Last week I attended the Global Leadership Summit satelite version.  There was a large gathering of other local senior pastors and leaders at this event.  Every year I feel very torn about whether or not to attend and some years I do and some years, I don't!

Conferences almost always leave me with all kinds of conflicting feelings, both good and bad, but this particular one always leaves me with many strong, negative emotions to process.

It has everything to do with the fact that it is a gathering of local pastors, and I know many of them and have for many years. Here we are being incredibly inspired by the conference speakers to be Christ-like, and to be humble and vulnerable and forgiving and peace makers; and then we go on a break and I run into pastors I know who won't talk to me, won't say hello and even turn the other way when they see me coming.

If you don't me, you might think, oh wow, what kind of crazy person is this that gets that kind of response from other pastors?  Well, first...

Thought I'd share some of the top, most meaningful advice that I've received through the years about Church Planting:

1.)  The surest way to fail is by trying to please everyone. 

2.)   Sometimes you have to let people that you love.... leave.

3.)   The church is not a destination, but instead more like an airport that gets people from one place to another. (Alan Hirsch)

4.)    Don't put people in leadership positions too quickly. (Everyone)

5.)    Don't try to be like other churches or other pastors; be who God made YOU!

6.)    The people who are suppose to stay will stay. (Mary Molino)

7.)     Don't pull the trigger slowly. (Tony Liston)

8.)     It seems people don't necesssarily remember what they are told of God's love, but they never forget what they have experienced of God's love. (Steve Sjogren) 9.)     Just be a Shepherd and feed my sheep. (God)

10.)   Be a purpose driven church (Rick Warren)

11.)    What makes a leader a leader...

 

 According to the Bible, what determines whether or not someone should be / is a pastor?

Is it education? College Degrees? Age? Meeting demoninational standards? Popularity? Experience? Gender? :-)

What determines whether or not someone should be a pastor, elder or spiritual leader in God's Church has everything to do with the calling, choosing and anointing of God Himself!

 

How did the mainstream church's thinking get so twisted in this country? How do people rationalize what the Bible says verses the way we've 'institutionalized' God's church?

Jesus called His disciples.(And He still does.) He 'called' ordinary, uneducated people.  Their credentials weren't from some name-dropping institution.  Their credentials were that they had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Their credentials were that they had been personally called and then trained by Jesus Himself.

I'm not anti-education by any means.  But I do believe that there is an over-focus on formal...

My family gave me a Kindle a few weeks ago as a birthday present.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like it at first, being that the writer in me LOVES holding books in my hands!  But truth be told, I quickly learned to LOVE my Kindle!

I love the fact that I can instantly download any book!  And it's so easy to be reading 5 or 6 books at one time without cluttering up much space.  I've downloaded about 10 church leader type books in the last few weeks and I'm absolutely thrilled to be absorbing so much great information.

My absolute favorite book so far is a book called "Sun Stand Still" by Steven Furtick. (Subtitle: What happens when you dare to ask God for the impossible.)

All I can say is, WOW, what an amazing book!  It's a wonderful reminder of what it means to have a HUGE, God-sized faith and vision for what God can do with any of us, if we'll just believe God to do the impossible.

It...

I recently listened to a webinar where yet another senior pastor from a growing mega-church (down south) describes the 'magic formula' he used to make his church a huge success.

There are tons of church leadership books, conferences and seminars out there where these pastors and churches are lifted up like rock stars and they can't wait to tell all of us how to build a megachurch just like them.  The implied message from them is that if we too will simply apply their strategies and magic formula on how to build a church, we too can have a megachurch and be a rock star pastor, as if that's what we're all striving to be.

There's so much wrong with the message they are sending out to pastors and church planters in America.  We have let the corporate America thinking penetrate the Church at large and it's so not what God has called the church to be.  I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to figure out because it has corrupted my thinking for too many years.

Way too many church planters go into...

There are so many different parts and roles of being a pastor.  I (in the flesh) would never, ever have chosen this life or this role in life for myself. It's hard, even impossible most of the time (without the power of God). 

Senior pastors today are expected to be great leaders, shepherds, care-takers, preachers, technology experts, teachers, developers of leaders, savvy business leaders, financial experts, administrative gurus, biblical scholars, writers, evangelists, visionaries, vision casters, recruiters, and on and on it goes.

I would not do this if I was not totally compelled by God and completely convinced that this is what He has called me to do!

Yes, there are many parts of being a pastor that I truly love and absolutely enjoy doing! But there are other parts about being a pastor that I totally dislike and so wish I could get out of doing.

...

This past Sunday, the message was on the vision of the church. I must have put in 20-25 hours in writing that sermon.  In some ways, one would think this would be one of the easiest messages for me to write.  There is no other message that I am more passionate about.  I think constantly about the vision that God has for His church.  It's so incredibly beautiful and there is nothing like it in all the earth as far as I am concerned.  But it is for this reason that I find it so hard to find adequate words to describe it, especially to do it any justice in just one sermon.

The reason I am so incredibly passionate about the local church is because I truly believe it is the living, breathing Body of Jesus Christ (just as the Bible says) and that makes it indescribable in my opinion!

I suppose it is all part of my calling from God, becoming both my gift and my burden from Him in my ability to have such an intense, crazy, overwhelming love for His church. This burning passion of mine to want to see the local church become all that I know God desires it to be feels like a double-edged sword to me personally. 

...

I recently updated our list of BHCC ministry teams and Nano (small) groups and was pleasantly surprised to see we now have 18 teams and groups. I was suprised because we've recently been trying to be be very proactive in building more Nano Groups and have been a little frustrated in the slowness of getting some started.  I think one of our best strengths is actually in building Serving Teams.  12 of the 18 teams are Serving Teams and I think that's awesome!

I think it shows that people are growing in their faith at BHCC in the fact that so many have a desire to serve our Lord here.  Nothing excites me more than seeing people mature to this level in their faith.  They go from being very 'me' focused to being 'loving-others' focus.

Recently I feel God is showing me a more sharply focused discipleship strategy for BHCC.  It fits perfectly with the foundation we've always had here at BHCC but it takes it to a more precise level.  There are four stages to discipleship and all four are based on either the Great Commandment or the Great Commission..

...

One of the greatest challenges for any senior pastor is to continually work to develop other leaders.  Without leaders, churches (or any organization) won't grow.  There is a direct correlation of the number and maturity of leaders to the size of any organization. Churches are no different. 

I feel incredibly blessed to have the leaders that we currently have at BHCC.  I am continually amazed at the unity and friendship that exists in our Lead Team, pastors, and Ministry Team Leaders.  God has done an awesome work by building a foundation with these leaders.  Through the years, I've seen much growth in each and every one of them. All of them have incredible hearts and impeccable character.

When the church first began, I was very proactive and intentional in developing leaders and creating an atmosphere where people cultivated a desire to become church leaders. However, I also made the 'classic' new church planter mistake of putting people in positions too quickly.  That led to some very bad consequences...