When people ask about church, one of the first questions is, “What kind of ministries do you offer?” For better or for worse, the term “ministry” has come to mean, “a program that will meet my needs.” This connotation is an unfortunate distortion of what Christian-ministry should be about. My way around this misperception is to simply offer no ministries through our church. Here is how I describe it on our website.

“We do not offer any “ministries” at Reunion, what we offer instead are opportunities. Every person; young or old, male or female, rich or poor, healthy or sick, new or experienced, is gifted by God with something special to offer.

• If you are at a season in life where you need someone to serve you, serve your kids, or serve your family, then check out the Opportunities we offer.
• If you are in a season where you are ready to do something good for someone else, then we have Opportunities for you as well.
• If you are looking for a list of ministries, then you simply wont find any.
• If you are looking for opportunities, then you are at the right place.”

Obviously this is a bit of a word game, but my hope is that a small change like this will help people break bad habits and see church in a different way. In countering our consumer culture, I must emphasize that it is not wrong for people to come to the church in hopes of having their needs met. We live in a broken world with broken people, and, just like Jesus, we need to serve people by meeting their needs. However, we must not be satisfied to meet needs!!! We must strive to move people into a new season of life where they start serving others—even while they are being served.

I have a very foundational belief that no guest enters into the midst of a church, whether a conventional church structure or an unconventional gathering place, by happenstance. Rather, those who visit, are there by divine appointment. No one ever comes into your church, come by whim or without reason. Rather, those who come are wrestling with life, looking for answers and they have been prodded by the Holy Spirit to come to your gathering.

So, why mention this? Why does it matter? Because what we believe about this issue will impact how we treat those who come and how passionately we pursue them. I was recently reminded, while attending a church, that we often do a very poor job preparing for and following up with those God sends us. Every church wants guests, but few really know what to do with them when they come in the door.

Answering these questions will help you determine how well you prepare. When someone new shows up; how do you gather his or her information? Are you consistent and passionate about gathering that info? Do you view gathering their info as an act of evangelism or just a recurring act that seems meaningless? How do you follow up once you gather that info? What strategies do you have in place for those who want to say “Yes!” to Jesus?

In my travel I worship in numerous churches of every kind and size. I am amazed how often most don’t take the time and effort to find a way to harvest my information. What if I was looking for a church? What if I needed some deeper answers? What if I just needed a little more prodding in order to make my way to Jesus? If you didn’t take the time to strategically plan on how to reach me, then you just lost your opportunity. In fact, that may have been my last chance to give the church an opportunity.

Do you believe that guests are coming to you by divine appointment or is it just luck? If God has sent them to you, what is your responsibility? I believe God stops sending guests to those who are not prepared.

Aristotle and church planting may never have been mentioned in the same sentence … the same book … previously – I don’t know. Even though most leaders in church planting that I have known would probably admit in a moment of stark honesty that they “didn’t give a chili-dip” about Greek philosophers, I dare say that most have been influenced by the Aristotelian method  whether they were cognizant of it or not.

The leadership of church planters – or any vision-caster for that matter – could be quite positively strengthened by Aristotle’s insights. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic. His body of work had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the Middle Ages. It continues to influence Christian theology, especially the scholastic tradition. His foundational tenets related to ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the more recent birth of “virtue” ethics. All aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today.

The trifecta of the Aristotelian method of communication and persuasion consists of logos (λόγος: argument from reason), ethos (ἦθος: persuasion through convincing listeners of one’s “moral” character), and pathos (πάθος: persuasion by means of emotional appeal or putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind). For an engineer like myself, it is tough to accept that logos is in most cases the least effective way to begin the vital practice of vision casting. I mean, lay out the logic – period. Why wouldn’t everyone embrace it? Even a little bit of group awareness and humility will inform the vision caster that logos alone just won’t cut it. In fact, in so many words, the best vision casters I’ve known use a recipe something like this: Start with pathos and ethos. Add a dash of logos to work in the concept or viewpoint. Then bring it home with a dose of pathos.

Jay Heinrichs of Greater Orange, NH puts it this way: “First, change the tense to the future. Second, find the pith of your vision message. Third, create the halo meaning the image that represents the best of how we see ourselves going forward.” Heinrichs is convinced that of the three most potent weapons for vision casting and persuasion, ethos or argument by character is the most effective and the key. Agree?

Vision. We all talk about it. Its importance, it’s power, it’s ability to draw people and resources. But some lessons associated with vision will never come from the mouths of  others, you may hear them, but you will have to EXPERIENCE them. Once you see them, they will always remain etched in your soul…

Salty

Vison must be salty. A vision that makes others thirsty for God and the growth of His Kingdom can only come from God. We can’t throw out some grand scheme we think will change things, and just put a “God” label on it. Only a God authored vision will draw those to it, that will see it accomplished.

Simple

Vision has to be understood at it’s most complicated level, but communicated in the most simplistic. If a 3rd grader can’t “get it” and repeat it, then you haven’t spent enough time on it. You can explain it in depth to those who wish to go deep with you, but the simple statement of your vision must be very simple, and captivating.

Settle

When you share the Salty, Simple vision God has given… give it time settle! In other words, be patient. When you share the vision, it should go through a process like this…

Head > Information

Heart> Transformation

Hand> Passion

We have to let the vision (information) have to time to change the heart (transformation) of those with you. In turn, it will move to their hands and they will work with passion.

If you by-pass the heart (transformation), people will work with you but a very short time, and they will die out, or burn out. Let the Spirit do His work in igniting the vision in the hearts of those with you, and He will move their hands with great passion.

Remember… It’s God “Thing” let Him move it in His time!

First of all, I believe momentum is usually a byproduct of great vision and great vision needs momentum to moveforward. There is definitely a relationship between vision and momentum. For context I define momentum as a series of wins needed to move forward and vision as the ability to see forward (or into the future). Recently, I spent a few hours with a few church planters. In our conversation we talked about the things that can limit (or kill) vision and momentum. As I flew home I decided to come up with 10 vision and momentum killers I often see in church planting.

1. The belief that vision and momentum happen in a vacuum. Great vision only gets accomplished with great relationships.

2. Settling for the status quo. Believing what is working today will work well in the future. Many times vision and momentum are killed by our past and present successes.

3. Living in “maintenance mode.” Personally I think this may be the greatest vision and momentum killer. Thinking we have arrived is the beginning of a long slow, painful death for any movement or organization.

4. Not inviting others into the journey. Vision leaks and needs to be shared recklessly.

5. Not effectively resourcing your vision. If vision is important in needs to have fuel.

6. Not listening. Simple, listen to God and listen to those most relationally connected to the vision. Sometimes we need to simply sit down, shut up and listen!

7. Lack of evaluation. Do as Nehemiah did, take time to pause, reflect, evaluate and make mid-course corrections.

8. The refusal to join God where is already at work. Why try to recreate what God is already done or in the process of doing.

9. Not bringing your “A” game. Vision and momentum requires hard work and excellence. Live with a Malachi 1 mindset.

10. Changing your mind. Too many times momentum and vision die because we don’t remain committed to it or we become fearful if it doesn’t work as quickly as we hoped.

Well, that title says it all. You can fill in any words you want for the characters that will no doubt appear anytime you have to make this decision. Wait. Isn’t this a church planting blog? Well yes, and some of you will leave churches to plant or leave plants to do it all over again. Been there, done that. Rarely happy. Just saying. And not just in my experience.

How you leave will determine everything about how the previous church fares and about how well you will be received in the future. I have now left 2 churches and am starting a 3rd. All 5 churches/campuses are still going well…not a testament to myself or this blog post, but by the grace of God because I have certainly messed this up and the boards and people I have worked with have done their best as well to mess it up [all in the "best interests of the church"] no doubt. As if you never had those intentions right from the start:)

I have done it the wrong way: 

Announced to my leaders, leadership team, board, etc. what God is calling me to do, and what God has ordained that I do with the church. [Not a good idea by the way]. It wasn’t the prettiest.

I have done it the more right way: 

Listened carefully to my leaders, my team, board, etc. Took my time and followed each step. [A much better idea]. It still wasn’t the prettiest. Welcome to life.

Why?

People will look to vilify you for leaving. It makes them feel better about the decision. Pastors will also vilify their churches at times. It makes them feel better too.

Everyone wants to make an excuse, and very few can truly hammer it out in love, truth and harmony. I say all of this to prepare you and prayerfully hope that with the power of God, you can make a better transition than I have. Mine have been so bad at times, I have wanted to just quit ministry with the way myself and my family has been treated and left in the dark and all alone. I have also learned greatly how to not handle certain things and to own up to my mistakes as well. I have certainly messed some things up big time in the process. It is a 2-way street. Those that do not see that it is a 2 way street will never lead anything great and have very low self-awareness.

Here are the 3 emotions that your team, your family, your church, your board, and you will face:

Some of the people will be MAD.

Some will be SAD.

Some will be GLAD. 

Some will cycle through all 3 phases.

Yes, it is that simple. So don’t think that people will line the streets of town chanting your name and waving palm branches about your next high and holy calling. People are always there to love you, serve you, and move you IN. Very few are there to love you, serve you or help you move OUT as you go. Just prepare yourself. It will probably happen and I don’t want you to think you are the only one.

And if it is any different from the above…thank God from the bottom of your heart. Transitions are NEVER easy for ANYONE involved.

Keep your heart pure, Keep your heart humble. And keep your eyes focused on the calling that God has for you. Not many will understand it. That’s OK. Do what you can to love on those who might not be very lovely to you. Give them time to process and grieve, Give them time to one day understand that God did have a bigger plan and that their church and your new calling were always in HIS hands. And that is the best place it could ever be in. You will both look back and in love, re-kindle the friendships and the love that God once birthed in all involved. It takes time and healing to make that happen.

I thank GOD that all 5 churches/campuses are still going strong! Some people still don’t like me. I am not on some people’s Christmas card list anymore. Some staff will still not talk to me. Some friends have un-friended me. You know the story. But through it all, as you fix your eyes on the prize, fight the faith and finish the race…that is all that should consume us [which is easy to say, but hard to do].

Be patient. Listen. Love. Hold your wife and family close. And then shut your mouth and be like Jesus as you answer the call to where He would have you to go. DO NOT GIVE IN AND TAKE ANYONE OR ANY MINISTRY DOWN AS YOU GO! Leave that in the Lord’s hands. It is HIS church after all.

Amen.

If your church website’s domain name is, www.ChurchOfTheGoodShepherdOfTheHillsInBakersfield.com, you’ve got a problem.  Your branding is closely associated with your domain name.  The age of your church is often revealed in your domain name.  Is it time to refresh?

For advertising purposes your city name followed by the word “church,” will very often be available.  A couple of day ago I shared this with a church planter in Los Angeles, CA.  You wouldn’t think that LosAngelesChurch.com would be available.  Well, it was.  That is, until my friend gobbled it up.  Go to www.godaddy.com etc. and type in some possibilities.  My L.A. friend had a number of other possibilities…

NewLosAngelesChurch, NewestLosAngelesChurch were also available.  One church planter I recently shared this with found that ChicagoChurch.Co and NewChicagoChurch.com were available.  You can be event specific as well.  How about, LosAngelesEaster.com, or Christmas, or Valentine?  All of them were available.  Imagine… a city of nearly four million and those domains were still available.

If you are “Journey Church” you’ve probably had to settle for a distant second choice for your domain, but I’ll bet that the word Journey and the name of your city will be still be available.  LosAngelesJourney.Com is available as I write this, as is JourneyLosAngeles.com.  (Although by the time you read this it may not be) Of great importance is that your domain be remembered without writing it down.  You can remember, “LosAngelosChurch.com?  If you live in L.A. it would stick in your mind if you drive by it written on a billboard.

You simply have your pseudo domain redirect to the complicated one you got a couple of years ago.  It will cost you about ten bucks for a dummy domain name (per year). It’s kind of like using a DBA (Doing Business As) name for your organization – only digitally.

We did a marriage conference last year. I got the domain, “ClaytonValentine.Com. (We minister in Clayton, NC) Then we phoned the entire city with our Tellstart dialers (www.tellstart.com), inviting them to the event by asking them to go to our dummy domain.  They were redirected to our main site where we had conference information.  It’s cheap, and it works!

This is one of the ideas listed in my new Kindle book called, “Guerrilla Evangelism” – 22 free things you can do right now to get people to your church.  Available soon at Amazon.

A few weeks ago, Georgia, my wife and I went to downtown Berlin to do some shopping. We had seven different stops to make. As we were leaving the house I told my wife that I wanted to “add value” to the employees of the places where we were going to shop. I prepared myself inside, prayed shortly, opened up my heart and approached the people accordingly. I asked how people were doing, complemented them, asked them some deeper questions and just added value to them. It was amazing how people reacted! They sucked in everything I had to say and received every bit of encouragement I brought.

As I was pondering what had happened that afternoon I realized that the Lord daily encourages us in the same way. He not only gave us his life, he gave us everything that comes with it. We are his children and he cares for us beyond our ability to comprehend! We are heirs of the kingdom with everything that includes to help us through life. He certainly is adding value to us.

Since that day I decided to always leave the house with that little prayer: “Lord, allow me to add value to the people I meet today.” How about adding value to the people in your city you are reaching out to this coming year? You will be surprised to see their response. People are hungry for even a bit of encouragement.

African gazelles can jump over a ten foot fence, but they can be contained at a zoo behind a six foot wall.  You see, they won’t jump if they can’t see where they are going to land.  It makes sense.  What if there was a hungry lion on the other side of the wall.  Most of the people who have come to our churches over the years have never been to a new church before.  They have to jump over our wall.  They don’t fear a lion, they just don’t know what to expect.

The cross is a stumbling block; as is the exclusivity of Christianity.  So perhaps it would be advisable to guard the information you provide.  A first time visitor can be overwhelmed by the difference between whatever spiritual experience they had as a child (if any) and the shock treatment they get when they walk into a new, post modern American church.  I was raised in a Catholic church in the north east. My first experience in a non-Catholic environment was real culture shock.  I had never seen the inside of a Bible.  The music was well done but foreign to my ear.  Everything was a huge adjustment.

How you get folks over the wall into your church will vary.  (We do that – www.tellstart.com )  What you say when they land is another matter.  I happen to be a prelapsarian, double election, five point Calvinist.  Do people who jump my wall need to know about my Reformed theology?  Most of us know of and complain about ministries that have watered down the Gospel – giving too little information.  It’s probably fair to say that some of us give out too much.  Pet doctrines and traditions are often the lion on the blind side of the wall.

Without vision the people perish.  Folks who take the risk to jump need to be given a vision of what’s ahead.  Fear of the unknown is often worse than fear of what you can see.  We tend to do a pretty good job of this when we first launch.  However, as the months roll by new people will come in among us.  They will have just jumped the wall and need some picture of what they have gotten themselves into.  So, as part of your regular routine consider including a vision/picture of who you are/what you stand for/ what people can expect in the future.  If will inform the new folks and refresh the vision of your regulars.  Without vision the people perish – so does a new church.

Every year a number of our family and friends send a Christmas card with a family summary. I really love getting those, especially from folks I don’t have much contact with during the year. The kids are always amazingly taller, our friends’ hair is thinner or grayer, and it’s fun to see who traveled to where. Sometimes there’s more somber news of lost family members, tragedies or disappointments. Not as fun to read, but part of a real family’s authentic life.

Most of us in church planting understand the value of telling the stories of our new churches to the churches and individuals that make our planting possible. These vital partners in ministry have prayed for us, sent generous contributions, in some cases they’ve traveled to our new church and worked our nursery or helped with our outreaches. They’re vital to our ability to do what we’ve been called to do.

So at the end of the year, and at the end of every month, keep in mind the value of communicating with your support team. There are some practical considerations that might help.

• Keep it concise. Regularly communicating a short story, with efficient words is more effective than long, drawn-out narratives full of catharsis! People care about you, but they’re busy. You may need to write it all out, but don’t send it all out.
• Remind your partners of the mission as you share the story. You’re not planting a church just to have something to do! The story you share should highlight the transformed lives that have encountered Jesus and his body, the Church.
• Include a picture if possible. Technology makes it lots easier to include a really good picture with an email or print piece. Make it a tight shot that has some inspirational potential. A baptism, kids laughing, hugs of happiness or sorrow, families together—this is the stuff that gets us out of bed in the morning and causes generosity to grow in our hearts.
• Always communicate gratitude. The purest motivation for your prayer partners, donors, and scaffolding workers is to make Jesus smile—but they also appreciate knowing they are helping you in ways that you acknowledge.
• Keep the needs of your new church or ministry in front of the whole team. Not every communication is an appropriate place for a call to action (ask), but if there are needs, ask your team to pray and keep them informed. If they don’t know, they can’t pray well or respond to God’s lead to help. If you overdo it, they’ll stop reading your notes, but if you don’t carefully keep the need in their scope of awareness, you’re leaving resources on the table that will help you accomplish your mission.

So Merry Christmas! We appreciate your partnership in the Gospel and we want you to share our joy. Guess what we’ve been up to this year…