I have read.

I literally just finished reading The Faithful Witness by Jerry Wiles. It is a MUST read for all church planters -- incredibly inspiring. I also read Becoming A Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels. Both books are very uplifting, practical and life-changing. If you can read both, do so. If not, get The Faithful Witness as I found it the most spiritually stirring and the story's alone are worth it.

A Change of Mind About Evangelism

Hybels has a formula in his book, not specifically for sharing the gospel or praying a prayer, actually he says not to use formulas especially for salvation prayers, but he clearly breaks apart what a Christian needs in order to have maximum impact for the gospel in someones life. The formula is:

High Potency (HP) + Close Proximity (CP) + Clear Communication (CC) = Maximum Impact (MI)

Missing one of these elements sabotages our ability to lead people into faith. Without having a potent relationship with Jesus, being genuine friends with non-believers and being able to clearly articulate the message it just wont happen.

Wiles doesn't use a fancy formula but he says basically the same things and in a way that more deeply affected me. He starts with who we are in Christ. It was Galations 2:20 and Colossians 1:27 that the Holy Spirit used to transform his understanding of his own life in Christ which in turn fueled him in his evangelistic efforts. What 'High Potency' is to Hybels, 'Identity' is to Wiles. He writes, "... a witness is first and foremost something you are. Jesus' last recorded words on earth prior to His ascension back to heaven were these: You shall be witnesses to Me (Acts 1:8) ... Your witness about Jesus is only as good as your relationship with Jesus."

Wiles makes a strong case that Christians already have the tools to witness just like a baby knows how to breathe. He says "... stop searching for a greater ability to witness and start releasing the nature of Christ that is already indwelling you!" Now that's provocative. So provocative in fact that the day I read it (yesterday) I went ahead a prayed with a man at the gas station and he was healed and confessed that he wanted Christ. Seriously, it's not brain surgery, it's being yourself, your new self that is, the identity of Christ. If we are in Christ and Revelation 1:5 refers to Jesus as "The Faithful Witness", then what are you?

Again, Wiles is relentless with his provocation, "Only one thing can put a stop to the Lord's sovereign work in setting up appointments for life-changing witness encounters -- our unwillingness to open our mouths and share the Good News of Jesus Christ." There is no guilt or manipulation in this. Every believer in Jesus will express it differently but the truth is that every believer, being in Christ, naturally desires to share what Jesus has done for them. For this reason Wiles has the person share their faith straightaway. He argues that because people have just been freed from their sin and have received perfect peace and joy they are happy for others to know, and somewhat unable to deny it!

The truth is that people in this world feel guilty, discouraged, rejected, hurt and alone. That means they are perfect candidates to receive Jesus. The lie we believe is that people will reject the gospel. That does happen but in Jerry Wiles experience he sees 1 in every 4 people receive Jesus after sharing the gospel. He notes that Jesus had a similar success rate in the Gospel accounts. People know they need God, they just need someone to show them the way. Hybels points out that 25% of the US population would go to church if a friend would just invite them. That's 1 in 4 if you didn't realize!

The biggest lesson for me in reading these books was an identity shift. Believing who I am in Christ and believing that Jesus is working in people's lives. I dare you to test this out, change your mind and see the results. Evangelism is the most effective church planting strategy.

Conversations & Questions

We have a responsibility to initiate conversations with people. Building trust is important, but if we believe that the gospel is powerful then we should have greater trust in what Jesus can do than in our ability to be winsome. We are often afraid to bring up Jesus in fear of being rejected and ruining all future gospel opportunities.

Hybels writes, "So can we just come out and say it? Far too many Christians have been anesthetized into thinking that if they simply live out their faith in an open and consistent fashion, the people around them will see it, want it, and somehow figure out how to get it. That never happens." I agree, people need to know they can have all their sins and guilt taken away right here, right now. Hybels goes on, "Most of the time, seekers, whether they admit it openly or not, respect and admire Christians who aren't afraid to take a stand." Go ahead, start a conversation, and speak the truth.

Another helpful practice is to keep it simple by quickly getting to the heart of the matter, and to pray and to rely on the Holy Spirit. Look into peoples eyes and relate the gospel to where they are at. Don't over complicate it. Wiles makes the point, "It's more difficult to forget a direct, simple question than a long, veiled, never-to-the point conversation." Even if the person doesn't receive Christ the question will stay with them and may bear fruit later.

It's important to practice and develop your own style of question asking. Both authors warn of the pitfalls of unnatural prescribed evangelism steps. But they do offer their personal favorite openers. Wiles suggestions include:

Is anything encouraging happening in your life? Or, do you see anything encouraging happening around you or in the lives of people you know?
Have you noticed any signs of spiritual awakening in your city?
Have you been thinking more about the Lord lately? (Or I guess the word "Lord" could be exchanged for "God" as unchurched people might not be familiar with that word).
Has the Lord been good to you today?
Has anyone told you today that God loves you?

Here was the shocker for me on question 3, 'have you been thinking more about the Lord lately?', Wiles says that 90% of people say yes! He comments, "The greater the fear and frustration and concern people have about the aspects of their lives, the more tender, they seem to be toward God and the more they question the meaning of life, the purpose for their existence on this earth, and the way to find lasting inner peace." You'll need to get the book for further explanation of where to take the conversations after these opener questions.

Hybels offers these openers:

Do you ever think about spiritual things?
Who, in your opinion, was Jesus Christ?
What belief did you grow up with?
Do you ever wonder what happens to us when we die?
What do you think a real Christian is?
Where are you heading in your spiritual journey?

The Power of The Word

Another powerful and yet simple point for me was the use of scripture in evangelism. I don't know why I didn't really think about this much before but if we believe that God's word is inspired and sharper than a double edged sword AND that is does reveal the heart, then sharing sections of scripture with non-believers WILL have a dramatic affect of them. Wiles mentions that he carries copies of the gospel of John with him because many have been saved simply by reading it! He tells people "Here's a book that was written by a man who knew Jesus personally, and tells how you can know Him personally as well." If that doesn't start a conversation at least the person can read it on their own.

In this regard Hybels lays out different approaches to sharing the gospel that might be helpful. The Roman Road is a classic. You can simply share 3 verses from the book of Romans with someone (make sure you have a Bible with you) and ask them questions about what the verses mean. It's easy to remember and covers the fundamental gospel elements, Romans 3:23, 6:23 and 10:13.

When I read this method I found it easy to remember the first two because they are the same verse but chapter 10 and verse 13 was a bit more random and I thought, I bet I forget this last verse reference. So I prayed, "Lord help me remember these references so that I can use them at an appropriate time." At that moment I glanced at the clock on the oven and it was 10:13am! Holy cow -- and that clock is slightly wrong! Now that scripture reference is burned in my memory forever. Jesus is so cool. That confirmed again that God wants me to share my faith with people.

The Double Whammy

This is where Wiles wins for me. The double or even triple or even more soul winning whammy! When he travels he sees up to 8 people saved, but at the very least 1 person is saved. At a Christian conference he travelled to he inquired to the hotel/conference venue works if anyone had shared with them about the purpose of the event. No-one had. So Wiles continues to lead a maid, a young security guard at the entrance to the exhibition area, a hotel maintenance worker and eight security guards to Christ. He strategically uses one salvation to spark another -- what a genius!

Again, he's at the checkout in a store and noticed no one was around, so he seizes the opportunity. The girl at the checkout becomes a Christian, right there and then. On the way out the door he notices a man who looks down and says "You might be interested in knowing that the woman standing at the cash register, Regina, just received Jesus Christ into her heart and experienced the forgiveness of her sins ... You need that too, don't you? He nodded and said, Yes I do." The story continues as he leads the mans stepson to Christ and then his wife shows up. He says, "You might be interested in knowing that your husband and you son have just invited Jesus Christ into their hearts. You need to do that too, don't you? She also said yes."

One of the most strategic things he does is to use the immediate testimony of the person receiving Christ and presents it as a new opportunity for someone else. This builds faith and confidence in new Christians to continue to share their faith. It also causes people to be more open to the gospel in the face of a freshly converted person beaming with the joy of the Lord and radiant that they are now guilt free and destined for an eternity with Jesus. Isn't that brilliant? He notes that he has often lead 4 or 5 people to Jesus in this sequential manner at the same time.

This principle rings true because of the way people relate to each other. Wiles writes, "People tend to work or associate in clusters ... If you have the opportunity to lead one of them to the Lord, the door will often open to share with several other members of the staff or team." He frequents restaurants and other places where people have responded to the gospel because co-workers and others are now more likely to be open to the gospel having seen someone they know find faith in Christ.

Conclusion

All the church planting books I have read point to the fact that you have to connect with people who don't know Jesus -- that's the purpose of church planting. This means a high commitment to personal evangelism is critical for church planters. Wiles writes, "Can the church end up with too many people sharing Christ? No!" And, "Need a lift in your spiritual life? Win someone to the Lord! Introduce others to the living Christ." Often, the most exciting things are the things we desire the most and long to do more of. Hybels writes, "There's nothing in life that's as exciting as befriending, loving, and leading wayward people toward faith in Christ. Nothing."

This is obviously not just for church planting but for established churches. I'd suggest that these books have equipped me in the most effective way for church planting. It seems unavoidable that a high degree of consistent gospel sharing is really the best means to plant a church. Generally the mass communication stuff (mailers, etc...) attracts Christians. So perhaps, both strategies can be combined but with a strong emphasis on evangelism in church planting.

Resources

The Faithful Witness by Jerry Wiles
Becoming A Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels
http://www.effective-evangelism-training.org (I just signed up for this site, it looks a bit messy, but has some good info and a newsletter)
Acts29 Church Planting Evangelism message by Mark Dever

Circumcision: Can I get that gift wrapped?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:37:00 +0000

Once something has been cut off is it dead or alive? We'll come back to that question later.

There is a fundamental problem with everyone, wouldn't you agree? We are not just genetically deficient, we are morally flawed. We want things that are harmful to ourselves and others. We want things we cannot have. That's why most of us have painful relationships. We express our brokenness in different ways but we're all basically corrupted on the inside. (Don't worry, this post is going to get a lot better, and I'll explain the circumcision gift wrapping, just stick with it.)

Humans are not basically "good" as it's popular to believe. Anyone holding this view doesn't have kids and doesn't watch the news. Some people find comfort in their self-destructiveness and find ways to justify it. Others try hard to perform well and cover it up, to appear good. Unfortunately, neither strategy works. From day one, everyone has a self-centred heart -- everyone! Not to say we can't do good things, we just default to self-centredness, which we can agree is not just less than best but plain wrong.

This is a hard reality to face. No one likes to be told that trying to be good is a waste of time. Somehow we know we should be good but we keep choosing our personal needs over others. We keep trying to position ourselves above or ahead. We continue to insist that we are more important than the guy next to us and we know best. We'd prefer someone else to lose their happiness rather than us. All self-centredness is basically a deception about ourselves, the truth is that the value of our life does not out weigh the value of someone elses. The human heart is therefore naturally deceiving (see Jeremiah 17:9). The Bible refers to this condition as the "sinful nature".

The question I want to answer is not, how do I change my nature (because the answer is through following Jesus), but what nature does a Christian have?

When you become a follower of Christ are you a sinner saved by grace (a sinner-saint) or a saint completely free from the sinful nature?

It was Martin Luther, the great reformer, who proposed the concept of Simul iustus et peccator "At the same time righteous and a sinner". This view is based on verses like Galatians 5:17 (NIV) "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." And Romans 7:17 (NASB) "So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me."

This "sinner-saint" view is commonly held. At first hearing it portrays great humility but is not as freeing as one might think and can even become an excuse for sin. It can give some a wrong sense of lowliness and cause a constant repentance for "being a sinner". I disagree with the "sinner saved by grace mentality". Scripture declares that Christians were once sinners, and are now saints, saved only by the grace of God. Even the Corinthian church are referred to as saints!

Let's explore some scriptures that clarify this issue.

Colossians 2:11-12 (NIV) "In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."

When a dude is circumcised he doesn't keep the foreskin and carry it around with him for future use -- it's dead and therefore useless. Doctors don't usually offer gift wrapping services for circumcision. In the same way, when we are spiritually circumcised in the death and burial of Christ, we can't keep the sinful nature around any longer for future use -- it's totally gone.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

The "old" is the sinful nature. The old and the new don't coexist. It's fairly straightforward. If they did Christians would be hybrid creations not new creations.

The most compelling arguments come from the book of Romans. Simple reflection on these verses reveals the nature of a Christian. Paul writes:

Romans 6:2 (NASB) "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"
Romans 6:6 (NIV) "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin"
Romans 6:7 (NIV) " ... anyone who has died has been freed from sin."
Romans 6:11 (NIV) "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Romans 6:12 (NIV) "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
Romans 6:14 (NIV) "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
Romans 6:18 (NIV) "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

The confusion for some comes in chapter 7 of Romans were Paul seems to say the exact opposite of what he just wrote in Romans 6.

Romans 7:14 (NASB) "For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin."
Romans 7:18 (NASB) "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not."
Romans 7:19 (NASB) "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want."
Romans 7:24 (NASB) "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"

The weight of the words used above don't sound like Paul is simply aware of an internal sinner-saint struggle, they are more serious and contrasting than that. Saying that he is in bondage to sin, nothing good dwells in him, he practices evil he doesn't want and that he is a wretched man are not in keeping with the theme of the book and other New Testament writings. These don't give room for a duality of human natures. There's no ying and yang in Romans 7. It's 100% bad!

For example, If nothing good dwells in him why does he so confidently urge others to imitate him? How can he claim such joy and peace if he constantly does things he hates? It is interesting to note that no other passage in the New Testament reflects what Paul appears to be saying here. Peter actually says in 2 Peter 1:3 (NASB) "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness". Also, 1 John 3:6 (NIV) "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him."

In 1 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says that he is "conscious of nothing against himself." Ugh!? How can he be wretched and in bondage to sin and yet confident of no wrong doing? In 1 Corinthians 6:12 (NIV) he says "I will not be mastered by anything." How can someone so confident of being unmastered by sin in 1 Corinthians and Romans 6, be so helpless and bound in evil practices in Romans 7? It just doesn't make sense!

The most satisfying way to understand Romans 7 is that Paul is referring to an experience before becoming a Christian. Theologians like Gordon Fee, Douglas Moo and Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones hold to this interpretation. This understanding makes sense of the contrasts in Romans 6 & 7 and nullifies the sinner-saint concept which actually never appears in scripture.

What about other contradictory scriptures?

In light of this interpretation of the Bible how do we reconcile Galatians 5:16-17 (NIV) "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want."

The translators of the NIV normally render the Greek word sarx as "sinful nature", but it can also be understood as "flesh". When you see that the word "sarx" has many meanings you realize there is room for a different interpretation. It doesn't always mean sinful nature. W.E. Vines expository dictionary of bible words lists 14 different meanings. The scripture here is likely encouraging us to not live with our body in control over our spirit, but the other way around. This makes sense because verse 24 says "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." This is not talking about the body, but sinful nature. The Bible says the sinner is dead! No sinner-saints exist in the Bible.

Why do Christians still sin?

Personally, I don't want to sin. I want to do the right thing. I know I do because whenever I have willfully sinned I regret it and pray that I'll never repeat it. This lines up with what the scripture tells me about my new nature in Christ. But we still live in a frail body with the real option of sin around us. Temptations come not from the inside, like they did when the sinful nature was alive, but from the outside. Sin now tries to activate itself in the works of my body rather than in the state of my heart.

Some argue that the sins of a Christian prove that the sinful nature is still there. They are deceived into thinking that the absence of a sinful nature would make them impervious to sinful choices. It didn't work that way for Adam and Eve. They didn't have a sinful nature yet they sinned -- majorly. This sheds a whole new light on the temptations of Jesus. He didn't have a sinful nature. It means that the temptation of sin was real for him. It means that temptation can always be overcome. Now that our sinful nature is gone we are more like Christ.

The article Do Christians Still Have a Sin Nature? by Dr. Bill Gillham puts it nicely:

Romans 7:20 speaks of the power of indwelling sin (not the sin nature) working in man to produce undesirable (sinful) behavior. The power of sin simply deceives the Christian by masquerading as the old man, suggesting (deceiving) to the will that a choice be made to perform according to the old self-serving patterns programmed in previously. This is referred to as "walking after the flesh." Satan could never deceive a Christian with a direct approach as a "little man in red underwear." He must disguise himself if he is to have any hope of victory. There is one way and one way only to accomplish this deception and that is to masquerade in the thought life of the Christian posing as his unique version of the old man! The naive Christian will believe he, himself, is generating the unchristian suggestion and thus direct his defensive efforts against the wrong foe...what he perceives to be a darker side of himself!

Conclusion

Christians are not some type of heaven-hell-hybrids or sinner-saints. Christians are saints by the grace of God. Christians do not have a sinful nature, they cannot have a sinful nature. This means that all temptations can be overcome as they are not from our hearts. This view places more responsibility on the Christian to live according to their new nature. The two-nature view (sinner-saint) gives a Christian a reason to excuse sin as something they cannot always help. In fact, sin is something a Christian can always help because its not driven from their heart. There is no sin a Christian cannot overcome!

This study will be incredibly beneficial for church planting in Chicago. This is such a foundational doctrine which causes people to understand the depths of grace. Christians are not lowly people who have to drag their sin to the cross everyday. They are completely free to live a new life under a new master and to go with the impulses of the new heart God has given them.

Sources:

I Am Second

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:01:00 +0000

What does it really mean to be a Christian? How does a person become a Christian? Why would people I know start believing in Jesus? How can I help people explore the claims of Jesus? How does a new church embody this?

I am asking myself these questions a lot recently. It's something I don't want to just know or think about but be actively engaged in.

Ultimately, following Jesus is about giving up control, admitting fault and becoming second place. Jesus becomes first place. It's hard for people to give up control. But I know that following Jesus is the most freeing thing anyone can do. It has been for me.

Checkout this web site which has videos of why people have become second in pursuit of Jesus: IAmSecond.com

Church Planting The Next Generation by Kevin W. Mannoia

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:09:00 +0000

A while ago I read Church Planting The Next Generation by Kevin W. Mannoia. This book presents an overarching system to foster rapid church planting on a large scale. The sole focus of the book is for churches (specifically the Free Methodist Church) to work together through the predefined Century 21 Church Planting System. Ultimately the purpose is to create a environment or ethos for church planting within networks of churches. It is highly practical and descriptive of how to implement the small steps that make up the larger movement of finding, training and launching successful church planters.

Ed Stetzer at the very end of his book Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, references the Century 21 Church Planting System (page 334-335). He writes: "Many groups and denominations have adopted these systems, and they have helped raise church planting capacity. More churches are being started, and more of them are being successful." To get such an endorsement signifies the value of this book and the structure that Mannoia brings to the table.

He writes that the Profile Assessment component "raises the success rate of new churches by focusing on the most important ingredient -- the planter" (p67). The book points out that using a well designed assessment process for potential planters increases the success rate of a new church to 90%. The best way to know how someone will act in the future is to find out how they behaved in the past -- hence the value of assessment. This was illustrated well by a story of an unintentional assessment. One leader, after just being appointed as a church planter, was used as a test subject to help new assessors to be trained. The data from the assessment recommended that he not be deployed as a church planter. He found greater reward in a ministry better suited. The cost and significance of church planting are too great to risk sending the wrong dude.

Mannoia makes a strong case for the intentional funding of church plants. "Fund your church planting efforts, whatever you do. It's your future, to say nothing of the best stewardship of your finances in fulfilling the Great Commission. Planting should have a significant presence in the general operational budget." (p116) Yes! This is music to my ears. Intentional funding of church plants, along with the selection of the right guy, are big strides towards building church planting momentum. As a church planter you either have time or you have money -- you don't have both. But, in the environment being proposed here we see the possibility to be more financially stable earlier on. This shouldn't remove the faith element of starting a new church, but it should allow more fruitfulness at a faster pace. I am praying hard for sufficent funding of our church plant in Chicago.

The Century 21 Church Planting System works like this:

Parent Church Network: A group of local churches start to develop a vision for church planting
Profile Assessment System: Objectively measure the skills of potential planters
New Church Incubator: A coaching fellowship for planters
Pastor Factory: Train laypeople to become founding pastors
Church Planters' Summit: An event to initiate new candidates
Maturing Church Cluster: Specialized support for new churches over a year old
Strategic Planning Network: A network of pastors who focus on strengthening churches and planting new churches
Harvest 1000: A fund raising effort for planting churches
Meta-Church Network: Clusters of churches helping to train people through small group ministries

This system is indepth and requires some reflection and discussion in order to grasp its true value. Here are some one liners from the book that caught my eye:

Church planting cannot be tagged on -- it must be intentional and planned for. It must be woven into everything, p14.
Church planting is the life-blood of our future, p19.
Prayer is the foundation to church planting, p25.
Church planting can get a bad name because it changes the status, p35.
Plan for discouragement after church launch, p48.
If you don't constantly recruit leaders, the network will deteriorate, p86.
Mission-driven churches attract mission minded people and produce mission, p90.
The most difficult step is to think differently about church planting, p166.
Anything not connected to the mission should be revamped or stopped, p172.

This book should give a church planter a much broader perspective than just claiming a small patch of ground for himself. This macro-system should produce a vision for city wide church planting that is urgent, faster and more successful. By collaborating with like-minded people we should be able to multiply church planting efforts much more effectively to increase the noise in heaven (See Revelation 7)!

Checkout: Church Planting The Next Generation by Kevin W. Mannoia.

Chicago Church Planter Mark Willis Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:42:00 +0000

Here is my latest interview with Mark Willis, a church planter in Chicago. He moved to Chicago in June and just planted a church a couple of months ago. He is 25, he has works with all types of Christian groups and coaches church planters. Please use the interface on the right to listen to the audio or download the mp3 file.

Matt: First question, how did you get involved in church planting?

Mark: I went to college in Texas, Abilene Christian University, and went through their graduate school of theology, which is sort of their seminary there. One of the tracts that I chose was the Missions Residency for North America. That was in addition to the Master's in Divinity that I got, so it was a specific tract that they let me study with. So, it was sort of a residency, in terms of a medical residency where students are actually doing church planting and doing mission work while they are learning about it, along side mentors and coaches.

I guess I got involved in church planting in the practical day in, day out experience of what it looked like and felt like and they joys and pains of all that. The good part was that I had some friends, teachers and mentors to pick me up when I fell. I had a few scraped knees through the process but really enjoyed it.

Matt: What is it about Chicago that drew you to start a church there?

Mark: Well, I felt drawn to Chicago. And I use that word (drawn) specifically because there was no specific call to Chicago from God. A lot of people say "well, I felt called to this, or called to that," but we kind of walked backwards into it. We felt drawn by God to Chicago to plant a church. It was a remarkable series of events that told us this is where we were going to end up going. It started with us just circling a bunch of cities on a map and asking God to give us some direction. One by one he started taking cities off the list.

We had a few things we were looking for-we wanted a global city, a place where the world was coming and being sent from. We wanted a post-Christian and metropolitan area where we could spread the gospel in a post modern area, because that is sort of my bend and our passion. My wife is a portrait artist, so we were also looking for a city with a portrait market.

Matt: Which Chicago neighborhood are you in and how did you go about selecting that?

Mark: We new it would be north somewhere, we loved the neighborhoods along the red line (Chicago transportation system.) So we ended up choosing Evanston, due to some renting snaphoos that happened. So, we almost ended up here by accident. We knew we wanted to be near a Christian group here called the Reva Place Fellowship, they are connected with the Mennonite group here in the US. Part of our vision for church planting is networking with other families of Jesus that believe in a redemptive community, common work and social justice. Reva Place really embodies those things and have a track record for commitment to the Chicagoland area. We moved here without full intention of staying here in this neighborhood forever but we wanted to get to know and experience the Reva Place Fellowship and learn more about what it means to be an intentional Christian community.

Matt: So, you are living in Evanston. Is that where you are actually planting right now?

Mark: Yeah, that is part of our vision, not to see just a church plant but to see the whole region churched. So we intentionally picked a place that was not at the center of all the commotion. We didn't want to be the hub of everything. And all ready there are little groups of Christians popping up in different areas.

Part of our vision is to partner with those networks and leaders. Like this afternoon, I am going to go to the Greenhouse Church Planters Conference, which is a place where you can connect with other organic church planters and regardless of denominational lines you can help serve each other, find ways to collaborate-work together on projects, you know common worship, or service projects for the city. Part of the reason we chose Evanston is because we knew we would be moving all over the city helping little communities. We have one in Hyde Park that just started a month and a half ago, a little house church there. There is another one in Albany Park that is mostly made up of Somalian refugees. There is one in Logan Square that is mostly artists and poets. There is another on the west side that is almost all Hispanic and working class.

So these groups are very different and our intention in not to try and lump these groups together and make them look like us, but to give them the tools they need to be a vibrant family of Jesus in their neighborhood.

Matt: Now, how did you identify and get involved with these groups?

Mark: It seems that is has happened differently every time. The one we are directly involved with is in Hyde Park. We got connected through a friend, through a friend, through a friend. So just through indirect, natural relations that we have. She is a Christian and she has a lot of non Christian friends who are working with her in a very low income public school, here in Chicago. Her desire is to share the gospel with her co-workers, other teachers. To do it, we feel that sharing the gospel happens in community and as community-that the best evangelism is done in a family of faith verses one person handing out tracts to another. So, we are directly related to the church in Hyde Park and we have discovered the other ones along the way.

The big question now is how do we all relate and work together, because it is important that we do not become isolated. This may bring up a totally different point here, but I think there is some health in small group centered church planting but I think it can get unhealthy if we refuse to allow those groups to mingle and work together.

Matt: How did you get people to help you/ is there any type of team that is helping you with that?

Mark: That is a good question and I would recommend a team for those who are looking to plant a church. In this model, I would not recommend a large, parachute style 20-person team, but I would recommend at least 2 couples-6 couples at the most. We have 2 couples on the north side and 2 couples on the south side and we meet together once a week. My wife and I moved here by ourselves and that has been the hardest thing in all of this. The good news is we have a couple moving here in January and another in the summertime. So we feel like we are laying the ground work, just planting some simple seeds. My recommendation would be to do it a little different than we did it.

Matt: How are you connecting with non-believers and what are you bringing them into in terms of someone who is interested in the gospel and they are coming along in their faith, what does that look like?

Mark: Our hope is that we are sending Christians to non-believers. That these simple churches find there way into their space. So, rather than inviting some people we met at a bar to our house, lets start regularly attending this bar, and being salt and light in that context. So that is kinda our mission that we live by.

You know, we believe that each house church should have a mission that they live by, whether it be teachers, a pub, dance hall, a coffee shop, skaters, or the elderly, whatever it is, that is the planting process for each house church. But to say all of that, we are attracting people with an attractive gospel and so we are asking ourselves constantly what makes the good news good.

The gospel is about reconciliation between God and man and man and man, the gospel is about peace, forgiveness and cleansing. So we are trying to do that attracts non believers. We have been inviting them over for a dinner party, the teachers in Hyde Park, and asking them out for coffee. Last weekend we went up to a apple orchard and just spent the day out there with them and just got the chance to share life for a bit.

Matt: How do you effectively communicate the gospel to people?

Mark: I think a big piece of this is to let it be a community that preaches the gospel. One of the things we've talked about is taking a piece of the gospel and finding a way to communicate that in our lives. Kind of carnate that to the city of Chicago, to the world. So, lets say it is peace making, how could we embody peace making? So, we might stop buying coffee that wasn't fair trade, or maybe we are an advocate for spousal abuse. At the end of it we hold a coffee night where we invite non believers into a discussion about what it was like for us to embody that piece of the gospel. That is one of the ideas we have had for doing communal evangelism.

Matt: What is the format right now for what you are doing?

Mark: It is still evolving. On the micro level we have a life-transformation group model where we meet together for accountability and prayer. That is where discipleship and teaching takes place. We have the women in the house church meet together and the men in the house church meet together. The key there is that these are brothers and sisters that will be fighting for my heart, they will be helping me through the hard part. On a mezzo level, we get together once a week, share a meal, pray for each other, share about the week, and talk about it. We talk strategy for what we feel called to.

Right now our house church is going through some major healing and it is amazing to see what God is doing. We worship, do art, poetry, devotions...it kind of depends on the group. On the macro level we have plans for this, this is starting in June, but we will start to network with other groups in the city. As we plant more house churches we will hopefully find a way to bring these groups together for worship festivals, kind of a weekend long party. Maybe there is line dancing, or a big banquet table, similar to the Jewish festivals...that is sort of a long answer...

Matt: How many salvations have you seen or baptisms? What are your goals? You talked about these girls groups/guys groups, what kind of numbers are you looking at and how do you know when to multiply a group?

Mark: We have an idea that this is going to be bigger than just our little group which speaks of the kingdom, which I think is good to instill into every Christian. God is doing something much bigger than what we can see. As far as our cutoff point...I think it will depend on the specific group. Once it gets beyond 15 it becomes more difficult to have true honest, deep relationships. So, we tell people once the group gets between 12-20 people to start thinking about what the next steps are. Once a group gets to that size a group will start to taper off in their desire to bring in new people anyway, so that is when we start asking people to ask the Lord if they have a burden to do this elsewhere. I am speaking more from my training in my residency here. Almost always when we approach people with this question, there is normally 1-2 that are already thinking that way. So, instead of dividing the groups we ask them to discern in the Spirit who is the 1-2 people to go and start another group, to send out.

As far as salvations and baptisms, like you said it is a new group, so we have not seen any of that yet in our time so far. We are working alongside a few non Christians with the Hyde Park group. With the refugee network, the Hispanic network and the poet network, I could not give you specific numbers on those because we are not directly tied to those groups. As far as I can tell every group has about 70% Christian and 30% non Christian. Our hope it through time and gospel sharing we will see more people come to Christ.

Matt: How do you divide your time during the week?

Mark: Right now, it is busier because I have picked up a seasonal job to pay some extra expenses and then I have another part time job that I work throughout the year. I do have some support from individuals and the church planting organization that focuses on the Chicagoland area. So my time is pretty fluid. It is in the afternoons and evenings when I really focus on the church plant.

One thing that has been helpful is I have been taking days to walk through different neighborhoods. I feel that every church planter should take some time to do this, where they are fully immersed in the mission field in another context. Chicago is amazing for this. It is none as the "city of neighborhoods" and is made up of about 200 different communities. So, I have this city map on my wall and then go to it. I travel public transit, eat lunch there, and just try and discover what people's needs are. Another big piece of how I spend my time is creating training tools for other church planters. One of those is Pray for Chicago Project. It is using wikipedia style technology and allows people to prayer walk through different parts of Chicago. So, I guess half/half. Half the time I am doing things on my own and the other half is working on website development.

Matt: In your groups do you speak every week, do you have a traditional sermon, or is it more of a discussion format?

Mark: I would say the majority is dialogue. Sometimes we go through a specific topic and one person decides they are going to research that topic. Right now it has been more dialogue.

Matt: What would be your advice to me?

Mark: Don't put the model before the maker. There are pluses and minuses to every model. I don't know what your dreams are, but I would say to every church planter to not put your passion for church planting before your intimacy with Father. Without that deep rooted intimacy you are up the creek without the paddle. I am talking from experience. It is easy to forget about what is truly important.

Matt: Well, thanks so much Mark. I really appreciate your time.

Checkout Mark's site: godgrown.net

Books I have read so far on my Church Planting Training

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Here is a list of books I have read and reviewed since I started my Church Planting Training roughly 9 months ago:

I'm also reading a church planting manual and have read sections from several books for my theological and theme studies. I am currently reading Simply Strategic Volunteers: Empowering People For Ministry by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens (review coming soon).

They are all good but if I had to pick one, in terms of church planting, I'd pick Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age by Ed Stetzer. It's comprehensive in that it covers theological and practical aspects of church planting.

Interview with the Director of Church Planting for the Vineyard, Steve Nicholson

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:30:00 +0000

A couple of months ago I interviewed Steve Nicholson, who is the national director of church planting for the Vineyard. Steve is originally a church planter. He planted in Chicago and from that church there has been more than 17 other churches planted out. Steve also does training globally with church leaders, so it was huge privilege to learn from him. Use the interface on the right to play the latest podcast or download the audio here.

Matt: Steve, how do you express your wanderlust for church planting even though you are not planting churches yourself right now?

Steve: For me, mostly it goes into training and coaching church planters. So I am pretty much always coaching and training church planters all the time.

Matt: OK, so how does that look on a week to week basis?

Steve: We have phone conversations and exchange emails. Usually, if I am coaching someone, I visit them from time to time. We start far ahead and keep going until they get the church up and running.

Matt: I see. Now, have I got that number right about your church planting out 17 other churches? Is that correct?

Steve: I think that is right, yeah.

Matt: Have you been involved in all of those?

Steve: Yes, to one degree or another, I have been involved in all of them.

Matt: How do you go about finding guys who are church planters and then training them to do so?

Steve: For me, I tend to start fairly young. So, with some guys I figure out that they are a church planter when they are still in high school. Even though they may not plant for another 10 years. But you are looking for people who are leaders, who can articulate themselves, who know how to put a team together, who can break a vision down into steps which they can actually do. You are looking for catalytic people who tend to start things and lead people everywhere they go. A good church planter looks like a good business entrepreneur.

Matt: Do you find that you get a lot of guys from the business world who are interested in church planting?

Steve: Sometimes we do, later in life. They spend time in business and then feel like they are ready for a change. They always make good church planters.

Matt: Now, this is your main preoccupation, church planting. What do you find yourself thinking about the most when it comes to church planting?

Steve: Just to clarify, I am still leading a church. I spend most of my time leading on my on church. I do spend time thinking about church planting and the biggest default is still about finding the right people. There is a lot of knowledge out there about how to plant, certainly more than there was 30 years ago. The steps to take our fairly clear. There are plenty of places to plant. The bottle neck is finding people to plant. So, that is where most of my thoughts are.

Matt: What is your strategy for getting the DNA of church planting into the church that you are leading?

Steve: First of all, when you plant 17 churches it kind of gets into the DNA. A lot of times you get it in the DNA by doing it. Two, you have to build a church where people have a kingdom mentality, where people know that we are not just here for ourselves...we are not here to be religious consumers, we are here to build the Kingdom of God. When people get that mentality they are going to want to express that in some form. The third thing, I think if you teach people to listen to the Holy Spirit, He calls them. He puts it in them.

Matt: What are your plans for increasing your church planting efforts? Is that in your thoughts? What are your plans for the next 5, 10 years for church planting?

Steve: Church planters are kind of like evangelists. You know, if 100 people come to Christ an evangelist will celebrate for about 5 min and then they are thinking I wish it was 1,000. It is never enough. The same can be for church planting, you know, it is never enough. You always want more. Like I said, I mostly try to make sure that I spot every potential planter I can and help them move in that direction.

Matt: What changes have you seen in the church planting scene? Are there any concerns yo have about the church planting scene and how have you seen it evolve?

Steve: The thing I would say, no matter where you get it, the training is basically the same. There are a few magic bullets that everyone has to do it doesn't matter what brand of church you are planting. The only different situation would be, say a Catholic church moves into a new area where there is already 10,000 catholics and start a new parish...but for everyone is it pretty much looks the same. It is a function of doing it.

On the plus side, I think that there does not have to be as many failures as there was 30 years ago. 30 years ago there were many churches being planted and a lot of them did not survive. Generally, the survival rate is higher than it was even though the general climate is more negative. My main concern, is that once in a while you get people who don't want to do it the regular way, they want to skip stuff. Or, they want to plant the "non-church" church. "We want to plant a church, but we are not going to call it a church, it is not actually going to meet...etc." Of course, you get nothing. So, we have seen more of that in the last 5 years, which concerns me because it does not work.

Matt: Have you seen much of that in the Chicago area?

Steve: No, I haven't. Part of it is that it is the mid-west. Mid-westerners tend to be more conventional.

Matt: What is your vision for Chicago? What is your heart for the city you are in?

Steve: Well, we would like to have 50 Vineyard churches, which would be about the same as the Catholics and Lutherans. It is still pretty modest. Along the way, we want to be a friend and assistance to other churches. Every once in a while we will help a church that is not planting a Vineyard church, but some other kind of church. I am always happy to do that too.

Matt: Have you done much with the emerging, multi-site approach to churches? What is your take on that and what is your experience of that?

Steve: My take is that it is certainly a way of getting fast, short term results. If you have a strong church with a lot of momentum and a very strong preacher, you can get a lot of things going very quickly by piping in the preaching and that produces fast, short term rewards.

My concern is, what happens in 30 years when those guys are not around anymore. My experience is that it takes many years of experience to train up mature pastors that are capable of leading a large organization. It takes many years for someone to become a good preacher, and I am thinking that if these gifted people do the multi-site thing and do it all electronically themselves, where are people getting any experience and training. My question is, "yeah this works now, but what will happen in 30 years when they are gone?"

Matt: My wife and I feel call to plant in Chicago. Steve, if you were me...I have never planted, I'm 28, married, we will have 2 small kids when we move...where would be a strategic place, in terms of reaching the city, to land...where would you suggest?

Steve: Usually, I tell people...number one-go somewhere where there are people like you. Unless you have a very strong missionary gifting you need to go to a place where there are people like you. If you go to a more upper class, intellectual area, then you have to be that yourself. On the converse, if you are more of an intellectual and you go to a blue-collar area, you will struggle. The leader and the place need to match.

Secondly, really big cities like Chicago are a lot harder than medium and smaller size cities. It is much more difficult to be noticed. Word-of-mouth does not help you in really big cities. If you start a new church in a city of 200,000-500,000 and your church grows to 200-300, your church will be noticed. You could have a church of 2,000 people in Chicago and nobody would know who you were. You don't get noticed here until you have 10,000 or more people. It is very hard to create this wide-spread public perception. And you can't do it using advertising because it is very very expensive, no one has that kind of money. It is a hard place.

Thirdly, you need to know that Chicago functions like 3 different cities. There is Nothside, Southside and Westside. People of one section generally know nothing about the other sections, and never go there at all. They each have their own culture and ethos and that includes the suburbs. Not only do you have north, south and west sides of the city, but also the suburbs, so you need to look into that and figure out where you would best fit. Southside tends to be more blue collar and Westside tends to be more coorporate, middleclass, republican. Northside tends to be more wealthy, more educated, more democratic, more young professionals. So, you need to know that is how Chicago works.

Matt: Do you find that in your church that you have a lot of fruit amongst students?

Steve: Yeah, we've always have had a lot of fruit amongst students.

Matt: What do you attribute that to?

Steve: Good music helps. Our style of preaching appeals to students. Our leadership is more educated people. And then once you have some you get more. So, even though I've been doing this for 30 years and am 30 years older, our median age is still only 32.

Matt: What are some of the idols of Chicago?

Steve: Money is a biggie. The whole city is really constructed of immigrants who came here to make a better life. Chicago is very much the immigrant city, it still is and they are coming here to find money.

Matt: Have you had much fruit from other nationalities being added to the church?

Steve: My church has people from around 35 different countries and is about 42% minority. So we have a very divers church.

Matt: Do you find that you have leaders, church planters emerging from those people groups, or do you find that is a harder step to take?

Steve: We have some. We have leaders and some church planters also.

Matt: What are some of the contemporary approaches that you have found that help to connect the way people think to the gospel?

Steve: One of the biggies is ministry to the poor. People love being apart of giving to the poor. You have to understand that I am a north side church...so most of the people are democratic, most are more educated and professional and have more of a social consciousness. SO, they love being apart of a church that is involved in reaching the poor. I think, the other thing is just talking about spirituality in a non-religious fashion. People want to experience spirituality. They do not want religion, or rules.

Matt: On a personal level, what would be your encouragement to me...you know we are on a church planting internship, we are in St. Louis, we are about half way through. What would you encourage me to really focus on?

Steve: First and most importantly, you have to have your vision as clear as a bell. You have to work out phrases and ways of describing your vision that you could communicate to someone in a coffee shop again, and again and again. When church planters struggle, a lot of times it is because their vision is not very clear, or they have not worked it out, how to say it to someone. Imagine yourself in different settings, describing what we are trying to do and get it worked out precisely. Meeting someone in a coffee shop and they are asking, "why should I join you?" you have to be able to communicate clearly what the vision is to them .

One guy I knew, he would start out every church service by saying, "this church started with a dream..." and then he would say something about what that dream was. You have to be able to answer that question. Secondly, I would say you always, always, always start with a team. You need at least 12 people, min 10...but the bigger the team you have, the faster things can go. But, don't take people who are going to need lots of hand holding. People who need lots of attention from the pastor because they are not going to get it. Thirdly, I would say include a prayer team. The Devil is not a sleeper.

Matt: When you say "prayer team" do you mean people locally, or do you mean something broader than that?

Steve: People who don't go on the church plant who pray for you regularly...because there is spiritual warfare.

Matt: Steve, I want to thank you for your time, it has been very beneficial.

Bi-vocational Church Planting

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:35:00 +0000

During this year of Church Planting Training we receive support from a number of very generous people who really believe in us and what we are doing. Our support covers a lot of what we need but to make up the rest of our income it's been necessary to make extra doing freelance work. This presents a lot of time challenges especially considering the type of work I do.

I have a number of technical skills including; web site design, email marketing, digital image enhancement and search engine optimization. Through divine intervention work has turned up just at the right moment without having to do any advertising. That's a huge blessing, especially with the economy right now. I have completed a number of email marketing concepts and executions recently as well as a few web sites and a web site redesign.

On the one hand this type of work allows me to set my own schedule. On the other hand it's directly tied to a businesses success and therefore controlled by the tight deadlines of the marketing industry. Responsiveness and quality are critical to longevity as a freelancer. There is absolutely no loyalty or performance reviews and so the product has to be top notch. Plus, I find that with the myriad of constant online advancements I generally have to learn as I go, on almost every job. Innovation is a constant.

This is not an excellent setup for a church planter. I recently heard that to be bi-vocational you need a regular job that you can clock out from and be done with it. It can be easily segregated and turned off in your mind. That's not what I find with online marketing. I find that to be innovative and produce something cutting edge you have to pour a good amount of time and energy into it. Let me give you an example.

I recently re-launched Atlanta Magician Arthur Atsma's website. I really enjoyed redesigning the site and implementing some innovative aspects. Checkout the site and especially the video's at the top of the page, they are a blast. To make this website robust for the various types of clients Arthur has I needed to make it compatible with the ever increasing amount of browsers and browser versions. The site is fully compatible with all versions of Safari, Firefox, IE (version 5 and above, including version 8 beta) and Google Chrome. This is no small task -- it's a LOT of work!

If anyone reading this has any bi-vocational ideas for me, especially that my skills might fit into, then please let me know. I've always been interested in starting an online company but I realize that to plant a church I'd need a business manger to run a start-up internet business like this for me. When we church plant, I'd like a tent making business that I could give 1-2 days a week to and have someone else managing it. It would be especially cool to be able to use the business to fund church planting efforts. That's my ultimate dream.

Let me know if anyone else out there thinks the same way!

Conversations with our doubts

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:12:00 +0000

As part of my church planting training I have initiated involvement with local University students. Students are not just a fun group to be amongst but because they are thinking through serious life issues and desire satisfactory answers, they embody an effective environment for the gospel.

Because of their intellectual pursuits many students require a no nonsense well reasoned explanation for the beliefs of Christianity. Therefore, my work has so far involved creating summaries of chapters from a book titled The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Having realized that many students, especially those outside faith, are unlikely to buy the book, I am creating one page chapter summaries with discussion questions (example here.) As you can imagine this is a time consuming process--but a worthwhile one.

So far these discussions have been held with a Campus Crusade for Christ group at UMSL and have been very enlightening and equipping. But, now we are taking it to the next level. Over the next four weeks at Webster University Jubilee Churches College group LATITUDE will be hosting "conversations with our doubts". See the video below for more info:

Each week we will discuss the following topics:

Monday Nov 3rd: There Can't Be Just One True Religion
Monday Nov 10th: Christianity Is The Enemy Of Freedom
Monday Nov 17th: Science Has Disproved Christianity
Monday Nov 24th: You Can't Take the Bible Literally

The next four weeks will be a great way for us to engage college students with subjects they wrestle with in an intellectual way and provide some solid discussion and thought provoking concepts.

Have you ever doubted your doubts about God? I challenge you to get this thought provoking book: The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

Church Staffing

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:05:00 +0000

As part of my church planting training I just finished reading Staff Your Church for Growth by Gary L. McIntosh first published in 2000. The book tackles questions like: When is it the right time to hire additional staff or pastors? And: How should a church begin to look for support staff? Gary L. McIntosh is a professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, and has over 22 years of experience in this field.

There doesn't seem to be loads of material out there on the subject of church staffing, and nothing was personally recommended to me, so this book choice was an unavoidable gamble. I don't agree with everything in the book and found some language to be unfamiliar, but I'll share 2 main areas that I found particularly helpful.

Staffing a Church for Growth

I found this aspect of the book most applicable to church planting as it deals with the issues of who to hire first and how to keep making the best staffing choices to encourage growth.

McIntosh points to C. Peter Wager who writes: "Most churches are understaffed for growth. They are staffed for maintenance and survival, but not for growth. If your church is to sustain growth momentum, staffing must become a very high priority." McIntosh writes: "[the] observation of churches that have recently called a new staff member has revealed that many are hard-pressed to define a clear, reasonable rationale for doing so." This means that church staffing decisions are largely not very smart--and at best a shot in the dark.

The fastest growing churches are new churches. This is because the first priority of the new church is evangelism. If the core group do not win new people to Christ, the new church will not get off the ground. The early priorities of a new church are finding people, keeping people and gathering people for worship. However, as the church is successful at this, its members move into maintenance mode, taking care of what they have (people, programs, facilities) while abandoning the priorities that got them there (outreach, assimilation and worship).

This shift in priorities is the cause of plateau in many churches. With numerical growth comes organizational needs. Those in the church are acutely aware of their needs and it can be tempting to staff based on the growing needs created by the constant addition of new people. However, staffing this way leads to an ingrown church and responds to a relational issue instead of a missional issue.

On page 26 he writes: "a church that wants to grow must staff positions ... [that] help find new people (evangelism), keep new people (assimilation), and worship (celebration)." These staff members will focus on the priorities that result in continued growth. To staff for decline would be to first hire a youth pastor in response to parents concern for their own children. This position is not going to grow the church.

The book goes on to suggest that the second staff person to be hired should be a person who balances the gifts and talents of the senior pastor. You find the balance by understanding the two dimensions of nomothetic church roles, being growth focused positions. The first set involve finding, keeping and celebrating with people. The second set involve educating, overseeing and caring for people. If the senior pastor is stronger in the first set, then the additional leader should be stronger in the second, and viceversa.

The third staff person should fall outside a nomothetic role and into an idiographic role, being more relational and focused on community maturity. Idiographic roles include internal programs like various adult, youth and children's ministries. However, there is a strong encouragement to staff these positions with volunteers for as long as possible because they do not grow the church. Additional staff beyond this can be alternated between nomothetic and idiographic roles to bring constant balance to the overall ministry.

Adding a supporting staff member like a secretary, admin assistant, intern, or bookkeeper, is more flexible depending on how heavily program based the church is. A rough guideline is given of with 150 people one support staff is suggested. 300 would require 1.5 and 450 requires 2 support staff.

The issues of hiring staff is also addresses well from multiple angles. Everything from recruiting, interviews, conflict and team roles are covered.

Lone Ranger Vs Team

The book starts by attacking the notion of the "Lone Ranger" Pastor who does everything. On page 13 he writes: "Only one person has all the gifts and that is Jesus Christ Himself." Biblical reasons are given for the need to move away from this model of church staffing but another helpful insight is offered: "Just as the secular world has moved towards specialization and sub-specialization, so the church must respond with specialization to effectively minister to the complex needs of people." If the church is to be engaged with the culture, then we are to be engaged with an increasing complex culture.

He also asserts that while vision usually comes from a central person, there always seems to be a team involved to bring the vision to reality. The various different team models are discussed. One example, The "Hired Gun Model", was addressed and warned against. This involves a strongly results-orientated environment where support staff and additional pastors are accepted as long as they do what they are paid to do. The major downfall of this model is that is breeds an inadequate loyalty to the team and means the "hired gun" can be hired away by another church.

The best model for team is the relational/complementary model. There is diversity in gifting and function but with an emphasis on relationships and giftedness rather than strictly performance or popularity. The senior leader acts as a team coach, while the leadership team has room to help set the direction and agenda. A strong feeling of unity and shared ministry is developed.

The communication of a compelling vision and the development of clear job descriptions, evaluations, resources and rewards are significant elements in building a strong church staff. He writes: "Leadership and management are complementary and dependent on each other for the growth of a church ... it is entirely possible--indeed necessary if the church is to grow--for the pastor's role to move over time from shepherd to rancher." I didn't like the word rancher at first but in explanation this refers to a leader providing oversight through others, of which there are many good Biblical examples. This is a step on from the role of the shepherd which is one-on-one oversight.

Another helpful insight is that of team and subteam size. Through Biblical observation and studies "... it appears that the best staff team is most often made up of seven or less persons since a team of seven allows for a leader and two subsets of three individuals (triangles)." This helps to explain why larger teams struggle to maintain intimacy and therefore common vision. He writes: "To keep larger teams healthy, it is wise to organize them by triangles." Keeping things small in the midst of growth is smart because it facilities change and sustains the personal dynamic and mutual ownership. He admits that developing a strong team simply takes time.

Conclusion

This book had some really helpful insights into decisions about church staffing. There are of course many things I don't have space to mention. If you are interested, this is a quick read, checkout: Staff Your Church for Growth by Gary L. McIntosh

Breaking The Missional Code by Ed Stetzer & David Putman

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sweetman) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:50:00 +0000

I recently read Breaking The Missional Code by Ed Stetzer & David Putman. This book is a great way for me to jump straight back into a missional church planting learning mode after having been a little silent on my blog for a while -- here we go -- kappow!

The main message of the book is pretty simple. The church is the primary vehicle for God to reach the world and local churches cannot simply copy methods, styles or techniques to be effective, but must discern their local cultures in order to be fruitful yet remain faithful.

Breaking the Missional Code does not present a secret formula to suit everyone. It presents a principle for church life: to study and observe the surrounding culture in each community and adjust the methods/forms of the church in order to best connect people with the message of the gospel. On page 228 it says of code breaking churches that "... the mission of the church to fulfill the Great Commission does not get relegated to a program of evangelism, but it becomes intricately woven through the entire fabric of the local church." Everyone is on the mission!

The book talks about the sin of preference. Page 50 says "You can't be missional and pick what you like at the same time ... That is not a problem when our preferences line up with the missional choices for our community. The problem occurs when they do not. That situation requires a change of heart." This is a conundrum for many because everyone holds certain styles to be best, effective, right or even biblical. For example, I prefer a type of worship because I have grown up with it and find that I often experience the presence of God in that worship style.

However, the book is challenging me to rethink that preference. The community we live in might have a different musical form that would more effectively allow them to hear the message of the gospel. The question is: am I good with that? Am I willing to do whatever it takes to connect with the unchurched and not just assume that the vibe of contemporary Christian worship is best for our community? I often preach 45 minutes to an hour at our yearly youth conferences. But, what if people just can't connect with that? Shoot! Dying to these preferences is going to be hard but essential if the lost are important.

Some other key themes in the book are contextualizing discipleship, emerging church strategies and the characteristics of missional leaders. This book would be very helpful for church planters and church leaders alike as it raises a call to bring effective mission back into the church where it truly belongs. Christian community is the best place for mission. Our core identity and core calling should never be divorced. The church should be what she is -- an effective code breaking missional family.

Here are some highlights from the book:

For too many, they love their preferences and their strategies more than they love the people whom God has called them to reach. Page 7
America is the most diverse nation in the world. Page 14
[Some] are convinced if you just "preach the gospel" and perhaps "love people" that your church will reach people. They are wrong, and their ideas hurt the mission of the church. Page 14
Jesus' command to "go to all nations," we think countries. But when Jesus spoke those words, there were no countries as we understand them today. Jesus' instructions mean we must go to all people groups in the world. Page 34
We have become fascinated with the very things that Jesus said not to worry about. Page 40
It seems that every pastor really wants to get into mission -- if his church was just a little bigger. They do not want to give themselves away until there is enough to share. That is not the way God does things. God calls us to give ourselves away and trust him. Page 70
Mission is an intrinsically translational task. Page 73
Leaders who break the code create opportunities. They throw themselves at the challenge of creating environments where the gospel can be planted and flourish. Page 74
Redemptive analogies are twenty-first-century parables. Page 97
Code-breaking churches teach their members to invest and invite. Page 145
... we learn our way forward and therefore we must build time into our process to evaluate what we are learning. When this happens, we build a culture where team members are willing to take risks and come up with new ideas. When we evaluate everything on a pass/fail basis, it is not unusual for a culture to be created that is suspicious and lacking in trust. Page 196-197
Vision is something people produce; revelation is something people receive. Leaders can dream up a vision, but they cannot discover God's will. God must reveal it. Page 205
Pray that God might reveal what keeps local people from trusting in Jesus Christ, and then ask the Holy Spirit to break those barriers. Page 219

Checkout: Breaking The Missional Code by Ed Stetzer & David Putman