5 Reasons Why I Love My Amanda
It’s Valentine’s Day and a card simply won’t do. A card can only tell Amanda that I love her. And today I feel like letting the world know. So in no particular order, here are a couple reasons why I love my wife so much. She’s Caring. She not like the average person who cares. She cries at a sad commercial because she feels it deep inside. She spends most of her days doing things not for herself, but others. When the Bible says, “Love One Another,” I don’t have to look far for an...
read moreChurch Planting Will Cause You Pain and Leave You Sifted
I’ve said many times that the one universal of church planting is that you will face spiritual attack. Over the years I’ve seen everything from planters who struggle with depression, to planters who have had experiences that belong in a Hollywood horror movie. These experiences are painful and can either break a planter or make them stronger. At Stadia, we assess every planter we work with. A common thing we say is that any issues you have will be amplified when you plant a church. Whether these are sin problems, marital...
read moreThree Ways Church Planters Worship Themselves
Spirituality is something I don’t talk about much on this blog, mainly because I want to keep things very nuts and bolts. But I’m realizing that spirituality is about as nuts and bolts as it gets. One thing many people struggle with is self-worship. We put ourselves first in everything. We do what is best for us. We are generous to ourselves. We promote an unrealistic picture of ourselves (I see lots of posts about how far someone has run and very few about the indulgent jelly donut). Here are three ways church...
read moreThe Church Planting Supersite
I just learned about a new resource for church planters. It’s the church planting supersite at www.churchplantingsupersite.com. It’s billed as the ultimate gateway to all things church planting. It has three main resource sections. Directory of vendors and service providers for just about anything you need for church planting from Bible Study to marketing to coaching. It’s not exhaustive but its a great start for such a new site. Free Stuff. All planters love free stuff. Unfortunately this area is empty so far....
read moreHow to Be Discipled by Committee
For years the church in the West has been guilty of abandoning babies. Not actual babies, but spiritual ones. From the outside looking in one might think that the end of the spiritual journey was baptism rather than the beginning. But that conversation is changing as more and more churches are beginning to focus on discipleship. Most of the literature on the subject focuses on how to create a discipling culture or how to disciple a person. Some of these books, like Mike Breen’s Building a Discipling Culture, have been especially...
read moreWhy I Stopped Blogging
I haven’t blogged since July. I haven’t heard a single complaint, which is probably good. More on that in a minute. Here are my good excuses: I broke the backend of WordPress. I had no clue what I had done. Big thanks to Aaron Box who recently gave me a few suggestions for troubleshooting. Turns out I had a bad plugin, WP TimeMachine. I removed the plugin and the site works fine. I got busy. I took on two new roles with Stadia mid-2011. I’m now serving as Director of Project Management, Director of Coaching...
read moreChurch Planting Fundamentals
Championship teams in sports are always great at the fundamentals. Right now all over the country kids are being coached in the fundamentals of football. Every team starts the season out with an emphasis on these fundamentals. So what are the fundamentals of church planting? At Stadia, we measure 5 key vitals of church planting, or the fundamentals. Team Players. Commonly called a launch team, Stadia classifies team players as being people 16 or older who are actively serving in a ministry role and/or giving financially. For...
read moreThinking About Planting a Church in a School? Read This, First
A buddy of mine sent me this article written by USA today Religion editor Cathy Grossman on the controversy surrounding churches meeting in schools. The question on the table is the constitutionality of church’s meeting in public school facilities. On the side against church’s meeting in schools they say: It’s unconstitutional because of the separation of church and state Leasing a school to a church effectively subsidizing churches who would pay more on the open market. The practice is biased to Christian groups as the...
read moreWin a $20000 Grant for Your Church Plant at NEXT Nuts and Bolts
I met Ron Silvia and Jan Greggo a few years back while attending their NEXT church planting conference. I went to several of them while I worked with Passion 4 Planting. They are very practical and will dig into the how tos of planting a church. NEXT has partnered with Exponential to offer the NEXT Nuts and Bolts. They have to be losing money on this because the conference is only $29 and that includes lunch. It also gets you a chance to win a $20,000 grant for your church plant. I’d go for that alone. Below is a write up on...
read morePoliticians Attempt to Manipulate the Church’s Message
I don’t blog about politics often mainly because it doesn’t directly relate to church planting and secondly because someone always gets made. But I’m making an exception today. The IRS is very clear that the churches are not allowed to attempt to influence legislation or support candidates. A church can lose their status as a 501c3 if they do. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois doesn’t care about that rule as long as churches are promoting his agenda. He’s calling on churches to set aside time this Fall to...
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