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.