More Than Today

  Last night we had a great beginning to a new small group at Friendship. We met in the Friendship Cafe and ate cake and drank coffee and got to know others, ourselves, and God. Our study was "The Ten" and we began the series with the first of the 10 commandments. It's a series called "Liquid" which includes a dramatic episode and then a good teacher. Then we talked around tables and read and discussed scripture. Twenty people enjoyed a nice night together and I'm glad to be a part of this group. Sharing life together

Let's remember.

It's nice to have a couple of days in a row off from work. Memorial Day holiday tomorrow and then Tuesday for my official day off for the week. Then I am looking forward to taking a couple of weeks of vacation this summer. One of the nice things about knowing that vacation is coming is just the anticipation of it, the dreaming of what could be experienced on vacation.

Day Two of the Church Planting Summit in Harrisburg, PA with Ann and Jared Roth began by reflecting on what was learned yesterday. Then we immediately moved into looking at the ERC vision for planting new churches. We looked at the vision before we got into the specifics of implementing it. Later in the morning and in the afternoon through 4 p.m. we covered a lot of topics and shared ideas. Throughout these two days I was stretched and gained so many insights from the Roth's and all of the participants. The important thing is for us to truly love people and then work to implement ways of showing that love to everyone. And the best love of all, the most loving act of our lives, is to show people the love of Jesus and invite them to respond to His love.

MOTHERING A NEW CHURCH 1) Create a sense of urgency. People need Jesus. 2) Build a team. 3) Communicate the vision. 4) Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. 5) Empower people. 6) Celebrate short term wins. 7) Consolidate. Deal with the laggards. Invite them to change their behavior. 8) Anchor into the corporate culture. Be glad for late adopters who finally have gotten on board. Announce your next church plant. Jesus said, "I will build my church..." The day ended by participants mapping out the next action steps that each of us needs to take. It has been a good day and I am glad to have been here to learn and be surrounded by others who care about starting new churches.

FUNDING OF CHURCH PLANTS 1) Planters raise money. Planters start a micro-business. 2) Denomination puts in money. 3) Mother church puts in money. 4) Several sources of revenue including mother church, denomination, and planter raising money. Bi-vocational planters work in the ministry area to develop contacts. Typically different church plants cost different amounts of money and are funded at different levels.

Jared and Ann Roth told us about getting a lot of multi-site church material from Leadership Network. Look here and download a lot of free materials for how to do multi-site campuses.

MODELS FOR STARTING CHURCHES Hub model : Decentralized programming. Centralized administration. Hive model : People recruited from mother church to start a new church. Substantial core group proportionate to the model of church. About 65% of people who go end up staying with the new church. A larger church comes about when a planter networks for awhile in the community over a large core group coming from a mother church. High Impact : Large start without a hive. Home Church : Church meets in a home. Sometimes several home churches meet together (that could happen).

The Multi-site Church Revolution book is recommended by Jared Roth. Synopsis: This book captures the story of a widespread movement of churches that are expanding their ministries to include multiple formats, venues, and locations, using dozens of in-the-trenches examples, identifying the primary reasons churches succeed as well as how they overcome common snags on the route to “one church—many congregations."

MOVING A VISION FORWARD 20% is the critical mass to move a vision forward. Having 20% of leaders on board gives you permission to move ahead and pilot something, try something, low risk. After you have piloted something and either succeeded or learned a lot from it, the mid-adopters buy in. The late adopters come on board in about three years and it has become part of the church culture. There are some laggards who never come on board. This is about preference, not character. We ourselves may be in these various groups at the same or different times about different subjects. Give people time to get on board when they are ready to do so. Be patient and be persistent in sharing the vision.

CASTING VISION 1) Model evangelism personally before you share vision with others. To be credible about planting a church to reach people for Jesus, you must already be developing friendships and getting involved in people's lives who need Jesus. (This is a point I am definitely weak in. Get to it Rich!) 2) Decide who are the leaders in your church and meet with them one by one. This group includes influencers and blockers. Meet with people individually for lunch, handball, etc.--do something with them that they enjoy doing. 3) Sharing the vision with the leadership group at your church. Don't ask for a quick decision about the vision. That will probably lead to a "no." It takes six times of sharing the vision and then many will say "yes." So...vision cast in multiple ways over a period of time.

What is the starting point for mothering a church? What are the first things to do? What do we already have in hand? What is our church good at right now? Praying people? Money? Teams (college ministry, music)? Furniture, sound system, chairs, etc. Guest speakers, Bible teachers. We were asked to think of things that our particular churches are good at. The ones I listed for Friendship Community are: 1) Training youth and children's workers, 2) Using media and music in worship, 3) Finding & using creative small group video teaching. 4) Angel Food ministry to help people with their food budgets and grow disciples who work together to serve in this ministry.

When would it be right for "our" church to plant? What are the leadership issues? Import, impart, and send. Desire to plant sooner rather than later. IMPORT Look for planters in seminaries, colleges, college ministries within churches, and church planting "farms" (a place that is open to sharing their planters with others). Second Career individuals--look for leaders to apply their leadership skills in planting churches. Baby boomers who are wanting to do something else, to change careers. Jared shared about people who became church planting pastors at 72 and 78 years old. Campus Crusade staff people who are wanting to leave college ministry and plant churches. Church planters can be of any age. Age isn't the issue.

What are the signposts for planting a church? 1) If a church sacrifices more than 10% of its resource base (money, people, leaders) it will most likely do harm to the mother church. 2) What about the age of the mother church? The age does not matter, the leader does. 3) What is God prompting? Listen for specific smart goals. So what do you need to plant? The God prompt. A person to plant. A healthy church (what does that look like...decide). God interrupts/surprises everyone. How much money do you need? Money follows vision. Vision first and then develop a financial plan.

Ann Roth began the day with the story of one young woman she met. Ann stressed that church planting is all about reaching one person. One person at a time meets Jesus. Persons shared a variety of reasons of what they hoped to take away from the day. 1) How do we create a parenting environment? 2) Raising/Training/Deploying Planters. 3) Awareness of why we plant churches. 4) Perspective/confirmation. 5)Examples of how small churches can parent churches. 6)Ministering to church planting couples. 7) Building confidence for church planting. One of the questions for the day is how to balance reaching out from within a structure that spends a lot of time reaching those inside. At the end of the day the hope is that each participant will have a goal and action steps for accomplishing something to reach others for Jesus.

Today I am at the ERC (Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God General Conference--yeah, I know it's a long name, that's why you will see ERC instead)Church Planting Summit in Harrisburg, PA with Jared and Ann Roth. More than two dozen persons interested in reaching people for Jesus through starting new churches have gathered to learn, discuss, pray, and plan for the future. At this point people are talking, eating donuts, drinking coffee, and getting ready for presentations. This is a good time of the day with lots of laughter. The picture, by the way, is of Jared Roth. Ann's picture will be posted later.

Today I am attending a Memorial Service for Jill Martinez. Though I only knew her for a few years, she was one of those people who seemed like an old friend from the start. From the day she moved from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania I enjoyed her great smile and wonderful singing voice. She was instantly on the Worship Team and served well with others. Several Christmas Eve's ago she and her brother Jeff sang a cool song called "Offering" (the "Christmas Offering" version) by Paul Baloche. Though I don't have a video of their inspiring version I decided to post this one by the author of the song. May it be a tribute to God and a reminder that all of us, like Jill, have the opportunity to live each day as an offering to Jesus.

Last night I enjoyed seeing my daughter Emily, a Junior at Dover High School, in the York County Junior Miss Program (not a pageant :) Twenty-eight girls from across the county sang, danced, signed, acted, etc. and shared what is important to them. Lots of talent all over the stage at Central York High School. Emily sang and accompanied herself on the guitar for her talent presentation. She did a great job and I was so proud of her, not just then but all through the program. She really lights up a stage (OK, I know I'm prejudiced but I'm allowed). It was great to share the night with Diane and Rosie and Jess, a friend of Emily's. A teacher also came to see her and the two others from Dover. And the various families congratulated each of the girls for the wonderful job they did. Emily won a scholarship as one of the two winner's of the Scholastic Award. No surprise for me there...she is a quite the bright young woman. It's really cool to see my daughters grow and mat...

Just saw this great picture of five of us who went to Orlando last week to Exponential '09 Church Planting Conference. Thanks Ed for putting this picture in your newsletter...so that I could get a copy to share. (l to r): Mike Schooley, Rich Thornton, Mike Allen, Dwight Lefever, Gilbert Thurston. OK I know it looks like we spent a lot of time at Universal Studios, but actually I was only there three times. No rides though. But it was a fun place to go to that was close to our hotel.