With Easter quickly approaching I notice that most of the church plants we are connected with in some way are planning something big in the community. Four of the churches Revolution, Oakleaf, Crossview, and River Ridge are all planning to drop 10,000 or more eggs out of helicopters. The price of eggs is about to go up. Freedom Church in Acworth is gearing up to do an activity at the request of the city of Acworth.

These guys are great examples of guys that are reaching their cities through serving the people in their cities. I was at a meeting recently where this seemed like a new idea. These guys have succeeded because they served folks first. They found a need and met the need. That’s a clue for you guys that are just getting started. Find a need and fill it. Make yourself and your church indispensible in your community before you even start.

And for you guys dropping eggs out of helicopters just make sure all the kids duck!

This past weekend at the church planting class I spent a little time talking about mentors. Ed Stetzer a few years ago documented the importance of a mentor to the success of the church planter. It was one of the top ten indicators of success for a new church plant.

Here’s some of my best  advice when it comes to a mentor:

     1. Find someone who has been successful at what you want to do.

     2. Find someone who will give you time consistently.

     3. Find someone you can trust to expose your weaknesses and failures to.

     4. Find someone that will talk straight to you, that will tell you when you are in sin or making a mistake.

     5. Find someone who is living a “godly” life in business, home, and community.

     6. Find someone who has your best interest at heart.

     7. Find someone who is learning from others.

     8. Take every advantage of meeting and talking, especially in the beginning. Be careful not to wear out your welcome though. You will transition at some point to phone and email contacts.

     9. Go to the meeting with an agenda, but follow his/her agenda.

    10. Study his history of success and failure. He should have learned from both.

    11. Understand that a mentor today is not necessarily your mentor tomorrow. As you grow you may need someone to push you to the next level. A good mentor will recognize this and will not be alarmed as he transitions from mentor to friend.

    12. I believe this mentor needs to be someone from outside the church you are starting.

Find someone to challenge you and your thinking! Don’t just go after the same old, same old. Otherwise you get the same old, same old.

Ellis Prince former Student Pastor at WRC has relocated to Baltimore to plant a church. I don’t mean surrounding Baltimore, he is in downtown Baltimore. He and Ginger and the kids live in a nice row house with 900 square feet and are loving it. Although a big guy like me would have trouble ascending and descending the vertical staircase the home is nice. Their home is in a nice community bordered by a place where most of us would not live.  

Here’s the deal though, it takes a real calling and guts to answer the call to come to the downtown area of a city – any city. The church has all but abandoned the people who live in the city and told them if you want Jesus come see us in the suburbs. Their children know the names of some homeless people who are camping out about 1 mile away in a church yard. They are playing with children of various races in the local playground. They ask about taking food to their friends in the camp. Ellis’ description of the way their children have responded brought a tear to my eyes. First for the childrens faithful hearts, secondly for my lack of compassion in my little world.

Here’s the real deal. They are short of their fund raising goals. Ellis has not asked me to do this but if you are a pastor of a church and read this blog you need to connect to the Gallery Church in Baltimore. You can send something. Ellis is having to spend too much time asking for money. Brian, Paul, and I spent yesterday with Ellis hearing his vision and the work already accomplished. We prayed from the World Trade Center observation deck that God would raise up $100,000 for this work. Give and it shall be given you, do you believe it? Then give. I’m gonna send something from my personal checking. WRC has made a heavy investment in this ministry. It is time to allow Ellis to connect with people looking for hope, not people sitting in a comfortable pew. If you believe God loves the city, give. God has sent someone in your place, give. God will bless it!

And if you are from WRC. We will be bringing a mission team this summer. Plan on it and get ready to reach the city!

In a meeting with David Olson, “The American Church in Crisis.” A statistical look at the church in America. Let’s just say his first conclusion is that Barna and Gallup are optimists. The George’s (Barna and Gallup) report 47% of people in America attend church on weekends. According to Dr. Olson, that figure should be 17.3%. I think this is similar to a PCA study of a few years back.

Dr. Olson says the church today has these three challenges:

1. Start churches to make up for the closed churches each year.

2. Start churches to make up for the decline in attendance of churches over 40 years old.

3. Start churches to keep up with the population growth.

Even with a net growth of 300 churches per year in the U.S. we are 2900 church starts short each year in just keeping up with population. We have got to find ways to do better at starting MORE and HEALTHIER churches.

That’s why WRC does the School of Church Planting and why we need to network together in something like Net35. We cannot do it alone. One church budget nor one denominational budget will get it done. We won’t do it just by holding conferences. We’ve got to find guys, empower them, and send them.  

God help us to partner together to reach Your Kingdom, not build our own.

Took off this afternoon from Atlanta and felt like I was on the mine train at six flags bumping from side to side. After we got to cruising altitude it was smooth sailing. In fact we had a great flight after that, except the guy beside me was as big as me and not going to give an inch in arm rest. Oh well at least I had the aisle seat.

That reminds me of church planting. Getting off the ground can be very bumpy. You will meet obstacles, people will oppose you, and some people leave, but it is amazing how God can smooth the way when you are in the right place at the right time.

 Don’t let obstacles or people get you down. God will make a way if you are centered in Him!

My first confession is that I hate technology. I am a complete and utter computer illiterate. Now I know that doesn’t surprise most of you. I tried to post a comment this weekend while I was away but alas I couldn’t get the *%&^$#(*& thing to work. I log on this morning and it’s like I was never away. *&%$(&^#@!

I had a great weekend away with my wife. I intended to describe the majesty of the mountains, the snow, the clouds hovering over the mountains, etc. etc. But I couldn’t so I won’t.

 I am headed out today to meet with a variety of church planting churches with Vision 360. We are continuuing our dialogue with them to seek to be partners. We continue to hope that we can partner because there are some great guys, great visions, and great opportunities for a church planting movement.

 Most of you know we run a church planting school. We have had request from 5 different states for church planters to register for next year. Some exciting stuff ahead. We are just beginning to hear from some local guys. We will be looking for a local church planter as an intern for next year. They will have to be high capacity guys, willing to move to Dallas (Georgia) for a year (or close by), and wanting to plant in the metro Atlanta area. We believe strongly that internships matter in the planting of significant churches. Look on www.net35.org if you are interested.

Oh yeah, my second confession, is that since I have been blogging for all of three days, I find myself wanting to burp my thoughts out more and more. Oh well, I may be hooked.

Do something significant for the Kingdom today!

Jim