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Tag: church planting

  • The beginning of a dream

    12:45 am
    Friday, September 28, 2012

    When Leona finds out I am still awake she is not going to be happy. But I am going to see if I can write what is heavy on my heart before she wakes up and finds out I am still on the living room floor typing frantically away.

    God has called me to church planting.

    There. I finally said it.

    Well, I technically “finally,” said it this past Monday at our church business meeting. But this is the new reality for Leona and me, and I am more filled with faith and excitement than I have ever been in my life. I am also more humbled than I have ever been in my life.

    Let me back up a second.

    I just came back from a preaching conference in Chicago. Yes…I did just drive 8 hours and got back a little over an hour ago. I am dead tired, but I thought that before I went to bed I would just read the intro to the book received before we left. I read the intro. And then I read the first chapter. Then something inside me began to well up in what felt like a cry and a yell all at the same time.

    Andy Stanley’s book “Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend” was the book. I don’t really want to go into all the detail of that first chapter – that’s what the book is for. Go buy it =)

    What I will say is this. Please pray for Leona and I. I know some of you who read my blog may have more questions since I have purposely left many answers uncovered. But what I have to say is this:

    God called me to ministry a long time ago. That call to ministry was never rooted in a “How” or defined by a “Role.” I was no perfect person. You can ask that of my childhood friends from Newport News, VA. But I met Jesus. He changed my life. He called me to live my life with the sole purpose of helping people understand the same. And what was that?

    To create a clear picture of Christ that changes everything.

    This is still the call of God in my life. Nothing in this world would give me greater honor than being someone God uses to accomplish His will of spreading the whole Gospel in a way that changes everything. Pray that I am found faithful in being submitted and available for God to do whatever he wants.

    12:59 am 
    Time for bed

  • Book Review: Organic Church by Neil Cole

    Have you ever been so ticked off at something, but felt like you didn’t have a platform to express it? I admit that I do.

    This book by Neil Cole initially came across to me as this type of book.

    I will admit that the journey that God has brought him through as a church planter is more than I will be able to adequately touch on in this short review. So please don’t think I don’t like this book.

    In fact, this is probably one of the first books I have read that I completely agree with and disagree with at the same time. With that said here are my thoughts about Neil Cole’s book about effective church planting for a new generation.

    As I alluded to, this beginning of this book came across as a Neil Cole who was ticked at what he saw as the “Church” in most of the western world and has not been able to have a platform until now to talk about it. In fact, he kind of admits to this in his book – not that he was ticked – but that he has been waiting to be successful enough to be able to put into some type of communicative form that he has been wanting to say.

    Cue John Mayer’s “Say What You Need To Say.”

    With that, he says some things that I understand, but maybe would say differently. For instance, in the beginning of the book he makes some strong statements about the church, but later quotes himself talking to a young church planter as saying, “Don’t bash the bride” referring to the Church as the bride of Christ.

    While Neil’s writing is witty at times and has plenty of wonderful stories to tell, but he kind of gets caught up with overusing the Lord of the Rings movies as a way to illustrate his points…in my personal opinion. There are also some stories that he tells as a way to speak of the positive impact “Organic Churches” that honestly leave me wondering.

    For instance, he writes of one church that met at a coffee shop that had some an influence that non-believers were either saved who came or they never came back. The result was that business at that coffee shop went down and eventually the business shut down. I get that salvations are positive, but I wonder what type of view the person who owned the coffee shop now has on believers. For those who are followers of UnChristian or Ed Setzers Lost and Found, you would probably see this not as a truly positive story.

    So what are the good things?

    Glad you asked! In my opinion, the best part of the book is found in the last few chapters. He speaks of how it’s not just good enough to have leadership to plant churches, but to have the right leadership. I really liked his comments about the negatives of “leadership that is too strong” or churches that are what he calls “leadership-dependent.” He also touches on the negatives of the “Event-Driven” church.

    Another great thing he comments on is how having many leaders is not just good enough, but that you must have leaders who also share same values. When starting a church, having many leaders who don’t share the same values will often lead to failure because of differing intentions and desires.

    If there was a “nugget” of insight that I really was inspired by, it was found in the last pages of his book where he writes:

    “If you want to do anything of significance in God’s Kingdom, follow these suggestions: listen to the Lord’s voice and follow that lead. Create an environment that allows failure and restores people easily. Do not invest in potential, but in provenness. You can learn from our mistakes, but I think it also wise to learn from your own. So do not e afraid to take chances and make mistakes.” -pg.204

    SUMMARY

    In the end, I do recommend this book for people trying to understand what it means to reach people in this next generation. While I do find it funny that a book about starting organic churches finds within it slick acronyms and strategies, it doesn’t mean that what is contained in it is totally irrelevant. I would chose Missional Renaissance over this book, but in no way would I not include it in good literature to build an informed perspective for reaching a new generation.

    p.s. This review is found on 53in52.wordpress.com – a website dedicated to regular reviewing of various books. Selfless plug over 😉