Jeff Jackson Live

Everyone likes a good new year’s resolution but have your ever made one for you church?  This is a great way to recast vision especially if you started to experience vision slippage at the end of 2009 (watch for a post soon about vision slippage).  The first objection to this resolution is that most resolution don’t stick or people don’t stick to the resolutions.  How can we make our church’s new year’s resolution stick in the hearts and minds of our people.

1. Make your resolution Reasonable – Don’t expect your members to automatically start bringing all their friends to church.  Lets start with a small obtainable resolution something that can be measured and celebrated.
2. Make your resolution Realistic – Lets not program God out of the equation but lets keep the resolution realistic.  Much like the first point we need to cast an expectation that your people can see.  Don’t give them a 30 thousand foot view but rather give them practical, daily resolutions.  A good way to accomplish this is to remove any will power that your people might need to exert in order to keep the Church’s resolution.
3. Make your resolution Rewarding – As stated before always make sure your resolution is measurable so you can reward your people when you stick to the resolution.  For example and I’m not against numbers but maybe you should have a goal of baptizing more people this year rather than saying we want to baptize 100 people this year.

Make 2010 be the best year the Kingdom of God has ever seen!

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There is nothing more important to a church planter than his wife.  So keeping that in mind how do you sustain your marriage through the church planting years.  Hear are the ten rules you must live and die by to protect your most important asset.

1. Set the bar low, but set it somewhere – It is difficult to make time to spend with your wife, much less take a planned vacation.  No matter what stage your church plant is in, it will require 110% of your efforts.  Spending time with your spouse can be as simple as grabbing a cup of coffee together, without the kids, a short walk together, a date to the dollar movies.  Spending time together can light that refocus your passion and will also remind both of you why this church plant is worthwhile.
2. Turn off the iPhone (or Blackberry) – You have to make sure you wife knows that she is more important than your phone.  When I say turn your phone off, I MEAN OFF.  Even if your phone just beeps or flashes when a message comes in it can become the big pink elephant in the room.
3. When there is a critical decision in your church plant make room at the table for your wife - These big decisions can change the way of life for your wife and I believe she deserve the right to be heard.  Man, if someone had told me this during the first 5 years of marriage I would have made different decisions.  God speaks through our wifes, are we listening.
4. Engage your wife in her space -  This is one of most difficult things to do but I guarantee if you do this it will increase intimacy, communication and your wife’s passion for the church plant.  When you take interest in your wife’s passions the spotlight is taken from the church plant, because we all know that is what we talk about night and day, and onto your wife.
5. Answer the phone when your wife calls - Your wife knows that you are busy and that you field 100s of messages everyday so when she calls you it is important.  Stop what you are doing, pick up the phone and give her your full attention.
6. Don’t squeeze her in - She knows if you are just calling her to call her.  The drowning sound of a busy Panera Bread at lunch time or calling her 5 minutes before the meeting will communicate that she is not important.  When you call home make sure you are not rushed and that you have time to talk.
7. Treat your wife like she is more important than the first time guests at your church - don’t you ever let your wife feel that you pay more attention to complete strangers than you do her.
8. Share the spotlight - As church planters you will get lots of attention from your members and prospective visitors.  Set your wife up for success and bring her into the light.  Your wife is the volunteer of the year. She pulls more behind the stage stunts to keep your circus act a float than you give her credit for.  Publicly acknowledged her contributions.  This will help build her creditability with your people and will ultimately show her your dedication and love.  Some things go without saying…but not this!
9. Celebrate your wins - Spend time remembering all that you went through and where God has brought you.  You might have not always been in tune but your still playing together.
10. Make her feel special in front of her friends at church - must I say more??!!!

Take if for what it is worth…just don’t forget that you can’t do it without her for lots of reason but mostly because no one else will but up with you (all us church planters are crazy)!  For more church plant inspiration check out my interview with Dave Ferguson.

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Here is one of the reasons I like WordPress. I just downloaded the latest versin of WP for the blackeberry. This make blogging very quick and easy. I am now able to share my thoughts as they come. This is also great news for Church Planters and Pastors. Now next time you have a great idea don’t loose the napkin, blog about it.

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Just for fun…I wanted to show you what everyone has been doing on my site.  Happy reading and don’t forget to give your two cents!

Top Five Articles for this month:

1. Is Being Gay Wrong? (this one has brought on lots of emails and controversy)
2. Don’t Go to Church! (lots of fundamentalist mad at this one)
3. 21 Questions to Ask Before Planting (for all you church planters out there)
4. 25 Random Things About Me. (Warning…you might be bored to tears)
5. Spiritual Checklist (this is a must read)

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That is right, I am asking everyone not to go to church but instead to be the church.  How about we raise up a generation that is passion about Kingdom work and not afraid to stand up for Jesus.  It is not enough to just stand on the side lines it is time to get in the game.  So how can we be the church?

1.  Make church and your relationship with God a priority.

2.  Don’t sit back and let the hired guns (your pastors) do all the ministry.  Ministry is meant for the people!

3.  Go for broke! (this is my current life saying…take no prisoners…charge hell with a water pistol…you get it!)

4.  Live your life through the eyes of Jesus.

5.  As Perry Noble says, “Kick Satan in the cookies.”

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I just want you to know how much I respect Dave Ferguson the pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL.  I’m an aspiring church planter and I am doing as much research as I can to prepare for the future.  I thought it would be smart to talk to the guys who are planting and learn from their experience (thanks @kevinrapp for pushing me over the edge).  I hit Dave up on Twitter asking him if he would discuss church planting with him and he immediately responded.  I sent him some questions and here are his responses:

1.  If you had to plant all over again what would you do different?

First, if your vision is to be a reproducing church (and I hope that is the case!) than the one thing I would do over was have 2-3 apprentice church planters/campus pastors on my team.  I would have them raise their own money to do a leadership residency with the plan that within 12-24 months we would either reproduce a new church or site.

Second, we should have raised more money.  It was very tight for us from the beginning.  I think God used that – but it was tight.

(I’m answering this question with the assumption that a reproducing infrastructure of small groups is essential to becoming a reproducing church)  I think one of the great challenges is getting second generation reproduction from your small groups.  If your staff team all starts small groups it is a challenge to get the small groups to believe that they will do great under the new leadership of a lay person.  Once you break threw that second generation of small group reproduction you will see real momentum.

Both.  I believe that with a close proximity that multi-site will give you a bigger return but requires greater leadership.  If you can’t do both – do church planting.

Make sure you hear from God everyday. If you hear from God everyday and obey him and teach your people to hear from God everyday and obey him – you will plant a church that will give birth to a missional movement.

Once again, thanks Dave!  I hope this interview helps you as much has it will help me.  I am going to continue to interview guys that are swinging away in the field.  If you have any questions you would like me to ask or people I should interview hit me up here.

If you are interested in planting you should read this post.

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I love God sized goals!  There is no way the the ARC (Assocation of Related Churches) will complete their hefty goal unless God is the central focus of what they are doing.  I believe that God is very much a huge part of what they are doing to plant 2000 churches by 2020.  Do you have God sized goals?  If you don’t you really should.  Lets take this example of ARC and apply it to our lives.  To read more about ARC you can visit their site here.

If you are interested in planting a church ARC would be a good organization to research to see if they would be a good fit for your ministry.  Also check out 21 questions you should ask yourself before you plant CLICK HERE.

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What if the Church could be the answer to Jesus’ Prayer?

We pray to Jesus asking Him to answer our prayers – what if we became the answer to His? In John 17:20-24, He prayed that we would be one, and One Prayer is an opportunity to see what can be accomplished when the Church works together. Jesus has a vision for His church and I fear that we are not answering His prayer. Look at what happens when a few hundred churches decide to join together as one. In 2008 here is what happened:

Pastors Enrolled: 609
Evangelistic Contacts: 65,563
Bible Study Participants: 44,618
Baptisms: 7,112
Churches Planted: 667

I can’t wait to see what God is going to do this year at One Prayer 2009.  For more information go to http://www.oneprayer.com

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I just recently attended Innovate Church conference at Thomas Road Baptist Church and it was incredible.  If you are a church planter, pastor, youth pastor or leader you need to go next year.  But don’t worry you can watch all the main sessions on the Innovate website.  During one of the breakout sessions about church planting Brian Bloye, lead pastor, West Ridge Church along with Matt Fry, lead pastor, C3 spoke about their experience with church planting and multi-site churches.  Both men contribute some great advice and encouragement but one thing that stuck out to me was Brian Bloye’s spiritual checklist.  Brian used this list in the context of what church planters need to inspect everyday but this list should  be examined by anyone who follows Christ.  The following is Brian Bloye’s list with my comments on each area:

1. Desperation for God-our relationship with God is imperative.   If you want to see God move in a huge way you have to first fall in love with the Creator each and every day.
2. Holiness-“Holiness is next to Godliness” or maybe that is cleanliness?  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 20: 7
3. Home-when we dedicate our lives to the ministry there can be a tendency to over commit ourselves to the work and neglect our family.  Our family is the most important advisory in the ministry that we have.  If our family is beat down, and they will take a beating, then we have forgot our second responsibility (God, Family, Ministry).
4. Honesty-I am amazed of the dishonesty that I have experienced in the ministry.  I am not going to say that I have never been guilty of “stretching the truth” but there has to be a point when when let our Yes be Yes and our No be No. (Mathew 5:37)
5. Happiness (personal plan for disappointment)-I have a real easy solution for this, Romans 5:3-5
6. Healthiness (emotional/physical)-this one really convicts me.  It is so easy to go go go and never rest rest rest.  This is so important because I can guarantee that if we are physical tired we will be emotional and SPIRITUALLY tires and ineffective.
7. Humility-Wow!  This is really hard especially for the church planting type.  We are so driven it is easy to take the credit for something good that happens in our ministries but we can’t forget that success does not exist apart for God.

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If you are thinking about planting a church or if would like to see if you might have what it takes to plant a church.  Ask yourself these questions:

1. Is my primary motivation for considering church planting a positive one (such as the glory of God and the salvation of people) and not dissatisfaction with my present situation?

2. Do I believe that church planting is the primary God-ordained strategy by which He accomplishes His will, advances His kingdom and glorifies His name?

3. Do I believe and experience the gospel as the “power of God” not only to save me from sin’s penalty but also from sin’s domineering power over my life?

4. Do I share the gospel with non-believers on a regular basis, and can I point to people who have made professions of faith and are still walking with Christ as a result of my witness?

5. Have I had enough exposure to church planting in a ministry focus group similar to what I am considering that I know what the life of a church planter is like?

6. Am I assured of God’s call on my life to church planting instead of to church pastoring?

7. Do I have the necessary training needed to do church planting effectively?

8. Can I articulate clearly what my gifts and personal characteristics are that would make me effective in church planting in the type community I’m considering?

9. Am I committed to reaching people who are different from me ethnically, racially, generationally, and socio-economically?

10. Is there objective evidence that I am comfortable relating well with secular people (non believers) and able to accept them joyfully into my life and the community of faith?

11. Is my spouse and family willing, even enthusiastic, about our doing church planting?

12. Do I have a gospel-confidence (both lamb-like humility AND lion-like boldness) that, in light of my proven ministry experience, gifts, and skills, I will be effective in church planting?

13. Do I have the spiritual disciplines (consistent personal worship, freedom from patterns of besetting sin, good accountability relationships) necessary for being a spiritual leader truly above reproach?

14. Do I display self-management disciplines (getting work done on time, keeping commitments, consistency, honesty) that will encourage followers to trust my leadership?

15. Have I developed a relatively comprehensive vision (values, mission, philosophy of ministries, gathering strategies, etc.) of the kind of church I want to plant in my ministry focus group?

16. Am I considered a “people person”, someone who is humble, a good listener, teachable, patient, sensitive, and winsome?

17. Do people tend to sit up, listen and come back when I preach–giving evidence that my preaching and communication gifts are special strengths (above average)?

18. Do spiritually wise, influential people in my life tell me that church planting is a right fit for me?

19. Have I had a positive track record in the church ministries I have led–giving strong evidence of my ability both to lead people AND raise up leaders?

20. Do I have a sincere passion for church planting? Is church planting compatible with my personal career goals or is it seen as merely a “stepping stone” to some other ministry in the future?

21. Understanding the gifts and skills of a church planter usually include being a visionary leader, effective evangelist, and an above average Christ-centered preacher, do I have these endowments?

Am I a Church Planter?
If you answered 17 or more with a yes–probably so

If you answered 10-16 with a yes-think, pray and talk to others some more before moving in that direction

Less than 10-possibly not

adapted from 20 Questions, ©ICPC, 2000.

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