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Just Love

I was in Austin this week for some meetings at Gateway. I saw this card and was intrigued. Free portraits is a unique way to serve the homeless. Unfortunately, since my flight left as the event started, I couldn’t go. When I landed for a short layover in San Diego, I read the following email from John Short, one of the serve pastors at Gateway.

Tonight I meet a couple of volunteers from Gateway that just started dating. Jim and Debbie. Jim is from the D (Detroit, as is our family), we hit it off immediately. Then, Ramy walks up to me and says he met a “legit” guy that needs some help. He wants me to check his story, so I look over to where Ramy’s pointing and Jim and Debbie are sitting down with this guy Kyle, who is about 19, talking.

Kyle is tearing up, so I go over to check his story and just see what’s up …what kind of help does he need? Kyle tells us he has a good job up by Domain as a forklift driver. He’s from Kansas and he’s just run out of money to pay for a hotel. I Google his work and find a hotel right across the street. Jim and Debbie agree to go with me to the hotel. Debbie follows us, with Kyle and Jim in car with me. Jim and Kyle talk MMA all the way to the hotel. When we get to the hotel to check him in, they give us a break on the price. Jim and Debbie take Kyle out to eat and exchange numbers after I leave to go home. They are going to Goodwill tomorrow to get him some shoes and shirts. They plan to bring him to Gateway on Sunday. Kyle gets paid on Thursday and we we’re able to get him a room until Thursday morning.

Jim and Debbie are the story here. They were going to go out after, hang with friends, but God had other plans. They potentially changed the trajectory of Kyle’s life tonight. It’s not just a room, a meal, or clothes, it’s “Just Love.”

It’s amazing what God can do when people are simply willing to love their neighbors.

Life Change in Vegas

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At ELI we get the incredible pleasure of hearing amazing stories from church planters such as yourselves, people tearing down walls and building bridges into people’s lives. Here is a fresh story that will inspire you (from Verve church in Las Vegas, as told by Krystal Altman):

Tommy recently had the honor of baptizing our friend Mike. Who is Mike? Well, almost 2 years ago, Brodie met a little boy named Adam at Verve. I soon set up a play date with Kristina – his mom – to get the boys together. Kristina, Adam (3) and her daughter Miley (5) were living with Kristina’s boyfriend, Mike.

We hit it off right away, but soon Kristina pulled me aside.

“I have to tell you…we’re moving. We’re moving to Washington State at the end of the month.” We were bummed! They were moving. However, try as they might, they were struggling to rent their existing house in Vegas and find a new one in Washington.

About a week after our play date, Kristina was at my house in tears. Mike had gone out one night and not come home. She confided some of his story to me. Mike had a history of addiction, having just spent 7 years in prison for cocaine; he was also an alcoholic. So, occasionally, wouldn’t come home.

I immediately began to try to help Kristina and her kids. We offered our home for them to stay so she could get on her feet. It wasn’t an easy situation for several reasons. First, she had only been attending Verve for a couple of weeks, and did not know God, coming from a completely unchurched background. Secondly, she loved Mike and didn’t want to leave him. Thirdly, Mike is an engineer; he earned well and provided for them so she hadn’t had to work. Kristina decided to stay with Mike, but not move to Washington.

I spent a lot of time with Kristina, who is in one of my Micro Groups. She began to discover who God is and that he loves her unconditionally. I soon had the honor of baptizing Kristina as she made the decision to enter into a relationship with God. Weeks later, Mike finally agreed to come to church, because, “I have to meet this best friend “Brodie” that Adam keeps talking about.” Mike was very skeptical. He’s intellectual and felt he couldn’t blindly believe in God.

Over the last year and a half our families have done life together. We’ve had birthdays, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I was in Kristina and Mike’s wedding. We have prayed a lot for Mike. He has watched skeptically over the last couple of years and discovered that our God is real and that he wants a relationship with Him.

And so, Tommy had the awesome honor of baptizing Mike a few weeks ago.

Mike’s words? “I’ve been watching. And I’ve seen the changes in the lives of those around me. I would like to have that also.”

We say Verve is a “church for people who don’t like church” and it very much is. Because of this, we reach people who are really far from God. Most of them take a very long time to grow in their relationship with God before they are ready to trust Him and decide to follow Jesus.

Mike is a perfect example of this. It took him two years of observing the life change in Kristina and observing Tommy and I to see if the God we followed was “real.”

I have seen Mike go from the cocaine addict/alcoholic living with his girlfriend to a man who is now Kristina’s husband, completely free from drugs and alcohol, who loves God, studies his Bible, comes to church, sits in the front row (when he’s not serving in the tech booth) and doesn’t miss a week. This radical transformation never gets old. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing here. Thank you for giving sacrificially and allowing God to use us to reach those here who are very far from God.

And thank you, Altmans and Verve, for that encouragement!

[Some of the names in the story have been changed.]

Core Team or Launch Team?

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Jesus sent the disciples out two by two. The pattern he set was that His followers go on His mission together. As a church planter, inspiring others to join you is essential for the birthing of a new church.

What is their role? Are they a core team – people who start with you and stay with you on mission? Are they a launch team – people who start with you, but may not stay with you or ever become leaders in the new church? Let me suggest you need both.

Create a Core Team

A core team is 12-25 people whom you invited to do life and mission with you.

Church is a “who” not a “what.” The core team is a church from the beginning.
Culture is how “we” behave. The core team are the people who live out the mission, vision and values. Their lives create the culture of the new church.
The first activities in the life of a church plant are people intensive. Who will build relationships? Who will create community? Who will serve their neighbors? Who will lead people to faith? Who will help them grow? Who will equip the next leaders? Creating a core team means other people, not just you, are giving their lives to these activities.

In my experience, a team of less than 12 is just too small to engage in all the activities of forming a new church in a way that creates momentum. I have also observed that a core that is too big doesn’t really function as core. A group of 50 or more can’t exist for long without significant energy focused internally – which ultimately detracts from the mission.

Gather a Launch Team

A launch team is a group of 50-100 who are committed to starting a regular gathering that will catalyze both the numerical and spiritual growth of a new church.

Starting weekly services is task intensive. It takes many willing volunteers to create an environment that welcomes people of all ages and engages them in a meaningful way.
Anyone can serve. You don’t need to be a follower of Jesus to set up chairs or make coffee.
Everyone can belong. When the launch team is those committed to serve, not those who carry the missional DNA, you can include everyone who is willing – even if they need a cup of coffee to take the edge off their hangover before they setup the chairs.

In my experience, trying to pull together a weekly service with less than 50 people only leads to burnout and will most likely bring a halt to any and all other outward focused activities. On the other hand, when a launch team grows to be a 100 people its time to go. Waiting to start a service will only dissipate the energy and momentum that has already been created.

Are you in the birthing season of a new church? Wondering who will do this with you? Consider creating a core team and gathering a launch team.

My Story of Sifting

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I am in Orlando this week for Exponential. The theme this year is Sifted and and they have been publishing some great stories leading up to the conference.

Here is mine:

I said yes to the invitation to plant a church in 1991; I was 26 years old. I was more enthusiastic than experience and was more passionate than prepared. I have had many years to reflect on my experience and I believe two things shaped my sifting.

The first issue was spiritual. I thought I was planting a church for God, instead of understanding that God was building his church through me. Without question I had a pride problem, but mostly I had an identity problem. My self esteem was tied to my performance as a planter and thus rose and fell with every win and every loss. If you’ve planted a church you know there are lots of losses, so I spent a lot of time trying drag myself out of the “woe is me” pit of despair.

The second issue was cultural. I thought if we built it they would come – by the hundreds! My pride probably contributed to that idea, but so did the stories I heard. You don’t read a lot about the church plant that grows to 100 people, but that is normal. You do read all the time about new churches that start with hundreds and grow to thousands. That’s exciting, but it is also exceptional – or maybe it would be better to say abnormal.

God did grow his church, but people came one by one, most with hurts and struggles, and many finding faith and following Jesus for the very first time. I smile every time I think of any one of them. However, at the time, my unrealistic expectations for growth combined with my misplaced identity led me to an unhealthy drive to constantly do more.

After 6 years I was burnt out mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I resigned my role as pastor and took a job managing a retail store. God used that short season to show me who I was and how I could best use my gifts on mission with Him.

Gratefully, he is a God of second chances (and third and fourth and …) It’s now been over 20 years since I took that leap of faith into church planting. I’ve never regretted it, or the sifting God led me through. It is a great privilege today to develop, encourage and train church planters around the world. If that’s where you find yourself, be faithful. He who began a good work in you (and through you) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Jaxton’s Story

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Exponential is running a really helpful series of stories on sifting.
A recent post featured ELI Cultivate planters Josh and Lisa Husmann. God
has used them to plant a great church, Mercy Road, in the
Indianapolis area.

In the process God also gave them Jaxton, whose very
short life was used in very unexpected ways. Josh and Lisa’s faithfulness is
a great testimony. You can read the story here and watch the video
below.