Archive for Church Planting
Coaching Network April 6, 2009
Rick Warren has said so many times that pastors are the most underrated change agents in the world. As I approach the ten year mark on being a senior pastor and having the privilege of meeting more and more pastors I am seeing a very disturbing pattern.
Pastors are fried–lonely–confused–frustrated–and desperate. We want to do what is right…but there seems to be constant pressure coming at us from all side. How do we know what to do next? How do I handle this staffing issue? How can I structure my schedule to maximize my time? Those are a few of the questions that are being asked.
So, last year, after a lot of prayer and consideration I decided to do a coaching network for senior pastors…and it turned out to be one of the highlights of my year. God did an amazing work in all of us who were involved. We were able to learn from and challenge one another in a smaller type of environment. Iron definitely sharpened iron.
I wasn’t sure as to whether or not I was going to do it again…and decided to skip doing it in the Spring; however, I am feeling it is time to begin another network…and so we will crank it up this August and it will meet once a month through November. (That would be four sessions.)
If you are interested in being a part of this network then please email my assistant, Lindsay Taguba. Her email address is Lindsay.taguba@newspring.cc She will send you an application that must be filled out and sent back in. We are only going to be able to accept around 15 people–so the sooner you get that thing in…the better.
(BTW…be nice to my assistant. There was a dude the last time we had applications that called in and was rude to her…I found out and ripped up his application and threw it in the garbage. If you cannot treat people respectfully then you don’t need to be in a coaching network…you need to go back to K-5!)
The cost for being a part of this network is $1,500 that will be due by no later than June 30th.
Once again let me say that I am pumped about this and can’t wait for it to take off. We will be taking applications throughout the month of April, meet as a team and make the decisions as to who we feel the Lord wants to be involved during the first two weeks of May…and then go from there.
If you have any questions regarding this…Lindsay is the go to person and will be more than happy to assist you in any way.
Four Leadership Myths That Aren’t Usually Talked About–Part Four March 27, 2009
#4 – You Must Strive To Be Well Liked By Everyone.
Confession…I like it when people like me! I think every leader does. I have never actually met a person that loves to be hated.
However, if we are going to strive to be the leader that God wants us to be then we must embrace that, in order to do that, we must be willing to be disliked by many in order to honor the ONE!!!
The other day I was reading Acts 7, Stephens speech. It began pretty normal…he was following the “rules” of an excellent communicator. He established common ground with his audience, he spoke with authority and had the crowd locked in for a while.
THEN…all of a sudden Acts 7:51-53 happened. Seriously, if you will read the entire speech it is perfectly normal until this point…but evidently SOMETHING switched in Stephen! (BTW…he said some REALLY not nice things to people—while UNDER the CONTROL of the HOLY SPIRIT! Hmmmmm!)
Stephen did connect with people…but wasn’t really concerned with being liked—He HAD to be true to the ONE who had called him…and who he would one day stand in front of and given an account. (BTW…pastors…Hebrews 13:17 should scare the crap out of us!)
The result…the crowd killed him (see Acts 7:54-58) but Jesus honored him (Jesus stood up to receive him into the Kingdom…amazing!) Stephen was willing to be disliked, even to the point of being killed rather than dishonor Jesus!
How about you?
Leaders MUST be willing to make TOUGH CALLS. And we will NEVER make a decision under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that will be affirmed and loved by everyone.
Our calling is not to be liked by people but rather to be loyal to Jesus…which is SO hard at times because, well, people STILL throw rocks…and the rocks always hurt.
However, I am learning that a leader who isn’t willing to make unpopular decisions and deal with the pain that may result cannot be trusted by God to do the things HE places inside of us to do.
At the end of the day I want to be able to say to Him, “YOU can trust me with WHATEVER You want me to do! Even if it means being disliked by the many in order to honor YOU…the ONE who did more for me than “they” have ever done!”
We have a choice (Galatians 1:10), the approval of man or the approval of God…which one will it be?
Four Leadership Myths That Aren’t Usually Talked About–Part Three March 26, 2009
#3 – Confrontation Must Be Avoided At All Costs
Let me be VERY honest…I HATE confrontation. My heart begins to beat a little faster, my hands get sweaty…and my voice actually begins to shake just a little.
AND…if I had my way I would prefer to never have to have an issue in which I had to confront someone. BUT…one of the things I have realized in the past 20 years of being a leader is that running from confrontation is NEVER the right thing to do.
Hey, I do the “spiritual thing” and pray about the potential issue I need to confront. I pray for God to change their heart. I pray for God to change my heart. I pray for Jesus to return so I won’t have to deal with the issue.
BUT…I am discovering more and more that God RARELY brings a situation to a leaders attention so we can “pray about it”…He wants us to do something about it.
The other day Lucretia and I were discussing this and she pointed out Acts 13:6-12 where the Apostle Paul had to make a decision…do I confront this situation or just let it go?
If He confronted it then he was going to have to do it right then and there…be willing to embarrass the dude and quite possibly have people think he was a mean person who didn’t show much “grace.”
However, if he would have “prayed about it” and let it go…hundreds, if not thousands of people could have been led astray.
So he did the right thing…and went off on this dude. (Please notice he wasn’t very nice!) And what was the result? People wound up receiving Jesus!!!
Leaders, the stakes are WAY TOO HIGH for us to run from the situations that God clearly brings to our attention. (And…most likely the situation isn’t going to “just go away” or “solve itself.” There is a reason God brought it to YOUR attention!)
One thing about this before I move on…the confrontation was rooted in Biblical accuracy, not based on personal preferences. We cannot, as leaders, allow personal preferences become precepts that we try to pound into people.
BUT…when the confrontation is brought to our attention BY GOD…it has to be dealt with if we are going to continue to become the leader He wants us to be.
Four Leadership Myths That Aren’t Usually Talked About–Part Two March 25, 2009
#2 – You Should Always Say Nice Things
Too many people believe that Jesus and Mr. Rogers are the same guy!
They believe that church leader = nice person…and if something unkind is said then the Lord is not honored.
There is really only one problem with that particular mindset…SCRIPTURE.
I don’t think anyone would argue that Jesus Christ was/is the greatest leader to ever exist! (Well…some would…they’re wrong and one day will realize it!) AND Jesus was kind…to “sinners” (tax collectors, prostitutes), children and so on…
But church people really set Him off…and His most brutal, “unkind” words that He ever spoke were directed straight at them…and they were not nice.
Seriously, in Matthew 23 He LOST IT…for example…
- In Matthew 23:15 He calls the most religious people in the world “sons of hell!”
- In Matthew 23:25-26 He tells the religious peeps that they are clean on the outside but not the inside.
- Matthew 23:33 is UNBELIEVABLE! WOW…did He REALLY say that? DANG! (This was really “unkind!”)
- In John 8:44 He calls these people “sons of the devil!” A HUGE insult to these people!
Jesus called out religion…and wasn’t nice about it!
Unfortunately the church has this reversed today. Many of the unkind things we say are directed towards the very people we should be trying to reach…we bash people who don’t know Christ…yet for some reason we expect them to live like they do.
In the meantime we allow people who are religious yet do not have a relationship off because, well, to call them out would be “unkind.”
But Jesus did!
When we care more about how Jesus led rather than what people think about us…and are willing to say whatever He places inside of us…I believe the church will then start becoming what HE has called us to become…
A place that receives sinners and rebukes the religious!!!
My obsession as a leader can never be to be nice…I must be obsessed with obedience to HIS voice…which means, at times, saying things that make the religious uncomfortable. That’s His call for leaders!
Four Leadership Myths That Aren’t Usually Talked About–Part One March 24, 2009
In this series of posts I completely understand that I will really tick some people off…but I feel like some people will be set free. Understand this before you begin reading…God doesn’t use people pleasing pastors to accomplish His purposes! He uses men SOLD OUT to Him…and His call, which means there are times HARD things must be said and done.
Here we go…
Myth #1 – Anger Is Ungodly
Have you ever been told after a message, “You seemed mad today? You should really try to be more kind?”
Believe it or not—that’s been said to me a time or two.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this and came to the following conclusion…if a pastor isn’t pissed about something…he probably doesn’t preach/lead from passion and conviction, but rather from convenience and apathy.
Every leader that did something significant in the Scriptures was ANGRY about something…
- Moses was angry about his people being enslaved.
- David was angry about Goliath.
- Jesus and Paul were angry about religious people.
But the one who sticks out to me on this point is Nehemiah!
In Nehemiah 1-12 we see a man completely sold out to a vision. He risked his life for the vision in chapter one, fought his critics and enemies, dealt with leadership challenges and poured his heart, soul and his money into seeing the vision God placed inside of him come true.
He then honored his word and went back to see the king…then returned to Jerusalem in Nehemiah 13 to see what he had fought so hard for fall completely apart…
And he was pissed!
He SERIOUSLY did things that probably caused the bloggers to go nuts!
- In Nehemiah 13:7-9 he literally cleaned out a dudes “office” by throwing things out in the street.
- In Nehemiah 13:10-11 he rebuked the leaders for not carrying out the vision.
- In Nehemiah 13:15-22 he literally threatened to beat the crap out of people who were threatening the vision.
- In Nehemiah 13:23-25 he lost it and DID beat some people up!
- In Nehemiah 13:28 he fired a guy pretty forcefully!
Nehemiah was ANGRY…godly anger! He was full of passion…godly passion. He did some things that would be considered unorthodox in today’s world…and yet there is not one single Scripture rebuking him for how he acted.
As a leader there have been things I’ve had to apologize for…but I will NEVER apologize for passion…ever.
MAYBE that’s one of the problems in church world today—there aren’t enough leaders who will FIGHT for what they believe in. The early church leaders were willing to sacrifice their lives…unfortunately many leaders today won’t even sacrifice a paper cut!
People full of passion are used by God to accomplish His purposes. Apathy is absent in heaven…it should be absent in the church and her leaders!!! A leader should always be willing to repent from ungodly anger…but NEVER for being angry because the God given vision is being polluted or diluted.
Terminology Or Transformation? March 17, 2009
People ask me all of the time, “What kind of church is NewSpring?” (Actually..some don’t ask…they assume to know…they always make us smile!)
Got to be honest…that question BOTHERS me because, well, here in America we like to be able to define things…to label them…to stick them in a category.
But tagging and labeling the church is impossible when it ceases to be obsessed with terminology and begins to desire transformation. A move of God can’t be explained…or defined…or categorized.
So what are we? Dang…I think we are all of the following…
TRADITIONAL - We hold to the traditions of Scripture, we believe the Bible IS the Word of God, that Jesus was born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, that He took our place on the cross and died for our sins to make us right with God, we believe in His resurrection, we believe in a literal heaven and hell…we believe God is Sovereign and reigns!!!
SEEKER FRIENDLY - It amuses (and saddens) me when people use this as a term to attack the church–what in the heck are we supposed to be–seeker hostile? (Many churches are!!!) We believe people seek God because He draws them to Himself…and when they walk into our church we do try hard to make sure the environment is FRIENDLY! We want people to want to come back…and so we do all that we can, knowing that we will fall short if not for the mercy of God’s grace using our efforts for HIS glory!
EMERGING - (notice the ING!) We believe the churches best days are ahead of her, NOT behind her. We believe that the local church is the greatest possibility for change that exists in the world today. We believe that Acts 2 was ONLY THE BEGINNING of all that God wants to do. And we refuse to worship the past or get caught up in the present…we are HUNGRY for the future and desperate to see the name of JESUS CHRIST take preiminence in HIS CHURCH and the world once again!
MISSIONAL - It blows me away when a church leader defines their church as “missional.” I always want to say, “YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FREAKIN MISSIONAL!!! BUT…remember, the mission is not to organize the group to do nice things for people APART from the Gospel (so they can feel good about themselves!) BUT…rather to fulfill the GREAT COMMISSION by taking the Gospel to the world…beginning in the community in which you are planted. (A church misses the point when it will travel across the ocean to reach people…but won’t go across the street.) We understand that we are called to be a catalyst for change in the communities in which Jesus planted us!
By the way…IF a church is missional it doesn’t need to say that it is…everyone knows!
ATTRACTIONAL - Call us guilty…but we actually think it is a good thing that more and more people want to come back to church. When a restaurant attracts more business people call it successful…when a church does there are actually idiots out there that call it compromise. WOW…could it be we value food more than church? As I said earlier…we do want people to come back…we think the environment should be clean, the kids area should be safe, the music should be done well and expectations should be exceeded–every week!
BTW…exceeding someone’s expectations in church would ISN’T that difficult. The church set the bar so low for so long (and then kept crawling under it) that when people see a church that seems to care about what they do…they are amazed!
PURPOSE DRIVEN - We have a purpose…we want hell to be less crowded because we exist as a church. We want to see marriages restored. We want to see teenagers and children embrace God’s plan for their lives. We want to see addicts set free. We want to see the excluded included. We want to see people escape the pain of their past. We want…well…I could go on and on. We have a purpose…and it’s not to be a country club with a steeple on top that gives our community the middle finger and tells them to go to hell because reaching them would make us uncomfortable!
Folks, I hope you see how silly terminology really is. We are all of these things…and yet we are none of them at the same time. Why don’t we just call ourselves what JESUS called us…THE CHURCH! We are HIS church…we are called to take HIS name to a world that NEEDS HIM.
We need to focus on BECOMING a movement instead of trying to label ourselves as one. Terminology will change…the Gospel will not…and “church” has worked pretty darn good for around 2,000 years. STOP trying to “improve” what God established as essential!
There…rant over…that felt good. I can’t afford therapy…thus one of the reasons I blog! :-)
Four Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me… March 16, 2009
Often times pastors/church planters ask me, “What do you wish someone would have told you before you began?” Here are four that I can think of…
#1 - Dream Big…and NEVER apologize for doing so.
Seriously…get alone, ask Jesus to set you on fire, to allow you to see His church as He sees it…to see her beauty and POTENTIAL in your community. And…don’t EVER limit what you believe God can do!!! EVER!!!
#2 - Stop Thinking Your Are Normal.
You’re not…if you were God would have left you alone! Quit trying to be who people want you to be (especially when they say, “my old pastor used to…”) Be who God called you to be. You have GOT to be you!!!
#3 - Stop Trying To “Cut It Off.”
You can’t! I am sick and tired of hearing church leaders (who usually do not pastor) say, “You have to find a way to stop thinking about the church.” IF YOU CAN GET THE CHURCH OUT OF YOUR MIND THEN GOD PROBABLY DIDN’T PUT IT THERE! You can control it…but you will never stop thinking about it. (The Apostle Paul didn’t!)
#4 - Acts Chapter Two Was Intended To Be The Starting Block…NOT THE FINISH LINE!
This is something that has hit me lately…Acts 2:41 was where God began…and His desire was for the church to grow from there. But today we sit around and talk about how to get back there. I think God wants to do more! I think Acts 2 was God saying to us, “I can do this…and SO MUCH MORE…if you will be the church!”