Category Archives: Blog

Habits Create Culture

By Craig Whitney

(Note this is the second in a series. See Insight #1 for background on the research project.)
I have a personal axiom that I often communicate with potential church planters, “the habits of the founders will become the culture of the congregation.”

Do you know a church planter who is emotionally passionate and physically expressive in worship – I’ll bet the worship style of the church they started is the same. Do you know a church planter who is constantly telling a joke or laughing at one – I’ll bet the church they started does a lot of laughing. Do you know a church planter who spends most of his time with people far away from God and is regularly leading others to faith – I’ll bet the church they started is regularly reaching people far away from God and leading them to faith. Our research demonstrated this axiom to be true – at least in the case of evangelism.

One of the four characteristics the ELI measures is relational evangelism. One of the things we asked in our research was what percentage of those attending a new church were previously un-churched. We discovered that the higher the ISA score in relational evangelism the higher the percentage of un-churched people in a new church – and this relationship was statistically significant.

The data from the Initial Screening Assessment scores tell us a couple of other things as well:

The relational evangelism score is the lowest of the four characteristics measured by the ISA. The median score is just 50%.

1 in 8 people who complete the ISA have never lead anyone to faith.

1 in 4 people who complete the ISA have never led anyone to faith that they didn’t first meet at church.

The implication is clear. In order to start more churches that reach more people far from God we need more planters who have the habit of effective relational evangelism. If you’re a potential planter who wants to start a church that reaches people far away from God, make a habit of doing life with people far away from God and learning how to lead them to faith. Your habits of relational evangelism will become the culture of an evangelistically effective church.

Raising the Bar

Leave a reply

By Tim Heerebout

I used to be an athlete. If you look at my picture now it’s quite obvious that I could no longer call myself that. Despite my current lack of physical prowess I am still a great fan of sports of all kinds. Any pursuit that takes the human body and pushes it to its limits is enough for me…which is why I don’t count baseball or golf as real sports…but that’s another post all together.

Even sports I’ve never attempted fascinate me. Take high jumping for example. How is it possible that a human being manages to hurl their entire mass over this bar that is raised several meters off the ground. By the looks of it, it’s not easy. It requires training, more misses than hits at first and a driving desire to get better just a little bit every time you jump.

I’ve been discovering lately that church planting requires the same mentality. When I speak to people about the predicament Christ followers face here in Toronto I often tell them that I think the world is hearing us say “I’m a Christian” and saying in response “so what?” As one barista put it to me in a conversation “I know irreligious people doing more for the world than most Christians I know”. Ouch. Firm…but fair I think.

So I believe we need to raise the bar on what it means to be a Christ follower. Most of us aren’t training hard enough, not pushing ourselves to the limits of servanthood in the name of Jesus, not waking up every day with the pursuit of becoming more like Jesus just a little bit burning within us. If you want some scriptural basis for this being a part of Jesus’ call to us then perhaps reading the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5 again might help. Pay special attention to verses 21-48. Isn’t raising the bar exactly what Jesus is doing for his listeners?

Here’s the rub and lesson I’ve been learning. As a church planter you will constantly feel the urge to lower the bar – especially when you’re trying to create early traction. It’s lonely when your church is literally ONLY your family. You’ll give anything to get those first few followers. You’ll even consider giving away your vision. I’ve done it several times this year and without hesitation it’s come back to bite me in the rear on every occasion.

Be committed to raising the bar. Call people to nothing short of a radical transformation into Christ followers. Set the expectations high for yourself and your leaders. Everyday strive together to become just a little bit more like Jesus. Invite people to discover what that feels like. For me it’s likely the only way I can feel like a real athlete again…I’m betting it’ll feel even better this time around.

Follow Tim on his blog and Twitter
http://www.luvisaverb.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/timheerebout

What We’ve Learned From Online Assessment

Leave a reply

Insight #1 – Experience Counts

By Craig Whitney

In 2005, ELI created an Initial Screening Assessment (ISA) for discovering potential church planters. Since then, over 6,000 people have completed the 102 question survey. (You can too.) In 2008, ELI built www.churchplanterprofiles to help potential church planters discover even more about their readiness by completing the ISA and 5 additional instruments that look at personality, talent and gifting. Today the site is used by over 90 different church planting organizations and 100’s of people interested in church planting every month. We recently conducted a research project to see how the results of these online assessments matched their actual church planting experience. Over the next couple of months I’ll be sharing the insights and implications through this blog.

Insight #1 – Experience Counts

There is an axiom that says, “past performance is the best predictor of future performance.” Our research revealed this truth can be measured in church planting. The ISA returns a percentage score in 4 categories:

Church Planting Experience

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Ministry Experience

Relational Evangelism

The scores are also categorized:

>75% is “green” indicating an individual’s readiness is similar to a highly effective group of church planters who were the benchmark in the surveys original design.

50-75% is “yellow” indicating an individual’s readiness is significant, but below the benchmark.

<50% is “red” indicating an individual readiness is far below the benchmark.

Our research revealed a clear correlation between these ISA scores and the beginning and current attendance of a new church.

Two categories, church planting and ministry experience, were statistically significant. A statisticians way of saying the differences were too great to have occurred randomly or by chance. Almost every statement in these two categories begins with “I have…” So in very simple terms more experience in church planting and ministry results in higher ISA scores and higher new church attendance. The implication – experience counts.
The most important lesson may be for leaders who believe God is calling them to start a church. If that is you, the best advice we can give you is go start something. Start a group in your dorm. Start a Bible study at your local coffee shop or pub. Start a ministry to feed families, or tutor kids. Start something and start it today. The more experience you have at starting things the more ready you will be to start a church.

Missional AND Relational Alignment

Leave a reply

By: Craig McGlassion, Lead Pastor – Paradox Church

I planted a church just outside Detroit that will turn 5 years old this Fall. While there are many lessons I am learning, there is one that I wish I would have better understood before starting the church.

I think it was Bill Hybels that made famous the concept of evaluating potential staff hires on the “3 Cs”,

• Character

• Competence

• Chemistry

A local network of Pastors that I am apart of added another “C” for “call”. I used this list when evaluating my launch team members since I realized they were going to effect the personality and direction of the church in its infancy every bit as much as paid staff members would later on.

The list seemed to help me distinguish early on who to go after and invite on our journey, but now, almost 5 years in, I can see that nearly all of my mistakes in the development of this team were in areas where team members either did not share missional alignment or relational alignment – and most often it was missional. It seemed like we shared one or the other, but seldom both.

Missional alignment is when we all clearly understand what we are trying to do, why it needs to be done, and we’re all willing to sacrifice for it. It’s amazing how much you can paint the vision and yet the picture in other people’s heads isn’t the same picture as in your own. I wish I would have done a better job of making sure this picture was the same for all of us.

Relational alignment may seem more obvious; we all get along and love each other. However, having planted a church where I grew up and also previously did ministry for 10 years, I tended to draw a lot of friends that I got along with and had a lot of fun with. The problem is when the missional alignment wasn’t there, the relationships became stressed and there began to be fighting for different directions for the church and battle for authority.

Eighteen months ago our young church took a severe black eye over this, but as we recover, I’m watching a new leadership team that unlike ever before is aligned both missionally AND relationally. The leadership is healthier, happier, and producing tons of kingdom impact. The real difference is that my leader’s friendships are pouring out of our missional alignment. If I had understood this concept better, I wouldn’t have looked to old friendships to the neglect of new relationships that had a clear shared understanding and commitment to the mission. Missional alignment AND relational alignment, one without the other is a ticking bomb.

You can learn more about Paradox at: http://www.paradoxchurch.com/
You can follow Craig on Twitter: http://twitter.com/craigmcglassion

John Burke is speaking at Vault!

Leave a reply

If you don’t know, John is the church planter and lead pastor of Gateway Church in Austin, the author of No Perfect People Allowed, and the founder of ELI.

Vault is a conference in Las Vegas, October 10-12, hosted by Vince Antonucci and Verve , with a single focus – teaching church planters how to do church for people who don’t like church. John’s sessions will be:

Creating a Come As You Are Culture
Questions Leaders Ask
Speaking to Address Resistance

Attendance is limited to 120 people and that’s going to fill up quick. Register now to get in on this amazing and unique experience.