This morning I had two great meetings. The first was a church planting team from somewhere in GA. They are blowing it out of the doors. They just showed up yesterday and wanted to talk about church planting and see the building. Our Pastor Brian happened through and invited these guys to breakfast. (I love his heart for church planters). These guys explained that they have tried to work through the processes of their denomination but the local churches have rejected them because they are different. He tried a mentor but it was like they were speaking foreign languages to each other. He was wondering where to turn.

Then I went to my second Starbucks of the morning and met a guy that wants to start an Hispanic Church. He’s got several people with him but his current church “wants to build their ministry.” This may become a partner soon.

I appreciate the heart of a pastor that has a heart for missions of all types. It comes down to whether you love people more than a building. We are going to offer to help both pastors however we can. It is not about us. It is not about building our ministry. It is about people who need to hear and see Jesus. Whatever language, whatever worship style, in whatever kind of building we want to bring people in to hear the gospel.

Jesus said, “I will build my church.” He builds them in all kinds of ways. We need to be about joining Him in what He builds, not worrying about how or where or in what language.

I’m probably not the expert on this topic and so many have written so  much but I talk to a lot of guys that just don’t get the importance of Vision.

First, WHAT DO YOU SEE? If you want to plant a church, start a business, start a relationship, whatever, you need to know where you are going. So what do you see? Describe it to me. Tell me about structure, who’s involved, what you need, where you want to meet, how you’ll pay for it, why you see what you see. I could go on and on, but if you can’t describe it, it won’t happen cause you can’t plan for what you don’t see or foresee.

Second, WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP? Once you’ve identified where you’re going then start planning the trip. You won’t know every step. God will reveal some things along the way. The vision may become clearer, it might get foggier. But do something everyday that advances you toward the end result. Some guys try to be a church or the church before they do the little things that help the church be successful.

Third, DO THE RIGHT THINGS THE RIGHT WAY. You can’t bypass the hard work. You can’t pass go and collect $200 if you haven’t done the work that gets you around the board. IRS regulations, 501c3, bank accounts, incorporation, fund raising (if you wait until you get on the field you are too late), systems, staff, demographics. It’s the little things that get you the big things. Oh, you also need to be praying if you’re really gonna make a difference, but prayer doesn’t replace work.

I have heard about so many that are struggling financially. On one church planting blog, “probably won’t make payroll this week.” Met with businessmen recently that have told me their business is in the tank and just can’t give right now.

I hurt for all of these guys, the pastor and the businessman. WRC has had similar struggles (no one has missed a paycheck) but a lot of ministry that we do could be expanded in so many ways if the money was available.  I know the scripture says, “God owns the sheep on a thousand hills.” Then why do we struggle such with the resources needed for ministry? Have we missed God’s call? Misinterpreted God’s plan? Do “we have not, because we ask not?” Do we have too much and God is testing us?

Unfortunately I only have questions today. No answers. God has not revealed any great wisdom. I do pray God open your hand. Supply our needs as your Word promises. Give us this day our daily bread. Solomon said, “I’ve never seen the righteous go hungry.” Provide food for some righteous brothers today, church planters and businessmen. Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjdAM_wSmCs

If you are a youtuber you probably have already sen this video. It’s about churches in London that are now being used for other purposes? How far away are we from what is happening in Europe?

Here is a quote: “it was built for God, but not used for God.” What a sad, sad, statement!

God forgive us that someone can say that about a buildng a church has built.

I’m thinking about writing a book. I know everyone’s done it, said it, promoted it, blah, blah, blah. I’m not very marketing savvy so I don’t know what I’ll call it. But it won’t be a book for church planters, except those who have planted only one church. It will be a book to try to inspire Pastors of churches of all sizes and denominations, worship styles, discipleship styles, evangelism styles, whatever style to start planting churches.

Here’s the outline:

                     Passion for People – if you love people and want to see them come to Christ you will plant churches. Otherwise you just want to build your kingdom. 

                     Passion for Place – I hear from church planters all the time about how they just knew that they knew this was the place. You gotta love it where God plants you or you’ll be moving on soon.

                     Passion for Planting – Church Planting grows out of a Pastor’s heart and vision. It will not come from laypeople, it will not come from other staff members. It will come when a Pastor is so fired up for a people and a place that God won’t let him rest until he does all he can to reach the area where God has planted him.

I see these things at WRC. I want to share the story and the plan. Obviously most of it will be Brian’s story. So I’ll write the strategy and ask him to tell the story. Do you think it needs to be written? Do you think any pastor will read it? Am I wasting my time.

I don’t expect to have a best seller, probably end up buying most of it ourselves and giving it away. I heard recently that is how most books get on the NY Times best seller list. Special Interest groups buy up all the copies and give them away. Now the difficulty is finding the time.

In staff meeting this morning we listened to a sermon from Leadership 2003 @ Willow Creek. Kirbyjon Caldwell from a church in Houston.

He was speaking about vision, but the line that really got to me was this: “The only thing worse than a bad decision is a bad decision made slowly.” WOW.

Hit me right between the eyes. Sometimes I tend to want to analyze, study, look at numbers, test the waters, see which way the wind blows, etc, etc, before I make a decision. To be real spiritual I tell people “I want to pray over that.” When God has spoken, then ACT. Will I make mistakes, sure, I don’t hear the voice of God perfectly everytime (although I think I’m getting better). But I would rather be wrong doing something than missing God by sitting on my fat rear. Theologically speaking of course.

An old friend came by today. Scott Whitaker. I follow his blog and have watched from afar. He is a great guy, loves people, and loves the church planting world. Check out StonePoint church if you’re ever in Newnan, GA.

I guess I feel obligated to comment on the Olympics. My daughter has really gotten into the Olympics this year. I have an ally to watch sports! At last. I know you’re all keeping up with Michael Phelps so I won’t comment.

But…did you see the 100 meter dash Saturday for the man to be named the “fastest man in the world?” The guy from Jamaica looked around him at about the 80 meter mark and noticed no one near him. He started beating his chest and actually slowed down for the last 10 – 15 meters. He still set the world record at 9.69 seconds. If he hadn’t started celebrating it would have been faster! Not only that I can never remember a hundred meter race where the winner was so far ahead others were not even in some of the camera shots. He won by 5 meters over his closest competitors. It was amazing.

During the interview he did not want to talk about any of the negatives. Why did you slow down? You could have been even faster? Do you think if _____________ was in the race would you have won so easily? He wouldn’t talk about any of that. I won, what else do you want.

So often we are like the commentators. We have this great victory and start questioning the results. We had 250 at Launch, but it could have been 300. We had a $10,000 offering but it should have been $15,000.  Do your best with what God has given you and don’t let the doubts and negative stuff that others pour on you stick. Praise God for His provision. He is enough.

My friend Mark Cundiff sent me some suggestions for MESSY DESK. I promise I will try Mark. He even suggested a book: Getting Things Done, by David Allen. That will be on the next Church Planter’s reading list. That ladies and gentlemen is the reason we should not walk alone. Someone always has your answer. Thanks Mark.

This weekend I am speaking at Crossview Community Church in Rockmart. Speaking on Get Fit Financially. I will be having to make a lot of confessions as I write this material. I just took the Dave Ramsey class last spring and just getting financially healthy myself. Well as I have said before a leader is a person that is “one step ahead of another.”

Getting good feedback from the CP class. Talking with a partner in ministry in the Salt Lake area to carry the concept to Utah. Exciting days ahead for church planting. Other partners may be rising from past relationships.

Read in some material this morning something I have forgotten, “Atlanta needs to start 326 churches today just to keep up with population growth.” What a challenge! The positive thing is that we have some guys who are beginning to think that God really is “The God of the City” and are accepting the challenge. Probably won’t be any First Churches returning but I believe that God is going to rock the city with guys with a renewed vision and passion for cities like Atlanta. One of our interns will invade the city in the spring of 2009. Sic’em.

btw: sic’em means the dawgs kickoff in three weeks! college football returns finally.

I clean up my desk and say I will do better and keep it clean. But alas, paper begins to pile up and I don’t file or throw away stuff and the desk looks really messy. I know where everything is and generally have a pile for every purpose and a purpose for every pile.

Now trying to remember where I filed something on the computer is a different story. I looked for something the other day for over an hour. I finally had to swallow my pride and ask my co-worker to resend the documents. After he sent the documents again I had a revelation. He named it something different than what I was looking for and the documents were still there. I had not lost them just couldn’t remember the name. I have read books on how to organize files so that you could remember where things are. Nothing has worked for me. Still lose stuff.

So I guess the desk may look messy but at least I know I can find stuff. I saw a sign one time that said, “A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind.” I must be really healthy. I’m open to suggestions.  

One of the joys of working with a church with a vision is that they put their money where their mouth is. This year we are partnering with 14 churches financially. Believe me it is not nearly enough. We wish we could provide so much more.

We are discussing fund raising with a guy that has raised millions for other charities. We will be unique among his other clients. In that our network/alliance/partnerships (whatever you want to call it) will be a startup organization. If we can afford to get this thing off the ground (we need $50,000 to get started) we believe we will reap huge dividends. 

Here is what we would like to do once God shows us how to raise the funds:

A. Raise salary support. We would love to get to the point where we are giving a third, the church planter raises a third, and he partners with other churches to raise a third.

B. Medical Insurance. I hear over and over the fear that some medical catastrophe might happen before the church can provide the needed insurance. This will be a huge burden lifted, especially from the wives of the church planters.

C. More Internships. We want to partner with significant Church Plants and large church planting churches to provide experience for church planters. Again we would like to think in terms of 1/3’s.  1/3 network, 1/3 church planter, 1/3 host church.

D.  Better Coaching. We are working on this, but with only one staff member dedicated it is mostly available when a church planter calls or emails. Talking with another church with considerable influence in the church planting world to partner for coaching.

E. Stronger Partnerships. More meetings with our church planters, support for church planters beyond the school and the first year of coaching.

WRC is supporting these planters in a significant way. A few of our church plants have begun to give back. In the future this is probably a covenant commitment to give back to other planters. Future plans for the Network/alliance/partnership includes a yearly meeting required of all partners, 2 or 3 meetings throughout the year to which all will be invited but will be roundtable type discussions.

This is much longer than I intended. But the plans are progressing. We need you to partner: Pray for us, Give to church planting currently through Net35, and give your time. God is going to do amazing things. Join us, Join Him.