Author Archives: Craig Whitney

Who are you starting a new church for?

One of the most eye opening books in our Cultivate reading list is I Once Was Lost by Don Everts and Doug Schuapp. They write about their experience as campus staff with Intervarsity,

“We came up with our evangelism strategy while we were alone in a room together with a bunch of Christians. Not once in our brainstorming and planning did we ask where are our non-Christian fellow students were coming from. Not once did we try to find out what they might need to take a step toward Jesus. We were mostly coming up with something we wanted to do, not something that would be actually helpful to those unsuspecting sunbathers in the quad.”

Watch the video and then ask yourself, “what kind of new church would help Ben find faith in Jesus?”

Two Keys to Relational Momentum

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In my experience, one of the Holy Grails of church planting is relational momentum – more people bringing more people who bring more people. In the end it’s not about more people, it’s about more and better disciples, but you can’t really get there without relational momentum.

How do you get it?
First, build relationships. This doesn’t happen by accident, especially in a culture of isolation. Building relationships requires intentionality. It’s not enough to hang out at the coffee shop, or in the neighborhood, or at the gym. You have to do these things in a way that results in relationships not just a random encounters.

Go to the same coffee shop at the same day and time.
Learn when people in your neighborhood our outside and be outside at that time.
Don’t just go to the gym, invite people around to you to work out together.
Teach and train the people on mission with you to do the same.
Second, create communities. A community is just a group of people in relationship with each other.
It could be really small, like 4 people who play tennis together once a week.
It could be bigger like 30 people who get together every week to grill meat and watch the football game.
You can build communities around common interests, missional causes, or spiritual practices.

Here is the key, if you want to see relational momentum, you must do both. You must build relationships and create communities. If all you do is build relationships you will quickly run out of relational capacity. If all you do is create communities you’ll just keep the same people so busy doing stuff they won’t have time to build relationships. Do them both and you can create relational momentum that fuels more people becoming better disciples.

The Art of Making the Ask

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Whether God has given you a vision for a neighborhood, a city, or a whole country, effectively reaching people far from Him and helping them become the Church is eventually going to require more time, talent or money than you have.

You can’t do this alone, which means you need to master the art of the ask. Practicing these three pieces will help you be ready.

Tell a Story – preferably an exciting one.
There is some event or experience or both that God used to grab your heart and compel you to go all in. That story is the why. Telling it well connects other peoples heart to your heart and together to God’s heart.
Paint a picture – preferably an inviting one.
There is a future God’s put on your heart to make real. That picture is the where. Painting it well makes people want to go there with you.
Describe the Steps – preferably simple ones.
There is a way to get from where you are to where God is calling you go. Those steps are the how. Describing them clearly gives people steps to take.

Can you think of someone God has given time, talent or treasure that could help reach the people you care about? Tell the story. Paint the picture. Describe the steps. Make the ask.

Paradox of Proximity

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In the last year I’ve had the privilege of traveling in my country and out of my country, to big cities like Los Angeles and London and smaller towns like Caldwell Texas and Cinque Terre in Italy. I have observed a paradox of proximity. The farther apart people live the more likely they are to know each other. Conversely, the closer together people live the more likely they are to be strangers.

Walk the streets of a densely populated city like LA or London – almost any time of day or night – there are people everywhere and they are all strangers. Walk the streets of a small town like Caldwell or Cinque Terre – where people may live miles apart – they all seem to know each other.

Where in the paradox do you live? Who has God sent you to reach?

If you’re in a densely populated city, are you finding that presence alone is enough to build relationships?

If you’re in a sparsely populated area, are you able to build relationships just by showing up?

Whichever reality you’re in – how are you’re working with relational environment, not against it, to be effective on mission?

Readiness Trumps Opportunity

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I spent a couple days last week at one of 3DM’s tasters. I appreciate their pinpoint focus on making disciples. A phrase from Doug Paul really struck home, “readiness trumps opportunity.”

Opportunity is a “when I win the lottery” approach to life – a waiting game that pins future happiness or success on something that happens to us. Readiness is a “prepared to do any good work” approach to life – a willingness that believes our future fruitfulness comes from our ability to listen and obey today. Jesus disciples didn’t change the world because of opportunity. They changed the world out of readiness.

That’s why I am so committed to what ELI is doing through Cultivate – helping leaders be ready for church planting. Cultivate isn’t a conference, it’s not a boot-camp, it’s 8 months of life-transforming training that prepares you to start a church by making disciples.

Cultivate is about being ready, not finding opportunity.

A new training cohort starts in 2 weeks – you can check it out here: www.elichurchplanting.com/cultivate.

We’d love to help you be ready.