Category — Church Planting

- the fine art of church suicide

“My word… I now know for certain. My church has lost its collective mind…” - Bob, the cowboy commentator and church consultant

My friend Bob looked up from reading the blog on his laptop. He pulled off his reading glasses with some drama as he does when miffed (an effective technique - you might consider picking up a pair of spectacles whether you need them or not).

Bob explained his ‘Mad-as-a-hornet, can’t take no more’ response.

He wasn’t one bit negative. Deep love and pain was emerging.

“I’ve always thought when someone takes their own life that they are out of their mind - at least at that moment. Maybe this holds true for groups when they do the same…”

Bob’s words hung in the air - like a slow moving indoor cloud hovering in the room. Bob spoke a drop dead amazing truth.

One thing is certain - 100% of the innumerable groups who succeeded in a suicide attempt - not one was thinking clearly at the moment of the ultimate deed.

Is there a pattern that leads up to a church or a spiritual movement to self-destruct? Ponder these common patterns that lead up to what lemmings do each spring.

•Celebrating The Tragedy of Others… other leaders / churches!

“They finally got what was coming them them / him / her. Yep, God got ‘em good. You can’t fool Him…”

If you haven’t thought this or said it you likely aren’t thinking back hard enough. Human nature makes such behavior tendencies natural to us all. Call it “The Martha Stewart Effect.” She goes to prison without protesting the initial sentence dished out to her. Amazingly, the vast majority of Americans decided they hated Martha - they decided to enthusiastically believe the worst about her. There is something particularly savory about believing the worst about those who have been highly successful in life. This goes double for the leaders of large churches. ‘They are large because they are doing something that’s not kosher…’ (No names here please…)

Recommend: Start praying for a church each week like this, “God we ask you to bless this other church today - we ask you to profoundly touch them today more than us…”

•Church Suicide Comes From The Passive Condoning of Toxic Attitudes
Rarely will leaders in the local church clearly say aloud what is as negative as what is carried about in the heart. “We really don’t like people who aren’t like us…” Who in their right mind would cop to that?… especially official leaders. Yet can you explain how it is that great public efforts are taken to increase attendance yet the ‘backdoor’ siphons more out than in?

Recommend: If you are one who speaks or has a voice into the leadership, be candid about your heart. Fear keeps us stuck and away rather than toward people. To like people is more costly than to love people very often!

•Church Suicide Begins With Bombastic Attitudes
“We really are all that - and more!” No comment necessary.

Recommend: Pray with an honest, open heart. Start with confessions. When God shows up honesty tends to happen.

Bob never told me what upset him that day. That wasn’t the point. He loves his heritage. Even more he loves the Church at large - as do I on both points. Maybe we are on the same boat as it works in fellow-ship.

…of all leaders, launchers most need interventional help

The Stand Up Guy for ‘Lost Causes’

The Power of A Magnificent Loss(es)

I am a lost cause

Every city I have planted in has been antithetical to a place that has potential

The people we attract are nearly all lost causes

Supply is coming in to CoastlandTampa from various places – in the form of a decent soundboard.
 
We will know by the end of the week what is up with our location.
The site I originally felt we were to get is turning out to be the exact one we are apparently getting.
The good news – it has a theater.  Fixed seating.  A stage.
In previous launches we have always had to load and unload chairs.  My arms have stretched 2.5” over the course of lugging chairs on those adventures…

Now my back is destroyed so that isn’t going to work for me…

Our Phase 1 plan is pretty exciting on a number of fronts…
 
Though the up front capital influx has been disappointing based on earlier projections, I am convinced Jesus is going to use this as a model of some sort to encourage others who need encouragement from us as they also launch with limited resources, etc.
 
Good things lie ahead.

I spoke with a friend in Atlanta about our lack of up front capital to launch at this point.  Told him I was seriously thinking of going to our Phase 1 without a sound system.  He said he had an extra one lying around in the back room gathering dust – thinks we can have that.
 
We now need mini systems for children.
 
Current strategy based on wisdom is to pour existing funds into children’s area and nursery.  Much can be forgiven.  These two areas are pretty much unforgivable though.

A couple of days ago I got together with the main guys involved in our initial pre-launch launch (AKA, Phase 1 Launch).  We talked about what is needed in order to do this mini launch.
 
This was exciting to touch base on, yet reminded me we are starting in a humble way here as we have done before.
 
It is amazing, God in his faithfulness, has answered our prayers for supply.  Yet  as I survey the situation, it seems our start up funds are minimal.

Today and through Thursday I am in Kansas City connecting with a group of about 150 church planters from around the U.S. 

In this setting I am in a sense in my primary element.  I feel not only called to this group, but called to speak encouraging and challenging words to these people I suspect they are not likely to hear in other places. 

I think in this universe much of the day – every day.

Our team here is mostly gathered though a couple of key players are not here yet – they won’t arrive until late September to mid-October at the latest. 

We are looking to go into practice mode with weekend gatherings but not inviting outsiders until our gatherings are more ready – in Feb. 

We are ready for this launch in some of the challenging ways that most launchers find difficult.  But this path ahead is not without its pitfalls.  This is a lot like exploring the Westerns Territory as with all cluster plants.

Spent time with one of my star mentees this past week - Ike Reighard.  Ike is an amazing communicator.  If you have a chance to be around him anytime, anywhere, go out of your way to allow a bit of Ike to rub off on you. He is utterly infectious.
 
He planted the first NorthStar Church in Atlanta.  Now, about eight years later, there are fifty around the US.
 
Before he planted he has pastored a number of great churches, but was ready to plant. He now tells me that in our first conversation I gave him a couple of challenges that ended up spinning him big time.

I’ll pass on one to you here.

Don’t launch or lead a church – reach a city. Think in grand terms – that assumption will affect everything you do from the get go or from where you are now as you proceed forward.

I just laid out carefully for the CoastlandTampa planting team the necessary equipment each will need to have in hand to get started when we hit the ground.  Some are in Tampa already.  Others will be arriving shortly.  All will be on site by the middle of September.

In case you are interested, here is the list of what we all need: 

a. Mac laptop. I get a lot of questions on which one is the best to get.  This is a personal question based on your work habits, where you see yourself headed in ministry in the next couple of years (Windows machines last two years at the most realistically – Macs will last at least 3 years if not longer – then they hold their value amazingly – kind of like Volvos – in fact the two markets tend to blur together… make that used Volvos!) 

NOTE: Prices of all Macs dropped in the past two weeks by close to 10% and they released a significantly faster processor.
-    would not recommend less than 1 gig of RAM
-    would not recommend less than 100 gigs of HDD

If you see yourself writing a lot, consider moving up to a 17” – though it is pricier, think of this similar to a car purchase; the difference is not significant for the power windows, 5 CD player, iPod hook up, leather seats – when you consider the daily huge increase in pleasure over vinyl seats you would have had – and you are paying like $87 more per month or something like that if it were a car payment; sometimes our fear of “not enough” overtakes our better judgment and we don’t get what we really need… that’s how I tend to evaluate things – and amazingly God always shows up with what is needed!  Bottom line – get what is needed! 

b. Digital recorder that syncs with a Mac laptop.  Recommend the Olympus brand.  If you haven’t already gotten one, check out Recorders.com for a decent selection and good prices. 

c. “Point and shoot” style digital camera – in light of the Mac syncing factor and cost issues, I recommend you confine your search to Nikon (I research this all the time – just make sure you are getting an American made Nikon, not “grey market” one that is greatly reduced in price – they carry no warrenty).  The cameras you are looking for run about $220 to $250 and take “SD” memory cards.  Recommend you get a couple of these cards – you will be glad you had one reserve card.  We will be taking LOTS of shots – of your family, spouse, things happening, etc.  We will be really glad we took the time to bookmark all of this in a few years – believe me.  Our website will have lots and lots of pictures – smiling faces of people loving people.  To find great deals on SD cards at a great price check BensBargains.net for just a day or two and you will find some great prices.  Keep in mind – many of these types of cameras don’t take cards that are super inexpensive or that don’t specifically say they are made for high speed digital cameras.  Also, don’t get cards that store more than 2 gigs worth of information – some cameras don’t take cards larger than that, FYI. 

d. Smartphone style phone that will sync with your Mac

e. Journaling software.  We are all going to be blogging at least twice a week of our learnings / journey from before the time we start our services.  The software I recommend, MacJournal, allows one to go right from journal to our blog.  This also allows for one to have several journals – very handy.  It is perhaps the most amazing and helpful piece of software I use. 

f. Headset that will allow you to hold Skype conversations.  I recommend you invest in a slightly more expensive version that is noise canceling than a $10 one that may work or may not depending on the relative humidity.