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In my last post I reminded you how Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller, Blink introduced us to a psychologist who almost intuitively knew whether a marriage would last after being with a couple a few minutes and a tennis coach who knew could accurately predict a double-fault before the racket even made contact with the ball. His [...]

A church plant is a lot like a boulder on a barren mountainside. You’ve seen this same rock in many adventure movies. Perhaps you’ve seen two nondescript cowboys desperately prying it loose, and then watching it fall. It quickly picks up speed, knocking other smaller rocks loose. Rocks smash against other rocks, breaking them from [...]

I still remember the passion and excitement that surrounded our church plant’s launch phase. We were a committed group of 20- and 30-somethings who were all 110 percent sold on the mission of our church, to reach unchurched and previously churched Asian Americans. It was a people group that had largely been left untargeted in [...]

One of the problems that I commonly hear from church planters is that the core of people with whom they launch the church don’t last. What does that mean? They are a part of the church for two perhaps three years (or even on occasion only one year), and then they leave the church. The scenario [...]

I can remember fishing with my grandpa when I was a little boy. Fred Flowerday, one of nine boys and a girl born to a farmer in Nebraska. Fred knew how to fish. Grandpa taught me about “keepers”. Those of you who fish know that “keepers” are fish worthy of…well, keeping. If the fish was [...]

One of the most discouraging aspects of planting churches is the fact that most people who start with you leave early on. Why does this happen? Several reasons. So what do you do? Brace yourself with the facts. Many churches will see an annual turnover rate of 25%. That isn’t uncommon so don’t be surprised if it [...]