A Bob Roberts quote really caught my attention lately. He said, “We don’t plant churches in America. We plant worship services.” 

Ouch.

1. If your Super Bowl party last night was full of church people and small group holy huddles…you have planted a worship service.

**I know we are missional, incarnational, organic, blah, blah, blah. Jesus hung out with saints and sinners and an emphasis on the latter. So…gut check: Who are you hanging out with and spending the majority of your time with? We say we are about making disciples and reaching the lost…what did your party look like last night? And if you didn’t have something or go to something…you pretty much need punched in the throat.

2. If you spend the majority of your time, budget and energy focused on weekend services [or if you are anti-weekend since it is kind of popular to be: your missional communities for mostly saved people]…you have planted a worship service.

**Does your budget of time, talents and resources reflect that you are REALLY committed to MAKING DISCIPLES or crafting worship services? I once visited a great church with 200 staff…only 12 on staff were dedicated to spiritual development [disciple-making]. Worship is just as important as discipleship is and discipleship is just as important as worship. BOTH/AND!

3. If you can’t make a change in the weekend service or risk messing with “the formula” or some portion of it due to backlash…then you have planted a worship service and not a church!

**I just spoke to a great friend of mine who was called on the carpet [in his very not-church plant, but a very old, established church]…who thought he was getting let go due to a bad performance review. The problem? He turned his back on the audience to read scripture off the screen. Really. True story. So…people going to  Hell while we yell at you to please don’t turn your butt toward us whilst reading scripture?!

Or another friend of mine who was pretty scared because he wants to reach more “seekers” [make disciples] at his charismatic church by dialing back Sunday’s a bit and focusing more on the Holy Spirit side of things on a different night. If either offend your people, you have planted a worship service and not a church.

What are some other ways we plant worship services instead of churches?

I love mountain biking. It’s probably my favorite pastime. Early in my mountain biking experience, I was riding at a regional park near my home.  I was surprised to spot a group of cactuses up ahead and was worried about hitting them. I kept looking over at them, gauging the length of their spikes and thinking how painful it would be to run into them at high speed. And sure enough, I rode right into the cactus patch, punching 20 to 30 holes in my bike tires.  Having only one spare tire on hand and needing two, I ended up walking my bike all the way back home.

Later that day a more experienced rider shared with me an important principle of mountain biking: Look where you want to go. “Wherever you’re looking is where you’ll go. What you did was stare at the cactus, so that’s exactly where you went. Instead, put your eyes where you want to go and your bike will instinctively take you there. Keep your eyes on the destination.”

This core principle of mountain biking applies equally well to church planting. Keep your eye on the goal and what you want to accomplish instead of focusing on what you want to avoid. Certainly you need to be aware of the barriers and pitfalls and cactuses along the way, but if you focus primarily on what you want to avoid, you’ll almost surely hit it.  I’ve seen this happen over and over again with church planters I’ve coached. Planter A is very worried about financial security, and a debilitating focus on cash flow happens.  Planter B desperately tries to avoid conflicts and keep everybody happy, and finds himself right in the middle of a struggle over ministry philosophy and priorities.

When you’re planting a church, keep your eye on the vision. Consistent focus in the right direction will get you where you want to go.

For more lessons from mountain biking, check out Bob’s blog.

When I was a young church planter my team and I spent countless hours trying to deal with the kinds of complicated pastoral situations that inevitably come up – marriages on the rocks, mental illness, interpersonal conflicts and such. It is amazing how much trouble a small group of people can get into.

The problem was two-fold: first, we thought we were supposed to “fix” or heal all of these situations ourselves, and second, we thought we could bring healing to them if we just tried hard enough.

To make many long stories short – our efforts mostly ended in failure. Along the way, so much time was spent in meeting deliberating what to do with these folks. Then in yet more meetings we tried to counsel people to solve long-standing problems and we ended up neglecting the things we most needed to do to get the church established and reaching our community.

I have learned that pastors are going to hear a lot of problems that are already beyond the point of repair by human efforts and certainly beyond our ability. I have also learned that it is best to pray, to share whatever spiritual guidance is needed and to refer people to experts on the other stuff. Further, I have learned that some problems can’t be fixed short of a miracle and no amount of effort makes any difference at all. As a result I have learned to pray more and spend less time in meetings. Lastly, I have learned that I am not responsible to fix everyone’s problems – that is not the job that God gave me. They have a Savior already and it’s not me.  My job is to point them to the Savior and build a spiritual community where they can grow in relationship with that Savior and with each other. But it is not to fix or heal all their problems.

I have seen church planters lose months of time and emotional energy over problems they thought they could solve but in the end couldn’t.  And the church suffered as a result.

We need to know our limits – the limits of our ability and the limits of our responsibility. Without it we tend to lose our focus and waste effort that we can’t afford to lose.  We can’t abandon people, but we can refer people and we can pray with people all without losing our focus and energy.

There are a lot of new buzz words and strategies these days for planting churches. I must admit, I am from a small town and I need things to be simple in order to understand them. Studying through the book of Acts, it seems the first church planted new churches and “turned the world upside down’, and they used a simple 6 step plan:

1. They relied on the leading of the Holy Spirit as to where they should go.
2. They used local “common” & “ordinary” people with no special training to be leaders.
3. They multiplied leaders by personal relationships and instruction.
4. They allowed the planting process and the recognition of leaders to be an organic process.
5. They were able to move at an incredible pace because they listened to God, and empowered others.
6. They were not seeking control, but instead created a culture of honoring those who led.

I think God is calling us to “kick it old school.” The old Acts school that is. We need to begin a movement where churches are planted in Power, when simple, anointed and surrendered people do the miraculous for the kingdom, and because so many can jump in, the task is accomplished at break neck speed.

That is my heart! Do like they did it then, let God get the credit, let God choose the place and the people. And then let the Holy Spirit draw, convict & redeem.

That will set the church on fire with a passion for people. And release “every priest” of God free to fulfill all that God has in store for them.

Let it be done, quickly, Lord Jesus… Amen

About three years ago I met a middle-aged man who had been working as an art conservator during the former GDR (German Democratic Republic), the Socialist Germany. He had been fired after the reunification of Germany and was since then jobless. He had been through a hard twenty years, most of that time in the solitude as a divorced artist with two children who didn’t stay in close contact with him. This lonely man restored a painting and a nice plaster statue I inherited from my grandfather.

Two years after doing this work for us this man called out of the blue. He wondered how we were doing and gladly accepted an invitation do dinner. As he was with us he opened up and shared the secrets of his heart with us. Despite the fact that he called himself an agnostic, he started opening up to our story with God. He showed more than just a passing interest – he showed a real hunger and thirst for righteousness and for answers of life. He asked us if we would be ready to keep the contact and talk to him more.

This story may not seem too dramatic but it is for us. Just a day or two before this Georgia and I prayed that the Lord would bring open-hearted people to us so we could start another Alpha Course. We are, it seems, on track. Serving people and praying for them opens the most distant hearts and gives us the opportunity to see people come to the Lord. God is building his church even in hard areas like Berlin, Germany.

Somebody once told me that if people were talking about me, they were leaving someone else alone.  Somehow that never consoled me.  And if I heard that my husband was being criticized, rightly or wrongly, it drove me crazy.

People come to a church plant with differing expectations.  If these expectations are not met, rumblings may begin.  When things are going well and the church is increasing, critics are usually silent.  But, when a leveling off or slight decline happens, watch out, because the knives get sharpened and they become emboldened.

So, what do you do when you or your husband are being criticized?

If it’s about you:

1.  Evaluate it, make corrections when necessary and put it behind you.  Don’t try to justify it.  Ecc.7:21, “Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, lest you hear your servant cursing you.”  And read Spurgeon’s sermons to his students entitled, “One blind eye, one deaf ear.”

One Pastor told us that he had a brick thrown though his widow at home with a note tied to that said, “Get out,” – protesting a projected move of the church to another area.  Another Pastor was denied the use of the fellowship hall for his daughter’s wedding – they didn’t like some of his sermons.  And several have returned from vacation only to find that they’ve been voted out of a job.  It only takes a few activists to stir up the mildly disaffected.

If it’s your husband:

1. Make sure that whatever you do, you do not take matters into your own hands.  I can give this advice with authority because I did this – one time.

It was in our first church plant.  I’d heard that a woman was gossiping and spreading rumors about my husband.  I waited until my husband was taking a nap and drove over to her home.  I confronted her with the situation and left her with the comment that someone should cut her telephone cord.  Then I went home to face the music.  Needless to say, they left the church.  I’ll say no more.

2.  If the criticism is legitimate, and your husband is wrong, don’t try to correct him.  You are not the Holy Spirit in your husband’s life, nor are you his Mother.  There are some things your husband must learn on his own and God may use many ways and means to make him into the person He wants him to be.  It is not your role in life to shape him.  You can and should give advice, but when he makes a decision, he must live with it and hopefully learn from it.

There may come a time when a gossip needs to be confronted; then biblical discipline may need to follow.  However, if God can shut the mouths of lions, he can stop gossiping people, so pray for those who persecute you & toughen up, we’re in a battle.

Also, keep an eye out for my husband’s (Phil Spry) new book on Amazon, “Gossip”- “When Church Chat Goes Bad.” I know it will be helpful because over 4,000 folks have downloaded his sermon on which the book is based.

P.S. - Have you seen the free stuff yet at churchplantingsupersite.com?

In real life, arranged marriages can work well.  In church planting, not so well.  Here’s what I mean.

We have neighbors who are from India, and they’re in an arranged marriage which is doing quite well.  The story is interesting.  He was born in America, so he’s a natural US citizen.  When he was getting to the wife-hunting stage his mother contacted his uncle in Mombai, who put ads in the newspaper for women of specific education and background. Then mom went to India and interviewed these girls, narrowing the list to five.  Our neighbor then went and met with them to conduct his own interview of sorts.  Within a day he and his prospective wife made the decision that they would go for it, and they were married about a week later.

It sounds a little goofy to our culture, but it apparently works.  They at least had the advantage of having loving people around them (in the is case, his mom and uncle) to do some preliminary screening.

In church planting, arranged marriages don’t work so well.  Here’s what I mean.  Any time a new church planter welcomes someone into their inner circle (ministry partner, associate staff, leadership team) without first having some notable history with them, they are risking serious value and agenda disharmony.   Sooner or later some big blowup happens, and it happens all the time.  Church planters are understandably desirous of having good people partner with them.  But unless they have had some history where trust and understanding has been forged, too much is left to chance.  Tick-tock, tick-tock.  Something will go nutty.  It will be a disagreement on music, or scheduling, or location, or name, or policy.

Here’s my advice.

First, make a commitment to not allow the feel-goods of the moment to beguile you into thinking anyone should get a pass.  Everyone needs to be vetted.

Second, read the chapter entitled “Leadership Backlash” in the book Church Planting Landmines (by Gary Rohrmayer and me).

Third, customize your own Values and Agenda Harmony survey, like the one attached here, to help you get the discussions going with prospective inner-circle people.

Church planting is full of landmines.  Give strong consideration to what I say, and you’ll have fewer bruises in the process.

Church Planting is tough and always carries a potential of risk and catastrophic failure. So what are the top ten mistakes made by leaders as they plant new churches? These are the mistakes I have seen repeated time after time with the church planters I have trained and coached.

1. Planting a church around your own likes and dislikes instead of contextualizing for the culture your in.

2. Failing to take spiritual warfare seriously.

3. Allowing complainers to shift your original vision.

4. Launching in haste – (Premature Launch)

5. Placing all effort on the launch with little thought of what to so once the church goes public.

6. Failure to focus on evangelism after launch.

7. Fear of talking about money until your pressed into a corner.

8. Placing people in leadership too quickly.

9. Failure to focus on your family properly.

10. Failure to plan for anything but the Sunday morning service.

If you have experienced these mistakes reply and share your story. If you have one to add, by all means share your story.

The most common metaphor for Christian community is “family” and “household” (Rom. 12:10; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19; 1 Peter 4:17). It dawned on me that we rarely apply this to one’s marriage and family. I curiously wondered why we fail to act in families as a community of Christians when it seems so obvious that this is where it is practiced and refined and best illustrated.

Pastors are to manage the church in the same way they manage their home (1 Tim. 3:5-6). We are to practice gospel community in our families with at least as much intentionality as we do among fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

THREE WAYS WE PRACTICE GOSPEL COMMUNITY IN OUR FAMILIES

1. Sharing

As a family, we share a unifying belief in the gospel and we express this belief communally as we teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16) and speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19).

We also share in one another’s burdens by carrying them for other members of the family (Gal. 6:2) and encouraging one another (1 Thes. 5:11; Heb. 3:13). We express the gospel vividly by relieving the pain for other family members especially when they don’t deserve it.

We share in physical needs of other family members—food, money, and housing. We are devoted to each other in brotherly love (Rom. 12:10), being hospitable (1 Peter 4:9) and doing good for others (Gal. 6:10).

2. Serving

Jesus took the form of a servant and made Himself nothing. He did not act on His own needs but rather suffered to serve others the greatest gift of an atoning sacrifice for our sins (Phil. 2:5-8).

We are likewise admonished to serve one another for the other person’s good and not our own (Rom. 15:1-2) with a brotherly love (Rom. 12:10; 13:8; Heb 13:1; 1 Peter 1:22).

A family serves one another through unconditional love, forgiving one another (Matt. 5:23-24; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:13) and holding each other accountable to walk in harmony with the gospel (Rom. 15:4; Eph. 4:25; James 5:16).

In the context of a family, members should seek to outdo one another in showing honor. We preach this in the context of members of the family of God but often fail to practice it in our own homes.

3. Affirming

We affirm one another’s value in Christ by accepting them as Christ accepts us (Rom. 15:7), showing concern for them (1 Cor. 12:25) and demonstrating true humility (1 Peter 5:5). Even in a family we have varying degrees of skills and abilities and imperfections. Our value is in Christ’s acceptance of us in spite of our failures. Our family community understands this and affirms this in the daily life with one another.

Family members affirm one another through demonstrative affection. This seems natural for family members to greet one another with a “holy kiss” (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12) but many homes are devoid of affection, kindness and compassion (Eph. 4:32).  This practice can be nurtured and developed and is not acceptable to be categorized as a cultural problem (1 Thes. 3:12).

Finally, family members affirm the strengths, abilities and gifts of one another. The opposite of this is criticizing one another (James 5:9) rather than honoring one another above ourselves (Rom. 12:10).

Continue to Practice Gospel Community

Practicing gospel community in our homes gives honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Pastor’s families lead the way a church and other families function in community. Our families are communities. We are not isolated individuals who share a common house and name. We are conceived in community, born into a community and nurtured through a community of family members.

We honor God as we die to self and humbly share, serve and affirm the members of our family community.

It was one of those unusual moments in ministry. I received a phone call inviting me to come conduct Bible studies for a Filipino fighter named Manny Pacquiao. He was scheduled to fight Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas last November at the MGM Grand Hotel.

Pasquiao is an 8-time world champion as well as a Congressman in the Philippines. He is a national hero as well as an international celebrity.

Flying in a few days before the fight I met with him and his team over a two day period and opened God’s Word. The theme? “The Good Fight of Faith” – a pretty easy set-up.

This message for him was easy to grasp. He had an opponent he would face – an “enemy” that would have schemes and tactics designed to defeat him. This is as clear a picture as there is of the Christian life – a fight.

Somehow as Christians we forget that we are in a battle. The fight is over the minds and hearts of humanity. The battle is raging in our own hearts as well.  We have an enemy that is fierce and relentless. We can never let our guard down –not even for a moment.

If we try to deny the warfare or pretend there is no struggle we invite certain defeat.

You see, we can plant churches and conduct ministry and do a lot of things in God’s name and end up losing our own faith. We must be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might if we have any chance to prevail.

How can we do this against such an accomplished and ruthless opponent?

Now more than ever we need to get back to basics:

Read the Bible daily, pray, walk in close fellowship with other Believers who are fighting the fight as well.

It’s those simple principles that will give us the edge in our struggle.

Sometimes like the fight Manny Pacquiao fought, the margin between victory and defeat is razor thin. No matter how many mistakes we make or shots we take from the Enemy, God’s Spirit will help us prevail if we look to Him.

I got to sit ringside and witness the titanic struggle between these two champions. Pacquiao won the fight and instantly gave God the glory for helping him prevail – acknowledging that without Him he could not have won. Being somewhat of an insider I knew he meant every word. If we are to prevail we must have that same attitude as well.