But for me, my heroes at the conference weren’t on stage. In fact, most wouldn’t know their names. They don’t have big churches or a book to push. When you introduced them to others you’d probably just have one title – “Pastor.” And when you talked to them you’d likely find out not only do they NOT have the answers and solutions people travel many miles to hear, you’d discover they work very hard and long for little victories that the “big guys” dealt with ages ago. If you gave them a chance to speak at a conference they’d probably lead seminars on “How To Take Risks And Have Them Blow Up In Your Face,” or “Trying to Make Ends Meet When Your Core Questions Your Leadership.” I know, probably not going to be well-attended breakouts.

If you haven’t guessed it already, my heroes are the church-planters and the staff that have “crossed the line in the sand” with them. Often my strategy at conferences is more to connect relationally than it is to hear the speakers. I can do that online…for free…without leaving the comfort my office. What I can’t do is connect and reconnect with the guys in the trenches of doing what I’m trying to do. Lead a church. And when I get around men who have the courage and faith to plant a new church in order that the gospel might reach those which other churches might not, I’m star-struck! I am amazed at their love, passion and laser-like focus for the mission of Jesus. For example, Saturday night I spent a late evening fellowshipping with church-planters and their staff in downtown Austin. To know their names, to shake their hands and to hear their stories, for me, beats sitting down and listening to speakers nine times out of ten. I was beside myself, totally amazed and honored and humbled to hear about how Jesus was at work in the lives of my brothers and the churches they led. Again, it only reconfirmed in my heart what I already know. These guys – these no name, small attendance, scraping up money to even come to a conference but would charge Hell with a water-pistol for Jesus – these guys are my heroes.

Like I said, my heroes weren’t on stage. Okay, maybe one or two of them were…

• Seen my church transition going from two weekly services to one, with a change in strategy to boot
• Formatted Bible studies for small groups in order for them to be published
• Laid the foundation for my church to become a publishing house (of said studies)
• Written and finalized our church’s new membership material, of which we sent out 1400-15o0 copies to our small groups
• Written the foreword and conclusion to my book which, by the way, is before the senior editors of three different mainstream publishers thanks to the gracious efforts of a noted seminary professor and author
• Hosted the Acts 29 Network Boot Camp

Let me say a little about the last point.

Yes, for those who have followed my church’s journey with the Acts 29 Network, we not only are a part of the network but hosted one of their boot camps this week. This was a personal highlight for me for many reasons. First, these are my people! The men (and women) of Acts 29 share the same values, beliefs and convictions that I have. Most of these guys would be my friends had I never heard of the network. Needless to say, my heart easily resonates with this group.  They are humble, smart, love the Lord and his church! Secondly, my heart has been that our church join this movement of church-planting churches. I not only think A29 fits me, it fits our church. We have always been about planting churches that are theologically robust, gospel-centered and culturally savvy for missional purposes. Now we get to partner with like-minded churches on a broader scale. You only get stronger when you work together on-mission. Thirdly, I think our partnership with A29 in general, and the boot camp in specific, will help Houston have more gospel-centered church plants. Indeed, we have already seen this happen. Lastly, I think A29 will not only help us, but I think by God’s grace we can help A29. We are a church that has grown slowly, in a healthy fashion, without being a personality-centered church. We are also strong in gifts of leadership (organizationally, strategic, etc.), team building and creating a culture that blesses the church. It would be bragging if it weren’t so true. I believe that with all my heart.

So devoted readers (all two of you…just kidding), my apologies for being away. It’s been a little busy around here, and that’s been a very good thing. I’ll leave you with some pics from the boot camp. (These were taken by David Barron, a professional photographer who is a part of my church. Many thanks for donating his time, talents and photos for this weekend. I made these low-res so as to save space. Don’t hold it against Dave. He donated 15MB images.)

I’m in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, spending time with Jeff Lawrence, a good friend of mine who happens to be a new church planter at Chatham Community Church. I flew out Thursday to help him in any fashion I could because church-planting, no matter how talented you are, is a major hill to climb. Even though I have never planted a church I did join the staff of one that was pretty early in the game (a little over four years old at the time and meeting in a school) and feel like I have a passable understanding of a few “in’s and out’s” of leading a young congregation trying to make it (which sounds like a church-planting issue to me). As soon as I got here we were off to the races and talking about things like membership, mission and sermon series has energized me to both help my buddy and dig in more passionately at what I’m working on for my church. So, while I pray God will use me as an instrument of encouragment and assistance to Jeff, I also believe the Lord will use this time to work in me. Needless to say, I’m looking foward to my time here in the Tar Heel state!

God is using our network to influence and shape the church planting culture through both solid theology and contextualizing the gospel. We will not waver on either of these commitments. We won’t water down our theology to reach more people and we won’t attack the culture in the name of Christianity.

For as long as I can remember in my ministry, I have tried to champion the idea that the church should be robustly theological in what it does while being relevantly intersected with the culture it hopes to reach. Needless to say, the A29 guys are my kind of people.

So I would be lying if I told you anything but that I’m very grateful and pumped that my church and A29 have crossed paths. Frankly, the story God is writing upon the hearts of our elders, in particular, and the church as a whole is amazing in and of itself. While I would be the first to say that we have, and will, intentionally try to learn about how others do church from a myriad of different people and movements in evangelicalism (and outside of it), I think there have been many who serve in “Willow Creek-model” churches (read seeker-sensitive churches) that look in bewilderment at our church. It is likely because, initially, our church took the same path as theirs, but now we return from Chicago not due to a Willow Conference but The Gospel Coalition. Indeed, one of the great personal “moments” for me  that spoke of my church’s journey happened while I was in Chicago. One of my good friends, finding out that I was in the Windy City, contacted me asking where I was because he was on his way to Chicago and wanted to meet up. He likely assumed that if I was there for church-related stuff then surely I would be at Willow, right? Well, while he was at Willow (speaking at one of their main sessions I might add) I was across town gathering with our executive staff as we heard pastors and scholars talk about the need for gospel-centered ministry. Let me add, I would have no problem attending something at Willow I felt would benefit my leading the church (I have in the past and likely will at some point in the future), but some would look at our church’s last few years and exclaim, “Boy, how times have changed,” but the truth is, our church was always a little different.

I remember a church consultant telling us that we were the “most theological church” he had ever been around in his circuit of fast-growing, contemporary, attractional churches. At first I thought that to be a sad commentary on other congregations because I didn’t feel we were doing anything special. Why wouldn’t theology (literally, the study of God) be important to leaders of a local church? I will never forget what  theologian A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” We didn’t need convincing of that truth. Our executive staff has always believed  a sound, biblical theology blesses the church, not holds her back. On the contrary, to do anything less is both unwise and ungodly. That’s why, for example,  everyone must read a brief theological primer before becoming a small group leader at our church. It’s why we spend weeks from time to time teaching about doctrines (we just finished a five-week series on ecclesiology last Wednesday). It’s why our teachers (from student ministry up) gather every week to listen to a doctoral level seminary class on gospel-centered preaching. And why we will be taking most of our staff (including preschool, elementary, junior high and high school ministries) in an eight-month study of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology (yes, the 1,200+ page book) in the fall. Being theological isn’t something we do, it’s who we are. Unfortunately, to some churches who have elevated the pragmatic to an almost idolatrous level, those examples may seem impractical if not ludicrous. I could go on about other areas where God is growing us – our desire to be gospel-centered, to be missional to our community and so on  – but I share this to help some outside our walls see that when Acts 29 approached us asking if we might host their Houston Boot Camp, it only seemed natural for us to say, “Yes. Absolutely!” In my mind, these guys were our kind of people…and  the truth is, they always had been.

So this September, when hopefully hundreds, if not a thousand or so church leaders descend upon our campus to hear some of the best and brightest pastors in the Acts 29 Network talk about the need to be doctrinally  sound, theologically robust and gospel-centered in order to more effectively accomplish the mission of Jesus in the world, the least surprised (and most grateful) in the room will be those of us on staff.

September can’t get here soon enough! Welcome A29! Here’s to a great partnership for the church, for the gospel!

]]> http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2007/12/09/church-planting-lesson-2/feed/ 0 http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2007/12/04/church-planting-lesson-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=church-planting-lesson-1 http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2007/12/04/church-planting-lesson-1/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:08:00 +0000 Yancey Arrington http://catdaddy1993.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/church-planting-lesson-1/ One of the earliest lessons learned when starting a church is that while a lead pastor (and his staff) may have a big vision, usually the resources at the church’s disposal to match that vision aren’t quite so extensive. That hard truth rears its head quite early and often in the daily ins and outs of the church leader…

• “Man, what we really need is that HD video screen to run our Sunday morning slides. Can we get one?”
• “Hey Pastor, I think we need to do a Singles’ Outreach Concert. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”
• “If we’re going to go to the next level as a children’s ministry we definitely need another staff person.”
• I could go on ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

A good leader should constantly be mindful of two circles (one inside the other) – the vision circle and the resources circle – and how your vision should always determine the focus and intensity of the resources circle. Vision is always larger. Pastors usually have tons of vision. Ask them about their vision and they should be able to spout “vision” all day and night. The needle for vision is often past the F on the tank of a pastor’s heart. But vision is also cheap. It doesn’t cost anything to think of what you want to be, where you want to go or what you want to do. Resources? Well, that’s another story.

Resources by definition are limited. And for some who are beginning a new congregation, “limited” can be putting it modestly. I would guess planters are limited in time, money and people probably more in the seminal years of the church than any other season. That’s why it’s critical to understand the two circles very early in the game.

Think of your vision as the bigger outer circle (and really the furthest edge of the circle is our concern) and your current resources as the inner circle. [See fig. 1] In a perfect world our resource circle matches, if not exceeds, the size of the vision circle. If we see it we can do it. Ah, what a nice world in which to live! When you arrive tell me how it feels because I’m nowhere close. I don’t think any of us are. Most of us have ever-increasing vision. Our resources, on the other hand, for the most part are fixed in size. Yes, we want them to grow and hopefully they will but it’s so incremental that for all intents and purposes the inner circle we draw is normally much smaller.

Question: What happens to your resources as you try to move them toward your vision? The circle flattens out a bit – more oval than circle.

This should help us see that in order for us to “resource the vision” other things which don’t serve your particular vision (possibly new ministries, additional but not essential staff, etc.) may need to be taken off the table financially speaking. This sometimes tough leadership call is critical or you’ll find yourself throwing time, money and people at distracting endeavors that will keep you from meeting your vision. You may be doing a lot of things as a result, but rarely will you be doing the best things – things that move you down the road toward your vision. In the end you wind up with the same circle you began with because it’s stretching toward every direction trying to meet everyone else’s passion, focus and vision.

The most effective churches I know are led by those who work hard at moving the resource circle to the right vision and fighting off attempts to do anything less.

So how do you best stretch the resource circle? Here are a few ideas:

1. Know your vision. Know your vision. Know your vision. If you can’t articulate your vision in a heart-inspiring, troop-rallying, dig-in-for-the-long-haul fashion, you better fix that quickly! If you didn’t learn this in Church Planting 101 you may need to go back to school. Seriously, if you need help you might check out Acts 29 Network. These guys are solid.
2. Learn to say “No” early and often. You don’t have to be a jerk but you do have to be “graciously tenacious” in redirecting the gaze of those you lead to better paths. This is where your ability to communicate the vision will come in handy! It takes hard work to shepherd (and not manipulate or domineer, cf., 2 Cor. 1:24) people to your spot on the vision circle.
3. Work at enlarging the resource circle. Teach giving early and with regularity. Don’t be apologetic or embarrassed when you’re in the pulpit. It’s biblical. Get over it. If you can’t muster the courage, don’t complain when your resource circle hasn’t kept up with the congregation’s spiritual growth in other areas. I appeal to you that it is for Western Christians just as much about discipleship as anything else.
4. Regularly evaluate how you’ve done. Does your spending overlap well with your vision? Have the financial, staffing and other leadership decisions you’ve made recently stretched the resource circle or pulled it back to its ineffective roundness in an attempt to meet additional (read:lesser) visions? Ask the hard questions. Get the brutal facts. Then, like a great football team at halftime, make the right adjustments.