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Archive for April, 2009

Leadership Development by Larry Osborne

Posted in Leadership on April 30, 2009 | 1 Comment »

These are some notes from my pre-conference intensive with Larry Osborne from Northcoast Church in San Diego – the first church to do the multisite thing.

The Barnabas Factor (I came in late for this)

  • Gifted young leaders are going to be weird and have blindspots. If it’s not sin, support them and their annointing (if there is good fruit, they are annointed), regardless of your comfort zone.
  • Defend the right to be different! Judge the fruit, not the person.
  • Not giving people a platform they can’t handle, but giving them all they can handle.
  • Put young leaders on the platform when you are there. He said that he comes back early from vacation and sits in the front row and takes notes from whoever is speaking in his place.
  • When developing leaders don’t be afraid of failing, but be afraid of fatal flaws (something that can destroy the ministry).
  • They have nearly 8,000 people in their congregation but none of their sites are bigger than 550 people. This is intentional because he feels that once you get larger than this you start having professional “casting calls” instead of empowering young leaders.

Random thoughts:

  • Ministry is addictive (in a good way). Don’t ask new leaders for too much too fast. Lower the bar enough for them to gain entry and once they are in they will become addicted and raise the bar themselves.
  • The pony is more important than the mail (Pony Express). If you burn out your leaders, you won’t have any ministry.
  • Develop a nose for leaders and a heart for the regular guy.
  • Beware of high-passion and highly contentious people – even if they are passionate and contentious for a good cause. Contentious people are like pit bulls and they will always end up biting you.
  • Beware of smothering discipleship that creates co-dependency. I believe here he was referring to creating disciples of a particular leader and becoming dependent on that leader (and vice versa) instead of Christ.
  • Empowerment and excellency will always be in tension.
  • Never confuse a helper with a leader. A helper assists with work. A leader leverages work.
  • The leaders who got you here may not be the leaders who can get you there.

This guy was awesome. I could sit at his feet and be smothered by his discipleship all day long.

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Why Plant a Church?

Posted in Church Planting on April 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »

(The following is some notes from a talk I recently gave about church planting.)

Biblical Rationale for Church Planting

  1. Matthew 16:18 – “Upon this rock, I will build my church.” The church has a vital role in the redemptive plan of God.
  2. Matthew 28:18-20 – “The Great Commission.” We are to be a “sent people.” Historically, new churches have been the most successful at “making disciples of all nations.”
  3. Acts 2:41-47 – New converts are quickly assembled into “congregations” that continually multiply.

Why Plant a Church?

  1. The fields are ready for harvest
    1. Only 17.5% of people in the U.S. attend church on any given weekend in 2005 (American Church in Crisis (ACC) by David Olson).
    2. About 4,000 churches close every year. Approximately the same amount of new churches start each year. However, to keep up with population growth, an additional 3,200 churches need to start every year (ACC).
    3. The number of unchurched Americans is increasing by a rate of 1 million per year (Church Leader’s Intelligence Report, 4-1-09).

  1. To reach young people
    1. 70% of Protestant church-going high-schoolers have stopped attending church by age 23 (Lifeway Research).
    2. And it’s getting worse… at the current rate, only 4% of American teenagers will end up as Bible believers. (Washington Times)
    3. 19% of 18 – 22 year olds identify themselves as atheist or agnostic (Barna Group).

  1. New churches are more effective
    1. It has been proven over the years and is universally accepted across all denominations that the most-effective way to reach unbelievers is through the planting of new churches.
    2. Evangelical churches under 10 years old grow at an annual rate of 16.5% compared to 0.6% for churches 10 – 40 years old and -1.1% for churches over 40 years (ACC).
    3. New churches have 4 times the conversion rate per attendee than established churches (ACC).

Why Support Church Planting?

  1. The average start-up cost of a new church is $172,000.(Leadership Network)
  2. The average church plant takes 32 months to become financially independent.
  3. All church planting in the BGC is church-led and church-supported. Meaning the only way new churches get started is if existing churches support them.
  4. Established churches that are involved in church planting typically experience spiritual revitalization as a result.
  5. A study of 160 SBC sponsor churches from 1992 – 2002:
    1. overall 49% increase in worship attendance
    2. overall 28% increase in baptisms

Some other stats I included in talking about my specific context:

  1. Based on location (urban, suburban, large town, small town, rural), small towns have experienced the biggest decline in church attendance -1.3% (ACC).
  2. 78% of unchurched people think that Christianity is more about organized religion than it is about loving God and people (Lifeway).

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Who will go?

Posted in Church Planting on April 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I can’t sleep tonight. I am deeply burdened. One of the reasons I decided to plant in Thief River Falls, MN was because of the huge potential to start a movement in NW Minnesota – in communities like Detriot Lakes, Moorhead, Crookston, and East Grand Forks.

East Grand Forks has been on my mind a lot lately. It is only 50 miles from TRF on the MN/ND border across from the larger Grand Forks. Today we did some shopping in Grand Forks so I decided to take some time driving around East Grand Forks. Wow! Does this place need a vibrant new work of God!

East Grand Forks (EGF)is a small town of 8,000 people (roughly the same size as TRF), but it plays much larger, being right across the river from Grand Forks, a large town of 50,000+ and home to the 10,000 student University of North Dakota. EGF has a very nice new riverwalk with a thriving business community. There is a new 12 screen movie theater for which many Dakotans cross the river, along with a Cabelas and several large nice restaurants and bars (Applebee’s, Blue Moose, Whitey’s). On a weekend night, the area is teeming with people – many of them college students. On a Saturday night it easily feels like a town 3 times it’s size.

And what is there to offer all these people spiritually? Just 9 churches (plus a Kingdom Hall)! And only one of them is “evangelical” and it is very small from what I can tell. I’m sure your better at math than I am, but that’s just a little better than one church per 1,000 people! Ninety-one percent of residents claiming a religion identify themselves as either Lutheran or Catholic. There is a fairly large Hispanic population (about 8% of the pop.) and a larger than average population below the poverty line (12.4% in 2007; probably higher now).

My heart aches. What a ripe mission field!

I am praying to the Lord of the harvest.

Matthew 9:35-38

35 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

Links:

http://www.city-data.com/city/East-Grand-Forks-Minnesota.html

http://www.city-data.com/city/Grand-Forks-North-Dakota.html

http://www.grandforksgov.com/

http://www.ci.east-grand-forks.mn.us/

http://www.visitgrandforks.com/main.php/index.php

http://www.und.nodak.edu/

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Stop Skimming

Posted in Uncategorized on April 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

I just read a great article in Leadership Journal called Skimming by Pete Scazzero here is an excerpt:

Like skimming a book, this can produce the impression that everything is covered, but in reality, you aren’t completely there. How do you know you’re skimming?

  • When you go from meeting to meeting without awareness of God.
  • When you say “yes” to new commitments and expansions without properly following through on what you are already doing.
  • When it is Friday and you realize you have not had enough time to allow the truth of what you are preaching to transform your own walk with Christ.
  • When you avoid difficult decisions and truths because someone will be upset.
  • When you muddle your way through a meeting because you have not clearly determined your goals and agenda.
  • When you make a pastoral phone call or visit – resentfully.
  • When you cannot stop thinking about the unfinished work at church when you are with your family.
  • When you are too busy to reflect on your own heart or cultivate your own personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
  • When you are not investing in your own personal growth and marriage.
  • When you measure your success based on what other people say rather than your own internal values before God.

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