just read on facebook where one of the church planting dudes that is attending the class this time is nearly debt free. if you are a church planter you need to read and understand this. you will never fully realize the importance of being debt free if you plan on planting a church.

now the truth is, that statement is true for everyone. you would be surprised at how much ministry doesn’t ever happen because we owe too much money. can’t go on a mission trip – Visa/AEX/Mastercard is due that week; can’t give to this ministry – that Hummer payment is due; the church church plant can’t advertise – bills to pay and they can only afford to pay me this month; i can’t afford to plant a church there is no money for insurance.

and then there are the excuses for not being able to give to the church, bought a new car this month – can’t afford to give to the church and make payments on a new car (did you think used?); just bought that house you know the bank said we could afford that $400,000 house (did you ever think about a $300,000 house so you could give); just bought a boat – can’t give like i used to give…and the scripture asks “will a man rob God?”

so, church planter, pastor, church member what is robbing God because you didn’t count the cost. right after i moved to GA after being injured in NOLA i decided i wanted a swimming pool. you know it would be good exercise for my injured leg and arm. i had all the good excuses. i had the money from the insurance settlement. i bought a pool. do you have any clue what it takes to run a pool for a month or for a summer? i didn’t count the cost. it nearly killed me. someone described a pool as a “hole that you pour money into.”

don’t get me wrong. i loved the pool. and i would have one today if it weren’t so darn much trouble and so costly. and right there is the issue. we want the things we want regardless of the cost. except that is spiritual things. when it comes to giving to church or ministry most of us have the “i woulds if…”  “i would give if i didn’t have this boat, this vacation home, this expensive car, this Visa bill, etc. etc. etc. this is my lesson (and it’s a hard lesson i had to learn) if God has ever said to you to give to a ministry/church and you responded “i would if….” then there is something wrong with your priorities.

get out of debt. don’t let anything get in the way of your calling to serve or to give. amazing how freeing it can be. congratulations ng, may your tribe increase.

reading USA Today, today. there was an article on social media. guess who is not using twitter, anyone under 25. “dude like it’s so yesterday.” blogs are pretty much out because the younger generation has moved from myspace which began the blogging craze. so where are they? on facebook.

that must mean i’m somewhat cool anyway. cause i do have a facebook page. my twitter went bad for some reason, tried several times to communicate with the ____________, want call them what I would like to call them, let’s just say incompetence. anyway after about 2 weeks i was so relieved of the pressure of telling people about the mundane things of life. let’s admit something, most of what i read on twitter, if it ain’t scripture, or leadership lessons, or something of that sort i really thought it was boring. i remember reading one day a guy saying that his babies diaper needed changing and that it stunk. who cares, change the diaper. or another guy talking about fixing his children macncheese for supper. i don’t care. and honestly if you were real honest neither do you.

the other thing about twitter was guys twittering about 24 or Lost, or football, or whatever. perhaps if put as much time communicating to their wives about those programs some of them might still be married.

so, i feel good that i’m cool. got a facebook account that works. can share parts of my day with friends and family. rarely hear about dirty diapers or the teething habits of babies, or that the guy beside you on the bus/interstate/subway has a really cool tattoo.

now about this blogging thing, they say it’s on the way out also except for middle aged and older guys like me. we’re a dying breed. what else will make me less cool next year. personally glad twitter’s dying, blogging is less cool. think i’ll keep facebook. i got me some middle school friends that like it.

strengths finders test reveals – relator, command, ideation, strategic, and achiever. how much value is there in knowing that. i for one believe it matters a great deal. we put a lot of stock in assessments here at WRC. we want to know your strengths, your personality, your habits, your skills, challenges. etc, etc. we also want to know that about you in relation to church planters.

we use a profile at www.churchplantersprofile.com. it is a series of five tests that help us get to know the potential church planter before they ever attend a class. there is a profile to help you know whether you are likely to be successful as a planter. a personality test, a temperament test, strengths test, and a 360 degree profile. we allo anyone to attend the cp class but we are very selective on support. we have to be in the present economy.

anyway back to my test. relator was an interesting one for me. i tend to have alot of acquaintances but very few friends. so at first i doubted the usefulness until i read the description. exactly right, i have a few people that i pore myself out to and keep others at arms lenghth. not that i don’t like people. i generally like people, but it is a learned reaction that i don’t trust many people. childhood experiences create lasting impressions. we are a sum of all our experiences.

that is the reason church planting and assessment are linked hand-in-hand. you have to know why you do what you do. you cannot be starting a church because another church won’t call you, you got mad at deacons or deacons got mad at you, or that you are going to be “THE  REAL NEW TESTAMENT” church (my real pet peeve). 

knowing why you receive the test scores is as important as the test scores. as i look at all five of mine. i can list experiences that drove me to each. so church planter, what’s your real motivation?

i bought a house 10 years ago. while they were building the house my daughter went around to the rear of the house and said, “come look, daddy, there’s a coke bottle with water coming out of it.” or something like that, it’s been a while. anyway about 2 feet from the foundation of my new home was a spring that had been capped and was spilling water at a fairly consistent rate, creating something of a little stream.

i talked to the builder and he assured me that they would cap the spring and it would be fixed. i found out later, too late, that what they did was to drive the water further up the hill so that now the water is still there but running down toward my home. bottom line is that in all of this rain since the summer my backyard could be the swimming hole where i used to go skinny dipping as a child. :0 not a pretty sight then, even worse now.

there is no way that the guy who cuts my grass will ever get a lawn mower through my backyard right now or for the foreseeable future. i have thought about just putting a plastic liner back there and a pump and forgetting the grass. i’m not sure my neighbors are up for that move. have i mentioned that i’m not very fond of home owners associations.

well, the landscape in some places have changed. as i have written before JASON GERDES began as Lead Pastor at REVOLUTION CHURCH in Canton this past weekend. Tim, Chad, Preston, and Thad  and the entire staff team did a great job of holding a “muddy” situation together. through the muck and the mire they get to see God transform the church so that even more people far from God will come to Him. i am really proud of these young guys who have weathered the storm. the Sunday before Jason arrived, a full house and the biggest offering in the history of the church! GO GOD! i believe Jason will lead Revolution to unforeseen heights.

12 church planters have signed up for the School of Church Planting. meeting these guys one-one has been a great experience. i believe God is going to use some of these guys to really rock their communities. great stories, great calling, great vision. this gives our leaders and teachers something with which to build on.

anyway when you can’t mow the grass, and you can’t channell all the muck out of the way, you just have to work around it. church work is sometimes messy. even when planting a church there are obstacles that you have to learn to work around. like the water in my yard there is a solution, this spring i’m gonna have to bite the bullet and do what i should have done a couple of years ago. problems persist until you find an answer and you act on it. i waited and got a flooded basement. don’t wait until it’s too late and you are flooded out. act now. you’ll be a better pastor/leader/church planter for it.

the school of church planting is full for this term. we cut off registration this morning. i will post more later.

started meeting with the guys that have signed up for the church planting class for this term. some really sharp guys have registered. from TN, AL, and all around ATL, even have a guy that intends to go to Ohio when he is ready to plant a church.

what i’m generally listening for is PASSION. is this something you have to do to be satisfied in the plan God has for you. Do you love people and want to see people brought to a relationship with Jesus and other believers.

i listen for a PAST. what have you done in the past that gives you any indication that God has prepared you for this moment. what have you started: a club? a business? a ministry? what obstacles have you overcome to start something? what teams did you have to build?

i listen for PREPARATION. who are you meeting with? who are you pursuing to make yourself better. met with a guy the other day, told me he has 3 men speaking into his life. asked me to be the 4th. that is preparation. and he doesn’t yet know even what community he will target. what books, seminars, training, mentoring, coaching, studying are you doing to prepare yourself for this journey?

i listen for a PLAN. a church plant does not just happen. i recommend that a church planter spend 6 – 9 months preparing the field for a church plant. what will you teach a core group? why should a family join your core group? what and how will you disciple people to know and be? how will you pay for this venture and supply for your family? believe me there is a 99.9% possibility that you’ll just show up and build a big church.

now perhaps a big church is not in your plans. i can handle that. but you still want to know the basics. discipleship, growth, doing the right things the right way. we are not about a method. we are about the message. use whatever method God has given you to communicate the message. we don’t need little WRC’s we need KINGDOM churches.

Good Morning America reported yesterdayabout this kid and a miracle of sorts. you have probably seen the stunt before. i have. you take a kid at a pep rally. take him out of the gym. tell the entire student body how you will play a trick on the kid. tell him if he makes a shot from 1/2 court blind-folded he’ll win a big prize. when the blind-folded kid shoots the ball the entire gym will jump up and scream hysterically making the blind-folded kid believe he had accomplished an impossible shot. oh, and here’s the incentive – some impossible prize.

well, GMA reports with the video proof, that they pull this kid out and tell him if he makes the shot he will win 4 all expense paid tickets to the Final Four. so they blind fold him, walk him to center court, point him toward the basket, he shoots…HE MAKES IT! the gym does go crazy and so does the coach…you see, there are no tickets to the Final Four. GMA reports the kids in the gym take up a collection and get $35 bucks for a dinner out. the community is trying to raise the money now to live up to their commitment.

what if it happened church planter? what if it happened to you? you pray big dreams. ask God to bless. ask God to do more than you or your friends can imagine. and HE DOES IT! you see 100’s of people at your first service. or dozens accept Christ. what do you do next? that will determine where you go next.

you see a lot of people pray big prayers but really don’t expect God to answer. and because they really don’t expect God to answer they don’t plan on the next steps. they aren’t ready to disciple, they aren’t even ready to reach out and assimilate the increase.

you can’t just plan to plant a crop, you must be ready for the harvest.

what if, church planter, 400 show up for the first service…50 people indicate they accepted Christ…100 people said they want to serve…the children’s area overflows…you didn’t have enough seats…someone gives you $50,000…a guy shows up and says “God has called me to help you”…what if. you gotta prepare for the what ifs…take the shot, pray for a miracle. don’t let your God be too small.

i love meeting guys that are preparing and praying for the what if…they are the ones God will bless, because they can handle the harvest. got a new class of 10 church planters ready to start asking the “what if…” questions. excited.

one of the joys of my job is getting to see how God does things in completely new situations. i got to have lunch with Tim Grandstaff on Saturday, the day before launch. Tim shared several stories about God’s provision. church from California saw a tweet and sent money. family from church in California moves to area and connects with Genesis after pastor recommends they meet. local church sends money and band members. it was just great listening to Tim in his excitement and hearing him tell the story.

the launch went well…as i said before about 150 in attendance. about 30 folks from WRC or family members that showed up. after the service the Hunts and the Gilcreases were helping breakdown the children’s area. seemed like old times at WRC.

during the service their faith was expanded as they had to set up two full rows of seats for an “overflow” crowd. there were some technical difficulties that i am sure will be worked out. lots of kids, this is a young congregation. i was by far the oldest person in the building and that included Tim’s mom and dad.

tim held up a yard pincher (?) don’t really know what it’s called but it’s one of those things that picks up items off the groung without having to bend over. Tim told his core group that “every manager at Disney walks around with one of these. it is a symbol of servanthood that they will do anything necessary to keep the park clean for guests.” he challenged the core team to have that same attitude to be ready to serve whenever and wherever he/she may be needed. in most of our established churches people have forgotten that lesson.

good positive comments after the service. several new people and families hung around for the cook out to get a free burger or hot dog.

next week i get to go to Charleston and hang out. we’ll arrive just in time to do some door-to-door canvasing with information about the River Church. see what Todd Mag and the team have prepared and of course we’ll probably end up at Hyman’s for dinner and if we’re luck kaminsky’s for dessert. then we’ll all roll into the service on Sunday.

The Grove in McDonough started previews this past weekend can’t wait to hear Chris’ report.

Also launching this Sunday in south Atlanta – Hope Church. Maurice and the team there are gonna kick the doors down. great place to worship. wish there were two of me so i could be at Todd and Maurice’s. God is good!

WRC is touching four new communities this month. Excited about the future.

if you are friends with me on facebook then you probably have seen a lot of this story. i was in Orlando this weekend for the launch of Genesis Church. Tim Grandstaff and the team did an excellent job. after weeding out the visitors from home and the on-lookers that seem to attend every church plant launch and then disappear, i figure Genesis will settle in at about 100 – 105. great start!

but i digress, i got to the airport early hoping to catch an early flight. i have learned my lesson, get on the internet to find out what is happening. well i had turned my car in before I found out that airports were jammed because of back-ups in ATL. so no early flight. that’s okay i say to self, “self go find a restaurant with a TV watching the nfl playoffs.” so self obeyed.

then at half-time i head to the terminal and security. i get through security and my phone rings. Delta, your flight is delayed until 8:40. not too bad i tell self, “at least you’ll get home tonight.” call wife, tell her the bad news. decide to get a coke and watch the rest of the game.

go to the gate. the 3:30 crowd (it’s 7 p.m.) is still waiting to take off. getting a little nervous, don’t panic. they usher everyone with boarding passes onto the plane the plane headed to Atlanta. 8:00 p.m. plane pushes away from terminal. 5 minutes pass at which time the lady behind the counter says, “flight 1033 to Atlanta has been canceled. you should probably hurry to the phone bank and make other arrangements. at which time there is a stampede. i being old and hobbled because of a bad knee am not the first or second person in line at a bank of 12 phones. i’ll beat the system i tell self, “just call the Delta line.” on hold for 20 minutes (remember there are several folks at the phone bank).

Lady at the other end says, “sorry Mr. Akins but the next flight out is 6:30 in the a.m. and because it is weather related there are no hotel vouchers for you but i’ll be glad to put you in touch with some preferred partners of Delta.” so i start to figure. 9:15 p.m. – 20 minutes to phone bank to call a hotel shuttle. 9:40 – 20 minute ride to hotel – 10 p.m. – 20 minutes to check in at standard rates because I didn’t plan ahead for the tornados in GA. – 10:20 – an hour to get over the day’s excitement – 11:20 – have to be up at 3:15 to shower and catch the 4:15 shuttle to the airport to go back through security – to be at the gate at 5: 15 to board at 6 to take-off at 6:30. maybe 4 hours sleep.

so i say to self, “why waste the churches money? just stay here in the terminal.” i get to watch the entire Saints/Vikings playoff game. buy me a late snack because I pretty much missed dinner. sit down with 2 black pastors that have been at some sort of conference and that also had to catch early flights to their respective cities in the a.m. bottom line, we talk, we laugh, we doze. i get maybe 2 hours of sleep on the floor of the Orlando airport, when the crew wasn’t cleaning and vacuuming and the announcer was not announcing for the hundreth time, “The terroristic threat level is at Code Orange. Please do not leave your bag …” they play that all night even when there is no one there.

i did get another nice nap on the plane ride. so i’m in the office with about 3.5 hours sleep.

what is the lesson in this? 1. know your situation. i might not have gone to the airport so early had i checked on the flight schedule. 2. in all situations be prepared. don’t get locked into someone else’s time schedule. plan ahead. and plan for every contingency. i am proud to say that i had an extra pair of clean underwear just in case. my momma taught me that one. 3. when things are out of your control. there is no reason to go crazy. some did. the Delta counter people are not God, they did not cause the storm. i’m not sure they handled the information in a great manner but no one is perfect. 4. even when tired the work goes on. i came to the office, albeit a little late. i’ve got stuff to do. 5. when it’s all over learn a lesson. next week i’m driving to Charleston for the River Church launch. 6. share your foibles with others. they can grow.

seriously, when you are preparing to launch something will go wrong. how you handle that will tell people a whole lot about your leadership, your attitude, and your adaptability. teach them well how to handle adversity, it is coming. think i’ll take a nap now.

i did one of those silly facebook things the other day. there were two items side by side: your actual age and your real age or something like that. anyway i took both surveys…one said my age was 53 the other said my age was 64. now being that i just turned 57 i hope the first one was right and i really am just 53.

i think that i think a lot younger than i am. i mean i get church planters and young guys in ministry much more than i get guys my own age. i don’t know that i always agree with the message but i sure love most of their methods. i hate sitting around discussing my latest diseases, injuries, or ‘cussing the local politics or that kids these days ____ . i want church to change. i want church to be relevant and real.

that being said, my body sometimes tells me i’m a lot older than i am. you know i have old injuries that keep me from doing the stuff i used to do. i miss tennis and softball. i miss throwing the football around with the guys.

so how do you justify the two…the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak? this is not a blog that is going to answer the question for you. right now it is just my question.

here’s what i do know that when i get to the point where i am just complaining all the time – weather – body – church – different – young people – government – i hope that God takes me home. let me live as long as their is hope, let me die with a twinkle in my eye and mischief in my heart. 53 – 57 – 64 is an attitude. i hope mine always stays younger than the chronological age. what about you?