Just finished a series of Church Planting classes. Great response. A lot of good interaction. Guys from Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and all around Atlanta completed the class. In various stages of church planting. 

This year we are doing things a little different. I am not asking the guys for a prospectus. A lot of people can make great presentations. I am asking the guys for a completed time line of milestones or tasks that they need to complete for a successful launch. The guys will then fill out a report each month letting me know whether they are reaching their own milestones. There is a world of difference in putting together a slick presentation quite another to developing a strategy. We’ll see how this goes this year.

Starting a second class in February. I have a list of 10 – 12 guys that have expressed an interest. We need at least 5 churches to make it a go. We need that many to make the interaction worthwhile. If you know of someone interested and wanting to be trained by a great church staff and group of church planters tell them to give me a call or email me at jima@westridge.com. 

I was having issues with comments and stopped any publication because I was getting all of this spam crap posting to anything I said. Some days I would end up deleting 100 or more spams to get to one comment I could post. I think I have figured it out. So if you want to comment I think it is open again. I like getting feedback so post away.

In fact here is one I would like to get some from Church Planters: 1. What do you look for in a coach? 2. What topics would you like a coach to help you with? 3. When you attend a coaching session what is the agenda? 4. How often do you meet face to face with a coach? 5. After Bootcamp, Launch Training, whatever you want to call it, When do you start meeting with a coach? Immediately, After Launch, After getting established.

According to most training sites Coaching lifts your effectiveness 65 – 80%. WRC is working to provide a solution for our church planters. I feel we have done a pretty good job of training church planters to launch, start up, begin. WRC School of Church Planting has focused on what you need to get started. We want to take it to the next level.

If we can get this off the ground we are probably going to migrate toward something like this: Launch Preparation Training – 5 months, Assessment Weekend, Coaching – one year of group and individual coaching. We need to develop 1. process, 2. develop or purchase material. 3. I will probably seek certification from a Coaching Group, 4. Train our current church planters as Coaches and Assessors.

 What do you think? If for some reason I haven’t fixed the comments: Email me at jima@westridge.com 

Several years ago I was challenged by the question from Man in the Mirror. “if your wife has you thrown in jail who wuold you call to bail you out.” The average man over 30 does not have someone that would answer that call. What a shame when the church is supposed to be a community.

We need to be more intentional in our relationships and developing friendships. I recently joined a men’s Bible study. I know most of the guys by sight. I would number a couple of them as friends. But if I got thrown in jail by my wife, I’m not sure which of them would answer the phone at 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning. Not to worry guys, if I get thrown in jail it will be much earlier than this because I’m always in bed well before this time.

The same is true from a church planter’s perspective, when you get in trouble “who ya gonna call?” Ministry is a lonely and sometimes (oftentimes) a thankless job. Everyone wants s piece of you and most of them are not giving anything back. You’ve got to be intentional about making contact. Find someone a step ahead of you, a step behind you, and someone walking beside you. That is three relationships that you need to form to keep you healthy. Because if your wife has you locked up you don’t want to become some guys special “friend.”

I’ve got some guys walking behind me. I need someone walking ahead of me and beside me. I’m praying that God will bring those guys along soon.

Matt Brooks, LifePointe Church, Albertville, Alabama came and spent the day with us today. Matt is a great guy. He attended the second ever church planting class we conducted here at WRC. Matt and a few other youth ministry guys started a church and it took off. It wasn’t long before they were one of the largest churches in that part of Alabama. Now they are located in the snake handling capital of the world so worship can get pretty exciting over there.

Matt has his stuff together when it comes to leadership. I always love hanging around and hearing what God is doing at LifePointe. He is also wise. He seeks counsel from others that have been where he feels God is guiding him to go. He leads a Round Table group that meets quarterly and discusses church planting. He has a passion for people. They have a Celebrate Recovery Group that averages 225 people on Sunday evening. That is 1/3 of the church attendance.

If you are in Alabama and you’re interested in church planting you ought to get to know Matt.

Thanks for dropping by today, Matt. Know that God has great things for Northeast Alabama because He has called you there.

Neil Cole writes in Organic Church “If you want to win this world to Christ, you are going to have to sit in the smoking section. That is where lost people are found, and if you make them put their cigarette out to hear the message they will be thinking about only one thing: “When can I get another cigarette?”

He continues, “The heart of our message is that God didn’t expect us to come to Him in heaven. He came to us. He lived life on our terms and on our turf.” How many times do I have to be reminded of that. Do I want people to come to my church? Most assuredly! But…how many will come if I don’t engage them on their turf?

This is the Christmas Story. God, came to my world (and yours) and lived among us, unclean: drunks (wedding party, best wine), greedy (rich young ruler, tax collectors), partiers (Matthew), unclean women (woman at the well), seekers (Nicodemus), educated (Nicodemus), ordinary men (disciples for the most part), uneducated (disciples), cheats (tax collectors). I think Jesus is comfortable in our streets. Would He be comfortable in our Church? Are we comfortable in the streets?

“The Gates of Hell will not prevail…” That means we are supposed to be charging them. The “Gates” don’t come to us we’re supposed to go to them. Take Jesus to the streets. He’ll grow the church. But…if you build a fortress the armies of hell will knock it down. (fights with pastors and deacons, arguments over the color of carpet, worship wars, arguing, backbiting, gossip, fear. etc, etc.)

Baby Jesus…became the revolutionary that was hung on the Cross. Join the revolution!

Went to meet with a potential church planter this morning. Stopped by my bank ATM, got a $100 bucks, got to Starbucks (you have to meet church planters in Starbucks, it’s the rules now), ordered coffee and a cranberry muffin, pulled out wallet, NO MONEY! Panic, I don’t have a $100 bucks to throw around right now. Run out to truck, look through parking lot, approach counter and pay with AmEX.. I play it cool, like it’s no big deal. But I’m cursing myself under my breathe.

So we have our meeting and I head back to my truck and EUREKA!, I had put the money in another pocket of my wallet, idiot! So anyway now I have to tell Kevin I paid for something and in my panic didn’t get a receipt and didn’t have to use the credit card after all. But…

There is a lesson in this, God provides at all times. Even though I was yelling at myself inside, I thanked God outside that I knew He was going to provide if I lost the money. But I am very relieved that God chose not to put me through that test right now. There are some days you just need to be secure. Is trusting God for little things always a struggle for you like it is for me? I’m been in the faith for a long time, but still struggle with the little stuff. Big stuff, no prob Bob, God’s got my back. Little stuff, I ought to be able to pull that off, trouble is, it’s all little stuff to God. I need to remember that more often.

Watched the new program “Secret Millionaires” last nite. Two millionaires are put incognito (that means they are lying about who they are) into a “poverty stricken” community and at the end the couple has to give away a minimum of $100,000 to a deserving person(s) that helped them on their journey. The rich couple is given whatever is considered the poverty wage for that community and they must survive on that for the week or find day jobs, panhandle, whatever to survive. Everyone was told that the TV cameras were there to film a documentary on homeless people.

Last nite they had a father/son team that the father wanted the son to see how other people have to live. I think both got an education. But here is the deal. How did anybody think these guys were on the street and homeless? Perfectly tanned skin, nice clothes, high priced hair cuts, I am sure that when you shook hands you could tell the difference in a well manicured hand and a day laborers hands. I can usually tell a working man’s hands from a guy who spends most of his day in the office. Anyway the people they gave money to acted surprised and angry before the “give.” They did good things with their money at the end. Even gave away more than they had to $125,000. Helped a lady that helped them, who incidentinally was volunteering at a church feeding the hungry because they had helped her (for those that seem to think the church never does anything right), a lady that is feeding dozens of people in her home off of her social security, and a family with a little girl with cancer. Very moving. These guys entered under the assumption that poor people were lazy and didn’t want to work for a living and that they were all there of their own choosing. I think their eyes were opened a little.

The second couple, both millionaires, that made their millions in the fast food business were married. They showed up in a big nice Suburban pretending to be ordinary folks to lend a hand to Katrina victims in south Louisiana. Claimed a net worth of over 60 million. Lived in a nice but not overly pretentious home. Had a lot of people working for them. Nannies, shoppers, hair stylists, etc.  This couple responded a little differently, ended up helping organizations: a food ministry, a church building a volunteer shelter, and a local high school athletic program. $300,000. From the beginning you could tell this couple was different, they didn’t assume the worst about people (the man says he came from nothing), they connected with people. I have a suspicion that they are probably connected to a church somewhere, because they were certainly comfortable in that environment.

The scriptures says something about “you may entertain angels unaware.” Jesus criticized the Pharisees for providing the best places for the rich. In church and church planting I realize that we need “rich” people who hopefully give with a sincere and cheerful spirit, but if that changes the way you treat people, you have some messed up priorities. The rich people last nite were most surprised that people who had little or nothing appeared to be the most giving. (the widow’s mite) If you look at statistic’s the middle class gives a larger portion of their incomes to charity than any other group. Pray for a “rich” guy to get your vision and contribute, but don’t forget the vast majority of your income will come from the ordinary person in the seats. And love them all the same.  

Church planters, and some pastors, get all stoked about not following “tradition” during holiday seasons. Anti-tradition has become the tradition. You can dwell on anything long enough to ingrain it into your psyche and into the culture of your church and that is how “traditions” are started. Just because it hasn’t happened but once doesn’t mean you haven’t started a tradition. Even new traditions can become a burden.

Rick Warren said when they started Saddleback Church they advertised everything they did as the “First Annual”. If it was good they did the Second Annual. If it was bad nobody heard from it again.

At WRC we’ve had some of those things we have had to check over the years. One of those activities is happening this week for us. Dinner in December has been a great outreach, in home Christmas program for several years. It is a “tradition” at WRC. When we moved into the building the first year we had no idea how we would pull off an event of this magnitude in a new building so we didn’t even try. Many of our folks got upset about it but we survived.

Another of those events or non-events was the “tradition” of an Acts 2:46 Sunday where we gave the volunteers a day off. Encouraged our small groups to have a gathering in their homes on the Sunday between Christmas and New Years. Last year we had a service we called “Unplugged.” No child care. No big band. Acoustic worship and a preacher, come if you like. We had about 800+ show up. So we’re gonna try it again. If you want to woship with your family, with a small group, visit another church, or sleep real late that is up to you. We’ll provide an on-line sermon to use at home, study materials, or if you want West Ridge Light you can do that too. Tradition does not have to be bad as long as it’s flexible.

Now here is the other thing you have to watch for tradition. How do traditions effect your budget? If it’s working have the 3rd, 4th, 10th…annual whatever but if it’s not, find a tradition that works TODAY and put your money into something that will achieve the desired intent of the original tradition. In other words begin a new Tradition. So, don’t make fun of mine and I won’t make fun of yours.