Church Planting Leadership Summit

Well we came back to the cold. When I left San Diego it was in the upper 50’s lower 60’s at 6:30 in the morning, when I departed the plain Minneapolis welcomed me with a cutting 10 degrees. Along with the great weather was a great summit. Since most of you out there were not able to come I am going to recap the event over the next few days. Please feel free to post any comments and let me know if you have any questions. I will be making numerous posts over the next couple of days so keep checking back, or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed.

As I mentioned in the on site blog, the first session was great. We had an opportunity to listen to some successful church planters. I have already touched on one of the topics. But I would like to bring up a couple of other topics that were touched on during our first session together.

Mark Batterson brought up some interesting points during his talk and I want to briefly touch on one of them and I would love to hear your thoughts. Mark believes that God is calling the Church out of the church and into the Marketplace. I think we can all agree that God doesn’t want the church to be locked up behind the four walls of its buildings but Mark feels that instead of drawing people to the building and the programs that it houses, rather God is drawing the people out of the building and developing programs and ministries that are in the Marketplace. This is a different mind-set from the church that I grew up in. In my church our senior pastor always made the comment that if we would just get our friends to the church, he would present the gospel and get them saved. Now that may have been an inappropriately extreme statement, but I think at some point we not only need to discuss the extent to which we are to take on this “market place” thinking (some call it missional) but we should also discuss the innovative and creative ways in which we can bring the Church to the community rather than the community to the church. What do you think?

Peace
Mac

By the way, we will have some pictures up on the home missions website at www.mnaog.org. Enjoy!!!

Live from San Diego

Well since many of our Church Planting family were not able to come to the National Church Planting Leadership Summit we want to bring as much of it as we can to you. So here we go with the first post. First of all regardless of how cold they say it is here, 60 something is way better than 20 something. That aside, things are just getting started here at the summit. I am sitting in the first general session and we are hearing from successful church planters, Lee McFarland, Mark Batterson, and Scott Bruegman. Each of them sharing their stories and some key things that they have learned along the way. One key principle is to always put your family first. We always hear from successful and unsuccessful pastors to always put your family first. It seems as if the issue always comes up. As we "do it all for Jesus" our families can be left in the dust. It may seem a little silly but if anyone has any ideas on how to be intentional about making our families a priority.

More Soon
mac

What's The Problem?

Whenever I see one of our Minnesota church planters I always try and make it a point to ask them if there is anything that they need. Without hesitation an overwhelming majority of them say money, and understandably so. I am assuming this is because the tithe coming in is not supporting the ministry dreams of the your staff. I must believe this is not a problem with all of our churches and I know that some of you have been very successful in reaching your communities in very innovative ways. I am sure that many of our other church planters would like to know: WHAT IS THE SECRET! I would like to know about some innovative ways that you have been successful in using to reach your communities.

Check this out

Hi everyone,
Abundant Life in Blaine has 250 designer stackable chairs for sale. The fabric is flora crimson and the frames are antiqued silver - they are in great condition. They would like to sell them for $10 each. If you know of a church that might be interested, please have them call Bruce at 763-754-1011.

Priorities

Andy Stanley makes an interesting point in his September Catalyst article, "War of Two Worlds." He comments on the struggle we face to balance our work and our families. He states that it is even more difficult for ministers because they also feel “called” to the work that they do. Stanley goes on to state that many people in the ministry often times feel like they need to build the church that they are “called” to. However, it is God, and God, alone who will build the church. Now, I know that what most pastors are talking about is the organization of the church, i.e. staff, service planning, vision casting and all the other things that go with the leading of an organization. I also know that most of us don’t believe that we alone can build the church. However, we do tend to take on sole responsibility for our faith community and while we must be the pastor we must also understand that most of what we do can be done by someone else. It has even been said that you have not been a successful leader if you haven't duplicated yourself. Your church has (or should have) other leaders that can see to the day-to-day or even the service details. But your wife has only one husband and your children have only one dad. You are the ONLY one who can fill that position. Christ said that He would build His church, but commanded us to love our wives. So many times we (at heart) try to build the church and ask God to take care of our families. Here is what Andy says:

"It is interesting that nowhere in the New Testament are we commanded to build the church. Jesus said He'd do that. (Matthew 16:18) But husbands are commanded to love their wives like Christ loved the church. (Ephesians 5:25) When we reverse this-love our ministries or our careers, and ask God to take care of our loved ones-we violate an important principle. Ironically, we ask God to bless our ministry endeavors while we are violating His principles."

It is true that we can't neglect the ministry that God has called us to. However, Andy says, and I agree, that people who choose to prioritize in favor of their families are more capable of meeting the responsibilities of their work. But, people who prioritize their work over their families tend to suffer in both. I know I have found this to be true in my own life.


Here is a link to the article. Read it and tell us what you think. http://www.injoy.com/Newsletters/catalyst/Full/default.aspx?article_id=66

Here are some questions:

1. Who is receiving more attention: your work or your family?
2. If something were to happen to you would the ministry be able to continue or would it fall apart?
3. What can you do to start “raising up” leaders around you who can work with you and share the load?

Update on Moroma

Things are progressing well for Moroma. He is more responsive and is healing nicely. He still does not have the use of his right arm, but the doctors are working on it. Thank you all again for your prayers and support. In other good news, Hannah gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Solomon was born over the weekend. He weighed 6 pounds 6 oz and was 19 inches long. Both Solomon and Hannah are doing fine.

Upadate on Omot and Hannah Aganya

Moroma is now awake. He is responding to questions and is finally speaking. He is experiencing some memory loss and does not have the use of his right hand, but the doctors say he is recovering. The swelling in his brain has gone down and he is eating. He has come a long way but still has far to go. The doctors are saying that he will be in the hospital until the end of October. This has been a very overwhelming time for the family and they greatly appreciate your prayers and support. However as medical bills pile up they are faced with more concerns. As some of you may know Hannah is pregnant and in her third tri-mester. At her last visit (36 weeks) Omot and Hannah were told that the baby has not turned yet. Please pray that the pregnancy would continue without any complications and that the baby would turn to the correct position. We are so thankful for Omot and Hannah's faith in a loving and caring God through this time. Many people would be upset with God for allowing this family to go through all of this. However, Omot and Hannah continually thank Him for His goodness and faithfulness through this difficult time. They have glorified Him through a life of praise and thanksgiving. As they face these difficulties they continually remind us that regardless of circumstances, God is still faithful and He is still worthy to praised. Thank you Omot and Hannah for all you are doing for His kingdom and His glory. Our prayers and support are with you and your entire family.

Update on Omot and Hannah Aganya

We've recieved word that Omot and Hannah's son, Moroma, went into surgery to repair his leg. The surgery went well and the Doctors are optomistic about his recovery. The bleeding in his brain and his stomach has stopped and he has been in and out of consciousness. Please continue to pray for the family and Moroma's recovery.

Omot and Hannah Aganya

Moroma Onok, the 12 year old son of Omot and Hannah Aganya was tragically struck by a car this past weekend. He is currently in the ICU at St. Mary's in Rochester. We will be posting updates as soon as we recieve them. Please pray for the family in this very difficult time.

A couple of resources for you to look at

One of our Church Planting family members sent us an email recommending this conference. We thought you might want to check it out. Thanks to Tim Decker for the recommendation. Check them out and let us know what you think.

http://www.desiringgod.org/news_events/dgm_national/2006/index.html

there are some videos regarding the event and the speakers at this link

http://www.desiringgod.org/news_events/dgm_national/2006/videos.html

Who Makes A Good Church Planter?

Many times I am questioned about what I am looking for in a church planter. Identifying, assessing and recruiting potential church planters is a challenging task. For me the process is both intuitive and objective. I believe it is reasonable to assess people intuitively especially when that intuition is subjected to the discernment of the Holy Spirit and validated by objective data. The objective component is often determined by behavioral interviews that are built around the assumption that past behavior is a good indicator of future performance.

ChristianityToday.com recently conducted on online survey that I found very interesting in light of the behavioral activities that can be assessed in potential church planters. The survey question was, “when planting a church the most important quality in potential leaders is?” Here are the survey results:

Passion for the unchurched and the lost: 26%
Vision: 24%
Ability to build relationships: 18%
Active Faith: 18%
Motivation: 4%
Resilience: 4%
Ownership of ministry: 2%
Community awareness: 2%
Ability to build group cohesiveness: 2%

It’s obvious from the survey results that when assessing potential church planters there are at least four qualities that cannot be overlooked. First, an incredible passion to see pre-Christian people introduced to Christ in a redemptive way. Secondly, they must have the ability to cast (articulate) a compelling and magnetic vision. Thirdly they need to have an ability to model how to build healthy relationships with others and empower others to do likewise. And last, an unwavering faith in God’s calling, God’s plan and in God’s provision for the creation of a new faith community is vital. I would add my affirmation and be in agreement that these are necessary characteristics of an effective church planter. And these are the kind of people we are looking for. Are you one?

His servant and yours,

Roger Stacy

Roger Stacy is a Leadership Coach and the Director of Home Missions and Ministerial Enrichment for the MN District Council of the Assemblies of God.

The Power of Coaching

This past week I had the wonderful privilege and opportunity again to invest in the lives of new church planters and potential coaches at the Louisiana District A/G Church Planters Boot Camp. What an awesome and exciting week it was.

During the coaches training as I was modeling coaching by coaching one of the students we addressed his agenda of church growth and what it would take for him to break the next growth barrier in his church. During those few moments he came to the following assessment. In order for his church to continue to grow he needed to address four issues. He was going to have to adjust his staffing, address facility deficiencies, expand his infrastructure and personally he was going to have to change how he worked and what he gave his time to. Before the role play was over he had created a plan to address one of these four key issues and was well his way to moving forward to focusing in on the other issues.

During this exercise I celebrated with him over his recognition of key inhibitors to growth. He knew the keys. He knew that building and empowering a strong team, expanding and upgrading facilities, making appropriate organizational structural changes and growing and changing as the leader are all vital components to sustaining organizational growth. He had found the keys!

In those moments I was again reminded of the power of coaching and was reminded how beneficial it is to have someone invest in our lives and help us reach our goals. Andy Stanley has said that we will go farther, faster with a coach in our lives. It is so true. Now I am sure my new ministry friend eventually would have figured out what needed to be done and would have addressed those issues. But having the chance to experience a coaching moment provided for him the opportunity and impetus to accelerate towards accomplishing those goals. That is the power of coaching.

I’m grateful for the coaches that have blessed my life and value every opportunity given to me to invest in others through my coaching ministry. I am committed to building the kingdom and equipping the kingdom builders.

His servant and yours
Roger

Welcome to the MN Church Planting Brain Trust

We are all aware of the unique difficulties that we all face as church planters. How do we break the 50, 100, 150, 200 person barriers? How can we inspire our people to invest more in the ministry of our church? How do we find those key people who will help us turn our church into a thriving healthy community that will make an impact in our respective areas? All of our successes and setbacks create an incredible journey that helps us realize God’s faithfulness to us and our need of Him. Our passion in the Church Planting Department is to help all of you make that journey with as much support and resource as we can provide. So, here is one of the tools that we are going to place at your disposal. This is the pilot program for a web-based resource for all of our church planters to learn, teach, share, and thrive. Each of you have unique experiences that can help the rest of us grow. We invite you to make comments and post questions, exchange ideas and create community.

First Test

Here is where all your God inspired dreams can come true.